In a Nutshell

Web & Print Design

Linux is my primary OS for production. For graphic design I use the open source equivalents to Adobe CS3; Gimp for photo editing, Inkscape for illustration and swftools for Flash. On the coding side I hand code everything using bluefish editor, so I'm able to produce clean HTML and CSS free of any WYSIWYG editor cruft. Web sites are supplied as a zipped public_html folder ready for upload or I can upload to a client's server upon request.

I supply logos & illustrations in vector format in color versions for Web/Print and monochrome for fax, newspaper. Vector images can be scaled to look great at any size. The photo editing services I provide are montages, retouching and background extraction.

Web Application Development

For application development I mainly focus on developing for Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP (aka LAMP). Typically I'll build custom content management systems to fit a client's specific business process that run on the "back end" of the web site. For example, a site administrator's control panel.

I'm big on automation, designing applications to free up precious time spent on menial/repetitive tasks that could be done faster and more accurately by a computer.

I perform maintenance of existing Web apps written in PHP or Perl, either fixing bugs or adding in new features to an existing code base.

Other development work I do includes writing parsers to perform text extraction on qualitative data, converting it into structured data suitable for populating a database. I'll generally use Perl to build a command line app for this type of work, because of it's superior pattern matching capabilities.

Whenever I design apps I'm thinking several steps into the future. At every stage I'll be looking for ways to "future-proof" the application. It may be by anticipating problems in advance, or just designing the application in such a way that future enhancements by myself (or another developer) are easy to integrate.

Freelancers add Value

When you hire me as a freelancer, you're hiring an individual - not a large team of people. My overheads are less, meaning I can perform the same work for much less than an agency. I primarily use open source solutions resulting in even greater savings for my clients since they are not locked into proprietary software.

I care about my clients. I stand behind every job I do and take the time to make sure every client receives full guidance on how to get the most out of the solutions I build for them. When you hire me, you can expect a solid, working solution produced in a timely manner.

Don't take my word for it

Read some of the nice things clients have told me!

(references are available upon request)

I can't believe we did this entire project online without having talked to each other!  Was great to work with you - thanks... - Stephanie C.

Awesome! You made my day. It works perfectly. - Dominic B.

The lastest version performed flawlessly! I am ecstatic. Very nice work. - Jason H.

I have spent the morning browsing many, many antique stores' web sites in NC.  Yours is the best organized, with the best quality pictures.  Just thought you might like to know that! - Jan (near Atlanta, GA - commenting on Hunt & Gather)

I was just commenting to my wife about how awesome it is having a guy like you.  I've dealt with so many Craigslist douchebags. - Renny G.

Thanks for your help...  I'm very impressed with how you came up with that concept so quickly - John M.