I would just to welcome any and all that would like to post to this blog. I will be writing occasionally about my road from the print graphic art world to designing Web sites. It has been a tough road, with many new technologies to master.
I received a certificate in a Web design foundation course through Central Michigan University, though the actual school was the Sessions College of Professional Design, an online college. I found the education extremely enlightening, as it allowed me to learn how to implement common design practices into the Web page medium. Though good design principles cross many platforms, there are certain techniques that have been developed specifically for Web design that are sure to cause a lot less headaches down the road when changes need to made, or some new functionality needs to be introduced. And though some programming functions are beyond my capability, any site I design will be fundamentally solid enough to allow the appropriate programming functions to be introduced.
I also learned some basic Flash, and can implement animation into my Web designs. Examples of this can be found on outwardimage.net, gatorssoccerclub.us, and unohairdesign.com.
For UNO Hair Design, I teamed up with an old friend from my days at BBDO Detroit, Chicky Finn, to shoot a commercial. It came out great, and can be viewed here: http://unohairdesign.com/about.html
Another important aspect of this business is SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. I have become a student of the various techniques involved in getting a Web site to fare well in the search engines. Keywords, of course, but there are many other things, like conncections to social network pages like Facebook and Twitter, YouTube commercials, like the one for UNO. Articles, blogs, and the like are also important. There are many things that contribute, but nothing beats a lot of relevant content.
