About me
My work – my skills, my passions
Greetings and welcome to my tiny corner of the Internet. I'm Simon – a Bristol based freelance website designer and developer operating from the South West of England. This is my portfolio; a place where I get to showcase my work and let you know what I do best. Above all it allows you to get in touch if you'd like to discuss a project.
The passion within my work lies with being creative, so designing websites and establishing branding/identity is something I do well. Having spent several years working with the web and watching it evolve I have a good understanding of how it works, knowing what makes a comfortable user experience is something I am interested in and applying good design and best practice (Web Standards) is where my skills lie.
Over the years I have learnt several web programming languages but mainly focus on those connected with the front-end of a website (HTML, CSS and JavaScript). Although I have dabbled in programming, my strength lies in creating what you see when you browse the Internet; how you experience it and the logic behind it.
The world of Linux and the Open Source movement was introduced to me by a few friends while working full-time for a Bristol based web agency. Being shown the intricacies of the various Linux flavours triggered something within me and it was clear that quality was staring right back at me. I found that working with a Linux-based environment has it's challenges and I've learnt that there are many ways to skin a cat! What's really great about it is the vast amount of technologies I've been able to learn and use, in particular the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP). I also use version control software (Subversion) and call upon BASH when necessary.
For the last three years I've been using Drupal (a free Open Source software package maintained and developed by a community users and developers) to build content managed websites. Delving into Drupal has allowed me to experiment with PHP and the Drupal API. It has made me appreciate the intricacies of the Drupal 'Theming Layer' and it's complexities.
Outside of work – my life, my passions
Some may say I make a bass guitar sing. Well, that's not necessarily true; I sometimes make it wale and plunge to the depths of despair. Growing up with fast heavy metal and watching my favourite bands perform live is something that's not left me - it's still one of my favourite past times.
Being a bit older now my tastes have refined slightly; like a good single malt whisky it's matured over time. I love all music, appreciate musicianship, style, technique and will give any genre a listen. I've been going through a phase of collecting vinyl (mainly for the artwork so I can appreciate them on my wall).
I'll take walking over driving - it's healthier and better for the environment; visiting Scotland and exploring the hills is something that I really enjoy and picking up the odd bottle of hard to find single malt whisky makes me happy.
Time spent with good friends accompanied by food is an offer never to turn down; getting my head into a good book with a proper coffee never goes a miss and gardening while enjoying the sun is ideal. This summer I won a Good Garden Certificate for making an effort to brightening up the neighbourhood - they must have liked my strawberries, tomatoes, radishes and beetroot!