Freelance Front-End/Client-Side UI Web Developer in Manchester, UK - John Kavanagh

We could sit here and exchange acronyms and names of the various front-end (and web) technologies that I'm proficient in all morning but chances are, if you're more of a visual (or impatient) person like I am, this website itself will serve as a better demonstration of my passion for what I do best. If you need more convincing and you haven't already, be sure to check out my portfolio and if you are so inclined, feel free to take a poke around my source code to get a feel of how I go about things.

There are numerous ways of describing what I do, 'front-end web developer', 'front-end engineer', or 'UI/UX developer' are the most common titles for the agency-type environments I generally work in but I've also been called a 'client-side developer', an 'HTML/CSS/JavaScript Developer', a 'CSS guru', an 'HTML monkey', an 'HTMLer' and a few more obscure or choice titles.

It all boils down to the same thing: I write the markup that makes websites look and behave the way they do. I'm the guy who adds nice rounded corners, gradients, drop shadows, and fade effects that are popular in 'web 2.0' design; I'm the one cutting up and optimising graphics to ensure that the pages load as quickly as possible; and I'm the guy who makes sure that the website works regardless of the browser or device used to view the site.

I also build HTML emails, know my way around the templates and views of numerous web languages and frameworks (including PHP, .NET and Django), have a really good understanding of search engine optimisation, and specialise in accessibility. I strive in busy environments and on interesting projects, do everything I can to keep abreast of emerging technologies and new online trends, and I'm always happy to impart my knowledge to those who ask for it.

Originally I specialised 3D design/animation, post-production for television, and DVD authoring in a little animation studio in the hills above Manchester and below the Pennines. When clients started asking for websites to accompany their television campaigns and educational DVDs, I quickly discovered a pasion for web development and making sure that those websites 'worked' online. At the time Internet Explorer 6 was king and front-end development was in a phase of transformation from archaic in-line styles and tables to the HTML5 and CSS3 emerging today. I saw this conflict of standards and emerging techniques as a challenge and have spent the past eight years learning, developing, testing, cursing at IE, and developing again. I've now been hand-coding in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for the past eight years.

I've worked for several big-name companies and on countless household-name brands - the most salient of which at the moment would be a number of projects for the London 2012 Olympic Games with Cisco. I work obsessively with a keen eye for detail and - some say - a mild case of OCD. There's nothing I like better than getting my teeth sunk into a new project and showing people how it's done.

Apart from all of that: I'm a qualified rally driver, an every-day petrolhead, I listen to a lot of music and often enjoy it quite loud, I watch movies and American TV shows, I try and get to as many gigs as possible, occasionally I turn my hand to cooking (and most often end up setting food substances alight), I play Mario Kart and Goldeneye (and I'm quite good), I'm a published author, I appreciate good-quality whiskeys and dark rums (and then ruin them by adding coke), I like to travel to hot climates where they don't speak English. I'm heavily dependant on caffeine, and I regularly function on less than four hours sleep a night.