Interview | A Curious Mind

Tag Archives | interview

I interview Prisca Schmarsow

By Gavin on August 19, 2009 in Editorials, General, Interviews

I recently had the chance to interview Prisca Schmarsow about work, teaching, web dev/design and everyday life. Thanks Prisca for taking part!

Full name and Age please

Prisca Schmarsow, 39

Favourite Biscuit and Drink?

Amaretti & Capuccino

Last book your read and last movie you saw?

Book:: “Designing for the Web” (Mark Boulton)
film:: “Coraline”

Where and when did it all start?

Well, I was one of those people …. I used to think I am not cut out for working with computers. I started with hand-drawn visuals, doing pub blackboards and drawings/illlustration for adverts and did not think I would get my head around being creative on a ‘machine’. Quite funny now to think of it….
Gently pushed by my partner – I eventually did venture into the digital arena by doing a graphic design course – and it all started there. Painter was, and in many ways still is, my favourite app at the time. Doing graphic design work – I was soon drawn to the internet and its design possibilities. Though I was by then quite happy to work digitally – I was still a bit of a techno-phobe, thinking my head would not be able to cope with the technical complexities. So when I did start with webdesign – I took the then easier road of flash design. It gave me complete control over my designs. I absolutely loved creating flash websites though I of course soon realised its drawbacks and its place within webdesign overall.

And then there was “designing with web standards” by Jeffrey Zeldman, introducing me to webstandards and a better web After finding Eric Meyer and his site – I went onto to learn handcoding and CSS from online resources — and here I am

Is there anyone in the industry you look up to?

There are many, too many to list really. I love the web for its online community spirit — I feel I owe my knowledge and understanding to all the helpful and lovely geeks out there. I could tell you lots of stories on how various people have helped me through various stages of learning webdesign – this would fill a book

Suffice to say that Eric Meyer is my all time guru – I feel I owe him and Jeffrey Zeldman my current career. Had it not been for their writing, sharing of knowledge and inspiration on so many levels – I don’t think I’d be doing what I am doing now and loving it. And of course now there are many more inspiring people, too many to mention.

You teach web design, how did you get in to teaching?

Teaching is not something I ever envisaged myself doing, to be honest. I’d been working with graphic and flash design for about 2 years when the training place where I had done my first course had a vacancy for a graphic design and multimedia tutor. I would not have dreamed to apply but work was slow and my former tutor encouraged me to go for it. So I did – and to my surprise got the job despite my complete lack of experience. And though it was incredibly nerve-wracking initially – I loved it. Now I run the ‘design for the web‘ (as well as the ‘digital animation‘) course at TowerHamlets College and can teach what I consider good working practices to my students, hoping to send them into our industry with good skills – aware of what matters: good user-friendly design, web standards, accessibility and so on. And the ones who make it – make me proud

What does a general day consist of for you?

Always start with a cup of coffee I usually work on several projects at the same time, splitting my day’s time between them. Depending on whether the academic year is in flow or whether I can focus entirely on design – I divide my time up between my 2 jobs, taking care of my clients as well as my students. I usually take care of formalities in the morning and do a lot of the creative work towards the end of the day or evening. Love the holidays from teaching for being able to keep my own hours so I can do some late sessions if the mood takes me.

As well as teaching you also have your eyedea.eu team, how is that going?

The eyedea team is currently undergoing a change – we’re working on our new site at the moment as we are shifting our focus now primarily onto webdesign. It all started as a freelance collective, combining multiple skills and working together as a team. Two heads are always better than one and we love collaborating on various projects and learning from each other.

As time went on we continued to work mainly on webdesign projects so we’ve decided to refocus. We’ve all still got our own areas and specialities, from photography over illustration to writing – but our main field remains the web. So I’m really enjoying designing our new site and looking forward getting it out there.

Where does your heart lie, with design or development?

Design all the way… I do enjoy the challenge of coding and certain aspects of front end development – but if I had to chose one over the other, nothing can beat design. I’m a big fan of the Bauhaus and its principles which are my motivation. Design is for people—has purpose—aims to be used and enjoyed though it might go unnoticed through its successfully designed and implemented functions.

Do you prefer teaching or full time design and development?

It’s the balance between the two that I like. Though teaching can be very hard work at times (mainly due to the bureaucratic mountain of paperwork it involves) it also keep you on your toes. I enjoy the challenges it brings and the learning environment, I remain a student myself.

And I do love design work, from start to finish – love the entire process and couldn’t do without it. And I do consider myself a designer who teaches and not the other way around so I suppose design would have to be my final choice.

What do you consider to be the biggest contributing factor to your success?

The open and sharing spirit of the web. Without the many many friendly and sharing people online I would not be doing or loving what I do. In my early days of flash design – I learnt everything from online resources. I had had 1 day of flash introduction and went from there. Learning from online tutorials, forums, even personal support from individuals. My first ever site went online with someone in the Netherlands holding my hand – taking me through every single step via online chat. Overwhelmed by the technical aspects – it would have taken me ages by myself so this was a major moment for me – and I could not believe how supportive the online community could be.
Fast forward to “designing with web standards” – had it not been for Jeffrey’s book – and then Eric’s site…. I would not be handcoding now, or even have a clue about good webdesign. And then there are people like … actually too many to mention, I’d only forget some vital names. Sites like ‘A List Apart’, blogs by inspiring designers as well as developers who explain in plain English complex techniques and so on keep me learning all the time. (This is why I don’t really agree with the term ‘self taught’. Though I did the learning by myself in a physical sense – I would not say I am self taught – but rather have been taught by so many lovely geeks online)

So the short answer simply is: the biggest contributing factor are is the open and sharing spirit online.

Are you a mac or PC user?

Mac – though I think I was just lucky to learn on a mac. Saying that – I have to admit I am always in favour of gorgeous visuals which is why I’m happily sticking with Apple

Where do you see yourself in the future?

Hopefully continuing to try to make the web a better place alongside everyone else.

Will you be heading to anymore conferences in the near future?

Would love to – depending on time and money. At times some of the best conferences clash with my teaching — or are simply too pricey for a freelancer… But I do love the talks and the slides seem to be getting more creative now as well.

Prisca Schmarsow Portfolio Website

Comments { 1 }

I interview Andrew Disley

By Gavin on July 21, 2009 in Design, Interviews

Andrew, thanks ever so much for taking part in this interview so close to Christmas.

1. Full Name and Age please.

Andrew Disley, 23.

2. Favourite Biscuit and Drink.

Biscuit: Chocolate Shortbread. Drink: Latte with extra shots.

3. Last Book you read and last movie you saw.

Last book: Double Cross by James Patterson. Last movie: The Dark Knight.

4. Where and When did it all start?

My passion for the web began during my early high school years, I remember first being introduced to Google a few months after it launched by one of our teachers and I even remember the excitement I got while waiting for music to download using the original Napster which just amazed me, I was hooked. I spend all my hard earned paper-round money on our Dial-Up connection and it wasn’t long before I began to play online games like Counter-Strike. I joined gaming clans which inevitably got me into designing and building sites for these clans. I started out in Frontpage but soon found myself hand-coding the HTML because I didn’t like the “ugly” markup that Frontpage produced and much preferred to know what was going on under the hood. Professionally my career started when I was offered a job a local firm JJB Sports Plc looking after their websites.

5. Is there anyone in the industry who you look up to?

Lots of people, many of the people I’ve worked with in the past and many of the well-know names along with local folks I know through GeekUp and the likes. There are way too many people to list here.

6. What was a key factor in your professional growth and development?

It would have to be the time at Code, learning form the people there and working on high-profile accounts. I’ve also a real passion for what I do and the try to achieve the best possible outcome for whatever it maybe I’m working on.

7. Where does your heart lie, with design or development? And why.

Development, from an early age I loved taking things apart to find out how they worked and rebuilding them.

8. What was it like working at Code Computerlove?

Scary and quite intimidating at first, I’d never been around so many amazingly talented people before who had such love for the industry. Fantastically awesome people, and some great projects but there were some tough deadlines.

9. What was the biggest project you worked on whilst working there?

I’ve worked on some really big accounts and projects over the years at Code, but I think the biggest and most testing had to be the rebuild of HMV.com in July/August 2007.

Desc: HMV.com (Code Computerlove, September 2007): [Role: Front-End Development (CSS, HTML, JavaScript)

10. Throughout your entire career to date, is there any particular problem you’ve ran in to more than once? Clients, Jobs, Work?

The biggest problem I find myself facing is taking on too much, not just on the web work front. I’ve got that balance right, I think. I do still find myself pulling all nighters to meet deadlines. It’s the other projects I get involved with that stretch my schedule.

11. What do you consider to be the biggest contributing factor to your success?

Dedication and support from my family and fiancee, Kerry.

12. Where do you get your inspiration from?

Primarily online via the blogs and showcase sites, looking at what people are doing and how they’re pushing things technology wise.

13. As we all know you’re a mac man, what are your 3 favourite apps?

I’ve many more than 3 favourite apps but if I had to list only 3 it would have to be: TextMate, Quicksilver and YoJimbo as they are the most used apps on my machines.

14. What made you want to go full time freelance?

The flexibility, I found there just wasn’t enough hours in day to do my full-time job at Code and all the extracurricular projects that I take on. There were times when I could really do with taking a day of at short notice which you can’t really do when you work for “the man”. In all honesty there still isn’t enough time, but I can at short notice shuffle things around.

hillsfloristcoukcrop I interview Andrew Disley

Role: Design and Development

15. How do you balance your time between your different businesses?

It’s tough and I think I’m doing a decent job of it, although if you ask my fiancee I’m sure she’ll tell you otherwise. When I do figure it out, I’ll let you know the secret.

16. Where do you see the future being?

I want to grow my freelance portfolio and I’m also in the process of teaming up with a few other awesome minds and in the not so distant future we’re hoping to launch a couple of things.

17. Are you heading to any conferences over the next year?

Hopefully, I’d love to make it to Reboot this year, along with a few BarCamps and there are talks of a local live streaming of TED via the TED Associate Membership.

18. If you had one goal to reach (anything) within 3 years, what would it be?

I’ve recently got engaged and it would be absolutely fantastic if in 3 years time we’ve tied the knot and bought our first home together. That’s more than one but I put them both under the heading “building the family”.

19. If you had one piece of advice for anyone wanting to venture in to the your industry, what would it be?

Don’t be afraid to ask for help, there a lots of offline and online communities around that have members who are very happy to offer advice and support.

Links:

http://andrewdisley.com/
http://twitter.com/andrewdisley

http://simplified.co.uk/
http://geekup.org/
http://rollerstrut.com/

Comments { 0 }

I interview Sarah Parmenter

By Gavin on July 10, 2009 in Design, Editorials, Interviews

Hi Sarah, a big thanks for taking part in the interview!

1. Full Name and Age please.

Sarah-Jane Parmenter – not long turned 25

2. Favourite Biscuit and Drink.

It’s got to be Oreo and De-caff coffee, I’m allergic to caffeine which somewhat limits my coffee consumption but I’m partial to Starbucks Christmas coffee!

3. Last Book you read and last movie you saw.

Last book I read was The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris, the classic that I think most web people have read, and last movie I saw was Quantum of Solace.

4. Where and When did it all start?

When I was 3 my Dad sat me on our Atari and taught me how to play a game called “Kings Quest 3″ – but on a web design front, it all started when I was 14, so that would have been 1997. I remember having the Internet which charged you per minute and thinking chat rooms were amazing. My friends and I used to use Geocities as personal homepages for photos of our friends and family. My best friend had a page of her family photos, another friend thought it would be quite funny to get me to see if I could hack into her account (yahoo security wasn’t that hot back then, all I had to know was her dogs name to change the password) and change all her pictures to Transvestites (running joke as her family were all above 6ft) instead. The Geocities UI was clunky and instead I learnt the HTML to quickly enable me to change the pictures every night after she changed them back. She never knew it was me and I only owned up to it about a year ago.

When I had grown up and become a bit more mature (!!) our family friend from Australia came over who is a web designer carving his name out in the Australian web design world. He handed me a copy of Dreamweaver and I decided to tinker with it every night after school to see what I could do. I then had a brief stint in casting, whereby I did more work on the company website than casting people in commercials, I decided from that point on to go solo and try and get into the web design world, having no overheads and nothing to pay out for made this an easy step for me.

I then built up the business from my Mum and Dad’s spare room, after 18 months the business had outgrown the room and I looked into renting an office suite in Leigh-on-Sea, this I did and employed a friend of mine to help me run the business. In 2007 I bought my house with Stuart and it coincided with the girl who worked for me wanting to move to London with her boyfriend. The building in which our office resided had been refurbished, and not for the better – we found we were taking clients out rather than seeing them at the office, so it seemed a good transition to move out of the office and set back up again with a dedicated office at home, and this is where I am today. You’d be suprised how many of the well known web designers work from home!

5. Is there anyone in the industry who you look up to?

Andy Clarke and Twitterers, Andy is a web standards guru and genuinely nice guy, we keep in contact and he always makes me laugh, I’ve learnt so much from him and his books. People on twitter are just amazing too – always willing to help and offer guidance. Twitter has been an amazing tool for me, I’ve learnt so much from different people.

6. What was a key factor in your professional growth and development?

The Australians. As Roger is an insomniac he’s practically online 24/7 so whenever I got stuck I was able to get an answer quickly and finish what I was trying to do. This is still the same now, he’s an amazing person to have on board.

7. Where does your heart lie, with design or development? And why.

Development, I think. I get more satisfaction out of development as design is classed as art and it’s so subjective, I do absolutely love designing however I don’t like the process of getting sign off, where you grapple with the typical “make my logo bigger” comments. I have had the opportunity to work with other designers recently, this has been great as you both have common goals and objectives. I’d ideally love to fill up my diary with other designers work!

8. Out of these 3, WordPress, Light CMS and Expression Engine, which do you like the most and why?

Expression Engine without a doubt. Andy Clarke introduced me to it and it’s capabilities overwhelm me, it’s just an amazing tool that can be used in so many situations, I’m still learning about it but I’ve managed to gain quite a bit of knowledge in a small amount of time just experimenting with it.

9. Where did the name YouKnowWho come from?

I was browsing around the Internet and came across a link at the bottom of a website that said “Designed by You Know Who” - I was curious and clicked it, it went to a totally differently named company site and it became clear they did that for inquisitive people to click on. I then decided I loved the name and the potential it could have for future marketing and snapped it up there and then.

10. What is the biggest project you have worked on?

A personal one actually. One Valentines day we decided to flood our local privately owned shopping area with heart shaped balloons and hand written cards simply saying “Love You Know Who” with our contact details on the back – we had over 3000 balloons and to pump up and over 400 cards to write. We had a team and went out at 5am putting them in front of the shops. By the time everyone started going to work the area was flooded, it looked amazing.

11. Throughout your entire career to date, is there any particular problem you’ve ran in to more than once? Clients, Jobs, Work, Family?

Clients – ones that barter with your prices are bad news, never do a job on the cheap as a one off, they will always expect further work at that price. Never send anything over without them paying their invoice in full first and always get a design brief. If I had lived by these rules the first 2 years in business I would have done a lot better!

12. What do you consider to be the biggest contributing factor to your success?

I don’t believe I am successful yet – I think I do my job very well and that it’s unusual for a girl to do this job. I make mistakes, we all do, but I like to think my mistakes are kept to a minimum and always try to learn from them quickly. The definition of success for me is the ability to hand pick clients you want to work with and disregard those you don’t, I’m not in that position yet!

13. Where do you get your inspiration from and where are you most inspirational?

I find inspiration mainly online. There are great galleries for almost anything on the internet, I especially love faveup.com. When not online though, it’s generally about lunchtime when I’m walking the dog, I’ll come up with a crazy idea for a website or realise the best way to mark-up a site.

14. As we all know you’re a mac girl, what are your 3 favourite apps?

Adium, LittleSnapper and Things.

15. What other projects are you currently working on?

I’m currently in e-commerce mode, I think due to the economic downturn people are placing budgets online rather than retail stores. I’m currently working on a skateboarding store, a fancy dress store and a DIY store.

16. How do you balance your time between work and normal life?

I’m rubbish at it. I used to be excellent when I had an office as it was a 15 minute drive away and quite scary when no one was in there, but now I’m in my home office, I’m rubbish. I’m always checking my email or working out what app might help me run my business better, but because I enjoy what I do, it never feels like work.

17. Where do you see the future being?

I would love my future to be in designing and building top notch sites for other designers. I’ve had a taste of this recently and it’s great as they know why you might want to leave whitespace or not make a logo 500% of normal size. I went to a psychic recently and she said I’m going to be doing a lot of talking via work based travel, which could mean conferences – this is something I’d really love to get into as it lends itself perfectly to me also being in performing arts.

18. You’re a well known designer, do you class yourself as famous?

Not at all!! I’d be surprised if many people had heard of me, I haven’t written any books or spoken at any conferences yet so I don’t think my name is out there as much as others, I’m gradually building a profile but I think because I’m relatively young and female it’s a tougher job – not using the female card but as the majority of web designers are male I think it’s easier for them to align themselves with other male web designers.

19. Are you heading to any conferences over the next year?

Yes, I’m hoping to go back to FOWD next year and I really want to get to various workshops of Andy Clarke’s.

20. If you had one goal to reach (anything) within 3 years, what would it be?

To have my own studio down here with 2 others working with me. I’ve only ever wanted a small studio, not an office, a studio – that’s my dream.

21. If you had one piece of advice for anyone wanting to venture in to the your industry, what would it be?

Specialise. Don’t try and be clever being mediocre at loads of things just be fantastic in one.

p.s. Random questions from myself, theatre and web design? How did they become mixed?

Good question. I’ll go with the short answer – They don’t really mix I guess, theatre is something I go into in my own time, it’s a great escape from sitting at a desk all day. Web design is my job, that I’m lucky enough to love too. Sometimes there is an overlap, like when I did the VoxPops at FOWA this year, it was like water off a ducks back as I’ve done TV in the past (that’s a whole other story) and I know enough about web design to competently interview people, that was a win win overlap for me

Thanks ever so much for taking time out of your schedule Sarah and answering questions for Floobe.

Sarah Parmenters Blog – www.sazzy.co.uk

Company Website – www.youknowwhodesign.co.uk

Twitter – www.twitter.com/sazzy

Comments { 0 }

I interview Ryan Carson

By Gavin on July 7, 2009 in Design, General, Interviews

A couple of days before Future of Web Design (FOWD), Ryan kindly took part in an interview. Thanks go to Ryan for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer my questions.

Q1. Full Name and Age please.

Ryan Carson, 31

Q2. Favorite Biscuit and Drink.

Double-stuff Oreo and Dark roasted coffee with cream.

Q3. Last book you read and last most you saw.

Predictable Irrationality (or ‘Predictably Irrational’ – can’t remember which).

Q4. Did you enjoy working from home when it all started?

No, I found it pretty tough. It’s hard when you don’t have someone to bounce ideas off and ask for opinions. It’s also tough to stay disciplined. I think a mix of working at home and office works best.

Q5. Is there anyone in the industry who you look up to?

Jason Fried, Mark Zuckerberg, Evan Williams, Kathy Sierra… the list goes on.

Q6. What was a key factor in your professional growth and development?

My father and mother drilled into me that I could do whatever I put my mind to. This has given me the confidence to do a lot of what we’ve done.

Q7. Where does your heart lie, with web apps or conferences and why?

I love the web and technology, and I also love connecting people. Carsonified will always continue to build apps and sites, but our core revenue comes from events. I love seeing people’s faces light up at events when they’re encouraged, inspired or challenged. There’s such a buzz when everyone comes together.

Q8. Out of these 3, WordPress, Light CMS and Expression Engine, which do you like the most and why?

WordPress – hands down. Matt has done an amazing job with WordPress – it’s easy to use, completely open source, and very powerful. What more could you want?

Q9. Do you see Carsonified as work or just a way of life?

Definitely a way of life. It’s a part of me and even though we only work four days a week, I think almost constantly about new ideas and projects.

Q10. What was the biggest project you’ve worked on so far?

Both DropSend and FOWA London are huge projects. There obviously very different but both are challenging and rewarding.

Q11. Throughout your entire career to date, is there any particular problem you’ve ran in to more than once? Clients, Jobs, Work, Family?

The hardest part about running Carsonified is that there are really big ups and downs. When it’s rocking, it’s rockin. When it’s hard, it’s really hard. However, I love crafting a company where the team and our customers feel loved and cared for. That’s my ultimate goal.

Q12. What do you consider to be the biggest contributing factor to your success?

The fact that we try quite hard to treat other people like we want to be treated. We do our best to put ourselves in the shoes of our customers and contacts.

Q13. Where do you get your inspiration from?

My wife, Gill and my son Jackson.

Q14. What are your 3 favourite apps?

Gmail, Things and Twitterific.

Q15. Do you think any company can do a 4 day working week?

You bet. It just takes a hell of a lot of determination and a specific decision to focus on quality of life instead of revenue.

Q16. How do you balance your time between family, carsonified, your apps, fowd, fowa etc??

It’s hard – we constantly balance everything. That’s something I find quite hard. However, I’m working harder at leaving work at work. I turn off email on my iPhone over the weekend and try to Tweet less.

Q17. Where do you see the future being?

For the company? We’ll be doing more events (probably smaller instead of big expos) and building more apps.

Q18. You’re a well known individual, do you class yourself as famous?

Nope I might know a few people in our small web world, but I’m no where close to being famous.

Q19. Are you ready to head out to other parts of the UK to do other conferences, i.e. fowa or fowd?

You bet. We’re planning on taking FOWA to Dublin soon!

Q20. If you had one goal to reach (anything) within 3 years, what would it be?

Launching another web app, and taking FOWA and FOWD to more places. Also, a little more cash in the bank wouldn’t be bad

Q21. If you had one piece of advice for anyone wanting to venture in to your industry, what would it be?

Be bold and humble. Anyone is contactable, so just keep trying and be respectful. Find a way to be helpful to someone before asking for their help.

p.s. Random question from myself, what core qualities do you look for when employing someone?

Friendliness and helpfulness

Ryan, good luck in your future and look forward to talking to you again soon. Would love to pop down to Carsonified HQ at some point.

That’d be fab! Stop by anytime

Ryan’s Website: www.ryancarson.com | www.carsonified.com

Comments { 0 }

← Older posts Newer posts →