Sterling P. Sanders

Skip navigation

• résumé
• journalism
• graphic-design
• web-design

Highlighted works (or see all works)

Grant Thornton Rebrand

In the fall of 2007, the national US and London branch of Grant Thornton LLP collaborated with a design and architecture firm called Pentagram to completely rebrand the number four professional services (accountancy) firm in the world. I was involved as a third party National Brand and Digital Marketing consultant from concept to completion.

I was tasked with streamlining workflow and facilitating the development of internal and external, analog and digital marketing materials. During which, I acted as lead on production projects, took ideas from concept to completion, built training materials, and conceptualized brand collateral in accordance with management goals. Eventually, I helped them transition to, and implement, a new worldwide brand identity, and design their online presence. Together, we also implemented new, more efficient, more consistent design methodologies throughout their entire US marketing division.

I aided U.S. Implementation of brand and website redesign. Consulted with Pentagram and Vignette to finalize front end design, user experience, features and display elements. Helped implement and optimize custom Vignette Portal CMS and SEO systems. Designed editorial images and icons. Post-processed entire US Partner photos for online presentation. Google API integration. Also worked on html ecomms email designs and exact target customer database and tracking.

Vignette, XHTML, CSS, JS, PHP. Illustrator, Photoshop, Indesign.

Mygamer.com 3.0

I spent eight years in a progressively managerial roll, dealing with interactive media at an online video game publication, managing a staff of 67 in full website operation. During my time there, I learned how to execute every role. From business relations, to site analytics, to interactive marketing, production, design and community outreach. I helped increase the market readership of the site more than twenty times its original size. I gained stronger industry support by developing new contacts and relations with major videogame publishers, developers and retailers. I represented the company in daily business and at global trade shows; I negotiated ad contracts and increased ad revenues by more than 200% year over year, and also tripled content coverage and community support.

My accomplishments there are a testament to my versatility. Using my passions as a catalyst, I learned about video games and online media from the ground up and parlayed the two into a successful business. I thrive on challenge and in perpetually changing environments.

For this site I acted as information architect, front end interaction/user interface designer and art director. I helped custom mod PHP-NUKE CMS to our needs. Upgraded site to PHP5. Acted as lead on site redesign, developed flow models, interaction concept sketches, wireframes, mockups and test prototypes. Helped transition previous data and content to new system.

Php-NUKE, XHTML, CSS, JS, PHP, SQL. Illustrator, Photoshop.

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, College of Communications Web Portal

As a graduate of the College of Communications for UIUC, it was an honer to help bring their website into the current day. I helped implement a new clean xhtml/css based design to update my Alma Maters web representation. After a fellow student had digitally redone a large amount of the content and design of the site, I help finalize the details of implementation and clean up.

I aided static the concept/design prototypes, and content creation. Helped create and streamline custom cms, and collaborated with the administration to write and edit the content.

XHTML, CSS, PHP, Flash, Javascript. Illustrator, Photoshop.

Silver's Personal Blog

Meant to be an online journal/scrapbook for myself, and is slowly turning into more. Having both a personal and tech review section, the development of the site is certainly evolving from the original concept. The idea was formulated from having an online sketchbook where I could write about things that interested me to show myself later. I wanted to make a site look more like a notebook than a website. I feel it's conveyed quite well in the multilayer design. Once again the color scheme is black, white and grey (or silver) as a representation of my favorite color elements -- or lack thereof depending on your opinion. The site is an amalgam of XHTML, PHP and CSS, based on Wordpress with customized plugins. All of the pages are dynamically created with PHP and Wordpress 2.8 under valid XHTML (content) and CSS (structure and styling). The design is elegant and clean.

Wordpress, XHTML, PHP and CSS abilities.

Becky Yi Portfolio

Becky is an interior designer I met through a certain film editor I know. She was looking for a basic online portfolio, and I decided to make her something special. This site is based around interactivity and discovery. The site engages a lightweight, clean and slick moving javascript that is meant to open and hide information. The design encourages experimentation, and allows the user to see a quick snap shot of a substantial portion of her work.

The shit however has not been completed, because, though the design is finished, explanatory content, and person information were to be decided, and Becky already got the job she was looking for (in Shanghai no less). So when she needs me again, I'll complete it.

XHTML, CSS, JS, jQuery. Illustrator, Photoshop, Indesign.

Claridge Health

This was a quick one off site for an elderly healthcare center that essentially wanted to turn their current brochures into a web page. All static content with accessible options. The site was more an exercise in graphic design than it was web development. It ended up being very appropriate for the size and amount of content. All graphics created thanks to Illustrator, always there for me when I need it.

XHTML, CSS. Illustrator, Photoshop, Indesign.

Myspace Account

With over 54 million users, Myspace is officially the most popular online community on the internet. Intermix Media, owner of Myspace.com, was recently bought by News Corp (owned by Fox Interactive) for $580m. Myspace, however can also claim the title to the worst coded website seen online in the last 6 years. It's code base consists of a nasty and unorganized hodge podge of basic HTML 4.01 transitional. And because this is a community site, and people simply just love to individualize their alter-electronic-egos, it allows you to customize your page to you. With your own individual information, backgrounds, amazing colored borders and flashing pictures alike. However, there is a community of web designers who took upon themselves, the task of going beyond normal ability and effort.

So using this disgusting code and coping with an inordinate amount of restraints (can't use scripts, embedded objects, frames, etc), these special few created what I consider real web designs. My effort to join the fray was a fun romp of about 4 days of complete annoyance. Creating a website with myspace code is like creating the Venus de Milo with petrified cow dung, difficult to say the least. I took it as a task of designing with all of my limbs bound, or better yet, severed. And the end result is rather impressive. Embedded flash photo-gallery piece, css div overlays, image replacement, and on the backend there is a clear seperation of content from presentation. Whoever would have thought you could do so much with CSS and HTML. Of course creating a website with that code is very dumb, limiting, frustrating, and much more difficult than necessary. Hopefully, I shall not be doing it again, hopefully. I'd like to thank my best friend on the project for it's invaluable assitence, Absolute Positioning.

HTML, CSS.

I-Elect.com

I-ELECT was a multimedia political reporting project in conjunction with the University of Illinois College of Communications. The project was undertaken by students in a journalism class and has been overseen by Department of Journalism faculty. The group of students organized in a newsroom to produce print, online and broadcast products. The group also conducted a scientific survey to drive its reporting. The idea behind the project was students covering students. The Daily Illini, WPGU-FM 107.1, WILL-AM 580 and others assisted with the project. I was the web developer for this media convergence project. We implemented the radio show and all written materials into the website, along with verbal quotes an moving flash sound bites. The purpose of the site was to create a completely converged feel and interactivity into the subject we were covering, a students view of the 2004 elections.

Gameunit.com 2.0

In need of a massive update from its original rudimentary design, we decided to update our original site while starting a new one (Mygamer.com). And while Mygamer got the full brunt of our efforts of penetrating the videogame publication market, I felt the need to create a highly appealing design inspired by one of my favorite magazines of all time, Gamers Republic. Really, in terms of navigation and online features, this site was of the most basic kind, but there was something about the use of elegant color coordination, and crisp graphics that created an appealing, attractive and effective site. I served as senior editor hear, along with data base management and writing.

Mygamer.com 1.5

This version of MyGamer ended up being the true and natural form of our new effort. It ended up being more graphically representative, along with a full forum, a reviews, previews, downloads, editorials, and members implementation all automatically controlled and managed. The focus came off of technical design and was placed on important content. Like any organization, drama ran rampant, and it was with this site that I was promoted to Managing Editor. And while I still wrote reviews (some of which were recognized by much bigger sites bringing us a huge amount of new viewers) and did graphical elements on the site, my main job was staff organization, public relations, news, editing and publication deadlines. While life became a large deadline, managed between a staff of 30+, public relations became an important roll in the site. Without the content to back our (at the time) magnificent new design, we would be lost. So I attracted over 150 videogame publishers, developers and hardware manufactures to do business with us so we could have content to review. It was a feat of the most impressive kind.

← Back ↑ Top