My goal is to positively affect the world through clean, functional design.

I've been producing web and graphic designs for five years. During that time I've embraced many leadership roles, managing both people and projects. I love design because it offers me the opportunity to use both sides of my brain: the left for coding, structure, and function; and the right for ideation, color, layout, typography, and writing. Please see The Motley Fool and especially kerah.com which is all mine.

I hold a BA in Theater (Design) from Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, VA. My curriculum contained numerous, diverse Design and Art courses including 3D Design, Lighting Design, Theatrical Design, Scene Painting, Stage Make-up, and Costuming. In addition, Directing taught me how to create and complete a vision. Building a play from start to finish is much like sculpting a web site or other design project from concept to completion; The director must know every aspect, every demand, and maintain the essence consistently throughout. Acting taught me how to become someone else with every fiber in my body. I believe this helps me in design. I fully empathize with the viewer/user; I have excellent analytical skills and usability instincts. However, I realize that I'm not always the average user, so I add in a heavy dose of feedback from usability tests and team members in order to create the best user experience.

The purpose of good web and software design is to engage the user so they can easily locate the information they require in order to accomplish their goals. Subsequently, when the user is happy and successful, the company will profit.

The purpose of good web and software design is to engage the user so they can easily locate the information they require in order to accomplish their goals.

Post-college, I've honed my skills by experimenting with numerous design applications (Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator; and Macromedia Dreamweaver, Freehand, Flash, and Allaire HomeSite) and by relentlessly searching for better solutions on excellent resource web sites like CNET Builder.com, Webmonkey, useit.com/, WebReview, A List Apart, Creative Good, and The W3C. Other relevant education consists of two web conferences, a DHTML and JavaScript course, two graduate creative writing classes (Poetry and Short Fiction), and most recently an advanced Portrait and Figure Drawing class.

I gain inspiration from folks like Alan Cooper -- famous for humanizing technology; Edward Tufte -- expert on information design whom I've seen lecture; Esther Dyson -- Internet commentator, investor, and visionary; and Jakob Nielsen -- usability expert who visited us at The Motley Fool to share his wisdom. In addition, I admire and study the work of numerous artists and designers whose creations are beautiful and functional: Karim Rashid, Philippe Starck, Charles and Ray Eames, Michael Graves, Terence Conran, George Rodrigue, Whitney Boin, and Mackenzie Thorpe.

I am thankful for all my experiences because with each one, I learn more about the world we live in and the people in it: how to reach them and how to help them fulfill their goals.