I, Brendan Fanning, formed BF Breakthrough Design back in 2003 to be a full-service web and multimedia design firm. My educational background is attending Drexel University in Philadelphia PA, in the major of Digital Media. Digital Media opened many doors, because it offered learning skills in many different aspects of design, from web and flash design, to graphic design and digital photography, to video and 3d animation. I decided to further pursue the field of web design, as well as graphic and flash animation.
In 2003 I participated in a 6 month co-op at QVC in West Chester, PA, where I had hands-on experience with web design and development, as well as using Photoshop to prep and enhance product photos. I was also put in charge of creating weekly banner graphics, and mastheads for a website call Go Racing, that QVC manged. My Photoshop and Dreamweaver skills increased quite a lot from the co-op. I expanded to creating my own personal websites as well as enhancing and digitally re-storing photographs on the computer, and super-imposing different elements together.
After graduating Drexel University I moved to Massachusetts with my wife for her to attend UMass to get her PH.D. For the first few years I worked totally from my apartment, creating different client websites, logos, flash banners as well as other multimedia presentations for online and print collateral. One important client that I gained was VMatrix, out in California. They are video experts, and I was involved with maintaining their website, as well as incorporating their videos, into flash video players. These "Vplayers” and “VGalleries” could have 1 to any number of videos playing in different chapters that you can click through.
A couple years later, I got involved with a company called Positronic Design, which consisted of many independent designers, each having their own specialty. I worked alongside these other designers on a wide range of websites, large and small. The layout would first be designed in Photoshop, then sliced into HTML using Dreamweaver, either through the use of CSS or tables. Depending on the size of the website, many contained a Content Management System (CMS) such as Joomla, or Movable Type for the clients to have easier access to editing the website themselves. A new skill that I also picked up working there was the importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Based on how you wrote the body content, and properly created Meta and alt tags for a website, decided how high they would come up in the search engines, like Google. The skill-set I’ve obtained from working at Positronic Design has been invaluable.
I have now moved back to Pennsylvania to establish BF Breakthrough Design again in West Chester, and the local Philadelphia area. I am in the process of building my client base both local, and across country, as well as brushing up on my skills, and always looking forward in the world of computer-aided design. |
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