about 523.
i started 5.twenty.three in june 2006 upon deciding i should turn my love of web design into something a bit
more profitable. in the beginning, as with any new business endeavor, it was a slow start. mostly becauseat the time, i was busy as a stay-at-home mom to my son, jacob, who was just over a year old (piece of trivia: the site is named after him, as his birthday is may 23). as jacob grew, so did my business. i started doing some work for local web companies, next interactives and 544 productions.
in august 2006 i filed a d.b.a. with tompkins county, obtained my e.i.n. and was on my way to becoming an official one-woman show.
i've held several jobs at cornell university in the past few years. website maintenance was a responsibility for one of them, so with the help of a kind undergraduate, i learned the basics of site design and development. and the rest i pretty much learned on my own! as a part of a couple of my jobs, i redesigned websites for some professors, as noted here and here. i also managed to redesign this site, as the director of the unit is a former supervisor of mine.
in early 2007, i was looking at local organizations, whose websites could use a bit of 'freshening up' and came across the southworth library, which is located right in dryden. i offered to redesign their site (pro bono of course, but in exchange for site credit), update the content, and make it a bit more user-friendly. i still do regular site maintenance and assist with web development and functionality from time to time.
i've recently redesigned two websites for cornell university (here and here). these sites were very extensive and needed alot of t.l.c. i CAN'T TAKE CREDIT FOR THE OVERALL DESIGN SINCE THEY WERE DEVELOPED BY THE FOLKS AT THE WEB PRODUCTION GROUP, BUT I DID CUSTOMIZE THE DESIGNS A LITTLE BIT. MY RESPONSIBILITIES WERE TOO UPDATE AND ORGANIZE CONTENT, ADD IMAGES, AND MAKE THE SITES A BIT MORE USER-FRIENDLY.
i was recently asked to maintain the dryden community center cafe website and am working on a redesign (again, pro bono but will get some site credit!). i'm also working on a new design for the genoa historical association (another freebie, but will get a charitable tax deduction and site credit).
things are more or less coming together. i recently filed a d.b.a in cayuga county and will start targeting business there. eventually.
so basically, that's how i ended up where i am. in whatever free time i can find, i hang out with the kid, make jewelry, read, listen to lots of music, putter in photography, watch lots of movies, and enjoy the outdoors.
my schedule is clear (more or less), so if you need a site or your current site needs some 'prettying up,' please contact me!
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