Welcome

Hello,

If you are reading this, welcome to my blog. The purpose of this blog is to document and display my work samples to aid with my job search efforts.

I have many years experience developing web sites using PHP and iOS Applications more recently.

My skills also include design and digital photography.

The samples that I present here in the blog are those that I have access to, many of the websites that I have designed and built are no longer online.

Most of my design examples are from what backups I still have of my TAFE work. TAFE, if you are unaware, is a technical further education institution in Australia. TAFE caters to students of any age group who wish to further their education at any point in their life, and is far more affordable and does not require as much time invested to complete a course.

Students in high school can opt to further their education in addition to their current course work at the same time as high school or when they complete their high school certificate in year 12.

Other students similar to myself, can undertake further study later in life at TAFE to learn more skills to support them thru a career change, general interest or even expand their knowledge in their current job for whatever reason.

I worked for an educational software company for 4 years almost straight after university. I started off processing scanned text book pages with Photoshop, to create an CD based replica of the original book with students in mind. The idea being that students could take a much lighter version of their textbooks home with them in their bag, rather than very heavy textbooks, which could cause some harm to their backs and joints.

After this initial one or two projects, my role expanded to that of a software developer. My 4 years of university aided my continued stay at that company. I was coding additional educational products focused on teachers as well as students.

In my last year, I was one of a few employees working on a large project for a UK based company, after working for the Australian branch on the other projects. After some time, the project was put on hold. As that was the end of the main projects coming into the business, I was made redundant, and had to look for other employment avenues. This was 2004.

In a few months, I was already booked to take a holiday with my family to New Zealand, so searching for new work took a side step. I enjoyed the great scenery and experiences in New Zealand for 20 days.

Once I returned, I had to see what kind of jobs I wanted to move into. In the local newspaper, not long after the holiday ended, I noticed an advert for a graphic design course.




The graphic design course was 2 years in length, and in that time I learnt many design skills. I did have experience with design to a minor level, and was mostly self taught before taking the course though. I had to create a portfolio of artwork that I had made and had quite a few photos to show off, and so made up a photo slideshow CD using iDVD.

The portfolio only had to demonstrate some potential for design, so that potential students who had something to gain from the course were offered places. There were many students in the first year, but it had dwindled down a lot by the start of the second year.