August Arts

Hershey | Cause is a communications company in Santa Monica, CA. Working with their in-house designer, I restyled their website by creating a new CSS style sheet. Nothing too complicated here — no dynamic features, just a ton of content, a lot of revisions, new graphics, and the usual cross-browser issues to work out. I did have to create some new XHTML markup, but most of the content just needed to be restyled.

My most recent project for GoTV was a Facebook application called LiveFromYou. This app lets Facebook users upload and manage media (photos, videos, audio files, text) from their cell phone or mobile device, or from their web browser. I built the browser application. The back end is powered by PHP and MySQL. The front end is XHTML, JavaScript, and Flash (the Flash parts were created by other GoTV developers). Users can select and upload multiple files and file types at once, and apply common information to the entire batch. One of the coolest features is an embedded Google Map that allows a user to assign a geolocation to a piece of media or an entire album. The plan is to port the application to other social networks (i.e. MySpace), so that users can store all their media in one application and have it available to them on multiple sites.

I completed a list of specific tasks for GoTV, working with their Director of Technology Projects and the Art Director.

I rebuilt their home page to make it load faster. To accomplish this, I replaced their javascript image rotator with a lighter script that includes the transition effect. The large graphic on the page was sliced into more than two dozen pieces and placed into a complex table. I made the background graphic a single image and put the rotating images into an absolutely positioned container.

The three service areas near the bottom of the page were a single graphic, including the text. We wanted the text to be actual text, for faster loading, accessibility, and search engine optimization. This was a tricky thing to accomplish; the container had to be vertically expandable, in case users enlarge their text size. There are floated elements (icons) with floated elements (the three sections). The “more” links need to align at the bottom. Internet Explorer 6 and Safari needed workarounds that did not use ugly CSS hacks. Happily, it works and looks great, and the Art Director is pleased.

The Art Director had some issues with other graphic and text elements on the site, which I corrected. This mostly involved editing the CSS properties of certain classes.

Finally, I created an easy-to-use PHP administration tool to enable GoTV’s staff to update the site content, upload and manage PDF files, and publish to their live server.

I built this site for copywriter and creative director Brett Perlmutter. He designed the site in InDesign, and I created the XHTML markup and CSS. I also wrote a PHP script to page through the portfolio pieces and display the larger views in a Greybox window.

I redesigned the Linabond public site in early 2008. Since I had previously rebuilt the site using standards-compliant XHTML in 2004, I didn’t have to do a lot of work on the markup this time. The content needed a lot of work, though. I rewrote several sections, reducing paragraph after paragraph of wordy text to essential bullet points. I reorganized all the content into section that made more sense to users, including some callouts to key issues in the right column. I added some Flash slideshows and animations. I also built a new XML/XSLT/AJAX application to put PDFs, photo galleries, and other information at the users’ fingertips. There are also some custom ASP.NET controls, but nothing too complicated.

This is a product catalog for Aire-Master’s EsScents distribution line. The catalog had 24 full color pages, filled with the usual product and ordering information. In addition to the overall design and page layout, I did all the illustration, nearly all the photography, and all the Photoshop work.