The Intersection of Art & Technology
The creative insight and expertise of a Designer, the technical wizardry and savvy of an Engineer.
Not Your Average, Ordinary Front-end Engineer...
The Collaborator
Providing informed guidance in UX design, accessibility, and web animation best practices while working within the boundaries of the web.
The Translater
The unique ability to communicate complex engineering processes to designers and nuanced design concepts to developers.
The Coder
Transforming wireframes into modular, scalable, and customizable websites that look consistent across devices and screen sizes.
Two Sides of
the Same Coin
Vanessa Paolantonio is a multifaceted front-end engineer and designer. She has over four years of proficiency as a coder and twelve years of expertise in branding and design for a variety of industries including e-commerce, retail, non-profit, and publishing. She currently works as a front-end engineer for an e-commerce agency, Ripen, in central New Jersey. A graduate of Florida State University (Bachelor's in Studio Art) with continued education in Web Development and UX Design, she uses her insight across disciplines to transform content into websites that are both visually striking and functionally efficient.
When Vanessa is not busy writing scripts or designing, she enjoys being active and outdoors and can usually be found running around a park, gym, or the latest obstacle course fitness craze in the New York Tri-state area (pre-pandemic).
To contact her regarding web and design projects email her here.
A Timeline of Creative Events
(click each icon for details)
1980s
Armed with a box of Crayola crayons and inspired by my favorite childhood cartoons, I developed a propensity for drawing. As word on the street spread of my blossoming artistic talent, requests for drawings poured in from the neighborhood kids (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a popular theme). Thus began my first journey into unpaid creative work.
1990s
Full of teenage angst and a non-specific resentment towards my parents, I began listening to rock music. As much as I enjoyed the music, I found myself equally drawn to album artwork (back when CDs were still a thing). Inspired by the complex layering of images and text, I started creating my own original artwork that blended calligraphy, iconography, and watercolors.
2000s
In 2001 I was accepted into Florida State University, focusing my studies on art and graphic design. The summer of my junior year brought me the opportunity to study abroad in London, England with FSU’s graphic design program. During the six-week program, my professor’s wife (a designer) showed me a book cover design she was working on. I immediately knew that’s what I wanted to do with my life.
2005
After graduating from FSU with a Bachelor’s in Studio Art I decided to move to the New York region (the publishing mecca). Towing nothing but a dream and a U-haul full of cheap college furniture, I drove with my mom from Florida to New Jersey for an interview at Macmillan in New York City. By a combination of enthusiasm, talent, and sheer dumb luck, I landed a job at Tor Books within two weeks of arriving in New Jersey.
2015
Ten years after crafting my expertise in design, branding, and typography, I began looking for the next great creative adventure: web development. I dedicated my free time to learning the languages of progressive enhancement (HTML, CSS, JS). To build my experience, I took on a few web projects pro bono. Eventually the hard work paid off and I landed my first professional gigs as a coder at The Trevor Project in 2015 and The Vitamin Shoppe in 2017.
2020
In 2019, I joined e-commerce agency Ripen as a UI Engineer. With the power of the web constantly evolving, so does the opportunity to push creative boundaries for how content is presented. I'm currently looking towards the future of beautiful, complex User Interfaces, immersing myself in advanced animation and JS frameworks while following the paths of leaders like Sarah Drasner and Chris Coyier.