Andrew Hagni - Web Development & Graphic Design

Hi, my name is Andrew Hagni

I design & build websites

Age: 32

Height: 6'3"

Born: Rolla, MO

Home: Saint Charles, MO

Hobbies/interests:

Cooking (mostly burgercraft)
Video games (I'm a sucker for platformers and metroidvanias)
Movies (I'll watch anything with Tom Hardy in it)
Watching Basketball (mostly March Madness)

Most of my free time though is spent with my wife, Sarah and my son. Sarah always makes sure we go outside and experience the great outdoors together. :)

I'm a front-end web developer.

Like many, I'm self-taught in this regard, born out of a passion for design and interaction. My first website was a static HTML site for my church. As I continued building small sites, I got better with CSS and subsequently discovered frameworks, content management systems, PHP, and JS/jquery. I now build custom sites from the ground up using the best of all of those tools.

With a background in graphic design.

Design is my first love. I care most about branding & identity, which is why I got into web design in the first place. I consider myself especially adept at logo design, iconography and typography. There is still plenty to learn, but I'll never tire of a concise mark paired with the right typeface.

My Process

If you've ever worked on a website project, you know how important a good process is. Personally, I think it's paramount to a successful launch. In the simplest of terms, my process can be distilled down into 3 phases: Discovery, Design, and Development. I've pulled back the curtain a bit so you can get an idea of what I try to accomplish in each.

1. Discovery

I first meet with the stakeholders of a project to ask questions and gather information about the project and determine scope. Necessary documentation is created including a spec sheet and estimates as research is conducted about the organization, its demographics and industry.

2. Design

Following Discovery, I begin designing the website using a combination of Adobe XD, Photoshop, and Illustrator. I typically start with the “hero” area of the home page as this forms the anchor point for the rest of the site design. I then flesh out the home page design, mockup an interior page and then define the UI elements to be used throughout.

3. Development

With Design completed, I move into coding the first version of the site. I typically build sites on Wordpress to leverage its backend interface for clients. However, these are always completely custom themes with as few plugin integrations as possible. I take pride in building future-proof websites that aren’t bloated with excessive “one-size-fits-all” features.

What matters to me

Clean, future-proof code.

It all starts with the basics. I probably care more than I should about semantic code and keeping things straightforward and organized. I’m always seeking to create websites that fallback gracefully because I believe that code that is built on a solid foundation will age gracefully as well.

Robust capabilities without cutting corners.

These tools may not be ideal to some, but I believe that Wordpress (and in turn, PHP) bring a level of ease-of-use to clients without sacrificing the robust flexibility that other tools lack. I do not use Wordpress as a crutch, but rather leverage it as it was intended: an intuitive tool for easy content updates and management.

UX that anticipates the next step.

This is my whole philosophy with interactive design. I'm constantly trying to predict every path and every interaction that he or she might experience throughout their journey on a website. My goal is to put things where they expect, help them get where they're going faster, and surprise them where appropriate with interesting micro-interactions and animations. They should leave impressed with the attention to detail.

Skillset

I'm confident in my ability to write strong HTML & CSS and I'm pretty fluent in PHP as well as Javascript & jQuery, I'm comfortable with server management via WHM & cPanel as well as MySQL. Lastly, I'm well-versed in most design programs such as Photoshop, Xd, Illustrator, and InDesign with 10+ years experience in each (except Xd, of course).

HTML

CSS

PHP