About
Hello and welcome to my site. My name is Dave and I am a Web Designer and Front End Developer, living in Hampshire, in the UK.
I have years of experience in Web Design and Front End Development, including Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Visual Studio, XHTML, CSS, Javascript and jQuery, Flash, Search Engine Optimisation, Illustrator, with some ASP.NET with C#, which is an area I am currently developing my skills in.
I have produced hundreds of web sites for customers, with excellent results in the Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. I have years of experience working alongside customers and pride myself on excellent customer service. For a little more about my experience, please read the rest of this page.
Some History
The Beginning
After Secondary school, I went to college and studied Biology, Chemistry and Physics. I then went on to complete nearly 2 years of a Chemistry degree before deciding it wasn't for me. I decided to go out to work to get some experience in the commerical world to see what captured my interest.
I found a local job for an Transport Consultancy where I learned AutoCAD, CorelDraw and some GIS software called MapInfo. The job was an excellent foundation for my career as I got to try my hand at Engineering, CAD and Graphic Design and I ended up learning Quark and producing some large Print based projects, such as display board material and brochures.
The Graphic Design side gave me a brilliant introduction into the Print Design world and I decided to take my career in this direction.
Going Creative
Whilst in my first full time job I had been introduced to some creative "options" for my career. However, since I was at University the internet had really taken off. I started to learn HTML and played around with tables for laying out web pages and Photoshop for the Design.
I decided I was going to try and become either a Graphic Designer or a Web Designer, so enroled on a Graphic Design course at a local College. The course was an HNC and was 2 years part time. It involved travelling to college two nights a week after work and working all weekend (most weekends) to complete the projects.
However, it was worth it and I left with experience, new found knowledge, good grades and a solid qualification. By this point though, I had also learned XHTML and CSS and built my first paying website for a local Company.
Although I could have chased after a Graphic Design job, the number of Web Design opportunities on offer was much greater and I was really interested in Web Design. I worked in my spare time to produce Web Site Templates which have now been downloaded tens of thousands of times.
Now
I have worked for a number of years in different companies producing literally hundreds of web sites. I have worked alongside other Designers and Developers to produce web sites that have been a huge success.
I have had success not only in design, but in search engine optimisation, resulting in excellent business for my customers.
Customer service is important to me and I enjoy working with customers and suggesting ways of improving their online advertising, whether it be the website I am working on, or other internet avenues such as social networking, link building, directory listings etc.
Other Interests
I enjoy walking, going to the gym and spending time with my girlfriend. Photography is one of my favourite pastimes and I always look forward to the challenge of improving my skills. It also comes in handy with my work and is another creative avenue that I enjoy.
I have always been a fan of motorsport and cars in general and have followed the F1 for many years and have attended various motorsport events. I have also worked on my own cars in the past. Although I am not the most fanatical fan ever, I also enjoy following my favourite football team Arsenal, from time to time.