I thought about this for a while. Literally, I sat there staring at my Flickr trying to figure out what unifying pieces I have. I know I spoke with Meg in class about the fact that I'm both messy and organized, that I like the mixture of clean, concise code, and the disorder of art and collage and montage, so I thought that maybe that was my unifying element. But I also like boxes, WAY to much, so there's that too.

I use the color black a lot, and the times I don't, I have a tendency to over use bright colors in exchange. I like overlap and subtle pattern use. Almost EVERY design has some sort of overlapping quality, like the boggle blocks over the text box, like the Hayley pictures overlapping a pattern background, like the dolls on top of grungy backdrops, etc.

But I've also grown to like gradients, gloss, and 3D. The Alex project is, hell, an iPhone, that's as glossy and gradient as you can get. Even the Chanel redesign project has gradients on top of the tabs, but it implements a pattern in the Chanel logo and background, and in the imagery I chose to show. And the new design of my robotics team site is gradients, gloss, and 3D logos.

My best portfolio piece, believe it or not, I still think is my current site layouts.
http://paperdoll.orange-crux.net.

Yes, both of them. Not to say that I haven't learned more, or I don't think I need a site revamp, but I like the color schemes, I like the playful nature of the art side versus the more serious, more grungy focus of the web side. I think it reveals a lot about what makes me tick, what makes me happy, and what I need in my life.

I think it shows my strength with different digital mediums, from the development side - html and css versus xhtml with javascript, to the design side - pixel art design versus photo manipulations. It shows my ability to create out of the box designs, as they are both VERY different, and yet, both me.

The splash page is...not so great, but it could be worse. I think, if I'm going to change some pieces to make it better for my portfolio it would be redesigning the chick at the top of the art page so she's ENTIRELY my pixel work, rather than a base body from someone else, but clothes, hair, etc. by me. I think I'd also like to get rid of some pages, and reorganize some others on my art page.

Plus, hell, I haven't updated in a year. That might help.

A List Apart
A List Apart is genius. No joke. It's got all kinds of cool "make it work" code stuff, and some really interesting design pieces.

Crazy Leaf Design Blog
This site isn't much for content, but it has a lot of great resources. Some cool wallpapers, downloadable icons, Wordpress themes, cool stuff.

Design Reviver
They have LONG posts, for sure, but I never left their site feeling like I hadn't learned something. They actually spell out, with helpful instructions and images how to do things like, build your own custom wordpress theme, how to slice images, and even provide other resources that they stumble over, like their newest jQuery color picker. And, this is good for me, because I have a hard time being out of the box with things like Javascript, since I can't code it yet.

You the Designer
Freebies, resources, tutorials. You name it, they got it. All about things to make your life as a designer easier.

W3C Q&A Weblog
As a web deisgner, w3c is kind of my home. No joke, I send my students there for reference questions, I was even on there yesterday trying to figure out why IE and Firefox interpret <li> tags in two different ways. So, having somewhere that the developers of w3c post all their ramblings? pure gold. talk about staying ahead of the crowd.

Everyone should have heard me talk about robotics at one point or another by now...And, if you haven't, it's all over my blog.

Now's the part where I ask you all for help.

One of the many elements of our competition is the "Best Website Award." Teams submit their websites to be reviewed and graded by volunteers. Any team receiving over an 80 receives a Website Excellence Award, and one team at every regional competition receives the Best Website Award.

Those winners then go on to compete for the Championship Best Website Award.

I'm the lead Website Evaluator Advisor for the NJ Regional competition, and I'm looking for other evaluators that are willing to help me. It's not a terrible amount of time - reviewing about 20 websites in 10 days.

Judging is simple, there's a basic checklist of information that teams are given. I just need people to help me score sites. Here's a basic overview of what a Website Evaluator is/does.

http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Community/Volunteers/2009_Volunteer_Coordinator_Documents/Website%20Evaluator%202009.pdf

I only have until February 12th to get all of my volunteers registered in VIMS! If you're interested in participating please go sign up here:
http://www.usfirst.org/vims

In the center of the page there is a starburst image that says "Sign me Up!" Click it and follow the directions carefully. Make sure you choose the "FIRST Robotics Competition - Events" option, then choose "New Jersey Regional" as your competition, and check off the "Website Evaluator" volunteer position.

Please leave me a comment if you have any more questions/concerns.
If you all sign up, you'll have fewer websites to judge, and I'll know my students are getting the best evaluations I can give them.

Thanks in advance.

Okay, so...I had a really hard time figuring out what to include here.
I've done a ton of web work - several layouts for my own personal use, designs for friends' sites, designs for clients, volunteer work, and all that jazz, but I am nervous about how that all fits together to show who I am as a designer.

I like to be a jack of all trades - it makes me glad to know video editing, and lots of programs, and lots of languages, so I want my portfolio to at least LIST that I'm capable of all those things, but FOCUS on web stuff. Because that's what I am the most excited about, and the career I'd like to pursue.

So it goes like this:

HERE is the web work I think I'd like to include:

Current Projects / In Progress:
New Portfolio design
MCCC LGBTF Website
MCCC Drama/Theater Dept. Website

NJ State Museum "Rising Tide" Virtual Exhibit
Create a visual pre-experience website for the "Rising Tide" exhibit to be displayed April 2009. Designer on Information Architecture team. Discussing implementing student to student navigation page with main focus of education. Strong desire to create pre- and post- visit experience for teachers in K-12 environment.


CSS Zen Garden Submission "Buttons"
Design fully-customizable css page to show strong graphic design sense. Create a modern, current generation, out-of-the-box design for CSS Zen Garden gallery. Generate strong design portfolio piece for well-recognized and respected website.



HHS FIRST Team Mercury 1089 Redesign
Revamp 2006 website layout to be "Web 2.0" stylized. Redesign flash header with improved Actionscript coding. Develop cohesive virtual identity consistent with team ideals and mission. Implement new gallery script.



Volunteer Work:

"Alex" the Movie
Movie trailer on YouTube






Dolling Community Websites


Mu Beta Psi







Professional Work:
NYC/NJ FIRST Website






Personal Work:

Strong Classwork

Strong Site Layouts


And then I struggled to decide if I wanted to include some other graphic design work. Maybe mention a spot of 3D Modeling stuff, mention my pixel work, some video stuff... I also have some really good interactive flash pieces that I want to show.

I wasn't sure either, how to talk about the languages and specific coding things that are strong with each piece. Because, for me, I think my claim to fame is that I'm a good designer, but I also have a strong programming background behind me.

I'm not sure, I'm afraid I'm a little all over the place?

Woo! Prettyful!
Click the thumbnail to view my full size resume.

I wanted to include non-volunteer, personal experience too, but for now I left that out. Admittedly, I should have another piece to add here, but I kind've shot myself in the foot.

Professional experience:

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology)
New Jersey Senior Mentor and New York City/New Jersey FIRST Webmaster.

• Provided resources and communication to teams in area.
  
• Developed online content for new website.
  
• Co-wrote, designed, and edited bi-monthly e-newsletter.
  
• Created, edited, and maintained all 2007-2008 photographs, content, and layout.
• Produced materials for outreach presentations.
  
• Developed effective communication strategies for both teams and New Jersey and New York City Planning Committees.

AmeriCorps*VISTA
Volunteer for FIRST program in New Jersey.

• Developed online visual identity for New York City/ New Jersey FIRST website.
  
• Produced online visual materials for corporate presentations.
  
• Created original, interactive content for NYC/NJ FIRST website.

Volunteer Work:

"Alex" the Movie, MCCC TV4 Class
Co-Web Designer and Developer

• Designed original UI experience similar to the iPhone.
• Designed outer interface and digital graphics.
• Created cohesion between site content provided and site content created.
  
• Recipient of Web Design II Information Architecture and Popular Vote awards.

Mu Beta Psi (National Honorary Music Fraternity)
Brother of Pi Chapter, Rutgers University. Web developer and designer.

• Developed website architecture and overall content presentation.
• Designed content layout and website layout
• Created original content - bio pages, site map, etc.
  

US FIRST Robotics Team, Hightstown, NJ
6-year mentor of Hightstown High School’s FIRST Robotics team.

• Trained students in Adobe Photoshop, and HTML.
  
• Advised and edited updates to team website.
  
• Edited team newsletter, award application essays, student scholarship essays, and promotional materials.
  
• Designed all official team uniform logos, button graphics, 2008 and 2009 website Flash header.
  
• Co-wrote content and advised students on content writing for team website. Former student leadership member.

I searched a bit on Craigslist for some web jobs, but a lot of them seem to be very personal site designs. There were a few listings for some professional companies, but a lot of the job postings are vague or don't really give a good feel for the kind of company they are.

I searched locally only, mostly because, well, I like Jersey, and I like supporting local businesses.

There's also a lot of job postings that require a LOT of technologies I don't know yet.
Guess I have some more learning to do!