the 2002 My Little Pony Awards

What qualifies you to be a Panelist?
I have been a professional web architect for almost 3 years. I have been designing personal sites and doing freelance graphic art for over 5 years. I have had a passion for art all my life. I believe I know a thing or two about good web design. I have extensive personal training in color theory, layout, and usability and I like to examine a designer's ability to know his/her constraints and observe ways the designer problem solves while at the same time make aesthetically pleasing sites. While a good component of web architecture is design and layout, navigation, usability and the ease of display or information is also extremely important. I will keep this in mind if I am chosen as a Panelist.

Aside from design and usability theories, I am also thoroughly knowledgeable with various graphic and web programming tools including: Adobe Photoshop, Image Ready, Illustrator, Macromedia Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Director, Final Cut Pro, Paintshop Pro, both Mac and PC platforms. In areas of programming, I am comfortable with straight-coding HTML, DHTML and CSS and I am familiar with Flash's Actionscript, PHP, XML and a little ColdFusion.

However, function and design are not the only elements I value in a good website. A good website must also have sufficient content. After all, the worldwide web's original goal was to spread information and a good website should help rather than hinder that cause.

I will use this knowledge to assess the work of entrants. I think my abundance of professional and personal (I clock at least 60-80 hours programming, designing and digitally painting a week) would make me a good candidate as a Panelist.

Pixel Sensei

This is my domain, home of all my sites, but notably my online portfolio. This site is done entirely using Macromedia Flash. While it does have some usability issues (I am working non-stop to finish a non-Flash version) - I did put a lot of heart and soul into this project. It cost a lot of sleepless nights, coffee and a lot of Actionscript programming to get it to work, but I'm pretty satisfied with the results.

I don't really have much to say about it, I would rather you come and just have a look around; play with the buttons and just see what they do if you will. Flash can be a bit controversial in areas of usability, but I think Flash can be fun and exploratory.

Candy Apple Ponyshop

I feel obligated to include my pony site =P

This little doodad is what encouraged me to think about designing as a professional career. It was a lot of fun to make... unfortunately, I don't have much time to devote to it nowadays since I'm taking my art much more seriously now and devoting my site mostly to my portfolio.

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