Michael Grinstead is a web designer who is self-taught residing in Romsey, Hampshire in England in the United Kingdom. He has been designing websites since 1999 using FrontPage (he has evolved to hand coding HTML and sometimes uses Coda today) and eventually landed a job with a local company as their in-house designer working on print projects but he was drawn to the web. He created “GiantPea” a one man web design studio built on the principals of a personal touch and extremely high standards.
1. How and when did you get started designing websites?
The first website I built was back in 1999 using… ‘cough’… FrontPage, I wanted a site to showcase my cartoons/illustrations I was doodling at the time.
Back then I was working for a local company as their in-house designer mainly working with print, but the web was a fascinating (but slow) place to be on, and creating a (crappy looking) website was the way
forward.
2. Why did you choose to brand yourself under Giantpea considering you are currently a one-man show?
If I had a cool name e.g. Michael Knight, then I think I would have been happy to trade under that.
Having a trading name broadens the opportunity for branding, plus as a one-man show I have a collection of freelancers I tend to call upon for larger projects, so it’s nice to say that we are all working within Giantpea.
3. When you were going to school where and what did you study? Did it help you become a better designer?
School! If I can remember that far back. Between you and me, I’m actually self taught. At school I studied art and design, but my goal was to go off to university and study to become a media designer for the film industry, designing film and studio sets, including storyboards.
Instead I became an accountant, it was only later on in life that I finally got to do my dream job, sadly not designing film sets, but designing in general gives me great pleasure. It’s really a paid hobby!
Though I’m self taught, I do wish I had gone off to university and studied design, it certainly opens doors if you’re looking for a job, plus at times I do feel that I’m not qualified to do the job as I don’t have the educational background.
I believe every job/design you undertake makes you a better designer.
4. Michael, what are some of your favorite tools that you use to design for the web?
I generally start with pen and paper, once I have a direction to head in I boot up Adobe Fireworks. As for coding (HTML/CSS/PHP) I prefer to use Coda.
5. What are some of the biggest challenges in designing for the web today? A lot of web designers naturally say “IE 6″ but i am wondering if you face anything else that is also a challenge?
Those brilliant designers out there, who churn out some awesome work like there’s no tomorrow. It sickens me to see such talent, and to be honest it can leave you feeling inadequate at times.
Another would be clients who don’t understand the importance of a website and that having one is an investment, it may not come cheap but a well designed site will produce a return on their investment.
Of course IE6 can be a challenge, but that’s what designing is all about, problem solving!
6. How do you stay up to date with current trends in web design?
RSS feeds/twitter, attending conferences, and chatting to industry peeps. It is hard to keep on top of the forever changing web industry.
