Please note, I no longer have the plentiful amount of hair you see in the picture to the left. I haven't found a picture to reflect my shorter cut so for now just remember me the way I used to be. If the previous two sentances don't mean anything to you, then chances are you haven't met me before (shame). For those that fall into this category, allow me to introduce myself. I am a 21 year old interactive multimedia designer originally from Ballymena, County Antrim but as of June 2007 San Francisco, CA is the place I call home. I have been involved in design for two years now and am an undergraduate student at the University of Ulster, based mostly at the Jordanstown campus.

Background

I've been involved in computers for a long time, and having the benefit of youth on my side I can proudly say that I've grown up using them. I spend a significant amount of my time generally on a computer - designing, researching or programming. For those that are worried about me social life, I also enjoy going to the cinema and love music with a passion, raised on a healthy diet of 70's and 80's rock and a musical library which spans nearly every genre available! I'm a bit of a movie buff too, I've seen a huge amount of movies (currently going through the IMDB top 250!). My favourite film is the Shawshank Redemption, I've yet to see another movie that tops it.

My first real interest in design came in my final year of school at the age of 18 while completing an A Level in ICT. I began to see the need for well-designed websites and the important role that the World Wide Web plays in communication with other people.

So I've been studying IMD for close to two years, and it's been invaluable to my career as a designer. Of course, my skills go far past just web design but I specialise in CSS-driven websites. The benefit of this is that it makes the site highly accessable, can be easily modified or completely restyled, and is search engine friendly. It also reduces page size, and should be viewable (if not always pretty) in any browser.

Skills

Below is a list of programs, programming languages and other skills that I have experience of.

Software

Adobe // Photoshop CS2 (and earlier versions), Illustrator CS2, Premiere Pro, Imageready CS2
Macromedia // Flash MX 2004, Dreamweaver MX 2004, Director MX 2004
Microsoft // Office - Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access (all versions)
Sonic Foundry // Sound Forge
Operating Systems // Windows, Mac 0S X
Web Browsers // Mozilla, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, Safari

Programming Languages

HTML, CSS, JavaScript
Visual Basic, VBScript
PHP (with MySQL), ASP
ActionScript, Lingo

Other credentials

Excellent presentation and design awareness
Highly intuitive, quick to learn new programs and environments
Excellent communications skills
Knowledge of usability issues and accessability
Always strive towards web and industry standards

I feel I'm in the unique position of having strength in both technical ability and visual design. I'd say that my technical skills are slightly better than my design skills, but I would consider myself a designer before programmer.

Contact Me

If you like what you see and would like to get in touch, please don't hesitate to contact me via the contact page.

About Me