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Brice Mavillaz
Freelance graphic and web designer

Hello, I'm a freelance graphic and web designer, working in Grenoble and its surroundings in France. From simple showcase websites, logos, graphic charters to full-blown commercial websites, my experience is at your service to promote your activity on the internet. I offer you personalized services and taylor made solutions that will best suit your budget. Wether you're a private individual, an organization or you wish to start a business on the internet, feel free to contact me so we can start chatting about your project.

About

My professional course in three paragraphs

1980->2006 : Begginings

Drawing has always been a second nature for me, and I started thinking about a career in design at a very young age. My baccalaureat in hand, I decided to go for a BTS (a french, short version of college) in visual arts applied to communication. During these studies I strengthened my aptitudes in applied arts and was also taught in diverse trades such as object design, typography, photography and communication techniques. This is where I discovered professional software such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign. After obtaining my diploma in 2013, I immediately started working as a volunteer for my closest relations. Realizing early on the potential of graphic design applied to the internet, I paid for a webmaster course and started learning HTML and CSS, the basis of PHP and was taught how to use Flash and Actionscript. By the end of the training period following this course, I was hired as a web designer for a local devellopment company, 3C Evolution.

2006->2010 : Professionalization

Within this company, I started to get comfortable with the internet and the way in functions; I worked in close collaboration with a solid team of developers, some of which I still work with to this day. Thanks to this company I began learning about the trade's best practices as well as the standards and the realities of the business. I also got the opportunity to start working with video editing softwares and learned about 3D modelling. Throughout the following years, I was hired by some of the best local Ebusiness companies (Mathon, Made in Design, King Jouet...), as a web designer and a front-end developer. My main duties were to update and create visuals for the websites, as well as taking care of the emailing campaigns. During these years I got to work with content management systems such as Magento, and gradually got involved with reporting and SEO techniques, which allowed me to join Made in Design's Emarketing team.

2010-> ... : Independence

In september 2010, I decided to start working as a freelancer. Being comfortable enough with front-end development and graphic design, I started getting serious with SEO techniques and web-hosting. With these disciplines combined I am now completely autonomous to create fully functional websites from scratch. If a job I'm working on requires advanced development skills (such as Ebusiness websites or intranet portals), I team up with a couple of trusted back-end programmers. As a freelancer I worked with private individuals, non-profit organizations, an independent online street-art magazine...if a client wishes to dynamically update his website's content, I use Wordpress so I can work on my own, without requesting help from a programmer. I keep myself updated with the evolution of the trade's technologies, and nowadays I mostly use the Bootstrap framework, FontAwesome, Google Webmaster Tools, Jquery libraries...

For more detailed information about my skills, feel free to check my LinkedIn profile

My skills

To sum it all up, here are my strongest skills and the tools I use
(the percentages are based on personal estimations)

Graphic and web design

90%

My true specialty. I usually start a project with pencils and paper. Once I have the general ideas and layout in place, I switch to Photoshop and I use Illustrator for logos and scalable visuals. I sometimes use a pen tablet, though I prefer good old pencils. I mostly work with color schemes, typography, quality photography, balance and composition. I make my own keyboard shortcuts and customize software to optimize the time I spend on graphic creation.

Front end development

80%

Whether with print or web design, the idea is to balance visual elements with content, in order to make the whole as appealing, coherent and clear as possible. I use Indesign for print and Bootstrap and Dreamweaver for web layouts .In order to add dynamism to the websites I produce, I mostly use Jquery. All my latest websites are responsive and fit the screen of the device you are using to browse them. I also use Wordpress, Google Fonts, cross-browser simulators...

SEO/web-ranking

65%

SEO and web-ranking are trades of their own. I'm nonetheless comfortable enough with these techniques to ensure your website is displayed on the first pages of today's most popular search engines. The website's content is encapsulated with the proper heading tags, and I use natural and indexed web ranking. Thanks to Google Webmaster Tools I can deliver efficient page reporting and analyze the user's behavior, therefore optimize your website's ranking.

Communication/marketing

65%

Communication and Emarketing techniques are also very specific jobs. However I am experienced enough to be able to offer these services to you. Marketing and communication are the founding blocks of any internet project, these are the first aspects we will be working on. The key objective is to promote your presence on the web, competitive audit, definition the proper core target, novelty searches are all essential steps when planning the primary goals and focus of a website.

Services

JMy expertise and professional experience is at your service; do you need a logo, a graphic guideline, printed communication material, a website? Allow me to take care of it, I work quickly and efficiently, using the latest technologies, while remaining affordable and coherent with the limits of your budget. So let's get in touch and start working together!

What I can do for you

The different steps I take when working on a project are usually the following :

Communication strategy

The first step of any project is to start defining a purpose and a communication aspect together. We will use it as a guideline throughout our venture.

Focusing on...: Analysis of current market, audit of competitiveness; Definition of core target and main content; Elaboration of the communication aspect and strategy; Support and advice on the trade's best practices

Design and layout

The next step will be dedicated to the production of visual elements and layout of the content we have agreed on, front-end side of the project.

Focusing on...: Proposal of different design versions; Validation of the final design, image optimization; Development of front end using HTML and CSS; Purchase of domain name, rental of a web hosting service

Ranking and SEO

The last step of the project is centered around web ranking, in order to get the best possible exposure on search engines and maximize hit potential

Focusing on...: Arranging of content through use of proper HTML tags; Natural ranking and creation of backlinks; Creation of robots and adding website to Google database; Reporting and creation of social network pages (optional)