Hello.

My name is James and I'm a front-end web developer.

About

James Brenton at a glance: Lives in Leeds; makes sexy, responsive sites; drinks copious amounts of coffee

I live in Leeds, West Yorkshire, and have seven years of professional experience working within both agency and freelance environments. I’m a lover of code and create intuitive, responsive interfaces written in clean, semantic markup.

I firmly believe that there’s always a way to do anything on the web, and that taking ownership and focusing on attention to detail will result in the delivery of an exceptional project.

I’ve not always been a web developer – I’ve also had over a decade of experience in sales and retail, including management roles which means I’m now pretty darn good at integrating into a team or working on a solo project. My time management and communication skills are top-notch, and I couldn’t be happier now I’m working in an industry I really love.

These are my favourite toys:

  • Skilled in HTML5

    I’m not keen on dubious WYSIWYG visual-editing – I make pages from scratch and hand-code my work in a way which makes it easy for collaborators to build on later.

  • Skilled in CSS3

    Progressively enhancing CSS is what I’m all about; I make sure modern browsers have the sparkling touches my clients require.

  • Skilled in jQuery

    I write custom JavaScript and jQuery to make my sites more awesome, and have extensive experience with plug-ins and other libraries such as Modernizr.

  • Skilled in Wordpress and Content Management Systems

    I’ve worked with several different CMSs, but WordPress is my favourite; I’m really comfy editing existing template styles or sculpting fresh PHP to specific requirements.

  • Skilled in SASS and CSS pre-processors

    Who doesn’t love a pre-processor? SASS is my personal choice and I’ve played around with frameworks like Compass as well.

  • Skilled in PhotoShop and Adobe Creative Suite

    I predominately use Photoshop and Fireworks to design and implement sites, but can work with pretty much anything from Adobe Creative Suite.

My work

visit Let's Get Cooking portfolio image
Let’s get cooking

A challenging and expansive build for a huge charity (£7m+) within a collaborative environment. Requiring huge flexibility with regards to page content, it is built on a CMS based around MCMS and uses substantial jQuery to feature some nifty layout quirks.

Technologies used:
About Let’s get cooking

Artwork by: Mel Jennings

URL: http://www.letsgetcooking.org.uk/
visit Care for the Family portfolio image
Care for the Family

I project managed the front end development of this device-agnostic site for a large charity (£3m+). It’s produced around a proprietary CMS built on a platform based on MCMS.

Technologies used:
About Care for the Family

Desktop design by: Creatiscope

URL: http://www.careforthefamily.org.uk
visit The Letting Expert portfolio image
The Letting Expert

A WordPress site built around the Figero theme with integrated Google Checkout functionality.

Technologies used:
About The Letting Expert

Design by: James Brenton

URL: http://www.letting-expert.com
visit The Brain Tumour Charity portfolio image
The Brain Tumour Charity

A responsive CMS website with multiple templates produced from a design from a third party company.

Technologies used:
About The Brain Tumour Charity

Desktop design by: Delivery of thought

URL: http://www.thebraintumourcharity.org
visit Tenancy-Agreement portfolio image
Tenancy-Agreement.com

Designed in-browser for a client who wanted to sell their products digitally. PayPal has been integrated for instant payments and delivery. It’s built in a custom theme within WordPress to the client’s specification.

Technologies used:
About Tenancy-Agreement.com

Design: James Brenton
Configurables: WooCommerce

URL: http://www.tenancy-agreement.com