Stubble is the sign of hard work. It’s the result of a dedicated session of focus and attention, the physical manifestation of a prioritized effort.
It’s also a canvas. The promise of something bigger, bushier, fancier, fiercer, something who’s locks may one day flow majestically in a gust of wind, or perhaps feature a disciplined crop that hugs its wearers jaw line with stylish aptitude.
I’m an interactive designer, developer, and deconstructionist. I’m a disciple of the browser’s developer tool bar and am a huge proponent of self discovery. I love finding practical solutions at the crossroads of design and development, combining preparatory perfectionism with experimental discovery to create the most exciting stuff I can.
Stbly unites my various creative pursuits under this one guiding principle, the idea that anything I create can become any myriad of cool things, but they all start with a foundation of hard work and principled knowledge. As I work on a project, I try not to pigeon hole anything in too soon – I let the project evolve as I work on it, finding that the cross section of proper preparation and experimental discovery often results in the most satisfying work.
The Guy Behind the Stubble
I’m a designer and developer who’s been working in Los Angeles the past half decade or so at RED Interactive Agency. I find inspiration in anything that’s well crafted and personal, and try to achieve the same in everything I do. I’m into baseball, comfortable chairs and just about any beer over 150 calories. You can only imagine my joy when the three come together. I’m currently trying to develop skills in woodworking, typography, and mobile development.
What I Can Do
Here’s a small collection of things I’ve learned and use on a regular basis in my work. The bigger the circle, the more I know and use the respective program or language.
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= Code
= Design
The Stubbly Creed
No creative is worth their salt these days unless they have some sort of declaratory, self-affirming statement. Here are mine:
Make the Journey Memorable
When you’re fortunate enough to have someone’s eyeballs on your work, make it worth their while. Sure, there’s something to be said about getting your point made clearly and quickly, but that point is going to resonate much more if more is delivered than what was expected. I want to create things that aren't simply used, but make a connection with the user that is remembered beyond the experience.
Let the Details do the Talking
I’m not sure there’s a better place to be a stickler for details than interactive design. Every seemingly miniscule transition and subtle rollover makes the experience easier and more fun for the user to get through, and that’s worth the extra time. The details are the subtle layer that speaks to the user without them noticing - they're what make Rule #1 happen.
Keep Things Fresh
I take pride in knowing a little about a lot of things. I believe that the more you're exposed to, the more weapons you have at your disposal for solving creative problems. So while I'm always focused on mastering certain skills, I'm constantly looking to learn more to maintain a fresh and relevent perspective.
Practicality - It's Only A Guideline
I like working along the edges of my imagination - when it dons on me that I don't know exactly how to do something, that's when I'm most eager to persue it. And more often than not, when I allow myself to dive down the rabbit hole I end up creating the things I'm most proud of. When you can afford an adventurous spirit, the results can be awesome.
A few notes on this site
This portfolio site was built upon the Wordpress framework. It uses a custom theme that I made to reflect the "toolbox" nature of its varying contents. Everything is meant to direct the user to a specific skill set, project, role, or client I've worked on or with. The portfolio was built off of the cumulative knowledge I've gained so far working with front end tools and languages, and as I learn more I try to reflect it in the spaces between the projects on these pages.
Because this project is a highly personal one, I wanted Stubbly to be as hand crafted as possible. All of the SVG experiments, custom JavaScript and CSS classes were built from the ground up, and I've avoided using WordPress plugins and JavaScript libraries as much as possible. However, sometimes it just doesn't make sense to reinvent the wheel, and there have been some tools out there that have just been too good to turn my back on when they did exactly what I needed. With that said, the ever useful Contact Form 7, jQuery Waypoints, YepNope, and countless visits to StackOverflow have helped make this website what it is. I also came across a wonderful SVG editing JavaScript library Snap.svg while working on this site which, in addition to teaching me a ton about SVGs, enabled me to create the page navigation rollover effects. I am greatful for the existence of all these resources and the people who put in so much time to make the web a great place to learn and create.
A note on Flash content
I've been lucky enough to have a job that still is able to use Flash as a tool for publishing high quality interactive projects. However, it doesn't go unnoticed that the landscape of web content is changing and is drifting towards a world of HTML5 and all that term encompasses (if not already there). This site was built with this outlook in mind, with universal device compatibility a priority. However, that created a small dilemma for me - while the site itself is Flash free, the content the site is meant to purvey is not.
To mitigate this issue, whenever a project features Flash content, I've done my best to provide the user with a video capture of the content if their device or browser doesn't support the Flash player. Browsers that support Flash will forego the video and play the actual Flash content. Sometimes Flash content may take a few seconds to load, but if for whatever reason it doesn't please just refresh the page and that should do the trick.
Drop me a line
If you have any questions relating to me, my site or my work, please feel free to reach out with the form below. Thanks for visiting!
