Christopher David Appleton

designer & developer

Graduated in 2014 with a degree in Architecture (BA Hons) and freelanced as a website and graphic designer professionally since 2010. In May 2019, I began a career as a Front-End Website Developer for Kent Union, the University of Kent Students' Union.

This portfolio highlights and showcases my work, from designing a well-being garden for Rolls Royce Plc or ensuring adherence to WCAG Accessibility Guidelines to several ambitious mapping projects using Leaflet.js.

If you're interested in hiring me for any freelance role, please contact me.

About
A photograph of Christopher Appleton

Website Development

My first website was built using Yahoo! Geocities back in 2004 when I was only 11 years old. Of course, it was terrible! But the experience of starting a blank Notepad document, opening HTML tags and following the guidance of W3Schools began me on a path through web design to web development.

Starting professionally as a freelance in 2010, I created a series of websites for various clients such as a charitable organisation, multiple NHS practices and a dance studio. I was then fortunate to begin a full-time career position as a Front-End Website Developer in May 2019.

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A mockup of a website homepage

Graphic Design

Often as part of a wider branding creation project, I have utilised my graphic design skills. In recent years this has lead me to learn a wider portion of the Adobe Creative Cloud than just Photoshop, including Illustrator, InDesign and Lightroom.

Through my love of photography, I gained an eye for composition and I translated this into logo making, layouts and user experience.

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A mockup of a website and graphic design work

Photography

Seldom without my camera in hand on a trip out, I've taken close to 200,000 photos since my 16th birthday when I received a Fujifilm Finepix S8000fd. Upgrading to a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H400, I have been known to capture more than 1000 photos on a day out.

Normal subjects are landscapes like beaches, especially with depth of field on a point of foreground interest, and architectural features, with more focus being on the details than the overall form. I've even been hired as a wedding photographer for a very happy couple.

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A photo of Canterbury Golf Course in the snow

Projects

Most of my work falls into the previous three categories, but this section focuses on some of the more abstract and each project in detail.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to design a well-being garden for Rolls Royce Plc on behalf of their Materials Engineering Livewell Team, re-purposing their surplus turbine crates into fitting planters. Also, during August 2020, I embarked on a solo project for Kent Union designing a "Virtual Campus" map that I've packaged as a small product I hope to use elsewhere.

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A perspective plan of the Rolls Royce Well-being Garden