Design Philosophy

I design towards simplicity. I feel that the design that conveys the most is the design that distracts the least and so I strive to remove superfluous detail whenever possible. Design is bound content and ought to ease and enhance the conveyance of it without competition.

In terms of tools and methodology, I strive for semantics above all else. Design goes deeper than what is seen and experienced. The structure of code is integral to the use and longevity of content. As such, I write code by hand and adhere to standards not with dogmatic but pragmatic diligence.

Chrysler Experience →

Chrysler Experience is the brand-centric portal tailored for passionate Chrysler vehicle owners. In this project I led the engineering effort, building the XHTML page templates, organizing the XML data describing each page, and structuring the XSLT which formatted and inserted said data into the pages, all within our in-house CMS. Alongside this, I wrote functionality that imports in specific Chrysler content from YouTube and Flickr. Furthermore, I rewrote the MooTools-based Javascript that powers the site (adapted from Jeep Experience) and functioned in an advisory role for CSS design.

A major portion of the Experience build was the creation of Chrysler News. News is an AJAX-powered site that reads and parses RSS feeds of internal Chrysler PR, Chrysler-approved stories in the media, and Chrysler reviews found on auto sites. The site runs hand-in-hand with a server-side RSS creation tool developed in-house simultaneously. News allows for dynamic article searching based on on-the-fly tag organization as well as feed selection. Finally, for Chrysler PR, News provides an article display page (example) that allows readers to share the article on popular sites such as Digg, Facebook, and del.icio.us. January 2008–March 2008 · Visit Experience → · Visit News →

Incentives →

Incentives is an AJAX-powered tool that allows visitors to Dodge, Jeep, and Chrysler’s sites to look up the vehicle-specific incentives that the brand is offering but also the incentives that their local dealership is offering. For this site, I built the entire MooTools-based Javascript engine that controls visual state, vehicle loading, dealer-by-zipcode lookup, incentive offer loading, data parsing, and runtime validation on all of the above. With some extra time we found during the project, I added the ability for the site to constantly update its URL such that at any time users could bookmark or send to a friend their current location and have the site restore itself to that exact state (example). Finally, I provided support and helped ensure cross-browser CSS compatibility across all three brands. Please see not only Dodge’s Incentives site but also Jeep and Chrysler’s. April 2008–June 2008 · Visit site →

Boostin’ Nuts →

Boostin’ Nuts began as an easter egg tucked away on the Jeep Liberty Sessions microsite but after developing a fan base a small team and I designed a Facebook application. I analyzed the Facebook API and determined the way in which our Flash game would need to interact with the site and then designed and built the application container around it. With the application, our 3,000+ players automatically have access to full statistics on their games and scores as well as the ability to compare themselves to all of their friends and the global high score list. I implemented the communication bridge between the application and a private scoreboard database I helped partially design and build. Additionally, I devised a way to export the all-time “Top 10” list as a JSON object for inclusion on the Jeep Facebook Page and the Jeep brand Experience site. January 2008–February 2008 · Visit application →

Lease Offers →

In late July 2008 the Chrysler Corporation announced that they were canceling future leases on Chrysler, Jeep, and Dodge vehicles. An emergency site was immediately planned and I implemented the microsites across all three brands. Inside of a 24 hour window, I put together a template that allowed for simple content insertion as well as the inclusion of a not-yet-launched AJAX-powered dealer location engine that was built for its own pages only. In addition to Jeep’s page, there are also Dodge, and Chrysler’s pages. July 2008 · Visit site →

Chrysler Signature Series →

The Chrysler Signature Series pages are a series of vanity pages for a special model of select Chrysler vehicles bestowed with extra features. I developed these custom page templates for the series in our in-house CMS, to offer a broad overview of the vehicles, including integration with the Build My Own application as well as inline resizable images showing off primary features of the series. In addition to the Chrysler 300, there is also a Signature Series page for the Aspen, Pacifica, PT Cruiser, and Sebring. October 2007 · Visit site →

Miles →

Miles is a web-based iPhone application I independently designed and developed in the month following the introduction of the iPhone and support solo to this day. Miles provides a lightweight interface for on-the-road gas mileage logging. Miles is written with svelte XHTML and CSS, powered by Joe Hewitt’s iUI Javascript library. Miles allows free account creation, storing MD5 hashes of login credentials so as to securely and privately store information. Each of its 4,000+ users can review their full mileage history and driving data totals. A Cocoa Touch rewrite is underway. August 2007–Present · Visit tool →

AIGA Detroit →

I joined the AIGA Detroit chapter after college and found myself nominated and approved to the Co-Interactive Chair on the Board of Directors. In this position I headed the project to redesign and rearchitect the chapter’s website. I developed a grid-based industrial visual design for the site that retains touches of the previous design’s long-standing aesthetic. I worked with the AIGA Internet Kit CMS while simultaneously teaching myself its intricacies in order to orchestrate this ground up rebuild and reorganization of the chapter’s online information. November 2007–February 2008 · Visit site →

Celebrate Michigan Design →

The Celebrate Michigan Design Poster Competition is a contest put on by AIGA Detroit for graphic artists statewide to design a poster related to Michigan’s history of design for future inclusion in a gallery showcase put on by the chapter. I worked with other board members who designed the site, implementing the final product and designing the architecture of the submission process. A custom database was set up to aggregate submission details that are rigorously checked via custom Javascript form validation I wrote using MooTools. February 2008–Present · Visit site →

The Michigan Daily →

The Michigan Daily was my largest project in college in terms of time, energy and exposure (3.2 million page views per year). In the two years that I was involved with the Daily, I took part in two major redesigns and two incremental design updates. In the summer of 2006 I executed a ground-up redesign on my own using CSS, XHTML and a proprietary CMS language provided by the content framework which I had to learn. I completely redesigned the visual appearance of the site, completely rewrote all XHTML and CSS behind the site, restructured the site’s organizational scheme and retrained the online content publishers in the new system.

Concurrent to this redesign was the of applying of the above to the seven Michigan Daily blogs. All of these WordPress-powered blogs were completely redesigned and brought into close visual relation to the primary Daily’s site (at the time) while still providing unique branding. Each blog was incorporated not only with the others, but with dynamically generated material on the Daily’s primary site itself. (Ed. note the blogs are currently offline for the summer.)

In addition to design duties, I served in four positions on the Online staff. I came in as a designer, became an Assistant Editor, an Associate Editor and the Managing Editor. In performing all of these rolls, I had to handle project planning and management, staff training, day-to-day operations, pay roll and standard web design and maintenance duties. October 2005–April 2007 · Visit site →

The Ann Arbor Crier →

The Ann Arbor Crier was started by a group of friends and myself as a project for our last semester at the University of Michigan. We wanted to create a vibrant online magazine that focused on culture and life in Ann Arbor to provide useful and interesting information for students. I worked with another designer in sketching the site while constructing the pages on my own. The site uses a custom-written PHP back-end that binds together dynamic content from Movable Type, weekly custom CSS and a dynamic XHTML template that changes both on a weekly basis and due to which page is being viewed. For this site I taught myself the basics of working in Flash to create weekly slideshows. Additionally, I wrote a PHP parser to display events from another student created site, Eventivore.com. I wrote and designed a custom PHP page for emailing articles to friends along with adding the overhead needed to support posting articles on popular sites like Digg, Facebook and Newsvine. January 2007–September 2007 · Visit site →

Dokas Photos →

I designed this site for my father’s large-format photography business. Knowing the client so well allowed me to make a site highly tailored to his tastes while at the same time causing me to work with him at all stages of development.

In this project I created the entire design in CSS and XHTML, using a number of uncommon techniques such as pure-CSS image drop-shadows. I used Movable Type to maintain all content and taught the client how to use the publishing platform for site updates. Furthermore, I wrote PHP adapters to allow customers to purchase prints directly from this site. The site is currently undergoing a realignment which can be explored. Summer 2004 · Visit site →

Jetless Heights →

Jetless Heights has been my stomping grounds since high school. The site sat largely dormant for years while I rethought my relationship with public writing, leaving the last iteration I put considerable effort into to languish. I have recently brought it out of dormancy and am rebuilding the site and adding features (e.g. archives, deep navigation) in public so as not to stall my newfound desire to publish again. January 2000–Present · Visit site →