As you can tell from my huge title, my name is Chris and I'm a Web Developer for the Martin Agency in Richmond, Virginia. It's staggering how many people I meet who call themselves Web Developers or Web Designers and yet they all do a variety of different things, so I'll break down my particular skill sets for you.

HTML, CSS and so forth

I probably spend about 70% of my job building websites with HTML, CSS and Javascript (jQuery more than likely). Most of the time I'm teamed up with a Studio Designer, and it's my job to bring their vision to life.

To be clear, I'm not a designer myself but I do try to make sure I'm knowledgeable about design and typography theory so that I can appreciate what my designers are trying to achieve. It fascinates me how much time those guys spend tweaking their designs in Photoshop, whereas I'm more comfortable jumping in and coding.

Web Standards are very important to me and I try to build my sites so they are standard compliant, accessible and all that. Sometimes it's tricky with time constraints and cross-browser functionality but I tend to stick to a code of best practices in my work.

I'm also using HTML 5 (& CSS3) unless clients specifically request otherwise. I'm a big believer in using the latest technology as soon as it's available and then applying graceful degradation techniques for older browsers. This way I can keep current with my field, although I find it requires a little more up-front work to educate clients about why their site might look different across the various browsers.

CMS, PHP and other back-end goodies

I also love to work on the programmy side of Web Development. I'm a big fan of PHP and MySQL and enjoy creating systems with some kind of data storage and retrieval system. There's just something intrinsically fun about architecting a solution to a problem and then building it. When given the choice I favor the CodeIgniter framework as it's lightweight, object-oriented and allows me to get right into some rapid development.

I'm also a big fan of EllisLab's Expression Engine when I need a Content Management System. I've tried Wordpress and Drupal, but I love how EE gets out of your way when developing in HTML and CSS but then offers amazing flexibility when creating content types.

The Work

One benefit of working for an ad agency is that I've been able to work for a wide of variety of clients. This means that projects come in all shapes and sizes, I've done landing pages, mobile sites, Facebook pages and am currently in the midst of a full corporate site redesign. Check out my portfolio page for examples.

I also occasionally work with designers on freelance projects for local businesses and non-profit organizations. I find that this is a great way to keep my project and client management skills sharp as other teams are dedicated to those tasks at the agency.

You want more?

That's all I have for right now - but if you really want to know more about me you are welcome to follow my Twitter feed, friend me on Facebook or do the Linked In thing. As well as my latest Web updates you'll probably learn of my love for soccer, good food and indie music. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers!
Chris