I am a freelance desktop/Web publisher who has been working in page design for a wide variety of clients for the past decade.
I got my first taste of desktop publishing in the mid-1980s when the facilities planning firm I worked for wanted something a little nicer for report production than word processors provided in the days of 360K diskettes and 256K RAM. The confluence of computer technology and (eventually graphical) design provided me with a new line of work that often feels too much like fun.
Since then, using Ventura Publisher, Microsoft Publisher, CorelDraw, Corel Xara, Microsoft Word/Word for Windows and other software, I have completed projects involving design, layout and/or typesetting of newsletters, reports, technical manuals, proposals, presentation materials, brochures, flyers, forms, stationery, business cards, board game materials and more, as well as designing and typesetting a full-length book. Since 1990, I have done the desktop publishing for the bimonthly Compass, A Jesuit Journal, and designed and typeset most of the magazine's promotional materials.
In 1995, I got my first graphical browser and discovered the World Wide Web. Recognizing the enormous publishing potential of the Web, I jumped eagerly into web page design and site development. I designed, developed and maintain the Compass website which has been online since January 1996. You can check out my web projects here.
Coming to Web page design and publishing from a print background, I bring certain biases. While I can admire, even marvel at, some of the flash now possible on websites, I strongly believe that design must serve content. Or, as architects say it, form follows function. Both the limitations and the rapidly developing technical possibilities of the medium present a most satisfying challenge in designing web pages which most effectively deliver the content they have to offer.