Overview

Josh Starr is a talented web designer out of good ol' Indiana. He has a kickin', but simple portfolio showcasing some great skill.

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Project Name:

Josh Starr

URL:

http://www.joshstarr.us/

Artist/Creator:

Josh Starr

Country:

USA

Tags:

Virb CSS Portfolio Web Carbonmade

Josh Starr

http://www.joshstarr.us/

Biography

I'm 23 years old, and I've always loved technology. I remember as a kid taking apart every little gadget that I could get my hands on. I could disassemble things, I just had a hard time making them work again. When I got in High School my focus shifted from hands on, to creating things digitally. I started building websites on my free time using an old pc that I got from a dumpster, and a borrowed copy of Frontpage 97. What a nasty way to start out in web design... Ha.

After Graduating High School I went on to the Web Design Program at St. Petersburg College in Clearwater, Florida. I was there for a couple semesters and decided that I could just go get a job, instead of taking the final test that the school offered.

I was lucky enough to get on a team of Interactive designers that built E-Learning courses for AT&T and IBM. I worked with Flash MX building the courses until of course our company got sold out to India. Fortunately for me I had made a couple good buddies at that job which helped me land an even better Web Design position building walmart.com, and samsclub.com. I was fortunate enough to work with almost every Fortune 500 company that there are at that job, which has in turn allowed me to develop a mean client list, but most of all taught me how to work closely with clients and how best to deliver the Web Design goods.

While working on Wal-Mart's web site I found a posting for a web designer for a 5,000+ member church outside of Louisville, Ky. I decided that for the sake of my sanity and to get away from the 70+ hour work weeks building walmart.com, that I would relocate and start over. I's definitely a change of pace going from fortune 500 clients, to building Web Sites for a local church, but it's something that I have grown to love and wouldn't trade these people I work with for the best paying clients in the secular world.

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Where do you work? What do you do there?

I'm working as the Web Designer at Northside Christian Church (mynorthside.com). I'm in charge of all the Web projects, from ministry sites, viral marketing, podcasts, vidcasts, and sometimes some print work as well just to give me a creative break.

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How long have you been in this field?

I've been building websites for almost ten years now, but have been doing this professionally for 5 years.

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What role did (are) you play(ing) in the project?

I built this portfolio site just as a fun way to showcase a couple of my recent projects that I've been working on, and if people like my style, maybe a couple extra clients might fall into my lap.

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What was (is) your inspiration for this project?

I looked around the interweb for a couple days before I designed my site looking at what other portfolio sites were like out there. I was basically seeing all the same stuff, a small thumbnail, and then a link to the website. I wanted to do something a little different, I wanted to show some big screenshots, and what languages I used to make the sites. Obviously I’m a sucker for dark backgrounds, so I naturally gravitated to a dark site.

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What is in your equipment/gear setup?

Work:
Mac Pro 2 X 2.66Ghz Dual-Core Intel Xeon, 2gb Ram, 30inch Apple Display. CS2 Macromedia 8.

Home:
17” Macbook Pro 2.44Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, Dell 2405fpw 24inch Display, CS3.

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What are some websites you visit daily?

www.digg.com
www.colourlovers.com
www.freelanceswitch.com
www.istockphoto.com
www.google.com/analytics
www.smashingmagazine.com
www.gizmodo.com
www.webcreme.com

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Who's work do you most enjoy?

I really like Si Scott's work http://www.siscottstudio.com/ just how amazing everything he does always ties together.

I love this guys photography that I found on istock, his name is Kevin Russ. http://www.flickr.com/photos/pattersonminx/

I pick up Computer Arts Magazine each month, and I find something I like in each magazine. Good stuff.

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What advice can you share to people just getting into this field?

Build up your portfolio. Now days Agencies don't care if you have formal training. I've worked along side guys that graduated from some huge art colleges and when they asked me where I went, I always think it's funny the look on their face when I said I never really finished anywhere. The bottom line is, if you have talent, and a great portfolio, clients and employers look past where you went to school.

Practice. Practice. Practice. When I first started out, I would tinker with Flash 5 for hours a day. Now that I’m older and married it would be hard to do that for hours a day, but I still poor through magazines and read up on upcoming trends in web design. Staying ahead of the curve is key to making a living in Web Design. Plus learning new stuff is fun…

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Any other comments?

Don't be afraid to take people's ideas and improve on them. When almost everything is open source in Web Development, it's often a killer to try and design a Web App from the ground up all by yourself. Borrow parts from other developers, and then add functionality and usability yourself. That way you save yourself time, and end up getting something that someone else has already tested and debugged. Just remember to give credit to the original developer.

CSS Temlates have saved my life in more than one spot. Now on every new project I start it out with a solid foundation, with solid CSS and HTML. http://www.intensivstation.ch/en/templates/

A few links that inspired Josh Starr:

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