: : Design48 : : Portfolio

SYMANTEC
Since October of 2007, I have been working for Symantec, the giant security software company headquartered in Cupertino, CA. I have been doing frontend engineering on a portion of MySymantec, the web portal that provides for the customization of select client/user services. Using HTML, CSS and javascript, I have been building GUIs, or Graphical User Interfaces, for online applications, with a small team of server-side (jsp) developers.

Click here to see an example page, typical of many that I created for Symantec.

As always, a big part of the job is ironing out cross-browser issues before the java build is done. There are very few "rules of thumb" when it comes to Firefox and IE differences. I find in general that there are more css problems when purely tableless page structure is used. In spite of the current trend away from tables, they have been around long enough for the browsers to have settled their disputes about them. Consequently, all of the pages we are building are a combination of tables and tableless floating divs. (This website in contrast was built entirely with tableless divs, my preferred way of building.)

The objective in building a web-based GUI is to maximize flexibility and stability. The inherent nature and behaviors of block elements, whether divs or tables, is crucial to the functionality and usability of the GUI. Maintaining CSS style standards throughout the project is challenging, and requires constant testing. That's why in a corporate setting I endorse the use of thoroughly tested templates at the start, to avoid numerous problems down the road. Most corporate sites are a combination of tables and divs, and I still see uses for both, but it is very instructive to code from scratch to really grasp the fundamental differences between browsers. That's how I built this site - from scratch.

The Symantec projects started with PDF comps built in Photoshop, provided by the marketing and business analysts, and approved by all of the appropriate management. An existing CSS style guide was referenced, but required modified and new classes, which I wrote as needed. I tested in both browsers (IE and Firefox) as I built. I am a firm believer in testing constantly while building. It's easier to resolve browser differences as soon as they occur. The screenshot at left is an example of one of the MySymantec pages that I built. It was a generated list of Symantec products that had a popup calendar widget, customized select boxes, tooltips, and a variety of buttons for controlling the application. I built about 30 such pages, including hidden overlay pages that appeared when certain buttons were clicked. On this page, overlay pages were activated by "Learn more", "Email your order", "Email this page" and "Update" text links. Product pages also appeared as overlay pages when product titles were clicked.

When the XHTML and CSS were done, the files were sent to the server-side java engineers for JSP coding. On the MySymantec project I worked with a team of java engineers from Comergent, an inhouse vendor providing server-side services. When the java engineers needed to make changes in the gui as it passed through various testing stages, they sent files back to me for revision. more...

ORACLE
In 1997, I created over 200 Adobe Illustrator drawings for the release of Oracle8. By 1999, when every programmer on the planet was working on the Y2K problem, I was doing HTML for a small marketing group at Oracle. Everyone in the print world was frantically trying to get everything onto the internet. more...

NASA
NASA - specifically the SETI Institute, contracted me to build a website for a scientific conference investigating the origins of life in the universe. They weren't looking for little green men. They were looking for the conditions that would allow life to exist in any form, even microscopic. They were looking for the chemical building blocks of life. more...

INTUIT
At Intuit in 2005, I reformatted dynamic content from the Intuit homepages for the retail sites that carried Intuit products, including BestBuy, CompUSA, Staples, OfficeMax, etc. I was required to use both table and tableless page structure, extensive CSS, current XHTML standards, and some DHTML. I also did quite a bit of Photoshop image optimization, as well as modified Flash files.. more...

APPLE
At Apple I was contracted to work on the Support section of the Apple website. I converted pages built in table structures to tableless divs. Using XHTML and CSS, I made both major and minor modifications to the existing pages, as well as building new pages. I even contributed to writing some new content. more...

FILEMAKER
FileMaker, a subsidiary of Apple, had a proprietary source-control system of their own called FilemakerCMS. In this development environment I modified existing pages and created new ones. I was required to do both table and tableless design, as well as image optimization using Photoshop. more...

MCAFEE
McAfee used a development environment called Accurev. Page structures were primarily tableless, but older pages were still being converted to the new template according to XHTML and CSS standards. I also created several holiday banners in Photoshop. more...

STANFORD
In 2006, Stanford University contracted me to build 100 new HTML pages for the Stanford Challenge part of the website. In a Teamsite development environment, I formatted Word doc pages into XHTML and CSS. more...

CISCO
Three times I was in the interview pipeline at Cisco. Each time they took so long to hire me that I accepted another contract. To complete the application process, I created several pages of both gif and flash animations. more...

LOCKHEED
I am often asked in interviews why I have always been a contractor. Actually, I worked for Lockheed fulltime for 13 years as a technical illustrator before I was layed off or "downsized" as they called it then. I left there with 25 years total experience, the last seven years on a computer, a VAX workstation, as well as a mac. more...

SEGA of AMERICA
After Lockheed layed off 20,000 workers, jobs in Silicon Valley were scarce. I decided to apply in the videogame industry, because I knew that they hired artists. I was hired at SEGA by a man who had been an art director at Disney Studios. more...

CPA2Biz
One of my webdesign contracts in 2007 was for a small software company that was building an online store for the AICPA, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. They were a very competent team of engineers, but they need help with XHTML and CSS. more...

S & P Communications
One of my freelance projects in 2005 was for a small media company in San Francisco. Their client, Sun Microsystems, needed a Flash presentation with voiceover. We started with screenshots of the website they wanted to explain. more...

VIMO
VIMO is a startup company in Palo Alto involved in the health insurance brokerage business. They contracted me on a freelance basis to create several online ads for them. more...

THETAWAVES
Thetawaves are the waves that are generated by the brain, specifically the hippocampus, when dreaming or in a creative mode. As a fine artist, I identify with states of mind that are out of the ordinary. Like the "thought experiments" of Einstein, the imagination is the Source of creativity. more...

PORTFOLIO48
Portfolio48 was one of the previous versions of my online portfolio. I have recreated one page of the portfolio here, but not all of the pages, because the current standard of HTML is to build in floating divs. I did not want to rebuild all of the pages, so this will give you a taste of what the whole portfolio looked like. more...

TABS & WIDGETS
Tabs & Widgets is the section of my website where I display and explain some of the common features that appear on websites, like tabs and widgets. more...

BROWSERS
Browser issues drive developers nuts. It's hard enough to design perfectly for one browser, but to design for another or all of them can be very challenging indeed. This section is devoted to de-mystifying some of the differences. more...

JQUERY
Libraries of freeware javascript appeared early on in the history of the web. But these were disparate libraries written by many different authors, and not organized in any way except by categories of functions. Systems of javascript libraries appeared later... more...

YAHOO YUI
Libraries of freeware javascript appeared early on in the history of the web. But these were disparate libraries written by many different authors, and not organized in any way except by categories of functions. Systems of javascript libraries appeared later... more...

LOCALIZATION
Localization issues are another can of worms that drive web developers nuts. Like browser issues, sometimes they don't come to light until after a great deal of work and testing is already done. more...

SUSHIBOAT INTERFACE

Design48 is the online portfolio of work I have done for a number of corporations over my 40-year career in Silicon Velley. I have also used the titles Designstudio8 and Thetawaves to differentiate my webdesign from my graphic work, and my corporate work from my creative work. But I find it harder than ever to keep these in separate categories. A beautiful webpage is just as pleasing to me as an oil painting, and I can get just as excited when I get some javascript to work as when I am able to render the feathers on a bird well. It's a great time to be an artist of any kind.

The field of graphic design was forever changed by the invention of the computer. What used to be called commercial art, including graphic design, is now almost exclusively produced on a computer with software such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and InDesign. A certain amount of planning and preliminary thought processes are still done with pencil and paper, but most of the production process is done with software. It wasn't always so. For at least a century, graphic design was done on a drafting table.

Microsoft went public in 1986. Until then, most of the commercial art and graphic design world was still working on drafting tables. Things changed rapidly after that year. By the early 90's it was assumed that computer graphics was a major part of the job of a graphic artist. He was expected to learn software programs with ease, and to be as proficient with a mouse as he had been with a pen, or the ever present xacto blade. Prior to the computer, "cut" and "paste" had been literal terms. Elements of a design were cut and pasted onto a paper format, and then photographed for print production.

The end of the Cold War brought tremendous changes in the field of graphic design. In the early 90's, DARPANet (Defense Advanced Research Project Net) was released to the public domain. With the invention of the internet for commercial purposes, graphic design again went through a revolution in production processes. By the late 90's, not only was graphic design done on a computer, it was published to the internet using development tools like HTML and javascript. Photoshop, the industry-standard for the print world, found new uses in the creation of low-resolution web graphics and animations.

Every art school on the planet now teaches webdesign. Art students know that they are expected to be engineers if they want to make a living as graphic designers. Even if they are fine artists, they are aware of the web as a new marketplace for their work. Every major and minor art gallery has a website. In addition, fine art of all kinds is sold on ebay and other online malls.

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