Kyle Fiedler from Fiedler Creative discusses his passion for designing great websites

Kyle Fiedler supports women’s breasts (at least in the month of October, which is national breast cancer month) and his clients’ websites. He calls Woburn‚ Massachusetts outside of Boston in the United States his home. Like a lot of web designers he started designing in college and with a lot of passion and determination continues to design to this day. Aside from a full-time web design position he also freelances through his personal web studio, Fiedler Creative, where he showcases his skills. I had a chance to ask him some questions about his experiences in web design, where he finds inspiration and more about his personal background…

Luc @ SWD: Kyle, how did you first get into web design?

Kyle: When I was a sophomore in college my roommate (kivodesigns.com) and I took a web design class. I loved having people really interact with my designs and the unique set of problems that come with designing for the web. Our energy and passion for the web really feed off of each other and it still does to this day.

Luc @ SWD: How long have you been designing websites professionally?

Kyle: Really not long after that. A friend asked me to redesign his current site that he had built based off a template his hosting service had provided. It was pretty gross, so it was an easy score for me. He was and has been great with letting me fiddle with his site. I am currently in process of building the third revision of his site.

Luc @ SWD: Where do you find your sources of inspiration when designing a new project?

Kyle: I never really know what will kick start an idea or design solution so I am always on the lookout. I love using LittleSnapper to collect things that I find on the web. I’ve got over 4 thousands images that I’ve collected from websites, logos, posters, photos and more. If I see something that grabs my attention when I am not at the computer I’ll take a picture with my phone or try to sketch it down.

When I start a design I will usually refer to my LittleSnapper library and flip through it while I am sketching out ideas. I’ll refer back to it every-once in a while during the design and development to hopefully spark some additional ideas.

Luc @ SWD: What are some of your favorite web technologies to work with on a web design project?

Kyle: I am more of a designer so my favorite thing to work with is my sketchbook which isn’t a web technology. I love using CSS and watching the site take its shape and sprinkling some jQuery to create an extra layer of interactivity. When faced with some real development work I use WordPress. It’s pretty easy to get started and there are an incredible amount of add-ons to help me with whatever functionality I need done.

Luc @ SWD: Where and what did you study at college or university? Has it helped you become a better web designer?

Kyle: I majored in Visual Communication with a focus on Graphic Design. It gave me a starting point for the web and a solid base for core design concepts like color layout and typography. The nice thing about the program was that it gave me a sampling of different disciplines from print and branding to 3D, motion graphics, multimedia and web.