Portfolio of Sarah Valadez

What I have learned thus far…

Sarah — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 21:42:38 +0000

Being a freelance web designer is a lot tougher than it seemed. One week you are up to your neck in work, the next you have absolutely no work. It’s been hard to manage financials and to know I will have enough money at the end of the month to pay the bills. But as I’ve heard from most small business owners and freelancers, it gets easier, and work more stable. Hell, I’m still making twice as much as I did at any hourly job I’ve had.

Having your own web design business definitely has its perks. I can sleep in, stay as late as I want to finish up a project, take a day off during the week when I want/need to, work on weekends if I want/need to, and not have a manager or boss breathing down my neck. I lucked out on my location for an office too. Parking is easy, the building is secure, it’s only about a 10 minute drive from my house, and my officemate is great! I’ve also learned that if I’m going to continue doing freelance work like this, I definitely need my own office. I will never work from home again! It will slowly drive you insane.

So all in all, life is good… better than it has been in a long time, and I intend to keep it that way

City Kitty Grooming

Sarah — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 21:47:34 +0000

Website concept for local cat grooming shop. Designed in Photoshop.

Go Kiting

Sarah — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 21:39:33 +0000

Go Kiting is a kiteboarding e-commerce website built within the Magento platform. The site is a sister site of Motion Boardshop, and is a part of the multiple stores function within Magento.

Required Skills/Programs/Languages:

XHTML/CSS
jQuery
PHP
Adobe Photoshop
Magento
Adobe Illustrator

An Artists’ Retreat

Sarah — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 20:36:46 +0000

An Artists’ Retreat is an art course taught by artist instructor Anna Rhodes. I helped in the creation of this website while working at Design Hovie Studios.

Required Skills/Programs/Languages:

XHTML/CSS
jQuery
PHP
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator

Baby Toy Mart

Sarah — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 03:26:14 +0000

Logo design for e-commerce store. Designed in Illustrator.

Cookware Chatter

Sarah — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 02:23:54 +0000

Logo design for blog about cooking techniques and cookware. Logo designed in Illustrator & Photoshop. Also designed/customized the blog website: www.cookwarechatter.com

reThinkLateral

Sarah — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 22:58:14 +0000

Logo design for web hosting company. Vector art designed in Illustrator.

Romantic Wedding Store

Sarah — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 22:45:03 +0000

Logo design for wedding store. Designed in Illustrator and Photoshop.

Premium Coffee Maker

Sarah — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 22:50:32 +0000

Espresso maker store designed & developed within the Magento platform. Required Skills/Programs:

XHTML/CSS
Adobe Photoshop
Magento
cPanel
phpmyadmin
PHP

I Heart Javascript

Sarah — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:58:38 +0000

Well, sometimes. And sometimes I hate it. Like when stuff doesn’t work. And takes hours to figure out why, and it ends up being something so obvious that it just makes you want to rip your eyeballs out. But then again, I guess this happens with any code problems. Always something simple. Us coders think too hard!

Anyway, I’m currently in love with jQuery, and all of the awesome effects it lets you create. In this portfolio alone I have about 4-5 different jQuery effects going on. (For those of you that don’t know what jQuery is, it is a lightweight cross-browser Javascript library… which basically means it’s code written in Javascript that can be used to create many different applications such as plugins, animation effects, and widgets.) Wordpress alone has hundreds of plugins built with jQuery. This makes it handy, especially for those non-tech folk, to add in a slideshow, gallery, fun rollover effects, or just about anything else you could think of that makes a website look cool. And you should use these things! There are too many boring, ugly websites out there that need help! Oh, and if your site is one of those sites, you should hire me.