Web Design

My first website! It was 1998, and my internet provider offered its customers web hosting on Microsoft servers with ASP technology and space for an Access database. I already knew what I wanted to do: design and maintain websites. That’s how dymwebs was born.

Back then, when we still searched using Yahoo! or Altavista, the internet was reserved for large companies and multinationals. My idea was simple: reuse templates to reduce costs and offer affordable websites. For as little as 10,000 pesetas, small businesses could have an online presence on a free hosting service like Geocities. My first client was my father, who kindly helped me get my project off the ground. Then came a law firm, a recruitment company, and a tarot reader, who, for years, was my most loyal client, as I regularly updated his website.

The Professional Leap

While trying to make my way in the world of IT, I worked in the marketing department of a German multinational. There, I managed an Access database and began to develop an interest in programming. In those early days of digital cameras, one of my tasks was photographing second-hand machinery and designing a monthly brochure with the best offers. When I discovered a book on web programming with ASP (Active Server Pages), I quickly put my new skills into practice and developed a web catalog for the company.

Clients and International Experience

My proficiency in languages has always opened doors. When I began seriously looking for clients, I approached a company in central Madrid specializing in publishing Sunday supplements for European newspapers. They offered me 50,000 pesetas for a multilingual website, giving me full creative freedom. My Photoshop tutorials—at a time when YouTube didn’t even exist—had prepared me well.

Presse Media, publisher of Handelsblatt‘s supplement, was my first project. Pleased with the results, they then commissioned me to design the website for InterFrance Media, publisher of Le Monde‘s supplement. At that time, JavaScript buttons and watermarks were the height of web design.

For World Report, a supplement of The Guardian, I added flags for each country in a listing. The idea was a hit, but I received an urgent call: “There’s a problem with the South African flag. It’s the one from before the end of apartheid, and Nelson Mandela’s office has contacted us to correct it.” That taught me the importance of attention to detail.

Consolidation as a Programmer

Soon, I became an in-house programmer while still designing websites. I developed the page for Sagent Ibérica, where I learned about Data Mining. They say that thanks to data mining, a supermarket detected an unusually high number of purchases of diapers and beer on Fridays, deducing that young parents were preparing to stay home with their children and relax with a beer. By placing beer next to the diapers, they increased sales.

For AT Systems, a company specializing in Data Warehousing, I designed their website and collaborated on various projects, solidifying my SQL skills. Now no JOIN or multidimensional query can resist me. I even developed my first credit card payment gateway for a nutritional services business.

Personal and Freelance Projects

I continued developing websites both freelance and for the companies I worked with. I updated my portfolio in my personal project dymwebs and launched the website for Road2Web/Ofitecsti, a Madrid-based services company where I worked for a year.

I never made a living pedaling, but I did develop several projects in the cycling world, one of my great passions. The days of table-based layouts and slicing designs in Photoshop were behind me. WordPress had taken the lead, becoming the most powerful tool for web design. For a couple of editions of the famous Desafío del Buda, I designed the event’s presentation website. At C.C. Veleño, they also needed a tool to manage race registrations.

After the MTB event, it was time for road cycling. The Clásica del Pavo also needed a website in a very similar format.