Gary Davison in the UK attacks the web!

Gary Davison from Norwich, England in the United Kingdom is a fantastic web designer and the man behind “Attack of the web”, his personal web design portfolio. He first started designing websites back in college when he was studying at the City College Norwich for his diploma in Multimedia Design and he has been designing professionally for the last two years. Gary does work with both web design and development and does the majority of his web design while he is freelancing for clients.

Luc @ SWD: Gary, I really like the graphic for your “Attack of the Web” portfolio site.  It seems to have a “comic book” style to it.  What inspired it?

Gary: My love of comic books, and pop culture I guess as well as the desire to create a site that didn’t follow the standard web 2.0 look. This is the fourth re-design of my site within two years, I was never happy with any of the previous designs as I never felt that they successfully got across my personality, and what I do. And whilst the look and feel of most mediums has made their way onto the internet over the years, the aged “comic book” style hadn’t at least not to my knowledge.

Luc @ SWD: When did you first start designing websites? How long have you been designing websites professionally?

Gary: I designed my first website in college four years ago; I built it using Photoshop, ImageReady and Dreamweaver. After my course finished I joined a digital agency in Norwich, where I started out as a Junior Web Creative before being promoted to a Web Creative. My role covers both web design and development, with the main focus being on development. I find that I do the majority of my design work in my free time, on either a freelance basis or just for myself.

Luc @ SWD: What is one tool you feel that you couldn’t live without as a web designer and what are your favorite tools from software to web technologies that you use in your day to day work?

Gary: Pen and paper, I think all web designs should start here, after that Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Dreamweaver; they are the two tools that I use the most in my day to day work. Occasionally I use Adobe Flash when I have to create Flash banners and interfaces for clients. I know most developers prefer using applications such as CSSedit or Coda to create and edit their CSS and HTML, but because I was taught on Dreamweaver I have just grown accustomed to it. Photoshop is brilliant tool and I would say my favorite, I enjoy doing everything from retouching photos to designing websites in it.

Luc @ SWD: Do you feel that your education from City College Norwich in Multimedia Design has made you a better designer?

Gary: Yes and no, it’s there where I was first taught to code XHTML/CSS and where I was first shown how to use Photoshop. But I feel that I have learnt most of my skills from working commercially, working to brief and deadline something entirely different to college where you are allowed to choose your own subject matter and deadlines are never as tight.