Wandering Leaf Designs - Techno Tink Media

The history of Wandering Leaf, LLC will be published in 2020. Progress on the project can be viewed here:

https://technotink.net/portfolio/wanderingleaf

THE HISTORY OF WANDERING LEAF DESIGNS
OR “WANDERING LEAF, LLC”

Wandering Leaf Designs, also known as “Wandering Leaf, LLC” was a web studio located in the region of North America’s Pacific Northwest – servicing its clients in the United States & Canadian provinces. A Limited Liability Company, Wandering Leaf Designs provided their clients with top-notch web designs, logos, art, graphics, wireless / nomadic technologies, and hot spots of interest from 2000 until 2004. “Wandering Leaf Designs” was founded after the closure of “Leafworks, Inc..

“Wandering Leaf Designs” was closed when its C.E.O., organizer, lead designer/developer, and mover/shaker left the .dotcom industry to return to his passion of “Archaeology & Anthropology”. Once on the trail to doing work at the Camano Beach Excavation, Miami Circle’s “Icon Brickell” project, and finally to be the GIS Specialist/Curator for the U.S. Army’s Cultural Resource Management Program at Fort Carson, he no longer had the time to continue operating “Wandering Leaf Designs”, much of which was the lasting demise of the “.dotcom” collapse that started in the late 1990’s into the early Y2K era. The Company closed shortly after his absence.

“Wandering Leaf Designs” was proud to have a very personal connection with their clients, always aiming to meet person-to-person as travel permitted and working with them to meet client needs whether in-house or telecommute; in the United States or Canada. They saw their commitment of travelling to work with their clients in person made them a unique nomadic web studio of sorts. Wandering Leaf Designs was the brainchild of Tom Baurley, former Director of Leafworks.com and former webmaster of Expatexchange.com, Effron Enterprises, and Florida Department of State’s Division of Historical Resources / Folk life / Kids pages. The purpose of Wandering Leaf was to present their guests with guidance on dwelling, inhabiting, and travelling around the web and our planet – to be able to find and discover amazing stories, experiences, and treasures along your way. Wandering Leaf was composed of several web developers, writers, artists, and travelers (many of which were from Leafworks, Inc.). Each of these guides existed to provide their visitors and clients with the know-how and expertise to establishing what they sought – whether that be a web site, a web presence, or a web journey. They provided web sites for Graphic Arts, Services, Reviews, Graphic Design, Online Classes, Cyber Sites, and Web Design; as well as online guides for Folk Culture, Ecology, Festivals, Pop Culture, and Travel. Much of what “Wandering Leaf Designs” provided in the past, Technogypsie.com (its predecessor) does today.

You can see the website that used to exist via “Way Back When” Engine at April 23, 2003.

Some of the Services that Wandering Leaf offered was “Education and Training: by means of:

HTML and Web Development Classes
Arts and Crafts Classes
Internet Classes
Free Online Resources
Referral Services

Wandering Leaf Designs also offered “Graphic Arts and Logo Design Services”. These included:

Graphic Art (PhotoShop, Illustrator, ImageReady, Flash, Freehand, Painter, Kai’s Power Tools, Eye Candy, and much more)
Graphic Design
Logos and Web Images
Online and offline Graphic Services

Wandering Leaf also provided Reviews and Tour Guides, such as:

Book / Video / CD / DVD Reviews
Movie Reviews
Tour and Travel Guides
Internet Tour Guides
Online Assistance

Wandering Leaf provided many Web Development Services, such as:

Graphic Design and Art
Flash, Audio, and Video Services
HTML Programming
Logo Creation
Mailing List Management
Panoramas and 3-D virtual files
Programming Services : HTML, ASP, Cold Fusion, CGI, Perl, Unix, Java, JavaScript, C++, C, XML, Flash, MivaScript, HTML Script, and much, much more
Proofreading and Editing services
Web Site Creation
Web Site Management
Web Site Promotion and Advertisement
Web Site Maintenance Training

The Guides:

Wandering Leaf, LLC. consisted of the creative talents of “John Baurley” as Animator, Flash Developer, Illustrator, Artist, and World Traveller. John Baurley, Director of Kranioclast Productions, is an Independent Animator and Writer for Film & Television. Owner of Kranioclast Productions. Animator for CAKE music video “Sheep Go to Heaven” (MTV), Deep Space 9 (Star Trek), former Technical Director for South Park, Character Animator for “Baby Geniuses” and many more. John received his BA in Motion Picture Technology and Computer Animation. John specializes in Alias 8.0-9.0, Maya, PhotoShop, Elastic Reality, Chalice, Matador, Softimage Eddie, 3D Studio, Animator Pro, Sony PSX Tools, 3D Studio Max R2, Adobe Premiere, Fractal Painter 3, Unix, airbrush, acrylic/oil painting, and video editing. His Strengths are: character animation, effects animation, modelling (3d), writing, web design. His Location was and still is at the time of this write-up: Los Angeles, California, USA.

Tom Baurley who served as a Graphic Artist, Web Developer/Designer/Master, Illustrator, Writer, World Traveller, and Director of Wandering Leaf Designs and Tree Leaves Folk Fellowship, and Todaysmovies.com. He was the former Director of Leafworks Web Design and former Webmaster for Expat Exchange. Former Webmaster of Florida Department of State, Division of Historical Resources Internet and Intranet. Founder of International Webmasters Association – Tallahassee Chapter. Webmaster of Tree Leaves’ Folk Fellowship, Today’s Movies, Leafworks, Nehalem Point, and dozens of other sites. Tom Baurley received his education as a Masters candidate with BA in Anthropology and specialization in Archaeology, Folklore, Criminology, and Classical Archaeology from Florida State University. He has been (and still is) a Web Developer/Designer/Programmer since 1995. Tom Baurley was (and still is) a Graphic Artist and Desktop Publisher since 1991. Tom specializes in Graphic Design, Flash, HTML programming, electronic commerce, Internet advertising & promotion, Web Development, JavaScript, Unix/Linux, mivascript/htmlscript, ASP, Cold Fusion, Perl and CGI. Tom is extremely talented with PhotoShop 2.0-5.0+, Flash/Director, Spin Panorama, Image Ready, Illustrator, Fractal Painter, Adobe Premiere, PageMaker, Microsoft Publisher, and many other industry specific software. Tom is also experienced with working on Miva Merchant, Webcrossing, and Majordomo software installation and customization. Recipient of several web awards, most notably Webmaster Magazine’s Top 50 Sites for his work on Florida Department of State web sites. His Location when employed with Wandering Leaf, LLC was Oregon and Vancouver, British Columbia with some service and time in his home town of Tallahassee, Florida. Wandering Leaf Designs folded after Tom left. As Tom went back into archaeology, he continued with his passion for graphic design, arts, programming, data management and operations within the Environmental and Cultural Resources protection fields where he continues to weave a web to this day.

Wandering Leaf Designs was also home to Steve Bryant; a knowledgable and highly skilled Programmer, Teacher, and World Traveller. Steve during his time with Leafworks, Inc., and Wandering Leaf Designs was primarily the Mail Administrator/ System Administrator for Florida Department of State when he wasn’t contracting with Wandering Leaf. He specialized in Unix/Linux/NT, Java, C++, Perl, CGI, Programming, IIS, and Majordomo. He also served as a Teacher for Leafworks Web Design Courses: Introduction to CGI. He assisted the company primarily with Programming assistance in linux mail, sendmail, and majordomo for Expat Exchange. Upon achieving a relocation and sponsorship in Ireland, he eventually drifted away from Wandering Leaf Designs to pursue his own passions. He operated from Wandering Leaf’s Tallahassee Florida office.

Wandering Leaf Designs was blessed with contract work through the Tallahassee Florida office by Calvin Jones. Calvin assisted the company when he wasn’t working full time as an Internet Engineer for FSU Distance Learning, Audio Engineer for FSU School of Music, & Webmaster for Opperman Music Hall. His Education consisted of CCNA, Lively Vo-Tech Programming Certificate, Working on AA degree during his time with Wandering Leaf. His specialty was Linux/Unix, Security, Audio Streaming, CGI, C, Perl, MySQL, and PHP3.

Wandering Leaf, LLC was also proud to have the works of Leaf McGowan as a Writer, Artist, World Traveller, and Designer. Leaf operated through the Vancouver, B.C. Canada office.

Wandering Leaf, LLC was also a proud home to web professional Alan Nelson. When not working with Leafworks, Inc. or Wandering Leaf Designs, he was a Web Designer/Publication/Information Specialist for Florida Department of State, Division of Historical Resources. He was also the President and former Vice chairperson for International Webmasters Association – Tallahassee Chapter. A Team Developer of “the Classical Edge”, Paycash, Florida Trust, and Mills Motors sites for the company. During his time with the company, he was working on his MCSE and a Bachelors Degree in the Arts and specializing in computer science, music, and theater. His specialty at the time was ASP, Cold Fusion, PhotoShop, Illustrator, Image Ready, PageMaker, Microsoft Publisher, Image Styler, web programming and design. Alan worked with the Tallahassee Florida office. Towards the end of the company’s existence, Alan went on to pursue his expertise elsewhere.

Ralph Prieto was one of Wandering Leaf’s most cherished programmers when he wasn’t working full time as a Developer/Programmer for Florida Department of Library Services. During his time with Leafworks, Inc. and Wandering Leaf Designs, he was working on Masters Degree in Computer Science at Florida State University. He specialized in CGI, ASP, UNIX, Perl, HTML, and C++. Conducted Password Protection/Gateway user accounts for PTRCORP and was a Leafworks programmer assisting with MySQL/Perl at Expat Exchange, and ASP scripts at Effron Enterprises, Inc..

One of The final team members of Wandering Leaf Designs was Kay Pietrewicz; who when not assisting with Leafworks, Inc. and Wandering Leaf’s administration and works, was the Webmaster of Florida Phosphate Council and the Gathering Place. She was a Leafworks Team Developer of Treelore.com, Reiki Health Care, and many of Tree Leaves’ Print Publications. She operated through the Tallahassee, Florida location.

Both Leafworks, Inc. and Wandering Leaf, LLC rode the .dotcom industry wave when HTML Programming and Web Design/Development was not yet taught at Colleges and Universities. This gave them a unique hold in the industry as they were forefront in “Industry based” training in these fields. Of course once Development classes were taught at Colleges and Universities, there was a dime a dozen self-proclaimed web designers and developers in the field, knocking down pay rates substantially through the years, that assisted in the .dotcom collapse at the end of the 1990’s and early Y2K era. They had a online course program that was also a forerunner to early college/university online education. They were proud to be cultivating artistic and industry based skills in programmers and artists, whether advanced, intermediate, or beginner, while promoting a World Wide Web
of professionalism and aesthetic talent for the world to enjoy. All of their instructors were working professionals in the web industry. The Instructors were also members of either the International Webmasters Association, HTML Writers Guild, and/or a handful of other professional trade organizations they used in order to stay updated on artistry and professionalism on the World Wide Web. They taught the following courses online and with teacher/student in classroom sessions:

Introduction to HTML 101
HTML 202: Web Workshop for Advanced Beginners
Compressing Graphics for the Web
Introduction to CGI with Perl
Introduction to Photoshop
Introduction to Illustrator
Introduction to PDF’s
HTML 303, 404, and 505
Introduction to E-Commerce
Introduction to Graphic Design

Some of Wandering Leaf’s Clients were:

Anitanairne.com
Artthatheals.org
Expatexchange.com
Inspiritworks.com
Florida Trust For Historic Preservation
Thedollyhouse.com
Todaysmovies.com
Treeleaves.com
Treelore.com
Cindybristow.com
Nehalempoint.com
Roadchamps-collectible.com
Society of American Archaeology: Archaeology and Public Education
Interface, Inc.
Cascadian Archaeology
www.cascadianarchaeology.us

Some examples of Wandering Leaf’s Logo Creation can be seen at Waybackmachine.org’s Time Machine at http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20030410104902/http://wanderingleaf.com/art.html.

Finally, Wandering Leaf Designs had a travel resources column and adventure site pre-blog popularity. These were called “Travel Tales”.

The travel and adventures section of Wanderingleaf.com was compiled by individual travellers, explorers, wanderers, nomads, and vacationing writers/photographers who had offered their stories, epics, journals, diaries, travel tips, warnings, and suggestions to their readers. This section was a forum of personal expression and wanderingleaf.com assumed no responsibility for the contents of these journals, diaries, advices, suggestions, pictures, or writings, regardless of whether or not the writer/photographer was under the employ or affiliation with wanderingleaf.com, leafworks.com, treeleaves.com, or todaysmovies.com. Some topics and discussions, writings and photographs were of controversial nature. These blogs are slowly being archived (and continued) at www.technogypsie.net/reviews/.

Wandering Leaf Designs from Seattle also brought together a collection of folk crafts, incense, oils, herbs, candles, clothing, gifts, and other items to various events and festivals. Wandering Leaf Arts was active at various festivals throughout the country, with an information booth, gallery, merchant table, or festival tent in its travels. Some examples of places it attended was :