Luke Watts is a web developer and digital artist from Galway, Ireland. He started learning web design in 2012 after many years working with AutoCAD in the manufacturing industry. In 2014 he set up his own web development agency called Affinity4 (http://affinity4.ie) in Galway, Ireland. He is an Oracle Certified MySQL Developer, and an Adobe Certified Associate (Photoshop and Dreamweaver).

Luke has a keen interest in learning and teaching others. He has written articles for many websites, including his own blog, on a wide range of subjects such as SEO, WordPress Development, SVG, Sass, Jade, OOP, Git, Silex, MySQL, and PHP.

Luke is also an accomplished artist, both in traditional mediums (mostly pencil and ink) and in digital painting. When not building websites or writing code he will most likely be working on a digital painting on his Wacom tablet using Photoshop or creating a 3D model or scene in any number of 3D modeling applications.

I'd like to thank Gareth Milligan, who, from the very beginning showed me what web design had to offer, not only as a career, but also as a hobby. His advice, encouragement, and support in those early days of learning web design and when setting up my own company, helped me greatly. I'd also like to thank Marc Patterson, who helped me get through the difficult MySQL exams and who started me on my journey into PHP and programming.

To my friends, and colleagues who helped me stay positive and focused while writing this book. I would not have made it this far without each of your support. Also, thank you to my family who have always encouraged me and given me the courage to take on such a challenge. To my mother and father, this book is mostly dedicated to you. I miss you both terribly.

I'd also like to acknowledge the web design community. It has always been welcoming and open to newcomers. Designers and developers are always eager to share their knowledge and hard work with the community others. It’s that open spirit which keeps this industry going and makes it the most exciting and rewarding industry to work in.

Finally, I would like to thank Packt, who gave me this amazing opportunity. Thank you so much! I've enjoyed working with you all immensely and hope it won't be the last time.