About Me

Jen Vasseur Designs is owned and operated by Jennifer Vasseur out of Newington, CT. I have worked professionally in web design and development since 2003 working in everything from non-profit, industry, education and even Casinos. I code using HTML, CSS, JavaScript (including jQuery), PHP and MySQL. I also have experience with CMS development including WordPress and Drupal. Have a website project? Fill out the request form to get a project quote. Just want to talk? There are many ways to reach me on the contact page. I look forward to talking with about you website needs.

Professionally I love design and code that is clean, simple and usable. I'm not a fan of Flash but I love HTML5 and jQuery. When I have free time I still like to design websites for fun and to test the limits of my skills. I am a perfectionist. I am that person that will continue to tweak until it's just right. I don't settle for second best. I am constantly surfing the web for ideas and inspiration and most of all to learn something new. I love web design books and blogs too.

Personally I am an admitted nerd. I love to read. Some of my favorite authors being Sarte, Kafka, China Mieville, Chuck Palahniuk, Jasper Fforde and David Sadris. I love anime and manga and I'm a video game geek. I like to sew and crochet. I've also been told I'm a pretty good cook. I am a huge music fan and one of the biggest Radiohead fans you are likely to meet but also love listening to Modest Mouse, Muse, Arcade Fire, Silversun Pickups, Pink Floyd and Interpol to name a few. I love to listen to music while coding. I get some of my best inspirations from the music I love. I have a quirky and silly sense of humor. I am fiercely loyal. I live in Newington with my husband and my two kitties.

Giving Credit Where it's Due

I didn't come up with all this stuff by myself and I use a lot of great websites and resources to help me with my web designs. Here are some of the ones I used in the making of this site.

Icons
I stink at making icons, particularly small ones. The social media icons came from the amazing work of Paul Robert Lloyd and the navigation icons came from the awesomeness at Icon Dock.

Navigation & Portfolio
While I work on my own JavaScript and jQuery solutions when I can, sometimes I come across a solution so perfect I just need to edit it to my needs. Codrops is one of those places that offers me so much inspiration, either for things I need to create or creates something so perfect it barely needs to be touched. I found the amazing bubble navigation idea (which was implemented with minimal edits as it was already so perfect for my design, it just needed some cross browser and usability tweaks) as well as the code and inspiration for my portfolio. Only problem with this site is I always want to build something new.

Front Page Slider
There are so many slider solutions out there to choose from that creating one from scratch these days is almost a waste of time, but which one is the best? For me hands down it's Nivo Slider. They even have Drupal and WordPress plugins ready to go! This slider is a timesaver and a lifesaver. Elegant and easy to install and I adore it.