I am a web designer and developer living and working in Seattle, WA. I am employed full-time by Blue Flavor, a design agency specializing in standards-based design and development for the web and mobile web. In addition to being a full-time designer, I occasionally author books on web design, speak at conferences, and blog here at jeffcroft.com.
I created my first web site in 1994 and have been working full-time in the web industry since 1995. In the 90s, I worked for three different Internet Service Providers, doing web design and development for their online presences. In the early 2000s, I began using and advocating for web standards. At the time, I was working at a small University in Topeka, KS — and my standards evangelism fell on deaf ears. After being ousted from that position on account of trying too hard to initiate change, I joined a much more enlightened University, and, along with a great team, was able to bring some degree of forward-thinking, modern design and development practices to the education sector.
In late 2005, I joined World Online (now Mediaphormedia), the web division of The Lawrence Journal-World newspaper in Lawrence, KS. World Online is one of the most well-respected online journalism outfits in the world, and is also the birthplace of Django, the premiere rapid web application development framework for Python. World Online was an exciting place to learn a lot about programming while at the same time being able to flex my design muscles on several different media sites.
In mid-2007, I left World Online and joined Blue Flavor, an agency whose name has been synonymous with high-design web standards work since its inception. Although my title at Blue Flavor is Designer, I act both as a designer and developer, doing everything from information architecture and interaction design to visual design to Django development to front-end coding. Blue Flavor feels like something of a “destination job,” and it’s hard to imagine myself anywhere else anytime soon.
In addition to my work as a designer, I have been an author for two books: Pro CSS Techniques, published by Apress, and Web Standards Creativity, by Friends of ED. I have also spoken on topics ranging from back-end development to web typography to designer’s workflow at industry conferences including South By Southwest Interactive, Webmaster Jam Session, and Future of Web Design.
I grew up in Olathe, KS, a Kansas City suburb, and spent most of my life in the greater Kansas City area. I went to music school at Washburn University in Topeka, but left before finishing in order to pursue the dot.com dream and support my wonderful daughter, Haley Madysan Croft (now 13 years old).
I moved to Seattle in mid-2007 with Michelle, my wonderful girlfriend of seven years, and am absolutely loving it, so far.
For more about me, you may want to check out these interviews I’ve participated in. Some are a bit out of date now, but they’re still a decent look into my personality, work style, and industry insight.