About
A little about what can I do with a mouse and keyboard and what makes me tick.
History
when, how and indeed why
I have been designing and coding for the web since about 2001, I used to be a welder but after a morning of lifting girders and splitting my finger open for the 14th time I figured it was time for a change.
During that summer, I followed my long-standing interest in creative design and invested some time in a web design course where I learned how to hand code HTML. The teacher wouldn’t even let us open Dreamweaver, for which I am eternally grateful.
After the course had finished I started looking for positions into anything remotely web design related. This led me to a job running a cyber cafe in Hull. The owners knew I had desires for something more so they tried me out teaching short courses on Photoshop, HTML and Dreamweaver.
For me this was immensely daunting, having to stand up in front of people and make sense was a frightening concept! I settled into it though and was soon teaching the City & Guilds course in web design.
I then took the roll as MonsterMaker’s web designer. I was pleased as punch…. assuming punch is as happy as Larry of course.
After a year I then got a job as a Graphic Designer at Kingston Communications. About a year later the role I’d been positioning myself for opened up in the company. I had to audition like everyone else but I got the job and started as their new Web Developer.
I worked as the KC Web Developer for 2 years, in August of 2006 I joined my friend Dave at Definition Design. We now are enjoying increasing success with each client leaving the gates thoroughly happy with the work we produce.
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Skillset
what are you good at Michael??
Having always being part of a tiny web team (the most was 3) I have needed to keep my skills fairly broad. I always spend time making sure things are correct and I’m a fast learner.
I can code HTML & CSS to a very high standard, at Definition, Dave would often chase me around the garden with a lump hammer if my headings weren't semantically ordered, I remember one time there was a <H3> I used that wasn't actually a header and Dave set fire to all of my shoes *sniff*… ok so I'm exaggerating a lil' bit.
I did one… no wait two sites that we’re purely done in Flash. I really enjoyed making them but problems updating them and inability to incorporate a CMS had me back doing pure HTML. I still do flash for sites in the form of video, buttons, general prettiness and of course the occasional banner.
I have used a myriad of content management systems, nearly all of them have been painfully frustrating due to the lack of flexibility. The one I have settled on is called ExpressionEngine and it is truly fantastic. We use it at Definition and I also introduced it at KC to replace the sea of CMS’s they we’re using.
So in a nutshell, I am accomplished in these key areas…
- Planning & development of websites, including information architecture.
- (X)HTML & CSS
- All aspects of visual web site design.
…and am well versed with these tools of the trade
- Photoshop
- Dreamweaver, although recently I have switched over to TextMate
- CSS Edit
- Flash
- Illustrator
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