One Minute With

Author Archives: Conor O'Driscoll

About Conor O'Driscoll

Conor O'Driscoll is a designer and writer, who writes for AppStorm.net. He also enjoys writing about himself in the third person.

One Minute With… Seth Nickerson
September 30, 2011 6:19 pm 3 Comments

Hi Seth, thanks for taking time to chat with One Minute With. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your work.

I’m a designer in the Washington, DC area. I’m drawn to typography, illustration, and branding, but overall I just want to do good, meaningful work with lasting value. I’ve been practicing professionally for a while, but I don’t feel like I have anything figured out yet. I didn’t get a great formal design education, which makes me self-conscious at times, but also drives me that much harder, since I know I’m at a disadvantage. I’d like to think that I’m a bit of a late bloomer and I’m just starting to hit my stride. I hope to still be churning out work in my 80’s like Paul Rand, or Seymour Chwast and Milton Glaser.

Walk us through a typical day in the life of Seth Nickerson.

I like to start every morning by waking up. It’s a great way to start the day. After that, I eat a large breakfast and lament the fact that I have to face traffic in a car instead of commuting by jetpack. The commute does give me a chance to listen to music or podcasts though, so it’s not all bad. Usually the office is quiet in the mornings, so after I take a few sips from the Internet Firehose, I try to use that to my advantage by allowing myself to get absorbed in a project. There’s no specific routine after that, but distractions and interruptions always seem to abound in the afternoon. In the evening, I spend a little time with my kids and then usually work until tiredness overcomes me or I force myself to stop and go to bed. My evening work is split between freelance design and helping my wife with the photography business that she runs. In the gaps, I try to fit some reading, sketching and exercise in, usually failing.

How did you get your first design client?

Well, I guess the first-ever “design” project I did for a client was laying out the award certificates that the local elementary school handed out at the end of the year, when I was maybe 15 years old. I can’t recall for sure, but I think my mother was instrumental in helping me land that gig. Thanks Mom.

How do you approach a new project? What’s your design process like?

It depends on what it is, but if possible I like to take a few days and just think and do research. I find that thinking about a design problem while I’m doing routine things during the day usually generates better ideas than trying to force the thinking only while I’ve got a pencil or mouse in my hand. Then I sit down and commit some of those ideas to paper or the screen. I usually go back and forth between sketching on paper and on the computer. Each feels like it opens up its own directions and possibilities, and when I’m using only one or the other it can feel limiting.

It’s easy to stray off target from what the project calls for, so to reign myself in, I write some key words or phrases in the margin. Doing some word association based off of those key words can work wonders, too, in helping to visualize or combine concepts. Then I always go back at some point and think critically about the work, trying to look at it from different points of view and justify each decision. I never want to be caught off guard by a client asking why some choice was made.

Your work has a quirky, retro feel to it – The perfect blend of the old and the new. Where do you get inspiration from?

I’m still finding my style, but I’m a quirky person and I guess that comes out in my work. Chuck Close said “Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work.” There’s a lot of truth to that, I think. There are some days when I feel more inspired to make things than others, but I think there are a lot of misconceptions today about inspiration and creative work. Influence and inspiration are two different things to me. Of course, I love poring over envy-inducing portfolios and design blogs, but I can just as easily feel inspired by reading Calvin and Hobbes strips, or listening to an album I love, or going to the library.

Much of your work ties in with the current design trend of retro hipster design. Did you knowingly fit in with the trend, or was it a natural evolution? And how important are trends to the progression of design, do you feel?

It’s hard to say. I think mostly it is a byproduct of that type of design playing to my strengths. I’ve always admired people who can strip something down to a simple but still distinguishable form. There’s also all this great design from past eras making its way online and getting easier to access, which has given me a deeper appreciation for design’s history. I like to evoke nostalgia in my work since it’s such a powerful feeling, but I try not to aim for vintage or retro for no reason at all. Hopefully it makes sense for the purpose of each design.

Trends in general are very important to design progress. “Trendy” design shouldn’t be a negative label, but it can be problematic when designers get overexposed to the same content and just use a popular trend as a shortcut for real design thinking.

You have worked pretty extensively with both web and print. Which medium do you prefer, and why?

I don’t think I have a preference. If I do, it will probably change next week. There are so many exciting things going on in web design right now, and I love that you can reach a much wider audience by designing for the web. But I like the finality of print, and it still affords more control.

What design tools could you not live without?

Technically, I don’t think I would drop dead without any of these, but here are some things I rely on:

Wacom tablets—I have one at the office and one at home. They’re not even the nice ones, but I have some carpal tunnel problems in my right hand and I’m naturally left-handed, so I alternate between the tablet and mouse.

Dot Grid Book

Scanner—Scanning sketches, old books, textures…it still gets a lot of use.

DSLR and macro lens—One of my favorite things has become documenting a printed piece with a macro lens or a prime lens.

And finally, what tips would you give to anybody who is looking to get started in design?

Observe everything around you. Experiment. Stay humble. Find things you love, then find out everything you can about them. Who created them? What else did they create? Try to go back to the source. Don’t worry about tools, worry about taste. Be nice to people. And lastly, don’t listen to people who give out lists of advice on the Internet.

Thanks Seth!

Many thanks to Seth for sharing his thoughts with One Minute With. I really enjoyed his answers, and I hope you love the interview as much I do!

Why not check out Seth’s site, and follow him on Dribbble and Twitter?

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One Minute With… Matt Braun
September 27, 2011 8:56 pm Leave a Comment

Hi Matt, thanks for taking time to chat with One Minute With. Tell us a little about yourself and your work.

I am a designer, typographer, and letterpress printer based in Pittsburgh, PA. My official title at Bearded is senior designer, but we all do much more than our titles. I also started a Kickstarter project with Matt Griffin, whom I work with at Bearded, called Wood Type Revival which I will get to in a later question.

Walk us through a typical day in the life of Matt Braun.

Oh the typical day as Matt Braun? Well I wake up like everyone else as my alarm goes off. Then get up and make my wife waffles and eggs before she gets out the door, walk the dog and then take out the trash. If I have extra time, I take a brief jog and hand deliver each paper off of my neighbors lawns to their doorstep. Then I rush into work, always 15 mins early and high five everyone as they come through the door. I tear into my work, skip lunch and complete all deadlines with a week to spare. After work I head to the gym, pick out the biggest guy and challenge him to a lifting match. Once he is defeated I head home to cook dinner, make myself a scotch and sit down to continue my 12-book series discourse on design. That’s usually my day, but some days I skip the gym.

Much of your design work has a distinct retro feel to it. Where do you get inspiration?

I grew up on a small farm in rural Vermont where I was surrounded by old farm equipment, feedbags and other things of that sort. I think I really acquired an appreciation and love for that type of aesthetic from that. However, I often find ongoing inspiration at yard sales, old letterpress shops and manuals, online, at Dribbble and Flickr.

How do you approach a new project, and what is your design process like?

Every project, of course, is different with its own set of requirements, limitations, goals, desired results, etc. So in order to approach any design task it’s good to try and gain a full understanding of the project. Once a possible direction, or directions, is decided, I then usually begin to sketch. Sketching is the quickest way for me to get some thoughts out and get a general sense of what they are accomplishing. From there I will usually try and get some outside feedback. I find its helpful not only for a different perspective but because it usually leads to views that might not have been intended, both good and bad. From there I will bring it into Illustrator or Photoshop to flesh out the final idea and begin the long process of working out the fine details.

Tell us a bit about Wood Type Revival. What is it about letterpress blocks of yore that you find so enchanting?

Wood Type Revival is a project started with Matt Griffin to preserve and convert old, rare wood type to digital fonts. Matt Griffin, also an avid printer, and I had been tying to think of a way to incorporate letterpress into the business since I joined Bearded. When we thought of this it just clicked and we wasted no time creating a Kickstarter project. With the support of a lot of people in the design community we were fully funded… and away we went. Now the site is launched, our first five fonts are out and there are many more to come.

Originally I got into letterpress because I was sick of looking at a computer for 10 to 12 hour a day. Working in a field where you will never touch the tools or the outcome of what you make can sometimes be a very unrewarding task. Wood type is different. The blocks have been used for many decades and each holds a unique narrative of their creator as well as the many printers that used them along the way.

How did you find your first design client?

Most of my first clients were found through referrals from friends. Most were also very low paying, which is a good thing, because some of them were kinda rough.

What design tools could you not live without?

Without a doubt the Behance Dot Grid book, which I have been asked about more times than I can count. Sponsorship anyone? With this I use a Twist erase mechanical pencil 0.9m due to the fact I am heavy handed. Most of my projects start from these tools. Aside from that we recently got a Wacom Cintiq 12WX at Bearded which I love.

Aside from design, what do you like to do in your free time?

If I get a good block of free time I enjoy just experimenting with different letterpress blocks and cuts I have acquired. I also enjoy hanging out with the wife, my pup Bear, and reading. I am currently, although very slowly, pursuing a master’s degree in theology as well.

And finally, what tips would you give to anybody who is looking to get started in typography, or just design in general?

My advice is simply to study and practice. Pick some of your favorite designers that are successful at what they do and really study their work. Examine how they solved problems for their clients and how they used different elements to communicate ideas, emotion or themes. While you do this practice, make up companies, make a logo for your dog/cat, find friends with companies or a start-up and ask them for work. This will help you to get used to making decisions and to begin discovering and refining your process.

Thanks Matt!

Thanks a million to Matt for talking to OMW! I really enjoyed talking to him, and found his answers really interesting!

Why not check out Matt’s site, and follow him on Dribbble and Twitter?

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One Minute With… Jeff Finley
September 23, 2011 4:57 pm Leave a Comment

Hi Jeff, thanks for taking time to chat with One Minute With. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your work.

Well, I’m Jeff Finley and I’m an artist, designer, and entrepreneur. I’m part owner of Go Media and founder of Weapons of Mass Creation Fest and author of Thread’s Not Dead: The Designer’s Guide to the Apparel Industry. I kind of a do a bunch of stuff in and around the design community.

Walk us through a typical day in the life of Jeff Finley.

As one of three owners at Go Media I’m involved in just about every aspect of the business so a typical day can be very different from the last. I could be working with our clients doing some sort of illustration or design, or working on our own brand positioning and company philosophy. And when I’m not doing that, I’m overseeing the Arsenal and GoMediaZine and hustling in general. I’m always looking for new/better ways to promote and grow Go Media.

How did you get into design?

I was originally interested in making video games or working in the movies in some way, but I was drawn to doing artwork for bands out of college. I turned that into a freelance career which led to partnering up with Go Media. I got into graphic design that way.

How do you approach a new project? What’s your design process like?

Generally I like to talk with the client about their goals and inspirations and I come up with ideas to help them achieve them the best way I know how. We use our Proof Lab software (soon available to the public) to manage the design process from start to finish with our clients. And if it goes like you would expect, once we get approval on the idea, we send over sketches or initial concepts for approval. We get approval each step of the way until the client is satisfied with the final result.

With the likes of the GoMediaZine and the Arsenal, Go Media has a huge community presence. How important is it to be involved in the design community, do you feel?

It’s natural to me to be involved in the community, so I do it because I like it. But it’s important for all brands to do that – well at least that’s what people tell me! We’ve been meeting with PR firms and brand strategists recently and they all get paid to help their clients get more in tune with their social/community presence. They say Go Media is a great example of what other brands should be doing. Creating their own content and putting their faces and voices out there. We always knew that if we create cool things that have Go Media’s name attached to them, eventually people will find us and discover what we do which leads to more work and opportunities. It’s not rocket science. And we’re really supportive of what other designers and brands are doing around us. We have always been helpful of other designers and we know that by being nice, helpful, and supportive, others will return the favor. That’s part of the reason why we started Weapons of Mass Creation Fest, was to unite the design community around us and put Cleveland on the map as a creative hot spot.

In 2010, you launched Weapons of Mass Creation. Why did you decide to launch your own design conference, and what makes WMC different to the rest?

I originally just wanted to start a fest with my favorite DIY punk and folk bands and mash it up with art & design. I wanted to put my own spin on a fest. People seemed to really dig the idea and volunteered their time to help me build it. There was definitely this attraction to building something awesome together in Cleveland. A lot of awesome people have latched onto the indie and DIY ideals and values of the festival, which I made sure were really prominent. I think what makes WMC different is the fact that it’s extremely affordable and feels more like an intimate summer camp type event rather than a bloated, over-the-top design conference with huge corporate sponsors and high prices.

You recently wrote “Thread’s Not Dead“, a book all about t-shirt design. What inspired you to write a book, and how different is it to writing blog posts?

I had been writing blog posts and even recording and selling video tutorials for some time, so the idea of writing a book just seemed like the next step. However, it wasn’t until I read The Four Hour Workweek, that I actually considered making it happen. We already knew how awesome it was to sell information products – we’d been selling stock vectors, textures, and other stuff like that on the Arsenal since 2006. So we already had a platform to sell an ebook, all I needed to do was make it. I intended to only spend about a month writing it. I thought I’d be able to interview some of my favorite people in the t-shirt design scene and assemble it together into a book with my own narrative and it would be done. But that wasn’t the case at all. As I wrote it, my internal quality quotient wouldn’t let me release it until it was something I could be proud of. I didn’t want it to look like a shitty ebook, so I designed it like a real book. First time ever designing a book layout, what a joy that was (not!) haha. I got a taste for InDesign though! I wanted to make sure the book was full of inspirational stories and images and had a real value to it. If I was going to sell it for $50, I had better make it as good as I can! So that’s how it happened. Of course, once it was out in ebook form, people pressured me into making it into a hardcover, which I am proud to say I gave into the pressure and did it. You can get it on Amazon now, how cool is that?

What design tools could you not live without?

The Adobe Creative Suite of course, Wacom Tablet, Moleskine, iPod, etc. This is probably a pretty clichéd list I would assume!

And finally, what tips would you give to anybody who is looking to get started in design?

Start freelancing as soon as possible – get a portfolio website up there even if you have to use Cargo or Behance. When you produce something, post it online to share and get feedback. Get involved in forums and design communities, attend events, get involved with AIGA, etc. Make yourself known!

Thanks Jeff!

Thanks a million to Jeff for sharing his thoughts! I really enjoyed talking to him, and found his answers really interesting!

Why not check out Jeff’s site, and follow him on Dribbble and Twitter?

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One Minute With… Simon Collison
September 9, 2011 7:47 pm 1 Comment

Hi Simon, thanks for taking time to chat with One Minute With. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your work.

I’m a freelance designer and much more, and I’ve been at it for twelve years. I’m based in Nottingham, but work all over the world. I’m a former artist, I founded a successful agency then left, I write and present about design, and I also organise the New Adventures events.

What else? Well, I am not “full-geek”. I’m obsessed with music. I love traveling. I own a stupid cat. Apparently I’m bad at relationships. I’m happy regardless. That’ll do.

Walk us through a typical day in the life of Simon Collison.

I get up later than I’d aimed for, wherever I am. My working life falls two different ways. I’m either at home for a few weeks and therefore in my home office, or I’m away working collaboratively in different places, or bouncing between conferences.

I’m a tea man, but need a frothy coffee and a roll-up before I do anything. I hit the computer straight away and I’ll tap a load of ideas into Evernote that I had overnight. I’ll mark fifty emails as junk, flag twenty or so, respond to three. Next, I’ll cycle through my tweets/Flickr/Instagram/GimmeBar feeds and read the BBC and Guardian sites for a bit. I used to trawl RSS but don’t do that at all any more. Does anyone?

Mid-morning, I’ll start doing some proper work. iTunes is on all day and I dance around to it until around 6pm when I try to switch off, watch the news, do normal human things, or do more work. If I’m away, I’ll hit the bars with friends and not talk about work.

How did you get into design?

I was always interested in art, design and popular culture. Long story short; I went to art school, became an artist, and eventually set up an arts organisation. I bought a computer in 1999 to make flyers and posters, discovered HTML, and made a big website for the arts org that became really popular. A local agency saw it, thought I’d make a good web designer, and that was that. Gave up the art, became a full-time designer.

How do you approach a new project? What’s your design process like?

So, I have my own rules and methods, but every job is different. Back when I ran an agency, the process was very different, and we imposed all sorts of strict criteria and methodologies on each project. As a freelancer, I keep it much looser, so I don’t always manage projects with a set pattern. I’m lucky that I can choose to work on projects that suit me, where I won’t be restricted or lost in documentation. I’ve learned to maximise the creative time now.

Obviously I learn as much as I can about the project (and if relevant, the client) and the intended audience. I try to have a lot of discussion, gather qualitative and quantitative data, and I make a lot of notes and sketches. I soak up the content and stuff I need to work with, and I will sit with it all for ages – not working, just thinking about it. When ready, I then get into some freestyle design without grids, guidelines or frameworks, where I just explore ideas and get everything down into Photoshop iterations.

Then will come a phase where I begin to properly define grids, layout, icons, colours, language, tone of voice, resulting in a set of loose guidelines I can take into a more robust and meticulous Photoshop stage. If I’m also building the site, I start designing in the browser as early as poss using a Git repo, often making a greybox navigable site to understand the behaviours and relationships, taking that into a final design in the browser, backed up with PSDs perhaps.

But like I say, every job is different, and as I collaborate a lot, I might be focused on one task, yet giving input across everyone’s work.

In addition to your design work itself, you’ve written several books about design and development, and spoken at numerous conferences. If, in some crazy hypothetical universe, you could only do one of these things (Design, Books, Conferences), which would it be, and why?

The writing and presenting is a byproduct of being a designer, and unless I decided to write bad poetry or fiction as I did in my teens, then there’d be no writing or presenting without being a designer. Design is my ultimate motivation, and whilst I think it’s important to share and discuss with others, ultimately I’d cling tooth and nail to my job as a designer. Without that, it’d just be hot air.

You’re very much a conference man, having spoken at many, and even organised your own. What it is about conferences that you like so much, and why did you decide to organise your own?

I find value in every event I attend. If the exact topic isn’t applicable, I work hard as an attendee to find relevance and parallels for me. There’ll always be something I can take away, and that might not immediately influence my work, but often I find that value a week, a month, a year later. It all goes in.

Conferences also allow us to get away from our working environments and meet others, discuss issues that concern us, form new partnerships, sow the seeds of collaboration, and be inspired from all angles. I can think of nothing worse than being a designer who never leaves his or her desk. I used to beg and borrow to attend conferences for a thousand reasons. Being able to speak and be a part of the dialogue directly is a huge privilege.

My own event was a response to all of this and more. There are lots of reasons, but two in particular. 1: My home town and its surrounding cities have a wealth of design talent that has been underserved by such events, and I thought it was high time we had something of value in the heart of England. 2: I desperately care about issues that shape our roles as web designers, and the dialogue needs specific platforms to thrive. New Adventures was motivated by a desire to get smart people (speakers and audience) together to push things forward, and maybe influence some of the issue that resonate through the rest of the year.

Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years? Are you still hoping to be designing, writing and speaking, or do you want to have moved onto to something else?

I try not to answer questions like this these days. The reason is simple: I try not to set goals. It was important to have certain ambitions or get-out plans when I was a bit younger, but since I went freelance I’ve removed the pressure. I’ll see where projects and opportunities take me, but in all honesty, I’m more interested in just “doing” than wondering where it’ll take me. One things for sure: I’ll be living in Brooklyn by then, whatever I’m doing.

What design tools could you not live without?

I’m trying to get away from the idea of apps defining what I do and how I think, so I’d say I cannot do without my bag, which I think of as a mobile office. I’ve meticulously honed what I need to carry and everything has a pocket. Obviously it’s got my MacBookAir and iPhone in it, but alongside those I have a cheap Muji notebook I can scribble in, plus a pen, pencil, and a Sharpie. Aside from chargers, headphones, and travel stuff, that’s all I need, and all I want.

If you want a list of the apps I use then it’s fair to say I have Photoshop, Textmate, Transmit, MAMP, Github, Evernote, IA Writer, iTunes, iCal, Mail app, and Safari open most of the time.

Regarding browsers, I just love and trust Safari. Firefox is made of mud and twigs, and I can’t stand Google Chrome. Where’s the bloody feedback when you load things. I hate the lack of a blue bar or visual progress. Just can’t get past that.

And finally, what tips would you give to anybody who is looking to get started in design?

Be prepared to work hard. If it will overlap with another job you don’t like, be prepared to do several hours per night reading, learning, experimenting. Identify your strengths and weaknesses, discover your values, and try to approach your work like a craftsmen. Do your work and do it well.

On a practical level, find problems and design responses. Not answers, not solutions, just responses. There’s rarely a single right way, so just explore problems and see what happens. Try to be loose and unshackled to start with, then home in on details and work tightly as you near completion. Learn to throw things out, simplify, be economical, present only what is necessary. After that, adding delight and personality in future projects comes naturally.

Desire to learn, and don’t see it as too much information to cope with, too many opinions, too many things changing all the time. Embrace the ebb and flow, the shifting landscape; that’s what makes the web so unique, so special. Understand the medium, appreciate where the web can borrow from other disciplines, and where it stands apart and defines its own rules.

Don’t feel bound by your tools. try to think about design outside of apps. Tools are enablers, but what we do isn’t about those tools or languages. Also, don’t be a slave to web showcases and galleries. Find inspiration from anywhere and everywhere, not just from other websites.

Above all, care. I mean, really care about what you do. Being a designer isn’t a job, it’s a motivation, a need to make things better. If that doesn’t sound right for you, then don’t be a designer.

Thanks Simon!

Thanks so much to Simon for giving us an insight into his world! I really enjoyed talking to him, and found his answers really interesting!

Why not check out Simon’s site, and follow him on Dribbble and Twitter?

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One Minute With… Evan Stremke
August 31, 2011 6:21 pm Leave a Comment

Hi Evan, thanks for taking time to chat with One Minute With. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your work.

I’m a designer living in Madison, Wisconsin and working at Planet Propaganda. My portfolio is your typical mix of illustrative, interactive, branding, and traditional design work. I also like to write short stories and terrible jokes.

Walk us through a typical day in the life of Evan Stremke.

I wake up every morning at 6a and check Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ just to see what people have been saying about me while I’m sleeping. I usually take a shower, but I may or may not wash my hair depending on how it looks and based on advice I received while watching ‘The Nate Berkus Show’ one afternoon. I get to the office just after 7a, work, eat lunch, work some more, then head home at the end of the day where I continue working, but usually on self-directed pieces. If there’s not much work to be done, I’ll head to the rock climbing gym instead.

[Side Note: This interview has already lasted well over a minute. Though maybe the Irish just tell time differently.]

How did you get your first design client?

My first client was John Wiley & Sons who I did some simple logo work for, along with some additional brand collateral. Wasn’t anything great, but it was my third year in school and there wasn’t much time for major work outside of the classroom and side projects I had been working on at the time. They found me through Behance and the rest is history more or less.

How do you approach a new project? What’s your design process like?

This is an easy question to answer, but there are several answers so I’ll keep it short. How I approach a project is entirely contingent upon the type of work, the client, the budget, and the schedule. Usually I’ll sift through old design annuals, look for inspiration on the web, sketch some ideas, and just start designing. Projects vary from day to day, client to client, so there’s no real tried ‘n true method per se.

You have quite a distinct, vintage feel to your work. Where do you get inspiration from?

This is actually the first time someone has told me that my work has a vintage feel to it. Certainly there are some pieces that lend themselves to such a designation, but again I think this is just a case of the design being appropriate for the client or content. For a lot of my vintage design inspiration I like to peruse Flickr and the Library of Congress site, the latter of which is an invaluable resource for not just inspiration, but for beautiful images of all of American history.

You’ve been involved in a few high-profile self-initiated projects, such as The Momentus Project and Invitation to an Assassination. How much of your work is self-initiated projects, and how much is client work? Is there one you prefer over the other, and why?

The majority of my work is the stuff I get paid to do for [at least] forty hours a week at Planet. It’s not just my job, but also my passion. And that passion spills over into my life at home. In order to satisfy my thirst for work, I create my own projects. I enjoy challenging myself and establishing parameters for self-initiated projects is a great way to learn and grow as a creative individual. I prefer them both for different reasons. Working with clients is a breath of fresh air after working for yourself for so long, and vice versa. It’s a healthy balance, each with their respective pros and cons.

The Momentus Project is probably your most well-known work, and the piece that made you a household name (In very design-oriented households, anyway). What was the motivation behind it? Is there an end-goal for it, or was it something you set up for fun?

It’s a little weird to think that The Momentus Project is my most well-known piece considering I’m only responsible for 1/52 of the entire collection. The project was born out of an obsession I have with history, specifically United States history. I’m not a God-fearing conservative rooted in the traditional American way of life, I just think we as United States citizens have a lot to be appreciative of, but I find that the majority of the folks I speak to know nothing of what makes this the greatest country in the world. The end goal for the project has evolved, but the details are still being ironed out on my end so there’s nothing specific at this point.

What design tools could you not live without?

Obviously Adobe’s Creative Suite, specifically Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator. Dribbble has become an incredible source of inspiration, and Designspiration has quickly become one of my favorite sites for cataloging inspiration from across the web. My iPhone makes cataloging inspiration easy as well, but makes sharing it even easier. ‘Designing Design’ by Kenya Hara and ‘Designers Don’t Read’ by Austin Howe are some of my favorite books about design and advertising. All of Chuck Klosterman’s works are my favorite books not about design. Though, if I’m being completely honest, I could live without all of that, my life would just be less interesting I think. Or maybe more interesting, I don’t know.

What’s currently on your playlist?

At this exact moment I’m listening to Peter Wolf Crier’s latest album ‘Garden of Arms’. Peter Wolf Crier is one of my all-time favorite bands, and I’ve had ‘Garden of Arms’ on repeat for awhile now. Can’t recommend it enough.

And finally, what tips would you give to anybody who is looking to get started in design?

This is another one of those easy to answer questions with several different answers. There are so many different types of “design jobs” that it’s hard to give specific advice for diverging paths. The best advice I can give can be applied to any number of scenarios: Work harder than everyone else around you. Also, learn to laugh. Especially at yourself.

Thanks Evan!

Thanks so much to Evan for giving us an insight into his world! I really enjoyed talking to him, and found his answers really interesting!

Why not check out Evan’s site, and follow him on Dribbble and Twitter?

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One Minute With… Sergey Shapiro
August 29, 2011 1:06 pm 4 Comments

Hi Sergey, thanks for taking time to chat with One Minute With. Tell us a little about yourself and your work.

It’s the hardest thing for me to write about myself :) Well, I love my wife! She brings me a lot of happiness, especially being a very talented artist, haha. I’m a philologist. I have studied the Korean language, culture and philosophy (South-east Asian also) but my passion has always been in drawing. I guess design was laid down in my genes and my life was leading me to become a designer. I was always looking for perfection and visual harmony in everything. I tried myself in interior and furniture design but at some point I started with graphic design and print. But since recently I shifted my focus to lettering and freestyle calligraphy and applying my skills in a variety of graphic design fields.

See more of Sergey’s work here.

Your calligraphy has a very unique style, with an almost urban feel to it. Where do you get your inspiration from?

I get my inspiration from everything that surrounds me and also things associated with art and design. Sure I look at calligraphic stuff from different artists around me. Internet is great in this case.

How do you approach a new project, and what is your design process like?

Usually I start from meditating on a subject like zen monks do before drawing their masterpieces :) Sometimes I draw or write just in my mind while going somewhere or just having a bath. Recently I tried to draw a logo in my mind in a dentist seat, it was a rather funny experience and I’d almost forgotten where I was. I start my work by sketching and I guess my intuition leads my arms :) I do a loooot of sketches, usually I make about a hundred, trying to find a rhythm and a flow, and some interesting tricks with the letters. I love to connect letters in unusual ways and I think it gives a logo a kind of uniqueness and originality. When I can say that “I got it” I start sketching in that direction trying to sharpen the sketch. Sometimes I polish sketches with a gel pen correcting some parts of it. When I am completely satisfied with what I did I scan it and polish it even more in a vector program. That’s the short version!

Typography is clearly a strong point of yours. Did you always have good handwriting, or was it something that you had to teach yourself?

Thank you! As I said earlier I think it was in my genes. I’ve loved to draw letters since I was in school but it was just for fun. But recently I started to write every day. I write everything just to write :) It is like meditation for me. So I think I develop my skills all the time with everyday practice.

How did you find your first design client?

I have never found clients. It’s so happened that they found me. I just try to promote my work. But I guess it is a way of finding clients :) Honestly I don’t remember my first client but I surely remember that my first work was just trash and it’s funny to look back on stuff I did.

What design tools could you not live without?

First of all I use a lot of paper and writing tools, a lot of markers, brushes, pens etc. I try to use every tool that draw or write. Honestly I’m a maniac of drawing/writing tools, paper, notebooks etc. I shouldn’t go to art stores or I spend all my cash :)

Of course, I use Photoshop and Illustrator.

I love books but I stopped buying them because it may escalate into mania. I want to travel with my wife so our luggage should be very light and easy to carry.

Websites are probably my main source of inspiration.

Aside from design, what do you like to do in your free time?

I love yoga, cooking, reading, music, traveling, nature, riding my bicycle… lots of “ordinary” things.

And finally, what tips would you give to anybody who is looking to get started in typography, or just design in general?

First of all love what you do and do it with all your passion! Do everything you do to be proud of yourself! Practice every day. And one more thing, sometimes designers ask me what they should do to start making logos like mine. I think that you should develop your own style. Sure, you can take inspiration from other artists work and try to copy them to get your hands dirty, but finally work on your own style, find yourself, be yourself, express yourself.

Thanks Sergey

Thanks so much to Sergey for giving us an insight into his world! I found his answers really interesting, and hopefully you do too!

Why not check out Sergey’s site, and follow him on Dribbble and Twitter?

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One Minute With… Mike Rundle
1:06 pm 1 Comment

Hi Mike, thanks for taking time to chat with One Minute With. Tell us a little about yourself and your work.

Sure! I’m a designer and software engineer living in Raleigh, NC with my wife (who’s also a software engineer) and my dog (who’s just a dog.) I’m the User Interface Architect at Bronto Software where I lead visual design and frontend architecture for their suite of marketing and analytics web applications. In the evenings and weekends I design and build iPhone, Mac and iPad apps, and write about iOS interface design at Design Then Code. In the mid-2000s I was the co-founder of the design firm Business Logs and the blog network 9rules.

Walk us through a typical day in the life of Mike Rundle.

I wake up around 8am, roll over, and check Twitter, blogs, Reddit and email on my iPhone for a few minutes. After I get to work I settle in and start working on the next big features that we’ll be rolling out at Bronto. I typically spend my day evenly split between writing JavaScript, PHP, HTML and designing in Photoshop. After work I usually have a variety of projects that I’m working on and I try to put at least a little bit of time into them. Right now I’m splitting time between some interface design work I’m completing for Sublime Text (an excellent code editor, heir to the TextMate throne), a redesign of Flyosity.com, finishing my presentation for Swipe Conference, and some iPhone apps I’m in the early stages of developing.

How did you get into design?

When I was much younger I was really into baseball cards and I used to have large, 8.5×11″ sheets of graph paper where I’d design my own baseball card designs. These would be really elaborate and I’d color them and hand-emboss them like they were a special edition insert in a pack. I’d also design sneakers and, when I was older, golf courses. I was never really an artist, but the more technical and exacting nature of drafting/designing really appealed to me. When I was 13 I started building websites for myself and my friends, and that’s when my love of hand-drawing met the logical side of my brain and I started writing little programs in AppleScript and JavaScript. I’ve been working on the web ever since, and in 2007 I started also designing and coding apps for the Mac and iPhone.

You’ve been involved in a few high-profile self-initiated projects and blogs, such as Flyosity and DesignThenCode. How much of your work is self-initiated projects, and how much is client work? Is there one you prefer over the other, and why?

I did design consulting work full-time for about 3-4 years, and since then I’ve been really cutting back and trying to work on my own projects as much as possible. Because I have a full-time job, I don’t need to take on any outside consulting work, but I do take on interesting projects from time to time. I greatly prefer working on my own apps and projects because I have full control and they’re a lot of fun to work on. I am planning to take on more outside design work soon though, after the redesign of Flyosity is finished. I’ll mostly be focusing on smaller, quick-hit projects as they tend to be more interesting to me than long, huge projects.

Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years? Are you still hoping to be making tutorials and writing for blogs, or do you want to have moved onto to something else?

Five years ago in 2006 the iPhone hadn’t come out yet and I was building websites for clients full-time. Now I’m mostly working on iOS apps and user interface design for web applications. So many things have changed in the industry in the last five years that I really can’t venture to guess what I’ll be working on five years from now. I’m sure I’ll still be designing and building software for Apple products, but whether those apps will run on the Mac, iPhone, iPad or some yet-unseen device I just can’t say. The only thing I can say for sure is I’ll still be doing both design and programming work since I like doing both.

What design tools could you not live without?

Photoshop is my workhorse. I’ve been using it since the mid-90s and am about as familiar with it as any piece of software I use. Dribbble has become a great source of inspiration, I love browsing the Popular section or specific tags like iPhone, icon, iPad to see what cool work is being uploaded there. For non-digital planning of projects I like paper & pen because I can write down lists, annotate them, draw pictures, draw layouts, and generally be free to fully express whatever is in my head. No note-taking software I’ve used has even come close to the freeness I have when writing by hand.

Aside from design, what do you like to do in your free time?

I’m a hardcore foosball player and golfer. We have a foosball table at my work and I’m usually playing it around lunch time and then after work with the other guys on my engineering team. I’ve been playing golf since I was in high school and really enjoy it. Nowadays I go to the driving range more than I actually get out on the course but I typically shoot in the low 80s.

And finally, what tips would you give to anybody who is looking to get started in design or blogging?

When I tried to get people to notice me online back around 2002-2003 there were only a handful of web designers with blogs, the community was tiny. To reach out to them you merely had to send some nice emails out to people and hope that they took a second out of their day to read it. Now the design community has just exploded, and there are so many niches that it’s impossible to count. Web designers, user interface designers (software, not sites), user experience people, icon artists, the list goes on and on. There are blogs and forums for each of these topics and hundreds more, so getting noticed is a lot harder now. The only technique that was valid back then and is valid now is to work really hard and do a lot of great work. Make up fake clients and design sites for them. Redesign apps and sites just because. Redesign your personal site over and over till it’s amazing. Work on icon sets then give them away. Write tutorials on all the things you know how to do. Study what apps or websites look amazing and figure out how they designed it, then write about what you found out. There a bunch of ways to get noticed in the design industry, and (unfortunately!) most of them involve good old-fashioned hard work.

Thanks Mike!

We’re really grateful to Mike spending a few minutes with One Minute With. Hopefully you, like I, found his responses really interesting!

Why not check out Mike’s site, and follow him on Dribbble and Twitter?

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One Minute With… Claire Coullon
1:06 pm 4 Comments

Hi Claire, thanks for taking time to chat with One Minute With. Tell us a little about yourself and your work.

I’m a graphic designer and typographer currently living in Prague and co-running Op45 Creative Design Agency. My main areas of work are custom type and hand lettering alongside logo design, branding and print/book design. Originally from France, I studied art and design in the UK and then worked in graphic design agency in Brussels before starting Op45.

See more of Claire’s work here.

Walk us through a typical day in the life of Claire Coullon.

Each day mainly depends on individual projects and clients. I’m not big on routines, so the day usually works out depending on what projects requires most time, when things are due, what kind of work it is, etc. For things that are more technical and task-based (typeface modifications/extensions, revisions, etc.) I usually prefer to work on them at the beginning of the day. If the work is more conceptual and creative (like the beginning of projects, idea development, sketching, etc.) I’m usually best later on in the day or at night. Depending on where our clients are, we often find ourselves adapting to their timezones, so that always keeps things different too.

Your typography has a distinct, elegant feel to it. Where do you get inspiration?

It depends on the project really. Something like a classic script or a serif usually requires more background research and sources (existing typefaces, old alphabets, etc). For more organic hand lettering, my ideas most often stem from experimentation and drawing. I also have a variety of resources that I use for reference or just general browsing which helps to give more context, depth or different angles to the work: books of historical alphabets and scripts, old signage, photographs, sketchbooks with notes and images collected over the years, etc.

How do you approach a new project, and what is your design process like?

Again, this varies depending on the project but usually, after discussing the brief, I think about the kind of style and feeling I’m going for and start roughly sketching out ideas. From the beginning, I keep in mind specific characteristics/goals of the project and how to incorporate them in the work as well as what references (historical or current) might be relevant, how I’ll approach the number of proposals needed, etc. In the early stages, I usually do stacks of very rough sketches as this allows the natural flow to develop freely without constraints. As the initial ides become more focused, I can then work on the details and refine them – first on paper, then on the computer. I’ll also frequently refer back to sketches or printed versions during the later stages.

It is no secret that lettering is your strong point. Do you have any plans to release a font at any point in the future? (P.S. PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE)

Haha, well I very much hope so. When it comes to personal typeface projects, I work quite slowly (a combination of being very picky and lack of time). I really want the first typeface I release to have a strong conceptual base and clear purpose, so I’m taking my time to allow the ideas and forms to develop. I also want to ensure a good level of technical quality, so there’s a lot to take care of there as well with regards to OpenType programming, hinting, etc. I have a sans serif and a script started in the last year or so, but I’m not sure if I’ll pursue either of those fully or start something different..

How did you find your first design client?

I had the odd freelance project while at university, but I’d consider my first design client to be a art teacher I’d had in high school. When I first made my portfolio website (many versions back now), she asked me to design one for her paintings and it went from there. References and word of mouth are incredibly valuable, especially in the beginning.

What design tools could you not live without?

Paper and pencil/pen. I love using different pens, quills, brushes, etc. but my essential tool is definitely just a pencil or any thin pen. A scanner and Illustrator would be my next choices, followed by a mouse for vectoring.

Aside from design, what do you like to do in your free time?

When I’m not doing personal work or just doodling various letters/words, I love walking around Prague with my boyfriend (while trying to avoid the crowds), reading, cafés, bookshops…

And finally, what tips would you give to anybody who is looking to get started in typography, or just design in general?

Practice and research/reading. For typography, spending some time drawing existing fonts and lettering is great practice to really familiarise yourself with the intricacies of letterforms and the details that make successful type. It’s also important to be aware of the historical development of writing, language, phonetics, typeface design, printing… It’s crucial towards a strong contextual understanding and also gives you a wide knowledge base to bring into your own work. For design in general, keeping an open mind with regards to other areas is also really beneficial, not only to broaden your horizons, but to take advantage of those unexpected links, influences or ideas you can stumble upon. As your design and ideas progress, know yourself and how you work, what you’re best at, what mistakes you have to be careful to avoid, when to push yourself… Take the time to be critical, analyze and review what you’re trying to achieve. With the incredible amount of resources and showcases available these days, it’s great to see what other people are doing, but it’s also important to avoid falling into stylistic repetition and focus on your own individual approach.

Thanks Claire!

Many thanks to Claire for taking some time to talk to One Minute With. I really enjoyed interviewing her, and hopefully you enjoyed reading it!

Why not check out Claire’s site, and follow her on Dribbble and Twitter?

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One Minute With… Tyler Galpin
1:06 pm 1 Comment

Hi Tyler, thanks for taking time to chat with One Minute With. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your work.

Well, I’m a web and UI designer currently based out of Toronto, Canada. Never went to design school but always had a passion for design and especially the power of the web as a medium for design.

I have a weird duality in my work where my “personal style”, if you could call it that, is best known as being vintage and old-school. On the other hand, I also create what some would call “shiny” interfaces and such, but only where I think it’s appropriate.

I’m really inspired by things of old, and their utility and value that the design provided in places like the United States and Canada

See more of Tyler’s work here.

Walk us through a typical day in the life of Tyler Galpin.

I’m definitely not a morning person, so I usually wake up around 10 or 11 and do the normal things that humans do when they wake up. Usually my first task is to wrangle all the emails I’ve gotten overnight and through the morning – these are usually from people who are, in fact, morning people and can somehow manage to wake up at a reasonable time. Most of the time I have a couple client chats in a day, either via email/Basecamp or over Skype. As a freelancer it’s cool being able to give clients the one-on-one treatment that you won’t usually get with a designer at an agency.

I like sketching my designs before I Photoshop them, so I’ll spend anywhere from an hour to four hours listening to music and getting ideas down on paper. For the most part Photoshop is open all day and I flip from one client project to another whenever I get stuck on a design. I’m a huge procrastinator so it’s important for me to start projects early – my brain needs time to process the various design problems unconsciously. Then it’s either staying up until 4 in the morning working / relaxing, or going out with friends.

How did you get into design?

When I was about 13, about 9 years ago, I got my first laptop (for the record, it was some shoddily-built Toshiba that fell apart til the very end). Being a young male, I for some reason thought it would be cool to “trick my computer out” with custom wallpapers, icons, toolbars – the whole nine yards. This was my first introduction to the DeviantArt scene, and seeing all the awesome abstract wallpapers got me interested in figuring out how to make my own. So I bought Photoshop and began following tutorials online doing pretty basic stuff. After a while I got interested in learning how to make my own website for myself, and things took off from there. I learned CSS from various articles online and looking at other designer’s source code.

That was about 4 years ago that I learned CSS, and from there I just designed a million sites for myself as practice and sorta stumbled into freelancing as a way to make money.

(I still don’t know how to make those abstract wallpapers)

How do you approach a new project? What’s your design process like?

I start all projects with a phone call, where I basically glean some information such as what the client is looking for. Really the point of that call is to find out one thing: what is the message? What does the client want to convey with their logo/website/app? Figuring this out at the start is crucial, because nailing this down means I can deliver on my promise to provide them with the exact design solution they need. Then we move onto a short questionnaire where I scope out what style the client likes design-wise. I find out what colours they prefer and which colours they don’t, existing sites/apps/logos they enjoy, competitor products, their brand message – essentially laying down a blueprint for a moodboard.

My next step is to create this (usually) very deep collection of things that are inspiring me for the project. This consists of websites, logos, photographs – literally anything and everything that has some sort of design value in relation to the project at hand. I find that browsing through places like Flickr is great for finding little details/colours/moods that can help guide a designer through a project.

Sketching is a big part of what I do, so I take all that I’ve learned from the project so far and try to capture it on paper. Most of the time, the first sketch is a basic layout and very simplistic. Then I’ll create a relatively in-depth sketch on the next page with all the design elements. If I think of a cool idea or know exactly how content will look in the finished product, I’ll write it down next to the detailed sketch so I don’t forget about it.

Then I dive head-first into Photoshop and usually start with the design elements that I want to try out stylistically or elements that I have a very clear mental image of. It’s important that if you get a spark of inspiration to create something that you don’t let it go – you’ll thank yourself later for it.

Usually I do a first draft of the design, sit on it for a day, and then review it again. This allows me to see it with a fresh pair of eyes and decide whether I love or hate it. Usually it’s the latter, so I fix up the design as I see fit and by then it is quite polished enough to show to my client.

You’ve been involved in a few high-profile self-initiated projects, such as Lost Type Co-Op and Get To Build. How much of your work is self-initiated projects, and how much is client work? Is there one you prefer over the other, and why?

I would say that I don’t prefer one over the other, but I will definitely admit that self-initiated projects can be among the most rewarding (personally and professionally).

Usually I structure my flow of client work so that I have some “free spots” in my schedule to work on an idea that I have or do upgrades/updates to existing ideas. It’s nice being able to have fluctuations in my schedule like that – helps keep me sane.

Depending on how big the projects are, I usually maintain 5-6 active clients/projects at a time so if I want to spend time on, say, Lost Type, I will just say “no” to a couple prospective client projects.

Clients are important because I need to earn money and make a living for myself – they also open up lots of doors opportunity-wise. Personal projects are important because they are fun, usually benefit a greater cause, and (I would argue) open even more doors to new opportunities because of the exposure alone.

I’ve seen many design blogs including Lost Type fonts in their endless collections of free fonts. Do you see Lost Type fonts as free fonts with the option to reward the author, or as premium fonts with the option to get them for free?

It’s interesting you put it that way. It took me a while to think about this, and dig deep down to find out how I actually view them. My opinion of the fonts in the collection is firmly rooted in our original idea which was to offer “premium” fonts for whatever price the user was willing to pay. Radiohead obviously had huge success with their album “In Rainbows” which allowed people to pay what they wanted for the entire album. They had spent months and long hours creating this premium piece of art, and pulled a risky move (that ended up paying off). I would view the fonts at Lost Type in the same vein in that all of the designers have put in huge effort into making their respective font(s) – thereby the “premium” moniker. If we take a step back and look at various other industries like the music industry which suffers from widespread piracy due to the DRM that the labels use, we see that people will “steal” content regardless of what you do. We figured that if we made everyone pay for the fonts, the TTFs/OTFs would just get shared and pirated anyhow. By making them free with the option to donate, we eradicate the idea of pirating in one fell swoop.

You mentioned that you listen to music a lot whilst sketching. What’s currently on your iPod/iTunes/Playlist/Zune?

I listen to lots of different types of music – techno, classic rock, hip-hop, jazz. Pretty much anything and everything except country or opera. When I’m designing I am usually listening to techno/trance/house because the solid beat is a pretty great motivator. Sometimes it works too well and I have to go take a drive or step away from the computer. I discovered at a very young age that my brain works best when I have lots of distractions and white noise going on around me, so music is a huge part of my life and you can find me listening to it all day.

What design tools could you not live without?

Software:
– Photoshop CS5 (for designing)
– Espresso (for development)
– Transmit (FTP)

Hardware:
– Magic Mouse
– 27″ iMac (the extra screen real estate is key)
– iPhone (it’s handy for viewing iOS mockups)
– Field Notes (perfect for writing down ideas on the go, and for notes from phone meetings)
– Duller Notebook (great for sketching)
– MUJI pen (I am convinced that this is the perfect pen – super cheap and feels great in my hand)

And finally, what tips would you give to anybody who is looking to get started in design?

1) Practice, practice, practice.

If you don’t have any active clients or don’t know where to get started this is the perfect opportunity to learn and hone your skills. Make fake websites for yourself, redesign other websites, and tear them down only to rebuild them again. You will benefit from not only experimenting with things like typography and layouts, but will also become better/faster/stronger at your Photoshop/Illustrator/Fireworks skills.

2) Learn.

Visit sites, look at logos, and play with apps that you know are exceptionally done. The easy part is recognizing good design. The hard part is fundamentally understanding *why* it is good design. Why does x element work in x design? Does it add to the design, or does it add visual noise? Figuring out the answers to these types of questions and being able to support your answers is a huge step towards growing as a designer.

3) Karma

I admittedly preach about this a lot, so sorry if you have heard this from me before. I still feel it is probably one of the single most important things to consider not only as a designer, but as anyone in any profession. Be nice to people. Respond to emails/@replies. Even if they aren’t a super important person. *Especially* if they aren’t a super important person. That 15 year-old kid who is asking you some “silly” questions about CSS might be the next Big Thing. You won’t remember them, but they will remember for a long time whether you helped them or not. You get one chance at a reputation, so don’t screw it up.

Thanks Tyler!

Many thanks to Tyler for sharing his thoughts with OMW. I genuinely had a lot of fun interviewing him, and I hope you love the interview as much I do!

Why not check out Tyler’s site, and follow him on Dribbble and Twitter?

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