There are many things in life I am passionate about. Fiction writing was my first and still is my greatest love. Web design and front-end development are my breathtaking, ever-evolving muses that keep my mind sharp and the creativity flowing through me. I’ve come to find that beautiful writing and succinct web design make for a powerful combination.
In the past few years I’ve cultivated a passion for shopping local, whether it be buying groceries from a small store, going to the European Market in the summertime, eating at a family-owned restaurant, or buying a gift from a local shop. There is so much value in stimulating our local economy, and it’s not just monetary. Connections are made. Good things happen. That’s exactly the reason why I love collaborating with creative individuals and businesses right here in Northwest Indiana.
I was smitten with the internet and web design in the late 90s and started to teach myself HTML in 1998. Armed with the new knowledge of a strange markup language, I created a website for angst-filled teenage poetry on various free hosting sites like Geocities, Tripod, and Xoom. In 2002 illvision.net was purchased and given to me as a geeky birthday gift. It has since been a personal site, a blog, a design portfolio, and now my business.
I am very passionate about simple, functional, eye-catching web design that is hand-coded to W3C standards. I will forever be a student since the markup I use will infinitely continue to evolve. I read, research, and am starting to dabble more with HTML5 and CSS3.
Because I love to learn and teach myself new things, I am steadily becoming better acquainted with PHP. I give a lot of credit to WordPress and its codex for showing me the basics. Two years ago I wanted a custom theme that badly.
I grew up in Northwest Indiana, south of US 30, and have lived in Valparaiso for the last five years. Growing up in steel country, I’ve watched businesses boom and then decline in the span of my lifetime. And as I’ve gotten older I’ve come to recognize that the best way to support local businesses and create jobs in our community is to keep the money we spend right here in Northwest Indiana.
The people who own businesses in the Region are my friends, my neighbors, the people I see at coffee shops, and I value playing an active part of their business through patronage. They are just some of the people who help make our community thrive.
Want another file to put on your computer? Download my resume in PDF format and share it electronically with the folks around your office.
