I got my Degree in Web Design and Multimedia from Westwood.  I cant say it was the best experience & would have loved to have gotten more out (especially the last few terms) of it but it was a major accomplishment none the less.  It gave me that little extra push to getting the jobs I’m looking for.

I’ve jumped on the Lijit bandwagon to help guide them in a better direction for the design and usability of their products.  I’ve been here nearly a month & we have been cranking hard on new work.  You can expect to see an update off graphics & content on Lijit soon, so you that you might actually understand what they do .  I’m also full steam ahead on working on the complete re-design of how Lijit interacts with our publishers & advertisers.

An amazing little dog named Vida came into our lives as well, brining with her stress of a puppy but the attitude to always make us smile & lighten the mood.  I’m nearly off to Miami again for new years to see Lady Gaga & get some sun in the midst of this blizzard in Boulder.

My goals for 2010 include a project to create at-least one design/graphic per day, all year.  I also hope to get time to design and launch my blog idea “I speak robot”.  Whatever happens 2010 is sure to be busy like usual.

I wish you all a marry Xmas & have a great new-year.

I’ve also had a chance to work more with my father at Another Color by improving our business and providing more web services to our current clients (stay tuned for a relaunch of our company site).

So why should I leave freelancing?

Since graduating I was looking for a new way to challenge myself creatively and was looking for new opportunities.  I saw a job listing for web designer/developer at Lijit, so I sent over my resumé & portfolio.  Since that point I went through several interviews and did some contract work until they could assess if I was right for them.  Luckily they choose to bring me on & give me the chance to really improve and enhance their brand and tools.

So what will change?

Well not a whole lot, I’ll just be working full-time at Lijit to help design the future of social search.  The main thing is I will no longer be taking on much freelance work.  It’s a happy day for me today, marking November 13th 2010 the end of a major freelancing endeavor (for now).  If you are looking for a WordPress expert I recommend you check out WP Co-OP.

What have I learned?

Plan, Plan, Plan & then follow through.  The best thing I’ve learned though freelancing is learning to manage myself and the people I choose to work with.  Planing ahead and managing spending and relationships is probably the hardest thing for most of us to learn.  Also plan for Christmas, it tends to take a big bite out of your wallet and fewer people need freelance work around the holiday, so save that money.

Diversify your creativity & clients.  Life is too important to do boring work.  If you have the opportunity, choose the clients and people you want to work with.  Most freelancers I’ve talked to have complained about the clients they’ve worked with in some way.  I can honestly say I’ve been lucky to choose the people I’ve worked with and have no client horror stories to share at the camp fire.  You will also gain a better understanding of different markets, which makes you a more valuable employee.

TRY Separate work & personal life.  Really its hard to accomplish this and was probably my biggest pitfall.  I tend to be a workaholic and that can lead to working all day & night.  I’ve learned in order to have a healthy freelance lifestyle there must be a distinct work-time and play-time.  Some people may be able to get away without doing this, but they are just gifted.

What’s Next?

I’m looking to start another blog soon called “I Speak Robot”, where I’ll be speaking more about design, computers and robots.  This site will continue to be a place to see my personal work and any personal news on me.  I’m also looking forward to spending more time with my girlfriend, getting out more to snowboard and bike, and get back to learning Portuguese.

That said I wanted to share a before & after picture of the WP CO-OP.    I also really enjoyed creating the illustration for the home page, which took about 2 days.  You can also check out a recent post I did for them called WordPress and Small Business.

WP CO-OP Before

WP CO-OP After

After all the talk it ended with me really wanting to just do something for the WordPress community.  What was the master plan?  Redesign WP CO-OP to help it get a big foot in the door start.  This meant re-working the entire layout and navigation with the site along with creating a more unique look that could be attractive to developers and the average person alike.

Unfortunately I can’t show you anything at the time of this posting, but we will be launching the re-design soon as we are in the final stages.  Not only did I do a design for it but a very nice illustration that took about 2 days full of Illustration.

*UPDATE: the new design is LIVE, so head on over to WP COOP and check out the new design!*

To check out the current site visit http://wpcoop.org/ , & check back soon to see pictures of the new design once its a go.

That said I think its time I address exactly how I conceptualized the design of this site, what went into it and where my inspiration came from and how it was created.

Inspiration

I tend to follow and check out every website design possible, and I love everything about design.  There are several sites which influenced the total design of this particular site.  You will notice similarities are you check out theirs.

The first goes to http://www.x3studios.com/ (also included in the article) and some of their layout design.  You’ll notice the header can be quite similar, although function and work completely differently.  As a designer I love simplicity and the overall design X3 accomplished was great.  I also wanted to accomplish a similar goal, making a single page layout that functioned in a unique way.

My navigation was inspired through the design of http://blackestate.co.nz/.  The site is amazingly laid out and the navigation really works well.  My thought was to take that idea and apply it to a horizontal navigation instead of a vertical one.

My last thought on the navigation was to have it “link-up” with other navigation sections in the portfolio.  As you click on web or another portfolio link, you see the sub-navigation linking in with the main navigation.  A unique concept I’d like to build on more in the future.

Some of the ideas for content came from http://www.brightcreative.com/.  I’m a big fan of Dave and his work and have met him before at Web Direction North.  I think the way he runs his business can be a model for many designers.

Deploying the design

I love WordPress and how easy it is to implement for any design.  This was my first attempt at making a single-page WordPress.  Using the query_posts(’pagename=about’); function in WordPress you can create separate pages for content and still use them within a single template.

Also by using the include(TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/include_featured.php’); I could reference other templates and manage the entire layout.  Also by using categories I was able to let content show in the featured section, and designated sections of the portfolio.

Wrap it up

So after all of this, what are my thoughts? I love the design and how simple it is, however I’m sure I’ll redesign it again in another year, as I’ve done for the past 2 years. I guess I’m never really sold on how I should finish something, and like most things great ideas evolve and show should a design.

Tell me what your thoughts are on the design.  What do you like, not like? Feel free to fire away with thoughts.  *The logo & contact info have been blurred out, for obvious reasons.

Our new dog Vida has been a handful, but at the same time amazing.  She is a 5 month old Border Collie that is very beautiful.   I included a picture of here on the right, playing in the water.  The she arrived in Colorado all the way from Brazil nearly 2 weeks ago.  Since then she has experince much more then in here home in Brazil.  She is learning basic commands and is on her way to becoming that perfect water-hopping, frizby catching dog.

I have also been plugging on setting up Another Color’s new website. It is still about a week off, but we have made big strides in getting the design just how we want.  It will also include a blog of it’s own that I will be writing design tutorials, article and more for.  I don’t consider writing my strongest point, but I love sharing things with others. Keep posted for that, it will definitely be a site to stay tuned to.

As soon as things do simmer down some I’ll be posting more here as well regarding design and work I enjoy. So stay tuned for more coming soon. Also don’t forget to vote for this website for Best Wordpress Design 2009!

Now the voting won’t actually start until September 1 but I just wanted to give you an early heads up so you can get ready to cast your vote for matthaltom.com and encourage all your friends/family to vote, too!

Watch for more details. Thanks for your support!

Living in Colorado, I wanted an new path for my life and new job opportunities.  The only way to do so was to get the education and experience to make it happen.  I was lucky to get the support of my family and girlfriend to move forward.  I was also able to take on a full time job while working at school.  I started taking classes at Westwood College North in Denver.

My opinion about the web design education I received at Westwood College is that it is not really on par with what I expected.  The college really needs to re-evaluate how it handles the curriculum to keep it more up to date.  I had a teacher for a database class and I knew more about databases at times than he did.  He did not know what JQuery or Javascript libraries were.  Now I’m not saying all the teachers were bad and many of the teachers are well-qualified and experienced.  I think the blame for education lies on the people deciding the curriculum.

Even though I went through education problems at the school, I still managed to get through it with a good education.  I taught myself much more than I learned from the school, but in reality isnt that the case for most of us?  I think any person who wants a really good education can’t just rely on a college to provide it.

If I had to go through it all again, I may have moved to California to find a better school for web design education.  If you are someone who is interested in web education, check out WOW.  They are moving the discussion forward on web education and can guide you in the right direction.

I was also fortunate to come in contact with the companies Design Divine and TriCalyx to get out from behind the desk at IBM and into my design career.  The experience working with them was amazing and helped push my design skills further.

Now that everything is over I have just redesigned and launched my new portfolio as a wrap up of all my work.  The website has gone through 3 different version before this one while in college.  My girlfriend and I are also getting our dog Vida, a 4 month old border collie and I cant wait to go for runs with her.  I’m excited to move my professional career forward and work with more businesses to meet thier needs and look for new artistic opportunities.