Designing stuff for other people for about 10 years or so...

Well thats not exactly true. I've had an interest in design for as far back as I can remember. I've been working professionally in the area for about 10 years but before that I designed posters, flyers and cassette covers (pre-cd days) whenever the opportunity arose.

I designed my first site back in 1996. Since that I've been working for a number of design studios and online businesses.

I am proficient in Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver, Homesite and a variety of other graphic programs and applications. While creating site designs I try to work closely with my clients and pay a lot of attention to preparatory work. I possess strong communication skills and I think that the ability to conceptualize and communicate internet ideas is as important as the technical professionalism of a web designer.

I enjoy investigating new technologies and find it important to keep up to date with current trends. This has meant disregarding much of my earlier experience using nested tables and spacer gifs to achieve complex designs and embracing CSS and web standards. I am currently developing a blog site using textpattern and learning about serving sites to mobile devices.

I have a keen interest in photography and find it very complementary to my design career as I find myself constantly evaluating what I observe. I am a professional concert photographer and have had my photos published in several magazines including Mojo - UK, XLR8R - San Francisco, Hot Press - Ireland and The Listener - New Zealand