Featured Web Designer Interview with Michael Heald

Michael Heald is a web designer from England in the United Kingdom and he is the guy behind “Fully Illustrated” a creative agency he built from the ground up.  With over 10 years of professional experience in design, Michael has really created a style that is all his own.

He has been featured in .NET magazine and Web Designer Magazine and has won a lot of awards.  Some of his achievements to date include…

• Michael’s Creative Agency “Fully Illustrated” is named 1 of only 99 top ranked creative agencies in the world
• His design work has been featured in the “Web Designers Idea Book” by Patrick McNeil and “Websites 2” by Zeixs
• Countless web and graphic design awards from various sites like CSSMania, CSS Crème, Web 360 award and Daily Slurp to name a couple.

Even though he started off in print design when he first got out of university he was introduced to web design on a few projects and since then he has expanded his skill set into 3D and motion design with game development on an online game called “Super Turbo Action Pig”.  There is no doubt that Michael Heald is an expert in what he does and I really enjoyed having a chance to hear from him about his experiences in design.

Luc asks: I know it’s been about 10 years for you since you started your career but i wanted to ask how and where did you start your career?

Michael says: I think my career officially started when my mum and dad bought me my Commodore 64!  I was into games in a big way and deep down wanted to spend my life surrounded by games in one way or another.  Ok, on a serious note, my career started when I left Uni and started working in a local 5 man design company.  I was a graduate on a steep learning curve and managed to work on a great mix of projects including branding, web design, exhibition stand design and then later a little illustration.  It was after my first taste of commercial illustration that I wanted to move on, I had the bug!  I soon found an advert for a position as an illustrator, applied and got the job!  So for the following 5 years I spent most of time drawing characters, with a little time spent doing web/application design and then later 3D modeling/animation.  After this I moved onto a dedicated web design position for a large international web agency where after 3 years I decided to move into business on my own offering all the disciplines I’d learned over the previous 8 years.

Luc asks:  How long have you been designing for the web?

Michael says: I’ve been designing for the web almost as long as I’ve been designing.  When I started out in my first job doing mainly print, it was around the time that the web industry was in its infancy and thus, I got the chance to design a couple of sites right at the beginning of my career.  Thankfully those sites are no longer online (he laughs to himself)

Luc asks: I see that your creative agency has been named of the best in the world.  Was it a surprise to you when you first heard about it?  And, what do you think makes “Fully Illustrated” a world class creative agency?

Michael says: Yeah it was big surprise!  I never thought that a small one man design company could ever be shortlisted for a place in the top 100, let alone actually win a place!  As far as what I think makes my work worthy, wow, that’s a tough one for me to answer.  I know that I love what I do, and look forward to starting work every day and if I don’t have a project on hand, there is always something I want to experiment with myself, so this must translate though to my work in some way.  Passion would sum it up I guess.

Luc asks: What magazines, websites and other materials do you read to stay on top of the latest trends in design?

Michael says: My sources of inspiration are vast to say the least and strangely, don’t include much in the way of design related sites, in fact, I can’t even think of any off the top of my head.  I actually spend my time looking at sites dedicated to 3D, motion graphics, games, concept art and photography, as I seem to draw all my inspiration from much less direct subjects.  I’ll often walk out of a movie full of ideas for a design, it’s weird I guess.

Luc asks: With so many accomplishments in your past already where do you hope to be in 5 years from now?

Michael says: Where do I want to be in 5 years time…hmmm, continuing to do what I love, only doing it much better

Luc asks: What is the one thing that you love most about what you do for a living?

Michael says: the fact that I want to get out of bed to do it, it’s that simple.  I’ve always loved my job, from the first day of my first job, to this day writing this article.  If you can get up in a morning and get paid for something you love doing, then that is one of the best things in life, as let’s face it, you’ll spend most of your life working than doing anything else.  Oh, and the fact that I get to play and create games might have something to do with it too

Luc asks: Tell me a few things about yourself that most people wouldn’t know about you if they met you on the street.

Michael says: Oh good question.  Hmm, how about…I originally started out life wanting to be a fighter pilot for the RAF.  Oh, and I farted really loud in school assembly when I was 12   There you go, not many people know those two facts