Gary L. Hurd
Web Developer
Web Developer
Hello, my name is Gary L. Hurd.
I am a Web Developer.
I am passionate about the poetry of coding
and designing for the web.
My journey as a web developer began when certain aspects of websites online felt like they could be improved. I mentioned my critiques to my friends and they asked me if I could do better. The question got me thinking that perhaps I could do better! I set out to learn web design, thru online courses and bootcamps. What I learned is that developing for the web and implementing the changes I envisioned is much more challenging than I could have imagined it would be. Over time I have continued to hone my skills and gain the knowledge and expertise to turn my vision into reality: to turn code into something of beauty, simplicity, and poetry; to convey information while providing an immersive experience that is pleasing to the senses.
The pandemic has been an opportunity for me to take stock and define what is meaningful and true to me including following my dream of becoming a web developer. Among other things, it has been a time to follow my instincts about and grow in terms of developing applications for the web. My goal is to remain grounded in an aesthetic and coding style that is clean, simple, and streamlined reflecting the core or heart of who I am and what my work is all about at its best.
As a student of web development, I have learned the rules and built my foundation in the basics which I am eager to continue applying in developing sites and applications for the web that are dynamic, impactful, effective and aesthetically pleasing. HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are the basis for bringing together my vision as a web developer, one page, site and app at a time.
As an example, when developing and designing my portfolio, I was careful to adopt clean, clear lines and allow "breathing room". Rather than appear cluttered, I wanted information to be readily accessible and accented by a soft color palette and easily readable text. It was important to me that the site be balanced, have proper flow, and tell my story. My portfolio reflects my design philosophy and a number of the qualities I aspire to as a web developer and hope to continue to apply and bring to my work and career going forward.
RBJPBH is a very special website I created after the passing of my best friend.
HTML, CSS
This site was created using HTML and CSS as a project to practice my HTML and CSS skills and to allow the reader to share in the story of myself and Ryan. The details of this site, from the color, to the font choices, to the layout we all chosen to create a pleasurable experience for the site visitor.
The colors are soft, the font is easy to read, there is no jumping around. The site flows and allows the vistor to read and share in the life of my amazing friend, much like Ryan was in life. He was a calm dog, friendly, inviting, and easy to be around. I expressed all those qualities of Ryan through his website.
My portfolio website, created to express who I am as a Web Developer and as a person.
HTML, CSS, Bootstrap
My portfolio was designed to express as much of myself as a Web Developer and as a person, with where I am today and where I plan to take myself in my new career.
When creating the UX for my portfolio, my goal was to show who I am as a beginning Web Developer in the first stage of my new career. At the beginning of my career, I am following the fundamentals of design, code and technologies in my skillset. As I grow, my portfolio will show my growth as a Web Developer. I do not see my learning stopping when I "land" my first job.
After much delibertion, I decided to add a "deeper dive" about myself in my portfolio. I ask that potential employers and clients take the time to read this section. Please take the time to get to know more about me, as I will be taking the time to know more about my future employers and clients.
A Guide to creating a freshwater aquarium.
HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, JavaScript, NodeJS, MongoDB, Express, Mongoose, Sessions, Passport, BCrypt, Body-Parser
FreshH2O-101 is undoubtly my biggest undertaking as a Web Developer. I created this site with a dual purpose. The first, I wanted a really awesome, full-stack website to showcase in my portfolio. I wanted to know every aspect of web development from an idea, to UX/UI designing, to researching of the content, to the coding of the HTML, then the CSS, using JS on the frontend, choosing the right size aquarium with a budget and placement, and then building the backend with a database for user profiles, calculating user budgets, recording of water parameters, to scheduling maintenance, to uploading images of the progress of their aquarium. Right now, The frontend is done and the backend is still in development.
FreshH2O-101 is my proudest achievment at this point. I had this idea, I created the concept, I designed what I wanted the site to look like, how I wanted users to use this site, the flow of the site, and to learn how to develope the backend to make a full stack web application. At this point, I am proud of the work so far and will be exceptionally proud when this project is finished. This is not a project that I coded along in a bootcamp or a tutorial. This is a project where I am doing the work to take from development to production. From this learning, I can be an integral part of any development team.
Gary Lou's Tetris Game is a project I did to practice my vanilla JavaScript skills.
HTML, CSS, JavaScript
To practice my JavaScript skills, I did this Tetris game that was similar to one of the games in the Scrimba Frontend Bootcamp. I found this to be a great exercise in practing my JavaScript skills, and it is a fun game to play.
Clear View Escapes is the project for a Udemy course for Mastering the Modern Workflow.
HTML, CSS, JavaScript, NodeJS, NPM, Webpack, BEM
I purchsed this course on Udemy to learn about the modern workflow as a Web Developer. This study provided a great insite to role of a web developer, especially as part of a team and the role as a team developer. This course was fast-paced and taught me a lot about how to code a site from scratch, using BEM to style a website, how to use images in different sizes and resolutions, how to take into account data on mobile devices, the role of webpack, using NPM and NodeJS. Great course, I will be referring back to my notes during my career. I may go back and add actual text to this site instead of the lorem.
MidSummer Movie Madness Series is one of my first (& cringiest) sites I designed.
HTML, CSS, Bootstrap
I wanted to practice some of my skills as a web designer and thought I was badass with this site. This site is campy and fun. Is it a great site? NO! But it does show my journey on my new career path. One thing I do love about this site, is that it is fun, and when I designed it, I realy just went for it, not really having any foundation or clue about what I was going, but I had fun and it gave me something to be passionate about and to learn all the nuances of web development, especially since I thought I just wanted to be a web designer and there is so much more.
