Ok kids, pull out your wallets and don’t forget to tack on some extra for shipping if you need it before the 25th. You know you’re a slacker, that’s why you clicked on this post.

ABOUT THE BOOK Ideas are worthless if you can’t make them happen.

Many of us believe that great ideas inevitably lead to success. Nothing could be further from the truth. Whether it is the perfect solution for an everyday problem or a bold new concept for a creative masterpiece, you must transform vision into reality for an idea to have value.

This book chronicles the methods of exceptionally productive creative leaders and teams – companies like Google, IDEO, and Disney, and individuals like author Chris Anderson and Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh – that make their ideas happen, time and time again.

You can easily spend your entire day just responding to incoming communications – email, texts, voicemails, tweets, etc – while never finding time to push the big, meaningful ideas forward. Learn proven methods for organizing with a bias-toward-action, prioritizing amidst a creative process, and pushing bold projects to completion.

Understanding how to leverage your community for feedback, resources, and exposure is crucial to gaining traction with your ideas. Discover the advantages of broadcasting your ideas early, seeking out competition, tapping into the power of “Circles,” and overcoming the stigma of self-marketing.

Most ideas get lost in that dreaded period of execution where your natural creative tendencies turn against you. Acquire methods for thriving when long-term vision is not enough. You will learn how to short-circuit the traditional rewards system, fight your way to breakthroughs, and gain strength from the doubts you will face along the way.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Advertise here via BSA

We recently had the opportunity to interview Tomás Fliess of NNSS Visual Universes. This talented designer from Buenos Aires, Argentina, focuses his expertise in the Identity, Print Design, Packaging, and Interactive Design arenas. We want to thank Tomás for not only agreeing to the interview, but for taking the time to answer the questions, we really do appreciate it. So without further ado, here is a closer look inside one of the creative minds behind NNSS Visual Universes.

Are you a freelancer?

No, I am not a freelancer, together with my partner, Federico Engelmann, we have ...

Advertise here via BSA

Here is today’s Inspirational roundup. Lots of beautiful typography today it seems! 

Here at Fuel we are always working on fun projects to support the community. We are currently preparing to launch the Fuel Brand Marketplace which will be a collection of gear wholly dedicated to the Fuel Brand. We have a couple tees designed, but I can’t design them all myself!

This is where you guys come in. We would like to partner up with great t-shirt designers that are willing to design one (or more!) t-shirts that represent the Fuel brand.

Now here’s the REALLY fun part: given that this is a community gig, all submissions will be run in a massive Fuel t-shirt post. The t-shirts that get the best reception (unlimited #) within the Flickr group will go into the marketplace and any selected designer will be paid a profit share (% to be determined) on the t-shirts sold. Simple as that. Either way, all submissions will be given credit in the post and get some great exposure. Who knows, maybe you’ll discover your calling as wicked cool t-shirt designer!

If you’ve gotten this far and are still interested, please read on!

We are currently securing our printing avenues but we hope to launch when we have a few more designs submitted. Take your time, we haven’t set a deadline to ensure everyone had ample time to get their design in and it’s likely we will have multiple printing runs. If you would like to be included on the initial launch, we’d ask that you submit your designs before June 12th. This offer will be open and ongoing as long as there is interest.

Guidelines:

• Remember: This is not a competition! 
• The design can be tied loosely to the Fuel brand
• Make sure it’s a cool design other creatives would wear
• You may use phrases or words but it’s not required (i.e. What is creativity?)
• The stylized design is open, vector, illustration, hand drawn sketches etc.
• Colors should be relevant to the colors we use for each site, but we are happy to see it done loosely.
• You are free to present on both light and dark colored tees so we can present more options to the community.
• Remember you can be open with your general concept as long as broadly falls into something Fuel supports and loosely ties to the brand.
• We are open to anything related to a theme, idea or word surrounding our current sites that have launched or are launching soon, they include:

fuelbrandgroup.com (the parent company)
fuelyourapps.com (editorial site)
fuelyourcreativity.com (editorial site)
fuelyourwriting.com (editorial site)
fuelyourcoding.com (editorial site)
fuelyourillustration.com (editorial site)
fuelyourinterface.com (editorial site)
fuelyourphotography.com (editorial site)
fuelyourbranding.com (editorial site)

Examples

Here are some examples of designs we enjoy, but in no way should you limit yourself to these looks!

Branding

• You may download the FUEL logos here for your designs
• Parts of the logo can be used (ie: the flame)
• Parts of the words can be used (ie: “FUEL” “CREATIVITY” “CODING” etc.)
• You are NOT required to include a Fuel logo

Questions

• Leave them here and we will try to answer as quickly as possible!

How do I submit?

To qualify:

1. Your submissions must be submitted to the Fuel Your Creativity Flickr Group and tagged with ‘fueltees’
2. Then come back to this post and leave a comment that you submitted to the flickr group with a valid email address
   (will not be not shown)
3. We will be contacting everyone individually to sign an agreement BEFORE anything is placed onto the marketplace.
4. If your designs are exceptional we may contact you directly for more t-shirt designs! Cool gig eh?

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Your Creativity.
Fuel Your Creativity 2009 cc (creative commons license)

Looking for new ‘HOT’ cool tees!

Advertise here via BSA

What’s all this talk about the ‘Drifting Creatives‘ floating around on twitter & facebook? 

Come to find out, Gavin Braman & Martin Hooper are pretty cool guys trying to solve a common problem in this economy; joblessness. Here at the Fuel Brand Group we support a growing network of creatives. As soon as we heard about them and what they are trying to do (not to mention some cool ideas they are brewing too!) we wanted to support them by sponsoring the Drifting Creatives & help spread the ...

Advertise here via BSA

Today we are interviewing Web Designer, Ryan Downie who currently lives in Lancaster, England. Ryan is very talented and loves working with ExpressionEngine. He works full time at BFInternet.

My typical day is I get up at 06:30 and do the rounds as I call it (facebook, timesonline, skysports, twitter and google reader). I then get a shower and set of to work. I work 09:15 till 17:15 and can consist of working on e-commerce sites, html, cms, design work or just minor edits to our client base. I ...

The Chop Shop has some side projects as well. Here is a little something from wanderingspace.net for your iPhone. 19 of the major bodies of the solar system to swap out that tired of image of Earth that came with the phone when you bought it. You will see familiar bodies like Earth, Mars, Jupiter… but also included are such exotic places as Io, Europa and Triton. If you are unfamiliar with the major moons of our celestial neighborhood, be sure to check these out. You may be surprised.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Advertise here via BSA

Today we have a special surprise for our Fuel Brand Network team (illustration below) because of this extremely talented Illustrator, Ricardo Gimenes. We saw his new project ‘Behind the Website’ and thought it was such a unique idea. We love great ideas and thought this would be a awesome interview to get ‘Behind Ricardo’ and show his talents off. He currently lives in São Paulo, Brazil.

Follow Ricardo on Twitter | Visit his portfolio  | Visit ‘Behind the Website’

This project will illustrate what people think about ...

Advertise here via BSA

Today we are interviewing designer Serhat Nasırlıoglu, co-founder of Anativa. He lives in Istanbul, Turkey. Serhat’s design focus is on digital/print design along with photography, video, painting & sculpting.

I’ve been a freelancer since 2001 and this year we’ve launched Anativa.com (I’m co-founder of Anativa)

I think the best part is controlling the power about the hours. You can work at night without thinking of the next day. At nights world is spinning slow for me, because all the people are sleeping, ...

For Vector Pack 14, Hand Drawn Wings became a stand out example of why the folks over at Go Media love to create art. Graphite, ink & moleskine fibers went flying & soon Go Media artists Adam Law, Jeff Finely & Bill Beachy had created a truly impressive collection of wings.

The cool kids over at Go Media gave me a sneak peak of the full vector pack 14. Of course it left me wanting more and I hear the rest of the collection will be coming out soon so be watching out for it!

Check out the details of the latest release, they are so beautifully hand drawn.

If you’d like to grab a free vector from the pack head over to Go Media and download it!

Better yet, if you can afford to buy the pack, do it….it’s totally worth it! (Come on it’s only $9.99)!

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

The book is an inspirational and instructional guide to setting up business as a freelancer. Readers will gain the confidence, and the knowledge, that they will need to succeed – and I would highly recommend grabbing a copy when it comes out.

Some Key Features

• Targeted at people who want to make the leap towards freelancing in the Computer & Internet sector
• Readers will walk away with the confidence that they can succeed as freelancers, and the know-how to do so.

Subject Area

More and more people worldwide are ditching the 9-5 office job and the long commute in favor of the independence that comes from self-employment. Full of anecdotes and practical advice, this short, hands on guide is written for people who want to become freelancers in the technology sector. Topics covered include:

• How to pitch clients and decide what to charge
• Maximize efficiency through time tracking, contact management and scheduling
• Grow profits through expense and cashflow management
• Fundamentals of project management, including reviews of commonly used software programs
• Winning new clients through networking, advertising, blogging, referrals and public speaking
• The Principles of great customer service, including dealing with problem clients and managing scope creep

What You Will Find Deeper Within The Book

• Advantages and Disadvantages of the Freelance Life
• Deciding on How Far to Jump (on the side or full-time)
• Considering Your Business Structure
• Creating Your Brand
• Cost Checklists
• Accounting Basics
• Learning to Sell
• Polishing Up Your Contracts
• Interviews from Top Professionals

To Summarize:

This book definitely gained a high spot in my eyes. I especially enjoyed Chapter 7, “Achieve Work-Life Balance”. Who doesn’t need pointers in that area?! Since I do a lot of freelancing on the side and not full-time (currently), it gave me a lot to think about before diving into a full-time freelance life. I think this will be very helpful to those considering the jump and also teach freelancers currently working full-time how to become more structured and rigid.

A must read for any freelancer.

Feel free to check out the excerpt below.

–

The Principles Of Successful Freelancing

(Excerpt from Chapter 1)

Are You Freelance Material?

Thinking of becoming a freelance web designer or web developer?

One of the hardest yet most rewarding personal development steps you can ever take is to discover what you are good at, and where you have areas that can use development. Accepting our own limitations can help make all of us better people.

When it comes to web design and development, it’s a demanding industry—even more so if you’re freelancing. However, although the freelance life may seem hard at times, successful freelancers never look back.

Successful freelancers often start by evaluating their own skills and personality, especially their ability to work solo. Once you have a clear understanding of your areas of weakness and what you need to improve upon, you have solid goals to work toward.

Although you may feel that you have all the technical competencies to manage the freelance role, you’ll soon find that there is far more to being successful as a freelancer than the ability to write great code or design the coolest layouts.

The skills required for being a great freelancer can be broken down to four distinct areas: technical, business, organizational, and interpersonal.

Technical Skills

For a developer, possessing technical skills means that you’re technically competent in your language or languages of choice: PHP, Ruby on Rails, Microsoft .NET, and the like. As a designer, you’d consider the strength of your skills in design software, colour theory, typography, and overall design knowledge. As a designer or developer, you need to feel confident in your own technical ability, as this is what you’re going to be relying upon. You can’t just lean over to a co-worker’s desk and ask about anything you’re not sure of! Consider your areas of weakness, and research what’s involved in strengthening these areas—you’ll probably find that they’re easier to fill out than you thought.

Business Skills
It’s vitally important to have, or at least be aware of, the fundamentals of business before you consider running your own. If you plan to succeed, you’ll need a solid understanding of cash flow, marketing, time management, customer service, and other areas. Many of these elements can be outsourced, but you’ll still need a working knowledge of all of them.

Organizational Skills
Your ability to be well organized, or at the very least to keep on top of those dreary administrative duties, will be paramount to your success. Start by reading personal productivity books and blogs, and research the different techniques of organization.

Don’t go overboard though; you could end up being hampered by trying too many productivity methods and not doing enough actual work! You’ll soon find a method you feel happy with, which can be defined in this context as feeling that you have the smooth running of your business under control.

Interpersonal Skills
You may think that the freelance life would suit the shy or socially inept recluse, beavering away alone. Unfortunately, however, an aversion to social contact could limit your opportunities more than you think.
Productive interaction with clients and prospective clients, not to mention your suppliers, will become a crucial part of your success, so embrace human contact and be personable.

This article is an excerpt from the book The Principles of Successful Freelancing (by Miles Burke, published by SitePoint). You can find out more about the book, which comes out on December 9, from www.principlesofsuccessfulfreelancing.com.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Your Creativity.
Fuel Your Creativity 2009 cc (creative commons license)

Are You Freelance Material?

“Everything is accessible from my trust Mac book pro so I’ve been able to travel a lot while still being able to work and get projects out on time.”

Krinsky also says,

“I’m a print designer, anything from logos/business cards to billboards/magazines. Lately I’ve been doing a lot of website design mock-ups but I’m still limited to only the front end design, have not learned any web coding. I’ve recently gotten into some photo manipulation as a side hobby you can check those out here.

Are you a freelancer?
Indeed.

What is the best part about being a freelancer?
I like being able to choose what projects to work on, ones that I think are enjoyable. I like that I don’t have any set work hours, I would never be able to take a 9-5 job.
I cannot be forced to be creative it needs to come naturally.

What are your best methods for finding/attracting clients?
Being that the design field is such a competitive one, Word of mouth has by far been the most effective method, a lot of my clients came from past clients showing their friends the work ive done for them, I really have never spent much money on real advertising yet, ive been busy enough and so far have not yet felt the need to.

How did you get started? Did you study something in particular or are you self-taught?
I’m all self taught, have not yet taken any design courses or classes. No doubt in my mind that I learn new skills and techniques every single day, I am no where close to where I want to be and will not stop trying until I get there.

Please tell us more about your art and design background and what made you become an artist and designer?
I haven’t had much of an art background, My design profession started over a period of a couple months, I would sit with photoshop and just doodle around figuring the program out, after awhile I figured im having so much fun with this, why not make it into a money making job? So I convinced my first client to let me have a shot at designing one of their work pieces and it really just took off from there. Been learning new things every time I’m at the computer.

What do you feel are the most important skills for a designer to have/develop?
A basic eye for design, a sense of color, layout and typography, once you are able to put out semi decent work  its just a matter of spending more time and improving your work, pushing it to the next level. Eventually you will be able to create awesome work in shorter periods of time.

Where do you go for design inspiration?
I get inspiration from everywhere, I don’t have any specific locations. Art and music have probably been where most of my inspiration has come from.

How do you typically start a new project?
Depending on what the project is: first receive all required information from the client, make sure we are both on the same page as to what they are in need of and what they are looking for. Logos are first done on paper then moved onto screen once I have some ideas and sketches laid out, larger projects are usually laid out on screen at first then messed around with for a bit until I have a bunch of ideas to choose from and further work on.

Do you have any favorite websites for interacting with others in the design community?
I have facebook, flickr and twitter accounts that I spend some time on during the day/night.

What does your typical day look like?
Truth: I’m a crazy crazy workaholic, being that I’m a freelancer I don’t have any set hours that I am being forced to work. Most of my work gets done during the night hours (not a morning guy) I find that the easiest time to think and get inspired. I can spend over 17 hours a day at the comp, Yea I know, insane me, huh?

What are you 5 favorite sites online?
Behance.net is a great inspiration place,
ffffound.com is another awesome inspirational website I check out often.
logopond.com
formfiftyfive.com
vi.sualize.us

Who, in the online world, would you say has had the biggest influence on you?
I would say Kevin rose, founder of digg.com, he has done an incredible job of building a website/company and he doesn’t hide himself behind closed executive doors like other large founders at his level, he is open to the web world and has even replied to some of my twitter messages. I think him giving his users and fans a way of speaking to him is very important in establishing a company.

What are the tools you couldn’t live without?
Adobe, Headphones, wacom tablet, itunes, paypal

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Are you a freelancer?

No. I’m a Senior Designer at for Local Matters, a provider of Internet, voice and wireless technology solutions. In my spare time I work on my artwork as Snowblinded. I’m also a founder and Art Director at Plastic Sound Supply, an electronic music label.

How did you get started in your field? Did you study something in particular or are you self-taught?

In the late 90s I had a close friend that had started web design studio and needed help. At that point, I had dabbled in photoshop and html. But, nothing major. I decided instead of going to school for 2 more years, I’ll jump in head first with some on-the-job training. Things went well and I started to learn a lot more about design and the business side of things. Most of the work we did was designing and developing web sites for small-to-medium size businesses.

Please tell us more about your art and design background and what made you become an artist and designer?

After designing and developing web sites for 4+ years, I decided that I wanted to concentrate on what I was good at, design. I was fortunate to I hook up with Nobot Media, an electronic music label based in Colorado. For the first time, I started doing print work in large volume. I worked on everything from identity and branding to working with musicians on CD and 12 inch cover designs. Friends and people in the label started to tell me that my work was starting to resemble “art” rather than “design.” Soon after that I decided to start making art under the name Snowblinded.

What do you feel are the most important skills for artists and designers to have/develop?

I think its important to stay inspired. Whether you gain the inspiration from other designers, life in general, music or whatever. It’s important take in all those influences so that your productive with whatever you create.

Where do you go for design inspiration?

Nature.

How do you typically start a new project?

By daydreaming. I know it might sound funny, but the most productive and rewarding projects I have ever worked on, were conceived well before I touched the computer.

Do you have any favorite websites for interacting with others in the design community?

Behance Network. I also hit up Joy Engine. It’s a blog for local street artists, contemporary artists and designers.

What are your 5 favorite sites online?

Right now it’s:

ffffound.com, pigradio.com, non-format.com, fecalface.com and thecurbcrawlers.com.

Who, in the online world, would you say has had the biggest influence on you?

From a business perspective I’m influenced by Sheppard Fairy (obeygiant.com) and Scott Hanson (iso50.com). Not to say I don’t like their artwork. What really impresses me is there vision to create a brand that has grown out of there determination and hard work. From a design perspective its always inspiring to see the work of UniversalEverthing. Matt Pyke is always doing such interesting and innovative projects. Also, I think Psyop is incredible. There a small advertising and animation studio that produces truly unbelievable work.

What are the tools you couldn’t live without?

2GB Flash Drive, Media Temple Hosting, PayPal, itunes, Adobe Creative Suite, and my Sony VAIO.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Your Creativity.
Fuel Your Creativity 2009 cc (creative commons license)

Interview with Designer, Anthony Cozzi

Are you a freelancer?

No, but I always keep my eyes and ears open for new opportunities. For example, I am currently working with a new startup company that’s about to launch, helping them design a new theme. Check them out at Tasty Nectar.

What are your best methods for finding/attracting clients?

First and foremost; Consistent, personal branding is of utmost importance when you are looking for new clients.

Even though I’m not a full-time freelancer I still think local meetup groups and other social functions (such as Refresh) are great ways to meet potential clients. But don’t worry, if you don’t have any social functions available in your neck of the woods or transportation is an issue, you don’t have to look very far from your front door. I’ve found just simply meeting your neighbors is a great way to make connections. Perfect example, this past summer while hanging out at our community pool, soaking up the sun and drinking some beer, I got to know one of my neighbors pretty well. My wife and I were even invited to have dinner with him and his wife. And now I am going to be heading up his companies new website.

How did you get started in your field? Did you study something in particular or are you self-taught?

Working in the field of web design was more of an accident than a choice. I always thought of myself becoming an architect or an artist. But after a friend of mine started to nudge me in the direction of the web I picked up a few books and started to learn. The first website I ever made used inline styles and didn’t even declare a doc type. Thankfully I ran across a teacher who valued the importance of CSS, and thus my life was changed. She introduced me to people like Eric Meyer and Jeffrey Zeldman, whose books and website are a great resource for any web designer. Now after a years work behind me doing web design and development full-time I feel like there’s nothing I can’t learn but so much I have yet to learn at the same time.

In the way of graphic design, I think this was always more of a natural process. I have always looked at brands and marketing material from a perspective of how I could improve them. To me, graphic design isn’t just a career; it is woven in to our everyday lives.

Please tell us more about your art and design background and what made you become an artist and designer?

I don’t think it’s so much a question of what made me become a designer so much as it is why did I wait so long. Like I said before, I always imagined myself becoming an architect. My elaborate house plans were often the cure to boring classroom lectures. And I also loved to draw, mainly my name, and always in some oversized typography. That eventually led me to appreciate graffiti art. Well that and skateboarding, which provided a lot of my early creative influences. Companies like Alien Workshop and Girl Skateboards where ahead of the curve when it came to design. In 2000 I made the decision to focus solely on graphic design. Over the next seven years I learned a lot about who I was, not only as a designer but also as a Christian, and asked myself over and over what it was I wanted to say with my designs.

What do you feel are the most important skills for a designer to have/develop?

I would say having a fundamental foundation of design principles and practices is a must. If you don’t know the rules then how can you know when to break them? Lastly, the ability to edit your work is essential to becoming not just good, but great.

Where do you go for design inspiration?

As I spend most of my time during the day in front of a computer there are a number of websites I visit for inspiration.

1.    PSDTuts
2.    Creattica Daily
3.    Abduzeedo
4.    FFFFound
5.    Smashing Magazine

When I’m not online I usually like to visit a used bookstore or get outside and enjoy some fresh air to clear my head. But one of the best, most obscure, places I find inspiration is the bathroom.

How do you typically start a new project?

Doing research to find out what the client’s likes and dislikes are. From their a mockup is created. And for the web, I’m trying to get away from static photoshop mockups and move straight to usable html. That way the client can see it in it’s proper environment and decide if they like the way it functions.

Do you have any favorite websites for interacting with others in the design community?

I am a Flickr fanatic and I love to tweet all about it. Also, I’m beginning to love the power of Digg.

What does your typical day look like?

Wake up around 7, eat breakfast, drink a cup of hot tea, get dressed, spend the next 8 hours at work editing code, creating graphics and getting mad at Microsoft all while twittering, once home I feed the dogs, and the rest of the evening is a mixture of reading blogs, watching tv, updating my site and experimenting in photoshop. Pretty typical.

What are your 5 favorite sites online?

This is a tough question. It’s like asking a fat kid what his five favorite flavors of ice cream are. So here’s my current list of five faves in no particular order.
1.    Fuel Your Creativity – great articles and resources
2.    CSS-Tricks – invaluable collection of video tutorials and good resources
3.    Signal Noise – amazing designs from the original James White
4.    Nectar – launching Monday, November 3
5.    9 Rules – a collection of some of the best, and just so-so, content around the web

Who, in the online world, would you say has had the biggest influence on you?

This might sound strange, but I’m going to have to go with Tom, from Myspace. He was my first friend online, and he’ll probably be the last person alive, online at least. But without myspace I wouldn’t have met my wife.

What are the tools you couldn’t live without?

I think without the simple tools of pen and paper I wouldn’t be where I am today.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Your Creativity.
Fuel Your Creativity 2009 cc (creative commons license)

Interview with Designer, Kyle Steed

This is broken up into 4 parts and to make this a useful article, I am asking the creative community to participate as much as possible to gain insight into the applications/process you use and/or even worth paying for. Your answers don’t have to be long just concise. Of course I will weigh in with what I use (in the comments below).

The first 3 parts received detailed responses with some very helpful information. I hope you’ll continue to weigh in with parts 4!

The 4 Essential Parts:

1. Project Management & Contacts
2. Invoicing, Time Tracking & Contracts
3. Collaboration & Proofing
4. Paid Services (non-management)

–

4. Paid Services

Can be a paid web app or a paid app that you host yourself.
*Feel free to include services like hosting, domain names, basecamp – by (non-management I mean the focus of this article is not just management apps).

a. Which online paid Services do you use? (Ex. Flickr Pro, PSDtuts)
b. How much do the services cost a month or per year?
c. Do you prefer up front or small reoccurring costs?

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Your Creativity.
Fuel Your Creativity 2009 cc (creative commons license)

Paid Services / Creative Freelance Series

This is broken up into 4 parts and to make this a useful article, I am asking the creative community to participate as much as possible to gain insight into the applications/process you use and/or even worth paying for. Your answers don’t have to be long just concise. Of course I will weigh in with what I use (in the comments below).

The first 2 parts received detailed responses with some very helpful information. I hope you’ll continue to weigh in with parts 3-4!

The 4 Essential Parts:

1. Project Management & Contacts
2. Invoicing, Time Tracking & Contracts
3. Collaboration & Proofing / Approval
4. Paid Services (non-management)

–

3. Collaboration & Proofing / Approval
(ex. Mind Maps, GetSignOff, BackBoard )

The following questions cover both paid and non paid services:

a. Which tool do you use (if any) to collaborate on projects?
b. What do you use for managing the proofing (feedback) process and edits?
c. What process or tool do you use to get approval on projects?
d. What problems do you face in using your current processes?
e. Which tools / apps do you wish would communicate with each other?

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Your Creativity.
Fuel Your Creativity 2009 cc (creative commons license)

Collaboration & Proofing / Creative Freelance Series

This is broken up into 4 parts and to make this a useful article, I am asking the creative community to participate as much as possible to gain insight into the applications/process you use and/or even worth paying for. Your answers don’t have to be long just concise. Of course I will weigh in with what I use (in the comments below).

The first part received detailed response with some very helpful information. I hope you’ll continue to weigh in with parts 2-4!

The 4 Essential Parts:

1. Project Management & Contacts
2. Invoicing, Time Tracking & Contracts
3. Collaboration / Proofing
4. Paid Services (non-management)

–

2. Invoicing, Time Tracking & Contracts

The following questions cover both paid and non paid services:

a. What applications do you use for billing/invoicing?
b. How do you receive payment (Check, Cash, Paypal etc)?
c. What applications do you use for tracking your time?
d. How do you send contracts to clients?
e. What problems do you face in using your current application(s)?
f. Which tools / apps do you wish would communicate with each other?
g. Is there an application that doesn’t exist that you wish was available?

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Your Creativity.
Fuel Your Creativity 2009 cc (creative commons license)

Invoicing, Time Tracking & Contracts / Creative Freelance Series

This Creative Freelance Series on Fuel Your Creativity is broken up into 4 parts and to make this a useful article, I am asking the creative community to participate as much as possible to gain insight into the applications you use and/or even worth paying for. Your answers don’t have to be long just concise. Of course I will weigh in with what I use (in the comments below).

The 4 Essential Parts:

1. Project Management & Contacts
2. Billing / Invoicing / Contracts
3. Collaboration & Proofing / Approval
4. Paid Services (non-management)

–

1. Project Management & Contacts
(ex. Basecamp + Highrise)

The following questions cover both paid and non paid services:

a. What applications do you use for project management?
b. What components are essential in a project management tool?
c. Do you email updates to the client or use the project management app? Do your Clients?
d. What problems do you face in using your current application?
e. What application do you use to manage contacts?
f. Which tools / apps do you wish would communicate with each other?
g. Is there a tool that doesn’t exist that you wish was available?

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Your Creativity.
Fuel Your Creativity 2009 cc (creative commons license)

Project Management Apps / Creative Freelance Series

Really it was that fast. Last month I was working on a freelance web design project for a company called Huson Physical Therapy. At this point I was looking for a company that could slice my design with great quality, fast and be able to turn my design into a working website. I also needed a form implemented into the site, when I found out they could do that too, I was sold!

I had read some reviews, some good and some bad. There was a few bad reviews but they sounded like a bunch of kids just ragging on the company so I took that with a grain of salt. What I did listen to was the positive reviews. I took the good with the bad and decided to give it a shot. As this point I had not networked with other web developers so I didn’t know who I could trust / ask and get it done so fast.

Enter htmlBlender.

Read a little bit about htmlBlender and then see my process below.

About htmlBlender

htmlBlender specializes in providing high quality XHTML & CSS coding services to its clients worldwide. With offices in both Europe and North America, we are able to guarantee quick turn around times on all orders. Using state of the art collaboration tools and extensive training programs, our team of programmers are able to work efficiently to deliver expert code, fast. We understand your deadlines and work hard to meet them.

Why choose html Blender?

Quality and Experience — htmlBlender, a MediaWorks 7 company, has over a decade of experience in web programming. High quality standards and an extensive internal training program ensure that our programmers deliver the highest possible quality. Each page of your order is tested in all major browsers and operating systems prior to delivery. If you ever find any issues with our code, we will fix it — your satisfaction is guaranteed.

Delivery Schedule

Standard turnaround time is 8 hours unless the 24 hour option is chosen during the ordering process. Multiple page orders requires up to 3-5 hours per additional page. Hours of operation are 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM EST, Monday - Friday. A rush service for faster turnaround times is available, including weekend production for time sensitive projects. Contact your assigned Project Manager for details.

When placing your order, you will be able to select from a variety of available options regarding your project.

Once your order is submitted, you may log into your account where you will be able to track order status, upload files, communicate with our development staff and download your deliverables.

It was a Sunday when I took the Support screenshot, but hey I’ve used it during the week and it’s been very helpful. Crazy concept, their customer service is right on! I would definitely recommend using htmlBlender, and no - I wasn’t paid for this either. I write about designs, services etc…that I would use myself. So yeah, I stand behind it.

Huson PT Screenshot, click to see the live working site here.

Here is a screenshot of my design of the header.

Here is a screenshot of the way I wanted the form to function right on the page.

It was a very succesful project from the sketches of the design, working comp, final approval of layout & to the slicing of the design into Valid XHTML/CSS by htmlBlender. This is one service to check out & if you have questions about my process or even the design, go head and ask me below in the comments! Your good buddy may not be around one day and you have to get that project out the door, try em!

*In time I plan on doing some more of these to weed out the good companies from the bad. In case anyone needs these services. +1 So far!

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Your Creativity.
Fuel Your Creativity 2008 cc (creative commons license)

Are you a freelancer?
Yes. Since October 15th 2007 I have been full time freelancing.

What is the best part about being a freelancer?
The ability to do work whenever I feel inspired and not feel stuck in a 9-5 timeframe. Some days I work from 10pm until 8am and other days I split my time and work a little bit in the morning and a little bit at night. Flexibility is awesome.

What does your typical day look like?
Like I said above, some days I work in the morning, some days at night. Throughout the day I am checking and replying to emails and checking out various leads on blog design jobs. I get the bulk of my client work done throughout the night because it’s so quiet and peaceful. Some nights I have a nice glass of Scotch or Jack on the rocks and that helps the evening go by smoother :)

What are your best methods for finding/attracting clients?
When I started Blog Theme Machine I literally went to 45n5.com/top-100 and emailed EVERYONE from that list about creating a website for them. I got a few clients from there and it snowballed from people they knew and then leverage to say I designed X amount of sites on the top 100 Make Money Online blogs.

Now I gain most of my clients through search engine traffic and word of mouth. I still do some cold emailing but I’m finding that networking through social media sites like twitter and stumbleupon work really well too.

How did you get started? Did you study something in particular or are you self-taught?
I have been designing and fooling around with photoshop for a long time. I also spent some time ghost blogging so I was aware of wordpress and blogging in general but nothing like I know now. I never took a class on design, hell, I didn’t even graduate high school. I just pick things up, test them out and learn as I go. Right now, I know about 20-30 more things about wordpress then what I did a week ago. I study a LOT of blogs and websites to keep up to date in my industry.

Please tell us more about your art and design background and what made you become an artist and designer?
I started drawing at around 5 years old. I remember drawing old cartoon characters like Sylvester and Tweety Bird and selling them to kids in class for a dollar each. I also got into graffiti and quickly learned why I didn’t want to do graffiti anymore… Cops hate it :) So at thirteen I found photoshop because I wanted signatures on some message boards I was posting on. From there, it just snowballed to where I am now.

What do you feel are the most important skills for a designer to have/develop?
Social skills :) Without being able to talk to clients and really interject yourself as a person the other wants to deal with, your design skills will not matter as much. As from a design standpoint, I’d say that keeping up with your industry and knowing a little bit of everything (design, xhtml/css, php, ajax, wordpress integration, ect). This way, if you’re outsourcing things to people, at least you know that you can edit it down the road or re-use snippets of code later on to save yourself time/money.

Where do you go for design inspiration?
Fuel Your Creativity of course :) I also check out various css galleries like CSS Remix (they’ve been non-existent on the posting lately though), Smashing Magazine has some awesome design inspired articles as well. When I’m trying to think about something off the wall as far as “normality” goes with blog designs, I check in with Go Media and look over their work. Some crazy shit there.

How do you typically start a new project?
When the client and I are done talking over the spec of the project and it’s time to sit down and start designing I draw out some sketches on paper. Once I get the design sketched out how I want it, I open photoshop and create a wireframe. I then let it sit for the rest of the day and open it up again in the morning/afternoon/evening (depending on the time I start work that day) and I create the actual layout. I walk away from it for a couple hours and stare at it later with fresh eyes and make sure everything still looks as good as it did a few hours ago :)

Do you have any favorite websites for interacting with others in the design community?
TWITTER :) I’m addicted. I don’t post 200 tweets a day but it’s great to interact with other designers. I also use stumbleupon a lot and talk to a few people and actually sold a stumbler on a new website design because of our conversations. I’m also getting into designfloat as well. I have a post on my blog with all of the Blog Theme Machine social media profiles.

What are you 5 favorite sites online?
This is a tough one. But the ones below are the ones I frequent the most often (besides FYC of course)

MMA Mania – I love Mixed Martial Arts. As a side MMA site, I also check out Cage Potato a lot too.
Smashing Magazine – This is one of my favorite websites for obvious reasons.
Freelance Switch – Besides the awesome business advice, they’ve got an awesome freelance cartoon :)
Zen Habits – I like to keep my mind and my life organized and this is a great site for tips on doing it.
Itty Biz – Naomi is a no-nonsense type of person and the writing and advice here is 100% awesome.

Who, in the online world, would you say has had the biggest influence on you?
I pull inspiration from everywhere, so I couldn’t really pick one person. I’d say that Adii is an influence to me for his design style and business sense. I also admire Collis from Envato on how he built up the entire network he has in the amount of time he did it in. I admire the design work of the entire Go Media team a lot too. There are too many people to list only one haha
.

What are the tools you couldn’t live without?
I’ll break them down below. I could NEVER do what I do without the list below:

Paypal – Well, without it how would I ever get paid? :)
Gmail – I have my business emails through the gmail business accounts and it’s simply AWESOME to keep track of information from my clients.
GoBootstrap – This is what I use to keep track of the money I make and how much I spend on my business. They have awesome charts and tracking software and give advice on taxes as well.
Pidgin IM – This is what I use to keep all of my IM clients open in one piece of software.
Photoshop – Duh :)
Notepad – I hand code all of my layouts and I’ve tried many pieces of software and find notepad to be the best, IMO.

What projects are you currently working on?
Right now I am working on building Free Fall Creative to work together with my Blog Theme Machine site and market my design clients, and design for my marketing clients. I also am in the process of working on a blog that will donate all of its profit to help homeless veterans that served in the US Military. I am in the process of designing another free icon set as a follow up to my free hand drawn vector icons. Finally, I am working on a free wordpress theme that is packed with TONS of features that will be (hopefully) released through smashing magazine.

Visit Mike’s Website, Blog Theme Machine.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Your Creativity.
Fuel Your Creativity 2009 cc (creative commons license)

Interview with Mike Smith / Blog Theme Machine

Advertise here via BSA

Last week I wrote a guest article for Andrew over at myinkblog. Here is a little snippet of the article and if you’d like to read the full version, head on over and check it out!

Plenty of you that stop over here at myinkblog have most likely seen most, if not all of these sites before. Have you ever really looked at them? Closely? Many of the typefaces used in these examples I chose are all pretty similar. That’s not a bad thing. You can find inspiration in almost anything! Today I am focusing on ...

Are you a freelancer?
Yes, right now I’m a full time blogger.  I’ve actually never been employed outside of my own work, except for being a paintball referee, but we don’t talk about that…

What is the best part about being a freelancer?
You know, I always feel like EVERYONE is telling me, the best part about my line of work is being able to set my own times, and being able to work at home.  Let me tell you that from my experience, being self employed does not mean setting your own hours.  It really actually means you forget about hours entirely since you never stop working or thinking about your work.

For me, I think the best part about being a freelancer is the feeling of achieving a personal goal.  I always find myself striving to accomplish more and more, finding ways to please clients, readers, and in the end myself as well.  It’s very gratifying when you reach that point which was sought out to reach.

What are your best methods for finding/attracting clients?
I used to be into Web Development on a more frequent basis for the more usual clients (you know… Mom, Pop, the painter looking to sell their work online from down the street), but I eventually found that such work really wasn’t for me.  My clients nowadays are the readers on my blogs.  Attracting readers can be tough at first, since finding something important to write about doesn’t always come easy – but persistence and lots of effort put into publishing high quality articles has always proven to work for me.  I probably spend at least 60 hours a week writing, or developing ideas to write about for my readers.  The rest of my week is usually spent responding to my readers (I really enjoy being on a personal level with them), taking out my rage on children over Xbox Live, and I’ve recently grown a serious passion for cooking.

Do you run any sites or companies?
Tutorial9 is sort of my dream come true website.  It has a long ways to go, but it’s definitely doing much better than I had ever hoped it would for the amount of time it has been around.  My main goal with Tutorial9 is to provide the most helpful, free platform for learning various skills online, currently including Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Photography.  As for the name, it’s simply a play on the phrase “Cloud 9”, which is why our slogan is “Tutorial Bliss”.

I do run some other websites, but none that are quite as dear to me at T9.  Being the avid gamer I am, run some blogs focusing on my favorite games in my spare time, and hope to someday start a blog encompassing both Games & Design, as well as Coffee.

Why did you start your site / company?
Learning is great, but Teaching is something I love to do.  When I figured out that I might be able to make a living off something I loved doing, I immediately pursued it, and haven’t looked back since.  Since starting, I’ve actually found that I’m learning more and more along the way as well, by communicating with artists and designers (who I might add, make me feel totally incompetent for being interviewed) and even through the power of observation.

How did you get started? Did you study something in particular or are you self-taught?
I’ve actually never taken a course for design, art, or web development.  I attribute a lot of my interest to my parents.  You see, when I was only 10 years old, my family’s house flooded.  I guess my parents felt bad for my sister and I, so they bought us both a gift.  Being the awesome Mom and Dad they are, they bought me Adobe Pagemill (trust me, it’s every 10-year-olds dream).  My interest in graphic design and website design has flourished ever since.

Please tell us more about your art and design background and what made you become an artist and designer?
Actually, I don’t consider myself to be much of an Artist at all.  On top of a total lack of talent and knowledge on that front, I feel very undeserving of being called an artist when I have so many talented friends who don’t get the kind of recognition I think they deserve.

I’ve always seen myself as more of a designer – someone who tries to develop systems that work, and someone who tries to make things more usable.  For me, Art is a form of communication, and I’m constantly thinking of ways to communicate ideas better through various mediums.  I guess I’ve grown a passion for design through my aspirations to convey thoughts in a way that can be easily understood.

What do you feel are the most important skills for a designer to have/develop?
Perhaps not a skill, but a trait that I see in the best designers I know is their ability to be humble.  I do not believe that design is a field anyone is perfect in.  Our ability to learn from our mistakes, take the advice of others, be inspired through the works of others, and look at our work through the eyes of someone else all seem like important components of a good designer.

What does your typical day look like?
My day usually begins with a hole in the wall – my alarm clock firmly slammed several inches into the outskirts of my room.  After crawling to the Coffee (Black please.) I immediately check to make sure my sites are all in good order, followed by flipping through my favorite feeds.  Once the caffeine starts to kick in, I force myself to start writing, or at least think about things to write.  Blogging is something I really find enjoyable, but for me at least, it’s A LOT of hard work coming up with new ideas to write about on a day to day basis.  It’s a task that I’ve spent several years training myself to do, and it’s likely something that won’t ever come easily to me.  Throughout my work day, I’ll try to take a break or two, play tennis, Frisbee, Halo, go swim, read, cook, but by 11PM I’m back in the office, working up a storm until 2 or 3AM.
What are your 5 favorite sites online?
I’m going to try and list my 5 favorite sites that have nothing to do with design:

Compassion – If you’ve got an extra dollar a day you can spare, you can save a child’s life.  Really a wonderful program.

Bungie – The makers of my favorite series (Halo).  Gaming aside, they also have some really great writers that make reading their site updates plenty of fun.

xkcd – Ok.  I’m a geek.

Amazon – Not much of an original choice, but I’ve built quite the CD collection through Amazon.  This is usually my first stop for any of my shopping needs.

Rotten Tomatoes – I’m not a huge movie junkie, but the few I do watch are typically flicks that I invest more time into than I imagine the Average Joe does.

Where do you go for design inspiration?
I’ll try to limit this to 5 as well, and I’ll leave out FYC for obvious reasons (though it’s one of my favorites!):

Swiss Legacy – A daily inspiration.  In my opinion, one of the best design blogs out there.
Aisle One – Another great design blog.
Abduzeedo – While I haven’t gotten to know Fabio as well as I’d like to, he runs one of my favorite blogs, and constantly offers a source of inspiration.
DesignFlavr – I first learned about Design Flavr after a sponsorship on Tutorial9, and it’s become a frequent stop for me ever since.
Creative and Live – Insightful, well thought out writings from some brilliant minds.

Do you have any favorite websites for interacting with others in the design community?
The whole Social networking thing doesn’t make much sense to me in its current state.  While I use Flickr and Twitter on an occasional basis I’m not ready to commit myself to any one service yet.  I’m already aware of some great looking hopefuls on the horizon that I’d like to see pickup speed in the next year or two.

Who, in the online world, would you say has had the biggest influence on you?
I’d say my readers have the biggest influence on me.  Quite honestly, I don’t feel like much of an artist compared to some of the folks who visit Tutorial9.  My readers help me find other incredible designers and artists, teach me new things almost every day, and make me strive to accomplish more.

What are the tools you couldn’t live without?
Photoshop, my Blackberry (I once stopped a scam to sell Tutorial9 with my handy cellphone from the mountains of The Middle of Nowhere), Outlook, ConTEXT.

Anything else you would like to share with the readers of Fuel Your Creativity?
Going into this interview, I didn’t feel like I was by any means worth anyone’s time here.  I see myself as a young, inexperienced individual compared to some of the other great minds in the design community.  But perhaps my angle has something unique to offer to other entrepreneurs – and I certainly hope that any insight I do have to offer helps someone out!  I may not be much of an artist, and I still have a heck of a ways to go as a designer, but so far I’m getting by alright doing something I have a strong passion for!

I hope some of you stop by Tutorial9 if you get a chance.  Oh… and if you’re interested in my hopeful Coffee… Gaming… Design endeavor, maybe you should bookmark AMGamers.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Your Creativity.
Fuel Your Creativity 2009 cc (creative commons license)

Interview with David Leggett / Tutorial9

Advertise here via BSA

This continues with Part 3 of Typography is Sexy – except this time Brian from Elite by Design suggested I do a web typography focus, I hope you enjoy it! Don’t forget to check out part 1 and part 2.

Jon Tangerine

Hot Meteor

octwelve

FutonMedia

e house studio / blog

Jason Reed

Viget Labs

The Deck Network

Bob Galmarini

Abigail Wynne

dawghouse design studio

Function

Jeff Sarmiento

Winnie Lim

DM2 Interactive

New Concept

AIGA DC

Sean Klasson

The things we make / Mike Kus

What is the best part about being a freelancer?
I think it’s the freedom to do the things you want to do the way you want to do it. Not that you will forget about the client completely but I mean organize your projects the way you think is best for you. I’ve always had problems with that when I was a regular employee.

What are your best methods for finding/attracting clients?
The best way is having a very good network and let people know about your work. The promotion is the most difficult part of the process but as soon as you get a client and you do a good job, they recommend you. Also there are so many good sites to find jobs and even different ways to get work like writing tutorials for example.

How did you start your blog; Abduzeedo? Where does the name come from?
Abduzeedo started in the end of 2006. My office had been robbed and I had lost my computer and all my backups for the past 6 months of work. It was really tough and I had lots of experimental works in my computer, all of which were lost. I then decided to start a blog to promote myself and backup my experimental work, which became the tutorials I do now.

The name is quite complicated to explain, but it means abducted in Portuguese, but the spelling is wrong. As my company is called Zee, my business partner and I were always trying to find words with the ZEE sound so we could replace to “zee”. Abduzeedo was one of them, the correct spelling is abduzido.

How did you get started? Did you study something in particular or are you self-taught?
I have a degree in Graphic Design, but the tools I use like Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, CSS and some programing languages were all self-taught.

Please tell us more about your art and design background and what made you become an artist and designer?
Since I was kid I was always drawing things, even though I wasn’t a really good drawer, I liked it. Then in 1993 I started using the computer with Corel Draw. I found it really interesting because there are so many possibilities.

What do you feel are the most important skills for a designer to have/develop?
There are many things that are important. I think observation is very important. Seeing how everything works and looks is crucial when designing anything, from a product to a web site. Also for me the best way to learn is to just try. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Sometimes we look for a masterpiece and we forget the goals of the project and the needs of the audience.

What does your typical day look like?
I like to wake up early, around 6-6:15am. I have my coffee and read my feeds which normally takes me about 2 hours. Then I organize my day and start figuring out what has to be done. The only problem of working from home is that sometimes I work from 6am to 1am and that’s not really good.

What are your 5 favorite sites online?
Digg, Delicious, Flickr, DeviantArt, Behance.

Where do you go for design inspiration?
My google reader every morning :) I also go to FFFFOUND, Computer Love, Design You Trust, Fubiz, Smashing Magazine, Noupe… there are so many good sites out there.

Do you have any favorite websites for interacting with others in the design community?
I’ve been using Flickr and Twittter a lot, they are very good and can be really useful. I would say that my favorite is Flickr, because there are tons of groups and the community is very active, so it’s easy to get feedback on my work. Also I subscribed to some groups and every day I have a lot of images for inspiration.

Who, in the online world, would you say has had the biggest influence on you?
That’s really hard to answer. There are excellent designers that have influenced my work such as Eduardo Recife, Adhemas Batista, Chuck Anderson, Scott Hansen. Now due to the blog, some designers keep me updated everytime they update their portfolios and I’ve seen some amazing work. Another designer I really admire is James White, I love the way he manages to give a retro feeling to his work but at the same time keeps very modern.

What are the tools you couldn’t live without?
I couldn’t live without the internet anymore. I try to keep all my backups online and my emails, contacts, and everything is in the cloud so if I don’t have internet I’m totally lost. In terms of tools, Fireworks, Photoshop, CSSEdit, textmate are my tools of trade.

Anything else you would like to share with the readers of Fuel Your Creativity?
I’m working on some new features on Abduzeedo that I think will be really cool for the design community.

Keep practicing and learning, don’t be afraid to make mistakes and have fun. Ah and visit abduzeedo.com everyday ;) kidding…

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Your Creativity.
Fuel Your Creativity 2009 cc (creative commons license)

Interview with Fabio Sasso

Face

Scott Hanson

Death By Colour

Isaac Tobin

Print Magazine

A2/SW/HK

Seeking Inspiration 2008

Parachute / PF Amateur Font

Cameron Moll

Watafak

Harmonie Interieure

Sarah King / Evening Tweed

Hyperakt Design Group

Alejandro Paul via Flickr

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

You can check out Part 2 here.

Christopher Allen

Fabiano Hikaru

MrBadger – Deviant Art

Albert Pereta

Via – The Trendy Girl

Sam Mallett

Shaz Madani

Debra Bishop – Blueprint

Really Delicious

Box Detail Via Flickr

Hyperakt Design Group

Winter Queen Poster

Rob Millington

MrBadger via Deviant Art

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Without further ado, today July 2, 2008 Liam is launching his site so I figured it was a good day to publish his interview!

Tell us a little about wefunction.com & how you came up with the name:

The name Function came about when I was thinking of what I wanted to achieve from the company. I felt that it was just as important these days to have a website which would work (function) as well as it looked. I’d seen far too many sites which looked great, but didn’t have the functionality to make it a usable site. So our goal if you like is to blend the two, functionality and great design.

I chose to have the site a Blog rather than just a showcase of work, I felt that we could capture the imagination of a wider audience if we used a blog system. That way we could post our thoughts and inspirations and share various resources and ideas, plus I love to get feedback and ideas from a community, so for me it was very obvious that the site would have to be a blog rather than a portfolio. I initially began coding the site for Mambo, but soon realized that I’d need something simpler and more powerful, so I took in some help and got the site set up in WordPress, and I couldn’t be happier.

You have been quite busy working on some eye candy, please tell us a little bit about your free icons & new themes:

I wanted to open with a bang, I wanted to reward those loyal enough to stick with us during our “coming soon” period. So I felt it was important to get working on some free icons and some free themes. There will also be premium themes. The icons are my first ever icon set. I’ve played around with various graphics & icons before, and while I know this set isn’t perfect I’m hoping that it will be able to help many people improve the visuals of their sites & applications. Plus everyone loves a free set of icons to add to their collection.

The free theme I’ve been working on called free*dirt is another way of rewarding people who stayed loyal to us, and also a way of promoting our company and our design skills. The theme is a little different to usual themes, the main image shows next to the content, with an area for author details and social media sharing links. I think it works to make things easier to read as the main content isn’t pushed down by the image.

I’m also working on a theme which will be a reward for donators. The basic concept is anyone who donates to the site, for whatever reason will receive the theme. The donation will be completely up to the donator, be it $5 or $500 they’ll receive the theme. The incentive here is for us to create content and resources which people feel deserve donating to, that way readers get better content and also a reward for their feedback.

We’ve also been working closely with wordpress-designers.com to revamp their website and start a new relationship creating various premium themes which we hope will shake up the Premium theme’s market. I’ve had some great feedback from people on the theme’s I’ve designed so far, so this seems like a great chance for me to release some creativity and really have some fun on these projects, as I’ve been given quite a lot of creative freedom.

How did you get started? Did you study something in particular or are you self-taught?

I’ve always had Photoshop from since I can remember using a computer, its something I used to see as a toy, I used to play around like we all did, messing with Photo’s exploring filters and effects etc. It wasn’t until I was about 14 / 15 I realized that I really enjoyed doing this, I’d gotten comfortable using the program and I wanted to learn more and push myself.

A few hundred hours, and lord knows how many tutorial sites later It was time for me to decide what I wanted to do in life… I was near the end of school and really couldn’t see myself following the path of my friends into further education and university so I took on a College course in Multimedia.

Although I learned all aspects of Multimedia, from Video & 3D to typography and Art I felt that my strong point was with Web Design & Interfaces. So this is when I really began my passion and started freelancing on the side, which still studying.

Please tell us more about your art and design background and what made you become an artist and designer?

I think I’ve always been creatively minded, even at a young age I would much prefer to sketch and draw rather than watch TV for example. And as I got older I thought I wanted to be an artist (in the traditional sense.) I took art at school and found I concentrated better when I was doing something creative, so art was my favorite subject at school.

I also see myself as quite a perfectionist, I like to see things polished up nicely, so with my art I wasn’t always satisfied, I didn’t know enough to make the final product look like I wanted it to in my head, in some ways this is why I’m glad I had the chance to brush up on my Photoshop skills, because more often than not I knew enough techniques to make Photoshop produce work that looked as good on the screen as it did in my head.

So this enjoyment of art and creative tasks is what lay the path for me to become a Web Designer.

What is the best part about being a freelancer?

At the moment, I would have to say you get a lot more creative freedom than working for another company, and you can inject a lot more personality into your work. I recently had a job as a Junior Web Designer in another firm and (I’m not sure why) I felt it was harder to get my own personality across in my work, a lot of what I made wasn’t really me. This is why I took the decision to go freelance and completely revamp my style.

I love the fact that working from home allows me to take some time to inspire myself and try some new things and see how they look. I usually allow myself some extra time for finding inspiration & experimenting, something which you don’t always have the luxury of doing in an office or company without having to explain to someone that you’re not just browsing the net mindlessly.

What do you feel are the most important skills for a designer to have/develop?

Dealing with clients is something which you will never be taught. Although some might try, we had an exercise in college where we were presented with “fake clients” and no matter how hard anyone tries it’s just not the same. I think its important to get as much experience with clients as soon as possible, before you take the big leap into the freelance world.

And on a more design based view, I think attention to detail is something which can make you stand out as a designer. If you have good polishing skills you can turn something which looks quite ordinary into something quite unique and appealing. It’s something which all great designers have in my opinion.

What are your best methods for finding/attracting web design clients?

This is something I’m far from mastering, and something which I’m hoping to experiment with. In the past I’ve just relied on my work alone to get me work, but with a blog, I think it brings a whole new dimension to potential clients, they’d be able to get more of a feel for the kind of person I am, as well as the kind of work I do. And hopefully this combination will lead to more clients.

Where do you go for design inspiration?

I’ve been working on a rather large which displays a wide variety of things which inspire me. Recently I’ve found it more useful to look places other than just CSS galleries. Although I do love them I find that sometimes it helps to look at things other than web designs. This could be in the form of anything, videos & motion graphics, typography, graphic design posters, 3D art etc. If you take a look at the post you can see the kinds of things I’m talking about. Basically I tend to look for anything which could appeal to my creative mind, and I usually find that looking at designs which aren’t in the form of a website can lead to you being more experimental and give you more of an open mind when it comes to ideas on layout and so on.

How do you typically start a new project?

I don’t really have a set routine; it varies from project to project. It could be in the form of sketches and brainstorming, or it could be me just going straight into Photoshop and bashing out some concepts. Probably not very conventional or recommended, but it seems to work for me, as long as I have an idea in my head of what I’m aiming to achieve it doesn’t really matter to me what method I use to get the project started, as long as the outcome is the same it shouldn’t really matter, you should just be doing what you feel more comfortable doing.

I usually start with a bare design, and build up detail and features as I go, and finish it off with as much polishing as I feel it needs, without overdoing it. I think it’s important to recognize when you’ve done enough on a design to stop without spoiling it.

Do you have any favorite websites for interacting with others in the design community?

Flickr has to be one of the best websites around, a great source of inspiration and a great way of keeping up with work of people you like. I really do think flickr is a great way of showcasing your work and finding other great stuff.

I’m also quite fond of twitter, I know it’s down a lot of the time and not everyone is a fan, but having used it quite a bit recently I find it a great way of keeping up with bloggers & designers I like.

Digg & Stumbleupon are sites which I try to use as often as I can, I tend to dig/stumble sites that I find of good use, or even if I just appreciate the effort someone has took to create a post. Sometimes a nice comment, or a digg etc can really help a blogger, so I try to reward those who I feel deserve it.

What does your typical day look like?

I get up around 8:30, breakfast and watch some TV. Then it’s up to my desk to whiz through any emails, usually followed by some random stumbling. Then I’ll check out my RSS feeds see if there’s anything new to read or look at. Once I’ve settled down and woken up I tend to get stuck into my to-do list, or make some changes to something which I thought was a good idea the night before, its amazing how different things look when you’re actually awake. I’ll get in a good few solid hours work and make sure that I get what I wanted to get done that day done, and then I’ll have a mix of relaxing and working. Just adding little tweaks, or fixing things here and there, then playing some games or watching TV, browsing the net or reading blogs and so on.

What are you 5 favorite sites online?

Well, this changes so often, but for right now it’d have to be.

1. flickr
As I’ve already mentioned I just love this site.

2. OutlawDesignBlog
I’m a huge fan of the content and resources posted here

3. JustCreativeDesign
A big inspiration for me to take the leap and start freelancing full time

4. Smashing Magazine
They really go out their way to provide some excellent resources & links

5. Positive Space Blog
This guy’s very clued up and I love hearing his opinions.

Who, in the online world, would you say has had the biggest influence on you?

The two people who I think played a big part in me deciding I wanted to start up my own design firm and blog would have to be DannyOutlaw from Outlaw Design Blog, and Jacob Cass from JustCreativeDesign. I’ve followed both blogs quite a bit over the past few months, and they both talk so much sense. They’ve given some great resources and wrote some very inspirational pieces that just fill me with confidence and passion, so much so that I decided that it was time for me to take the leap and do what I really wanted to do in life and work for myself.

What are the tools you couldn’t live without?

I’ve not really got that many tools or apps that I use online, I’ve read up on a few and it’s something which I need to explore a little further, there are a few tools/sites that I use on quite a regular basis and find them a great help.

Netvibes, essentially is a great way to display all of your RSS feeds at once, but there’s so many other tools you can add to your page, I really like the “webnote” function which allows you to easily edit and save notes, website urls and various thoughts and ideas. Another feature allows you to save URL’s and it will take a screenshot of the website and save it along with the link to the site. It’s a great help when getting ideas and sources for blogging.

Another tool I’ve been using recently is Concept Share. It’s a really great tool for collaborating with other designers or getting feedback on your designs. You can easily add notes to designs, draw shapes and leave comments. I find it really easy to use considering its such a powerful tool, and I’d recommend it to anyone.

—-

Thanks for taking the time to interview me at what really is an exciting time for me, it really means a lot for people like yourself to show an interest in the work I’ve done so far, and it really is a great confidence boost at such a vital time in my career.

—-

Please visit his website here.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Your Creativity.
Fuel Your Creativity 2009 cc (creative commons license)

Interview with Liam McKay

Once upon a time I studied mathematics in university.  Though I had some ability, I had no real interest and consequently really didn’t get very far.  It was a good lesson though, if you want to be successful it’s always best to do what you love. Once I switched to teaching myself design I suddenly found myself reading magazines, pouring over borrowed design books, combing the web for resources and doing whatever it took to get good.

After working for a while as a designer, my lovely wife Cyan (who is also a designer) and I went freelance for about two years. Freelancing gave us the flexibility to find time to build and launch Eden in early 2006.

How many sites in total do you have?

At the time of writing there are 7:

1. FlashDen
2. AudioJungle
3. PSDTUTS
4. VECTORTUTS
5. NETTUTS
6. FreelanceSwitch
7. FaveUp

And we have 3 more planned for the next couple of months, so it’s going to be a bit busy!

The best thing for me is the excitement. I love my work and I spend hours daydreaming about what will be and how to make that happen. I get to plan and experiment, work with amazing people all over the world and do the coolest job ever!

I don’t freelance anymore but oddly I get asked to do design work more than when I did.  So I guess you could say the best method I know is to build a public profile. When a client doesn’t really know necessarily what is good design or what isn’t, it’s much easier for them to trust someone they’ve heard of, because it effectively means they are trusting a group consensus.  So if you can figure out how to bill yourself as an expert of some variety, then it can lead to more work.

Well I’m on Twitter though mostly I just broadcast random thoughts in my head there.  I also read and skim a *lot* of design/graphics blogs.  And I guess you could say I interact on our own sites like PSDTUTS and FreelanceSwitch.

I don’t really have a typical day because I change jobs a lot.  I usually write out a list of what I’m planning to do in the day, and usually it is about 5 times what I could possibly achieve in the space of a day.  Then I either avoid reading my email the whole day long in an effort to get some “real work” done, or I have a day where I multi-task and email and skype and juggle a million other things and finish the day not really knowing what it is I did. :-)

There’s only one blog I read almost religiously and that’s TechCrunch which I do because I think start ups are super interesting. Besides that I also often check in to SmashingMagazine and Delicious/Popular which sends me off to more places.

My notebooks!  I have a ton of notebooks and I pour all my plans and ideas into them.  They have pages and pages of scribbles, silly drawings, projections of income, plans for expansion, notes for articles and tutorials and a million other things.

Also Photoshop.  Most tools I could live without, but I don’t think I could manage without my trusty ol’ PS.

Please visit his website for more information.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Your Creativity.
Fuel Your Creativity 2009 cc (creative commons license)

Interview with Collis Ta’eed

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)