Portfolio 2010

The Short Of It

Mid-term project for Web Authoring and Design class at Algonquin College

First attempt at a full blown website

Brainstormed on paper, Designed in Adobe Photoshop CS5 and coded in Adobe Dreamweaver CS5

The Long Of It

One of the courses I took in my first semester of the Algonquin College Interactive Multimedia Developer program was Web Authoring and Design. The mid-term evaluation of this course came in the form of having to create our own personal portfolio website.

I was excited, let me tell you, I couldn't wait to apply the knowledge I had gained over the months previous to this assignment. At the time I had a basic knowledge of HTML and CSS and a mild idea of how designing for the web worked, but mostly I was just excited to see what I could really do with these new tools.

First I brainstormed what I liked about other websites; how they worked, what made them functional, and most of all what made them fun or interesting. After conceptualizing what I wanted to create I went about laying it out using Adobe Photoshop CS5. After a few hours and a caffeine fueled craze of color theory, content creation, revision, and reevaluation, the design was complete. It was beautiful, my own Sistine Chapel, albeit with less stained glass and more CSS selectors. I moved on to the development stage.

This is where things got tough.

I was in over my head. I had the conviction to attempt to solve any problems that occurred during the coding process, but I seemed to be breaking more things than I was fixing. Fixing a problem at the bottom of a page would sometimes throw the rest of the design off balance or completely destroy the work I had previously done. I felt like a bull in a china shop.

But that's what endeared me to web development. Borne in the molten fire of Mount div, I returned home after a long day of battle, a better designer.

In non-nerd terms, this project taught me a whole lot about being a good web designer, and it was fun too.

CSS Zen Garden

The Short Of It

CSS Zen Garden is a website that presents themed web designs by visually based web designers.

Final Project in my Dynamic Scripting for the Browser course. (A+ Grade)

Huge emphasis on design standards and artistic ability.

The Long Of It

CSS Zen Garden is like the olympics of web design. The athletes, or rather designers, create a themed page design that is considered and, if good enough, featured on the CSS Zen Garden webpage. Did I mention that every design must have identical content and structure in order to even be considered?

A Zen Garden design was used as the final project for my Dynamic Scripting for the Browser class at Algonquin College. Finally, a chance to use all of the updated skills I had gained since my last big project of this kind, my portfolio.

One of the nice things about this project was that all of the content was already created, although I was not allowed to change any of it. This introduced an element of problem solving to the project, which made it even more fun to work on.

While it was sometimes difficult to work around the barriers the content created, I was able to focus solely on the design and get creative. I brainstormed once again on what I liked about web design and what types of art I enjoyed, because this was just as much art as it was design.

Green Tech Design

The Short Of It

Emphasis on themes of reusability and sustainability with a distinct 'natural' feel.

Used Adobe Fireworks as well as pen and paper to brainstorm and work on the design.

The Long Of It

A design for a faux-product with themes of reusability and natural technology. In the interest of expanding my portfolio and practicing the skills I gained over the past semester.

The inspiration for this project came from the wave of green design that has been flooding many markets recently. The basis for my creativity often come in the form of the works of other creators, so after brainstorming on what makes green marketing effective, I decided to use leaves as a way to indicate reusability and sustainability.

The colors came from a photo I took several months ago of two leaves, overlapping each other with a shadow. This is also an indication of where the idea for the logo originated.

In conclusion, this was a quick and fun project, and was a clear indication of what creating a logo or concept design for a client would be like. I plan to work on more projects like this one over the Summer.

VitaeMine Website Design

The Short Of It

Final Project in my Multimedia & Design class at Algonquin College.

Based off of an existing design, conceptualized completely by myself.

Although not implemented, many factors have been taken into account including social links, flash content and interactive forms.

The Long Of It

This project was yet another class requirement during my education at Algonquin College. For Multimedia & Design class I was assigned to create a design concept for a healthy food store called Vitaemine.

I was given a basic concept based on their current design at the time and brainstormed a unique and interesting concept based on their identity, product and audience. I created the design in Adobe Fireworks CS5; It was one of my first times using the program. Fireworks is now my favorite software to design for the Web.

One of the interesting parts of the project was that the client could choose one of the designs at the end of the program to use as their actual website. While mine wasn't chosen by the client, I was given strong words of encouragement from my professor.

This project also entailed the usage of Adobe Flash Catalyst to create a flash banner to display product on the splash page. The image to the right is of a design inside/content page designed in Adobe Fireworks.

Sadly, due to copyright issues, I'm not capable of placing a live version of the design on the web.

Visual Dictionary

The Short Of It

Final project in Multimedia & Design class at Algonquin College.

Group project with other members of my class. My role was Developer/Implementation. I scripted most of the project.

Created assets such as Quicktime Virtual Reality, Photography, Video and Graphics.

The Long Of It

A project that was completed with team members for my Multimedia and Design class in Algonquin College. Each team member was assigned specific tasks and jobs to complete. We met outside of class every week for several hours and often these meetings included research and development for up to eight hours.

My position specifically on this project was development and implementation. While I designed some of the assets and communicated with team members on design elements, most of my work was completed in the last week of the project. Once all of the assets were created it was my job to put everything together and ensure that all of the navigational elements and functionality was working properly.

This project also included the creation of many assets such as video, Quicktime Virtual Reality movies and photographic elements.

Under The Maple Leaf Promotional Video

The Short Of It

Created musical assets for a client my sister was working for.

Learned the in's and out's of a client-designer relationship.

The Long Of It Helped create musical assets for a client project and also acted in a video. The client was 'Under The Maple Leaf' which sold and promoted Canadian made products through the use of an online blog and website.

I volunteered a song which I wrote the music for and recorded to the project and I also appeared in the promotional video it debuted in. During the development of this video I had meetings with clients to discuss the direction the project should take, working on the video and audio, as well as brainstorming how to improve brand identity and visibility.

Nature

Urban

Portrait

Hello, My Name Is James

I am an Interactive Multimedia Developer.

I currently work at iPal, Interactive Professional Applied Learning, as a Graphic Designer and Jack of all trades.

I am a Brother, Son, and Friend.

I am a Musician, Writer, Photographer, Blogger and Geek.

I design websites that transcend web standards.

I develop scripts that solve problems and make things dynamic.

I photograph canvases of colour that intrigue and inspire.

I hope to learn a lot more about life, myself, and a lot of other things.

Hopefully you'll learn a few things while you're here as well.

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