About Me

I’m Stefan Matei. Freelance web designer, php developer, typography and usability enthusiast. And the pseudo-blogger around here–the guy who writes the tutorials and articles.

Stefan freelance web designer I’m a 23 year old Romanian freelance web designer and web developer. I graduated (Bachelor of Science in Computer Science) from the Faculty of Automation, Computers and Electronics, Computer Engineering department from Craiova where I studied a lot of interesting things about how computers work (hardware, microprogramming, assembly, programming, operating systems, database design and other dorky stuff).

But my true love has always been the web. I wouldn’t go as far as pulling out the old it’s more than a hobby, it’s a way of life cliché, but designing and developing for the web is indeed more than a hobby to me.

What I do

Website Design

After sketching the layout on paper, deciding the most appropriate feel, and choosing a color palette I start giving it some style and personality in Photoshop.

Attention to details is one of those things that can make or break a design. One of my favorite ways to come up with a visually appealing interface is to start really clean and simple and then work on subtle details that give it a certain je ne sais quoi (well, aren’t I francophone today).

Markup/CSS

This follows the Photoshop step. While having semantic markup as a primary objective, the website should also have as less code as possible and as clear as possible. Websites should be cross browser compatible and usable on mobile devices.

JavaScript/Ajax

From simple visual metaphors like an element sliding-in, the behavior of an image gallery’s interface, to content being sent back and forth between the client and the web server without refreshing the page.

My current favorite JS library is by far jQuery, but I have been known to use MooTools in some contexts. Progressive enhancement is a definite must.

PHP/mySQL

PHP that writes .js files. PHP that writes .css files. PHP that reads/writes into the database. PHP that parses RSS. PHP that makes your coffee. With nicely styled outputs.

CMSes

WordPress. You can’t not love WordPress. I’ve only got to know it more intimately maybe less than two years ago but feel as if I’ve known it my whole life. I’m convinced it’s not an one-fits-all solution, but its adaptability allows it to come pretty close.

For those cases where WordPress would be just too much (like “a small website with X pages and a contact form”) I offer a custom built easy to use CMS written in PHP that does not use a database. Why overcomplicate things using a database when all you need is X text/images pages, a page with an image gallery (portfolio?) and a contact page? This “custom built easy to use CMS” offers a visual editor for the text content and specific administration for the managing of pages like image galleries or portfolios.

Joomla! is probably the CMS I have used the most until now. It was my CMS of choice before I meet WordPress and I still have clients asking me to use it to build new websites or help them with their existing Joomla sites.