My last assignment for Venturi Technology Partners. In a four-week period, I researched, designed and wrote two help system Web sites and three mini-manuals. Web sites ran on a Lotus Notes server; print sites were handled in QuarkXpress on a Mac, then run through PageMaker's QXP converter for the PC.

Information designed to look the same on the Web, in PowerPoint, or print. This was an educational project on the importance of urban forestry. Researched it, wrote it, designed it and built it on a four-week budget. Full version, complete with Flash, available here.

www.hilldrup.com. The client did not want a cliche-ridden moving company site. So I slanted every picture, italicized text, framed content with tilted areas of color. The idea is to convey movement; it's a design based on moving boxes, an apt visual metaphor, don't you think?

At right, your typical gray-box Visual Basic interface for an Access database application. At left, the replacement Web-based app. Note how functions are organized by utility and color. Note, too, how the impossible-to-read little boxes at the bottom of the Access app have been moved from an afterthought to an intuitive right-hand navigation scheme.

Not exactly pretty, but incredibly effective on a miniscule budget. Reporters loved the Newsroom section. The site is politically and diplomatically correct, and the home page has everything the committees would want, including amateur logos and the Eastern Shore on the map. The site contained more than 400 links and all fell within the three-click rule.

Started out my hobby Web site as a way to update my yellowing clips from my newspaper days. Wound up with a bit of a loyal following. The site has been useful for testing designs and proving search engine recognition techniques. Look for GL Marshall in Google sometime.

How I spent October-November 2002.
Sorry, non-disclosed on the details.

Screen shots from seminars, classes or sales presentations presented over the years. As a general rule, when I've been pitching Web stuff, I've delivered the materials via the Web, not PowerPoint.

 

I'm not legally allowed to show my favorite site of all time. Bummer. It was a snappy read and loaded lightning fast.

Above, a site for a famous author. At left, a small business owner site prototype.

The ad banner comes from a biscuit company in Alabama. The moral of the story -- good artwork can be found in a lot of different places.

The Weather Channel intranet prototype, a Scott and Stringfellow site, and a birthday site built purely for fun. Oh my, did CyberClyde's wife score big with this present.

 

One way to judge the quality of your work is to be asked back to do more. I wound up doing five different sites for Reynolds Metals.