Union in Design: bringing people together around your message

Your message is important and needs to be heard. We give you the design you need to express yourself, your mission, and your purpose. Our goal is to bring your voice into the forefront, and to unite your community around your cause, product or service.

Stephen Marshall

Web Developer, Musician, Yogi, Entrepreneur

Hello! My name is Stephen, I'm 35 and live in Littleton, Colorado. I was born in France, grew up in Washington D.C., and moved to Colorado in 2007. I've been building websites since I moved from Boulder to Denver over 7 years ago. While working in sales for nearly a decade, I began building websites to promote and market my businesses, and started designing logos, business cards, and marketing materials. I shifted my professional focus in my late 20s and went on to work with non-profits and as a teacher of both languages and yoga. As of April 2018 I completed the DU coding bootcamp to take my skills beyond front-end design, and can build full-stack responsive websites and applications

I believe that every business needs an online presence. I've deployed a number of websites in the past 7 years, and am currently developping an app to assist with scheduling and taking payments from private clients.

While I specialize in helping out healers, artists, yoga & fitness instructors, non-profits, and local businesses in the Denver Metro area, I also have experience in sales and marketing in number of different industries. I know what your clients are looking for, and can help put your business on the map!

Your message can create big changes. Our aim is to help you spread the word, and with your success we can change the world around us. Contact Us to make sure your voice is heard!

Skills

I started out building websites in Dreamweaver and using Photoshop and the Adobe Suite of programs to manipulate images and create logos, business cards, flyers and marketing materials. From here it was a quick jump to hard coding my first website in HTML and CSS back in 2011. Learning to work with Bootstrap was a game changer, and with responsive design came JavaScript and jQuery.

While I lean towards the MERN stack and UI/UX design with both React and AngularJS, I've added a number of languages and libraries to my toolbelt over the years, including back-end with NodeJS & Express server, AJAX, and a number of NPM packages. I've built databases with MySQL and MongoDB and have incorporated cloud databasing like AWS and Firebase. I'm currently working on apps with a number of APIs involved including Social Media, Spotify, Google Maps and Google Calendar

Front End

Exp 7 years

Back End

Exp 2 years

UI/UX

Exp 1 year

Learning Coding Languages and libraries

It's now easier than ever to build your own website using a pre-built template that you can customize to your liking. Depending on your project, I can help you go live in a few hours! However, I've found that for a lot of my clients who are on their own, and on a budget, page-bulding programs like Wix or Squarespace are great...if you ever finish! Meanwhile, there's plenty of developers who charge upwards of $3,000 - $5,000 for a Wordpress site that is 'easy to edit and maintain' if you can keep all of your widgets working together. While these have their merits, ultimately you have no control over the code that runs your website, giving you less ability to customize the look and feel of your web presence, and sometimes costing more money in subscription fees than a traditional site would.

While I am developping an app to help make a website affordable for everyone, I would implore you to learn some of the basics! My clients that have maintained their online presence the longest are the ones who learned to keep with the times. With the rate technologies and trends change, you could spend a lot of money on a site that simply looks dated in less than two years, and there's nothing worse for your business than a boring, ugly website remiscent of the America Online days!

HTML5

CSS3

Adobe

JavaScript

jQuery

Bootstrap

NodeJS

Express

MySQL

MongoDB

React

AngularJS

PHP

Experience

Work History

I have made many stops along the way to becoming a web developer. I caught the tail-end of the real estate boom in 2006 and worked as mortgage broker in DC before moving West, and continued in Academic Recruiting, and as a French speaking account Manager for Crocs Footwear in Boulder. When the economy was at a low in 2011 I shifted gears and started working with non-profit organizations, and started teaching youth and adults. As I transitioned toward teaching languages (French, English), tutoring High School students, and eventually becoming a yoga teacher, I continued to build websites, all the while applying the skills and knowledge I had picked up along the way.

Sales

2005 - 2012

Having worked in sales for a variety of different industries including real estate, home improvement, fitness, travel etc. I know what your prospective customers are looking for.

Non-profit

2007 - 2015

Non-profits do so much to support our local community, and some have very few resources at their disposal. I am committed to offering my services at a discount to those who do the same for others.

Music & Art

1996 - present

I've been playing in bands since I was 14. You need a website that's easy to maintain. If you don't have control over regular updates to add photos, new artwork, or your upcoming gigs, then I can help you get organized.

Yoga & Fit

2011 - present

As a yoga teacher and fitness professional, I know the need to market yourself to build your following. Let me help spread the word about your class schedule updates, other modalities you teach, and other healing services or products.

Portfolio

My clients include yoga instructors, artits, healers, and friends. Coming soon are websites for local Denver healers and massage therapist, a bandpage for Sol Authority, as well as a new template made specifically for yoga teachers!