Kai Brach by way of Melbourne talks to us about Google and his love of freelancing!

Kai Brach is a web designer originally from Saarbrücken, Germany now living in Melbourne, Australia. He has been designing for the last 10 years and first got into web design when he was 19 years old taking a part-time job as a junior web designer. As he became more established with web design and he eventually decided to take his passion for web design into a full-time profession. Kai is also putting together an eBook called “Love Freelancing” that is set to come out in 2010 showcasing some great web designers. He continues to work for companies both large and small and notes his experience working at Google headquarters as an “amazing” highlight of his career to date.

1. Kai, when did you first start freelancing as a web designer?

When I was around 19 I took a part-time job as a junior web designer at a company called netmedia in my home town in Germany. As I got more experienced and confident in my skills, I started doing smaller jobs for colleagues, friends and soon after clients. Most of the work was very basic and – compared to my clients today – not so professional. But the experience in dealing with projects and clients helped my organizational skills.

While I was travelling to Australia and Asia in 2002-2003, I kept working here and there on some designs projects and only in about 2005 made web design my full-time profession.

2. How did you first gain exposure to web design and what was possible in design?

As mentioned above, I think working within a company – even if it’s just part-time – is one of the best ways to gain experience and find encouragement to work on your design skills.

Putting your best pieces of work on your portfolio site is a no-brainer in order to be seen and get enquiries.

However, I think most of the exposure and praise I received did not come from client work, but more so from my personal projects. This is also where you try out new things and have complete freedom to go down different design alleys.

The problem with client work, even if you get creative freedom, is that most of the time you get another client right afterwards that wants “something very similar”. I find myself pigeonholed quite often, so personal projects help to break the pattern and give different styles a try.

3. In your “Love Freelancing” ebook that is coming out in 2010 what can people and web designers in general expect from this ebook?

Most of us web designers have “idols”, other people in the industry that we look up to and admire (and follow on Twitter). I’m very curious as to what their life and work environment looks like. How do they work? And what do they do to come up with such good work?

As freelancers we all share a similar lifestyle – working from home or a small office, sometimes getting up late, taking the dog for a walk and having a cup of tea before we get started on checking our emails.

With this ebook I want to show a more personal side of some of the top design freelancers. It’s kinda like a behind-the-scene-look. I will conduct over 20 individual interviews and show photos of people’s office set-up, their house or neighborhood etc. It’s gonna be a cute little ebook that reminds us of the privileges of being a freelancer.

4. How was the experience of working at Google?

Amazing! I was very lucky to get the opportunity to be involved in a project there (thanks to amiando.com) and saw how things work at the Google HQ in Mountainview. All the rumors that go around about the employee benefits and incredible work conditions – yep, they are all true!

Although it was just a 1 week experience, working with some of the folks at Google really opened my eyes in regards to professionalism and open mindedness. I’m certainly aware of some of the issues that come with such a mega-company, but they really understand how to foster creative knowledge and encourage new thinking.

At the same time, it wouldn’t be a company I would try to be employed by. As we all know from Douglas Bowman designers can have a hard time fighting the data driven ethos of the company.

5. I see that you’ve developed a number of projects including GoFreelancing.org and Ausmag.de.  Do you find that you have a personal interest in the projects you choose to develop? Also, what motivates you to design these projects?

Definitely. All of my side projects come from a personal interest in the subject matter. Back in 2004, when I was traveling more I was thinking about a community where people could meet, share blogs and photos easily and stay in touch with family and friends at home. That resulted in www.globalzoo.de – a German travel community with now 11,000+ members.

Ausmag.de was also an idea I had while I was traveling. There are numerous backpacker magazines in Australia that help independent travelers find hostels, tours and activities while they are on the road. I thought it would be great to have that kind of info before you get here. So I got in touch with the publishers and shortly after started selling magazine packages to people in Europe. They love the pre-departure info and I earn a few bucks. Last year I also wrote a 250-page ebook about my experience as a backpacker traveling and working in Australia which I now also sell on the site.

Since my move to Melbourne earlier this year I also write about my life in Down Under in my (German) blog www.australien-blogger.de. It’s a great way to stay in touch with Germany and share experiences as a migrant.

As a freelancer who loves his profession there is a lot to explore and talk about with others. That’s why I started things like www.gofreelance.org and www.lovefreelancing.com

6. Since you moved from Germany to Australia what is your favorite thing about your new home of Melbourne?

Australia is a great country. People take life less serious (which is something I still find hard to adapt to) and quality of life in general is higher than in many northern European countries, I believe. Melbourne in particular is a great city with lots of art, culture and creativity to explore (did you see the new Melbourne logo?

As most migrants-by-choice I keep comparing things with my home country a lot though. So there are definitely things I don’t particularly like about Melbourne or Australia (most businesses haven’t realized the potential of the web yet, environmental awareness is almost non-existent, there is very little urban history etc.)

The traveler that I am, I might just pack up my things and explore other cities or countries in a few years time – who knows. Actually, tomorrow I’m getting ready to fly off to New York for a 3 month stay over Christmas. Anybody wants to catch up and talk design over a coffee or so?