Hello, I am Justin DoCanto

I am 26 year old designer & developer based out of Southern California. I specialize in PHP programming & WordPress Development but offer a much wider array of services for my clients.

In 2005 I apprenticed under Michael Shaun Conaway of StoryWorks working on branding, design & development for a number of successful businesses. StoryWorks clients are typically high-profile corporations like HP, Microsoft, NBC & more. We spent approx 1 year working together while Shaun taught me the importance of simplicity, efficiency & doing what is best for a client over that year. We ended the apprenticeship after I was successfully able to create branding, marketing & websites with little guidance.

I’m an experienced freelancer

Since 2005, I have been professionally developing designs, websites & solutions for my own clients as a freelance contractor. Although I have taken a few in-house positions over the years at firms and clients-turned-employers as a Mid-Level developer, I prefer to work as a freelance contractor as it allows me to do what is best for my clients and have the freedom to travel and make time for myself between projects.

I specialize in Web Development & PHP Programming

Some of my favorite work has been creating websites for clients like U31 (San Diego Venue), DJ Loli (International DJ), Midori Services (Los Angeles IT & HelpDesk), Dress for Success (International Non-Profit) and many more. Because of the wide array of requests and products I am expected to deliver on, I am constantly upgrading my tools and techniques in order to provide more efficient code for my clients. This leads to code that loads faster & takes up less resources for the servers & browsers that have to push and render the code, respectively. Being up to date in my skillset leads to happy customers all-around.

Some of my work is under NDA

Some of my most favorite & challenging work over the years has been done under NDA’s (Non-Disclosure Agreements). Due to the nature of an NDA, I unfortunately cannot disclose what clients the following were done under, however I can say that I have developed a proprietary CMS for a large city government’s business outreach program, developed an interactive training & testing micro-site for a well-known sprinkler manufacturer & helped optimize and upgrade functionality on an online store for one of the largest adult online-retailers in the country. Despite my occasional wishes to let the world know how awesome it was to work with these clients, and provide a case study, I respect my client and try my best to showcase equally as amazing work on my portfolio.

I love working with WordPress

Over my years of developing, I have grown fond of WordPress over other CMS systems like Drupal & Joomla. Overall, WordPress offers the best “Ease of customization” vs “Easy of use for my clients” ratio amongst the competition. At the time of writing this about page, I am currently beta testing a number of WordPress Plugins and plan to release them via Envato’s marketplace in the near future. Although I have developed themes & plugins for both Drupal & Joomla, I will always recommend WordPress to each of my clients or to any others developers who ask for my suggestions.

Working with me is easy

I only take a few projects at a time so I hardly have too much of a wait time before being able to start a project and never drag out projects because I am, for example, stretched thin. Over the years I’ve learned to be pretty accurate in my estimates as well as setting expectations properly for clients. I’ve never had to print my own business cards as I continue to receive new clients & new projects via word-of-mouth from happy clients, with the occasional craigslist reply thrown-in there somewhere.

I make Billing & Payments a breeze

All my services are billed through FreshBooks and I recommend using their service if you’re a freelancer yourself. I have PayPal integrated with my FreshBooks invoices, so clients & customers can easily pay for their services online while knowing their transaction is being taken care of securely. I have yet to leave a client unsatisfied. I always require 50% down and 50% upon completion, as this is the industry standard and keeps all parties protected & satisfied.

Design & Development is what I love to do

Throughout life I’ve heard quite a few people say to each other “Do what you Love” and I can truly say, I am doing what I love to do. I am constantly reading news.ycombinator.com for the latest industry news, I’m constantly stalking StackOverflow for the latest development techniques and probably spend more time working/reading on my computer than considered healthy.

I’m also friendly

If you ever have a project you want taken care of or just have a question feel free to Contact Me, Get a Quote or Tweet Me!

Thanks for taking the time to read about me,
Justin DoCanto