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	<title>Website Inspiration Blog &#124; SpicyWebDesigners.com by Luc Arnold &#187; Philipine Web Designers</title>
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	<description>Tips, advice and inspiration to help you with your website</description>
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		<title>Robin James Yu from Manila is a web developer turned web designer</title>
		<link>http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/1408/robin-james-yu-from-manila-is-a-web-developer-turned-web-designer/</link>
		<comments>http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/1408/robin-james-yu-from-manila-is-a-web-developer-turned-web-designer/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:55:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Luc</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philipine Web Designers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Spicy Web Designers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Manila Web Designer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philippine web designer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[web designer]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://spicywebdesigners.com/?p=1408</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Robin James Yu is a web designer from Manila in the Philippines. He first started designing websites at the age of 12 years old and has been professionally designing websites for the past 3 years. He studied computer science and received his degree from Ateneo de Manila University but he says that did not help [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.robinjamesyu.com/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1409" title="robin_james_yu_homepage" src="http://spicywebdesigners.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/robin_james_yu_homepage.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="225" /></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="color: black;">Robin James Yu </span></strong><span style="color: black;">is a web designer from Manila in the Philippines.<span> </span>He first started designing websites at the age of 12 years old and has been professionally designing websites for the past 3 years.<span> </span>He studied computer science and received his degree from </span><span>Ateneo de Manila University<span style="color: black;"> but he says that did not help him learn to design websites and that was something that he taught himself over time.<span> </span>Robin James or “RJ” as he prefers to be called uses a wide array of tools to craft his sites including Apanta, Photoshop and Firefox add-ons and stays up to date by using books and experimenting with the latest trends in web design.<strong></strong></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="color: black;">1. RJ, I read that you started getting interested about designing website when you were 12 years old and I wanted to ask how you first got started designing websites.</span></strong><strong></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><em>My Dad&#8217;s a big technology junkie. He owned his own print shop in Toronto so he had a computer before many people even saw one. So anyways, he introduced me to the computer and how it worked when I was about 5. Fast forward to when I was 12, I watched as my dad built his first website with the use of HTML and JavaScript so I guess you can say I owe a lot to my dad. He showed me the basics of the syntax and I got started just browsing the source code of my favorite websites. That really got me interested into designing and developing my own websites. I just opened notepad and started playing away.</em></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="color: black;">2. How long have you been professionally designing websites?</span></strong></p>
<p><em>I&#8217;ve been professionally designing websites for 3 years now, although I&#8217;ve only been doing it on the side. It was either I was still in college or while I still had a day job. Last month I decided to quit my day job and go full-time freelance. It&#8217;s been great!</em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="color: black;">3. I was reading on your &#8220;About&#8221; page that you studied and received your Bachelor of Computer Science Degree and I wanted to ask how has that helped you to become a better web designer?</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><em>Well, I&#8217;m not sure what you meant by &#8220;designer&#8221; as sometimes it&#8217;s mixed to mean a developer as well but I&#8217;ll answer it both ways. Strictly speaking, a degree in Computer Science has not helped me at all be a better designer. Everything I learned in design I learned on my own. But the degree did help me to be a better web developer. Although I knew how to write code that translated into websites, when you learn by experience sometimes you jump ahead into the intermediate level without going through the basics. With building websites I already knew what to do, a degree helped me learn the reason behind why something was done a certain way as well as allowing me to see what really happened underneath all that code at the machine level.</em></span></p>
<p><em>One thing to note about college education in the Philippines is that they&#8217;re never cutting edge. What they&#8217;ll teach you will almost always be outdated. Most of the things they taught me that wasn&#8217;t theory (like languages and syntax) was outdated and I had already known most of the web languages they were teaching. What I did get out of the experience though was aside from what I mentioned above, was the discipline and work ethic needed to succeed outside of school.</em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="color: black;">4. What are some of your favorite tools when you are building websites and why are they your favorites?</span></strong></p>
<p><em>When building websites, the first tool I use is of course Photoshop. Everyone uses it; it&#8217;s that powerful that it can&#8217;t be neglected. Aside from the graphical tools built into Photoshop, I like the slicing mechanisms that allow you to export sliced images with ease. I use Aptana as my main IDE for coding up websites (It&#8217;s built from Eclipse). You won&#8217;t hear that from many web designers because it’s mainly a developer&#8217;s tools. Designers I guess would be more familiar with Dreamweaver, but I find Aptana more powerful and convenient than anything I&#8217;ve used before. It&#8217;s the most complete IDE I’ve ever used. It&#8217;s a bit bloated and a resource hog but it comes with most of the features that I consider essential.</em></p>
<p><em>Other favorite and essential tools I have are Firefox and the abundant add-ons like Web Developer tools and Firebug. Firefox just makes coding convenient. I also almost always have xrefresh on, which monitors your file system for changes and then refreshes the browser accordingly. It’s very handy for not having to hit the refresh shortcut all the time in the browser.</em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="color: black;">5. Being from a Computer Science background I am curious about how you learned to use Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash to design sites?</span></strong><strong></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><em>Well I&#8217;ve always had a passion for design since I was a kid. I loved coding first but then fell in love with design as well eventually. The only reason I chose to take a Computer Science degree was that at the time of my enrollment, the university I entered, which is one of the top in the country, did not yet offer a Computer graphics or new media degree which was a shame because they initiated one 2 years after I entered. Anyways, I&#8217;ve had a passion for good design ever since and I found out the best way to learn was just to experiment. Books help, but it’s really what you learn on your own that&#8217;s going to make an impact on yourself and the way you do things. First thing I do when I try to learn a new program is to just dive in and let loose.</em></span></p>
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		<title>Ronnie Morales from Manila discusses his love of graphic design and how he became a web designer</title>
		<link>http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/1398/ronnie-morales-from-manila-discusses-his-love-of-graphic-design-and-how-he-became-a-web-designer/</link>
		<comments>http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/1398/ronnie-morales-from-manila-discusses-his-love-of-graphic-design-and-how-he-became-a-web-designer/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:02:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Luc</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philipine Web Designers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Spicy Web Designers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Manila Web Designer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philippines web designer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[web designer]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://spicywebdesigners.com/?p=1398</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Ronnie Morales is a web designer and graphic artist from Manila in the Philippines. He has been interested in web design ever since he read a tutorial on HTML back in 1998 and started to design professionally in 2004 after graduating from college. Ronnie studied Electronics and Communication Engineering at Mapua Institute of Technology so [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ronniemoralesdesign.com/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1400" title="ronnie_morales_homepage1" src="http://spicywebdesigners.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/ronnie_morales_homepage1.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="225" /></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><strong><span>Ronnie Morales </span></strong><span>is a web designer and graphic artist from Manila in the Philippines.<span> </span>He has been interested in web design ever since he read a tutorial on HTML back in 1998 and started to design professionally in 2004 after graduating from college.<span> </span>Ronnie studied Electronics and Communication Engineering at </span><span>Mapua Institute of Technology so he definitely considers himself a “self-taught” web designer.<span> </span>With that said after 5 years of professional experience in web design his goal is to make “well-designed websites accessible to everyone”.<strong></strong></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><strong><span>1. Ronnie, how did you get started in web and graphic design originally?</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><em><span>I&#8217;ve been always interested in graphic design ever since I was young. I believe I got it from my father, he&#8217;s an old school layout artist and it’s only natural that I follow in his footsteps. </span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span><em>I got started on web design after reading an HTML tutorial I stumbled upon back in 1998. I learned everything that I can about designing and building websites. I remember using only notepad to code websites those days and using tables and frames to layout web pages. The web was relatively young back then and the design trends were very different. Keeping up with new design and usability standards all these years has been a fun challenge.</em></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><strong><span>2. When did you first start designing websites and how long have you been designing for the web professionally?</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><em><span>I started designing websites as soon as I learned how, signing up on tripod and geocities for free hosting just to play around and experiment. I really didn’t take web design seriously; it was just something for me to do on my spare time.</span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><em><span>But as the years went on, I found myself more and more interested on web design and I just kept on reading tutorials and improving my skills while trying to finish a degree in engineering.</span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span><em>I started designing professionally in 2004; I applied for a web designer job as soon as I graduated from college. I worked in an outsourcing company working small websites for various clients around the world. </em></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><strong><span>3. Where did you study and specifically what did you study and has it helped you to become a better web and graphic designer?</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><em><span>You might be surprised but I took up Electronics and Communication Engineering at the Mapua Institute of Technology in Manila, Philippines. I’m a self-taught web designer and even though I didn&#8217;t study in a design school, college has helped a lot because I believe that school offers much more than just lessons and books. School also teaches us how to deal with problems and prepares us socially before heading out to the real world.</span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span><em>I do wish that I did go to a design school and I have been trying to find a good one locally but with no success so far. </em></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><strong><span>4. Why did you choose a one-page portfolio layout over a multi-page portfolio to showcase the work that you do?</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><em><span>Being a one-man team, I don’t really think I would need a multi-page website. I wanted to keep everything simple and to have all the information a visitor might need available as soon as my website loads. </span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span><em>I did consider using a multi-page layout but it just didn’t represent me well. I wanted a website that says: This is me, this is what I do and this is what I have done so far.</em></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><strong><span>5.  What are your favorite web technologies to work with when designing websites?</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span><em>I’m not really a programmer but I enjoy coding my designs using valid XHTML and CSS codes. It’s just an awesome feeling to see your design in a browser windows looking just the way as your designed it in Photoshop. I also use jQuery to improve usability of a website as well as adding minor visual effects or animation. </em></span></p>
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		<title>Spicy Web Designer Interview with Lendl Allen Trazo</title>
		<link>http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/1100/spicy-web-designer-interview-with-lendl-allen-trazo/</link>
		<comments>http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/1100/spicy-web-designer-interview-with-lendl-allen-trazo/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 21 May 2009 04:16:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Luc</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philipine Web Designers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Spicy Web Designers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cebu Web Designer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dubai Web Designer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philippine web designer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[web designer]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://spicywebdesigners.com/?p=1100</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[

Lendl Allen Trazo is a web designer originally from Cebu in the Philippines (currently in Dubai). He graduated from AMA Computer University with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. He started designing websites back in college and has been designing professionally for the past 5 years. He is mainly “self taught” in web design [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.lendlallenvtrazo.com/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1101" title="lendl_allen_trazo_homepage" src="http://spicywebdesigners.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/lendl_allen_trazo_homepage.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="225" /></a></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">Lendl Allen Trazo</span></strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;"> is a web designer originally from Cebu in the Philippines (currently in Dubai).<span> </span>He graduated from AMA Computer University with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science.<span> </span>He started designing websites back in college and has been designing professionally for the past 5 years.<span> </span>He is mainly “self taught” in web design but has an extensive technical background.<span class="apple-style-span"><strong></strong></span></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span class="apple-style-span"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;"> </span></strong></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span class="apple-style-span"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">1. How did you get started in web design?</span></strong></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;"><em>I was first exposed to web design in one of my subjects in college. I decided to make it as a career when I applied for a job as a web designer and was rejected. I took that experience as a challenge and motivated myself to study the craft.</em></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><span class="apple-style-span"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">2. When did you start designing websites?</span></strong></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;"><em>I started designing websites when I was in college but I never took it seriously because I was into programming during that time. I started creating websites as a professional when I landed a job in one of the prestigious international publishing companies in Cebu, Philippines.</em></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><span class="apple-style-span"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">3. What are the biggest challenges that you face in web design currently?</span></strong></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;"><em>One of the pros in this industry is that you don&#8217;t need to have a degree to become a web designer, all you need is talent, passion and self-motivation, and because of that, one of the biggest challenge is keeping up with the competition and technology. A web designer needs to be up to date, unique and innovative to be noticed.</em></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><span class="apple-style-span"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">4. Do you ever refer to yourself as a Front-end developer or a web designer? Do you code any of the web sites that you design currently? If so, what language(s) do you code in?</span></strong></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;"><em>Yes, most of the time I refer to myself as a web designer. I code my designs into valid XHTML pages and use DREAMWEAVER to do it.</em></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><span class="apple-style-span"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">5. Where did you go to school and has it helped you become a better web design professional?</span></strong></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;"><em>I studied Computer Science in AMA Computer University. While studying there, I was introduced to HTML and MS Frontpage, I learned the basics of HTML there, back then I was only using MS Frontpage to do everything, I never knew what Photoshop was. I developed and learned all the skills I know today mostly through self-studying.</em></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><span class="apple-style-span"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">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?</span></strong></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;"><em>Yes, it has improved without a doubt. Before, nobody really took websites seriously, it was not a necessity but now, I think 99% of the entire world&#8217;s companies have their own website and they generate a significant amount of money through it. The web design industry is officially one, if not the best mediums to advertise and sell products and services, it is also cheaper than traditional means and it reaches a wider audience.</em></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><span class="apple-style-span"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">7. What are your favorite tools to use when designing a web project? Why are they your favorite tools?</span></strong></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;"><em>My main weapon of choice is Adobe Photoshop, my secondary weapon would be Illustrator. In my opinion, Photoshop is the best design tool available today, It gives designers flexibility and it offers many tools to aide designers with their projects and it’s very easy to use. There are also times where the designs are required to be done in Illustrator, when I create designs for FLASH or create interfaces for RIA&#8217;s/FLEX, I prefer using Illustrator.</em></span></p>
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		<title>Spicy Web Designer Interview with Dino Latoga</title>
		<link>http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/1070/spicy-web-designer-interview-with-dino-latoga/</link>
		<comments>http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/1070/spicy-web-designer-interview-with-dino-latoga/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 02 May 2009 05:01:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Luc</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philipine Web Designers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Spicy Web Designers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philipine Web Designer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[web designer]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://spicywebdesigners.com/?p=1070</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Dino Latoga is a web designer from the Philippines. He has been designing websites since about 2000 when he was introduced to it by a friend. Dino is a “self taught” web designer who learns and continues to learn from books, magazines and other websites about web design. He develops websites using a blend of [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><a href="http://dinolatoga.com/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1071" title="dino_latoga_homepage" src="http://spicywebdesigners.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/dino_latoga_homepage.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="225" /></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; line-height: normal;"><strong><span>Dino Latoga</span></strong><span> is a web designer from the Philippines.<span> </span>He has been designing websites since about 2000 when he was introduced to it by a friend.<span> </span>Dino is a “self taught” web designer who learns and continues to learn from books, magazines and other websites about web design.<span> </span>He develops websites using a blend of Javascripting, XHTML and CSS and also designs for specific web software platforms like WordPress, Blogger and Typepad.</span><strong></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; line-height: normal;"><strong><span style="color: black;">1. How did you get started in web design?</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; line-height: normal;"><em><span style="color: black;">I really don&#8217;t remember the exact year but I had a friend who was really into skateboarding at that time and he showed me a website that he created for their skateboarding group. I was like amazed at what he did. There were these cool automatically created JavaScript rollover effects and I think they were something extraordinary. That&#8217;s the story on how I totally got interested into creating websites.</span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; line-height: normal;"><strong><span style="color: black;">2. When did you start designing websites?</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; line-height: normal;"><em><span style="color: black;">Like my answer on first question, my friend introduced me into creating websites and as far as I can remember I think that was between the year 2000 and 2001.</span></em><span style="color: black;"><em> <span>The first website I created was made in Adobe Image ready. Adobe Image ready has this thing that lets you create cool rollover effects. Creating websites back those days was much easier than today because you don&#8217;t really have to write the HTML part anymore. Programs such as Fireworks and Image ready has special table based HTML generators which makes work much easier.</span></em></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; line-height: normal;"><strong><span style="color: black;">3. What are the biggest challenges that you face in web design currently?</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; line-height: normal;"><em><span style="color: black;">I think the greatest challenge in the web design industry is catching up with all the emerging latest technology and putting yourself above all the designers out there. It&#8217;s a huge crowd so in order to stand out, you must be totally passionate and hardworking.</span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; line-height: normal;"><strong><span style="color: black;">4. Do you ever refer to yourself as a Front-end developer or a web designer? Do you code any of the web sites that you design currently? If so, what language(s) do you code in?</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; line-height: normal;"><em><span style="color: black;">I refer to myself as both. I do all the design and I also do all the coding. When I&#8217;m designing a website, I always think ahead of the coding part. For example, do I want to make the edges of this box to be rounded or not? Will it require extra mark-up when I convert it to HTML? I always find the need to ask myself those kinds of things. It saves me time in the future. I wouldn&#8217;t want to be going back to the designing process when I&#8217;m in the middle of coding something. I really like to be organized at things. This is based on my own personal experience so other people&#8217;s experience may vary.</span></em></p>
<p><em>I&#8217;m really good at writing HTML and CSS. In fact, I&#8217;m very good. It&#8217;s one of my expertises which I learned to do on my first job. I learned it all in a book called &#8220;HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables using CSS&#8221; from Sitepoint. The cover of that book is a family having their dinner on an invisible table, hence, table-less. I have a basic knowledge of PHP but I do understand most of the codes. I just don&#8217;t know how to write my own very well. As for JavaScript, I use jQuery and I do write a bit of functions which I base mostly on jQuery&#8217;s resource sites. The other thing I&#8217;m also very good at is hacking and writing WordPress themes to achieve that customized look that I am aiming for.</em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; line-height: normal;"><strong><span style="color: black;">5. Where did you go to school and has it helped you become a better web design professional?</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><em>I think school didn&#8217;t really help me much as a web designer. There are really no good related to web design courses here in my country at that time. I guess I can say that I learned everything from books, magazines and the internet.</em></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; line-height: normal;"><strong><span style="color: black;">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?</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><em>When I first started web design, most websites were table-based and people have personal websites not personal blogs. There were no things like SEO, social networks, twitter, DIGG, YouTube and there were only a few blogs. Getting yourself known was a hard because there were no feeds, no CSS Galleries, no DIGG or reddit to cling on to. People were just visiting the websites for information or emails. Only few people were visiting the web because there was no interaction. It was like a one way street. Converting designs to HTML was easy as clicking a button. The only challenge was creating the design.</em></span></p>
<p><em>Right now, the web has become more challenging. With the rise of blogs and social networks, the web has become a jungle. Today, the internet is a part of the household so you are no longer designing only for the web geeks and nerds but for everyone including your grandma. That&#8217;s where usability comes in. Before, people design flash websites with weird navigation styles that only designers and web savvy users will understand. Right now, we have to consider everyone in our designs.</em></p>
<p><em>I can say the web has totally changed for the better. Websites are better. The codes are cleaner and future proof. Information is coming in both ways and there is more interaction. It&#8217;s more exciting and challenging at the same time. I can only think of the future.</em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><strong><span style="color: black;">7. What are your favorite tools to use when designing a web project? Why are they your favorite tools?</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><br />
<em><span>I have 3 favorite tools that I always use at work &#8212; Fireworks, Illustrator and Notepad.</span></em><br />
<span><br />
<em>Most designers that I know do their web designs and layout in Photoshop but not me. I do it in Fireworks. For me, Fireworks is a great and easy tool for creating those web design and layouts. I love the support for creating symbols. Most of all, I love the grid and vector feature. I used to be a Photoshop guy but as I grew up I knew it was not just the right tool for web design and layout.</em></span></span></p>
<p><em>I love a vector that’s why I am an Adobe Illustrator guy. Back at the old days when I was just starting out as a designer, Photoshop was my main tool. But when I was asked to create super hi-resolution graphics, my PC just can&#8217;t handle it. Then I heard about vector graphics. I learned that they were resolution independent. You can blow them up to any super-size that you can think of. So I opened it up and tried it. The first time I tried Adobe Illustrator, I was confused of the tools because I was used to the Photoshop interface. After several tries and experimenting with it, I finally learned how to deal with it. But right now, I&#8217;m still learning lots of things.</em></p>
<p><em>Dreamweaver used to be the code editor that I use. That was back the old days when most of the websites were wearing tables. It was really helpful especially it supports live preview. I wasn&#8217;t hand coding then. But people grow up and learn from their mistakes. I realized Dreamweaver was a bit of bloated software. So I tried to look for a very lightweight program that will do the job. And that&#8217;s why I found Notepad++. The need has changed. Right now, the challenge is to write clean and lightweight code. Notepad++ does the job very well. It supports a lot of languages and it has a number of good plugins that I find very useful.</em></p>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Spicy Web Designer Interview with Camille Del Rosario</title>
		<link>http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/964/spicy-web-designer-interview-with-camille-del-rosario/</link>
		<comments>http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/964/spicy-web-designer-interview-with-camille-del-rosario/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 25 Mar 2009 02:44:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Luc</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philipine Web Designers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Spicy Web Designers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Manila Web Designer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philippine web designer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[web designer]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://spicywebdesigners.com/?p=964</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Camille Del Rosario is a web and multimedia designer originally from Manila in the Philippines and currently working in Singapore.  She started designing websites in 2004 while she was in school studying Multimedia Arts and eventually started to take on freelance projects. Before she studied Multimedia Arts at school she was studying Export Management [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://camilledelrosario.com/portfolio/index.html"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-965" title="camille_del_rosario_homepag" src="http://spicywebdesigners.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/camille_del_rosario_homepag.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="225" /></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong>Camille Del Rosario </strong>is a web and multimedia designer originally from Manila in the Philippines and currently working in Singapore. <span> </span>She started designing websites in 2004 while she was in school studying Multimedia Arts and eventually started to take on freelance projects.<span> </span>Before she studied Multimedia Arts at school she was studying Export Management and decided to make the change.<span> </span><strong></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong>1. How did you get started in web design?</strong></p>
<p><em>My humble beginnings aren’t really in web design; it’s an ongoing fascination with art. <img src='http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />  I&#8217;ve always loved creating things (doodling, painting, mixed media, etc.). I was also interested in all things multimedia &#8211; merging art with digital technology and creating design solutions for clients. So I shifted from my Export Management course to study Multimedia Arts.</em></p>
<p><em>It&#8217;s one of the best decisions I&#8217;ve ever made. Ever since then, I&#8217;ve been dabbling with video work and illustration, but I always had a soft spot for web design. I decided to commit myself to web design after landing some freelance projects and my first full time web design job. </em></p>
<p><strong>2. When did you start designing websites?</strong><br />
<em><br />
I started designing websites, I guess around 2004? Around this time, I was starting out to do pro bono work and some freelance work as well (while in school). I used to do my own html and basic flash animations.</em></p>
<p><strong>3. What are the biggest challenges that you face in web design currently?</strong></p>
<p><em>One of the biggest challenges is the huge influx of competition. There are thousands of others out there, trying to carve out a name for themselves. As designers, we are not part of an elite few any longer; we are the norm. The key thing now is to find your own value proposition and differentiate yourself from the rest. What makes you so special? Why should they hire you instead of other folks?</em></p>
<p><em>Another challenge would be the fact that users and clients are now more tech savvy than ever; hence, there&#8217;s a premium on channeling your web design efforts in the right manner &#8211; to find the key strategies that would empower your client. It&#8217;s not simply about just being a </em> <em>web designer &#8211; it’s now a trade of understanding user experience, goals, understanding business objectives and how your design can meet these objectives. It&#8217;s about trying to be indispensable to your clients.</em></p>
<p><strong>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?</strong></p>
<p><em>Formally, my title would be &#8220;a web designer&#8221; or a &#8220;multimedia designer&#8221; &#8211; since I&#8217;ve designed for print, the web, applications, etc.</em></p>
<p><em>I&#8217;m not too fussy about titles though, I believe titles usually have little or nothing to do with your potential as a designer <img src='http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />  </em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em>I also don&#8217;t call myself a developer, as I primarily focus on user experience and design alone &#8211; I don&#8217;t code all my sites; I usually work on collaborative efforts with other freelance developers and studios as well.</em></p>
<p><em>I still feel a bit iffy about </em> <em>branding myself to clients.. hehe ( I&#8217;m thinking &#8220;</em><em>hey, I&#8217;m Camille, I&#8217;m not a brand name&#8230;&#8221; ) lol</em></p>
<p><em>When I was freelancing, I believe it was </em> <em>reliability and a </em><em>good thought process. I try my best to consult with the client and give him/her a design solution, not just a web design. We would compromise, I would prepare for my meetings, and I would try to ask the right questions.</em></p>
<p><strong>5. Since you first started how has the web design industry changed? Has it changed for the better? If so, how? If not, please explain?</strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em>With regards to the web design industry, a lot has changed! <img src='http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />   I&#8217;d say that design that stands out from the crowd is those that have been well-thought of. The web is now a multi-platform communication tool, wherein people engage and interact &#8211; it is no longer a monologue (as compared to the web&#8217;s early days.).</em></p>
<p><em>I wouldn&#8217;t say it&#8217;s a bad thing; it just forces people to step up their game. People are forced to think better - in order for their website to stand out from the crowd. The web is saturated with so much clutter everyday; It is our job as designers to make our online spaces as beautiful and as user-friendly as possible.</em></p>
<p><strong>6. What are your favorite tools to use when designing a website? Why are they your favorite tools?</strong></p>
<p><em>Adobe Photoshop &amp; illustrator, by far are the best. I find that they&#8217;re the most user friendly and versatile. <img src='http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />  </em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">I also love taking inspiration from the offline world &#8211; textures, print media, and illustrations &#8211; anything that can help with the creative process. </span></em></p>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Spicy Web Designer Interview with Joey Santos</title>
		<link>http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/631/spicy-web-designer-interview-with-joey-santos/</link>
		<comments>http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/631/spicy-web-designer-interview-with-joey-santos/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Jan 2009 03:31:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Luc</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philipine Web Designers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Spicy Web Designers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philippine web designer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[web designer]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://spicywebdesigners.com/?p=631</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ 


Joey Santos is a web designer who provides creative direction and interaction design from the Philippines. He has been designing websites for the past 3 years. Joey designs with UI in mind when it comes to his clients and he learns more as he designs. He works full-time as a Web and User Interface [...]]]></description>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.joeygraphic.com/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-632" title="joey_santos_interview" src="http://spicywebdesigners.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/joey_santos_interview.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="225" /></a></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">Joey Santos</span></strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;"> is a web designer who provides creative direction and interaction design from the </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">Philippines<span>.<span> </span>He has been designing websites for the past 3 years.<span> </span>Joey designs with UI in mind when it comes to his clients and he learns more as he designs.<span> </span>He works full-time as a Web and User Interface designer and freelances in his spare time.<span> </span>He is very interested in how the web benefits users and improves their experiences.<strong></strong></span></span></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">1. How did you first start designing websites?</span></strong></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">I was pretty much interested with Flash when I was pencil pushing in college. The eye-candies, animations, and some Action scripting somehow tickled my creative juices. It was all cool. I was excited coming up with ideas and &#8220;flashing&#8221; it like a bling. I would come up with flash websites of myself and anything or everything under the sun that catches my eye&#8230; upload them and email my friends.</span></em></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">2. When did you first start designing websites?  How long have you been designing websites?</span></strong></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">I designed my first real website 3 years ago. It was supposed to be a portfolio but I didn’t have anything to put in it. lol. </span></em></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">3. What did you study in school? And, has it helped you become a better web designer?</span></strong></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">I graduated from an IT course here in the Philippines. I really wanted to take up Fine Arts but there was a monetary issue then, I couldn&#8217;t send myself to an Art School then. IT course seems to be the next best thing where I can give in to my juices and to get a decent job, shooting two birds with one stone seems to be a good idea&#8230;saves you a lot of headache. Yeah, somehow helped me. IT introduced me to the tools of the trade. Stuff like UI and usability design which I believe proved to be very important with my current job.</span></em></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">4. What is the biggest challenge that you&#8217;ve faced as a web designer?</span></strong></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">I was given a task to design a UI that should cater to a very wide demographics. The design is intended for the pros of that field, down to the 7 year old kids, to the soccer moms. I was constantly designing mockups that were constantly being rejected. I did a lot of research and ended up looking at how children&#8217;s books and elevator buttons are designed. It was fun, very challenging. The frustration was also there, but every time my designs get rejected I always learned something new. </span></em></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">5. Which web technologies could you not live without?</span></strong></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">Google search. This is my default page, my portal to the web. It is like a BIG door to anywhere you want to go. Almost every new website I visited, I learned it from Google search. </span></em></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">6. Are you currently freelancing full-time or on a part-time basis? If part-time, what do you do as a day job?</span></strong></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">I am currently working full-time for a software company here in the Philippines as a Web/UI Designer. The mythical &#8220;Dream Job&#8221;, well it is not a myth anymore. I get to work with the best actionscript guys and backend dudes here in the Philippines and my boss is also a seasoned Web Designer, and I am learning a lot from him. It is a great thing because he understands my methods and he gives me design freedom. Yes, design freedom! He is some sort of mentor to me.</span></em></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">7. What are your most favorite tools to use as a web designer?</span></strong></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">A pencil and a piece of paper. Oh and a cup of coffee and a cigarette. I like to jot down the first things that came into my mind when I see the company name or the company logo of the client. Make a big word of a feeling that the client wants to communicate with their audiences, and list things that causes, encourages, or promotes this feeling. And from there, I usually draw rough layouts of the project.</span></em></p>
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			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/631/spicy-web-designer-interview-with-joey-santos/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Spicy Web Designer Interview with Marie January Cavan</title>
		<link>http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/512/spicy-web-designer-interview-with-marie-january-cavan/</link>
		<comments>http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/512/spicy-web-designer-interview-with-marie-january-cavan/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 29 Dec 2008 03:16:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Luc</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philipine Web Designers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Spicy Web Designers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philippine web designer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[web designer]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://spicywebdesigners.com/?p=512</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ 


Marie January Cavan is a web designer from the Philippines. From day one, Jan “fell in love with” web design since she took a Web Essentials course while studying animation at school. She has been featured in Web Design Magazine (Issue 152) and .NET Magazine (Issue 181). She currently runs DawgHouse Design Studio.
1. How [...]]]></description>
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<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.dawghousedesignstudio.com/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-513" title="marie_january_cavan_homepag" src="http://spicywebdesigners.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/marie_january_cavan_homepag.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="228" /></a></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">Marie January Cavan </span></strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">is a web designer from the Philippines.<span> </span>From day one, Jan “fell in love with” web design since she took a Web Essentials course while studying animation at school.<span> </span>She has been featured in Web Design Magazine (Issue 152) and .NET Magazine (Issue 181).<span> </span>She currently runs <strong>DawgHouse Design Studio</strong>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">1. How did you first get started in web design? When did you design your first web site? </span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">Web design kind of just fell on my lap. The first thing I wanted to learn was cartoon animation. I found this local computer school which offered a program that included what they called &#8220;Web Essentials” with animation (it turned out to be Web Design that included text animation using marquee &#8211; yea the sales agent lied to me). I didn&#8217;t have any idea what I was getting into then but on my first day of class, I fell in love with it.</span></em></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">2. What I find interesting is that you hold a Computer Science degree and you are clearly very creative looking at your website? How do these two things work together in the work that you produce?</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">I acquired a degree in Computer Engineering. It never had anything to do with Web Design except that it had this one class that asked us to do a website for our Finals but that&#8217;s about it. The core skills that I needed I learned from the crash courses in Web Design that I took, constant self-study and my very first job as an Entry-Level Web Designer.</span></em></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">3. You use a great deal of color and contrast in the web design work that you’ve produced.  Why is that?  And can you describe your style of design?</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">I used to always be able come up with designs that are a bit too clean and pale. My boss always used to me that I could maybe use a little more contrast. When I began to, I couldn’t get it off me anymore. But I believe I am flexible in whatever kind of approach to design. If I am required to do whether a clean or corporate kind or a grungy one, I can handle it. However, I specialize in bold, dark and grungy type of designs.</span></em></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">4. What do you think that makes web design successful?</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">Great and unique design, clean markup and user-friendly interface.</span></em></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">5. Do you usually try to incorporate Flash into the web design work that you do and do you worry about possible SEO concerns that your clients have? How do you deal with these concerns?</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">Only if a project calls for it. If the company I currently work for requires me to design a website for a movie, then Flash would be the best way to do it.</span></em></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">6. How do you price out the web design work that you do?</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">I let potential clients fill up a Web Design info sheet to let me have an idea of what their requirements are. I base my price on whatever they write on the info sheet.</span></em></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">7. Do you think that being “self-taught” and passionate about web design gives you better focus to think outside the box and push what is possible in web design?</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">I don’t think it has anything to do with being “self-taught”. Whether you are self-taught or you were sent to school to specialize on this certain craft, it doesn’t matter how or where you learn the tools, all you need is creativity, passion and lots of practice.</span></em></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph"><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">8. I was reading your blog and was wondering how did you come to be featured in Web Design Magazine?</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: &quot;Calibri&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;; color: black;">I actually wrote to them asking if they featured offshore or non-UK talents. They wrote back asking me to send them my stuff and if they like it, they’d feature me. Luckily, they loved my work and I’m very happy that they did. By the way, they featured me for the second time on Issue #152, which I am really excited about! .NET Magazine also featured me on their 181<sup>st</sup> Issue. I don’t know how they found out about me, but it’s really cool, too!</span></em></p>
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		<item>
		<title>Spicy Web Designer Interview with MaryLuc Melgar</title>
		<link>http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/355/spicy-web-designer-interview-with-maryluc-melgar/</link>
		<comments>http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/355/spicy-web-designer-interview-with-maryluc-melgar/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:07:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Luc</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philipine Web Designers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Singapore Web Designers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Spicy Web Designers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Filipino web designer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philippines web designer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Singapore Web Designer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[web designer]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://spicywebdesigners.com/?p=355</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[

MaryLuc Melgar is a web designer from the Philippines currently residing in Singapore. She runs a web design studio called Weevox Studios and a blog called “Octwelve” where she spills the news about the latest in Blogging, Design and her own view on the world. She works on a wide variety of web design projects [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 5pt 15pt 5pt 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.octwelve.com/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-362" title="octwelve_homepage" src="http://spicywebdesigners.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/octwelve_homepage.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="225" /></a></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 5pt 15pt 5pt 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.weevox.com/index.html"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-358" title="lucmelgar_homepage" src="http://spicywebdesigners.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/lucmelgar_homepage.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="225" /></a></p>
<p><strong>MaryLuc Melgar</strong> is a web designer from the Philippines currently residing in Singapore. She runs a web design studio called <a href="http://www.weevox.com/index.html">Weevox Studios</a> and a blog called “<a href="http://www.octwelve.com/">Octwelve</a>” where she spills the news about the latest in Blogging, Design and her own view on the world. She works on a wide variety of web design projects for clients in e-commerce, healthcare and many others.</p>
<p><strong>1. How did you first start building websites? </strong></p>
<p><em>10 years ago, I stumbled upon Eric Jordan&#8217;s website, 2advanced.com and got totally inspired from his work. </em></p>
<p><em>Since then, I started making anime wallpapers following the 2advanced style, which is “techie”. Eventually, I turned these wallpapers into websites. Then, one guy discovered me and asked me to design his website.  I didn&#8217;t know what I was doing back then so I had to do some research, asked help from forums and read tutorials.  And at the end he seemed to like my work <img src='http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />   Then I got referrals and more referrals and the rest is history.</em></p>
<p><strong>2. Where did you go to school?  University or College?  Did it help you in your career as a web designer?</strong></p>
<p><em>I went to some colleges here in the Philippines but I didn&#8217;t finish my degree.  Because that time I&#8217;m already loaded with design projects. I find myself struggling to juggle school and work at the same time. I was taking IT and I&#8217;m not enjoying it at all. So I decided to stop and just continue being a freelance designer.  And I think it&#8217;s worth it because that&#8217;s how I honed my skills.</em></p>
<p><strong>3. Where do you get your inspiration for the web designs that you produce?</strong></p>
<p><em>I get my inspiration from&#8230;food. Seriously! Eating noodles, chocolates, donuts, cakes, and ice cream gives me inspiration to make beautiful designs <img src='http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />  I also get inspiration from magazines, from watching anime, music videos, TV commercials, print ads, and I also get inspiration from the biggest players out there.</em></p>
<p><strong>4. What is your favorite part of a web design project?</strong></p>
<p><em>My favorite part is&#8230; guess what, conceptualization and designing the visuals of course <img src='http://www.spicywebdesigners.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </em></p>
<p><strong>5. What do you like to do in your downtime asides from building websites or writing on your blog?</strong></p>
<p><em>I like to shop. Whenever I&#8217;m stressed or just totally block, I just go to the mall and buy some stuff. After that I feel okay again. If it still doesn&#8217;t cure my designer&#8217;s block, I will go out of town, see the nature, go to the beach and just relax for a few days. I also like doing photography with my toy L.</em></p>
<p><strong>6. How do you price the web design work that you produce? Do you find that some clients are not willing to pay the price you quote and how do you deal with this scenario?</strong></p>
<p><em>I charge per project basis. The quote depends on how many comps they want, how many pages, if there will be a custom illustration, flash animation, revisions, etc. Yes, I do find some clients who are not willing to pay the price I quote. If their budget is limited, I just tell them what they can get from their budget. So it&#8217;s fair for clients and for me.</em></p>
<p><strong>7. What interesting projects have you been working on recently?</strong></p>
<p><em>I&#8217;ve been working on icons for a health website. This is the largest project my company is currently working on. It&#8217;s quite interesting to me because this is the first time that I&#8217;m doing icons. Even though this is for a health website, the icons we&#8217;re creating are quirky so I enjoy coloring them. I&#8217;m quite happy with the result.  I didn&#8217;t know I can make icons. I hope I can post this project in my blog once it&#8217;s done.</em></p>
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