Website Inspiration Blog | SpicyWebDesigners.com by Luc Arnold

Hank Toet is a web designer and art director from Los Angeles, California in the United States.  With over 10 years of experience in the field of design he has worked in various positions from “web designer”, “graphic designer” to a “Lead Designer” and most recently an “Art Director” but he received his education in Business Administration.  In one way or another he has been designing for the web since 1996 when Hank discovered websites and wanted to learn how to design and program them.

Hank recently got together with SpicyWebDesigners.com to talk about his experiences in design, why he loves designing for the web and his views on formally educated designers versus self taught designers.

Luc asks: Hank, with your extensive design experiences, how long have you been designing websites?

Hank says: I first started playing around with Micrograpx Picture Publisher around 1996.

I enjoyed browsing around the web and wanted to learn how to design and program websites.

I used Microsoft Front page to put together my websites but when I got my first job working as an html editor I was forced to stop using Front Page and learn how to code by hand. I’m happy I did because Front Page sucked!

Soon after that I left my PC behind and got my first Mac, haven’t look back since!

Luc asks: Are you formally educated in design or self taught?  Do you feel it’s better for a designer to have a formal education or be a self taught designer?

Hank says: Back when I started designing websites there were really no courses you could take or schools you could go to, to learn how to be a web designer.

I really wanted to learn but didn’t know where to go so I was forced to figure it out for myself. In hindsight I think it would have been nice to have had some formal education but the benefit of being self taught is that I’ve never had to unlearn the rules that are imposed on you with a formal design education. I was free to do whatever I wanted which allowed for a lot of experimentation and probably led me to solutions I would not have thought of if I was formally trained.

Luc asks: Why do you love being a web designer?

Hank says: Growing up I never really knew what I wanted to do in life but I always had a strong interest in design, I loved graffiti culture, urban design, underground music and the style that goes

along with that. When the internet started to become popular and I started to design for it. It was like all the puzzle pieces fell into place and I finally found something that was me. Whenever I sit down in front of Photoshop and look at an empty canvas I get this rush and anything is possible. It’s being excited about the possibilities and trying to do the best you can and hopefully being proud with the results when you are done. I also feel this process of learning and getting better at what you do will never stop. At least not for me, I want to keep doing this until the day I die.
Luc asks: I see that you have experience working on mobile design projects, what are your major concerns or considerations you make when designing a project for a mobile device?

Hank says: My main concern is UI; there are a lot of applications out there that just don’t make any sense. It’s easy to make something look good but it has to be usable.

Heath Waller is a web designer from Calgary, Alberta in Canada.  Up until 5 years ago she hadn’t really touched a computer let alone designed a website but about a year ago she became very interested and started learning about and designing websites.  With her educational background in visual arts she became a “natural” designer because of the parallels with her visual arts background and since then she’s been designing for the web.

Lately her interests include learning all that she can about web development covering everything from jQuery, HTML5, PHP and other languages.  She also works with a number of CMS systems from WordPress to PageLime and Surreal CMS but prefers to work with WordPress.  I hope you enjoy learning more about this impressive web designer.

Luc asks:  Heath, when and how did you start designing for the web?

Heath says:  5 years ago I had barely touched a computer. I was living in the Australian outback without water, plumbing or electricity!

I designed my first site a couple of years ago as a favor to a friend, using a WYSIWYG program. A couple of other giveaway sites followed. I had no idea of what I was doing beyond adding window dressing to a template.

About a year ago I met someone who was working as a freelance graphic designer who suggested that if I were to learn how to design websites I might get some work sent my way. I’d never thought about doing anything like that before, but I like a challenge! So I learned what I could about tweaking code to make things beautiful – while doing everything possible to avoid learning actual coding.

Eventually, partially through osmosis and partially through painful hours spent reading books about coding, I began to pick up enough of it to get templates to start looking how I wanted them to.

Then, about 5 months ago I met some young fellows who were looking for a developer to join their new web design company. It seemed a wonderful opportunity, and I told them I may not yet know how to code, but I’d be able to figure it out if they hired me. I just needed a week to study…

And the rest is history. I am now working as a developer, improving my coding skills through practical applications. There are many late nights of studying involved, and much of my weekend is spent reading the latest in online tutorials and design/development articles.

I am also looking to pick up some freelancing work in order to exercise my design abilities and to be able to improve my portfolio. And I am still learning like crazy.

Luc asks:  Do you feel you are a stronger coder or a stronger designer? What do you to improve your weaknesses?

Heath says:  Design comes naturally to me – probably from my fine art background. Color, composition, typography – these are my real loves. I get giddy over beautiful websites!

But I do find there is beauty in coding, too – turning something static into something dynamic through a magical combinations of characters, letters and numbers. To be able to take a project from idea to completion is immensely gratifying; and understanding the skeleton required for the skins I imagine makes the design process feel much more holistic.

I know where my development weaknesses lie and work diligently towards improving them. Sometimes it feels overwhelming – there is just so much to learn! JQuery. PHP. HTML5. CSS3. But then I just force myself to tackle things in bite-sized pieces, while allowing myself a bit of room for play, and things slowly come into place.

Luc asks:  Do you work with or design for any content management systems in particular?

Heath says:  WordPress is my CMS of choice. I’ve also found PageLime or Surreal CMS are good choices for smaller projects. I am a big proponent of open source. I am not yet at the stage where I am able to contribute much, but the collaborative nature of it really appeals to me.

Back when I started this journey I tried just about every one of the possible CMS solutions out there. They all felt too overwhelmingly complicated at the time. But I credit the vast number of tutorials created by the WordPress community that took me through step by baby step. I still have a lot to learn, mind you. But learning WordPress is always a pleasure.

Luc asks:  What are some of the most important lessons you’ve learned since starting your career in design?

Heath says:  That the best way to really learn something is to take a crack at it. The reading can get you primed, but it is in the actual doing that the greatest lessons are learned. I can work on trying to debug a code for 20 hours strait, and be on the verge of tears, when something just “clicks”. And, suddenly, it all becomes perfectly clear. And I know I’ll never make that same mistake again!

The other really surprising thing is just how generous the design community is in helping you out when you have a problem. StackOverflow has been a lifesaver to me! People are so quick to help you out, often in ways that you know required a lot of their time and energy.

This Internet is the playground of the web design and development community; and it is wonderful to see such fair play at work.

Luc asks:  Where do you want to go in your professional design career?

Heath says:  That is such a great question! I think this is a career where the sky is the limit. And a career that one can literally take “anywhere” there is an Internet connection. Thinking: tropical island… desert oasis… majestic forest…

Web design is truly a 21st Century craft.

I’d love to better learn how to code WordPress themes from scratch so that I can set up clients to independently grow their websites. I’d like to create the kind of websites that excite viewers and make other designers want to inspect my element.

And, most importantly, I’d like to known for producing powerfully simple, attractive, content-focused sites for happy clients.

Michael Heald is a web designer from England in the United Kingdom and he is the guy behind “Fully Illustrated” a creative agency he built from the ground up.  With over 10 years of professional experience in design, Michael has really created a style that is all his own.

He has been featured in .NET magazine and Web Designer Magazine and has won a lot of awards.  Some of his achievements to date include…

• Michael’s Creative Agency “Fully Illustrated” is named 1 of only 99 top ranked creative agencies in the world
• His design work has been featured in the “Web Designers Idea Book” by Patrick McNeil and “Websites 2” by Zeixs
• Countless web and graphic design awards from various sites like CSSMania, CSS Crème, Web 360 award and Daily Slurp to name a couple.

Even though he started off in print design when he first got out of university he was introduced to web design on a few projects and since then he has expanded his skill set into 3D and motion design with game development on an online game called “Super Turbo Action Pig”.  There is no doubt that Michael Heald is an expert in what he does and I really enjoyed having a chance to hear from him about his experiences in design.

Luc asks: I know it’s been about 10 years for you since you started your career but i wanted to ask how and where did you start your career?

Michael says: I think my career officially started when my mum and dad bought me my Commodore 64!  I was into games in a big way and deep down wanted to spend my life surrounded by games in one way or another.  Ok, on a serious note, my career started when I left Uni and started working in a local 5 man design company.  I was a graduate on a steep learning curve and managed to work on a great mix of projects including branding, web design, exhibition stand design and then later a little illustration.  It was after my first taste of commercial illustration that I wanted to move on, I had the bug!  I soon found an advert for a position as an illustrator, applied and got the job!  So for the following 5 years I spent most of time drawing characters, with a little time spent doing web/application design and then later 3D modeling/animation.  After this I moved onto a dedicated web design position for a large international web agency where after 3 years I decided to move into business on my own offering all the disciplines I’d learned over the previous 8 years.

Luc asks:  How long have you been designing for the web?

Michael says: I’ve been designing for the web almost as long as I’ve been designing.  When I started out in my first job doing mainly print, it was around the time that the web industry was in its infancy and thus, I got the chance to design a couple of sites right at the beginning of my career.  Thankfully those sites are no longer online (he laughs to himself)

Luc asks: I see that your creative agency has been named of the best in the world.  Was it a surprise to you when you first heard about it?  And, what do you think makes “Fully Illustrated” a world class creative agency?

Michael says: Yeah it was big surprise!  I never thought that a small one man design company could ever be shortlisted for a place in the top 100, let alone actually win a place!  As far as what I think makes my work worthy, wow, that’s a tough one for me to answer.  I know that I love what I do, and look forward to starting work every day and if I don’t have a project on hand, there is always something I want to experiment with myself, so this must translate though to my work in some way.  Passion would sum it up I guess.

Luc asks: What magazines, websites and other materials do you read to stay on top of the latest trends in design?

Michael says: My sources of inspiration are vast to say the least and strangely, don’t include much in the way of design related sites, in fact, I can’t even think of any off the top of my head.  I actually spend my time looking at sites dedicated to 3D, motion graphics, games, concept art and photography, as I seem to draw all my inspiration from much less direct subjects.  I’ll often walk out of a movie full of ideas for a design, it’s weird I guess.

Luc asks: With so many accomplishments in your past already where do you hope to be in 5 years from now?

Michael says: Where do I want to be in 5 years time…hmmm, continuing to do what I love, only doing it much better

Luc asks: What is the one thing that you love most about what you do for a living?

Michael says: the fact that I want to get out of bed to do it, it’s that simple.  I’ve always loved my job, from the first day of my first job, to this day writing this article.  If you can get up in a morning and get paid for something you love doing, then that is one of the best things in life, as let’s face it, you’ll spend most of your life working than doing anything else.  Oh, and the fact that I get to play and create games might have something to do with it too

Luc asks: Tell me a few things about yourself that most people wouldn’t know about you if they met you on the street.

Michael says: Oh good question.  Hmm, how about…I originally started out life wanting to be a fighter pilot for the RAF.  Oh, and I farted really loud in school assembly when I was 12   There you go, not many people know those two facts

Evan Eckard is a web designer with more than 15 years of design experience who lives in San Francisco in the United States.  Originally starting out working as a photographer later on he enrolled in an art school in San Francisco and after school Evan switched from pursuing 3d design to web design after getting inspired by sites like praystation.com.

Evan considers himself largely self-taught as a web designer but his experiences in photography, 3d and digital design and traditional design make him a very well rounded web designer.  He uses PHP, jQuery, javascript and other web based coding languages only to make his design work “sing” but he prefers to focus on the design work solely.  If you get a chance to check out his portfolio website you check out some of the WordPress themes he’s developed with his designs.

Recently when I talked to Evan about his experiences in design over the past 15 years he had following to say about his experiences to date and how he prefers to sometimes use pencil and paper in his creative process so please read on and learn a bit more about Evan Eckard…

Luc asks: With over 15 years of design experience how did you first get involved designing websites?

Evan says: Around 1994 I started playing around with Photoshop and digital media in general. As the web slowly evolved, I started coming across other designer’s websites and thought I’d like to take a stab at creating one of these. My first portfolio site was built all in frames, was extremely clunky and had a horrible user interface, but it looked awesome to me and was fun to build. Some of the first sites I came across that really inspired me were sites like praystation.com, design is kinky and others.

After that, I would work on web sites here and there for a couple of years, and then I found myself right in the middle of the internet industry working full time on web design and static development. The entire process has been self taught, with a lot of web research on how to code and implement functionality. The design aspect was just in my blood and picked up along the way in art classes at school.

Luc asks: Are you formally educated or self taught as a design professional? If so, where are what did you study?

Evan says: Mainly self-taught, but have slept through some art classes. I’ve taken a lot of traditional art classes, but hadn’t taken much in digital media outside basic Photoshop classes and such. I learned more sitting in front of a computer at home than in a classroom.

Luc asks: I like the fact that you offer free WordPress templates on your portfolio site. Why did you decide to add this feature to your portfolio?

Evan says: I started learning WordPress to run my own sites and gained an interest in theme design in the process. After I had worked on my own site and client sites, I still had ideas for potential themes I wanted to try and it grew from there. A couple I sold off, but a few I just couldn’t find a finishing point. The ones I offer for free are themes I still have ideas and updates for and enjoy working on them when I have the time. Since they were ongoing, I figured I’d just release them to the public to enjoy as well.

Luc asks: If you could tell us just one reason why you love doing what you do what would your answer be?

Evan says: I’ve always loved designing. It just so happened I fell into an area where the main media of choice was HTML. If I wasn’t doing web design, I’d be doing visual design and art in general in a different form elsewhere.

Luc asks: Do you code (using JavaScript, PHP, mySQL, etc.) the projects that you take on or do you consider yourself a hardcore designer not interested in coding?

Evan says: I use javascript and PHP only out of necessity. Ideally, I’d focus all on design, but I still have the need to develop the designs when they’re ready. I use jquery often and had to learn PHP to get WordPress to do what I needed it to do.

Luc asks: Being a designer with a number of years of experience under your belt what experience has helped you most on your career to this point and how have they helped you?

Evan says: Stay sharp. Even though I work full time for a company, I still find the need to work on other projects on the side to keep my creative ideas flowing. Variety is “key” to stave off burnout and keep the enjoyment levels up. I see so many designers that focus on certain niches and when they come up for air, everything around them has changed too much to keep up.

Also, don’t create solely on the computer. Pick up a pencil and sketch anything you can. Real world experiences applied to the web makes designs richer and more natural.

Soh Tanaka is a web designer and front end web developer who’s based in Los Angeles, California.  He first started designing websites in 2005 but he first got interested in 2004 while he was in college after picking up a copy of Photoshop.

When Soh is designing for a client these days his approach is to understand the scope of the project with respect to the person, product or company he is designing for.  He is very critical of his own work and he always strives for better on projects he takes on.

Here is what Soh Tanaka had to say when I caught up with him about his web design background, where his experience has taken him and where he plans to go moving forward.

Luc asks: I see that you started designing websites back in 2005 according to your site and i wanted to ask what were you doing before in terms of design and what got you hooked on designing for the web?

Soh says: I got my first copy of Photoshop in 2004 after taking my first HTML class in college. I was going to school for CIS (Computer Information Systems) and this was one of the only classes that really grabbed my attention. After learning the basics of HTML, I quickly became obsessed and started exploring the world of web design. Before this, I had no prior experience with design or art in general.

Luc asks: When you first start in on a web design project what do you use to inspire your creativity?

Soh says: For every project, I research the background of the company/product/person and try to understand its audience. Sometimes I bounce around the various web galleries out there, but my main goal is to visualize the environment and experience of the users and the goal of the website. To explore the theme and feel of the site, I check out various magazine layouts/design, photography, and other related sources of media to gain inspiration.

Luc asks: How many projects have you worked on since you first started designing websites?

Soh says: I lost count, but I don’t claim a lot of them. I am my own worst critic, and tend to dislike my creations after time goes by.

Luc asks: What are your favorite web technologies to work with currently and why are they your favorites?

Soh says: I would say CSS & jQuery for front-end development. I don’t really have a reason why I love them, but they are my bread and butter when developing interfaces.

Luc asks: I really loved checking out your portfolio.  It’s very professional and pretty slick!  I’ve noticed that your design style on projects is pretty broad.  How do you manage to turn out work that looks unique and different on every project?

Soh says: I actually feel like my designs look too similar. My goal this year is to break out of the box and experiment. I tend to have the typical CSS designer feel, which has a very “boxy” feel to it. I love clean and simple design, but there are times when I feel I lack proper design foundations like typography that I can definitely improve on. There are some inspirational designers out there (Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain, Yaron Schoen, Rob Morris, Martin Balhar to name a few) that make me want to challenge myself further so I can be a better designer. I hope to grow as much as I can and go beyond my usual comfort level. Gotta get back into training mode!