Meet Warren Blayney.

Fathom is staffing up, no question about it. We recently added the talented Nick Chohany (videographer) and Anthony Smolenski (print designer) to the mix. And this week, we announce the addition of Warren Blayney.

Warren hails from Great Britain (Northern Ireland). With a degree in Interactive Media Design from the University of Ulster, Warren is also educated in business, entrepreneurship, and marketing.

“A good web designer must be able to code as well as design,” says Warren. “You need to know the limitations as well as the potentials of the medium.” Having studied under the famed “Web Standardistas” at university, Warren is as much a stickler for precise coding as he is for eye-popping visuals.

He is excited about the idea of print, video, and web under one roof. “Video is ready for the web, or perhaps I should say that the web is ready for video,” he explains. “The bandwidth is there. The demand is there. Of course, they can live separately, but together, they work a whole lot better.” He adds, “Oh, and print is always going to be necessary—as a live, in-your-face communications tool.”

Warren believes that all sites should be scalable, that good coding leads to intrinsic SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and that a site without tracking capabilities is about as smart as an ad without a headline. He has a few opinions.

Warren comes to Central PA by way of Alexandria, Virginia, where he worked for Redmon Group (with clients such as the Smithsonian, World Bank, and the DEA). Warren founded Glossy Pixel, a web development firm, prior to joining up with Fathom.

Stop by and say “hello.” And when you are done talking web sites and eating McVities digestives, ask Warren about his childhood days spent picking potatoes. (Um, he said we could mention that.)

Fathom was tapped by the Midtown Scholar Bookstore to assist with the creation of its new publishing arm, Midtown Scholar Press. Fathom created the logo for the venture and worked with Fathom Collective member Scott Boggs to design the book. Over 400 pages in length and featuring numerous vintage photos of Harrisburg’s history, the work features gold metallic ink on the cover and tasteful typography throughout.

The talented Scott Boggs

The book is a compilation of articles written by award-winning Harrisburg Patriot-News reporter Paul Beers (1931-2011). Beers’ masterful series of essays charts the PA state capital’s development from a City Beautiful, with its celebrated public spaces, through the fractures of race riots and the catastrophic challenges of flood and near nuclear meltdown. Each essay is packed with interesting detail about the characters of the time, and the work as a whole goes a long way towards explaining what led Harrisburg to its current economic crisis, which has made news throughout the world.

The book will be unveiled this Sunday at the Midtown Scholar’s 2nd Annual Harrisburg Book Festival at 1302 North Third Street, Harrisburg. A panel discussion on Paul Beers’ life is at 4PM and the book release party is from 5:30–7 PM.

You can learn more at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore’s web site. (And as for that site: Fathom is redesigning it…so stand by for more news there!)