My name is Richard Francis and I am a geek! I have a real passion for the web and love designing beautiful, practical, dynamic applications.

It all started at Thames Valley University in west London, where I studied Media Technology BSc (Hons). Although my course only brushed upon web design, I took an immediate liking to it. I guess the idea of being able to have your own part of cyberspace really appealed to me, as did the professional & entrepreneurial potential that it can facilitate for.

Whilst at university I met a good friend, Ashley Ford (papermashup.com, dotdashcreate.com, tweet.me.it), and we began to collaborate on small side-projects together. The first of these was a website called NightOutNet, which enabled unsigned bands and artists to sign up and upload their tracks. With the help of Ash’s previous experience in radio and our joint experience in music production, we then began to record weekly 2 hour shows in his studio, giving ‘airtime’ to some really cool unsigned music on the site. We also organized an event in Camden, North London, where we promoted the site alongside some great performances from bands on NightOutNet.

I joined a company in Earls Court exhibition centre, London, as a web designer in 2007, one month before (technically) finishing university. I worked hard on new initiatives, from improving their online shop to creating online campaigns spanning a variety of different sub-media.

In January 2008 I joined MySpace UK as a web designer. I worked on many different campaigns for some very large brands, designing and building communities for the likes of Universal Pictures, Coca-Cola, and Vodafone to name a few. In some cases I project managed marketing initiatives, giving me invaluable planning & organisation skills.

I posses a comprehensive and diverse skill set including:

• HTML & CSS (the main parts needed to create a nice website)
• Javascript (used to develop great user-friendly interfaces)
• PHP & MySQL (used to make the site dynamic and powerful)
• Adobe Flash (for showing off with snazzy, moving things, in addition to powerful widgets & applications)
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization - essential stuff for climbing the Google ladder!)

I also love photography (check out my Flickr Photofeed), swimming, playing the guitar, trying to speak Spanish, snowboarding, and generally enjoying time with friends and family!

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