Biography

The easist way to describe myself is as a design-a-holic. I've had a pencil and pad in my hands before there was a comptuer in every house. When I got my first computer in the 90s, the mouse and screen took over. I immediately started to experiment in any design program I could get my hands on: Microsoft Paint, Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia (now Adobe) Flash, Autodesk 3D Studio Max (now 3DS Max), Maya, and the list goes on. The thought of being able to produce something virtually and manipulate it with out destroying blew me away.

My daily checklist includes reading 20-30 design articles that range in topics from the web to architecture to typography to search engine optimization to modern art. I have an almost fanatical need to stay inspired and keep current. 

In the early 2000s, when the designer community on the internet took off, I immersed myself in design tutorials, best practices, and discussions. I learned from the best by trying, optimizing, scrapping whatever I made, and starting the whole process from scratch. In 2008, I applied to a Lead Instruction position with iD Tech Camps in Orlando, Florida. Along with my portfolio, I was hired and flew down from my home in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. When got home, a fire had bit lit under me; I knew that I had to use my skills professionally. LemonLime Designs was born.

Every project is like a child to me: I'm excited and anxious when it's born, enjoy every minute and am stressed as it develops, and am thrilled and nervous when I let it go out into the world on it's own.

The name came to me in a dream. No, really, it did. I remember waking up with the words "LemonLime Designs" in my head, kind of like when you wake up with a song stuck in your head. I quickly threw a design together. A few weeks later, I had my first client. Since then, I've redesigned my site several times (I told you I'm addicted) and have successfully completed over 20 fairly large projects including portfolio sites, e-commerce, and heavy multimedia portals with client logins. I've learned a lot both technically and professionaly and have gotten to a point where I am confident in providing excellent design and web solutions for my clients. 

My business has grown almost exclusively through referrals from my amazing clients. I don't like to use the word clients, because the relationships are always more along the lines of partners.

What sets me apart is my ability to find technological solutions to solve business problems and to streamline processes. I'm not an input-output type of person; I provide ideas that go beyond the scope of what I'm hired to do and end up changing the way my clients conduct their business for the better. Quite often the quality of customers my clients get after we're done is a whole different class of customers. I realize that you don't have time to fiddle with your website so I teach you about how the web really works and how to maintain your site as easily as updating your Facebook or LinkedIn account. This is my specialty.