I am very proud of this website, not because of my brilliant webwork (it's good webwork) but because of who the site is for. The site will showcase the work of many artists, but the heart and soul of this site, the reason this site exists, is my friend, Kriste York — Digital Storyteller.

In August 2009, Kriste was diagnosed with a massive brain tumor. While waiting for her operation in the hospital in Phoenix, she suffered a stroke. Thankfully, although barely, Kriste survived. Today, while not 100%, she's healthy and thriving. She's not the Kriste she was before, however; she is, as she likes to put it, Kriste 2.0. The Project 2020 is the website to showcase her digital stories and those of other digital storytellers.

Kriste's stories are amazing, and not just because she's alive and well. She's exploring her life and what it means to her to be alive; she's also a gifted artist learning her craft.

I also have a bit of extra pride in Kriste's work: She's now working on a brand new iMac that a bunch of her friends joined together to get for her birthday. Kriste calls me the "idea sherpa" because it was my idea — but it was Kriste's digital storytelling friend Emily who wrangled the doggies to make that happen. But it's great to be part of her krew of friends and supporters, and it's great to host her website.

Gerritt Rosenthal, a friend and colleague from Onward Oregon, was one of three candidates for the Democratic nomination for House District 37 (Tualatin, West Linn, Stafford, Oregon). Gerritt was not a cookie-cutter candidate, but he was dedicated to the issues and the people of the district where he has lived for nearly 20 years. I created the website for his campaign and wrote most of the content based on his initial drafts. I also developed a Facebook page as well which utilized the FBML application.

One of the more enjoyable elements of the campaign was the creation of an 8-minute video. Gerritt and I went to several locations around the district, including his own property, and I recorded him talking about the issues and his ideas and plans should he win. Some of the audio is of poor quality — I learned a lot about doing "on-location" shoots in the process — and I now believe a script is essential, even when trying to give the appearance of speaking extemporaneously. We would have done more of these had Gerritt won (he placed second to a candidate with a 5-1 funding advantage); as it is, I was pleased with how I was able to edit the footage I did record. I don't know of any other campaign that made an attempt to create its own video in this manner.

The Campaign Logo

I wanted a logo that not only showed his name and office clearly but that visibly represented his rural district. The cedar is representative of the most common trees to be found in the district, and which has lovely hills and open sky. I was happy that my limited Photoshop skills were sufficient for the version I created:

Fortunately Gerritt had hired Nate Gulley as his campaign manager. I know Nate from the Bus Project and knew he was in need of both work and a chance to demonstrate his skills in this field. Nate's educational background was in marketing and design, and he produced some wonderful pieces for the campaign (which did not, unlike one of our opponents, feature a woman and two children posing falsely as family). He simplied the logo and made it truly outstanding:

One great advantage of Nate's simplified version, and his superior PS skills, is that he was able to make a few simple changes in order to produce lawn signs. Thanks for the great work, Nate.

Roberta Phillip was, for a time, a candidate for the Board of Multnomah County Commissioners, and I was her campaign manager. I also developed her website. It was a Drupal site, of course.

The campaign slogan was mine, as was most of the design. Roberta and I played with colors before settling on these. This campaign was a huge rush; if we'd had a bit more time, we might have ended up making different decisions. But we had to move on to other aspects of the campaign, like debates, so this is what we went with.

The website should remain up for a while.

Logo in conjunction with Samuel John Klein

Logo design was by Sam Klein, a very talented Portland graphic designer I befriended via Facebook and Twitter; Sam has a thing for unicorns (go have a look at his blog) but also for good design. He agreed to provide his services "in kind" but we were able to pay him, which was nice. (

The original color of "Roberta" was red, but I changed it to green. The one stripe of red ended up working really well.

As with any admin job, there was a lot of business correspondence. Because we worked with homeowner associations, responsible for collecting HOA dues and enforcing the CC&Rs, much of the correspondence was sensitive, with legal and financial implications. I also wrote a variety of forms, applications and brochures. Unfortunately we did not have the online resources to make these interactive, so everything was done via downloadable pdfs — the same as below.

Sample Memos & Letter

Memo: Payment information

Sample warning letter

Sample Forms & Applications

ARC application

Landscaping guidelines

Sideyard easement information

Email flyer: contest announcement

Info: Fence maintenance

1-page brochure: Paint selection info

Pool rules

Recreation center access

I was an "Assistant Community Association Manager" at Bluestone & Hockley. Most of my job was administrative assistant work, but as part of that, and as special projects, I did a variety of writing and content work. My work included business correspondence, letter templates, informational memos, brochures, posters, and website content. Much of the work required the ability to craft strong, clear messages regarding sensitive issues (delinquent association dues, repeated violations of CC&Rs); letters and memos required simple language to ensure clear, specific delivery of vital information which usually had legal and financial implications for the recipient.

I had opportunities as well to be creative and even have fun with the writing. Informational notices (memos, mass emails, web content, brochures, posters) covering community events, health notices, seasonal opportunities, and other items. The most enjoyable and creative work was the quarterly (or so) newsletters, which I wrote and edited (with feedback from my manager) did lay-out for. I'm very good at fitting lots of info into a tight space without cramming it in; that's one of the keys to being a good editor.

Too many samples for one post; I'll post more later.

Sample Newsletters

(pdf opens in new window)
Spring 2008 Newsletter
Summer 2008 Newsletter
Spring 2009 Newsletter
Summer 2009 Newsletter

My friend & Drupal guru Lynn Siprelle asked me to pick up a client for her. She was having severe health problems at the time (thankfully resolved), and was not able to help Pat Golden, the proprietor of Golden Orchards. I was not able to set up a Drupal site for Pat, but she did give me carte blanche to go nuts with the design. I did have to do this by good old-fashioned html, but I'd had plenty of practice with that before I discovered Drupal.

It's a bit dated now; cloud tags were a new thing then, and I was mimicking that look. I used CSS span tags to color items based on the product line, and I made the images and borders extend beyond the background area (which, of course, did not work on IE 6). I went a bit overboard with the color scheme, but sometimes when you do that, you get a result that's better than if you try to moderate your efforts.

Pat was very happy with the site; it was a bit more fun than what she had before. I had to rebuild the order in InDesign as well; all she had before was a Word file. The site is still up — probably needs an update but Pat's not requested anything — so go visit and buy some jams and honey. Good stuff.

The products are good, too. Check the site & place an order.

More samples from Golden Orchard

In 2006, I lived in Corvallis. The recession came early to Benton County, so I bounced on and off the employment roles that year. Having "spare" time a bit too often that year, I was free to offer website design, development and hosting services for a number of local candidates. As well as Sara Gelser's primary election challenge for the local State House nomination, I did the sites for the following candidates. These were all Drupal sites and featured a wide range of functions, from issues pages to "latest news" to contact forms.

Dan Thackaberry

Sam Sappington

Jay Sexton

Mario Magaña

I was hired to make a website for a Portland-area band (which is now, I believe, defunct, and probably justly so since they never bothered to pay me for my work).

I based the logo for the website on the band's text-only logo; it took a while to find a font that was close to theirs, but I did. I was outlining the images of the band members in order to make a background-free image for the website but realized an outline would be even better.