Our Consultants
Peter Fraterdeus, Founder & CEO of Semiotx, Inc.
Peter's ability to interpret complex IT/web processes for non-experts enables creative and executive managers to gain a clear understanding of the scope and depth of projects and requirements during the critical initial phases of project specification and then during development.
He has recently taught an advanced level design course at Clarke College (Dubuque) which focused on the application of design in code, with extensive use of Google's Wave enterprise collaboration environment, open source CMS theming and iPhone Application design process.
He has practical expertise in a broad variety of information technologies, from open-source server configuration (Apache, MySQL, Zope, Plone, PHP, XML, etc) to the Adobe Design Suites. He has been an Apple Developer since 1987, is expert in Mac OS X systems and networks, and has been an invited beta tester for Adobe Creative Suite products, including Photoshop and InDesign, since the 1990s.
Peter's perspective is enlarged by his personal pursuits in letterform, calligraphy and type design (alphabets.com), for which he received two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships in the 1980s. He is a photographer, and also operates SlowPrint, a letterpress studio (slowprint.com)
As an author, poet, calligrapher, and musician, Peter offers a creative, right-brain perspective to language, "words that work", domain name creation, editorial and creative direction for both high-tech and cultural, high-touch, projects.
Peter is available on a retainer basis for short-to-medium term consulting in the US and Europe. He has dual US-EU(DE) citizenship, and is at ease in multi-lingual environments, with some familiarity with Spanish and Italian. He has been a technology and design trainer and instructor for nearly three decades, including as an adjunct professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1984-1991) and in 2001-02 he taught Information Design at the IUAV design institute of Venezia (Treviso), Italy.
Kristine Jubeck, Design Consultant
A lifelong student of fine art as well as a design and technology enthusiast, Kristine lends a unique combination of art and science to her web site projects.
Through her experience with tangible artists' tools—paint, pencils, pens and charcoal—she is able to bring realistic and elegant visual effects to her website work. She also possesses a firm understanding of the principals of design and strives always to bring a refined sense of proportion, harmony and balance to her work.
Kristine is fluent in HTML and CSS, giving her a unique ability as a front-end developer to be respectful of design nuances and translate them accurately to the functioning website. Kristine has lead many projects to fruition and understands the crucial steps required to bring a holistic website solution to life, from discovery to launch. She has developed numerous custom WordPress themes and has experience in WordPress CMS design and configuration.
She has a true enthusiasm for the web and stays on the cutting edge of standards-based web design. She recently attended An Event Apart, a two day conference packed with presentations by the industry's thought leaders. She has gone straight to work applying what she learned to enhance the design and user experience of Semiotx's latest website projects (most notably optimization for the mobile web and CSS3 techniques).
A skilled print designer as well, she understands the unique constraints of this medium. She has conceptualized, designed and prepared for production a great number of print projects, many using spot colors, metallic inks and varnishes to achieve unique effects.
Kristine writes regularly for her blog, The Rural Webscape, and maintains a make-shift portfolio at Flickr.
