A bit about me

I'll try anything three or four times. Every new challenge is a chance to pick up new skills, or to practice old ones.

I enjoy cooking: starting from a step-by-step recipe, and then tweaking it until it becomes by own variation. A new recipe might make it into standard rotation, or it might be a complete failure and an excuse to order take-out. Even when it doesn't go right, I can still learn what not to do next time.

I've dabbled a bit in acrylic painting. When inspiration strikes, the possibilities are endless. I don't have a lot of technical skill when it comes to painting, but I do enjoy the bold, colorful, simple style I've cultivated. This is the basic aesthetic I bring to other media.

My latest thing has been restoring and upcycling furniture. There's just something about turning trash into treasure; breathing life back into something. It's also an economical way to create one of a kind pieces for my own home.

Before becoming a professional, I had dabbled in programming. I knew my way around whatever language the old TI graphic calculators used, and messed around with Geocitires and Angelfire sites back in the early days of the web. It's always come pretty naturally to me, but I never thought it was going to be the thing I'd be when I grew up.

My earliest jobs were in a pizza place, doing prep, as a line cook, and even driving delivery. I've also worked in a variety of customer service roles (Hallå IKEA!), community theater production, law offices, and even for the American Medical Association. In every role, I look for the opportunity to improve how things are done.

I started my life in web design as an administrator for a small graphic and web design company (Artistic Digital in Evanston, IL). When I started, I was mostly concerned with billing, and communicating with the clients. I was fortunate to be able tpo apprentice the owner in some design jobs: trade show banners, technical illustrations,and web sites. Over time, I also took on some web development tasks. HTML content updates turned into PHP templates, CSS tweaks, and JavaScript functionality. Before I knew it, I was developing whole sites from scratch, start to finish.

Later, I moved to another agency (Sandstorm Design, Chicago) where I took on bigger and better web projects. I grew from a primarily Front End Developer, to a Full Stack developer. I handled both the implementation of the front-end designs, and the back-end business and application logic for a variety of customers including manufacturers, medical associations, and retailers.

Now I work for Apti, an an instructional design company based out of Orlando, FL. I primarily work with Apti's LMS platform, Knowledge Direct, but I also handle all of their AWS service intrastructure, as well the corporate WordPress sites.

All of this is to say that I come at things from multiple perspectives. This is especially important for web design / development: balancing aesthetics with usability (and always accessibility), and with efficiency. The fastest, most efficent code in the world doesn't matter if it looks like something out of Netscape Navigator. The shiniest, prettiest, fastest interface doesn't matter if users can't figure out how to well... use it. And once your project is complete: usable, beautify, and efficient... what happens when the future comes?

My biggest advantage is translating between the human and the technical; speaking the language of human needs, and understanding the technology to make them real. The most important thing is knowing hoew to ask the right questions.