Web Development

I’ve been designing and developing websites for over a decade. When I was back at Columbia College in 1994, I took a path-altering class called GECAS (Global Electronic Communications in the Arts and Sciences) taught by renaissance man and local Chicago legend Aaron Freeman.

A big chunk of the class involved beta-testing AOL version 1.0. and the final project was creating an original website. I re-purposed a major chunk of the Louvre museum with images I had tediously downloaded from the Louvre’s website, from home, using the free unlimited AOL account and my brand-spankin’-new 14.4 modem. Greased lightnin’!

From there my course was set. I learned as much as I could, as fast as I could about website building and started A is A Design. I built a number of small but effective sites for local companies while teaching myself Photoshop and Flash. In 1997 I began working for Jim McGreal at jmcstudios.com for Worldbook/IBM as an interface designer/graphic designer/animator for their CD-Rom projects and websites.

Lately my focus has been on “Web 2.0″ technologies using content management systems and my own home-spun blog-meets-website creations, like the sites I built for creative director Stacey Doyle and Joe Doyle. The advantages of this approach are many, including allowing easy creation of new content by the site owner, and easy updating and/or overhauling of existing content and design by me, the designer, thereby separating content from design (the holy grail).