JRA Write / Design Studio

Graphic and Web Design

As part of my vocation within a monastery complex for 25 years I have been deeply engaged in the art of publishing—from running a Heidelburg Press to book and magazine design to being a lead designer/developer for websites that involved publishing, education, nonprofit, history, artifacts and ecommerce.

The exacting and creative demands of graphic design translate very well into web design—where in a limited space the designer needs to create elements that are aesthetic, unique, psychologically attractive to the site's natural or broad audience, easy and intuitive to navigate, very functional and engineered to rank high on Google, Yahoo! and other search engines.

My web design tools include expert use of WordPress, Dreamweaver, Javascript, PHP, CSS, and the creation of E-commerce websites. I also write content for many of my web clients.

In graphic design, I am expert in Quark Express, InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and Strata Studio Pro. Over years of cultivating an expertise in color scanning I have simultaneously realized a rare fluency in CMYK color correction in the Photoshop environment. Combining images and typography and space is to me an art that needs to be approached with the philosophical spirit of the artist: create a piece that has both inherent beauty and catalyzing information, a piece that may have an edge in design, but also carries a meaningful message. My repertoire includes book, booklet, magazine, newspaper, brochure, direct mail, poster, newsletter, web page and sign design.

Please select from the menu below. The following images represent a range of my design approaches.

web sites	logos/business cards
kiosk	cards
email newsletters	book interiors
advertising	book covers
cd's	newspaper design
brochures	magazines
flyers

Web Sites

Web design philosophy: Work closely with each client to craft an image-and-text look that suits their personal interests, services or products while drawing on design approaches that I can introduce them to, or that they have seen elsewhere and wish to incorporate into their site. Develop a look that excites and appeals to a certain audience or demographic, or broaden out for a more eclectic pallet of imagery and background space. Avoid the template look. It is very recognizable. Visitors like innovation, but they like it fast loading. I specialize in sites that load fast on all browsers, yet, if desired, integrate some dynamic features (using Flash): motion and fades of images and/or words. Navigation strategy is crucial, and I give each client all of my experience in creating navigation across the pages that is natural and sensible. Pages are well cross-linked to facilitate high search engine ranking. As well, I apply the latest techniques to building search engine ranking optimization into each site.

Click to enlarge or visit website.

Note: Some sites are currently being developed.