Brian Poulsen is a creative professional with over eight years experience in Web design and development. He is responsible for creating award winning, engaging and highly useable Web sites for many small businesses, non-profit organizations and multi-national corporations. Brian’s strong work ethic, sense of humor and attention to detail keeps clients motivated, engaged and involved in projects from conception to completion.
My name is Brian and I created this Web site to introduce myself and provide a brief look at my Web design and creative work. Please take a moment to view some of my Web development projects or download my current resumé. You may also e-mail me or contact me by filling out the online form.
Professional Bio
Love what you do and do what you love is the simple concept I’ve followed throughout my professional career. My parents were always supportive of this and encouraged me when I decided to pursue a career in fine art. I had dreams of being an illustrator since high school and follow in the footsteps of my heroes, Vallejo, Vargas, Sorayama, Frezetta and Fredrickson.
College did a fantastic job providing me with the tools and fundamentals of a fine artist. I enjoyed many opportunities at UW Parkside, including working on a two-story sculpture that still graces the wall of the Student Union today. I did well with the coursework, graduating with honors and even winning a coveted art purchase award, so I felt confident leaving school and seeking employment as a graphic designer and illustrator. Unfortunately, by 1994, the graphic design world was almost completely computerized and no longer dependant on the traditional art methods in which I was trained. Ironically, in my four years of college, I never once turned on a computer.
I worked as a picture framer and airbrush artist while attending Gateway Technical College to gain the computer skills required in the evolving graphic design field. Luckily I had a long-time love and natural talent when it came to computers. I guess this goes all the way back to grade school when I would program simple video games in Basic on my Apple IIe. This skill was probably abandoned sometime in high school when I discovered cars, girls and a love for drawing. Thankfully, the computer knowledge came back to me quickly; like riding a bike, I guess you never forget.
My first job out of college was working as a graphic designer, page layout artist and illustrator for Communication Concepts Unlimited (CCU) in Racine, Wisconsin. My duties also included upgrading and maintaining the 20+ mixed-platform (Mac and PC) computer network and servers. When clients started asking for Web sites, I was all too eager to start coding HTML.
The first professional Web site I built was for the largest working international construction equipment trade show in the world, www.icuee.com. This was the first time ICUEE was to have an online presence and the site turned out to be an overwhelming success, with more than 75% of attendees registering for the show online. I saw this as a perfect opportunity to start a completely new department at CCU. I was fortunate enough to have forward-thinking colleagues who shared this vision, so I launched my new department and Web development was added to our list of marketing services.
Seeing this as a major growth opportunity, I was given the unique chance to expand my Web development skills by learning first-hand from the most respected pioneers in the industry, Jeffrey Zeldman, Hal Helms, Kelly Goto, Vincent Flanders, Danny Sullivan and even the Internet curmudgeon himself, Jakob Nielsen. In fact I learned more about Web site usability in two hours with Jakob Nielsen than I did in two years of on-the-job training.
Malcolm Marketing Communications, a Madison, Wisconsin based marketing agency, purchased CCU in 1998. Our new company, armed with an ever-growing skill set and a staff of two more very talented Web designers, created many engaging, high-profile Web sites over the next few years. Among these were All Saints Healthcare, the largest Healthcare System in Southeastern Wisconsin, and Putzmeister America, the largest manufacturer of concrete placing equipment in the world. But it was the conception of the online media kit that garnered the most praise and attention. Created to help deliver media assets to dealers and publications, the online media kits saved clients thousands of man hours, became the cornerstone in our company’s Web portfolio and received numerous industry awards each year.
One of the biggest mistakes Web developers and Web firms commit is to stop innovating. The internet evolves as technology changes and it’s our job as developers to respond to these changes. I continue to expand my knowledge of scripting languages, object-oriented programming, Fusebox development methodology, database design, CSS layout and AJAX. Recent projects involving RSS feeds and XML are quickly becoming standard fare. Within the past year, I’ve also been highly involved in developing Web sites and content management systems for two very popular podcasts. Evolving technologies such as these are what initially got me interested in Web development as a career and keep me excited to be involved in this industry to this day.