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

Gryphan Entertainment Logo

This logo is the only piece in this portfolio that was not designed for a specific client. Instead, it was an idea that I decided to play with. As such, it does not work to solve any specific problems. It was more of a personal experiment that I have always been particularly fond of.

A mockup of the Gryphan Entertainment logo. Mockup template by GraphicBurger.

Fundamentally, the basic concept behind this was to play with the shape of the griffin to create the appearance of a capital G. That was really the foundation of the concept—to play with the mark and bring added visual significance to the whitespace.

Despite starting off as an experiment, the logo has actually been pressed into production. In my work as the Creative Director at Highland Marketing, we needed a series of fictional companies that we could use for some samples and templates that we were developing. Since I had this Gryphan logo just sitting in a folder, I decided to press it into action.

Incidentally, it was only after I elected to use the logo in this capacity that the word "entertainment" was added.