MediaFatigue

Working with Forum One Communications in Washington, DC

2009-05-12T15:32:00-05:00

I’ve be doing some work for Forum One Communications in Alexandria, VA (just outside of DC). They craft online strategies to respond to today’s most pressing issues including health, education, environment, and poverty. Looks like interesting work.

It also represents my first toe in the DC web development waters. Why DC you ask? Well, in three weeks, my family and I are pulling up stakes and moving to the area! Exciting times although I wish we could skip the moving process.

New Flash Movies on the Medallion Retail website

2009-03-09T13:21:00-05:00

The redesigned Medallion Retail website includes two of my Flash movies. The home page animation was composed in After Effects and then output to Flash as an FLV file. The Showcase animation was programmed in Actionscript 3 and pulls its data from an XML file, saving the client time and money if they need to add or subtract images from the animation. Take a look at http://www.medallionretail.com.

Two Sites to Announce

2009-01-20T19:15:00-05:00

I’m pleased to announce the launch of two new church websites that I designed and built: Holy Name of Jesus Parish in New York City (http://www.holynamenyc.org) and the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (http://www.cathedralofstjoseph.org).

Both sites run off Expression Engine content management software, a low-cost CMS package that offers a terrific blend of features and ease-of-use.

I’m delighted to report that both clients are very pleased with the results. Eric Henderson, website administrator at the Cathedral of St. Joseph, wrote the following:

“You did an outstanding job in helping to redefine and invigorate the Cathedral’s website. Your knowledge, professionalism, and creativity was inspiring. Our site is now fresh, dynamic and receiving wonderful compliments from our parish community. You were an absolute pleasure to work and I look forward to the opportunity in the future.”

Back Wielding the Freelance

2008-03-12T20:14:00-05:00

After a year helping out the team at Columbia University’s Digital Knowledge Ventures, I’ve decided to wield the freelance once again. I have a number of projects in the works including a youth spirituality community site and a website for another Catholic church in New York. Look for lots of motion graphics work as well. It’s good to be back.

Manhattanville site is live!

2007-03-01T17:36:00-05:00

Columbia University has proposed building a new campus over 17 acres of West Harlem in an area called Manhattanville. The university had a pre-existing information website describing the project but it was sorely in need of an overhaul.

Russ built Columbia’s new site from scratch in XHTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), a future-proof combination that works with all modern browsers and offers support for people with visual disability.

Visit the site at: http://neighbors.columbia.edu/pages/manplanning/

Why So Quiet?

2007-01-05T19:03:00-05:00

I’ve been a bit lax about posting recently. The holidays came and went and that ate up a lot of my time. But the real reason for my silence is a new part-time job at Columbia University’s Digital Knowledge Ventures. At DKV I’ll be a site developer working primarily with Drupal and Joomla, two popular open source content management systems. I’ll still be taking on new freelance work but at a more measured pace.

Malick Contractors is live!

2006-11-10T21:47:00-05:00

It’s been a busy couple of weeks here. Today, Russ launched a redesigned Malickcontractors.com.

Kudos to Erica Stoll for pushing pixels on this one. Yes, she is Russ’ sister but there’s no nepotism in play here—she’s a pretty sharp designer.

The site features a Flash music player positioned in a frameset (so that the client-requested music doesn’t restart with every new page). Instead of pop-up windows to handle the enlarged thumbnails, Russ used the Lightbox 2 javascript library for a neat image overlay effect. Gotta love the elegant transition effects as you move from image to image.

A fun project overall.

Medallion Retail is Live!

2006-10-30T20:41:00-05:00

I just finished two Flash animations and some general HTML edits on MedallionRetail.com. Take a look. The splash page intro is easy to find. The second animation is in the Process section.

Things that Rock the Geek in Me

2006-10-30T20:29:00-05:00

Anyone with a bit of curiosity about the future of the computer will marvel at Jeff Han’s work on an “interface-free,” touch-driven computer. Manipulated intuitively with the fingertips and responding to varying levels of pressure, his computer certainly looks like a precursor of things to come.

Follow this link to see video of Han’s first public demonstration of the computer, recorded February 2006 at the T.E.D. conference in Monterey, CA. Simply mind-blowing.

Can anyone get me tickets to next year’s T.E.D. conference?

Flash Master Forges The Fuse Kit -- Flash Fans Rejoice

2006-10-22T20:57:00-05:00

I’m not sure how to pronounce Moses Gunesch’s last name. Is the stress on the first syllable or the second? He’s simplified things for us by mercifully naming his website “MosesSupposes.com." But I do know how to pronounce his super hero name. Flash Master.

Moses is the creator of The Fuse Kit, a powerful animation, event-sequencing, and BitmapFilter toolset for Flash coders. It’s revolutionized the laborous process of scripting a sequence of events and effects in Flash’s Actionscript. While Fuse is built on the pioneering work of Robert Penner, Ladislav ‘Laco’ Zigo, Danilo Sandner and Björn Wibben, Moses gets the credit for pushing the envelope.

Moses offers The Fuse Kit for free download but this Flash coder will be making a donation to his beer fund. Cheers Moses.