About Web Design

Martin Kelley a web designer and publisher in the South Jersey/Philadelphia area. This page documents his professional history. You might want to jump directly to the resume or publications page.

I began my career as a book designer and editor for New Society Publishers, an alternative publisher then based in Philadelphia. We were a small enough shop that we switched jobs from time to time and I also served a year as marketing manager, a job that put me in charge of our popular catalog.

In the mid-90s rising costs led to the closing of hundreds of independent bookstores and publishing houses. I responded by teaching myself web publishing. I loved the idea of message out far and wide with such minimal investment (more on the economics and idealism of the era from this 1995 post). I put together the first websites for a who's-who of American peace groups. The most important part of that job was education: teaching activist how to use their new tools. After a few years I began working as a professional webmaster for a couple of Philadelphia Quaker organizations.

I'm now focusing on freelance projects, specializing in sites for people with a message to get out. I've put together sites for independent journalist, musicians and historians. I'd love to put togther a site for a small community business. I have lots of tricks to make it easy to keep calendars and photos fresh and updated. I think like a publicist and would also provide ways to build email lists to let you keep in close touch with customers. As always, I love teaching people how to use the internet to get their story out.

Personal life:

The family

I grew up in Philadelphia but fell in love with a South Jersey girl and crossed the mighty Delaware. We got a little house along a train line to Philadelphia, which we share with our two cute as can be kids, Theo and Francis. My hobbies revolve mostly around Quaker ministry and organizing; I'm known online as the Quaker Ranter and publish Quakerquaker.org, a blog index and community-building site.

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Related:

• Workshops and Publications, an annotated list
• LinkedIn Professional Profile