About Andrew Millar and this Site

My name is Andrew McFarlane Millar; I’m 29 and live in Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK. I currently work as a school ICT technician, a job which includes designing the school’s Web site and deeloping the school's Frogteacher learning platform (Virtual Learning Environment)

My interest in Web design began in 1999, when I first started to learn HTML. By 2000 I had begun designing a Web site for the student’s cinema at Loughborough University’s Students’ Union, as well as designing my own personal Web site. This progressed to creating a site for the Students’ Union’s Entertainments department and later for former members of the student cinema to use to keep in touch with each other.

In 2001 I began to expand my knowledge of Web design firstly by learning PHP and MySQL from books and then by undertaking the Master Certified Internet Webmaster Designer distance learning course. I have recently completed the Open University’s certificate in Web application development, which covered Javascript, Visual Basic ASP.NET and Coldfusion as well as reinforcing my knowledge of PHP, MySQL and general Web site design. I have also within the last few years looked at CSS2, Flash and XML.

As well as Web design my another interest of mine is digital art. Originally beginning with basic graphics tools on Macs I moved onto Corel Draw and Photo-Paint 7 in 1998 and later to Paint Shop Pro and Fireworks. Recently I have begun to learn to use Corel Painter IX.5 and am beginning to produce my own digital paintings, both for display and for use as part of Web sites.

My other hobbies include Live-Action Role Play (LARP), leatherworking, modelling and playing MMO’s.

As mentioned on the home page of this site I am interested in expanding my portfolio of Web sites and would consider developing small sites as an independent Web designer. However due to my current work commitments these would need to be sites with static or simple dynamic elements and would need to be maintained either by the client after completion or on an irregular basis. If you would like more information on this then please use the contact link below to email me.