So to kick off this blog, here is a little history about where and how I started developing and design, where I am now, and some thoughts about the future.I am the Project Manager at Parkside Graphics Inc. Parkside is a small 5 person printshop turned ad agency. My title is a little misleading perhaps. Parkside’s business focus (posts to come) is not just interactive, not just print, not just design, not just marketing; it is all of that and more. There is another designer that works at Parkside along with a lady at the front desk, a billing lady, and the President.So, what exactly do I do at Parkside? Well, in a word, everything. Thinking on this makes me wonder sometimes, for as a fully capable and progressive developer, what am I doing at a little print shop in tiny Sellersville, Pennsylvania? To answer these questions, here is a little history on me and how I got to where I am.My life as a child was a very unique one. It seemed as though my father never really did kid things with me when I was with him. I did whatever he was doing, no questions asked. I remember one night, helping him fix the Y2K bug on all the computers at Tierney in Philadelphia. I was 15 at the time. Oh and I got my boating license and SCUBA certification with my dad too, when I was 12.So, in 2001, I started developing Websites. My first real gig was for a band called Honeychurch. They really got the ball rolling for me and I am forever indebted. High School came and went, and so did the college visits and SATs. I found myself not going to college in the end, but in the full time ministry. Teaching people about the Bible at the time (and still) is took priority in my life. Freelance design and development gave me the opportunity to be in a ministry and support myself.Enter Fishbowl. In October of 2004, I began a startup design and development firm with a friend. This was an exciting time, starting my our own business. We came right out of the gates with almost a year’s worth of contracts lined up. As each project progress, and progressed, and progressed, I started to have doubts about partnership. During one project that almost was a total failure, the client (and successful business owner), gave me some personal advice I will never forget:

In a business, always have an odd number of partners. And most importantly never have more than two.

March 2005. I was accepted to a permanent full time volunteer assignment I had applied for before the start of Fishbowl. It was made known to my partner that it would be a possibility that I would get accepted. Our articles of corp included this possibility. Off I went. 6 months later, I came back home to devote more time and attention to my girlfriend, now fiance. It was then, that my client’s advice was ringing through my head. 6 months ago I left behind a functioning business. Now I come home to nothing. On another note, I learned never to do business with friends, I haven’t spoken to my Fishbowl partner in over a year.Enter Parkside. After a month of interviewing and trying to decide whether to start up on my own again doing freelance or work work for someone else, I decided to work for someone else. After all, it was a lot of work to start to build up my cliental. However, I did it during High School, under my parents roof. This was the real world now with bills and future wife to think about. There was just no possible way to rebuild and not live in a box and eat out of a trash can.Suddenly, out of the sky came a referral from a friend who had an associate that was looking for “someone like me.” I interviewed at Parkside. I must admit, when I first walked in, I couldn’t believe it was an agency, or design shop, or real business for that matter. But talking to the owner, was very enjoyable. A very nice man, genuine, a great person to work for. So as it turns out (which I figured out my first day there) Parkside did not do any development or design work anywhere near the level I was at. Their target client was the small business that needed cheap printing done quickly.So, currently Parkside has a well rounded interactive cliental and it is growing and moving upward and onward to national companies. Along the way I have won some respected design and web awards for Parkside, including from the American Association of Webmasters. And thus Parkside has a major divide in it, me (interactive) and the rest of the business/employees (print and light design). But looking back on the opportunity to learn Parkside has given me, I really can’t complain a whole lot…aside from the fact I had to pay my way to FlashForward Austin, but that was completely worth every penny.Thus here I am, an interactive designer/developer, suddenly feeling incredibly held back and stuck at Parkside, not to mention the broken salary promises and a struggle to deal with other employees who have no idea what I do. And I find myself wondering again, what do I need to do to move on…

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