I’m Oliver Pattison, a designer focused on the future of the web.

I’m interested in archiving, usable and universal design, typography, and photography. I’m also into music, hiking with my hound dog, and working for progressive causes.

I’m currently working on independent projects, but I am also interested in the right full-time role – it might be called “web designer” or “web developer” but I am happiest working between those boundaries.

What I work with

• HTML and CSS

  I have a passion for well-written, thoughtful HTML and CSS. Although it is sometimes dismissed as a simple markup language, getting HTML right is challenging, both when dealing with visual design and with accessibility and usability.

• Jekyll

  Jekyll is my favorite tool for designing and publishing content on the web. Most of the sites that I build currently are static sites (using Jekyll) with minimal but flexible configuration and high performance.

• Git

  Version control is essential for designing dynamically, maintaining code, and collaborating quickly and remotely. I use Git as a safety net for all of my work, whether on my own or with a team.

• JavaScript

  I have been learning JavaScript for the past few years, developing interactive user interfaces with tools like Velocity.js, Vue.js and Mapbox. I believe strongly in progressive enhancement when designing experience layers.

• Sass/SCSS

  I use SCSS to help me write effective CSS. I find it invaluable as a creative tool and as a way to organize and develop styles in short and composable parts.

• Web publishing systems

  I have designed and developed sites with Shopify, Statamic, WordPress, and other content management systems. My focus has been on integrating front-end design with content editing systems, and creating clear and usable content structures for editors.

hire me contact me

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About this site

This website is an archive for my work, featuring:

• Writing, a collection of quick notes as well as longer essays
• Projects, documentation and reflections on professional and open source work
• Photography, a collection of images documenting details of my environment

Subscribe to this site’s Atom feed. Or subscribe to filtered feeds for my writing, photography, and projects.

Design and development

I designed this site in the space of a few weeks in October and November 2014. Development continues regularly.

Early in the process, I established a pattern page with reference examples of general HTML and specific use cases for my own designs. The site is built with Jekyll, hosted with Amazon CloudFront and S3, and version-controlled with GitHub.

I would like to thank Jean for editing and design input.

Typography

The fonts on the site (300, 400 and 500 weights of the Ratio typeface are hosted by Typekit. The 400 weight of Menlo (or Consolas or the default monospace as a fallback) is used for code samples.

How this site is designed

This website: olivermak.es

This was originally completed 2014-12-02 and last updated 2016-10-07.

view this project

Pattern library

This is a collection of the design patterns used to make this site – last updated 2016-08-15.

view site patterns

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Elsewhere on the web

GitHub CodePen Pinboard

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