J. Hunter Sizemore

Spotify: Beach Trip & Other Playlists

Millions of people worldwide use Spotify to stream and share their favorite songs, albums and playlists, and the platform has growing potential for brand engagement. As a music lover, I am a huge Spotify fan and one of my pastimes is developing playlists to share with the community, some of which have become popular. Below, I link to a few of my best playlists along with approximate subscriber count as of April 2012.
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Endocrine Entertainment

Website:

Heavily Customized WordPress Site

As a web designer, user experience is always very important to me. However, there is something to be said for a client-centered approach, too. In developing this portfolio for the NYC-based Endocrine Entertainment, I worked closely with several stakeholders on a daily basis to ensure complete satisfaction with the final product, which provided my clients a strong sense of ownership over their web property.

A Blue Flower

Website: WordPress Training and Light Modification

The website for “A Blue Flower” stands as a testament to empowerment through Content Management Systems. When director Nils Taranger approached me about designing a website for his upcoming feature film “A Blue Flower,” he had a little web development know-how and the strong desire to run his own website. In about two weeks, I developed a WordPress website for Mr. Taranger and then provided a training session on the CMS. The site is now a central piece of his marketing campaign, which he runs with very little assistance on my part.

Heart & Vascular Care of Ocala

Website: Content Strategy & SEO

Launched in late 2011, this is the first website for Heart & Vascular Care of Ocala. I oversaw the entire project from WordPress installation to theme modification and content production. For the latter, I interviewed several staff members and went through several rounds of editing with them.

Interactive Non-Fiction: Towards a New Approach for Storytelling in Digital Journalism

Project Development: Published Academic Paper

After encountering Inform 7, a program for authoring Interactive Fiction, while studying Digital Media at the University of Central Florida, I began to think about how this decades-old storytelling method could breath new life into digital journalism. The outgrowth of this exploration led to a paper published at the International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, which I coauthored with Dr. Jichen Zhu. A sample and abstract of the paper can be viewed at SpringerLink.com.

M2Collective

Project Development: Content Strategy Consultant

M2Collective is a fresh attempt at providing event coverage through crowdsourcing. Instead of charging organizers a fee, the group of crack shot photographers offers premium versions of their images to the people they photograph. Throughout the development of M2Collective, I provided a sounding board for the nitty-gritty details of how to pull off this model, in addition to helping develop and host their website.

Activities For Kids

Website: Custom Web Development & SEO

Featuring an appropriate use of the Comic Sans typeface, ActivitiesForKids.com is a major destination for parents and teachers looking to entertain their children with crafts. I converted the decade-old site from a static HTML conglomeration to a sleek blog running the WordPress platform by creating a child theme based on the Thematic framework. I continue to work with the website on a weekly basis with the site’s owner to improve Search Engine Optimization and weekly traffic, which consistently hits 35k visitors.

Ocoee Mobile Showcase

Project Development: A Geo-located History Tour

The Ocoee Mobile Showcase is a project developed by a group of graduate students, myself among them, at UCF’s Center for Emerging Media. The website is meant to be viewed via smartphone in the Orlando suburb of Ocoee, where racial violence boiled over during the election year of 1920. Like a traditional tour, each stop features a bit of the story, only this time with video, voice acting and music.

Walk About – A Geo-located Storytelling CMS

Project Development: Proposal

Walk About is project proposal that resulted from a course in conceptualization I completed in University of Central Florida;s Digital Media program. The pitch is directed at Patch.com and proposes a Content Management System specifically tailored for creating geo-located tour intended to be viewed on location with a smart phone.

Dunedin Neighbors in A ‘Mail’ of Two Cities

News: Feature Story for Patch.com

On the border between Dunedin and Clearwater, Fla., there are several streets which are notable for their novelty mailboxes. In this story, I explore the stories residents tell about how this curious trend came about.

Portfolio for Brittany Alana Davis

Website: Brand Development

In developing her brand as a hard news reporter with the heart to deliver stories that change policy, I helped Brittany Alana Davis create a website portfolio that showcased her recent work in a friendly format and trained her to use WordPress to keep her clips fresh. Ms. Davis now works in Tallahassee as a state government reporter for the Tampa Bay Times (formerly the St. Petersburg Times).

Matt Walsh Media

Website: WordPress Training

Matt Walsh is an award-winning photojournalist whose photos have been featured in National Geographic and on the front page of the New York Times. During his recent job search, I helped him develop a WordPress site and trained him how to use it. Aided by his online portfolio, he is now a photojournalist at The Index-Journal in Greenville, South Carolina.

Local businesses say oil boycott hurts them, not BP

News: Investigative Story for Bradenton Herald

During the Gulf oil spill of 2010, consumer anger was matched by confusion about who to direct it at. In this story, I trace the gasoline supply line for the Tampa Bay area, which required some investigative work, and interwove viewpoints on the BP boycott.

Two Monroe Cheer Teams to Return with Gold

News: Sports Story for Patch.com

When two cheerleading teams traveled from Monroe, Connecticut, to Orlando, Florida, for a national championship competition, I was there to cover every moment. The teams both returned home with the gold and the story I published, which included photos and video, received over 80 shares on Facebook. Talk about a community who’s proud of its young athletes.

Divisive Bradenton development vote delayed

News: Local Government Story for Bradenton Herald

Coverage of local government is one of the essential, if not most appreciated, functions of the hometown newspaper. This piece was a last minute assignment, but in the short amount of time allotted I was able to wrap my head around the complex issues and turn out a story that the average newspaper reader could digest along with their morning Cheerios.

Avatar-inspired Step Show Performance

News: Photojournalism

While photography is not a primary skill for me, I do enjoy shooting photos as a practice of design and composition in the moment. I made this frame while covering a step show competition at the University of Florida. You can find the image and accompanying story on the Independent Florida Alligator’s website.

Resume Podcast

News: Audio Production

As a multimedia reporter for the Independent Florida Alligator, I recorded numerous audio pieces for the Alligator Online to add depth to text stories. In this podcast resume, I collect the best of those pieces and introduce each one in a podcast format.