August 28, 2014
Answer the following so we can get to know you better, in addition to your introductions you did in class. Insert 5 images into your post that represent your personal brand.
Instructions:
Post:
Howdy! My name is Ross Schmadebeck and I currently live and work in Central Florida. I’m a Florida native and am a true Conch born and raised originally from the Florida Keys (Tavernier, to be specific).
I’m a Gator twice over having graduating from the University of Florida with my AA from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 2003, and my BS in Journalism, Newspaper Editing and Design from the College of Journalism and Communications in 2004 (man, that feels like forever ago).
From high school, I’ve been engaged or working in graphic design to build/edit content for the web. Adobe Photoshop is probably the longest running non-Microsoft program I’ve used, but I’m still completely lost beyond the basics. I started web design work in 1999 coding our high school newspaper online. From there, writing, editing and designing for the web has been an integrated part of both my professional and personal lives.
This August, I celebrated my third year anniversary with SeaWorld Parks & Resorts in Orlando, where I currently work as their Manager, Interactive Marketing. In this role I support the web and online presences for www.SeaWorldOrlando.com, www.AquaticaOrlando.com, and www.DiscoveryCove.com, among many other sub-sites and specialty projects. Discovery Cove is my absolute favorite theme park in Florida and is our pride and joy. I’m working to launch a new web site for the park this fall; a project that took nearly three years and is now less than two months from going live.
I’ve had some form of a personal website for nearly 15 years and enjoy the challenge of keeping up-to-date and sharing my hobbies. My current iteration is http://ross.schmadebeck.com. Previous versions of my site have been coded by hand or managed via Adobe Dreamweaver. My current site leverages Joomla! open source content management system that allows me to easily integrate new functionality, while showcasing my photo galleries from Flickr, a quick place to find my favorite recipes, and a host to my blog postings. I also keep a portfolio of my professional highlights, including speaking engagements and major or innovative projects from my career. I consider my site as constantly evolving as I adjust formatting, style and structure continuously based on what I do and don’t like.
I love to travel and take photos along the way. I’ve been fortunate to visit many amazing places around the world, but still have more than half my travel bucket list to tackle. I live by the mantra, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” and it’s served me well.
The Web Design and Online Communication MAMC program first attracted me as my career path has taken me more toward marketing and communicating online. Overall, I hope to gain a stronger sense of great web design and how to build content and information for digital consumption. From this class in particular, I’d like to really learn how to leverage Photoshop beyond cropping, changing file formats, and the occasional recoloring. I know, sounds very dull and while I once knew a lot more about PS, since the introduction of the Creative Suite line, I’ve been at a loss.
I’m really looking forward to this class and the rest of the program. Go Gators!
Design, Digital Media, Intro, Introduction, Layout, VIC5325,