Web Design Portfolio

I love designing websites, and I pride myself on the ability to work with any code base or content management system. My web design portfolio demonstrates I’m not lying when I say “I can style anything”. I can create high quality, accessible, standards compliant sites whether they’re running on Ruby on Rails, Drupal, WordPress, straight PHP or any other platform.

TerraCycle, Inc

The TerraCycle website

I’m pretty luck to work at TerraCycle, Inc. There can’t be many places in the world where I could get to be the only person responsible for all the front-end web design and implementation of a $20 million turnover company that’s one of the fastest growing in the world. Our complex site template runs on a custom Ruby on Rails platform, and the front end is implemented with HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery. We’ve worked hard to implement a code structure that allows for implementation across multiple country specific sites (there are currently 17 live) – and the most recent challenge has been updating the template to allow for a right-to-left Hebrew website for TerraCycle Israel.

Walk the Walk Investing, LLC

Walk the Walk Investing, LLC

Walk the Walk Investing, LLC provides real estate training and leadership in Trenton, New Jersey. They wanted a simple and easy to administer site, but with a strong visual impact. It’s a relatively simple WordPress structure, demonstrating how WordPress can be easily used for any kind of website, not just blogs. I created a minimal but powerful visual appearance with very simple navigation to highlight the different programmes that Walk the Walk offers.

The Reason You Can’t Have Nice Things

The Reason You Can't Have Nice Things

 

One of my geekier hobbies is live roleplaying, as part of the global Mind’s Eye Society. We started a local chapter of the club in New Jersey, and I wanted to make a simple, but attractive website that would provide interest to both new and existing players. The club focuses a lot of a vampiric/gothic theme, so I used that to suggest my color scheme. I think it worked out well, it’s a strong visual impact but really easy both to navigate and administer.

And, no, I didn’t come up with the name!

Monoflo

NOV Monoflo

 

During a period working on a contract basis with Livelink New Media I implemented the front end design of the Monoflo website. My work on this site is very much code focused; I was implementing a design that had previously been completed and approved. There were certainly a couple of challenges with the dynamic menus on the site, and I had some flexibility in working on solutions to make a complex parts search functionality work well from a user perspective.

Inside Lancashire Magazine

Inside Lancashire Magazine

 

The Inside Lancashire Magazine website was the second project I worked on with Livelink New Media. Again it was a case of implementing a design that had previously been confirmed, converting a Photoshop file into a working website. The staging site was suffering from a badly implemented use of Panels and so I essentially recoded the front-end of this Drupal site to achieve the full design specification successfully.

The Natter

The Natter

 

Some time ago I wrote what proved to be a relatively controversial article on the perils of bespoke content management systems. I was contacted by the team behind The Natter, who were looking to start a regional features magazine in Manchester, England, and had been quoted some extortionate prices. I designed a heavily customized WordPress website on a more reasonable budget, which allowed them to successfully launch The Natter. The site design has been updated since I worked on it (I think they’re on version 2 of their theme), but much of the general aesthetic and underlying code remains similar.

The Anime Network

The Anime Network

 

The Anime Network provides online access and cable on demand anime throughout the US. At the end of 2008 they were looking to completely redesign their website, focusing far more on video content delivery, enhancing their already active user community. I was lucky enough to have a heavy influence on the overall design of the site, as well as the code implementation using the Joomla! content management system. The front-end design has been updated since I left, but the code is largely what I implemented.

Working with The Anime Network for a year let me work closely with Billy Catherall. That proved worthwhile when he became IT Director at TerraCycle, because when it became clear they needed to bring their web design in-house, he knew that his back-end skills and my front-end skills complemented each other well. So esssentially my time at The Anime Network is also responsible for me working for TerraCycle now!

Veredus Executive Resourcing

Veredus Executive Resourcing

Veredus Executive Resourcing is the executive recruitment arm of Capita, one of the UK’s top 100 companies. In addition to working on their main website, I also owner their microsite business, designing and launching over 100 microsites focused on individual clients’ recruitment activity. I also had the opportunity to be heavily involved in the Veredus rebranding and redesign in 2007. That’s still an integral part of the website in terms of graphics, layout and general aesthetics, although it appears that the site itself has moved to a Sharepoint platform since I left.