Flash
Innovation Award Ad
The Innovation Awards help spotlight success in risk management initiatives, products, or programs. The goal of the ad was to direct people to submit their information for inclusion in the awards. The visuals begin with sparks in the imagination which quickly transform into the event’s logo. The final scene illustrates a close tie-in to the print collateral.
Superintendent Secretaries Ad
The secretaries training ad offered the opportunity to have fun with pre-existing graphical vector elements. The print collateral was broken up and used as a way to show different planes of movement – from a classroom, to a school house, to an office environment. The “You’re There” theme emphasized the importance of the secretaries and helped increase attendance.
Texas Lone Star Ad
The purpose of the Texas Lone Star ad was to encourage visitors of the website to subscribe either to the printed magazine or to view the content online. Incorporating a children’s pop-up book motif, I conveyed key benefits including news from the classroom, community, and state. Data collected from subscribers influenced the decision to enhance the online version.
Harassment DVD Ad
The ad for this educational DVD focuses on dealing with sexual harassment, bullying, and similar topics. The emphasis for the visuals was to share the emotions people feel while being harassed. Sadness, frustration, anger, shame, and isolation are all represented with an illustrative treatment of the typography. The words themselves act as the message being conveyed.
Custom Survey Reports Ad
Promoting custom job market comparison reports for districts was the focus of this HR ad. Visually, I chose to use a gritty-style graphic with interesting/textural transitions. Information about how visitors can utilize this vast repository of information is presented in a consistent maroon & beige style while highlighted keywords carry the message.
Capitol Conference Ad
The Capitol Conference ad celebrates the Governmental Relations Biennial event buy using visuals reminiscent of 1950s television broadcasts. The words, See, Hear, Learn, and others are used for emphasis while each scene is given a gritty, filmstrip like appearance. The information was used to help get the board members familiar and comfortable with working in the Capitol in a fun and unique way.
Legal Training Ad
The goal of the Legal Training ad was to promote its distance-learning service that allows trustees to complete required training at their convenience. The idea that the deadline was fast approaching was played up by the use of a countdown flip clock. The custom illustrated design provided a sense of urgency for visitors in getting their required training before it was too late.
Open Meetings Act Ad
TASB Legal Services requested an ad for their DVD video that fulfills new requirements for OMA training for trustees. Playing off of the “follow the bouncing ball” animations from the 60s and 70s, I generated visuals that connected with people looking for this specific legal training. The ad reminded members that TASB Legal Services is here to keep school districts informed and compliant.
Parent Involvement Ad
This ad was created to promote the name change of Parent Learning Network to the Parent Involvement Network. The campaign used the slogan, “Change is Good,” letting members know that not only was there a name change, but there wouldn’t be any additional changes for the service. The ad was conceived and created in four hours.
Delegate Assembly Ad
Delegate Assembly is an annual meeting for representatives from member districts to vote on TASB directors, resolutions, bylaws, etc. The ad uses a quilt motif and allows users to click and drag along the movie to see different sections of the quilt. The interactive aspect of the ad really helped sell the idea that board members should be involved in the Assembly process.
Grassroots Meetings Ad
Grassroots meetings are a series of TASB sponsored get-togethers hosted by Governmental Relation. They usher in the beginning of the legislative cycle for which board members are encouraged to attend and participate. The campaign is an outreach to Texas board members and has proven effective year after year in getting the message out.
Think TASB First Ad
The Think TASB First ad was designed to promote the entirety of TASB’s offerings. Using simple rhythmic phrases combined with eye-popping colors, I was able to create an ad that relied just as much on typography and cadence than it did on character animation. The lightbulb image takes on a life of its own as it playfully bounces, jumps, and enlightens the frame.
BoardBook Demo
The BoardBook demo was designed to simply convey the overarching concept of BoardBook’s agenda packet creation software. Resurrecting a previously used character (BoardBook Betty), I started by creating several character sketches until one was chosen. The format of the demo, a linear walkthrough with pause and skip features, illustrates the idea of saving time and money with the software.
Dynegy Ad
This animation emphasizes speed and excitement by combining type effects and a limited color palette. Most of the effects are created through the scaling of type over frames and masking. A collaboration between Fellers Advertising and Portaris, Inc., I created the file based upon storyboards provided by the client. The final animation appeared on Dynegy’s homepage.
Builder Homesite Demo
The Builder Homesite demo’s purpose was to reside on the front of refrigerators as a command central for a futuristic home. While the interface itself is based on my original design, I art directed our team of designers to integrate the functionality in this Flash kiosk. The large icons and buttons were designed for a push button screen and the post-it note metaphor on the calendar emphasizes ease-of-use.
FontFace
This simple animation was created to demonstrate some of the basic elements of Flash. The concept emphasizes the different personalities of type by allowing the user to see a matching cartoon-style sketch when a specific typeface button is pressed. The flash file incorporates the tell target and load movie commands as well as sound.
WiseHires Intro
The Wisehires intro was developed to help the founders of WiseHires pitch their concept to investors who weren’t familiar with their hiring application. The quick demo illustrates the overarching concepts within the app using simple silhouettes of business people interacting. The message is conveyed with bullet points and animated text.
EarthWise Environmental Game
The concept for the EarthWise Environmental game is to test companies for environmental preparedness in a fun and engaging way. Several options were presented, and the chosen idea (the ski resort concept) had the player take on the persona of a skier. The player moves the character throughout several themed scenarios, answering questions along the way. At the end of the game, the player is then given a score based on the questions.
Peer-to-Peer eCards
Developed as a way to say thank you to fellow co-workers for a job well done, I created three distinct designs – one that focused on a teaching theme with the tagline “You Make the Grade,” a more edgy, “You Rock!” card, and a card based on flowers with a simple “Thank you.”
Cranium Comics Ad
The Cranium Comics ad provided another avenue for the company to reach its audience outside of the comic shops. Taking imagery from the first issue, I combined text overlays, fade-in transitions, and panning to captured the mood of the comic. By creating a channel for which the content could appear, I helped the company draw traffic to the website while increasing awareness about the title and product.
Sport Clips Ad
Sport Clips wanted a way to showcase their many corporate clients by incorporating a Flash element on the main page. Being mindful of the existing brand, I was able to update the ad to reflect some of the new additions to the Sport Clips corporate team. Subsequent ads followed providing me an opportunity to maintain and update the content for them.
TASB Screen Savers
I created a series of four screen savers for TASB, all independently designed and executed. The approved example showcases a bulletin board motif, with areas for RSS feeds, a calendar, and photos. The experience was customized by a control panel style screen that allowed users to choose their options.
Loss Prevention Grant Application
How applicants report their information is important. We conducted user testing, focus groups, & usability studies to understand how best to meet the needs of the client and their customers. The design reflects a simplified grant application process, a focus on an improved online forms, and easy to navigate sections.
WiseHires Application
The Wisehires web application showcases a unique, process-focused user interface, innovative features, and a fresh/bold approach to the hiring process. The design was developed iteratively in a fast-paced, quick turn environment that provided a proving ground for the company’s two founders.
SMART Application
The SMART Medicaid ticketing application was designed based on real-world feedback from Speech Pathologists, the application’s primary user. After identifying that the process contained way too many steps, I simplified the interface into essentially two. This allowed users to focus more on improving the lives of children and less on entering their Medicaid tickets.
Contrak Application
Contrak is TASB’s home-grown contract tracking system. I helped the IT department improve usability of the app by suggesting ways in which the information architecture, graphical user interface, and workflow could be improved. The design represents a departure from the programmer-centric look that previously existed.
BuyBoard Cooperative Purchasing
The BuyBoard refresh project involved modernizing the main web portal to reflect a more appealing shopping experience. Featured products were identified as well as specific target audiences. The purpose of the design was to allow for more product content to percolate to the top while providing a better view of the variety of audiences that use the site.
Hyperlink Online Newsletter
With the Hyperlink, TASB’s internal company newsletter, we took the simple concept of sharing a cup of coffee and gave it its own life. The design incorporates a Flash header, iconography, and layered textural elements to add a richness to the piece. This level of detail has helped it become a major vehicle for the organization and required reading by all employees.
Wellness Online Newsletter
The Wellness Online Newsletter took the idea of employee health and gave it a bright, refreshing tone. Photos were selected that conveyed the essence of work, which spotlights healthy eating habits, exercise regimens, and an active lifestyle. Simple iconography is used to delineate sections, many of which appear as regular sections from month to month.
News & Views Online Newsletter
The News & Views evolved from wanting to convert a monthly printed newsletter to something that was more cost-effective. The online design evoked many of the elements of the website, while maintaining a similar text structure to the printed version. Going digital with it saved the department money not only in printing costs, but also provided a flexibility that the printed issue could not.
Re:Source Newsletter
The Re:Source is an internal newsletter that allows the Online Communication area of TASB showcase their latest work, convey complex concepts to its internal customers, and act as a marketing vehicle for its services. The palette was chosen to reflect a warm inviting experience, while the content was organized to spotlight a monthly theme.
The Star Member Newsletter
TASB needed a vehicle that would aggregate news worthy content and present it to their members in an attractive/appealing way. Information that had traditionally resided in silos over the years found new life through the Star. In addition to pulling from their Flagship magazine, highlights, ad other departmental sources, original content was generated that benefited members.
First Public Email Newsletter
After the redesign of the First Public site, it was determined that they needed a vehicle that would allow them regular correspondents with their investors. This email newsletter was built to be distributed through the company’s CMS and includes several custom areas for authors to easily edit and maintain content. Widgets allow for one, two, and three column layouts by selecting pulldowns in the browser.
BoardBook Minutes Online Newsletter
To accompany their recently redesigned site, BoardBook needed a direct way to communicate to members on its latest releases, success stories, and on news about their flagship board packet creation tool. The design reflected the style of the website and gave the client an additional benefit of becoming the vehicle to promote upcoming events.
BuyBoard Biz Online Newsletter
The BuyBoard Biz newsletter was created to promote the BuyBoard, TASB’s cooperative purchasing service. The newsletter is targeted to members and spotlights product news, bid proposals, new contracts and events. The design incorporates a variety of content including charts and testimonial quotes while holding true to the style of the BuyBoard.
TASB.org
Personalization & customization options, better nav structure, enhanced visibility, and enhanced access to content were all improvements slated for the new site. Continued internal and external feedback culminated in the final iteration. The results? Easier access, a visual hierarchy, fewer bailout rates, and a design that truly reflects who are members are.
Age of Gold
H.R. Brands needed a website to help promote his award-winning book, Age of Gold. I was brought into the project to help create a look that would enhance the already existing visual palette. The site leveraged the existing design from the book jacket, while expanding on the color palette.
Cranium Comics
As a follow-up to the company’s identity redesign, the website needed to reflect many of the same attributes convenyed in the brand. Focusing on industry standard elements such as the printing dot pattern for the background was obvious. Having a site that showcased multimedia, RSS feeds, and an online store made their site a hub for information relating to their publications and related news.
Clear Cube
Clearcube’s intranet needed to provide an opportunity for members to login as well as present content pertaining to their particular niche. The interface created reflects a high-tech pallete, using angles and bars to create a clean and functional look that appealed to its audience.
First Public
First Public was founded to help communities finance schools and public services. With assets of over $7 billion, the layout takes a decidedly clean, straightforward approach to presenting its content. The design incorporates a liquid interface, allowing the content to flow based on browser size.
Kathy Womack Gallery
From the initial concept sketches down to the final subpage, Kathy’s gallery site was an all encompassing project that included developing the front end look and feel, shopping cart functionality, and a customized CMS /inventory system. The site now embodies much more than the previous online brochure site.
BoardBook
The BoardBook site represented a transition from a static HTML site to something that would be maintained in the company’s CMS. Colors were chosen that were attention grabbing while BoardBooks customers were segmented into four distinct groups with different preferences.
Texas Center for Educational Research
The TCER redesign started with re-envisioning the design to reflect the forward-thinking, technology-oriented nature of the organization. In order to make the project a success, we needed to design the entire site, branding, collateral, and marketing from the ground up.
Monthly Stats
TASBs monthly stats pages were a result of not getting the appropriate layouts we needed from an off the shelf web analytics package. Customized to meet our specific needs, the pages present to the management team only the information that is relevant and important to them.
Texas Watch
Texas Watch is an advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring that corporations and insurance companies are accountable to their customers. Designing the website that leveraged stability, credibility, and bipartisanship was important, especially for an organization that is involved in the legislative process by allowing individual voices to be heard.
Our Schools, Our Stars
This site focuses on good news about schools with a visual emphasis on children. As part of the Texas Education Agency, it’s aim is to spotlight the many achievements, success stories, and accomplishments in public schools. The site encompassed a variety of content consisting of the RSS feeds, statewide articles, and a weekly letter from the Commissioner of Education.
Portaris Website
When the Internet Design Firm changed its name to Portaris, they needed a new site that reflected the new marketing direction. This design reflects the the new meme with flowing curves that gradate into white space. Unique and inspired navigational structures provide a consistent user experience .
Lakes on Eldridge Website
By developing a visual relationship with the content, as illustrated by the subtle “wave” graphic on the home and subpages, I was able to create a distinctive reminder of the beautiful lakeside vistas that make up the builder’s communities. Once designed, the site was handed off to be produced. Visit www.thelakesoneldridge.com
Marquis Bank
Work for marquisbank.com included designing an entire identity as well as an online presence from scratch. The design incorporates architectural shapes – a subtle reference to strength and stability. The subpage template incorporates many of the elements of the homepage and condenses them while adding room for content.
NewHome Source
The challenge with NewHome Source was conforming to an evolving Use Case and collaborating with committee members while simultaneously meeting very tight deadlines. Technologies developed include home calculators, budgeting tools, and more. The site was completed sucessfully and handed off to the client for final site implementation.
Task Master Project Management Application
Taskmaster started out as a way for our internal team to manage smaller tasks. Developed in Flash, this quick, employee-driven system allows each person to see existing priority tasks and delegate them as needed. With a simple expand/collapse interface and a user/admin tab structure, visual clutter is kept to a minimum.
BuyBoard Vendor Newsletter
The BuyBoard Vendor Newsletter content is specifically designed to help vendors increase sales. It focuses on helpful tips, a vendor spotlight area, and a calendar of events. Images of actual vendors are used as well as a slightly altered template to make it distinct and different from the Biz newsletter without looking too unrelated. Charts and testimonial callouts are also used, but to different affect.
CommLink Member Newsletter
CommLink is TASB’s online PR subscription service that gives districts the tools they need to community outreach. It includes ready to use clip art in a variety of formats in addition to articles and templates on a variety of relevant, school related topics. The newsletter itself is a transitional piece which began as a printed newsletter. For continuity, many of the elements from the hard-copy original are incorporated into the online publication.
Asbestos Management Application
We started at the macro level, having users supply the most basic information first, then allowing them to fill in details later. We utilized our previously developed application framework, leveraging the user interface experience we gleaned from other members on other projects. The result is an application that has been a success for all districts.
eGrants Application
eGrants is the online grants management application for the Texas Education Agency. It allows the public to initiate, prepare, and submit completed grant application packages on the web. The design needed to fit within the structure of the TEA site, while still maintaining it’s own identity. We developed a header “hat” graphic that gave us the freedom to be creative while maintaining the TEA brand.
Master Teacher Initiative Application
The Master Teacher Initiative is a series of apps designed for certified reading, mathematics, and science Master Teachers. Each site designed had it’s own unique color scheme, yet included consistent navigation and options. The goal of each was to encourage teachers to become Master Teachers for their district.
BoardBook Application
The BoardBook application redesign was just one step of a multifaceted approach at re-branding the program. The look and color palette followed the recently redesigned print collateral while the graphical user interface reflected a iterative progression of choices.
TaskMaster
Taskmaster started out as a way for our internal team to manage smaller tasks. Developed in Flash, this quick, employee-driven system allows each person to see existing priority tasks and delegate them as needed. With a simple expand/collapse interface and a user/admin tab structure, visual clutter is kept to a minimum.
Physia Website
Physia is a provider of online software solutions for the healthcare community. Billed as the complete “healthcare operating system,” the challenge for this site was to adhere to a corporate look defined by the logo and color palette, while adding interest. The client supplied us with images with which to work, including a wireframe mesh background and medical related renderings.
PrismWorks Website
The Portaris team took 2nd place in the 2000 Air Austin Accessibility Ralley for our Prismworks website design. I contributed by creating the homepage and subpage design, while other team members sliced, exported, and built out the site in html. A complete collaborative effort, we accomplished our goal by making a site that is expandable, easily maintained, and accessible to people with disabilities. The entire site was completed in one day.
TASA/TASB Website
The TASA/TASB convention the state’s premier education-related convention for school board members and school administrators. The site caters to more than 6,000 public school officials and boasts such features as a personal convention scheduler, hotel and travel contacts as well as exhibit information.
Hornfischer Website
I designed the Hornfischer interface as a subcontract job. They are a literary agency specializing serious and commercial nonfiction. Their client list boasts award-winning nonfiction writers, scientists, professionals and more. The site was designed to showcase the company’s many offerings and provide information about how they can be contacted.
Kickassstuff Website
Kickassstuff began as a site devoted to movie and game reviews. We developed content to support those ends, including a simple rating system, a polling feature, and online forums.