Resume of Don Kuntz - Krop Creative Database

Don Kuntz

Chicago, IL, USA

I'm Don Kuntz, currently a student of Website Development [however, I've been known to work on some graphic design projects, along wih a couple other programming projects]. I have been working on website development for four years, but started getting into it much more in the past year. I've been working on WordPress theming for the past year, and generally use it when I hand over websites to clients.

As a website developer, I want to design sites for individuals or small business/organizations. I will generally develop a WordPress theme for the site, so clients [or their employees] don't have to learn html and css.

me@dkuntz2.co.cc

Experience

Lead Designer/Co-Founder

Oak Park, Il
Jan 2009 - Present

TD Design

I am the Co-Founder of TD Design, with my friend, who takes up the position of Lead Developer/Coder. We founded TD Design as a freelance website development agency, because when split up, I'm worse at code, and he's worse at design, so together, we make a team that works.

A few of my responsibilities as the lead designer are;

* Making the initial design drafts using the handy-dandy pencil and graph paper
* Turning that sketch into a photoshop document
* Getting that photoshop document approved, and starting the initial assets split
* Making the basic HTML/CSS pages for that design

Projects

Personal Website Redesign

http://dkuntz2.co.cc/

I rebuilt my personal website to give it a sleeker, more professional look. The initial draft was critiqued by members of Designers Talk, which all subsequent drafts did too. The main design elements have remained intact throughout, only changing locations, and adding more content during the work process.

The site was designed to fit with my new personal rebranding project, which was created to give me an overall feel that matched. The site is much sleeker, and is now more of a content site than a site that looked cool, but took forever to load.

The new design now only has two images to load on each page, and a total of four images total on the site. This number may eventually increase, but because of it's relatively low count, it creates a much faster load time than previous versions.

Currently, the site is in it's fifth version, and second version of a wordpress theme. The theme currently used is based on the original design, but with a blue scheme instead of a green scheme, and a nice looking header bar. The first version is in the process of becoming a publicly available theme through both my site and the wordpress theme directory.

The future of the current design is unknown. For the rest of the summer, until school starts next year, it will remain as my sites theme (unless I change it), but after the school year begins, I hope to get it used on one of my two pet projects (after proposing those projects...), OPRF2 (a teachers websites thing) or Student Voices (blogs/social networking for students that wouldn't be blocked at school).
Deadly Gentlemen

(site not online right now - test running at http://dkuntz2.co.cc/deadly/)

I was contacted by the Deadly Gentlemen clan leader to design and develop both a site and a brand that worked better than what he had created (he has no experience in graphic design work at all). The work I did was modifying their current logo to work better with their text, and making the site.

The site was built on wordpress to keep it easy for multiple people to update, and to keep it easy to update. It still takes time to actually get a post up (if they want it to look right, otherwise, they could screw up the entire site...). The big things that need to be done are just getting a forum added to it and rounding out a few edges left.

(to read more, please visit http://dkuntz2.co.cc/?p=66 )
In the Dark of Daylight

http://itdod.com

Both versions of the ITDOD [In the Dark of Daylight] site were designed by me [minus the blog, which was a wordpress install with an osx theme]. The original version was very simplistic, using tables for design, and having the watermark be unwatermarklike [did I just make up that word? Definition: To not act like a watermark, to not be like a watermark].

The newer version now features CSS divs, and looks much nicer. When compared to the original version, one finds that it has a nicer [if messier] link area than the previous version, and now has links that are nice for that page. It also features the watermark, acting more like a watermark.

The current version may not be the final version, but a next version is far off in coming. If a new version comes, it will be after a couple issues are released, so it features several images from the books.
OPRF Tech

http://oprftech.co.cc/

I created the OPRF Tech website because the first version was a bad table built website that didn't do it's job well.

The initial site was built quickly to create a site that could be placed online, and give us a domain/web presence. Following that, a second version of the site was created, but never used, I didn't look good, and was still built on tables.

The third and current version of the site was originally a concept designed for Oak Park and River Forest High School's website [which looks really bad, rumor says they're updating it, but I haven't seen anything, and it's going to be updated to joomla...], but was rejected by the IT Department. It was than repo'd to the Technology Club, which I am a part of.

The new site is built on HTML and CSS, and has a nice web 2.0 look to it. The new version also featured a blog built in wordpress that matched the site. The biggest feature that was well liked by the club was that it was now pleasing to look at, and people could get updates on what we were doing.

While our site currently is missing it's blog, and requires visitors to type "index.html" after the site name, it still works better than before.

The current phase of work is getting our server [which is running off of an old iMac, and currently is publishing only to the intranet of our room] up and running. As soon as that's finished, we'll be publishing our site through that server.
Berit Engen Tapestries

Berit Engen Tapestries is a site being created right now [so I don't have a link to it...]. BE Tapestries is built on wordpress [a preview version can be seen in the client work section of my portfolio], and will be used to display tapestries by Berit Engen.

The biggest part of this job was getting the sign-off to start work on designs. The site went through three redesigns, the first was the least complex, and had a rotating header image. It didn't get used, so no content was ever added to the design. The second version was pretty complex, including a dynamic header section, which had links on one side in an orderly fashion, and latest images on the other side. It didn't get the sign-off because it was too complex.

The final version, the one that has just been coded, was simple, without any complex parts to it, from what most would see. The final version is most likely the most complex, because it is built on the wordpress system, so it requires more backend coding than the others. The final version looks very simplistic, with only a header [that has a title and a subtitle, one of the harder things to code], and a sidebar. The rest is dynamic content from wordpress.

The project took about three months to finish, mostly because it took time to get designs created and signed-off on. In the end, I believe the client is satisfied with the design, and ease of use.

At this time, the site is not online, and therefore is not ready to be displayed publicly. As soon as it is online and has been running for some time a quote from the client will be added to this section.

Me - Online

My DeviantART

http://kradio.deviantart.com - username: kradio

I have started using my deviantart profile less and less. When I do use it, I generally upload pieces that I wouldn't really define as portfolio pieces. I would define them as personal projects that I had fun making, and want to show to other people. I also use the Journal system, to give news out to people who want to know how my projects are coming.

If someone is interesting in everything I do, I will generally send them to my deviantART profile.
My Behance

http://behance.net/dkuntz2 - username: Don Kuntz

I just recently got accepted to the Behance network, and I am using it for more of a design showcase. Things that I might put in my portfolio, or might not for different reasons. I like how it permits users to group together and comment on other artists pieces.

If someone is interested in what pieces I really like that I've created, I will send them to my Behance account, because it features what I like.
My Krop

http://krop.com/dkuntz2 - username: Don Kuntz

If you're reading this, you're most likely on my Krop page. If you're reading the print out, you got it from this page, or someone gave it to you. Krop is where I post my portfolio. Because it only permits me to have a certain number of pieces, it makes me choose what pieces I would want to place in a portfolio.

If someone is asking specifically for a portfolio, I will give them the Krop address, because I use it for my portfolio.

Specialties

HTML and CSS Coding

I have been working with HTML and CSS for the past two years [HTML by itself for the past four]. Using HTML and CSS, I have created most of what you see in my portfolio [the exceptions are only those that aren't websites].

I consider myself proficient at coding with HTML and CSS
Photoshop

I have used photoshop to create eveything inside my portfolio. All of my initial digitalizations [which come after I doodle it out on graph paper] are made using Photoshop.

Through photoshop, I also create all of my branding projects. All identity pieces come from photoshop and me.
WordPress

While I have only started using the WordPress themeing engine, I have found it easy and fun to use. I have used WordPress to host blogs that have been designed to match the sites their attached to and to host full websites for clients as a CMS.