Matt Ward

Designer / Developer / Writer

Hello there! I'm a designer, front-end developer and writer, all rolled into one. I've worked in both web and print, and love applying my knowledge, critical thinking and expertise to help craft amazing user experiences on the web.

This CV/portfolio summarizes my professional experience and collects some of my best work.

(skip to portfolio)

Skills & Proficiencies

Design

Development

Tools

Writing

Languages

* Completed 12 years of Ontario's French Immersion program. I still consider myself proficient at reading, but do not speak as well as I once did.

Experience

Highland Marketing

Creative Director

2006-Present

As Creative Director at Highland Marketing, my primary responsibilities have included the design and development of marketing collateral, both print and digital, for clients and internal promotion. I have also worked at developing a suite of WordPress plugins for personalized web marketing.

Echo Enduring Media

Creative Lead

2009-Present

As a part-time independent freelance designer, developer and writer, I've had the opportunity to work with incredible people from all over the world, designing logos, deploying websites and contributing tutorials and articles to the design community.

Accomplishments

Smashing Book 2

Co-Author

Together with Alexander Charchar, I co-authored Chapter 1 of The Smashing Book 2, entitled "The Principles of Good Graphic Design."

Survd App

Designer & Developer

Designed and developed Survd, a small, self-hosted application that allows users to create and deploy simple surveys to their websites. This application has not been in active development for a number of years now.

Personalized Web Marketing

Developer

Developed a suite of proprietary WordPress plugins for Highland Marketing, which allows for the creation of personalized pages, based on contact data that is maintained through the WordPress admin.

Education

Wilfrid Laurier University

M.A., English Literature

2005-2006

Completed an 8 month Master's program through intensive course work, helping me to further refine skills in critical thinking, research, analysis, teaching, time management and independent study.

Wilfrid Laurier University

B.A., English Literature

2001-2005

Completed a standard 4-year honours program, studying a broad range of texts, with a special focus on contemporary fiction. This undergraduate program helped me develop skills in critical thinking, analysis and research, all of which have served me well as a designer, developer and writer. I graduated with distinction and a minor in Religion & Culture.

Volunteer Experience

Board Member

Central Pentecostal Church

2014-present

Was elected to this board by the church membership. Duties involve assisting in providing guidance in the direction of the church, as well as input on financial concerns. I have also served as a member of the policy review committee.

Youth Leader

Central Pentecostal Church

2007-2014

Spent time just hanging out with youth, giving guidance and structure to events and pouring into their lives. I also lead worship at a number of Friday night services.

Personal Interests

DesignM.ag Logo

DesignM.ag is a popular design blog that I've been involved with for several years now. It was acquired by my client from the original owner and I was hired to give the site a new look and visual identity.

A mockup of the DesignM.ag logo. Mockup template by GraphicBurger.

My client had also acquired several other design blogs, so part of my role was to create a uniform set of identities that would help link the different sites that were being run under the larger DesignM.ag brand.

As such, my primary goal on this project was to create a mark that would be simple, recognizable and easily replicable for the different sites in the network.

My solution to this problem was to create a circular mark, with a letter pair representing each website. I used DM for DesignM.ag, DZ for DzineBlog, CB for Colorburned and FM for FreelanceM.ag. I selected Homestead as the typeface. Its bold strokes and unique cross-hatching effect provide an extra degree of visual interest, while its standard family provides an alternate for situations where the logo needs to be rendered at a smaller scale.

The basic DesignM.ag logo as it appears in most situations.

Ultimately, I ended up creating a full set of logos and variations for use in different circumstances. Between the four different sites, I delivered a total of 28 different options.

The complete set of designs for DesignM.ag, DzineBlog, Colorburned and FreelanceM.ag