Ask Applications

By 2017, Mindspark was doing most of its business through the Google Chrome web browser, based on what the vast majority of our users were browsing with. This put us at the mercy of Google's rules for their Chrome browser. By this point, we had ditched most of our golden-age creative content and moved exclusively to browser utilities within our search toolbar. Since we were so heavily Chrome based, we transitioned into the world of browser extensions instead of toolbars. This created many challenges, as we had to now funnel our users through the Chrome Web Store. Our lucrative business modal of direct download was now, unfortunately, disallowed on Chrome. This latest evolution triggered a new company name, Ask Applications. Click through to see how these challenges changed the way we designed content.

Mindspark

Starting in late 2013, IACApps had hit a major stride in our ability to get users to download and install our search toolbars. IACApps had become quite successful because we had started offering more browser utilities in the toolbars, instead of our core creative content. To memorialize this business transition, IACApps decided to change the company name to Mindspark. We also acquired a PC optimization software company called Slimware. In this design era, we were adding a lot more content and information on our landing pages, while at the same time, making our ads very minimal. Click through to see the results of this creative evolution.

IAC Applications

When I moved from Florida to New York City in mid-2008, I quickly found employment at IACApps, a subsidiary of InterActiveCorp (IAC). At the time, IACApps was heavily involved in web content creation, and leveraging that content to entice users to download a browser search toolbar that generated ad revenue based on user searches. The main objective was to get users to click on our landing pages to download and install our browser toolbar. At this point in IACApp's history, content creation was a huge part of the business, and most of the creative team was dedicated to that end. There wasn't much emphasis on the actual landing pages or ads to convince the user to download the product. I was hired to fill in the shortage of web designers to rectify that situation. Click through to see some of the work I produced in this creative era.

HSN.com

My career started in early 2007 at the Home Shopping Network, located in St. Petersburg Florida, working on the HSN.com website. The most prominant job I had was producing site banners for the site. Other responsibilities included managing photoshoots, creating emails and flyers, and learning a lot about Adobe Flash. Click through and check out a sample of the work I produced.