About Stuff
What do you want to know?
![[photo] Botanical Gardens, Christchurch, New Zealand](https://www.elfboy.com/images/uploads/headshots/about.jpg "Botanical Gardens, Christchurch, New Zealand")
I am a one-man web development studio based in Portland, Oregon. I collaborate with other talented individuals with complementing skill sets to enable people and companies to achieve their goals and live their passions by creating beautiful, usable websites.
Together with friends, I offer research, design, development, user experience, and content strategy. I know a few photographers and videographers as well if you need help there. The world is a large and varied place, so I create responsive websites that are available on as many devices and are accessible to as many people as possible.
My favorite clients are those who strive to make the community they belong to, be it local or global, a better place. Like the non-profit in Mongolia doing educational development, or the one here in Portland that helps women and children who are at risk; like the local author and pastor who is supporting and caring for his neighborhood; like the photographers who believe in doing their best work to capture the beauty of marriage; and like the publishing house that sells books to help young men and women grow up to be people of integrity.
I’ve been doing this for a long time and care about doing great work with great people. If you feel you could fit into that list above, awesome! Let’s talk!
About this site
Musings on the design
This site is in its 3rd edition (well, 4th if you count the short lived WordPress version of the 2nd design used). I was reading an article by Kevin Tamura over at Blue Flavor about being inspired in your design. At one point he said “Take it in and savor it. Let it roll around on your tongue, so to speak. That tree out the window, the plate of sushi you had last night, the pattern on the carpet, the shape of a bike frame or the hand written sign in the farmers market; all are great sources of visual delight.” So I did, I took it in, that tree out the window. The one with grey-ish browns, soft blues and spring greens. I actually stopped reading the article and created a color palette in Photoshop right then, trying to match my screen with what I saw out my window. When it came time to build this site I had about 2 weeks to go from nothing to everything. I was already laying things out and in my hurry had not decided on colors when I recalled the tree palette. And this is the result!
I’m using Expression Engine for the first time on this site. It’s definitely been an experience trying to learn enough to launch a site in a week!
Photo Credits
I know awesome photographers
Most of the photos in the header are taken by friends of mine. I highly recommend their work!
- Polaroid and Exit photos are courtesy of Will Foster. Will is a talented photographer from Eugene, Oregon. He also did work with me doing a merchandise photoshoot for Edurelief.
- River, Highway, and Horse photos are by Benjamin Braff. Benjamin is a globe trotting creative. His work shows his passion for other cultures.
