my
website
design
+
photography
+
graphics —
text updated June, 2009
his
web site began as a project for my Interface Design class
at The Corcoran College of
Art + Design in Washington, D.C., where I completed
a certificate program in Electronic Publishing/Web Design
in 2001. The assignment was to create a portfolio of our
school work, with an emphasis on a particular theme or skill,
and to show photography and other graphic arts projects.
My site started out as a travel photo portfolio of one of
my trips to France, along with some of my class projects.
Over time, it has become a web design portfolio site showing
all of my current (and some past) website design projects,
which are displayed on my
Portfolio
projects
page. This past year I took
a class in Typography and have learned more about “the art of the letterform,” and how fonts are used as visual communication in
both web and print media. My Graphic design projects page shows some of my typography posters, created both this year and last. I am also a frequent visitor to other
typography and graphic design-related blogs on the Internet, some of which
are listed on my Web resources page.
This year I have worked on developing a WordPress blog for a friend/client who is on a travel sabbatical this summer, and is blogging
and podcasting about his visits to land trusts between Maine and Montana, to help protect and preserve lands and the environment for future generations. I took a class to develop
my skills with WordPress, and learned how to incorporate the blog posts and plug-ins with social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. This was an exciting
project for me, and I hope to develop more WordPress blogs
in the future; perhaps even my own, at some point, (if and when I have enough time!) For now, my website will have to do. That
being said, my website is still a work in progress, and
I have changed the colors and images on the pages and the headers
frequently, depending on the time of year and around holidays,
as I prefer to update the look of the site. I use the right-hand column of this
page to post items on topics of interest to me such as other examples of graphic design and
artwork, or links to things related to environmental issues
and global warming, which is a specific concern and interest
of mine. In addition, I also have a travel photography section
showing photos of recent trips. Although I no longer have
my France photos online, I have kept the domain name of
my portfolio site, which refers to the Provence region,
another favorite travel destination of mine.
In addition to my freelance web design
work for organizations like The Northern Virginia Chorale, I have also worked as a web content manager/editor/developer
for a number of associations where I maintained larger,
more complicated websites; created things like e-newsletters,
flyers, and online registration processes; and worked with
other graphic designers to prepare photos and graphics for
both the print and web. My freelance web clients have included
some small businesses, associations like The NV Chorale, and individuals as well as friends
who work in their own creative fields. I have experience
with everything from designing the site architecture, navigation
and graphics; to writing, editing, taking photos, and developing
content. As mentioned above, you can read more about my website projects on
myPortfolio projects
page.
There
is always something new and exciting happening on the Internet
in terms of technology, but I have tried to concentrate
my efforts on the things that I know how to do best for
now in web design, and also take inspiration from reading
other designers’ and bloggers’ websites like
Veerle
Pieters’,
who has provided numerous useful tutorials and much insight,
for graphic and web designers such as myself. I find the
web design work to be both fun and challenging, and enjoy
the creative, artistic, as well as the technical aspects
of it. I also like to write and edit, and find that web design
lends itself to doing all of these things. Before working
as a web designer I was a paralegal and have a degree
in political science, but have always maintained an avid
interest in things like art as well as graphic design, so
like other career-changers, decided to pursue something
that was more in keeping with my own individual passions
and interests!
Thank
you for visiting my site. I appreciate all those visitors
who continue to come back - whoever you might be!
»
Click here
to
see some photos of Tai Shan and the Giant Pandas, as well
as some other zoo animals, all part of the new Asia Trail
exhibit at the National Zoo.
Or,
watch them on the National Zoo's webcam webpage:
My
website design experience includes working with
the following
graphic design and web programs:
PROGRAMS:
I
am currently using Dreamweaver CS3, Illustrator
and Photoshop at work on a PC. I am proficient with
Adobe Photoshop CS & Image-Ready, Adobe Illustrator,
have some experience with Flash, and InDesign CS2
at home. I also have experience hand-coding both
HTML and CSS stylesheets, implementing Javascript,
coding forms to work with various kinds of scripts,
and an understanding of the basic principles of
interface architecture and design.
IN
THE PROCESS OF:
Learning
more about current web trends in usability and design,
other web programming languages like ColdFusion
and XML, and I am striving to become more proficient
with CSS2, as well as valid HTML code, and Section
508 accessibility requirements as I have time.
Please
visit my web
resources
page
for links to other websites and helpful information
for designers.
Travel
Photos:
