About Thomas Finley
Some menial details about this here site...
The Name
Tff4.com has been the website of Thomas Finley (me!) since 2003. Tff4 is a combination of my initials and my name's suffix (I am the 4th, and no TFF5 is currently slated, nor will my wife green light that). The wood theme is a nod to my father, and his second love, woodworking. Years ago, I gained a lot of my design sensibilities from sculpting and carving classes that I took at my parents' urging.
The Site
The content on tff4.com is managed using the MovableType CMS, with a sprinkle of PHP server side includes. I'm hosted on the grid Server (gs) plan provided by MediaTemple. The RSS icons come from Matt Brett's FeedIcons.com. Site metrics come courtesy of Hiten Shah's CrazyEgg for graphically tracking usage on the homepage. The font in my post and page headings is DIN Engschrift and is implemented using sIFR 3 text replacement. The sans serif you see in my logotype and site sidebar is Avenir. The portfolio section also makes use of Cabel Sasser's FancyZoom
The raison d'être for this site is primarily that it be a place for me to showcase my design while simultaneously using it as a journal about my life, design, technology, or something a web geek might find interesting. It will have a tendency to look strange in Internet Explorer 6, because Microsoft offers something better now. I've also recently moved to MovableType 4 Open Source, and will be constantly rearranging backend portions of this site to take better advantage of the new features. So, things may break from time to time—if you find something, just let me know.
The Man
I'm a Tennessee native (and I have a soft spot for Bluegrass), but have lived in Maryland off and on for more than half on my 28 years on this planet. I currently reside with my wife of 2 years in Hagerstown, Maryland. I'm a die-hard Mac user, fanboy, and/or evangelist (depending on who you ask). In another life, I had time to snowboard and rock climb fairly frequently, and I would love to return to that. Anyone care to be a wealthy benefactor with no strings attached? Oh, and last but not least, I've got a list of things to do before I turn 30, including learning to play guitar and speaking Korean. I'm working on the guitar. The Korean's harder than it looks, so maybe I'll give myself 'til 35...
The Work
I am a web designer, having designed HTML emails, landing pages, microsites, and front-facing e-commerce sites at Healthy Directions since 2005. Prior to this, I taught graphic design at Kaplan College (at the time it was called Hagerstown Business College). Web design was actually just a byproduct of my original major—I actually went to East Tennessee State University for 3D Computer Modelling and Animation, but found myself drawn to other things. As a fellow ETSU graduate recently put it, we ended up in web design because we need more immediate gratification than animation could provide for us. I don't entirely disagree. Until I have to hack some CSS for IE. Then I question my sanity.
My services are available for websites, logos, posters, postcards, invitations, and brochures. Currently, I can accept requests for a light amount of freelance work, however, my commute into the D.C. Metro area limits my ability to communicate during typcial business hours. I do not perform spec work for these reasons. Please use my contact form for inquiries.
