Spicy Web Designer Interview with Rob Palmer

Rob Palmer is a web designer based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England. He has been designing most of his life and spends the majority of his time designing websites now. He graduated from Newcastle College from the Multimedia Design and he is proficient in a wide range of applications including Cinema 4D, Flash, PhotoShop and QuarkXpress to name a few.

1. How did you first start designing websites?

I got into web site design through my Multimedia design course, while learning about accessibility and web standards. We covered a great deal of topics through my course, new media, web trends, 3D illustration and animation, but our main focus was web design. I realized so many people were not building accessible websites and a lot of the ones I viewed which met web standards were lacking a fair bit in design. And that’s it really, I then took on a few small projects to get my foot in the door and that really started the ball rolling.

2. I see that your skills are very extensive, how long have you been designing websites and designing in general?

I have been designing and drawing from a very early age, mainly illustrative, pencil and paper work, but about 4-5 years ago I first started designing digitally.

3. Why did you decide to incorporate penguins into your portfolio?

Heh, they are actually puffins! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffin I am not sure why, just wanted to be a little quirky and make people ask that question! ‘Why Puffins?’ I have always loved drawing animals and the branded07 design which is currently live is actually the 12th generation! But throughout all the generations I have incorporated an animal of some description. I think B07 v1 was a stag! Anyway about version 8 I incorporated a bird and it just merged into puffins from there.

4. What is one of the biggest challenges that you face in web design?

Cross browser compatibility is always a “biggy”. If you state you’re making accessible websites it is very hard to just make a funky looking website without testing it on a LOT of browsers. It always seems to be the case as well that the one browser you sometimes forget to test on is the one browser the client is using! Technology is advancing so quickly these days and the majority of people are running decent machines and modern day browsers. But I am still to this day designing sites for people running ie4-5. Sometimes, and I know it is wrong, you just feel like sending them a link with the IE or FireFox updates on!

5. What is your favorite part of designing a website and why?

Definitely; the concept design and visualization. I love coding, especially the front end CSS and XHTML but it has to be coming up with new and funky concepts for clients, I could do that all day!

6. Do you like to listen to music when you design and if so what do you listen to?

I have a play list I listen to over and over while working. I find that listening to music does help me concentrate, but if I have to many new songs coming on it will act as a distraction. So I have my work playlist of around 40-50 of my favorite tunes and just have them on random in the background.

7. What do you see is the biggest problem in web design today?

There are a lot of DIY programs out there, and the problems is that the quality of themes, templates, code and self hosting is so high that it is getting harder and harder for a web designer to be set apart from your average everyday IT teacher who knows the basics of coding and has lots of funky software that will do the hard work for them. It cheapens the job and makes it less of a skill. With the introduction of mySpace and other such social networking sites, everyone is now a web designer. Pros and cons to this and don’t get me wrong I have no problems with the websites and software, but when someone asks me what I do, and I say ‘I am a web designer’ their response is ‘oh, I am a plumber and also a web designer’ Cracks me up a little!