Paul J. Neff, Web Designer & Email Engineer

Paul J. Neff

Paul Neff is an email developer and accessibility-focused designer with over two decades of experience crafting high-performance, user-centered digital communications.

With a degree in graphic design earned with high honors, he blends his deep knowledge of HTML, CSS, and responsive design to build accessible, visually engaging email campaigns. Paul’s approach emphasizes precision coding, Litmus-based cross-client testing, and screen reader accessibility, ensuring that every email delivers a seamless experience across devices, browsers, and assistive technologies.

Paul’s patent-pending innovation, Forced Colors Adaption for SVGs, revolutionizes digital graphics by dynamically adapting to user-selected contrast themes while preserving tonal balance—without JavaScript. Seamlessly integrating with modern web standards, his breakthrough sets a new benchmark for inclusive, high-performance design.
Please scroll down to view his portfolio.

 
Paul is truly an asset to any team, and I highly recommend him for any design-focused role, especially those that involve complex technical design challenges.
— Volker Sorge, CTO Equivalent
 

ADA Compliant Newsletter Design

Building accessibility into HTML email design is always a challenge, but it’s one I care deeply about. For people who use assistive technologies—whether they’re color blind, have low vision, or are blind—creating accessible content isn’t just important; it’s essential. What many businesses don’t realize is that ADA-compliant newsletters also improve the experience for everyone. Strong contrast and accessible structure make emails easier to read in dark mode, on mobile devices, and in all kinds of real-world conditions. When accessibility is built in from the start, it elevates your branding, strengthens user trust, and creates a better experience for every reader.

Paul is a meticulous designer and the most advanced email programmer I’ve worked with.

He constantly innovates to create visually stunning, flexible solutions across 40+ email platforms.
— Stacey Gray, Everyday Health

Accessible Smart SVG Infographics

In 2024, Paul custom-engineered two advanced Smart SVG infographics for Atos Group, a €12 billion global leader in digital transformation: the Fireside Chat graphic for the 2024 Zero Project and a dynamic 30 year timeline showcasing the partnership between Atos and the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Overview

Atos sought to make their digital brand elements, such as logos and infographics, more accessible and environmentally sustainable. 
The challenge was ensuring that these elements met high standards of accessibility for users with various visual impairments while also reducing their carbon footprint.
Traditional bitmap graphics and formats posed difficulties in scaling, accessibility, and sustainability, making it hard to adapt to diverse user needs and new technology requirements.


Research and Development

By manually optimizing their vector artwork and converting them into scalable, adaptive Smart SVG formats, Paul helped Atos reduce reliance on outdated bitmap images. His pioneering engineering directly influenced Equivalent’s cutting-edge automation technology, which now ensures that graphics are not only fully accessible but also energy-efficient and seamlessly adaptable across digital platforms.

Results

  • Accessibility: The Smart SVG format significantly improved the accessibility of Atos's brand elements, making them more usable for individuals with a wide range of visual impairments. Paul applied his patent pending IP to both infographics, dramatically improving the visibility for low vision users.

  • Sustainability: Converting to Smart SVG slashed illustration file sizes by 74%, significantly reducing energy consumption and carbon footprint. The logo was just 1KB, and the favicon an ultra-light 340 bytes—maximizing efficiency without sacrificing quality.

    • The Olympic Games timeline infographic featured 15 logos, live selectable and indexable text, and a fully responsive layout that dynamically adapted for mobile. Despite its rich functionality, it was optimized to just 65KB—an impressive reduction from the original 1MB JPEG, enhancing performance, accessibility, and sustainability.

  • Efficiency: The streamlined approach allowed Atos to reduce network exchanges and energy use, which is critical as more users transition to OLED screens that benefit more from optimized graphics.

Validation

The work done by Paul in collaboration with Atos has been independently verified by Greenspector, a company specializing in optimizing digital energy consumption. This validation reinforces the approach's effectiveness in reducing both environmental impact and improving accessibility, supporting the underlying principles that now drive Equivalent's automated solutions.

Atos and the Olympic Games Smart Infographic

Atos, Worldwide IT Partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Olympic Games Salt Lake City 2002. First time in the role of worldwide IT partner to the Olympic Games. Olympic Games Athens 2004. 0.3 seconds to transmit the results around the planet. Olympic Games Torino 2006. 90,000 accreditations distributed to the Olympic Family. Olympic Games Beijing 2008. First use of the Commentator Information System (C‌I‌S). Olympic Games Vancouver 2010. 18,000 volunteers selected through the purpose-built volunteer's portal. Olympic Games London 2012. 200,000 hours of testing ahead of the Games. Olympic Games Sochi 2014. 40% reduction in the number of servers used. Olympic Games Rio 2016. 400 IT security events managed per second. Olympic Games Pyeong Chang 2018. 100% of critical applications hosted in the Cloud. Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Advanced Access Control System (AACS) - access control based on facial recognition technology. Olympic Games Beijing 2022. 250,000+ accreditations issued. Olympic Games Paris 2024.

2024 Zero Project Infographic Case Study

Video of Neil Milliken and the Atos Smart SVG case study.

Paul is a meticulous designer and the most advanced email programmer I’ve worked with.

He constantly innovates to create visually stunning, flexible solutions across 40+ email platforms. His refined design aesthetic extends to print, web, and animation, and he’s always up to date on the latest tech.

Thoughtful, kind, and collaborative, Paul is a problem solver at heart.
— Stacey Gray, Everyday Health

Thanks for visiting my portfolio! If you have any questions about my work, process, or anything else, don’t hesitate to reach out. I'd love to hear from you!

~ Paul

Paul J. Neff
Accessible Design, Email Development & Engineering
neffdigital@gmail.com
+1 828-707-8519

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