Hello, I am
Donovan Kelly
I am an UI/UX Designer with a splash of front-end magic.
Projects
think creative. Be creative. Redesign the world.
My Journey
My enthusiasm for the arts began when I was a child. I constantly loved to draw and sing. I would find random items to draw and make doodles of. Despite my early and sustained interest, I did not initially consider pursuing the arts as a career until High School. I was naturally drawn to art and computer science courses and took them each semester. This exposed me to a wider variety of creative fields and helped me refine my interests. Finally, in 11th grade, I discovered my passion for creating logos, brochures, letterheads, and other print design material. It was then that I knew I wanted to pursue graphic design as a career.
After High School, I chose to attend the Art Institute of Washington because I liked its community and felt that I would be able to discover more about the world of design.
After High School, I chose to attend the Art Institute of Washington because I liked its community and felt that I would be able to discover more about the world of design.
It was an amazing experience to work alongside and collaborate with like-minded designers and artists. My peers’ influence introduced me to new ways of thinking and enabled me to learn how to collaborate productively; and my professors shaped my perspective on design and instilled a sense of determination in producing my best work.
After graduating, I began working at Starlite Studios, a small advertising and event planning studio. This is where I did most of my freelance work and worked with clients to make logo branding, websites, banners, and graphics for events.
In 2014, I began working as a Graphic Designer for an Information Technology government contractor named Astor & Sanders Corporation. While working at Astor & Sanders, I created graphics for company proposals, updated the company website, created trade show booths, and produced marketing collateral. I was also able to help the company on a contract we had with National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). One of our hires had resigned, leaving open a critical vacant position as Web Designer. I was delegated to fulfill the role temporarily, demonstrating my ability to quickly and seamlessly adapt into new roles and environments. While at NOAA, I launched a website that was scheduled to go live only a week after I was hired as a temp; maintained the company’s website; updated our news section; and help begin the website’s transition into Drupal.
Finally, in 2018, I began working as a Junior Web Developer/UI designer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s CO-OPs division. I was responsible for redesigning their website, designing other apps, and completing design work for the communications team. At this time, I was also doing freelance work for the Reston Runway to The Cure event and other various clients.
As for my future, I would like to one day further myself as a UI/UX designer and learn much more about the art and design of web applications. However, for now, I will use the knowledge I have to coordinate with clients and future employers to achieve their company goals and bring new knowledge to their best practices.
If you would like to collaborate, view my resume here and email me below.
Hunger:
The Burger Joint
Client Background: An up and coming burger restaurant with a homestyle, specializing in creating an atmosphere that gives a “homey” vibe. Using their signature sauce, they set out to redefine what a burger means to you. With a monthly contest to see who can create the “burger of the month.”
Project Overview: The goal for this project is to create corporate brand that people will remember and automatically be drawn to. A logo, a website with several landing pages, and a menu page that will bring their vision of the ultimate burger joint to the world. The site will provide the feeling of how it would feel to be within the storefront location.
Other Projects:
Tides and Currents
Client Background: NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) is the authoritative source for accurate, reliable, and timely tides, water levels, currents, and other coastal oceanographic and meteorological information.
Project Overview: The goal for this project was to redesign the old Tides and Currents website with a more modern look and feel. It existed of creating a new landing page, about section, and a news section to the site. The news section would be generated by WordPress RESTful API and imported to the webpage dynamically. The news page would be automatically generated without the need of touching any of the API or JavaScript code. The client would only need to insert the proper information as a post into WordPress for each post to generate.
View Site Here
Other Projects:
Runway to The Cure
Client Background: Reston Runway to the Cure, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that stages an annual fashion “runway” event in the Reston Town Center to raise funds for national breast cancer research and local patient assistance programs. This exciting event brings together merchants, corporations and families from our community who share the common goals of finding a cure for breast cancer and supporting those who are fighting their personal battles.
Project Overview: The goal for this project is to create a website for the event, Runway to the cure. The developer’s role was to create several landing pages for the event as well as a donation button that will allow users to donate to breast cancer awareness. The design was based off of the color scheme of the logo as well as being able to display the victories shared by these survivors of breast cancer.
View Site Here
Other Projects:
Systems Integration & Development
Client Background: Founded in 1991, Systems Integration & Development, Inc. (SID) delivers state-of-the-art, cost-effective solutions to public and private sector clients. We are dedicated to helping organizations harness the power of information and technology.
Project Overview: Create a Trade Show display and marketing material for the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Convention. With this project we decided to go a different route with the design. The focus of the Trade Show was to find new clients and hires for our company. The concept of this branding package was centered around our slogan “Making Science Better Through Information Technology.” We decided not to go with the generic dark blue colors and went with a white setting to complement the lack of light in the convention. The products were a banner backdrop, complementing table cloth, a brochure, bookmarks, PowerPoint Presentation, business cards, and swag. I kept the cohesive branding colors of the company throughout the marketing material while incorporating my own design flare to it.
Other Projects:
Windchester Ciderworks
Client Background: Founded in 2012, Winchester Ciderworks makes handcrafted Virginia hard cider with apples from our own orchard. Come visit our newly renovated tasting room! Our mission is to produce quality handcrafted hard cider with apples from our orchards in the Shenandoah Valley.
Project Overview: Create a Flyer for the new 52 Hard Cider and a Table top Display for their line of Malice. After looking over previous company and competitor designs, I was able to come up with a concept that is not only modern but appealing to the audience. The cider was made with Black currant and apple cider. I decided to create a composition where you were able to see the cider, it’s ingredients, and a brief description of it.
Other Projects:
Astor and Sanders Corporation
Client Background: Astor & Sanders Corporation (Astor) is a woman-owned, small disadvantaged business, headquartered in Rockville, MD that provides information technology services to a variety of federal clients. They aim to provide the best people, industry-recognized processes, and leading-edge tools to support the entire spectrum of information technology needs.
Project Overview: The goal of this project was to update the company’s website to make it more current with today’s website design to gain more clients, employees, and partners.
View Site Here
Other Projects:
True Performance
Client Background: Founded in 2008, True Performance is an online dealership with a unique look and a great customer service rating. They specialize in bringing you new and used cars at low prices with awesome customer satisfaction. I was in charge of developing their new site UI.
Project Overview: The goal for this project was to bring a new design look to their online business. Their company colors are blue, grey, and white. They wanted a design that shows exactly what the vehicle is capable of. The audience can view the car, it’s interior specs and different models available.
Other Projects:
Endangered Species Administration
Client Background: Founded in 1986, the Endangered Species Administration, has set out to help endangered species across the world. They wanted to give even more knowledge to its audience on the web. To do that, I was entrusted to design a UI to help them launch their endangered species section of their website.
Project Overview: After my research, I wanted to make the information look like it was in an endangered species book. Where it shows the animal as a toddler and as a full grown adult. Each page gives a couple of paragraphs about the animal as well as the scientific fact sheet about each.
Other Projects:
