Ahead of Schedule!

Somehow or another, I've been somewhat obsessing over this project (who knew I liked learning and work?) I'm well ahead of schedule, and I don't plan on slowing down one bit. I have my overall designs and basic pages created, databases hooked up and running, and I'm now working on coding the CSS and bringing in content. I've hit a couple "life" snags along the way, but I've been able to stay focused and working on these projects even when I only have an hour to spare.

Things are going well with my individual study course, and I'm really, truly learning better work-flow methods in order to more efficiently work on my projects. My only concern is that I will not finish and absorb all the information and tools I'll need to create my gallery application for my portfolio, but I plan on refocusing all my energy on my Lynda.com course upon completing the other areas of each site.

In addition to my individual study course, I am also taking an Interactive Design course in the Graphic Design Department here at Shepherd University. I can now say I've been exposed to Wordpress (a breeze compared to Drupal), and my main challenge I've run into is how hard it is to keep switching directories as I am working on three completely separate websites simultaneously, but I'm pushing through it! My desktop is now covered with shortcuts and I'm surprised Xampp (similar to lamp, mamp, wamp, etc.) hasn't called in for a sick day yet :D

Researching and Trolling

The design and concept for my Professional Portfolio is very simple and straight-forward: A website showing my work and skills for graduate school. In contrast, I am having a very hard time with creating the logo, identity, and branding for my Web Design Company site. I've felt somewhat torn between what type of aesthetic style I want to employ. I have read several articles on the topic of web design portfolio sites (standard portfolios as opposed to mine which is for graduate school application) and through my research I found Jason Reed's portfolio site. I love how straight forward it is and how he employed such a unique method of displaying information tabs.

I have examined a multitude of web design / development sites, and I have noticed the cliche and ever recurring usage of light-bulbs and gears when describing / advertising their services. I want to stand out. The average business owner doesn't know what html, css, php, dns, and mysql are, and they shouldn't have to. This examination/critique has given me a idea for using a different approach which focuses on solutions as opposed to process. If I have to call a plumber because my sink is leaking I honestly don't care about all the possible solutions he has, I don't care about what tools he's going to use, the possible problems that are causing the sink to leak, and frankly I don't care about anything other than if he can fix my problem.

I feel that I want my site to promote solutions and not require a potential client to research what code languages, server side scripting, and content management systems are. I want them to see solutions and not my "toolset" I use to create solutions. I'm not going to remove my "toolset" from view, but I'm not going to make the process the focus. I want to provide clients with solutions.

The Plan

My goal for the current semester is to complete a professional portfolio website for graduate school as well as a Web Design & Development company website. I have the necessary skills to complete these tasks, but I plan on learning more web programming and database implementation in order to create dynamic and flexible websites. I will be taking courses through Lynda.com on MySQL and PHP with MySQL during this semester, and I hope to learn enough to not only expand my skill set, but also more efficient and flexible methods of website creation.

Web Design & Development is an ever changing field, and I would like to hit some personal limitations and overcome them in one way or another. For instance, on my Portfolio, I will attempt to create a system that can handle multiple types of media so that I can easily keep things up to date as I continue to work in the field. I have a large amount of work I would like to accomplish with my project and I hope that I am able to create sites which show the amount of experience I have.