Personal Projects
Artistorm
http://artistorm.comArtistorm is my first serious foray into entrepreneurship - an online marketplace for independent artists to sell their work, inspired by Camille's beautiful poster art. The website itself has two very specific goals - to keep things simple, and to highlight the art (not the design).
I did all of the work on the site's front end except for the flash application. I also managed and performed a lot of the development on the site's administration suite, which is a kind of mini-CMS which makes everything extremely easy to maintain. However, I can't understate the importance of my team - Greg Bosma, Naveen Nattam, Laura Rodrian, Adam Tornes, and Tripurari Volpe were each vital to the planning and formation of the website. Trip created the powerful javascript behind the image thumbnailer and annotator, and Naveen is responsible for the flash image viewer.
Starmen.Net
http://starmen.netStarmen.Net is a community-centered website I founded with Clyde Mandelin in 1998 about an old SNES RPG called EarthBound. The site has experienced massive growth since those early days and now receives 18,000+ hits/day. About two years ago we realized the site needed a complete overhaul - the content was hard for staffers to maintain because they weren't HTML/PHP experts, the design was dated, and things were difficult to find.
I gathered a team of about 9 developers and began working on the new structure for Starmen.Net, managing the development of the site's new, completely custom uberCMS, which allows staffers to update their sections with minimal knowledge of HTML and with an exceptional user interface for handling submissions to the database. There are still a lot of usability issues and unfinished elements of the site which I hope to fix in the near future.
Godsong Promotions
http://godsongpromotions.comGodsong's main method of communicating with their patrons is the website, so it needed to be simple and straightforward. This design was just a part of the branding package I created for them.
( October 2005 )
Camille and Reid
http://camilleandreid.comA little website I tossed together to commemorate my marriage to the beautiful Camille Campos. Be sure to check out our crazy proposal story, its a good read.
( January 2005 )
EPICS
http://epics.ecn.purdue.eduWhile getting my minor in Computer Engineering I got involved with Purdue's EPICS Program. After I switched over to Computer Graphics, they hired me to redesign the website. Sarah Bessmer was responsible for all the site's coding.
( July 2004 )openBook Projects
All of these websites were built during my time as the creative director at openBook Technologies.
Florida Keys Tourism
Designed in response to an RFP, the main goal of the Florida Keys site was to provide a new mechanism for visitors to the website to collect information. My plan was to use the links at the top and left side of the page to act as a matrix. For example, one could view general info on Travel, general info on Key West, or specific information on Travel in Key West.
( June 2005 )
City of Fort Worth
Also designed in response to an RFP, I attempted to evoke some of the spirit of Texas with this design. I designed the navigation with the intention of creating it with Flash - a powerful combination of simplicity and reach which would allow a user not only to access any page on the site with a few short clicks, but also to provide a clear visual indication of their location within the website.
( July 2005 )
PCC
http://purduecooperatives.orgThe Purdue Cooperative Council wanted a clean design to appeal to students and parents which they could easily maintain without much technical knowledge (since they are a student-run organization, there is never a permanent technology director). Their special situation made them a truly perfect candidate to be the first users of the HydraCMS.
Design, CSS, XHTML, Project Management ( August 2005 )
GSCMI
http://gscmi.orgopenBook approached Global Supply Chain Management Initiative with a solution to their need for several extensive websites. The design for the sister organization, DCMME, is very similar. I managed a lot of the early development of HydraCMS and its modules, which power both websites.
Design, CSS, XHTML, Project Management ( May 2005 )
City of Lafayette
The design seen here was an initial mockup for the new City of Lafayette website, designed to draw the users in to the most important parts of the website without inundating them with irrelevant links.
( September 2005 )
City of Lafayette Final
After quite a few meetings, tweaks, discussions and redesigns, the final mockup for the City of Lafayette website emerged. I'm not particularly happy with the design, but the committee is. And if committee ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. Christopher Thomas's good thinking was the inspiration for several of the design elements.
( November 2005 )
LiquidSpring LLC
http://liquidspring.comThe engineers at LiquidSpring are a brilliant group who came up with a hydraulic strut. They needed a progressive, technical look on their site, since most of the visitors were going to be dealers and manufacturers. This was one of my first CSS-based layouts.
Design, CSS, XHTML, PHP ( November 2004 )
Knucklehead Charities
http://knuckleheadcharities.orgOne of openBook's first and most significant charitable donations was this site, developed for a great organization which brings Purdue fans together for a good cause. Beautiful CSS/XHTML templating by Brodie Rao.
Design, PHP, some XHTML ( September 2005 )
Angie Klink
http://angieklink.comAngie Klink is a writer local to Lafayette who wanted a website with which to get in touch with fans and potential clients. The site was designed as a nod to the old days of typewriters and cheeky ads, and involves some pretty complicated CSS work.
Design, CSS, XHTML, PHP ( July 2005 )
Lafayette PD
http://lafayettepolice.usThe Lafayette Police Department was the design which really put openBook on the map (ironically, I designed it while I was in Tucson, AZ). Brian Fuller poured the larger part of his life into this project for about 5 months - it was after this that we realized it was time to create our own CMS (and thus the beginnings of HydraCMS).
Design, XHTML ( July 2004 )
GSCMSearch
http://gscmsearch.comThis relational database was developed as part of the agreement with GSCMI and DCMME. I attempted to keep the interface very basic to avoid the common information overload pitfalls many other database-driven search websites suffer from. All programming/coding by the incomparable Sarah Bessmer.
Design ( August 2005 )
Purdue CEE
This design (ultimately not used) was made for Purdue's Continuing Engineering Education division in response to an RFP. The directors decided to begin actively marketing the organization and wanted a new look to go with their campaign.
( June 2005 )
Cooke Law Firm
The attorneys at Cooke Law were tired of cookie cutter websites and wanted something more unique and artistic to give their site an edge. My job was made easier, in that respect, thanks to the picture of the arch taken by my friend Matt Pipkin.
Design ( November 2005 )
GSC Conference
http://gscmi.org/eventsSmall conference site design that went from concept to website in 3 days - fastest turnaround to date, thanks to the quick CSS/XHTML work of Aaron Schaefer. The client loved it.
Design, PHP, some CSS/XHTML ( March 2006 )
openBook Technologies
http://openbooktech.comopenBook's website is over four years old...we're hoping to change that once (if) we get some free time at the office. With this mockup, I hope to incorporate my new branding idea - having a logo with no specific color (the color will change on each pageload, with transparent pngs+javascript).
( January 2006 )