~ About Jespin.org & Creator ~

Okay folks, listen up: Jespin is OLD. I haven't had the time to update this site since, well, probably late 2006, which was around the same time I built it. The image galleries are still good examples of some of my design, but really, I'm not doing that sort of thing much anymore. I mean, I design, but it's mostly for my job. Not the fun sort of design. Either way, I'm keeping this site up for the hell of it. Much of the copy is outdated. I don't have the time to rewrite it all just yet. Bear with me - but hey, thanks for stopping by!

Jespin.org is the online portfolio of Ian J. Marquis. I consider myself a Designer (print media / web / photography), Musician (guitarist / producer / arranger / songwriter), Film Maker (screenwriter / camera / director of photography), and Writer (short fiction / novel / poetry / copy). I graduated from the University of Maine in 2006 with a BA in New Media. While that doesn't exactly define what I do, it does at least give you an idea of the directions I tend to lean in. I'm a generally creative person, and this site exists to display the things I make.

The bulk of the material on the site (more than half) is design work. Photoshop is my program of choice, and I've been using it in one way or another for eight years or so. I do everything from abstract backgrounds (just plain eye candy / cool effects) to professional design (logo / logotype / layout / print media) to photo-manipulation (retouching / montage / matte painting). I have a good grasp of the program and can pretty much use it to do whatever I need to. I've also worked in design over the years, in various areas - Print Media (Cutler Health Center), Multimedia (Campus TV), Publication / Advertising (Bangor Metro Magazine), and Web (207i / Marketing Media). Design also comprises the bulk of my degree program work in college.

I also have a lot of musical work on the site. I started making music seriously at eighteen when I began teaching myself to play guitar. Eventually, I began sequencing music in FL Studio. I did this for a couple of years before I became good enough with the guitar to actually incorporate it into my compositions. In the end, I wound up making tracks that combined recorded guitar parts with synthesized and arranged portions. I produce and record all my own material, and have been doing it for four years now. I've written a hundred or so songs of varying quality, almost always omitting lyrics because I can't sing.

Film comprises the third section of my online portfolio. I've been working with video in one way or another for four years now, since I entered college. I've worked with title sequences, soundtracks, cinematography, directing, screenwriting, and editing. While it isn't something I work with often anymore (due to the sheer amount of time / hard drive space it requires), I still enjoy film. I'd like to pursue it in some way, shape or form eventually, but I don't have any definite plans yet.

I'm also something of a writer, but my written work won't be showing up online. I just don't feel comfortable putting something as easily copied as text up for grabs. Still, it's worth mentioning, if only in passing - I can write, and I generally enjoy doing so.

In case you're curious, I'll list off all the software I'm familiar with. Bold titles indicate programs I'm proficient in, and plain text indicates a program I'm fairly comfortable using:

• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Illustrator
• Adobe After Effects
• Adobe Premiere
• Adobe In-Design
• Adobe ImageReady
• Quark XPress
• Macromedia Dreamweaver
• Macromedia Flash
• ImageLine FL Studio
• Sony SoundForge
• Alias/Wavefront Maya
• Microsoft Office
• Microsoft Windows
• Mac OSX

And that, as they say, is that. The rest of the site pretty much speaks for itself, so you should probably look it over if you're even partially interested in what I do. I could ramble all day, but I don't think you'd like that.

If you'd like to contact me, I'm sure you can figure out how.