Fran Owens - Columbia, SC

Self Portrait I am a web designer, web developer and print designer located in Columbia, SC. I am also a mom and wife with too many hobbies to list. My two beautiful children are creative geniuses, they get that from me, and the most fantastic people in my life. My husband of more than a decade is a wonderfully supportive life partner and the person who keeps me sane. My hobbies, which include gardening, restoring vintage bicycles and breathing new life into all sorts of found items, are great creative outlets that I enjoy when I need a break from my day job.

Now, about that day job. I have over a decade and a half of print and web experience with companies that include a Fortune 500 company, our states leading healthcare provider and the largest Information Technology employeer in the state. I consider myself a great designer with an eye for beautiful clean designs that comply with the latest web standards. The web is polluted with lots of poorly designed and obnoxious sites. I think you will agree that my work stands out as a restful place to absorb content in a delightful online environment. Although the web has become my primary design playground I still do the occasional printed design, which will always be my first love.

I bring my creative to life with Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, and Flash. I develop sites using XHTML and CSS, I use JavaScript and Actionscript for a little action. Then I throw in bunches of Usability, Accessibility, and Web Standards to create sites that are both elegant and functional.

Want to know more, of course you do :-) Check out the rest of this site for more details.

Web Designs

Print Designs

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Designer/Front-end Developer
Palmetto GBA/Blue Cross Blue Shield of SC
April 22, 2008 – present

Responsible for web, application, print and e-mail design as well as interactive flash design/development
Front end development support for all of our applications and websites
Work closely with developers to ensure that usability standards are followed, css is maximized and valid, cross browser platforms are consistent and the 508 compliance is maximized.
Directed the design of our company website, palmettogba.com, which has achieved outstanding customer reviews, dramatically improved our Foresee survey results and has become the top website among our competitors

Interactive/Print Designer
SCANA Corporation
November 2005 – April 2008

Worked with a team of other designers and shared the load of print design
The only interactive designer responsible for design of multiple web platforms including our vast intranet and internet sites.
Worked on a variety of special projects including interactive annual reports, animated product demonstrations, corporate safety poster campaigns, trade show booth design and car graphics.
Also won an AIGA InShow award for my work on an internal safety campaign featuring my illustrations

Freelance Web Professional

Performed all business requirements gathering, story boarding, design and development
Designed and developed dozens of web and print projects for a very diverse family of customers
Collaborated with in-house development teams or third-party firms on multiple projects
Client list includes Palmetto Health, Infinite Yoga, the West Companies and even a wedding planner

Interactive Designer
Palmetto Health
November 2001 – present

Directed the design and creation of new internet and intranet sites
Assisted with all website maintenance, no CMS as the time (sigh)
Collected business requirements and designed web applications that supported our medical staff including online patient registration and hosting of newborn photos
Smaller projects include interface design for kiosks, interactive screen saver campaigns promoting hand washing, design micro-sites for the Children’s Hospital and the Graduate Medical Education department (done as freelance projects)

Print/Web Designer
Gasque Advertising
February 1998 – November 2001

Began career as a print designer since the web was pretty much black and white at that time
Due to client needs I started learning web technologies soon after I started there
Found print and web to be close cousins and began to enjoy the fluid nature of web design and its growing capabilities soon had me hooked.

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Education - Go Pack!!
Bachelor of Graphic Design North Carolina State Univ. Cum Laude Grad ‘97
Bachelor of Art and Design North Carolina State Univ. Cum Laude Grad ‘97

Skills
Mad Ninja Skills: HTML5, CSS3, Jquery, Photo Manipulation and Correction
Applications: Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, InDesign
Expertise: Website architecture and design, Web application design, Standards-based website development, Search engine optimization, Cross browser compatibility, Graphic design
Personal: Professional, self-reliant, eager to learn, team player

I hope you've enjoyed checking out my work. I'd love to hear from you.