About Me

From Geocities and Paint Shop Pro to XHTML and Photoshop

Growing up in a small town (where our parades feature sights like the Easterdillo above), excitement was hard to come by. The day we set up our first computer I fondly remember as one of the more exciting days of my life; perhaps second only to the day we got dialup internet. From there, it was a short jump for me to Geocities and the creation of my first website. Foolishly proud of my creation, I submitted it to a design competition and even back in 1996, the review was scathing. I suppose my use of pure blue and green on a black background wasn't the best choice, but from that event I was determined to learn everything I could about web sites and the right way to design.

PageMaker Was Good for Something

High school was my first introduction to "real" design. We had the most up-to-date technology of the time, turquoise iMacs with PageMaker and Photoshop. I was amazed at all the design possibilities afforded by this technology and in my three years as editor, learned an invaluable amount from countless hours ensuring every page was pixel--or pica--perfect. The decision was made that design would be my path

Shifting Perspectives

Through my undergraduate and graduate college work as well as my first few years in the workforce, both my design sense and perspective have changed. I still love design, but understand and see it as part of the more important overall process of branding. I see how much preparation and pre-analysis needs to be done before a pen touches paper, or a mouse touches a new document.

Not an End, Just Another Beginning

I've also learned that a design is never an end -- continuous analysis needs to be done to ensure that it is operating at peak effectiveness. Usability analysis, information architecture, search engine optimization -- all of these disciplines work to dissect the information and message and help it to better meet its goals -- almost like a tuneup on a car, but perhaps even more important.

Peronal Randomness

I suppose I should throw a few personal details in here -- I'm married to the love of my life whose encouragement and ability to say the most inappropriate thing at any given time keeps me loving and laughing. I have an insane dog named Sadie, a "black lab" mix [just take a look at the pictures and let me know if you see why "black lab" is in quotations]. I'm addicted to Lost, NPR, and World Market. IKEA is kind of like a mecca to me, and I'm always looking for reasons to make that 1½ drive to Orlando. In a strange turn of events after my attempt at gardening was ruined by aforementioned insane dog, I began making soap and totally fell for it. Beyond all that, I'm just a simple geeky chick whose encyclopedic knowledge of late-90's boy bands scares even me.

Back to the Topic at Hand...

Anyway, my biggest goal in life is continuous learning, and I'm always searching for new technologies and improved methods of information analysis and design. If you have any tips or tricks, please drop me a line. For more specifics on my background and skills, visit my resume.