John is the lead graphic designer and photographer of Whiteboard-IT. Although leaning on the artistic side, John is academically trained in both fine arts and computer science. He handles everything from logos to site architecture to on-site photography to SEO…the list goes on.

A background in multiple disciplines allows John to balance his artistic eye for detail with his knowledge of technology and programming. John can grow your vision or idea into a functioning work of art. John’s collaborative skill set can help you gain the attention your company needs on paper or online. With years of dedication and refinement to the know-how of this industry, John has developed experience as a design-focused photographer, graphic artist and web developer.

Photography: John mentored under Pamela Venz at Birmingham-Southern College where he received a degree in Fine Arts while focusing on photography. John’s employment with local Birmingham photographer Howard Lee Puckett exposed him to subjects from lifestyle to interiors and from food to travel. While originally learning in 35mm format photography, John refined his style in composition, lighting, and processing techniques. Once digital media began emerging, he was able to take his existing knowledge of computers, software and graphic design and transition into the digital realm with great confidence. John’s artistic background has been crucial to his development as both a graphic designer and of course a photographer.

Design: As an artist and designer, John is able to mesh style with functionality. Any professional in the field must maintain an ongoing curriculum of the tools and principles of digital media. As such, John works with the latest versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Flash, Camera Raw, Fireworks, and Acrobat Pro to create web sites, logos, emails, newsletters, business cards, and, of course, photography.

Development: John’s artistic skills aren’t the only thing that keep him busy with Whiteboard-IT. In addition to his knowledge of graphical software and techniques, John maintains an extensive understanding and utilization of various technologies required in the web development field. With a minor in computer science John is just as comfortable working with Visual Studio and .net master page files as he is with php and dynamic web pages. The most current project he is working on deals with designing mustache based template files using javascript and html. Being able to understand the code that he is given (and sometimes writes) helps him make it look like it didn’t just come from a programmer. Here is a list of some of the technologies, languages and skills John is familiar with:

• Microsoft SQL 2008
• Git and SVN repositories
• MySQL
• Visual Studio
• CouchDB
• Dreamweaver
• HTML
• Netbeans
• CSS
• Common OS platforms
• Javascript/jQuery
• Browser Compatibilty
• PHP
• Various CMS platforms:
• .NET/C++
• WordPress, OScommerce, Joomla