Spicy Web Designer Interview with Pete Orme

Pete Orme is a web designer from Guildford in Surrey, England in the UK. He originally got started working as a support engineer and began to teach himself about the web and sub sequentially designed his first web page in 2001. Recently he teamed up with another designer by the name of Matt Hamm to form a studio called SuperEight Studio. Pete is a self taught web designer with his educational background in industrial design but his passion for web development shines through in the caliber of work he is producing.

1. How did you get started in web design?

I started my first job for a call centre software house working as a support engineer for UK and international banks. I’ve always had an interest in all things creative and this was my first real exposure to the web. As the company’s services started to encompass the web I began to teach myself a little HTML and JavaScript. I decided I wanted to get into web design and noticing that the current design team was really just print designers and artists I thought learning the nuts and bolts of web pages would stand me in good stead when I asked for a career change. So I moved into the design team where I started to get some considerable experience working with industry standard tools and putting the code I had learnt into practice.

2. When did you start designing websites?

I started working on my first web design projects around 2001. I’ve recently founded my own web design company, Supereight Studio, with another partner which I’m very excited about. And busy!!! I’ve only designed for employers before but it’s great to be doing it for myself and gives me a slightly different perspective. I’m finding it very rewarding so far

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

As ever, time and managing workload are always a challenge. But an exciting one. I think it’s important to re-use design elements (buttons, forms, tabs etc.) and adapt them to a specific project to help save a little time. I think this also starts to help build a recognizable style or personality in your work.

I think there’s a real skill involved in repeatedly producing high quality, creative work against the clock and I think this separates top web designers from average ones. As far as generating income goes anyway. Inspiration and a fresh mind are big factors here and I often find inspiration in the most unsuspecting places. Get out there and take everything in!

Another challenge probably all of us face is keeping up with the pace at which things move. With new technology, techniques etc. constantly popping up it’s hard to find time to learn without getting in the way of paid client work. If you can combine these new ideas with new projects and learn that way then even better.

4. 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’ve always called myself a web designer and always will. That’s the way I want to be branded. While front-end development is part of my day to day job, and should be a given for any web designer today, I really enjoy the UX, IA and creative side. I think nowadays if you want to call yourself a web designer then you should have a solid working knowledge of HTML, JavaScript libraries, dynamic content etc. and understand how these can influence your design decisions.

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

I did my degree in industrial design and at the time there was more of a focus on freehand and technical drawing without computers so that hasn’t really proved that useful in my current career apart from feeding my creative side! I’m self taught as far as web design/development goes and I’ve been lucky enough to have the opportunities to take my career in this direction.

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?

I guess one of the biggest changes has been the adoption of web standards. The benefits for accessibility, natural SEO and general flexibility are considerable. I built table-based layouts many moons ago (and don’t miss them) but I found the transition very straight forward.

Social networking is another biggie and designers have had to shift a lot of their focus from aesthetics to user focused sites and apps. User generated content and the rising popularity of content management systems have also had a huge effect on designers and looking through any of the popular css showcase sites this is plain to see.

I’m a big typography fan and I’m starting to enjoy using formal grid systems a lot more. I’ve really noticed how much more important these have become in the last 18 months. And all for the better!

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

I do all creative layout work in Photoshop and use Illustrator as and when I need it. I like working with layers and find this really useful when organizing my psd’s for developers or for myself to build. Depending on the platform I’m working on I use Visio or Omnigraffle for wireframing. For coding I’m happy hand coding in Dreamweaver or in Textmate, again depending on the platform. I’m comfortable using this range of tools; they’re simple, quick and very powerful.