Spicy Web Designer Interview with Elliot Jay Stocks

In my quest to highlight the best web designers from around the world i thought i would start off SpicyWebDesigners.com by interviewing some of them. Naturally if you are a web designer that would either like to use our site as a launch pad for your freelancing or you are a professional looking for us to review your portfolio please contact us. I had the pleasure of emailing Elliot Jay Stocks, a Web Designer from the UK recently and wanted to let him know that i enjoyed his design work. He was nice enough to agree to me asking him a few questions about Web Design, his experiences in this field and his influences.

Elliot Jay Stocks

1. How did you get into Web Design?

I took a year out between school and university and set up a small record label with some local bands. I handled the artwork for the compilation CD we released, and when we needed a website, I was the one who ended up doing that, too. It all went from there, really.

2. How long have you been building Websites?

Since then, which was in 2001, when I was 19. I then went to uni and dabbled in web design a bit more, until I was majoring in ‘digital media’ by the third year. At the same time, I’d begun freelancing and designing sites for friends’ bands. By the time I left uni I’d built up a fairly substantial portfolio, which landed me a job at EMI Records.

3. Outside of designing for the web do you have any other creative passions?

Absolutely. In fact, web design is only my latest creative passion, really. I drew from a very young age, and I was pretty sure I was going to go into illustration as a career until I went to uni. I wrote and illustrated comic books, which I’d really like to get back into one day. Writing’s always been a big thing for me and right not I’m writing a book about web design. But I’m also planning a fictional book at some point. Also, I’m a musician, although on a very part-time basis. I’ve self-released a couple of albums, which you can find on iTunes. Just search for ‘Sourhaze’, which is my band name.

4. Do you think the Web Design industry has received a bad reputation from designers who over promise and under deliver?

Those designers are certainly out there, and there are a lot of them, but I don’t think they’ve damaged the industry, really. The success of the industry is dictated by the professional designers.

5. What inspires you to design the way that you do?

I like making things that are pleasant to look at. In a way, it all just comes down to that. As for my own style, I always try and do something a bit out of the norm… although I don’t always succeed! I think a lot of my stuff has been inspired by nature, stylistically.

6. Do you listen to a certain type of music when you design websites?

Not any one particular kind, no. I’m into all sorts of music, and although my personal tastes often lean towards Metal and Rock in general, I usually put on some decent, fast-paced electronica when the deadlines loom!

7. What are you working on now?

I’m creating Photoshop mockups for a usability company’s new website, designing a template that will ship with a fairly major web-authoring application, writing a speech for an event I’m doing next week, and drafting the initial parts of my book.

8. Who do you look up to?

Miguel Ripoll is probably my favourite web designer. I think he creates truly beautiful, out-of-the-ordinary work. John Boardley, who runs ilovetypography.com, also gets my respect, for the typography gems he finds and publishes every week. Outside of the web, my favourite artist is Alphonse Mucha from the Art Nouveau movement, and I’m currently in love with the work of comic book writer / illustrator Jonathan Hickman.

9. Where do you see yourself when you retire?

Living comfortably but still creating lots of stuff purely for the fun of it.

10. Tell us something that we don’t know about you

I used to print up my hand-made comic books at (comic book illustrator and Doctor Who concept artist) Bryan Hitch’s house, when he lived round the corner from me.

Check out some of his latest work by clicking here.