Specialities
I have 20+ years commercial experience in the Graphic Arts, Publishing, Marketing/Advertising and Internet Services industries, with significant involvement in all aspects of Graphic Pre-media for online, screen and print mediums.
Well practised in using many types of digital platforms, tools and techniques.
I also have substantial involvement in analysing and using ICT systems, spreadsheets and workflow tools to facilitate production.
I am a creative marketing and advertising specialist working with Pre-media tools and products.
Pre-media encompasses the whole new world of multichannel media delivery.
These days it involves managing, enhancing and incorporating visual elements, including images and text content. Increasingly the content is prepared for digital platforms such as the world wide web, “apps” for mobile devices, digital signage and other screens. Front end design techniques are used to achieve some degree of interactive functionality by taking advantage of the dynamic nature of the digital medium. Digital interactive industry best practices are followed to enhance usability and improve accessibility for people with impairments or disabilities.
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Design
Using strategic approaches to achieve a unique expectation.
Graphic Design |
designgestaltgraphicssemiotics |
★★★★★ Advanced |
| The process of visual communication, and problem-solving through the use of type, space and image. | ||
Information Architecture |
backendcategoriescontentdesigndiscoveryfrontendiainformationnavigationstructuretagstaxonomy |
★★★★★ Advanced |
| The art and science of organising and labelling websites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability. | ||
Interaction Design |
designhcihiginteractionixdui |
★★★★★ Advanced |
| The practice of designing interactive digital products, environments, systems, and services. | ||
Typographic Design |
designfontstype |
★★★★★ Advanced |
| The art and technique of arranging type to make written language readable and appealing. | ||
User Experience Design |
designhciinteractionixdux |
★★★★★ Advanced |
| The process of enhancing user satisfaction by improving the usability, accessibility, and pleasure provided in the interaction between the user and the product. | ||
Colour Management |
colourgraphics |
★★★★★ Advanced |
| The controlled conversion between the colour representations of various devices, such as image scanners, digital cameras, monitors, TV screens, film printers, computer printers, offset presses, and corresponding media. | ||
Content Management |
cmscontentinformationmethodologypublishing |
★★★★★ Advanced |
| A set of processes and technologies that supports the collection, managing, and publishing of information in any form or medium. | ||
Graphic Arts Software |
designgraphicsillustratorphotoshopsketchsoftwaretools |
★★★★★ Advanced |
| Application software used for graphic design, multimedia development, stylized image development, technical illustration, general image editing, or to access graphic files. | ||
Accessibility |
accessibilitydesignwaiwcag |
★★★★★ Intermediate |
| The inclusive practice of removing barriers that prevent interaction with, or access to websites, by people with impairments or disabilities. | ||
Web Development
The discipline of creating and maintaining websites and web based apps.
CSS3 - Cascading Style Sheets Level 3 |
cssdesignfrontendlanguagelayoutpresentationstylesheets |
★★★★★ Advanced |
| A style sheet language used for specifying the visual presentation styling of a document written in a markup language. | ||
HTML5 - Hypertext Markup Language Revision 5 |
contentdesignfrontendhtmlhypertextlanguagemarkupsemanticsstructure |
★★★★★ Advanced |
| The recommended standard markup language used to format and semantically structure the content of web pages. | ||
Cross Browser Support |
browsercaniusedesignfrontendpolyfilltesting |
★★★★★ Intermediate |
| The ability of a website, web application, HTML construct or client-side script to function in environments that provide its required features and to bow out or degrade gracefully when features are absent or lacking. | ||
Front End Frameworks |
cssfrontendgridsinteractionixdlayoutpresentationstylesheets |
★★★★★ Intermediate |
| Pre-prepared frameworks that are meant to allow for easier, more standards-compliant web design using the Cascading Style Sheets language. | ||
Server Side Scripting |
backendjavascriptnodeperlrubyscriptingservershell |
★★★★★ Intermediate |
| Creating and modifying code to produce a response customised for each user’s request to a website. | ||
Site Hosting |
deploymenthostingnetworkserver |
★★★★★ Intermediate |
| Web hosting services provide space on a server owned or leased for use by clients, as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data centre. | ||
Client Side Scripting |
frontendinteractionixdjavascriptscripting |
★★★★★ Basic |
| Creating and modifying code to interact with the user, control the browser, communicate asynchronously, and alter the document content that is displayed. | ||
E-Commerce Platforms |
commerceshopifyshoppingplatform |
★★★★★ Basic |
| Web based platforms that include core functionality for navigation, shopping cart, checkout, shipping and handling, and taxes and some level of integration to an order management system (OMS), an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, or a warehouse management system (WMS). | ||
E-Learning Platforms (Learning Management Systems) |
educationlearninglmsmoodleplatform |
★★★★★ Basic |
| Web based applications for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting and delivery of electronic educational technology education courses or training programs. | ||
Persistent Storage |
backenddatadbmsmemorypersistencestoragestructures |
★★★★★ Basic |
| Any method or apparatus for efficiently storing data structures such that they can continue to be accessed using memory instructions or memory APIs even after the end of the process that created or last modified them. | ||
Static Site Generators |
cmscontentdatascaffoldingtagstemplatestool |
★★★★★ Basic |
| Software that provides tools like templating, shared data, and custom tags to assist in the creation of static HTML pages. | ||
Block, Element, Modifier (BEM) |
cssdesignfrontendmethodologystylesheets |
★★★★★ Intermediate |
| A methodology that helps to achieve reusable components and code sharing in the front-end design. | ||
Document Object Model (DOM) |
browserdesigndomfrontendhtml |
★★★★★ Intermediate |
| A cross-platform and language-independent convention for representing and interacting with objects in HTML documents. | ||
Content Delivery Networks (CDN) |
cdncontentnetworkperformance |
★★★★★ Basic |
| Used to serve content to end-users with high availability and high performance. | ||
Location Services |
apilocationmapsservices |
★★★★★ Basic |
| A general class of software-level services that use location data to control features. | ||
Scalable and Modular Architecture for CSS (SMACSS) |
cssdesignfrontendmethodologystylesheets |
★★★★★ Basic |
| A methodology that helps to achieve reusable components and code sharing in the front-end design. | ||
Stylesheet Preprocessors |
cssdesignfrontendstylesheetstool |
★★★★★ Basic |
| Tools that help to achieve reusable components and code sharing in the front-end design. | ||
Content Management Systems
Software applications that allow publishing, editing and modifying content, organising, deleting as well as maintenance from a central interface.
Jekyll |
backendblogscmscontentdatajekyllliquidossrubyscaffoldingtagstemplates |
★★★★★ Advanced |
| A simple but powerful, blog-aware, static site generator that helps to produce secure, fast performing websites. | ||
Drupal |
backendcmscontentdatabasedrupalframeworkossphp |
★★★★★ Intermediate |
| A free and open-source content-management framework written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General Public License. | ||
Joomla! |
backendcmscontentdatabaseframeworkjoomlaossmvcphp |
★★★★★ Basic |
| A free and open-source content management system for publishing web content. | ||
Shopify |
activemerchantbackendcmscommercecontentdatabaseframeworkmvcossplatformrailsrubyshopifyshopping |
★★★★★ Basic |
| A fully managed commerce platform that helps establish online businesses and provides retail point-of-sale systems for both online and offline companies. | ||
Wordpress |
backendblogscmscontentdatabaseframeworkossmysqlphpwordpress |
★★★★★ Basic |
| A free and open-source blogging tool and a content management system based on PHP and MySQL. | ||
Liquid Templates |
backendcontentfiltersinformationliquidrubyscaffoldingscriptingtemplates |
★★★★★ Basic |
| An open-source, Ruby-based template language created by Shopify. | ||
Markdown |
backendcontentinformationmarkdownmarkuptemplates |
★★★★★ Basic |
| A markup language with plain text formatting syntax designed so that it can be converted to HTML and many other formats using a tool by the same name. | ||
Methodology
The systematic, theoretical analysis of the methods applied to a field of study.
Quality Assurance |
managementmethodologyqaquality |
★★★★★ Advanced |
| A way of preventing mistakes or defects in manufactured products and avoiding problems when delivering solutions or services to customers. | ||
Tried and True |
managementmethodologytriedtrue |
★★★★★ Advanced |
| Well-established and tested; known to work or succeed based on extensive experience. | ||
Agile |
agilemanagementmethodology |
★★★★★ Intermediate |
| A group of software development methods in which requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams. | ||
Getting Things Done (GTD®) |
gtdmanagementmethodologyproductivity |
★★★★★ Intermediate |
| A time-management method, described in a book of the same title by productivity consultant David Allen. | ||
Lean Software Development (LSD) |
jitleanlsdmanagementmethodology |
★★★★★ Intermediate |
| A translation of lean manufacturing and lean IT principles and practices to the software development domain. | ||
DevOps |
backenddevelopmentdevopsmethodologyoperations |
★★★★★ Basic |
| A methodology to help achieve continuous delivery of software-driven innovation. | ||
Kanban |
jitkanbanleanlsdmanagementmethodology |
★★★★★ Basic |
| A scheduling system for lean and just-in-time (JIT) production. | ||
Scripting Language
A programming language that supports scripts, programs written for a special run-time environment that can interpret (rather than compile) and automate the execution of tasks that could alternatively be executed one-by-one by a human operator.
AppleScript |
appleipcmacscripting |
★★★★★ Advanced |
| A scripting language used for inter-process communications on Apple operating systems. | ||
Perl |
backendcgiperlscripting |
★★★★★ Intermediate |
| A family of high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming languages. | ||
JavaScript |
backendfrontendjavascriptscripting |
★★★★★ Basic |
| A dynamic programming language, also known as ECMAScript. | ||
Shell Scripting |
backendbashscriptingshell |
★★★★★ Basic |
| A computer program designed to be run by the Unix shell, a command line interpreter. | ||
Ruby |
backendrubyscripting |
★★★★★ Beginner |
| A dynamic, reflective, object-oriented, general-purpose programming language. | ||
PHP |
backendcgiphpscripting |
★★★★★ Unknown |
| A server-side scripting language designed for web development but also used as a general-purpose programming language. | ||
Git Source Code Management |
backenddevelopmentgitgplossscmtoolversion |
★★★★★ Basic |
| A free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency. | ||
jQuery |
clientdomfrontendinteractionixdjavascriptlibraryossscripting |
★★★★★ Basic |
| A cross-platform JavaScript library designed to simplify the client-side scripting of HTML. | ||
Node.js |
backendjavascriptnetworknode.jsossscriptingserver |
★★★★★ Basic |
| An open source, cross-platform runtime environment for server-side and networking applications. | ||
Regular Expressions |
backendjavascriptperlregexrubypatternsscripting |
★★★★★ Basic |
| A sequence of characters that define a search pattern, mainly for use in pattern matching with strings, or string matching, i.e. “find and replace”-like operations. | ||
Rails (RoR) |
backenderbgeneratorsmvcrailsrakerestrubyscaffoldingscripting |
★★★★★ Beginner |
| An open source web application framework written in Ruby language, and also known as Ruby on Rails. | ||
Operating System
Software that manages computer hardware and other software resources and provides common services for computer application programs.
Mac OS X |
applemacos |
★★★★★ Advanced |
| A series of Unix-based graphical interface operating systems developed and marketed by Apple Inc. | ||
Unix |
ipcosserverunix |
★★★★★ Advanced |
| A family of multitasking, multiuser operating systems that derive from the original AT&T UNIX™, developed in the 1970s at the Bell Labs research center. | ||
GNU/Linux |
gnugpllinuxosossserver |
★★★★★ Intermediate |
| A Unix-like operating system which features GNU software packages, uses the Linux kernel and is assembled under the model of free and open-source software development and distribution. | ||
iOS |
appleiosmobileos |
★★★★★ Intermediate |
| A mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. and distributed exclusively for Apple hardware. | ||
Windows |
microsoftoswindows |
★★★★★ Intermediate |
| A family of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Microsoft. | ||
Android |
androidgooglelinuxmobileososs |
★★★★★ Basic |
| A mobile operating system based on the Linux kernel and currently developed by Google. | ||
GNU Software |
gnugplosssoftwareunix |
★★★★★ Intermediate |
| Software that is released under the auspices of the GNU Project and available for many Unix-like operating systems. | ||
Legal Considerations
Note – I am not a lawyer, so I can only provide guidance that does not constitute legal advice.
Copyright |
copyrightiplaw |
★★★★★ Intermediate |
| Grants the creator of an original work exclusive legal rights to its use and distribution, usually for a limited time. | ||
Intellectual Property Licenses |
agreementiplawlicence |
★★★★★ Intermediate |
| Gives the licensee the legal right to use (but not own) the copyright, patent, trade mark, design, technology, technical know-how or specific marketing skills to their advantage, subject to the limitations of the licence. | ||
Patents |
iplawpatents |
★★★★★ Basic |
| Legal rights that are granted for any device, substance, method or process that is new, inventive, and useful. | ||
Privacy |
informationlawprivacy |
★★★★★ Basic |
| The legal right to protect a person’s personal life from invasion and to control the flow of their personal information. | ||
Trade Marks |
iplawtrademarks |
★★★★★ Basic |
| Legal rights that are granted for a letter, number, word, phrase, sound, smell, shape, logo, picture and/or aspect of packaging. | ||
Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) |
agreementauplaw |
★★★★★ Beginner |
| A set of rules applied by the owner, creator or administrator of a network, website, or service, that restrict the ways in which the network, website or system may be used and sets guide lines as to how it should be used. | ||
Terms of Service (ToS) |
agreementlawtos |
★★★★★ Beginner |
| Rules which one must agree to abide by in order to use a service. | ||
Design Registration |
designiplaw |
★★★★★ Basic |
| Intended to protect designs which have an industrial or commercial use, and gives the owner exclusive legal rights to commercially use it, licence or sell it. | ||