PVM Garage » Interviews

Group Interview: The Daily Challenges Of Young Designers And Developers

lukas — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 10:48:52 +0000

Young designers are actually always in a very intensive process of changing, they are learning new techniques and improving their skills. As every designer has to experience this process, but it’s really interesting to see how different young designers, and developer, approach this process. So, I interviewed four young (highly-skilled) designers (and developers) about their thoughts.

The Life Of A Young Designer

For those of you who are just approaching this world, I hope this will serve as encouragement. You will see that a successful design career can start from very different beginnings.

Could you please introduce yourself?

Lam Nguyen: I’m glad when you guys give me an opportunity of an interview. I’m not really a designer. I do design but design is not my favorite. I love coding because when I push my fingers to the keyboard, I feel I’m doing a great thing: building a boat for the design shipped out to the sea. But, I do design, really!

Davy Kestens: My name is Davy Kestens, I’m a 21-year old internet entrepreneur from Belgium. After graduating from high school, I started working at a big web design company but I simply couldn’t handle being controled by a boss and having to deal with all their decisions. I went to college to free some time and start my own business while freelancing as a web designer on the side.

Jeremy Paillotin: So, My name is Jeremy Paillotin, I’m 16 and I live in Toulouse, in the south of France (that explains my bad English). I really enjoy designing and Digital Art, I would love to work in this field in the future. I tried a lot of different styles, from photomanipulation to web design, but what I really love is typography.
Aside from that I love many other things like snowboarding or playing guitar.

Robin Janásek: My name is Robin Janásek, I’m 19 at the moment (or at least they told me so) and I’m currently working as a graphic designer in a smaller company. Beside that, I love abstract and minimalism art in all species.

You all are young designers, so I guess it isn’t such a long time ago when you started with designing. When did you?

Lam Nguyen: I did my first program, I’m not sure if it was when I was 14. This was the first program I made for my teacher who wanted to create a class schedule. And when I was 16, I met web. That time, I just enjoyed chatting with my friends. I don’t remember when I did my first web design. It was a design for a portal for vBulletin Board integration. I did it for a group of people who wanted to make a forum about coding. It’s so funny that there were not any of my friends able to make a design for it, so I gotta do it myself. Honestly, it looked weird!

Davy Kestens: I started when I was 13. In my home-town, there was a web design competition to create the youth site of our city. As I won the competition, I got inspired to follow that path.

Jeremy Paillotin: I started designing with Photoshop in September 2008.

Robin Janásek: That is a pretty hard one, as I’m not that good in remembering dates, but the very beginning of my designing “career” would be sometime in 2008. As for really active designing, I would tell May 2009, that’s when I started finding myself in graphic art.

RunAddicts.net by Davy Kestens

How do/did you approach to become a professional designer or developer? Which way did you choose?

Lam Nguyen: It’s my dream. Everything began when I played Star Craft. I was a child and I really want to create a website – exactly a forum- for my friends can discuss about this game. If you are a game addict, you definitely know how Star Craft was awesome few years a go, lol.

Davy Kestens: It appears that I am very capable of teaching myself anything I am interested in, as I learned everything on my own. But it was my father who got me interested in the economical aspect of an independent profession.

Jeremy Paillotin: Currently I’m a self-taught designer, I have learned everything on the web. I would like to join an art school in about 3 or 4 years, but it will be difficult, and I’m not 100% sure if it’s really necessary.

Robin Janásek: I’m not mainly heading for becoming a professional designer. In most cases, I’m just putting my thoughs into graphic form. For the future, I’d like to sign up at FAVU in Brno (Art school focused on graphic design and typography). Various logotypes and ads I make are good, but they’re not fulfilling me at all. It’s just a work. The true passion comes with an abstract pieces.

ÉGARÉ by Robin Janásek

Could you tell us how the daily routine of a young designer looks like? What are your ‘daily design activities?’

Lam Nguyen: I’m not sure about other people but I sleep not more than 4 hours a day. I’m working for a small company which is opening an online store and I have to take care of everything from design, advertisement, coding and even sending email for my boss. For some reasons in business I cannot show up my works here. If you guys see what I’m doing everyday for my crazy boss, you will say: “oh, god damn it. You have a very good view, boss. All this things would have been awesome in the 90s”. Just like other bloggers, who are blogging part time, I’m not spending more than two hours a day for AEXT.NET MAGAZINE. But I think I’m doing it well!

Davy Kestens: Well, my “daily design activities” are almost non-existing. Don’t get me wrong, I do create, design, invent, draw, code or try to create great business opportunities on very frequent basis, but I have absolutely no routine whatsoever and every day I just try to do the things that will make me happy. Luckily, working on my projects, creating websites for clients and a lot of related stuff makes me incredibly happy, so I’m working all the time :D

Jeremy Paillotin: I spend about 3 or 4 hours every day on the computer, 60% on the internet, reading design blogs and such, and 40% with designing in Photoshop. Most of the work I do is “experimental” and not posted on Deviantart. I upload a piece of my work approximately every four days.

Robin Janásek: Well, there’s a lot of them. Lately, I really started to love photographing and playing with unusual things in designing, at least from my point of view. I’m not doing anything like “practising skills”, I just do ads for work and if I have inspiration, then I do my best to put it on the canvas. I’d say that the main idea of my daily routine is not to be in routine.

How does a young designer try to attract the client’s attention? Is there a difference between young and experienced designers?

Lam Nguyen: As I said above, I have my own job, but I do freelance too. However, I’m not always taking project from them. I just do what I like. Why? I have enough money :D I think if you want to attract the client’s attention, you should build up a good portfolio and have a sweet mouth. Something like offers, prices, discount… are just after you attracted them. Like what I see here, the American people love to hear sweet things, after that, show them what you have done. If they saw it good, they will hire you. That’s it! The experienced one knows how to deal with a client and is not driven by their clients. A bad habit of clients is they sometime treat us like a slave. The young designers who do freelance will lose their clients if they cannot deal with them.

Davy Kestens: I really, really hate bullshitting… When I deal with clients, I love to use a straight-to-the-point, no-nonsense approach where I literally tell them what I can and can’t do for them. I’m dead-honest andmy clients seem to appreciate that. Also, recently a client told me that he likes to work with me because of my enthusiasm and my true interest in their business. Maybe that’s because I don’t accept any projects I don’t get excited about.

Jeremy Paillotin: For the moment, trying to attract the client’s attention is pretty optional, all I do is… waiting for them :p, I think that for the moment, I must focus on personal work, sort of a training. Actually, the only clients I worked with for the moment were “real-life” : friends or relatives
But in the last weeks, I started to have more and more propositions from people online.
That’s why I think experienced designer are more productive – because they don’t have just Photoshop skills, they also know how business works.

Robin Janásek: Of course there are differences. An experienced designer already has audience and therefore can attend in higher-class auctions and job orders. I wouldn’t say that I’m focusing on attracting clients to myself, but on the other side, I’m using my portfolio to somehow inform people , who could be interested in me, if they see some of my works over the internet and wanna see more before contacting me.

What is your favorite part of design (for example “typography”, “photo manipulation”)? Which one do you like least?

Lam Nguyen: I love typography, also graffiti. I love all about design except the 1990-style I’m doing in my job.

Davy Kestens: My favorite part of design is adding the details. When I’m creating a website’s design and all the pieces are in their right spot, and I’m getting started with polishing the corners, adding those extra pixels, making it all shine,… At that time, I truly get in “the zone” and time flies by…Which part of design I like the least? Pixel-pushing! For example, when my previous boss’ clients were using me as a robot to add, edit and delete small items of a design, and eventually screwing up the entire thing.

Jeremy Paillotin: As I said before, I really enjoy typography, because you can focus on two aspects: the message and the look. You can do something with a really simple or really complicated look , there will always be a clear message. The only rule is that there must be letters.

Robin Janásek: I can’t say that I really have a favourite part. I do like typography, as it plays one of the main roles in minimalism, but I also do like photomanipulation and using simple geometric forms, as these are main ingredients for me, when it comes to abstract art. Lately, I also started to photograph a lot, but… I think I already said that.

The Gate Of Minimalism by Robin Janásek

‘Young’ doesn’t have to mean ‘revolutionary.’ How do you design? Traditional, with sketches and so on first, or really revolutionary? And Lam, how do you approach your works, using a traditional methodology or you have a personal routine?

Lam Nguyen: Yes, I do design revolutionary, but not with coding. Design can do whatever you want. It depends on you. Unlike design, coding must be done in logic and professional routine.

Davy Kestens: Straight on the blank canvas in photoshop. I usually have a picture in my mind of what I’m looking for and I just try to create that feeling, effect or design. Sometimes I do sketch when there is no computer around or when I’ve spent too many hours sitting behind a computer and I just want to do something else. :)

Jeremy Paillotin: Sometimes I design things in Photoshopw which are based on some of my sketches (for example “War”) but this is pretty rare. I think traditional drawing and digital art are two different things (except when it comes to drawing on a tablet).

Robin Janásek: Mmm, it depends. I’m certainly not trying to be revolutionary. I’m just trying to be myself and to put my thoughs on canvas in the way I feel it. I do sketches for some of my work, especially when it comes to logotypes and some more complex ads, but I mostly keep ideas in my head and work with them there. It gives me more freedom in changing everything when I need or want to.

War by Jeremy Paillotin

So, we have three freelancers. Is this just because of your age? Do you wanna get a ’safer’ job later and work at a bigger design company? While Lam, why have you choose to work for a company? Do you think freelancing is a hard or bad business?

Lam Nguyen: I wanna to work myself, really! I’m planning to quit my current job and become full time freelancer. At the moment, I’m building my portfolio. It will be available soon. By the way, current job in office is not a safe job, but freelancing is, I think!

Davy Kestens: As I explained a few questions earlier, I have worked in a big web design firm. I will never, ever return to the 8-to-5 lifestyle. I am truly terrified by the idea that in a few years time, I would have to return to the rat race. I don’t want to become a lemming and work for a boss for the rest of my life, rejoicing over small promotions and wage increases…I will do everything in my power to create my own future and paycheck. It makes me sad to see 95% of the students in my college, all gunning to become the best work-for-work zombie in their field of interest. They will become a slave to their paycheck and have already accepted that this “trap” will be their future and they are somehow ignorantly satisfied with that.

Jeremy Paillotin: I think freelancing is not something that I would like to do later. I would prefer working for an agency, or in the case, foundomg an own design agency or something like that. Actually, I’m asking these questions myself at the moment, so I think it’s not the right time to ask me now, come back in four years :P

Robin Janásek: Actually, I’m not freelancer in the first place. I had some job offers as freelancer, but I’m also working in company of my dad and I’d like to sign up for contract in some smaller design company in Brno throughout the autumn. But as I said before, the work isn’t main priority for me as a graphic designer. I’d like to leave something here, something that people will remember. And I want it to be art piece, not famous logo.

ChapitreDeux.be by Davy Kestens

What does a young designer do to improve his design skills?

Lam Nguyen: A young designer should try to get inspired and design something everyday. Even something very small you don’t realize like: the arrangement of your work station.

Davy Kestens: Practice makes perfect and that’s the only thing you can do. Practice, practice, practice.

Jeremy Paillotin: Reading design blogs, asking experienced designers, trying, experimenting, having fun.

Robin Janásek: Well, I can’t speak for whole society of young designers, but I improve my skills mostly by trial and error method. And it doesn’t matter if it’s photography or typography design. In these times, when there are a lot of graphic designers on a high technical level, the main thing you need to focus on when improving yourself is your imagination. Because that’s what keeps you different from others. The way you think about it.

Aext.net by Lam Nguyen

How important are design-dedicated networks like deviantArt or behance especially for young designers?

Davy Kestens: I feel that there are a lot of designers out there using those networks but I am not one of them. Those networks don’t appeal to me. I find it a lot more interesting to network with other designers on my own, using the simplest form of communication: email.

Jeremy Paillotin: I think they are primordial. Because young designers can’t always have a portfolio, and tt’s nearly impossible to get known without them. For example, without dA, I would not be in this interview :D
And of course, we can get a lot of inspiration from others, they can help us, we can help them – it’s great!

Robin Janásek: Very important, in my opinion. All these networks are very efficient ways to give the world some proofs of your existence. You can’t really make steps forward without feedback, and that’s exactly what these networks are providing. I can tell that without them, I wouldn’t be writing these lines now.

Fargo by Robin Janasek

Where do you draw your inspiration from?

Lam Nguyen: I love movie sand I’m a big fan of big theater screens. Most of my work, design and coding ideas come from movies, I think. I can also draw inspiration from the huge collection of comic books of my girlfriend.

Davy Kestens: Videos, motion reels, logos and packaging.

Jeremy Paillotin: I don’t have “instant” inspiration, it comes from a lot of different sources, but mostly from what I see on DeviantArt or design blogs. I can also get a lot of inspiration from other things, like music, friends, video games, ads, even walking in a park can be inspiring!

Robin Janásek: From everything. Everything that catches my feelings. And especially people. The way a person can give you inspiration for months is just outstanding and I don’t think I will ever manage to find out why it is that way. The hidden emotions, probably – that’s the main part of it. And that’s where I get my inspiration from.

Hang you from the Heavens by Jeremy Paillotin

What do you think distincts you (and young designers for general) from other, more experienced designers?

Lam Nguyen: Not sure with this, but I do my works with free style. However, I do programming (most of them in Java, not about PHP as you guys seeing) very logically. I cannot work on a programming project without the analytics, diagrams, UML … especially researching.

Davy Kestens: My enthusiasm and the fact that I am a bad procrastinator. I try to stick to my check-list as good as possible and I always have achievable targets in mind that will improve me, my future, my career or my happiness. I am fired up and exited to get my ass to the top of the mountain. I will get there one way or another.

Jeremy Paillotin: It’s a different generation, we grow up with computers. We have a different vision of the world. It does not mean that we are better designers, we are just different from experienced designers, and that’s an important thing.

Robin Janásek: Maybe the freedom of mind, but I’d be just guessing here, as I can’t know for sure how the more experienced designers think. Younger designers can profit from their flexibility and better knowing of today’s world. But again, experienced designers could be thinking the same way, in my opinion.

Kind Of Fun by Jeremy Paillotin

What are your expectations for the future?

Lam Nguyen: Just don’t put me in the box! This design industry is not different to the economic world and the game is about big players. However, it’s not about that at all. There are some of my good friends I really want to pay my respect to. They are Jon from Spyrestudio, Ronald from Naldzgraphic, team of Onextrapixel, Martin from Tutorialzine …. and all my best friends. Thank you, guys!

Davy Kestens: 1. Backpack through India; 2. Finish a book I am writing about creating an automated cash-flow; 3. Become a well known designer and speaker at events; 4. Create some great online ventures; 5. Push runaddicts.net to the top.

Jeremy Paillotin: Earning money for doing something I love. In other words, working as a graphic designer.

Robin Janásek: Expectations… well. I’d like to apply for a job in Brno, as I said, and beside that I just want to enjoy every day as much as possible and continue with what I’m doing now, as long as I will have inspiration. It’d be very pleasing to attract some people’s attention or inspire them, but… the main priority is to have fun. At least for me.

September 2009, 50+ Bookmarks To Collect The Best Of The Web

Piervincenzo Madeo — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:18:45 +0000

The Best of the Web selected by PV.M Garage. Every month I take a look around and select some of the most interesting readings and resources published on great websites.

September was a very prolific month. We are all working hard after a really cool summer but you can take your time to read these fantastic articles written by helpful people for the design community.

Two new items this month: “The Best of Month from Web Design Updates” and “Must-Follow, Women of the Month on Twitter” (ladies… I apologize for the delay).

I hope you’ll find useful these bookmarks.

Amazing Tutorials for Web and Graphic Designers

SixRevisions.com | Create a Realistic Space Scene from Scratch with Photoshop

Tutorial9.net | Design a Stylish Retro Game Boy Poster in Photoshop

Blog.SpoonGraphics.co.uk | How to Design a Skate Deck with a Cool Skull Pattern

WebExpedition18.com | How To Create a Retro Grunge Apple Wallpaper in 5 Easy Steps in Photoshop

Line25.com | How To Create a Pure CSS Polaroid Photo Gallery

ThreeStyles.com | Coding Apple’s Navigation Bar Using CSS Sprites

DesignM.ag | Coding Apple’s Navigation Bar Using CSS Sprites

SpyreStudios.com | WordPress Tutorial: How To Display A User Welcome Message

Articles and Interviews

FreelanceApple.com | 3 Ways to Skyrocket Your Income as a Freelancer

WebDesignerDepot.com | The Difference Between Art and Design

DailyDesignMag.com | 3 Simple Tips to Boost Productivity for Designers

Inspiredm.com | Inspired Talks – 10 Simple Ways to Instantly Boost Your Inspiration

TheWebdesignBlog.co.uk | Interview with John O’Nolan of Lyrical Media

DesignInvestigator.com | How Important is Your Logo?

Freebies and Resources

Hongkiat.com | 60 High Quality Photoshop PSD Files For Designers

1stwebdesigner.com | 76 Dirty, Extreme And Creative Free Grunge Fonts

ScarletBits.com | 15 HQ Material Textures

FudgeGraphics.com | 15 HQ Material Textures

1stwebdesigner.com | 60 Free, Yet Premium Quality Wordpress Magazine News Themes

CatsWhoCode.com | 10+ extremely useful PHP classes

Woork.Blogspot.com | jQuery Visual Cheat Sheet

VisionWidget.com | 20 Fantastic Latest jQuery Plugins

Showcases and Inspiration

ScarletBits.com | 31 Websites Using Huge Type

SpyreStudios.com | 25 Creative Retro Styled Website Designs

WebDesignerDepot.com | How to Create an Organic Web Design (and Showcase)

VandelayDesign.com | 25 of the Best Websites of Bands and Musicians

GeekSucks.com | 30 Special Footer Design for your Design Inspiration

ffffffive.com | Well-Constructed And Designed Weblogs

Inspiredology.com | 21 Retro Website Designs PT2

InstantShift.com | Music Inspiration Behind a Web Design Work

InspectElement.com | Recent Web Designs that Don’t Follow Recent Trends

Illustrations and Digital Painting

Glenn Jones on Behance.net | glennz.com Tee Designs

Sheharzad Arshad on Behance.net | Strange and Creepy

Oission on DeviantArt.com | Ter 02 digital painting

andyparkart on DeviantArt.com | God of War 2

THZ on DeviantArt.com | Impossible Love

WebSite of The Month – CubeClub-Chemnitz.de

Cube Club Chemnitz

Must-Follow, Men of The Month on Twitter

Gerrel Saunders

Richard Darell

John O’Nolan

Must-Follow, Women of The Month on Twitter

Robin Wood

megAlone

Angie Bowen

Must-Read, Blogs/Magazines of The Month

SpyreStudios.com

FuelYourCreativity.com

Inspiredology.com

The Best of Month on Web Design Updates

DailyDesignMag.com | 6 Absolutely Stunning Design Portfolios

AcrisDesign.com | 62 Beautiful Icon Tutorials designed using Photoshop and Illustrator

9lessons.Blogspot.com | 9 Most Useful jQuery Plugins

UnionRoom.com | 10 Super-Simple Web Designs

WebDesignLedger.com | 30 Examples of Brilliant Logo Design

Don’t Forget, Good Stuff on PV.M Garage

Real Things In Modern Web Design, 30 Stunning And New Examples

Design A Clean And Fresh Company Website In Photoshop

Web Design Updates – The Best Web Design Links

August 2009, 50 Bookmarks To Collect The Best Of The Web

Piervincenzo Madeo — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 12:33:31 +0000

The Best of the Web selected by PV.M Garage. Every month I take a look around and select some of the most interesting readings and resources published on great websites.

August was a very strange month. Beach, holidays, beer, travels… but the design community can’t stop, so in this roundup you’ll find very cool and juicy things. By the way, I apologize for the delay, but August it also was an hard month for the web workers…
I hope you’ll find useful these bookmarks. Enjoy it!

Amazing Tutorials for Web and Graphic Designers

PsdVault.com | Create an Abstract Style, Vibrant Jumping Man Scene in Photoshop

DigitalArtsOnLine.co.uk | Photoshop Tutorial: Create scorching effects

Psd.TutsPlus.com | Manipulate Smoke to Create Hyper-Real Images

Blog.SpoonGraphics.co.uk | Design a Vibrant Blackberry Inspired Ad in Photoshop

DesignM.ag | Design a Stylish Blue Blog Theme in Photoshop

WebDesignerDepot.com | How to Effectively Organize your Photoshop Layers

Line25.com | How To Create a Pure CSS Polaroid Photo Gallery

SpyreStudios.com | How To Create A Sexy Vertical Sliding Panel Using jQuery And CSS3

Queness.com | Create a Stunning Sliding Door Effect with jQuery

Woork.Blogspot.com | Elegant ScrollPanes with jQuery and CSS3

Articles and Interviews

WeAreNotfreelancers.co.za | 5 ways to market your Facebook fan page

BrianYerkes.com | 5 Things Clients Say And What They Really Mean

John.Onolan.org | Starting A Business – 6th Month Review

Noupe.com | The 10 Most Common Mistakes Web Designers Make

scarletBits.com | Interview with Huseyin OZKAN

InspiredM.com | Inspired Interview: Derek Herman – The Man Who Built The Envato Websites

DesignersCouch.org | Interview with Ryan Ford, Creative Director at deviantART

Freebies and Resources

9lessons.Blogspot.com | jQuery and Ajax Best Demos Part-3

GeekSucks.com | 36 Free Photoshop Tree Brushes

ArtFans.info | Free Wordpress Theme Browndong with 6 color schemes

Net.TutsPlus.com | Beautiful eCommerce Icons

WpBulk.Blogspot.com | 25+ Free Twitter Bird Icon Packs [Download]

WebDesignerDepot.com | Free Photoshop Brushes: Sparkling Light Effects

InDeziner.com | Happy print shop free CSS template

speckyBoy.com | 50 High Quality Free Icon Sets in PSD Format

Showcases and Inspiration

WowCss.com | Cut and Paste styled websites for inspiration

WowCss.com | 18 Creative websites with self photographs on it!

InstantShift.com | 60+ Amazing Examples Of Illustrative Web Designs With Overview

InspectElement.com | 42 Very Colourful Websites

WebDesignLedger.com | A Showcase of Fantastic Footer Designs

LittleBoxOfIdeas.com | 53 Insanely Dark And Macabre Photo Manips To Scare Your Pants Off

LittleBoxOfIdeas.com | 40 Groovilicious Retro Logos

BlogOf.FrancescoMugnai.com | 23 new business cards – Best of august 2009

Illustrations and Digital Painting

A-Hour.DeviantArt.com | A-Hour – Russian kitsch

Sandara.DeviantArt.com | Sandara – Dawn Patrol

Dark-Spider.DeviantArt.com | Dark Spider – The Witching Hour

Dmitry Ligay on Behance.net | Dmitry Ligay – Collage

Dmitry Ligay on Behance.net | Dmitry Ligay – Water colour illustration

Bechira Sorin on Behance.net | Bechira Sorin – slashTHREE – Déjà Vu ArtPack XI

Kristy Anne Ligones on Behance.net | Kristy Anne Ligones – New Shirt Designs

WebSite of The Month – LuckyStarsTattoo.com

Lucky Stars Tattoo Studio in San Jose

Must-Follow, Men of The Month on Twitter

Chetan

Antonio Lupetti

Sean Hodge

Must-Read, Blogs/Magazines of The Month

TripwireMagazine.com

LittleBoxOfIdeas.com

SohTanaka.com Web Design Blog

Don’t Forget, Good Stuff on PV.M Garage

Web Design Blog World Cup 2009, Following The Community Heroes

When The Photography Makes Wonderful A Website, 30 Amazing Examples

Web Design Updates – The Best Web Design Links

Interview with Soh Tanaka, Highly-Skilled Web Designer and Front-End Developer

Piervincenzo Madeo — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:01:02 +0000

To continue meetings with hard-workers and helpful people in Web Design, I’m pleased to share this quick interview with Soh Tanaka.

Soh is a passionate, high-skilled, Web Designer and Front-End Developer. He produces usable and aesthetically pleasing designs using XHTML and CSS structures.
He is a tutorial writer. You can find his articles on Soh Tanaka Web Design Blog, DesignM.ag and Noupe. In 2009 he has also launched Design Bombs, a fantastic Website Gallery.

Soh, welcome to PV.M Garage and first of all thank you for this informal interview (I’m honored). I’m sure the PV.M’s readers know who you are and what you do; but could you introduce yourself, where you are from, and what do you do in your spare time?

Thanks Pier for having me on PV.M Garage. My name is Soh Tanaka, and I am from Los Angeles, CA.

Besides my love for design and development, I am very passionate about a particular street dance called “Popping” (West Coast Poppin), which is a funk derived dance that started in the 70’s in California before “break dancing / bboying” emerged in the media in New York in the 80’s. I dance/rep for a street gear/clothing company called “Triumvir” located in Santa Ana, CA.

I can go on for days about the scene and the styles but I won’t bore you guys with that today :-p It’s the other side of my life that most people don’t know about.

“I am a problem solver” you say in your about page. Well, what kind of problem can you solve and why do you love to solve them?

Problem solving can come in many forms like coming up with a design to raise conversions, correcting usability/accessibility issues, debugging code, to simply figuring out how to translate your design to effectively communicate to the users.

Every designer/developer goes through this process on a daily basis but personally I love the feeling of being able to take a raw concept and turn it into something beautiful, usable, and functional. It’s the challenges that I face that make me want more out of this industry/career.

Your projects are very interesting and they inspire many web designers all over the world. High-Quality design with a particular attention for web standards and the usability to make functional and excellent website. What is the key to making a good website?

Every designer has his/her own philosophy of what makes a good website and there are many factors that come into play. A website is a tool for communication, so usability is usually #1 on my list. But of course functionality and aesthetics play a big roll as well on making a website successful, memorable, and stand out from the rest.

I notice you focalize your work in clean and nice design with a particular attention for web standards and usability. What is the essential step in a web project? Good design, perfect code, Search Engine Optimization…

It’s essential to first know what the goal is for the website. What is the client looking for, and ultimately how will you cater for the users. Once you figure that out, then you can start designing and developing the site. The site itself needs to be solid design/development wise so it can be easily maintained and flexible enough to expand in the future. A good website constantly grows and evolves as you learn more about your users and their needs.

It’s always good practice to keep search engines in mind when developing sites as well. Things like file structures, naming conventions, internal linking structure, which keywords to target, etc. Planning ahead on how to market the site once the site has launched is very important.

Could you describe us your best work?

I don’t know if I have something that I am 100% proud of. I always start something that I like, then a month later start frowning on it. I guess I am my own worst critic, but I’m hoping sooner or later a project would come by that makes me completely satisfied.

HTML 5 is not a W3C recommendation yet, but we read articles and tutorials about this new version of HTML code.
What do you think about the enthusiasm for HTML 5 features and about its use in this moment? Is it early?

HTML5 looks great and I am very excited for what they have been cooking up. I would not personally use this now since the support for it is very minimal, but once other browsers start catering to it I would definitely be jumping onboard.

You love jQuery, it’s clear! Can you explain why this javascript framework is so useful for web developers?

I personally love jQuery for its simplicity and the friendly learning curve. The jQuery community is very strong and a lot of resources can be found for it. I would say it’s probably more useful for designers more than the hardcore web developers though. Chris Coyier recently spoke about “Using jQuery to Extend CSS” (http://css-tricks.com/front-end-design-conference-09-wrap-up/), which is a great summary of why jQuery is so useful for designers.

Why do you need a blog “to market” your services?

Well I didn’t start a blog to market my services really. That was not my initial plan, but it has now started to take on that roll. I started a blog just to document things that I had learned and to pass it down for those who were seeking similar information. It was more of a personal note that I can come back to when working on projects, but eventually the practical tutorials caught on and people seemed to enjoy what I was sharing.

Your blog does not monetize your useful posts. Why?

Like I said in the previous response, I really had no intentions to go all out on my blog. It was something I had never done before and I thought would be a good time to learn how to write more effectively and to try to document all of the techniques I had learned. I do plan on adding ads in my next redesign, the idea of placing ads never came into mind when I was designing my blog originally.

SohTanaka Blog, Design Bombs (your inspiration portal for web designers), WestCoast Poppin are your personal projects online. What can we look for from you in the next future? What projects will you be working on in this period?

There is a place here in Long Beach, CA that houses a lot of street dancers and hiphop culture called “Homeland”. The guy who runs the place is named “Steam” who is a great graffiti writer, and I am planning to make a graffiti gallery for all the pieces they put on the walls of this building. The spot has been going on since the late 80’s and they have a huge archive of murals and graffiti pieces that street artists from around the world have put up. I wanted him to have a place where he can share the talent that has come by there, and get the recognition that it deserves.
I’m all about supporting raw underground culture, so my next personal project would be to get that up and running for him.

If I say you “save only one of the following items: WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Radiant CMS, ExpressionEngine, Movable Type”. Your choise is…

I would say WordPress, simply because I am most familiar with it. I have given Drupal and Joomla a shot before but I really liked how simple and customizable WordPress really is. I have been hearing a lot of great reviews about ExpressionEngine though. I would like to give that a try in the future.

Thanks so much Soh to share your experience. The last thing. Could you greet us leaving a suggestion for beginners in web design world?

My suggestion and advice would be to be passionate, stay hungry, and to learn as much as you can. Don’t wait to be spoon-fed, but take initiative, stay focused, and make the most out of your time and situation!

Read Previous Interviews On PV.M Garage

An interview with Nick Pagano of Think Design Blog

Interview with Chris Spooner of Spoon Graphics

July 2009, 50+ Bookmarks To Collect the Best Of Web

Piervincenzo Madeo — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:32:43 +0000

The Best of Web selected by PV.M Garage. Every month I take a look around and select some of the most interesting readings and resources published on great websites.

I hope you’ll find useful these bookmarks. July was a very HOT MONTH but below you can find very cool and juicy things.
This months I have three surprise for you, awesome readers: “Must-Follow, Men Of The Month On Twitter”, “Web Site Of The Month” and “Must-Read, Blogs/Magazines Of The Month”

Enjoy it!

Amazing Tutorials for Web and Graphic Designers

OutlawDesignBlog.com | Make a Vintage Magazine Ad in Photoshop

PsdTutsPlus.com | How to Create a Photo Manipulation of a Flooded City Scene

PsdTutsPlus.com | How to Make a Dark, Post-Apocalyptic City Illustration

DesignBlurb.com | Photoshop Tutorial: Add Retro Look to your Images

DenisDesigns.com | Create an easy landscape scene in Illustrator

Tutorial9.net | Creative Photoshop Animal King Photo Manipulation Tutorial

PsdVault.com | Perfect Selection for Human Object by Utilising Channel Mask Technique in Photoshop

10steps.sg | Creating an Abstract Watercolor Wallpaper

GrafPedia.com | Design a creative wordpress theme

BuildInternet.com | Animate Curtains Opening with jQuery

SohTanaka.com | Horizontal Subnav with CSS

Reencoded.com | 12 Great Tutorials on Creating a New Wordpress Theme

TripwireMagazine.com | 160+ Mega Web Design Tutorial Roundup

DesignM.ag | 10 Tutorials for Improving Your Blog Theme

Queness.com | Create an Attractive jQuery Menu with Fadein and Fadeout Effect

Articles and Interviews

WebDesignDev.com | 30 Most Influential People In Web Design

SmashingMagazine.com | 50 New CSS Techniques For Your Next Web Design

FreelanceApple.com | 5 Reasons Freelancers Need to Blog

SpyreStudios.com | 6 Easy Ways To Cure A Nasty Case Of Redesign-itis

Blog.SpoonGraphics.co.uk | Behind the Scenes of the DesignBump Redesign

WebDesignerDepot.com | Using Wireframes to Streamline Your Development Process

SixRevisions.com | Six Questions: Chris Spooner on Blogging as a Designer

InsideTheWebb.com | Graphic Designer and Blogger Andrew Houle of MyInkBlog

ColorBurned.com | Interview with Design Moo’s Chris Wallace

MarcoFolio.com | On being Developer and Designer with Jacob Gube

InsideTheWebb.com | Interview with Digg-Clone for Designers DesignBump

Freebies and Resources

1stWebDesigner.com | 250+ RSS Feeds For Every Graphic, Web Designers And Bloggers To Subscribe To

1stWebDesigner.com | 23 Extremely Helpful Wordpress Help Sheets And Resources

MyInkBlog.com | 10 Free Grungy Spray Vectors

Woork.Blogspot.com | Interesting Code Highlighters for blogs and websites

Line25.com | 15 Essential Wordpress Plugins for Aspiring Designers

ThinkDesignBlog.com | WordPress Resources – 48 Resources, Tips, Tricks & Themes

BrushKing.com | Smoke Set

ChethStudios.Blogspot.com | CS Social Icons – Elegancy speaks!

GeekSucks.com | 72 Sets of Free Social Bookmarking Icons

InstantShift.com | 40 Fresh Free Fonts To Enhance Your Designs

Illustrations and Digital Painting

Behance.net/Jerico | Jerico Santander and Peter Jaworowski – Attentions

Behance.net | Jerico Santander – The music nature

Ugly-Baka-Girl.DeviantArt.net | Ugly-baka-girl – Hikari no Suashi

Behance.net/Microbot | David Fuhrer – Drug Free Zone

Showcases and Inspiration

TutsAZ.com | Beautiful Launching Soon pages

PsdFan.com | 20 Clean and Light Personal Blogs

SmashingMagazine.com | 20 Clean and Light Personal Blogs

WebdesignerDepot.com | 50 Creative and Inspiring 404 Pages

WebdesignDev.com | 20 Creative Web Forms For Design Inspiration

LittleBoxOfIdeas.com | 54 Brilliant Wordplay Logos For Inspiration

PsdTutsPlus.com | 100 Artworks from the Top 20 Digital Artists in South America

WebSite of The Month – OrmanClark.com

Personal Portfolio of Orman Clark

Must-Follow, Men of The Month on Twitter

Andy Sowards

Brian K. McDaniel

Orman Clark

Must-Read, Blogs/Magazines of The Month

Queness.com

BlogPerfume.com

ILoveTypography.com

June 2009, 30+ Bookmarks to Collect the Best of Web

Piervincenzo Madeo — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:33:29 +0000

The Best of Web selected by PV.M Garage. Every month I take a look around and select some of the most interesting readings and resources published on great websites.

I hope you’ll find useful these bookmarks. June was a HOT MONTH! Below you can find very cool and juicy things.

Enjoy it!

Amazing Tutorials for Web and Graphic Designers

Tutorial9.net | Create a Clean and Colorful Web Layout in Photoshop

PsdTuts.com | How to Create a Fantasy Atmosphere Style Car Ad

PsdEssential.com | You Will Stand Alone Photomanipulation

Blog.SpoonGraphics.co.uk | Create a Cute Furry Vector Monster in Illustrator

WebDesignerDepot.com | Create a Realistic Candy Bar in Illustrator

PsdVibe.com | Create a modern blog layout

Woork.BlogSpot.com | How to implement a launching soon page with PHP and jQuery

SixRevisions.com | How to Create a Dark and Sleek Web Design from Photoshop

BuildInternet.com | How to Make a Slideshow with a Transparent PNG Frame

Articles and Interviews

PsdTuts.com | Interview with the Founder of Envato, Collis Ta’eed

Teenius.com | Blog Design Series: Interview With Gaya Kessler

VectorTuts.com | Interview with Nick La

GavinElliott.com | 30 Designers 1 Question – Where are you most inspired?

FreelanceSwitch.com | Are You Tweeting Away Prospects?

SixRevisions.com | 10 Things Every Web Designer Just Starting Out Should Know

Line25.com | 15 Must Read Articles for CSS Beginners

Freebies and Resources

SixRevisions.com | 30 High-Quality Icon Sets for E-Commerce Designs

InstantShift.com | 110 Ultimate Round-Up of Free Photoshop PSD Files and Resources

Blog.SpoonGraphics.com | Free Cute Furry Monster Icons for Mac, PC and Web

Tutorial9.net | Watercolor Free Icon Pack

JankoAtWarpSpeed.com | RSS Cheese – A free icon set you can taste

ThinkDesignBlog.com | Free WordPress Theme – Versatility Lite Updated (2.8 Friendly)

DesignM.ag | Website Analytics Toolbox

Illustrations and Digital Painting

ruspiee on DeviantArt.com | Viareggio 290609

ruspiee on DeviantArt.com | War Sketch

latent-talent on DeviantArt.com | Vengeance.. digital painting

BestDesignOptions.com | 20 Examples of Beautiful Typography Graphic Designs

OnlyCreative.com | Adam Spizak

PsdVault.com | 30 Incredible, Simply Stunning Space-Themed Artworks

Showcase and Inspiration

CssLeak.com | Best of June 2009: 14 Websites Design on CssLeak

CssBuilt.com | Best of CSS Design June 2009

Queness.com | Beautiful & Stunning Mini World Websites

An interview with Nick Pagano of Think Design Blog

Piervincenzo Madeo — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:12:27 +0000

To continue meetings with hard-workers and helpful persons in Web Design, I’m pleased to share this quick interview with Nick Pagano.
Nick is the founder of Think Design Blog, a graphic design site where you can find freebies, resources, inspiration and much more.

Nick, welcome to PV.M Garage and thank you for this informal interview. The PV.M’s readers know who you are and what you do; but we want more… so give us a short biography to know you better.

First off, thanks for interviewing me Piervincenzo! I’m quite honored!
As you know, my name is Nick Pagano, and I’m a graphic designer from Houston, Texas. I am a 23 year old newlywed, who really enjoys what I do.
I’ve been designing things since I was in my early teens, and couldn’t really see myself doing anything else. I particularly like textures, typography, and clean layout. Guess you could say I’m sort of a design nerd. Beside design, I enjoy spending time with the wife, friends & family, comedy, hip-hop, blogging, and several other seemingly unrelated things.

Think Design, your web site, is one of the most popular blogs about web design trends, inspirarion and resources for designer. Can you tell us how and why it become so popular?

I think there are several different reasons I’ve been as fortunate as I have been with the blog so far. It mainly has to do with how great and supportive the design community is. I mainly “marketed” my blog on Twitter. From there the word started to spread, thanks to some awesome and helpful people I met on twitter. Social bookmarking sites, networking, and twitter (and of course hard work!) is more or less how Think Design has been able to reach such a large audience. I am very thankful for this, and try to provide my readers with the highest quality possible so hopefully I make there visit to my site an enjoyable one.

What is your background education? Do you think there is the necessity of a specific education for becoming a good web designer? and for becoming a fine blogger?

I graduated with an Associates Degree in Graphic Design from the Art Institute of Houston. I really enjoyed my college time, and learned a lot from it. However, I do not think a certain degree is needed to be a good, and successful, graphic or web designer. It’s more about your work and skills than anything. If you have the talent and know-how, that is what counts.
I especially wouldn’t say there is any specific qualifications for being a fine blogger.

You are the “(only) designer for Think Four Graphic Design”, but you started also Think Design Blog, where you share resources with the community. Which are the reasons behind this kind of choose?

Thank you for mentioning my company. I had a couple different reasons for starting the blog.
When I original made the switch from primarily print design to primarily web design, I started going to a lot more graphic design blogs. I got hooked! I loved all the design blogs, from the design to the content they had to offer. I also really liked the idea of these super-nice designers, creating these awesome brushes, textures, etc… and giving them away for free. And I already always took texture shots, and played around with vectors, and things like that. So I already had some, what would be considered, “freebie packs” ready to go. So I decided to start my own blog, and see if people liked my freebies as well I honestly never expected the amount of support I’ve gotten so far!
It’s really wonderful, and again, says great things about the Design Community as a whole.

What can we look for from you in the next future? What projects will you be working on in this period?

I have some big plans in the works! Because of the blog, I’ve been able to meet up with some very cool and talented people. So you can expect some collaborative projects coming in the future. Everything from WordPress Themes & plugins, to a book. I also have some very cool and original freebies and resources planned for the near future on Think Design. I’m always shootin’ for quality, so expect more to come in 09 and beyond.

You have thousands visitors any day, 2k twitter followers, but what is the most important lesson that you have learned in your blogger life?

Be consistent, and post quality content. Those are really the most important things. It sounds basic, and it is really, but it is very important. There are a lot of blogs out there, so you have to make sure that your stands out. The best way to do that, is to remain relevant, on topic, and original. Try to always give your readers helpful information, and things that can improve the way they work.

What is the key of your success and what are your suggestions for early web designers wich want realize their on-line projects?

Best advice would be work hard, and network. Especially with the explosion of Twitter these days, there are a lot of (free) ways to market your idea or online project. And again, it’s about being consistent, and creating a quality product or service.

Can you tell us about your first experience web designer and how much you have improved your skills since then?

Ha. That takes me back! My first website, was “developed” with Homestead Site Builder, for free, when I was about 13 years old. I believe it was a Rage Against the Machine site, or something to that effect. Needless to say, I’ve improved quite a bit since back then! But even as of recently, I’ve greatly improved my skills. When I graduated the Art Institute, I knew basic HTML, but not much else about Web Design. I started working with WordPress a few years back, and since then, I’d say I got much better, much faster. Maybe somebody I’ll try to scrounge up some screen shots of my first sites, and compare them to the new ones.

Could you describe your best creation?

That is very tough to say. I really like a lot of the projects I’m working on right now, truthfully. I am about to launch a new blog design on Wednesday which I really like. So, I can’t really say! I don’t think that I’ll ever have an absolute favorite, as I will (hopefully) always continue to create new things. Tough question!

How many italian bloggers or web designers do you know and what do you think about them?

Unfortunately, I can’t say that I know that many Italian blogs! But, your site, is very nice! I love the design and content. It’s very cool all around!

A greeting for PV.M Garage readers.

I would just like to again thank Piervincenzo for interviewing me. I am very honored, especially because it is an Italian Blog (and I’m Italian)!
I hope my answers where somewhat helpful, or at least entertaining to those that took the time to read it.

Nick Pagano on Web

Interview with Chris Spooner of Spoon Graphics

Piervincenzo Madeo — Sat, 23 May 2009 10:15:18 +0000

Many thanks to Chris Spooner for taking the time to answer some of PV.M Garage questions.
Chris is the guy he guy behind Blog.SpoonGraphics. This site acts as my digital playground, where I present Illustrator and Photoshop tutorials, articles around the subject of design and a bunch of free vector and resource giveaways. The blog have 15.000 visitors every day and 20k+ subscribers for this Spooner is one of the most known web designers and bloggers in the world.

Chris, welcome to PV.M Garage and thank you for this informal interview. You’re now one of the most known web designers and bloggers in the world. Can you tell us when and how you realized that you would become a creative designer?

Thankyou, it’s a pleasure!
I’ve always aimed to become a graphic designer from quite a young age. At school and college I always went down the creative route, and finished with a BA HONS) in Art & Design at University. From then I landed my first full time job at a local studio where I worked as a Graphic and Website Designer for two years before deciding to go independent.

Well, you graduated in Art & Design, but often the background education of many designers can be very different. What do you think about this and which skills do you consider a essentials for a web designer?

While a degree or education can look great on a CV, I certainly don’t think it’s mandatory in this industry. With the web moving so fast many of the courses available are at least a couple of years out of date, which when considering their cost makes them a little pointless. While I did pick up some great knowledge from my education, I found my main skills were learnt from online blogs who share their techniques and resources.

You started your activity in two studios then you decided to work as a freelance. Was it a good choise? Could you describe us about the benefits and the disadvantages of this kind of activity?

Working at an established design company is highly recommended. It gives the necessary insights into how the industry works, and gives opportunities to get real world experience on projects that otherwise would be out of reach.

In your “about” page we can read “The combination of blogging and freelancing has been a great mix, both working hand in hand to increase my creative skills [...]“. In what way does your activity as blogger support your daily work? Is there a direct money gain or is it only a method to increase your visibility on web?

There is the direct money gain through advertisements on the blog, that provides a solid revenue each month. This means I don’t have to worry too much about the usual freelance feast or famine cycle. If I’m low on work for a particular month, I don’t have to worry because all my major outgoings are covered. Also, the exposure the blog has provided brings in plenty of enjoyable projects, so it’s a win-win situation for me!

If I had to find three adjectives to describe your works i would choose “direct”, “soft grungy” and “clear”. Do you agree?

I’ve always wondered how others would describe my work. I often see projects created by fellow designers and recognise their style, so it’s great to receive some indication of my personal ‘theme’. Overall I am a big fan of subtle textures, collaged paper and the odd ink splatter so this does fit into the ‘Soft Grunge’ style I suppose.

How well do you known the italian web design scene? What do you think about italian web designers?

I’m afraid I don’t know of any Italian web designers, other than yourself. But having checked out your site there’s definitely some highly creative designs out there. Unfortunately my Italian isn’t quite up to scratch to read about such designs, but visually they are definitely a good source of inspiration.

What are the best italians web sites (or web magazines) in your opinion?

I would have to say PV.M Garage as the best out there!

Some personal questions now. Here we go.
You have two blogs, Blog.SpoonGraphics and Line25, you work as a freelance designer. When do you give rest to your hyperactive brain?

My brain is pretty much active all the time! Even when away from the computer I’m forever picking out cool designs on posters, magazines etc, or planning out ideas for upcoming projects.

While you work, what should it not lack on your PC (or MAC?) desk? A pint of cold beer, coffe, your I-Pod…

I work alongside a collection of notebooks with random notes, as well as a large glass of water to keep me hydrated throughout the day. My iPod also makes the odd appearance to help me focus and get into ‘the zone’.

During last weeks we have read about the end of Internet in 2012, it will be true? Yes, no, maybe… but how would your daily life change if there weren’t the current resources for Internet?

I haven’t actually heard of this story, but it sounds quite scary! My daily life would experience a drastic change, my whole business relies on the Internet, as well as quite a lot of personal connections through Twitter, Facebook etc. If the Internet were to disappear, I would have to revert back to the freelance practices of 5-10 years ago and meet people locally – Which is no where near as fun!

Many web designers seek their inspiration on-line watching gallery of beautiful web sites, other’s creations anyway. How and where do you usually find your inspiration?

Browsing through web design galleries is a great way to check out the latest design trends. Establishing my Line25 website has also given me a good incentive to actively look for new designs on a weekly basis to produce the “Line25 Sites of the Week” post. Otherwise, I also subscribe to hundreds of RSS feeds, many of week provide lots of inspiration to me.

Could you describe your best creation?

Although it is a personal project, I would have to say my blog over at Blog.SpoonGraphics.co.uk. I am amazed that after originally building it as an experiment with Wordpress, it has continued to grow to become quite a famous and successful website with over 15, 000 visitors per day and 20k+ subscribers. Without it I wouldn’t be in the position I am now.

A greeting for PV.M Garage readers.

Greetings PV.M Garage readers, it is a pleasure to have to opportunity to gain an insight into the Italian industry. Best of luck with all your future projects! Ciao!