My full name is Romelo Jimenez Itong, a web designer with almost seven years experience designing and developing websites. Presently, I am residing at San Pablo City, Laguna, Philippines. Yes, I am a Filipino. I am also happily married with three of the best kids you could ever ask God for. I am a college undergraduate (nothing to be ashamed of) but, I am still looking forward to finishing and ultimately graduating. Maybe not today, it may not even be in the near future . All I can guarantee is that I will finish my college education and graduate but as of the moment my main goal is to provide for my family.I started designing websites 5 years ago when internet access was still new in San Pablo City. If I am not mistaken, the first ISP (Internet Service Provider) in San Pablo City was VYP-MSC. By the way, I took up two computer courses at VYP-MSC Computer Training Center. The courses were FCO (Fundamentals of Computer Operations) and CTC (Computer Technology Course). So, being the only ISP they were the only one who offers internet access through their computer shops Data Exchange 1 and 2. I used to hang-out at Data Exchange 2 which was managed then by Roy, who is a friend of mine.

The Internet was a very new technology for me and as I surfed and browsed countless web pages of different websites, I became more and more fascinated by it. My interest to learn this new technology became stronger and stronger.

My study began by downloading tutorials from different websites who offered them. Back then, my main resource for tutorials were Webmonkey and Web Developers Virtual Library. Now, I have countless of resource websites for tutorials. My favorites are Dynamic Drive, About.Com, DHTML Central, PHPBuilder, ASP 101, Flash Kit and many more.

I tried to learn everything HTML, CSS, Javascript but I concentrated mainly on design. My first designs looked really terrible, if it was viewed today but back then to me it was already a work of art. My technique was to draw the table by hand and layout how the information will be displayed or viewed. After I am done and happy with the layout I start coding it in HTML, manually, using Notepad. WYSWIG Editors were not yet available and the ones that were available were not easy to use. That was how I design webpages back then.

My technique in designing webpages changed when I came across the PEPSI website. I was awed by the graphics and images used and I wondered how it was done. A book I purchased said that you could use Photoshop to design webpages and so I did. I studied how to use Photoshop, how to use it to design webpages and how to slice or convert the graphic I created or designed into HTML. From then on I use Photoshop to design websites.

Working at Morningplanet Philippines, Inc. I was introduced to a server technology which is much easier to use than CGI/Perl which is run on a Unix server. The technology was Microsoft’s IIS and ASP. ASP is a MS technology that enables you to create dynamic webpages or database driven websites.

It is easy to learn because it’s native scripting language is VBScript which is a slim down version of Visual Basic. The guys at Morningplanet were all ASP Programmers and seeing how effective and in demand dynamic websites are than static websites, I became interested in it. Now, I can create dynamic websites using ASP. My ASP Programming skill is still not that developed but with lots of practice and patience it will be that is if I had continued working and coding with ASP

My design skills were also greatly enhance at Morningplanet. I was able to worked with one of the country’s great designer, Bhong Capiña of BHONG.COM, I also absorbed a lot of creativeness from the designers that I worked with and I learned the different styles of each one.

Today, I am at home working as a Freelancer. It’s tough but it’s fun.

My Brief Resume

  RJI Resume (Word Document) (194.5 KB, 129 hits)

  RJI Resume (PDF File) (115.3 KB, 127 hits)