Spicy Web Designer Interview with Federico Naumow

Federico Naumow is a web designer from Buenos Aires in Argentina. He originally started off studying law at the University of Buenos Aires and was planning to become a lawyer when he suddenly realized that he wanted to something else with his life and after some soul searching he decided to focus on web design. He has been designing for the web for the past 10 years now and has no plans on leaving his chosen career.

1. How did you get started in web design?

Well, in 1997 I was studying law at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). I was in 4th year and my entire plan was to finish my studies to become a lawyer, then apply for a position in a local law firm and after a few years of legal practice, maybe start my own law firm.

But then one day I woke up and something had changed. What I first thought it would be a promising future, turned to look like a boring one… I began to feel that I was not enjoying what I was doing. And one thing I know for sure. If you don’t love what you do, you won’t do what it takes to do it right, therefore you won’t be able to distinguish yourself from the crowd, so at the end you won’t make any decent money out of it for living. So I quit my studies and started thinking what I really wanted to do with my life in general and as a professional in particular. I always loved photography (I still do), I had a natural good taste combining colors (guess I still have it ), and although I was not a skilled illustrator, I had my moments…

I didn’t realize how to combine all of these until one day that I met my good (old) friend Photoshop 5.5. I’m a very passionate guy and what I do, I have to do it right. So I started reading everything I could about Photoshop, trying to find good tutorials about how to master the tools and effects, etc. Take into account that in 1997, internet was far away from what it is today, so it was not easy to find good stuff. PSDtuts or Web Designer Wall (just to name a few) didn’t even exist…. My initial work involved small graphic edits and photography retouching. After a while, and because of the natural course of actions, I ended up designing websites.

2. When did you start designing websites?

I guess it was around 1998. Ana, who was my girlfriend at that time, got a small job to do some edits to a website about Opera, but the funny thing is that she wasn’t a web designer. In fact she even wasn’t a designer at all. So guess who took the job? I’m not saying that I already considered myself a designer but I had to start doing something if I wanted to become a designer one day. As I said, they were just simple edits but it was fine. And they paid me for that!!! Now when I check some of the things I did back then they look awful but hey… I’m very proud…

3. What are the biggest challenges that you face in web design currently?

Well, in my opinion, I think one of the biggest challenges today is how fast you can learn new stuff and keep yourself up-to-date. And the other one is basically that you must learn how to better “promote yourself and sell your services”. If you are a freelancer and want to have the chance to get decent amount of work per month, I think that:

A) You are truly amazing in one area (designer, coder, flash guy, etc) so your work speaks for itself,
B) You are pretty good designing, programming and creating flash animations, and you do what you can to marketing yourself,
C) You are really good promoting and selling your services to prospective clients.

Of course there are some possible exceptions and or combinations but basically this is it. In my case I would love to be able to apply for A, but being realistic I’m under B, and I definitely hate C.

Finally, one of the things I’ve learned over the years is that you can’t be outstanding in everything (there are exceptions, I know…). So I guess it comes a time when you have to decide and choose.

4. Do you ever refer to yourself as a Front-end developer or a web designer? Do you code any of the web sites that you design currently? If so, what language(s) do you code in?

Mmm.. Today if I had to put me a label, I would say that I’m 50/50. I still love the act of designing, the idea of opening a white / empty canvas and start from zero still fascinates me. But I’ve also found the beauty in functionality and usability. Apart from the design point of view, I’m a guy who is constantly eager for knowledge of any kind, like History, Economics, Music (I play piano and guitar), even Cooking (I’m a sushi master, truly honest) among others. So I believe it was natural that I also got interested in programming.

Besides that, I have my best friend, Emilio Primucci, who is an “old school” programmer and who helped me at the very beginning, and still helps me any time I need it. He is very proficient in almost everything (PHP, CFM, java, xml, mySQL, etc). By the way, when I say he is an “old school” programmer, what I mean is that he is a hand coder, he uses the tab key to structure and organize the code (not like these new programmers who think that good coding is just what you see in your browser, but when you open the file in an html editor, it is all messed up.. damn!!! ), he debugs, he comments the code, etc.

One suggestion: When you code, even when you design, please keep in mind that there is a good chance that someone else ends up modifying or editing your code or design. So keep things organized, write a clean code and comment it, group things that are related and please… please… PLEASE… name your layers… layer 85 over 250 tells me nothing.

5. Where did you go to school and has it helped you become a better web design professional?

Like I explained before, I decided to change my profession while I was already studying something else. So at High School, my formal education was not oriented towards arts or design. When I started learning Photoshop, it was on my own. And since I’ve always been a fast learner (at least at what I want to learn), I decided that I would keep it that way. So from 1998 to 2002 I bought books, downloaded tutorials and spent uncountable hours in front of the monitor practicing while I was getting my first jobs. But once again, one day I realized I needed to “change the air” (sort of speaking).

So in 2002 I decided that I wanted to try a formal education in web design for 2 reasons: First because I wanted a diploma (I thought it was important for me at that time… now I don’t think the same), and second because I had reached certain level, but I was feeling I had stuck there and wanted to move forward. Being a freelancer is being alone too much of the time, so I started Multimedia Design in a private University. Guess what? After two years I had seen nothing new other than 3D animation and Video Editing. I’m not saying the University was bad. What I’m saying is that I had already learned a lot of years ago by myself. So I quit and decided to continue on my own.

At this point I want to say that a formal education is really very important because it gives you a solid base from where you then decide which direction to take. Also it is very useful for the future if, while you are studying, you have the chance to share your time and ideas with others like you, because it lets you experience how to face the problem from many different angles and perspectives, and finally, it opens your mind and your way of thinking.

6. Since you first started how has the web design industry changed? Has it changed for the better? If so, how? If not, please explain?

Well, I think the hardest part today is to be able to distinguish yourself from the rest. There are A LOT of great companies and individuals out there so it’s quite overwhelming. But if you believe in yourself, you have strong convictions and you are a hard player, you are in the right track. Of course, you must have a vision and be able to see the opportunities. I like to put it this way: “You have to see the train coming”.

7. What are your favorite tools to use when designing a web project? Why are they your favorite tools?

Photoshop definitely. Besides the fact that it is a great tool to work with, I think I’m a man of habits. And although I like to try new stuff and, for some specific jobs there are better tools, I end up working with Photoshop because it’s the one I feel more confident to work with. So I know how to squeeze it and get what I want from it, although not always, but most of the time. Illustrator is also a great tool too. When it’s time to code, I use Dreamweaver but just because it’s the one I have. I write the code myself so any html editor would work for me. Zend is a great one though.

8. I see on your site that you work with a wide range of technologies including Flash to XML. I was wondering if you could rate your level of expertise with the technologies you use on web projects?

XHTML / CSS: Advanced
PHP: Intermediate
MySQL: Intermediate
Flash AS2: Advanced
XML: Intermediate – Advanced
JavaScript: Intermediate

9. What is your favorite web technology to work with on projects and why?

I don’t have a favorite web technology. My favorite tool is “internet”. I think we have reached an era where everything is online and waiting for us to take it, squeeze it, distort it, eat it and if we want to, we may put it back online with our personal touch and flair. I firmly believe that internet is part of my life in a way that I couldn’t even imagine a life without it. In fact, I use it every single day, even over weekends when I don’t usually work.