For nearly 20 years I have worked at Erdie Industries, a family-owned business and manufacturer of shipping and mailing tubes. While I was involved in all aspects of the business, my primary duty was to eventually develop and maintain the order-processing software, the overall network and computers both in the office and on the factory floor. In 2001, I started a side business designing web sites, which eventually evolved into John Erdie Web Design (which is how the company “name” came to be—by avoiding coming up with a company name I just used my name and specialty.)

I programmed my first computer in 1987 using the GW Basic that came with the system. Since then I'd developed small and medium sized business applications in C and Pascal, and large applications in Dbase, Clipper and more recently, Visual Foxpro. This work includes a large program for price estimation, order entry, job scheduling and delivery, and job costing for Erdie Industries.

I was also involved and writing and editorial work, working on my Masters degree at Cleveland State University and volunteering and interning on local magazines such as Whiskey Island, Ohio Writer and the Gamut.

It was shortly after this that I also became more involved in the visual arts—photography, drawing and painting—and attended the Maine Photographic Workshops for studio lighting and portrait photography, as well as the Cleveland Institute of Art for continuing education in photography, drawing, painting, and Flash.

This combination of writing, visual art and technology led naturally (and happily) to web design.

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