Welcome

Work Experience: Canvas On Demand

I was the founding engineer behind the ecommerce platform powering Canvas On Demandopens in a new tab, a direct-to-consumer photo printing service. Over 16 years, I built and operated the system end-to-end, scaling it to support a high-volume production business with zero downtime during peak seasons.

screenshot of canvasondemand.com's desktop home page
Canvas On Demand (desktop)
screenshot of canvasondemand.com's mobile home page
Canvas On Demand (mobile)

Key Contribution Summary

  • Designed and built the database, web application, and automation platform
  • Designed and built real-time image rendering technology that powers the core site experience
  • Rearchitected for the cloud and launched on AWS
  • Zero peak-season downtime during my tenure of 15 consecutive years
  • Scaled to handle 20x+ traffic growth gracefully
  • Worked directly with C-level executives on product management, market strategy, etc.
  • C#, ASP.NET, Vue.js, SQL Server, Entity Framework, IIS, AWS

Platform / DevOps

As an 8-figure site with millions of monthly users, things that were niceties in the early days became table stakes as we scaled.

  • Full platform observability with AWS CloudWatch dashboards, custom metrics, and logging
  • Geographic redundancy for each part of the stack
  • Active security posture with AWS WAF/Shield, real-time monitoring, and behavior analysis
  • Automated instance bootstrapping and fleet scaling tools
  • Automated deployment management using custom in-house software for ALB management, deployment, and verification with failsafes

Highlight: real-time imaging systems

I designed and built a real-time image rendering system that could transform a customer-provided image into a rendered product. This innovation was a key market differentiator at the time.

render of a canvas print
Canvas print
render of a floating-frame canvas
Floating-frame canvas
render of a framed print
Framed print

Highlight: product builder / cropper

I developed the main product builder, which allows customers to crop and customize their images using color effects.

I later built a server-side template rendering engine that enabled the content team to create and launch hundreds of customizable templates for customers to use.

The same code that renders the preview images is used to render the print assets at high resolution to ensure perfect accuracy during production.

screenshot of canvasondemand.com's product builder
Product builder
screenshot of canvasondemand.com's image cropping interface
Image cropping interface
screenshot of canvasondemand.com's product builder featuring a custom template
Custom template support

Contact Me Back to Work / Resume

Canvas On Demand® is a registered trademark of Circle Graphics, Inc. All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. References are used solely to describe my professional experience and do not imply affiliation or endorsement.