What It Is
Web design is not just about designing things that look pretty, it's about designing things that work well. With 8 years working in web design I have an in depth understanding of web history, an intuitive grasp of how it can be used and  architectural expertise in how it should work.

What I Did
I've worked in the industry ever since college, when my quick grasp of Photoshop and Illustrator landed me a job as the design professor's assistant.  Furthering my education with paid internships at design firms, I developed the coding skills (HTML, CSS) and the technical speed necessary to be a professional web designer. I used these skills part-time for years, editing company websites, making banners and eventually decided to make my own website www.bikeclubosaka.com.

Wait, There's More!
These days I concentrate more on site architecture, Web2.0 functionality and community management than programming; I'll leave that to those more specialized and, quite frankly, more interested, than I.

Portfolio 
Experience

BikeClubOsaka,    2004 - 2008
Creator, Marketing Director, Community Manager - There were two BikeClubOsaka sites: 1.0 and 2.0., technical duties for both included: Apache test-server installation / configuration, MySQL database creation / management, CMS selection, web-host selection, website design / construction, HTML, CSS and PHP coding / editing, web-advertising delivery system integration, newsletter delivery system integration, and 'user experience' testing. For managerial duties please see http://erikarcher.synthasite.com/bikeclubosaka.php

Respond2 Communications,    Summer 2001
Jr. Designer - Duties included photo manipulation, email-marketing template editing, copy-writing, and web-video optimization.

Plumbline Studios,    Summer 2000
Jr. Designer - Jr. Designer - Duties included: advertising mock-ups, web-site edits, copy-writing, and digital-image manipulation. Closely followed creative guidelines of Sr. Designer to design and build a new website for Keep Tahoe Blue; project entailed site wire-frame construction, graphic design, page-template creation, and HTML site construction.