#Welcome

I am a developer and designer living in Chicago, Illinois. This website is a collection of projects I have worked on and my career experience so far. At the bottom you can find tools I like to use and how to contact me. Hope you enjoy!
#Experience
Dec 2016 - Apr 2021
Developer at 3st/Span
Communication Design Practice
Housed at Wright auction house, our small team of multi-disciplinary designers work on just about everything. See my portfolio section for more details regarding projects for select clients.
https://span.studio/Aug 2014 - Jun 2016
Student at DePaul University
Bachelors Degree in Computer Science
DePaul was a great school for me to grow my skills as a developer. They had a well rounded program with many talented instructors and professors. Course highlights include:
- Agile software development
- Distributed systems
- Object oriented programming
- Systems programming
- Algorithms
Aug 2014 - Dec 2016
Freelance Developer
Chicago Consultancy
After Designation, I worked with several companies to complete various development projects. Technologies I worked with included WordPress, React, and Gulp. Clients include Idea Booth, Studio 424, and Team Pixl.
Jun 2014 - Aug 2014
Student at Designation.io
UX Design Bootcamp
Here I met a lot of people from around Chicago and the rest of the country while learning about user experience design. We worked on several design challenges and helped companies at 1871 for our final projects.
https://designation.io/May 2014 - Jun 2014
Intern at Neoteric Design
Software Development Consultancy
I spent six weeks here building a project management tool with Ruby on Rails. I was in charge of the design and development of the application, with Nick and his team being very supportive throughout the experience.
https://www.neotericdesign.com/Aug 2010 - May 2014
Student at SIUC
Computer Science / Minor Art & Design
I started my college career at Southern Illinois University Carbondale as a civil engineer. I transitioned to Computer Science in my second year and finished my minor in art and design before leaving the university. I enjoyed my time at the university, which shares a closer topography to Tennessee than the rest of downstate Illinois. I was a founding member of the school's skateboard society helping to organize fundraisers and events.
https://siu.edu/#Projects
I was responsible for the front-end and back-end development of the projects listed. Also provided maintenance, documentation, and design details for many of them. Blessed to have worked with many talented designers through my career, and I want to thank them for helping me and my work shine.
Additional Projects
https://prysminstitute.org/
https://wolfpointeast.com/
https://workwithfocus.com/
https://www.cmap.illinois.gov/2050/about
https://vonweiseassociates.com/
#Skills
Easy to extend, Craft is the best CMS I have worked with so far.
https://craftcms.com/
Decent option for Blogs + HTML, still very popular.
https://wordpress.org/download/
Meteor is a tool for creating real-time web applications with Node.js.
https://www.meteor.com/
Not needed on all projects, but a powerful tool for real-time DOM updates.
https://reactjs.org/
Semantic markup to improve accessibility and SEO.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/HTML/HTML5
CSS3 has evolved the web into an art form.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS
SASS compiles to CSS and allows you to use functions and variables.
https://sass-lang.com/guide
Bootstrap is a good starting point for collaborating with other developers.
https://getbootstrap.com/
I write ES6 code compiled with Babel for browser support.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript
Great tool for DOM manipulation, better API than vanilla JS.
https://jquery.com/
Lodash adds some important functions to JS like throttle and debounce.
https://lodash.com/
Metafizzy is a suite of javascript components that are easy to use.
https://metafizzy.co/
Webpack based JS/CSS build tool, similar to Gulp.
https://brunch.io/
Git is a wonderful tool to use to manage versions of code and collaborate with other people.
https://git-scm.com/
Google Analytics is a powerful free tool to track user behavior.
https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/
Sketch is my favorite UI design tool because of it’s ability to easily export assets and similarity to the web.
https://www.sketch.com/
#Contact
#Extra
Social Networks
Tools
- Smart Phone – OnePlus 8
- Laptop – MBPR 13″, Thinkpad X1 Yoga
- Notebook – 3″ x 5″ Word Notebooks
- Transportation – Road Bike, Skateboard, CTA
- Headphones – Sony XB-900N
- Speakers – Sony SRS-XB32
Chicago Restaurants
- Mario’s Table – Gold Coast Italian
- 3rd Coast Café – Gold Coast Breakfast
West Loop
- Politan Row – Food Hall
- Booze Box – Sushi
- La Shuk – Mediterranean
- Forno Rosso – Upscale Pizza
- Bonci – Casual Pizza
- Nonna’s – Italian Sandwiches
West Town
- Tempesta Market – Sandwiches & Deli
- Crazy Bird Chicken – Fried Chicken
- Paula and Monica’s – Pizza
Lakeview
- Wilde’s Bar & Restaurant – Irish Pub
- Chicago Bagel Authority – Bagel Sandwiches
- DryHop – Brewery and Restaurant
- Wakamono Sushi – Upscale Sushi
- Rotary Sushi – Casual Sushi
- Wheat’s End – Gluten Free Bakery
- The Coffee and Tea Exchange – Coffee Shop