Good Reporting

Fenway News
I'm currently the Online Editor at the Fenway News, and I'm working on a ton of new things to build them a long-term, cost-efficient website that is flexible, user-friendly and easy to update. Check out the latest design.

829 Studios LLC
I've just recently been dubbed Lead Developer at the web development firm, 829 Studios LLC. I manage a team of three programmers whom I've personally selected, interviewed and hired. It is my responsibility to generate a quote for the account representatives to bring to clients, chart a development schedule and see it through. I also do frontend and backend work on many of the websites we build or maintain, where necessary. I got this position after over a year of working with 829 Studios LLC.

CFA Information Technology
This small office of tech-savvy student employees is where I've been working for the past three years. I was swapping out hard drives and troubleshooting Windows when I started there, but lately all I do is web programming and project management. My most recent assignment is to create an equipment reservation site with extreme accountability features. Concurrently, I am leading a team of developers in a redesign of the ALEA III website. Follow along.
Read more!

Redesign of the "Travelocity for summer camps" -style website, Choice Camps. The redesign was a heavy overhaul and involved roughly 300 hours of work in a two-month window. The new site features a dual Content Managment System of WordPress and a custom-built CMS. The site is extremely SEO friendly and is deeply interwoven amongst the several thousand pages that were created for this launch. Htaccess and the mod_rewrite protocol were used extensively to make every URL both "pretty" and search-engine friendly.
Link: www.choicecamps.com




The client, Licensing International Merchants Association (LIMA), is a huge corporation that deals with companies like Disney and Mattel. Their website features a robust custom-built CMS, user sign-ins, eCommerce in both dollars and British pounds, and back-end user management, among other things.
Link: www.licensing.org




The third redesign that I've done for the local community newspaper, Fenway News. The site has it's own branding as Fenway News Online and is built at no cost to the non-profit, volunteer-based newspaper. The whole site is run on Google's Blogger platform, a free service, since the paper had no budget for a website. Since the site's launch in January 2009, several tens of thousands of visitors have come through the site. In November of that same year, the site had over 500 articles online.
Link: www.fenwaynews.org




Corporate website for the web development firm, 829LLC. The design was provided to me as a handful of images that I mimicked, polished and programmed into a fully operating website built in PHP, HTML and heavy CSS. Because of good coding practices and much foresight, the website is flexible and easy to update.
Link: www.829llc.com




A website for a summer camp called Camp Cody. I do all sorts of last-minute updates for this site like swapping photos or building interfaces. Since I don't have access to the website's database, I've been using creative solutions to store and return data, making things look more complicated than they really are.
Link: www.cody.org




The "Travelocity of summer camps," is what the developers, Peter Ross and Nick Riotto, have called it. This is an extremely complex and powerful site that stems from a great idea. I had no part in the design or initial development, but I do various updates and improve functionality. The site designers are no longer under contract, so any and all work goes through me.
Link: www.choicecamps.com




The previous portfolio website, active until January 2009. I had to learn to use Server Side Includes (SSI) since the server did not allow PHP scripting. I designed every aspect of this site, including all graphics.
Link: none




One in an extended family of websites I help to create for the IT department at Boston University's College of Fine Arts. It's built with a heavy PHP backend and interacts with several different servers. Until this redesign that I did in 2007, the services were divided across more than nine different sites. That recent update tied all the services together to share databases, authentication and essential code.
Link: cfaito.bu.edu




The Boston University College of Fine Arts website that I help maintain. The site is coded using a Server Side Include (SSI) language to get around the insecurities of PHP. I help to manage content, styles and to develop dynamic pages within the constrains of the server's security settings.
Link: www.bu.edu/cfa




The highly customized website from a school magazine I tried to start while in college. I was one of two designers who used PHP, CSS and the WordPress XML to create the unique look and feel. It featured slideshows, a flash gallery and streaming videos.
Link: none




One of my early portfolio websites, designed in late-2006. I designed this one using Adobe Flash. The main graphic is a collage piece designed with images I found on the internet.
Link: none

Read more!

1 of 4
Web graphic used on the homepage of Fenway News during the Mass. City Council Elections. The banners were a huge hit with visitors.



2 of 4



3 of 4



4 of 4



1 of 1
Supporting informational graphic for an article about the regulations on and impacts of Hawaii gillnet (or gill net) fishing. The marine outlines (eight total) were done by Honolulu Advertiser graphic artist, Jon Orque.



1 of 1
Full page graphic presentation of the annual High School Hall of Honor winners. Photos were either submitted to the Honolulu Advertiser or taken by Advertiser staff.




1 of 1
Flier designed for client, Camp Cody, while interning as a graphic designer at 829 LLC, a small Brookline-based firm.




1 of 3
Cover page for a mock magazine designed for class.




2 of 3
A two-page spread on Scientology. The far right has a three-part timeline that shows the relationship between different categories of events.




3 of 3
A two-page spread on The People's Temple. A three-part timeline (like the one on the previous spread) borders the top of the page.





1 of 3
The cover of a mock magazine designed for a layout/design class. The magazine, a coming-together of the elemental artist and the hip technological designer, is called "ASDF" after the first four keys in homerow. "Clean," "rough," "simple," and "urban" make up the magazine's personality.




2 of 3
The magazine's table of contents page with the 20 article titles required for the assignment.




3 of 3
The shock-and-awe two-page spread on Adobe After Effects. All the elements of the layout are positioned to give the entire page a sense of movement.





1 of 2
The front and back cover of a simple newsletter designed against rigid guidelines. The major creative opportunities were the typographic elements, particularly on the mailing panel (back cover). The calendar is surprisingly functional and easy to read, and the layout of the mailing information follows the US Postal Services' standards and should process properly if actually used.




2 of 2
The inside spread of the four-page newsletter. Everything except the positions of items and running information were required. The heading text uses "Impact" font with a negative leading and a slightly negative tracking.
Read more!

Take a PDF copy of my resume before navigating away. Included is a list of skills and experiences that helped me to write, design and program all the work on this website. Printed copies are available to serious employers upon request.

Download Resume

I hope you've enjoyed viewing my work. Feel free to email me at jonmkim88@gmail.com if you read or saw something you liked.
Read more!

Things about Jonathan Kim

I was born in May of 1988 and spent most of my childhood on Oahu, Hawaii where my family lives. Currently, I'm a journalism undergraduate at Boston University, but I dabble in a few other fields. I am scheduled to graduate in May of 2010.

I love surfing, snowboarding and finding places that serve superb green tea. I'm also quite passionate about cooking (sometimes) and get excited when I have the time to make an elaborate breakfast.

If I could say one thing about myself, it's that I am extremely driven. I put myself through my last two years of college by taking three part-time jobs and projects on the side. I've fully applied myself to everything I've done and constantly seek ways to improve myself and whatever team I am working with.



Now for some fun stuff...

Here are a few responses to common questions that people ask me:
Do you surf? Yes, I do surf.
Do you know Obama? No, I have never met Barack Obama.
Why did you go to Boston for school? I came to the east coast to challenge myself at BU's highly ranked journalism program.
Did you live in Hawaii all your life? No, I actually grew up in Guam until I was eight-years-old.
Read more!