Colton Hornstein

I'm Colton Hornstein, a web and graphics designer specializing in minimalistic, unobtrusive creations. If you already love my work and want to get started working together, here is my rate sheet and my e-mail address is colton.hornstein@gmail.com. In the off chance that isn't the case (yet), read on.

When designing a website I like to keep in mind the customer who is actually going to be using the site, and what they want. While it is still very important that a website look the way its owner imagined and approves of, the ultimate goal of a site is to give the customer the information they need to buy your product or service.

This site is split into three parts: The first is my thought process behind websites including some of my previous work. The second includes examples of my design and photography. The last section is everything else, including side projects like cinematography, writing, fitness, and social networks.

Mobile and Websites

Compatibility

Before anything else can happen, your website needs to be compatible with every kind of device and browser. It needs to work for Safari on iPhone and for Internet Explorer on your Grandma's ancient home computer.

Analytics

While a lot of developers can't manage even that, just completing the basics isn't going to excite you or your customers. A good website also needs the right information - contact info, hours, examples of work - displayed in eye-catching and memorable ways. A great website needs to be tracked, with Analytics. You need to know how many customers are visiting your site, what exactly they're looking at, and how they got there in the first place, so that you can drive them where you want them to go.

360° Projects

With all that in mind, I provide a beginning-to-end service for every website: Domain (URL) registration, hosting, web design, setup, e-mail addresses (if requested), and analytics setup and integration. Actual web design is just one part of many for a successful website, but it is the most exciting: this is the phase where custom image galleries with zooming, Google maps with auto-fill directions, and all the other unique features come in.

Portfolio

Some examples of my work are availabile here. While I do my best to explain the work - and the ensuing price - of the websites I've worked on, every website is different. I reserve the right to increase my price beyond my estimate depending on factors including, but not limited to: extensive changes, multiple requests, and increasing time-involvment.

Design

Branding

I believe in minimalistic design with a consistent theme. When the same image is used in different ways, it helps customers associate that image with your brand and will cement you in their mind. A design needs to be strong for on and offline advertisements, and effective in all media formats from websites to newspapers, business cards to restaurant menus.

Photography

I can also provide photography services for your business, including product promo photos, location photos, and event photography. I'm very professional in the field and work well under deadlines - often self-motivated to finish a project well before the due date so that additional design iterations can be produced if required.

Writing

I have a writing background of over 7 years in copyediting and creative writing. I can write the text for your website or design an exciting narrative for your customers to read as they follow through your site.

Menus

I also design restaurant menus.

Other

All of Me

Even in my free time, I love to work. Below are the numerous projects I work on in my free time, in my effort to become more well-rounded - mentally, artistically, and physically.

Pokemon Posters

Like most people, I loved the Pokemon video game series when they came out years ago. A more current popular trend is motivational posters. Combining two of my favourite things I create a series of Pokemon Posters.

Liora, the webcomic

In an effort to expand my writing repetoire I took on a web comic project with a friend of mine as the artist. If you know anything about webcomics then you know that many of them take a long time to get off the ground. Liora is currently only 10ish pages long but the art and story are still being developed - the project is still being worked on.

DeviantArt Revu

I've never had much realistic art talent (it's all in geometry and design) but I set out to improve that. Every day for a few months I found a new piece to critique on my blog DARevu. I made sure to see a positive and a negative in every piece. It gave me the side benefit of increasing my research skills, as I wrote a small bio on every artist. More importantly I acquired a great knowledge base and new ideas for creative works of my own.

Day Job

During weekdays I work at Inland Storage (website by me), a vehicle storage facility that is expanding into mini-storage. The business was my idea and I did most of the research into its viability. Investors had a sawmill that was losing them money, so we gutted the sawmill and store vehicles there instead. Said sawmill is where I live now, too!

Get Out!

While we were cleaning out the sawmill for the storage business, there was an opportunity to film a movie. In the span of a week, Joey Clarkson and I came up with an idea, wrote a script, and got actors together. Within a month we had filmed our 7 minute movie, Get Out!

SoundCloud

Playing guitar has been a hobby of mine for many years. While it was forgotten about for a year or two, I never fully gave up on it as many people do. I picked up my guitar and practiced a few hours a week, then a few hours a day. I've always been a singer, but I sing in groups - I get performance anxiety. When I put all that together with my potent computer skills, it seemed like the perfect idea to record my singing and guitar and upload the songs to SoundCloud.

Stat Sheet

When I first made my own website, my idea was to recreate a character stat sheet from a video game. I have no fear over privacy, and I was eager to upload my height, weight, genetics, and all the information I could get a hold of. Unfortunately that was almost a decade ago and that kind of information tracking wasn't as easy to come by. Now there is Fitocracy to publicly display my height, weight, age, and fitness activites. I also wear a FitBit every day that tracks my activity automatically, including my sleep patterns!