Check out my new web space: jessrea.com
About
Hi, I'm Jessica and I live in the Cincinnati area in southwest Ohio. I went to school at Miami University from 2001 to 2005 where I majored in Graphic Design. This was a bit of a shock to my family since I wanted to be a Psychiatrist for the majority of my life. But I fell in love with Graphics in college and that is all I have wanted to do since.
In the professional world I have been a web developer and designer since 2005. I have a little experience working with print design but the majority of my focus has been web. I have experience w/ several types of content management systems and also building custom web designs and interfaces using XHTML and CSS.
In my free time I like going to the theatre, running and swimming for exercise, and trying new restaurants or new games. I recently teamed up with a few of my friends to train for a half marathon. It has not been an easy journey so far but it has been fun, especially since I have a great support group.
Work Experience
I currently work for Miami University of Ohio and have been here since 2008. I work with the marketing and information technology groups to produce websites for the various divisions, departments, offices, and organizations on campus. We are currently in the process of branding and moving our web presence into Cascade, a content management system.
I am also a part time faculty member at the university teaching Web Design & Development to Graphic Design majors. Last year was my first time teaching and I hope to repeat the experince in the future. I found teaching to be a huge challenge where I had to improve my communication skills and ability to work with others but the effort was worth the reward. I really enjoyed getting to know my students and watch them grow as designers.
I have also worked for Brulant Inc., now Rosetta, which was an interactive marketing consulting firm located in Beachwood, Ohio. At Brulant it was my role to develop CSS-driven user interfaces that utilitze both web and accessibility standards. I also worked with Java and Microsoft developers to integrate user interfaces into development platforms and ensure the integrity of each design. Before every new project I estimated development hours to improve the project's timeline accuracy, which helped to keep us within our budget. I assisted clients with supplementary design and development work as well as met with them for quality assurance and approval of deliverables. I have helped develop user interfaces for many industry-leading companies such as Nationwide, KraftMaid, ICI Paints, Huntington Bank, and Things Remembered.
I have also worked on several freelance projects over the years. I have collaborated with designers and developers to develop Drupal and WordPress websites or user interfaces for companies such as Custom Distributors, Faith Lutheran Church, the International Trumpet Guild, Certified Security Systems.
