portfolio
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detail
Fifth Ace Entertainment (v2.0)
Launched June 2006
Dan, the owner of Fifth Ace Entertainment, is one client that has fully taken advantage of how a web site can add value to a company. Using his web site, Dan books and assigns his DJs to events, promotes club appearances, creates contracts and invoices, maintains a client list, monitors payments and edits the content of his web site all through one custom adminstration panel.
Dan's clients can login to 5thace.com to sign contracts, view account status, submit payments, and specify what songs they want played at their event. Wedding clients also submit the names of people involved in the wedding, what style of dinner music they want, and what songs they want played at special moments such as the bride and groom's first dance.
Fifth Ace Entertainment (v1.0)
Launched April 2003
In the first edition of the Fifth Ace Entertainment web site, emphasis was placed on the company's services and fun attitude. So for the site, I developed fun, interactive icons using Flash. These icons depicted a bride and groom at their wedding, a dance floor full of dancers, a bar full of jammin patrons, and a rave full of people hungry for another tune from DJ Fifth Ace.
The web site was also utilized to allow people to sign up for Fifth Ace Sponsored Events, including an annual New Year's Eve Party and the Annual Steelers Road Trip, where 60 rabid Steeler fans boarded a bus bound for Cincinnati.
Clients enjoyed the fun attitude that the web site portrayed so effectively.
Andy Russell Charitable Foundation
Launched June 2006
Pittsburgh Steelers hall-of-famer, Andy Russell, needed a web site to promote his annual Celebrity Golf Outing that benefits his organization, The Andy Russell Charitable Foundation. The web site is primarily a brochure site whose purpose is to inform the user of the Foundation's charter and objectives. Additionally, users can sign up for the Celebrity Golf Outing and purchase advertising by downloading forms from the web site.
The charm of this web site is it's randomly changing color scheme. On each page load, the color scheme changes as well as the header graphic.
DailyDorm.com
Launched September 2006
After running a successful dot-com from 1997-2001, I was longing to re-enter the dot-com arena by 2005. The result was DailyDorm.com.
The general idea was to create a campus newspaper feel and apply it on a national level. Let the students write the news, let the readers rate the writers, then let everyone discuss the story.
Although I don't want to call the site a failure, it hasn't succeeded mainly due to a lack of time to commit to the project by both myself and my partner.
It's time to get innovative... (more on that soon)
Chamberlin Ridge
Launched March 2006
Chamberlin Ridge is a real estate development located in the Pittsburgh suburb of Jefferson Hills. Visitors to the site are able to explore the interactive plan map of the development. The map prominently displays which lots are available, sold or under contract. Clicking on a lot on the map will take the user to a Lot Details page that provides pertinent information about the lot, such as price, acreage and a detailed diagram of the lot. In addition, users can take a virtual tour of model homes. Visitors can also download important literature about Chamberlin Ridge, contact the real estate agent with questions, and also join a mailing list to stay up-to-date on special deals and events.
The entire web site is configurable with a custom administration panel. Chamberlin Ridge web administrators use this control panel to maintain lot information, documentation, maps, images and all site content.
CB Richard Ellis - Pittsburgh
Launched May 2004
CB Richard Ellis is a nation-wide real estate company specializing in corporate real estate. The Pittsburgh office utilized an external web application to maintain their real estate properties and publish their listings to the web. I was charged with the task of creating a web site to highlight this system.
The web site seamlessly integrated the real estate listing application, and provided users with necessary general information and contacts that every web site needs. A custom administration panel allowed CBRE web admins to maintain web site content.
The CBRE Pittsburgh web site was shut down in the fall of 2006 because the Pittsburgh branch was asked to merge it's web content into the national corporate site.
TealPages.com
Launched May 2006
TealPages.com is another one of my dot-com entries. A completely unplanned entry, but an entry nontheless.
This web site was born out of some experimentation I was doing with database queries and interface design. After I became knee-deep in test code, I decided that since I was already half way to building a complete web site, I might as well do just that.
TealPages.com is a directory for searching past friends and maintaining a list of contacts. It's intentionally designed to not be as social as a MySpace or Facebook, so that it's usefulness becomes apparent.
Looking back, I kind of missed the mark on the interface, (which is why I've never marketed the site) but the underlying ability to search for people is quite good. If I have some time in the future, I will create a better user experience and get this functionality out to the masses.
University of Pittsburgh
Ice Hockey
Web Site Prototype
I played hockey for Pitt during the 2001-2002 season, my senior year at the university. At that time I developed a logo for Pitt Hockey as well as a design for the new web site. Another developer created the stats tracking and team management system, which still impresses me to this day.
The screen cap you see above is a prototype I developed in the summer of 2006. Unfortunately, due to copyright and licensing issues, the university wouldn't allow us to use the Pitt logo or the word "official". There were some other concerns as well. According to Pitt, leaving this content in could cause the team to lose its status as a club.
I plan on revisiting the design this summer, so that the team has a fancy new web site for their Division I debut in the fall of 2007.
Holiday Health & Racquet Club
Launched January 2005
The Holiday Health & Racquet Club is a great fitness club located on Rt 286 in Plum Boro. I was a member there for a long time and enjoyed playing lots of racquetball.
Bob, the owner, wanted a new web site with a new logo and a healthy feel. Within a month, Bob was up and running with his club's new public personna at HolidayHealthClub.com. The web site features the club's new logo and a Miami-style color scheme that makes the user feel good about the services offered.
TopRope.com
Site Live from 1997-2001
Top-Rope.com is a web site that a friend and I owned and operated for five years. We were a prototypical dot-com bubble company enjoying over 3 million visitors per month. The site was considered a leading source for Pro-Wrestling news and rumors.
I was responsible for the graphic design, navigation, architecture and all programming of the site. I also had several marketing responsibilities including Advertising, Product Sales and maintaining cross-promotional relationships with other media outlets.
I owe my entire career to this web site. It was here that I learned via trial & error the principles of good graphic design, site architecture and navigation, server and client side programming, business relationship management, internet marketing and so much more!
Cyberbout.com
Launched July 2000
As a spin-off to Top-Rope.com, my partner and I teamed up with CDM Fantasy Sports, a St. Louis based company, to develop Cyberbout, the world's first Fantasy Wrestling Game.
CDM used their existing software to build the web site for the game, our job was to devise the rules of the game and to market it on our web site and other media.
Unfortunately, less than a week after our launch, we were threatened with lawsuits from both the WWF and WCW and were forced to shut down. Regardless, the experience gained from the venture was fantastic.
Humorous footnote: The WWE launched their own version of Fantasy Wrestling in 2005.
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The Burgh Live, LLC
Launched May, 2007
The Burgh Live, LLC is a Pittsburgh based consulting firm focused on bringing Internet and Technology solutions to business. TBL is also the primary web host for the websites that I develop.
This project was somewhat unique. The owner approched me with a design concept he had put together and asked me to help refine it. Over the next four hours, he and I worked collaboratively over Instant Messenger to complete the design of his website, working out the layout, graphics, color scheme and logo all in that single session. The result was a clean and effective design that gracefully portrays the company message.
Afterwards, I developed the web page framework and style sheet so that he can go off and create his own pages.
This project was a true testament to how Internet services can significantly affect the speed of a collaborative process.
Vocollect Corporate Intranet
Launched April 2006
Currently, I work full-time for a mid-size Voice Technology company called Vocollect, located in Penn Hills. The company has to be one of the best employers in the Pittsburgh area, gracious enough to allow me to continue to take on contract work outside of my responsibilities to them.
My role at Vocollect is as sole intranet developer and administrator. During the first two years of my time here, I developed an impressive intranet system with an open-source PHP/MySQL architecture.
The intranet has been extremely effective in enhancing employee communication, interaction and camaradery. Intuitive tools allow users to maintain page content and personal profiles, post messages to notice boards, create event sign-up forms, maintain blogs and much more.
Currently, I'm converting this intranet system into an PL/Sql with Oracle Portal environment.
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Mac-1 Construction
Launched March 2008
This project was developed for a construction company basex in Phoenix, Arizona. This CSS based design features a large image on the home page which proudly displays the incredible workmanship done by the people at Mac-1 Construction.
The site also features a nice gallery of the company's projects.
Real Estate Agent
Rindy Bliss
Launched August, 2007
This site was developed for local real estate agent, Rindy Bliss.
This project included a custom administration panel with interfaces that allow Rindy to edit the content and images of her pages on her own.