justin


wested

Frontend Developer & Dungeon Master

Merging creative world building with cutting-edge web development for spellbinding user experiences--one pixel at a time.

Current Projects

Kickball Comedy

A simple website meant to consolidate all of the information for the Kickball Comedy group in one, easy to access place. Has team bios, links to their sketch recordings, and links to their ticketing all contained in a interesting to scroll website that symbolizes the groups weird and wacky style of comedy. The group wanted something that was simple to use but also had a lot of personality. My favorite part of this site was being able to create fun character portraits for each member of the comedy group! Implementing the drawings I made to animate in a hand drawn fashion was such a fun and unique challenge I hadn't faced yet.

  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JS
Visit Site See The Code
README.md

Table of Contents
  1. About The Project
  2. Contact
  3. Acknowledgments

About The Project


A simple website meant to consolidate all of the information for the Kickball Comedy group in one, easy to access place. Has team bios, links to their sketch recordings, and links to their ticketing all contained in a interesting to scroll website that symbolizes the groups weird and wacky style of comedy. The group wanted something that was simple to use but also had a lot of personality.

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Built With

  • CSS
  • HTML
  • JS

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Interesting Features


Probably one the feature I've had the most fun creating and implementing for a client are a series of entertaining character sketches that are drawn overtop of the team members as the users scroll. The drawings were created as SVGs that draw their path with some simple CSS animation. A light touch of JS is used to make sure the animation triggers at the correct point in the page as a user scrolls. Currently the SVG code is directly inline of the HTML; this has the side effect of ballooning the number of code lines in th HTML. While not preferable, with the website itself being only one page, it's fairly easily manageable. In a more in-depth, larger site I would invest more time into injecting the SVG rather than having them inline.

Contact

Justin Wested - LinkedIn - justwested@gmail.com

Project Link: https://github.com/JustinWested/Kickball

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Acknowledgments

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April Yanko

A portfolio website built for a client to showcase their work across film, writing, and sketch mediums. Includes multiple pages dedicated to specific projects as well as multiple galleries and ways to display content. Challenges included finding a color sceheme that matched the clients quirky style and finding a way to condense their current website into a more manageable amount of pages. The page itself had to be fast and responsive--as all sites should be--but with the added complexity of a large amount of photos and video. What I found most fun to implement is the header video which I detail more in the readme.

  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JS
Visit Site See The Code
README.md

Table of Contents
  1. About The Project
  2. Contact
  3. Acknowledgments

About The Project


A portfolio website built for a client to showcase their work across film, writing, and sketch mediums. Includes multiple pages dedicated to specific projects as well as multiple galleries and ways to display content. Challenges included finding a color sceheme that matched the clients quirky style and finding a way to condense their current website into a more manageable amount of pages. The page itself had to be fast and responsive--as all sites should be--but with the added complexity of a large amount of photos and video.

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Built With

  • CSS
  • HTML
  • JS

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Interesting Features


Dynamic header video with navigation that works alongside it. The client, being an actor and filmmaker, had a lot of fun footage that really showcased their personality. We wanted their personality to be featured by a spotlight--the first thing you see when you visit their set. I cut this video together for them and styled it so it worked with the color scheme they wanted. Additional features included building in a "poster" image so, on browsers that don't allow autoplay, it just shows a more normal image header.

Contact

Justin Wested - LinkedIn - justwested@gmail.com

Project Link: https://github.com/JustinWested/AprilSite

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Acknowledgments

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Ace Animation

A website design for a new animation studio. They're getting a lot of buzz with their new short film and wanted a sleek, modern dozen to draw in traffic and future investors. I designed a professional look and am currently implementing it as a custom WordPress block theme. WordPress' new block themes can provide a lot of flexibility to the client so they're able to make edits and adjustments on their own in the future. Website is currently in developmenet and all images herein are either placeholder or mockups.

  • PHP
  • CS
  • JSON
  • WordPress
  • WooCommerce
Visit Site Code Private
README.md

Table of Contents
  1. About The Project
  2. Contact
  3. Acknowledgments

About The Project


A website design for a new animation studio. They're getting a lot of buzz with their new short film and wanted a sleek, modern dozen to draw in traffic and future investors. I designed a professional look and am currently implementing it as a custom WordPress block theme. WordPress' new block themes can provide a lot of flexibility to the client so they're able to make edits and adjustments on their own in the future.

Functionality would need to include a fully fleshed out WP compatible block theme so the client would be able to make many adjustments without coding. Client needs require an ability to add additional pages for future projects, ability to add new products to a WooCommerce store and have them populate to store pages and front page, ability to make adjustments to the home ppage to add current news easily, and not many hard-coded elements, while making sure the theme felt unique.

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Built With

  • CSS
  • HTML
  • JS
  • WP
  • WooCommerce

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Design Process


The was fairly straightforward--create a classic looking website that exuded a playful, childlike energy while still having a professional and classic look. After getting some color and shape direction from the clients design team I went through a few mockups. We went back and forth between wildly colorful examples and other dark "modern" looks but eventually settled on a classic white. The client wanted to bring in some color though so we used their branding to give shape and definition to certain sections of the site.

Contact

Justin Wested - LinkedIn - justwested@gmail.com

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Acknowledgments

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Visionrey Entertainment

A website to serve as the face of the production company, Visionrey Entertainment. Visionrey currently has a site they're unhappy with the execution and style of. Furthermore, the current site was built with WYSIWYG builders and the owner was dissatisfied with the lack of control and flexibility. The goal is to deliver a multi paged site that serves as a light sales platform, in addition to a portfolio of work for the company. Currently, the website is mostly functionally complete but is sitting on mostly placeholder content.

  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JS
Visit Site See The Code
README.md

Table of Contents
  1. About The Project
  2. Contact
  3. Acknowledgments

About The Project


A website to serve as the face of the production company, Visionrey Entertainment. Visionrey currently has a site they're unhappy with the execution and style of. Furthermore, the current site was built with WYSIWYG builders and the owner was dissatisfied with the lack of control and flexibility. The goal is to deliver a multi paged site that serves as a light sales platform, in addition to a portfolio of work for the company. Currently, the website is nearly functionally complete but is sitting on mostly placeholder content waiting for finals.

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Built With

  • CSS
  • HTML
  • JS

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Interesting Features


A dynamic header to reflect the strong facets of Visionrey Entertainment. JS used to change the background image when each title is hovered. The client was having difficulty deciding on one image that represented them as an overall brand and all of their strengths. A solution was built that allowed each "arm" of the company to breath and have its own identity in the header.


An accordion gallery was built to display the clients headshots (currently placeholder content while waiting for files from client). An accordion gallery is simple enough, but the effect turned out really well and smooth and I just wanted to highlight it!

Contact

Justin Wested - LinkedIn - justwested@gmail.com

Project Link: https://github.com/JustinWested/Visionrey

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Acknowledgments

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About Justin

As a Front End Developer, I'm passionate about designing and building beautiful, responsive, and user-friendly websites. I have a solid understanding of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and I also have light experience with modern web development frameworks.

In addition to my technical skills, I'm an avid Dungeons & Dragons player and dungeon master. I love the creativity and problem-solving that the game requires, and I believe that my experience with D&D has honed my ability to think outside the box and come up with innovative solutions to complex problems. This mindset is invaluable in the world of web development, where I'm doing my best to push the boundaries of what I'm capable of with code and design.

Outside of work, I'm also a hobbyist independent filmmaker, with a focus on writing and editing. This creative outlet has taught me to think critically about storytelling, pacing, and visual communication, which I apply to my work as a Front End Developer. In my previous roles, I've collaborated with designers, developers, and stakeholders to deliver successful projects on time and on budget, leveraging my skills in communication, organization, and attention to detail.

As a self-starter, I'm constantly seeking new challenges and opportunities to learn and grow as a developer. I'm a creative problem solver, a collaborative team player, and an excellent communicator. If you're looking for a dedicated and passionate Front End Developer with a unique combination of technical expertise and creative skills, I'd love to connect with you.

Design
Competencies
  • Wireframing
  • Prototyping
  • UI/UX Design
  • Color Palettes

Tool Kit
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Figma
  • Vectornator
  • Procreate
  • Blender
Development
Tool Kit Front End
  • HTML5
  • CSS
  • Javascript
  • React.js
  • WordPress

Back End
  • Node.js
  • PHP
Tool Kit
  • Git
  • GitHub
  • Jira
  • Chrome Developer Tools
  • Chrome Lighthouse