Christopher David Appleton
designer & developer
Freelance website and graphic designer since 2010, with a degree in Architecture (BA Hons). Web Developer for Kent Students’ Union at the University of Kent since May 2019.
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 with 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.
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.
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 easily 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 fortunate enough to be hired as a wedding photographer for a very happy couple.
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.
For example, I was given 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.