Spicy Web Designer Interview with Matt Brown of ThingsThatAreBrown LLC.

Matt Brown is a web designer, site developer and user interface designer that currently lives and works in Seattle Washington in the United States. He is a “self-taught” web professional which first started as a hobby when he was 14 years old back in 1996 and later turned into a career. His latest position was when he joined SEOMoz as their Lead Interface Designer and now he is now running ThingsThatAreBrown LLC as the Prinicipal and Creative Lead.

1. How did you get started in web design?

Like many others, I’m almost entirely self-taught. The web was a hobby first, then later a career. The early web (’95-’98 era) was really an exciting place to be — especially when you’re young. HTML was still very new, and just the experience of ‘building something’ on the internet was really fulfilling. There was a palpable excitement about what the Internet would bring to speech, communication, and culture. It took longer for it to take hold than many thought, but it was a wild ride to be a part of. I still consider myself quite lucky to be in such an awesome field.

2. When did you start designing websites?

I designed and launched my first website in 1996, when I was 14 years old. I didn’t work professionally on the web until I went to college, where I joined LTTS.org, an early e-learning project and interned over the summer at a now-defunct design firm. My career really took off when I joined Catylist (now Commercial IQ), a Chicago-based company. I’ve been freelancing full-time now, for just over a year.

3. What are the biggest challenges that you face in web design currently?

The biggest challenges are with the business and project management sides of freelancing, though they’re very exciting challenges. Before freelancing full-time, I’d never worked in an agency environment, so I had to develop my own solid process for design and working with clients. In many ways, project management is the most difficult aspect of the work — making sure things run smoothly, clients are happy, and projects complete on time. A great process is always what makes the biggest impression on your client, and makes the work more enjoyable for yourself.

The business side of things has its own set of challenges. As a solo freelancer, you have to manage all your sales and marketing work on your own. Selling was a hard, but quick lesson to learn — you have to always sell It’s very costly to be shy or timid about your business. Right now, I’ve realized that my own website, thingsthatarebrown.com, has gotten a bit long in the tooth — it doesn’t do a good enough job of showing my current work, or pitching my current services, so I’m re-designing it right now. My site, my blog, and my twitter presence are the types of marketing and outreach I have to keep active, to keep my business viable and growing. Self-promotion and marketing is the only way to grow your business. your work and services in a kind and outgoing way.

4. Why do you refer to yourself as a Front-end developer over calling yourself a web designer? Is it a way to brand yourself to your clients?

I actually refer to myself as both — I definitely perform both tasks on any end-to-end client work. I’d say that, if anything, I like to relate my brand more to design than development since it’s what I’m most passionate about.

5. Where did you go to school and has it helped you become a better web designer/front-end developer?

I went to school at Indiana University where I majored in English and Economics. I didn’t take a single technology related class while I was a student. However, IU is a very ‘tech friendly’ environment with computer labs everywhere, and I was also lucky enough to get work part-time work (later full-time) with LTTS.org. It was a great position to have because it kept me connected to web development and design within a very supportive education environment — IU is a school filled with great people and educators, so I always felt that web design could fit alongside my other studies.

6. Since you first started how has the web design industry changed? Has it changed for the better? If so, how? If not, please explain?

Obviously, it’s a radically different landscape than the Internet I knew as a kid. And yet, I never thought I’d still be coding sites “by hand” in 2009, and so involved with technology and site development. Really, I always thought tools like Dreamweaver would re-shape the web and put more power in the hands of traditional print designers. That hasn’t happened because the web is such a rich interactive tool, and requires a good bit of technology and engineering to work right.

One thing that I’ve noticed, looking through archive.org, is how experimental the web used to be. While it’s not to say that people aren’t creative today, we’ve really established a lot of great, workable design patterns — most sites are fairly similar, because we’ve all agreed that they function very well. So, as a user I’d say the web is a much better, more usable environment. As an ‘interactive creative’ though, it might be a little less exciting.

7. What are your favorite tools to use when designing a website? Why are they your favorite tools?

Photoshop is of course, indispensable — though I wish it was a bit more stable and better performing. Textmate is a god-send for any front-end development. It’s simple, elegant and works very well. If you haven’t tried it, you should. That’s about it really.

8. When you worked for SEOMoz as a Lead Interface Designer did you get a chance to learn about SEO? What else did this position you that you didn’t know on the first day?

Oddly, I knew quite about SEO via SEOMoz a few months before I joined. At my old firm, Catylist, we used many of their guides to get educated on SEO patterns.

9. Does anyone else work with you at “thingsthatarebrown, llc.” If so, how many people do you work with or do you prefer to keep it all “in-house”?

Right now, everything is done in-house by myself. I may reach out to other sub-contractors who I trust, but I’m not quite there yet on saturating my own work load. I definitely subscribe to the “hire slow, hire carefully” school of thought.

10. What are you learning about right now that you are really interested in?

I’m trying to carve out time to take a formal design class or two at a local college. I’d love to experiment and have a creative outlet that’s outside of the web-design field.

11. What do you want people to know about you, Matt?

I’m friendly — if you’re another internet creative out there, you should reach out.