About Myself
Capitol Reef - Sept. 2008
I'm originally from a sleepy, small town in Alabama. In the Fall of 2000, I had my first computer and was already designing covers for mixed CDs. Not only that, but I had met Andre, my future husband, online at that time. I studied Psychology at the community college near my hometown, but later changed it to Computer Science after learning about Graphic Design.
In 2001, I traveled back and forth to Germany to visit Andre. Then from December 2001 to June 2003, I lived in Germany. During that time, I taught myself Photoshop, Dreamweaver, (X)HTML, CSS, and Flash. I still have the book, Web Publishing with HTML and XHTML in 21 Days, 3rd Edition that Andre gave to me as a present. This is the book that started it all for me and it still sits on my shelf.
Las Vegas - Aug. 2003
After Andre and I came back to the States, we got married in Vegas, moved to Huntsville, and I started studying Graphic Design at the University of Alabama there. Then in May of 2006, I graduated with a Bachelor of Art in Graphic Design and certifications in German and Computer-Mediated Communication with a GPA of 3.3. I was a member of the Student Advertising Federation, New Media Consortium, and Phi Sigma Iota.
But a lot was going on in May besides my graduation. We were selling our house, moving to Fort Lauderdale, and going for job interviews and looking at new homes in-between my final exams. Now, since 2006 I have settled down in Fort Lauderdale with Andre and our two orange tabby cats, Einstein and Strawberry.
Einstein
From working many web/graphic design and developer jobs in the Fort Lauderdale and Miami area, I have gained experience and advanced my skills. I specialize in hand-coded XHTML and CSS that's compatible for both Firefox and Internet Explorer. I design tableless layouts while following current web standards and SEO guidelines. There's an article I posted on my blog about some SEO resources I use that you can read about. Also, I design HTML emails that use tables and inline CSS styes for maximum email client compatibility.
My work doesn't stop there. Like I said before, graphic design also plays an important role. For creating images and logos, editing photography, and designing website concepts, I use Photoshop and Illustrator. I like using InDesign for laying out brochures, postcards, business cards, and other various print projects.