About/Contact

Information:

Are you looking for a creative, talented, perky, over-caffeinated designer/illustrator? Want a well-designed, unique, user friendly, and inexpensive website or other design project? Then I am your girl! I believe I have the skills that you may be seeking and would love to create something beautiful for you. I have extensive web and graphic design experience, as well as fine arts and illustration skills. In addition, I have had several marketing and business classes and I am a graduate from Philadelphia University with my B.S. in Digital Design. I am an extremely hard worker and a very fast learner. What I lack in professional experience, I make up for with a permanently happy disposition and an eager and willing attitude.

My name is Rachel, I'm 23, I have a Dalmatian named Sophie and I was born and raised in North East Philadelphia but moved to Hatboro, PA in 2001. I currently live with my parents and my dog in a 200 year old farm house. I took ballet and dance classes growing up along with ceramic and flute lessons. I had a brief role as a soccer player, but quit after only one year. I was (and am) a computer nerd and I have a secret love of U.S. and World History. I inherited my undying love of books from my father.

Art has always been a part of my life in one way or another. It was always my favorite class in grade school and high school. I taught myself how to draw and paint. I consider myself an artist more than a designer. I feel that there should be an artistic touch in everything you do. That way, even if you hate it, you will know that those little flourishes make it your own. I feel that you should always love what you do.

My other two secret passions are writing acting. I wanted to be a writer since middle school. I was very close to becoming a journalism major at Penn State. I decided though that I wanted to become a designer. It was something that seemed so natural and flowed from me so effortlessly. Acting was not something I ever thought I would do though. I was given a lead role in a play my freshman year of college. I realized that was granted with a great deal of untapped talent. Part of me wishes I could pursue it further, but now I must focus on my first love in life.

I am self-taught and adept in Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Image Ready and I have been trained to use Adobe After Effects. I am also self-taught in HTML and CSS, although I have had classes on both.

I created my first web site when I was 13. Granted it was made on Geocities and it was full of animated gifs, MIDI's, obnoxiously bright backgrounds with unreadable text, stolen images and content about lord knows what. I've learned a great deal since then about web design.

Education:

Philadelphia University - Philadelphia PA
Bachelor's of Science in Digital Design
2003-2007 GPA:3.34

Experience:

Freelance Web Designer at FOS Commerce
April 2008 - June 2008

Designer and Illustrator at Stracuzzi Design and Consulting
May 2007 - Present

Intern at Bowhaus Design Groupe
October 2006 - May 2007

Intern at KlickStudios
May 2007 - August 2007

Services:

-web site design and web site maintenance
-print design
-custom artwork & illustration for web or for print
-basic flash animation

If you have come to this site and are interested in contacting me for web design, please my email address or screen name I will be happy to talk with you.

My rates can and will vary depending on the project and are often flexible. I charge a separate fee for design mockups and concepts and for the actual building of the site. Also collateral material such as print work is another fee.

If you have a particular project in mind, e-mail me and I will respond with a quote. More often than not, I will give you a price range of what I charge.

I adhere to W3C standards in XHTML and CSS. My site has been validated in both.

Goal:

My goal is to assist individuals, businesses, musicians (solo and groups) and artists in creating a strong web presence from the ground up.

I will work with a client on branding and promotional material in an attempt to further make their presence known.

Resume:

Click here to download my full resume.

Contact:

email: rachel@tidalblue.net
aim: pixxalcious