Visual Design
Visual Design is my first love. I started as a designer at a boutique agency called Graphic Language in San Francisco, where I learned so much... including how to trick the eye. Now we have code for that. As an illustrator and image maker, I delight in creating beautiful web pages that are easy to understand and navigate. A website for a business, a person, or an event is the first thing a user sees, and you only get one chance to make a first impression. So it is important that a website is attractive and accessible, has the information the user wants, and incorporates a strong sense of brand.
Legacy
My layouts were created in Photoshop for years until Sketch showed up. Now I work in Sketch, and now I also use Figma. I started building websites using GoLive, then Dreamweaver, and then I learned how to code by hand when CSS emerged as a thing. I then understood why my fellow FEDs hated code built with apps like Dreamweaver... dirty dirty dirty! Being extremely organized myself, I started writing my code very neatly, with all the indents lining up and using descriptive names. I still do, but now that everyone is so specialized, most of the time there is someone on staff whose job it is to write that stuff. Most websites are much more complex than the websites of yore. But my knowledge allows me to get into the code when customizing a CMS site (such as this one, which I built in WordPress).
Flash
Something you don't see in my portfolio is my collection of Flash websites and presentations. Back in the day, Flash was my tool of choice. I built all of my websites in Flash, because they would look the same everywhere, plus you could create beautiful animations and transitions easily, which added a sophistication to my sites. I even made eCards for a little site called eMailaSmile. We all know what happened to Flash. Those were good times.
