From a hobby to a passion, Roxanne Labajo is a blogger turned web designer

Coming to us from Washington, DC in the United States, Roxanne Labajo is a web designer who started off skinning her blog back in 2001. After some personal successes in redesigning her site she decided to make the move to web design and started to help her fellow bloggers by working on their sites. Working with Web Standards, HTML, CSS and Photoshop she’s created a number of great websites and her passion for great web design has only grown. She credits her education in Web Technologies at Montgomery College and Graphic Design at Marymount University as a contributing factor that give her a good grounding in design concepts such as layout, color and typography. Roxanne has been designing professionally for the last 5 years and has held various web design roles and continues to further her skills in web design and various web technologies. She remarks about her experiences and how she started into her career in web design, her approach to design and her passion for all things web related.

Luc asks: Roxanne, how did you first get started designing websites?

Roxanne says: It all began after I started blogging back in 2001. I wanted to learn to customize the look and design so I joined some forums and browsed the internet for some tips. After experimenting with basic CSS and HTML and learning to create simple graphics in Photoshop, I found myself skinning my blog almost every other week. It wasn’t long before other users asked me to help skin their blogs so I started creating blog skins and posting them on my blog and in forums for public use. Within a few weeks, I was receiving hundreds of hits and comments on my blog every day for more requests. So I continued learning more about web design as I produced blog skins and what started as a hobby grew into a passion.

Luc asks: In your approach of designing websites using pencil and paper, what advantages does this give you and why do you prefer this method?

Roxanne says: As part of my design process, I like to create thumbnail sketches of my ideas on paper to get my mind spinning and the creative juices flowing. I find sketching useful for developing ideas and to explore layout options and is a more natural and inspirational way of doing it than going straight to the computer. The computer inhibits initial experimentation and you can easily waste more time getting caught up in things like changing the fonts or aligning every element perfectly, etc. Sketching allows me to rule out many design ideas quickly and definitely saves me time in the long run.

Luc asks: I see that you like to shoot photos and i wanted to ask if you use any of your photography in the sites that you design?

Roxanne says: Nope. Not yet anyway.

Luc asks: What benefit does working with web standards on a web design project provide?

Roxanne says: Using web standards to create and design your HTML pages ensures that your sites are more search engine friendly and cross-browser compatible and therefore more accessible, maximizing the number of potential visitors. It’s also easier to maintain a well structured, standards-based site.

Luc asks: Where and what did you study in College/University? Do you feel it has made you a better web designer? If it has explain why and if not why not?

Roxanne says: I studied Web Technologies at Montgomery College and Graphic Design at Marymount University. My degrees gave me a good starting point for the web and a solid base for core design concepts like color, layout, and typography. But because the web is always changing, it can be challenging for colleges to keep their curriculums current and up to date with the latest web trends and technologies. So I think school was only meant to give you an introduction and it’s up to you to do the rest. Most of my skills are self taught or acquired through my experience working in the field.