A few weeks ago I celebrated this blog’s 2 year anniversary by offering a Huge Anniversary Giveaway. With 255 comments, it’s clear that you guys liked the prizes being offered. I don’t blame you, I wish I could have won some of them :) Thanks so much to everyone for the kind comments and your participation!

I used a random query to pick all the names. The winners are:

Congratulations to the winners! If you’ve won something, I will be in touch with you soon to fill you in on the details of how to collect your prize.

This is part 5 of the Design Toolbox Series where I interview top designers about what tools they use to help them create their art. This series was largely inspired by Grace Smith’s Show Me Your Dock Series. It’s my hope that you can gain insight into what other designer’s are using, and hopefully find some new apps/tools to check out.

Matt Ward is a digital artist who lances freely under the moniker Echo Enduring Media. He specializes in design, illustration and writing, and has several articles published here on MyInkBlog. He is also currently employed as ...

Blogs rarely last very long. They age more in dog years than human years, so making it two full years feels like quite an accomplishment. I’m stoked with the progress the site has made and the support from the design community and my sponsors. I’m shocked and humbled it’s already been a full year since the birth of my son, which I shared about in my 1st year anniversary post. He’s healthy and amazingly energetic, he makes me smile constantly, and is just a blessing in the truest sense of the word. Below is a little glimpse of what I mean :)

I love checking out other blog’s milestone/anniversary posts. It’s nice to see how far they’ve come and where they are headed. In my last anniversary post, I missed the opportunity to share some numbers with you, so I don’t want to make that mistake again. In a style inspired by Little Box of Idea’s Anniversary Post, here are some tidbits, facts and musings about MIB’s first two years.

I promised a huge giveaway, and thanks to some awesome sponsors I’m going to deliver. Two successful years in the blogging world doesn’t come without lots of loyal readers. I could think of no better way to thank you folks, than to give away some incredible gifts. So here is what is up for grabs.

An awesome book by David Airey that explores logos and branding identity. You can read my thoughts on this book in the review that I wrote.

Billings is a fantastic invoicing solution at a reasonable price. They’ve just added an iPhone app making it even more convenient. For more info, check out the review of Billings that I wrote.

Pixelmator is a very nice Photoshop alternative at a much better price. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles, but it does have more than enough to do most jobs, and the interface is slick.

Brush Pilot is a fast and easy application for previewing Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Elements Brushes, built exclusively for Mac.

Chris Coyier and Jeff Starr’s comprehensive book on building WordPress sites.

This is a premium set of 24 awesome cloud textures.

Go Media has some of the best premium vector packs out there.

The Smashing Book is a printed book about best practices in modern Web design.

I wanted to keep the entry into this contest as simple as possible so the focus stays on thanking all of you. To enter simply drop me a comment below to be eligible to win any of the prizes. That being said, I’d still love it if you friended MyInkBlog on Facebook and Twitter, or subscribed to the RSS feed. The winners will be chosen at random by mysql queries. The deadline to enter is June 7th, 2010, after that point commenting on this post will be turned off. I will announce the winners in a followup post.

A few weeks ago I teamed up with Designious to giveaway Mega Vector Packs to 3 lucky winners. Thanks to everyone who participated!

I used a random query to pick the 3 names. The winners are:

Congratulations to the winners! The folks at Designious will be in touch with you soon to fill you in on the details of how to collect your prize.

Certainly this is not the last giveaway/contest here on MyInkBlog. Stay tuned by grabbing the rss feed or signing up to get email updates.

Designious is a small design studio that specializes in creating amazing vector art and design elements for designers. They provide designers all over the world with stock vector art, photoshop brushes and fonts to help them create or improve their art work.

3 lucky readers will win their choice of any vector mega pack from Designious. These packs are a huge collection of awesome designs that are incredible useful.

Here are some samples of what you can choose from.

For a chance to win, signup to follow MyInkBlog on Twitter, then drop me a comment below and be sure to include your twitter name. If you are already following MyInkBlog, awesome, just add a comment with your twitter name. The 3 winners will be chosen by a random mysql query. The deadline to enter is May 10th, 2010, after that point commenting on this post will be turned off. I will announce the winners in a followup post, so it’s a good idea to grab the RSS feed to find out if you win.

You can get our complete HP0-J41 exam pass resources including our latest 642-627 and 1Y0-A08 training courses. 642-359 and 199-01 are also playing vital role in IT world.

I’ve been working with CSS for quite a while now, and even though it’s relatively easy to learn, there are always new tips and tricks to be found. I’m learning new stuff all the time. I wanted to take a moment to put together this helpful list of CSS tips I wish I knew when I first started. Although many of these tips are common knowledge, I think you’ll find them helpful. At the very least I hope you’ll be nodding your head in agreement.

Use Overflow: Hidden; to Clear Floats

It wasn’t until recently that my style sheets were littered with unnecessary clearing floats that looked like the following.

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.clear { clear: both; }
<div id="columns">
<div id="column1"></div>
<div id="column2"></div>
<div class="clear"></div>
</div>

These clearing floats will work perfectly fine, but they are unnecessary. Instead you can just use overflow: hidden; on the parent div to clear the children elements, like in the following example.

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#columns { overflow: hidden; }
<div id="columns">
<div id="column1"></div>
<div id="column2"></div>
</div>

Group Elements Together

One of the mantras of good coding 101 is to keep your code as simple and concise as possible. This helps its readability and performance. If you have a couple of elements that are doing the same thing, it’s wise to string them together. So instead of…

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h1 { color: #333; font-weight: bold; }
h2 { color: #333; font-weight: bold; }

You can group these elements like so…

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h1, h2 { color: #333; font-weight: bold; }

Comments Are Important

Many of the sites that I create are 1-man projects. The last thing I want to do when I get into the flow of coding a design is to stop my progress to add some comments. However, when I go back to that code a year later I often have no idea what I was trying to accomplish. By adding logical comments throughout I can give myself very readable reminders about my code. And if, someone else gets the pleasure of looking through it they’ll have a better chance of understanding what I was trying to do.

Add Some Base Styles to the Body

This goes back to the code-less principle I discussed earlier. I like to get a nice base of font styles setup right on the body tag rather than redefining font-styles for every element. Here is an example of what I mean…

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body { color: #555; font: normal .8em/1.5em helvetica, arial, sans-serif; }
<!-- Then I can just set weight, and size by percentage -->
h2 { font-size: 150%; font-weight: bold; }

Use Some Kind of CSS Reset

One of the first difficult lessons that CSS noobs run into is the differences between browsers, especially when it comes to padding and margin styles. The best way to combat these inconsistencies is to start with some kind of CSS reset. There are a ton out there. Perhaps the most popular and the one I start with the most is Eric Meyer’s CSS Reset. Sometimes I just put together my own. At the very least you should use a simple global reset like this…

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* { margin: 0; padding: 0; }

Use CSS Shorthand

This is me preaching about writing as little code as possible again! Why write this much code?

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p { font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: .8em;
line-height: 1.5em;
margin-bottom: 10px;
margin-top: 10px; }

When you can shorten it to this

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p { font: normal .8em/1.5em verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 10px 0; }

IE Sucks

This well know fact has been covered more than enough, but I must admit that when I first started I wasn’t sure what all the fuss was about. After spending hours trying to make things look ‘ok’ in IE, you quickly come to realize just how much you loathe this piece. The best advice I can give on this subject is to fight through it, eventually you can tame the beast. Use hacks as little as possible, and in really tough situations target IE specific styles with a conditional statement like this.

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<!--[if IE]>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="ie.css" type="text/css" />
<![endif]-->

Take Advantage of Progressive Enhancements

Just because IE sucks doesn’t mean you can’t use technologies like CSS 3 and HTML 5 to add progressive enhancements to your site. So go ahead and add rounded corners in CSS, and box shadows (in moderation please!). And if you really want to get things looking pretty similar in IE here are 10 Ways to Make Internet Explorer Act Like a Modern Browser. Even so, it’s good to keep in mind that your site doesn’t need to look identical (not that it ever will) across every browser.

Writing Clean Code Makes Me Sleep Better

This tip goes along the same lines as commenting throughout your code. Writing cleaner code helps with readability for yourself, and for those poor folks who may have to read your code down the road. How exactly to clean up your code however, can get a little nit picky. There is plenty of debate about which way is best, for instance should you use hyphens, underscores or camelCase, others debate over whether to alphabetize or prioritize your properties, still others wrestle over whether to put css on one line or multiple lines. For the record, I use hyphens, alphabetize, and single line, and that’s definitely the right way to do it :)

Till I Learn Some New Stuff

That’s it for now, but like I said I’m always learning new things. What sort of tips have you learned that you’d like to share. And feel free to add to the debate about what is the best way to write clean code (I’m sure the opinions are limitless).

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   10 Tips for Writing Better jQuery Code

2. 

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3. 

   Brainstorming Tips & Techniques for Bloggers

A few weeks ago I teamed up with UPrinting to offer up 500 trifold brochures to 2 lucky winners. Thanks to everyone who participated!

I used a random query to pick the 2 names. The winners are…

Congratulations to the winners! The folks at UPrinting will be in touch with you soon to fill you in on the details of how to collect your prize.

Certainly this is not the last giveaway/contest here on MyInkBlog. Stay tuned by grabbing the rss feed or signing up to get email updates.

I’m basically just a creative guy who is completely addicted to web design and the creative process. I’ve been developing websites and writing tutorials for about six years. My background includes a lot of drawing, print and graphic design. I have been exploring art and creativity most of my life. Iíve worked quite a bit with desktop publishing and audio/video mixing. In college, I studied biochemistry, psychology, ...

About UPrinting

UPrinting is a leading online printing company that has been providing high quality printing at affordable prices for over 25 years. They provide high quality printing services for canvas prints, business cards, brochures, postcards and more.

What’s up for grabs?

UPrinting and MyInkBlog are teaming up again to bring you another awesome giveaway. This time we are giving away 500 trifold brochures to 2 lucky winners. The brochures will be 8.5×11 on glossy paper with 4-color printing on both sides. This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only, free shipping within US only (sorry if you live outside this area, I will have more giveaway opportunities down the road).

How to enter

For a chance to win, simply signup to follow MyInkBlog on Twitter, and then drop me a comment below. If you are already following MyInkBlog, awesome, just fill out a comment to enter. The 2 winners will be chosen at random. The deadline to enter is April 16th, 2010, after that point commenting on this post will be turned off. I will announce the winners in a followup post, so it’s a good idea to grab the RSS feed to find out if you win.

More Like This

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   Winners Announced: 500 Trifold Brochures From UPrinting

2. 

   Contest: Win 1,000 Business Cards or 1 Canvas Print From UPrinting

3. 

   Contest Winners: uPrinting Business Cards & Canvas Print Giveaway

This is part 4 of the Design Toolbox Series where I interview top designers about what tools they use to help them create their art. This series was largely inspired by Grace Smith’s “Show Me Your Dock Series.” It’s my hope that you can gain insight into what other designer’s are using, and hopefully find some new apps/tools to check out.

Jeff Finley is an artist, designer, and creative entrepreneur. He is part owner of the creative agency Go Media and lives in Cleveland, OH with his wife Kim and their bunny Cocoa. He plays drums ...

About MediaLoot

MediaLoot is a brand new online toolbox of premium design resources. It’s a subscription based site that offers designers awesome icons, Photoshop brushes, textures, vectors, print templates, and more. It looks very promising and is created by Jon Phillips of Spyre Studios and Mason & Natalie Hipp of Freelance Folder.

Some Samples

Rather than me just chatting up the graphics, I figured you could check out some examples and judge for yourself.

The Prize

MyInkBlog and MediaLoot would like to hook up 5 lucky readers with a free 1-year account.

How To Enter

For a chance to grab this cool prize, simply signup to be a fan of MyInkBlog on Facebook, and then drop me a comment below. The 5 winners will be chosen at random. The deadline to enter is April 8th, 2010, after that point commenting on this post will be turned off. I will announce the winners in a followup post, so it’s a good idea to grab the RSS feed to find out if you win.

Designing websites seems to appeal to a certain niche of people. Sure, we get called geeks and nerds (and we somehow find it endearing), but that doesn’t begin to cover the wide array of personalities that make up the design community. In this post the last thing I want to do is to paint all designers with a broad brush, but I do want to get to the bottom of what makes being a web designer so appealing to so many of us.

One common denominator seems to be the design process itself, and how it tends to be the perfect blend of creativity and logic, but that only touches the surface. In this post I’ll uncover my top 5 reasons why I love being a web designer.

The Creative Process

Photo by LookatLao

I love the start of any design. It’s awesomely open and full of potential. It’s our job as designers to tap into the creative potential and to give a project direction.

The importance of sketching has been touted across the design community for a while now. Not only is it extremely helpful, but it’s also a lot of fun. I just purchased my first Moleskine sketchbook to optimize this portion of the design process. The feeling you get when an idea begins to take shape is unparalleled in almost any other profession.

Logical Thinking

Although the creative process is a blast, I sometimes just like to figure out the best way to make things work. Fortunately, in web design the next logical step… is, well logical. Making my designs look as good in a browser as they do in a mock up can be very challenging, however it’s the learning process and the road blocks that inevitably follow that help me learn and develop my skills. These challenges that always ensue definitely strike a cord in my determined personality. There is a lot of satisfaction in the ah-ha moment.

Constantly Changing Technologies

Photo by Guillermo Esteves

Chris Coyier over at CSS Tricks recently put together a fun, tongue in cheek list of of all the things a modern web designer should know. Although it was mostly a joke, it was also pretty true. The list was enormous, but for me that’s part of the intrigue of being a designer. I don’t ever want to get to point of contentment. If I did then I would lose a lot of the drive and desire that made it interesting in the first place.

A Great Community

You’ve probably heard a lot of us design bloggers boast about the so-called “Design Community”. I know I’ve raved about it before, and I’ve created a design news section to share the community with you.

I think the thing that separates this community is it’s willingness to help each other. In what other field do people in direct competition go out of their way to help one another? I also love the helpful advice I get anytime I ask a design question in Twitter or Facebook.

A Much Needed Service

In a poor economy it sure is nice to be in a position of need. I’m not suggesting it’s always easy to get a job or freelance gigs, but the opportunities are out there. We’re at a point in time where almost every business needs a website. That’s great news for those of us that make a living creating them. It’s awesome to play a role in such an important aspect of a business. It’s easy to take pride in your work when you feel you are very much needed.

That’s A Wrap

If you are into web design (and I’m assuming you are if you’re reading this) then I’m quite curious to see if you agree with these reasons, and to find out what other ones you may have. Feel free to join the discussion and drop a comment below.

Kyle Steed is an awesomely talented designer from in Dallas, Texas. He is refreshingly open, honest and humble. He’s the guy behind kylesteed.com (naturally) and works a full-time 9-5 job doing web + graphic design ...

Tim Smith is the editor of Fuel Your Blogging. He has a passion for writing and loves to share his thoughts and experiences for the benefit of others. Here are the tools that he uses to ...

MyInkBlog’s Flickr Group has grown to 400 awesome members! At this point, every 100 new members will result in a Flickr group showcase; this is the sixth such showcase. If you missed the prior ones, be sure to check out I, II, III, IV and V.

I love the inspiring work that comes from this group. Here is a quick look at the group statistics; with a shout out to the top five contributors.

I also like to use these Flickr showcases as a shameless plug for some other places on the web where you can find me. Be sure to check out MyInkBlog on Twitter and more recently onFacebook

Ok, enough stats and intro… onwards to the showcase! The artwork is awesomely inspiring once again. If you would like to be a part of the next one, please consider joining the group. Enjoy!

Explosive Typography by Angie Bowen

Future by estheticcore

Design Is Vintage by sthursby

Hidden – Have A Nice Day by Nuok (Dario)

Digital Abstract: Sailing by Tanaka13 РCr̩ations du Net

Las Raices del Rock by mrhash

Legend by DTH/CLR

Lost in Space by fudgegraphics

Memories by colaja

The Fiery Dove by jadgraphics

Hi Brian, ...

It’s no secret around here, that I like letterpress design, and think that it’s a growing trend (and it would seem that I’m not alone on that. I even wrote a tutorial on how to achieve the look in Photoshop. Around the design community, you can also find a tutorial on how to create the look using CSS, and plenty of letterpress design inspiration.

Armed with my fascination for this style, I combed gallery sites for business cards that showcased beautiful letterpress designs. The result is the fabulous collection featured below. Enjoy!

These cards were found at Card Observer, Creattica – Business Cards, and Flickr – Business Cards. What are your thoughts on this style of business card? Which ones are your favorite?

I thought I’d share some of my favorites here, check out this stunning collection of nature inspired backgrounds!

All of these wallpapers were found at the following sites.

Aaron Irizarry is a hard-working, fun-loving, and super helpful member of the design community. He runs This is Aaron’s Life and a host of other design related sites. I’ve been privileged to get to know him a little better the last couple weeks. The other day, he was kind enough to agree to this interview, check out his thoughtful responses.

Hi Aaron, thanks for taking the time to do this interview with MyInkBlog. Please tell us a little about yourself and how you got started in design.

Well I am a pretty simple guy, who loves creativity, baseball, Star ...

Know Your Priorities

Doing your work is important, but it shouldn’t be your sole focus. It’s important for you to leave time for other things that you love; your family, your faith, your hobbies, etc… The keyword in this equation is balance. Finding the right mixture, without doing too much of one thing, will help you avoid reaching a tipping point.

Schedule Your Work

If you are a full time freelancer it can be quite easy to get so absorbed in a project that you work all day, and into the night without taking any sort of significant break. You’re best served to dedicate scheduled hours for work, and scheduled hours for non-work. It’s one thing to say that you’ll do that, and it’s quite another to actually follow through on those committed hours. However, by sticking to a schedule you’ll avoid over working yourself and zapping your creative drive.

Take Time For Vacation

Along those same lines, it’s very important to schedule vacation time. Sure, scheduling your work time is good, but sometimes you just need to completely unplug. Taking a week or two of vacation time away from the computer can go a long way toward re-energizing you. And it’s a great way to find inspiration in the most unlikely of places. After all, design is all around you, not just on a computer screen.

Learn Something New

There’s nothing more draining to a creative individual than monotonous tasks; yet we often get stuck in a rut of creating only things that we are comfortable with. It’s important to your growth and your drive to consistently challenge yourself. So be willing to try a new color scheme, or learn a new technology. You will help yourself grow and avoid getting burned out.

Work On Your Communication

Poor communication can often lead to frustration for you and your client, and major redesigns. The tedious chore of starting a design over can easily burn out your creative flame. You can successfully avoid most of these issues by improving your listening and communication skills. The key is to make a conscious effort to understand what the client wants before jumping to conclusions about what you think they should want.

What Do Other Designer’s Do?

I reached out to the design community to find out how they avoid designer’s burnout. Their responses were spot on, check out what they had to say.

Tracey Gradey – Tracey Gradey Design

Burnout can happen when you have high levels of stress, long work hours (without adequate breaks) or monotonous, unchallenging work over an extended period of time. Ideally you want to avoid these, but depending on your work circumstances that’s not always easy to do. I think the best thing is to constantly keep your mind and your body stimulated. First of all, get up from the computer and get moving! Take a decent break in the middle of your work day and go for a walk; in addition, make some regular time during the week for exercise. Second, it helps if you have an interesting project you can focus some energy on; this could be some personal design work in your own time, maybe even something to update your portfolio. Or it could be something to look forward to, like a holiday (and make sure you’re taking enough of those, too). It’s all about keeping the grind in balance with the things that invigorate you.

Aaron Iriazarry – This Is Aaron’s Life

For me time away from the computer always helps. Depending on the situation… i think it is crucial to take time for me, work on special/fun projects of my own, or just getting away from the cpu all together by hanging out with my family or friends. Going to a show, going out for dinner, or to see a movie. Sometimes by experiencing someone else’s creativity I am also refreshed (movies, books, art shows, music). I guess maybe the key is to notice when the burnout is coming, and slow down and take inventory, find out why we are felling that way, then choose the appropriate “remedy”.

Liam McKay – Function

For me, finding something new to challenge yourself with is the key to avoiding a Burnout. Sometimes I find myself stuck, I feel that I’m not really pushing myself to try new things in a design, so I’ll go away and work on a personal project, either fictional or something real I’m working on and create something that I wouldn’t normally do. Include something in a design that I’d not normally think to do. Try a new style, new layout, new colour scheme, just anything to get me away from what I am used to. I’ve sort of promised myself to push to include something new in each one of my designs, rather than sticking to what I know, that way I can try and avoid the burnout striking while I’m half way through a project.

Jacob Cass – Just Creative Design

I avoid burnout by regularly going on holidays whether it be a short one week break or maybe a month or two, it is really refreshing and I highly recommend it!

Grant Friedman – Colorburned

I tend to get burned out whenever I take on a project that might be a bit over my head. I’ve found that the best way to avoid getting burned out in this situation is to surround myself with designers who’s skill sets compliment my own. That way I can work on the aspect of the project that compliments my strengths and they can do the same. I’ve found that under these circumstances that burnout is minimal while satisfaction with the final project is high.

AJ Troxell – Phire Design

Designers burnout I believe is a common problem that every designers has from time to time. And often it is caused by outside sources and not the design process itself. Such as worrying about bills, or something stressful at home, or an illness that you have recently acquired. Anything that can impede your design thought or your “flow”. Since more often than not, it is outside sources causing this block, I find that it is usually a good idea to use outside sources to prevent this possibility. Such as having a designated area of your home or office to do your brainstorming or your designs. Maintaining a relatively healthy lifestyle can give you the mental energy required to maintain your flow, as well as the physical energy to maintain your schedule. I also somehow manage to find time to do things that are “fun” but will also provide inspiration, such as going to the local park and taking some pictures or playing with my daughter outside with our dog. Burnout is often harder to get out of than it is to get in to, so my ultimate goal, is to never get in to it, by keeping my work/home like organized and knowing what my goals are for projects and/or clients.

Matt Cronin – Spoonfed Design

Designer burnout is something that is bound to happen, even if you enjoy your work. The best possible solution to this is stepping away from your work. You may think that by doing so you will be losing valuable time, but stepping away periodically will help you to be more productive when you are in fact working. To take this a step further, get away from the computer and get outside to exercise. Fresh air, sunlight, and exercise all help your body by releasing different chemicals that will in turn make you more happy, and overall more productive. On the topic of health, a good night sleep and healthy eating will help you feel better. In a nutshell, staying healthy is the easiest way to avoid designer burnout.

Your Turn

Join the discussion. What do you do to avoid getting burned out?

One of my absolute favorite design books is, Robin Williams Design Workshop. It looks into practical design theories and showcases awesome examples. One of the areas of focus that I’ve taken into all my designs are the four major design principles. They include: contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity.

This post will discuss those four principles as they relate to web design. By keeping these design theories fresh in your mind, you will be sure to design cleaner, more aesthetically pleasing sites.

1. Contrast

Great contrast can leave a very good first impression on a user. Without a focal point, the viewer is generally lost in a sea of equally-sized elements and typography. It’s the designer’s job to create visual elements of significance that guide the user’s experience. You can achieve great contrast on your site by choosing your images, colors and fonts wisely.

Contrast With Images

It’s often very effective to showcase a large illustration next to smaller elements. Here’s what I mean:

The Invoice Machine

This site utilizes a large image to bring in the reader’s attention. Also the monochromatic nature of the site allows the limited use of blue to play a bigger role.

Instabox

Do the eye test on this site. What do you notice first? More than likely it’s the star on the box. Just like The Invoice Machine, they’ve created a focal point using a large image and limited color.

Contrast With Colors

Sprinkling in color at just the right amount is another way to create effective contrast within a website. It can be created using a different color in headers and text copy, as well as within the colors of an image or illustration.

Fatburgr

This site is a fantastic example of almost all of the design principles. For color contrast take a look at the large yellow header versus the smaller light gray copy. Alignment, image contrast, repetition and proximity are all strong throughout.

I Love Typography

Is it any surprise that a website built to showcase typography would give us a great example right in its own header? I love their font choice and how the green color plays nicely off the darker gray.

Contrast With Fonts

If you are trying to create contrast with fonts you should avoid using two very similar font faces and sizes. The similarity of the fonts tends to create confusion and blur the design. However, it can be very effective if you make the font sizes very different, or mix the lightest version of the font in combination with the boldest. Also, you’ll be surprised at the visually impressive combos you can create by using two very different fonts in tandem. For instance a san serif font with a hand-written font.

Fixie Consulting

Wow! I love the typography and colors on this site. Check out all the size and stroke variations on their slogan. I also love the grunge that is sprinkled in, and the limited use of blue.

2. Repetition

Repetition in print design is much more common than it is in web design, however it can be equally effective. Repeating design elements helps create a consistent look and improves branding. In web design a great way to achieve this is by repeating elements in the header and footer. Check out a couple of examples below.

Ten24 Media

Ten24 Media uses a creative grass illustration in both the header and footer.

Silverback

This site is just awesome! I definitely could have showcased it in the contrast section, but it works just as well here because the theme and branding are clearly used throughout. Check out the use of the bananas as bullets, and the forest illustration at the header and footer.

3. Alignment

Alignment plays an intricate role in taking your site designs from looking amateur to professional. I’ve recently become a huge advocate for designing sites using a grid. Doing so cleans up your designs and gives you an awesome framework to work from. If you’re interested in learning more about designing for a grid, check out my recent post (insert shameless self promotion here), Design A Fresh Blog Theme On The 960 Grid.

Black Estate Vineyard

This site is showcased on the 960 Grid website. It’s alignment is consistent and striking. I love the way the main content is left justified and flush in its column, however some of the larger level headings break the rule and shift into the left sidebar. They also do a good job with generous amounts of white space and contrasting sized fonts.

A List Apart

A List Apart features a visually obvious grid. The columns are well defined and contain everything in very readable chunks. Studies have shown that really wide columns drastically reduce readability. Your eyes will get tired when trying to follow text across wide column widths. A List Apart also features a fantastic article that argues, Good Designers Redesign, Great Designers Realign.

4. Proximity

The last principle is proximity. This has to do with grouping like elements together and separating those that are not. It can really ruin user experience if you group everything into one lump text block. That’s why its very important to use header tags and proper spacing.

Envato

This site does a beautiful job of organizing it’s content into three major categories. They are well spaced and clearly defined.

Paradigm Reborn

This site is well structured. The headers are clear and concise. The spacing is good and the content is separated into logical chunks.

Final Thoughts

It’s unbelievable how much better your designs will become when you take into consideration these four basic principles. There are always more things to consider, but a foundation of contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity will improve your designs dramatically.

Your Turn

Join the discussion. What do you think of these design principles? Are there more that you’d like to share?

Aaron is a strong advocate for Silverstripe and has contributed to its community with a number of awesome modules. Recently I got a chance to send him the questions that follow. His responses are thoughtful and witty. Enjoy!

MIB: Please tell the readers a little about yourself. Where you’re from and what you do?

AC: I was born in Central NY and moved to Rochester, NY to attend college at Rochester Institute of Technology. There I studied Graphic Design and graduated with ...

I know from personal experience that when I begin a web project it’s so easy to choose a Content Management System (CMS) that I’m already familiar with. Even more so, it’s easy for me to reach for the popular choice that’s already well established. Many times this reasoning works the best. In the past, I’ve tinkered around with Drupal, Joomla and WordPress, amongst a few others. All of them have their own distinct advantages and disadvantages.

Recently, I’ve had a chance to give SilverStripe a test drive. While it’s not perfect, it is brilliantly developed and easy to use. In this post I’ll present 5 reasons why SilverStripe may be the best option for your next big project.

1. The Community

Simply put, the SilverStripe community is awesome. Every time I have posted a question on the forum it’s been answered within 24 hours. The community is very active and intelligent. Which should ease your mind a little about the relative obscurity and newness of this CMS. By the way, they have been around since 2000 and were developed by a talented group of New Zealanders. They’ve won a host of awards, most recently claiming the 2008 Most Promising Open Source CMS award.

The entire SilverStripe brand has just been relaunched and divided into two sites. SilverStripe.org is where you’ll find all the open source software you’ll need. And SilverStripe.com hosts the company info. The redesigned forum is now even easier to navigate and find help. Plus, you’ll enjoy good documentation and a frequently updated blog.

2. An MVC Approach

SilverStripe is built on the backbone of an object-oriented PHP5 web framework called Sapphire. Their MVC (Model-View-Controller) approach allows you to easily separate code from logic. The out of the box classes in Sapphire provide a sturdy foundation for you to build from. The folks at SilverStripe boast about how flexible the platform is. Using their modular approach it’s easy to understand why. The code that’s already written and the code you will write when extending the CMS is very logical, and easily reusable.

The SilverStripe template engine is set up deliberately simple in an effort to further emphasize separating logic from design. Using the templates allows you to interact through control loops that are built in and others that you can add by extending your pages. If you are familiar with frameworks like Ruby on Rails you will definitely by in your element.

3. The CMS is Very Customizable

Extending the CMS is easy and intuitive thanks to the database relationships you can create between pages and data objects. SilverStripe uses it’s Object-Relational Mapper (ORM) to create database tables based off of the objects you create from simple object oriented PHP 5 syntax. In other words, learn a few basic lines of code and the databases are created for you! Within the CMS it then becomes easy to add tabs and complex table fields. As your knowledge grows, so do your options.

4. AJAX Style Site Tree

I absolutely love the site tree that is used within the CMS. The site hierarchy is extremely logical. You can expand and collapse pages in the site tree which makes it quick and simple to find the page you need to edit. Parent/Child relationships are dependent upon where you place your pages and are established when the page is first created. If you change your mind about where a page should reside along the tree, you can move it with a quick drag and drop.

5. Quick Learning Curve

Getting up to speed on how to develop a nice SilverStripe website is a relatively quick process. I’m not saying you’ll be an expert overnight, but I’ve found it much quicker that some of the others like Drupal.

The SilverStripe documentation is laid out well in a Wiki format. There you will find recipes, docs and tutorials. The five basic tutorials is a great place to start.

Your Thoughts

There are more reasons why I’ve become an advocate of SilverStripe, but I figured this would be enough to get you intrigued. What are your thoughts? What CMS are you a big fan of?

Introduction

The issue of how to handle a web maintenance contract has always puzzled me. I’m constantly rethinking how I should do things. Throughout my many efforts, I’ve tried to set up hourly and per project contracts, both of which have yielded mixed results.

So Why Not Charge Hourly?

Charging hourly can have quite a few draw backs. First off, the cost always sounds jarringly expensive in the client’s eyes. And while, the client may be scared off by $x/hour, I often feel as though I’m not getting paid quite enough. Additionally, I often lose track of my time when I’m working. Conversely, I sometimes log time for things I’m learning during the process. These issues are unfair to both the client and the designer.

Surely Charging Per Project Would Be Better?

While I’ve found per project based contracts easier to deal with, they are far from perfect. Generally, I tend to underestimate the length of time it will take me to complete a project. This leaves me with the problem of always having more to do. I’ve realized I usually lowball the cost when I try this style contract.

Eliminate The Problem: We’ll Sort Of

One of the areas that I’ve been focusing on lately is the development of CMS (content management system) websites for my clients. I have grand hopes of eliminating most, if not all of the pains that come along with web maintenance. Two of my favorite CMS platforms are Silverstripe and Drupal. Both of which are open source and written on the backbone of the ever-popular combination of PHP/MySQL.

Here’s Where I Stand

I’ve found that building sites backed by a fantastic CMS is a great way to alleviate the majority of issues that arise when trying to handle web maintenance. And when other issues or future improvement come up they can be handled on a per project basis.

What About the Rest of the Design Community?

Design contracts are certainly not one size fits and I’m well aware that what works for me is rarely the best way to do it. With that in mind I reached out to the design community and asked a few questions on the matter. Here’s what they had to say.

Aaron Irizarry
This is Aaron’s Life

Hourly or Per Project?
I usually charge hourly for updates with a minimum of one hour.

How do you close the initial design phase and move to maintenance?
Once initial design is approved and live, the client signs off, agreeing that anything from this point forward is maintenance.

Do you use a web app to keep track of your contracts, if so, what one?
No, at least not currently since I am only taking occasional side work.

Do you send your contract print, electronic or both?
Both

Brian Hoff
The Design Cubicle

Hourly or Per Project? How do you close the initial design phase and move to maintenance?
I make it clear in my contracts and verbally to my clients that their website maintenance will be charged accordingly — minor changes, such as adding pictures or text would be charged via my hourly rate and large revisions, such as redesigns would required a new estimate.

How do you close the initial design phase and move to maintenance?
I make sure I get sign off on the design before moving on to the coding/maintenance phases. I let the client know that once the design is completed and approved that it is not easy (or pretty much impossible) to redo design changes within a reasonable time, so additional charges will be added if approved design must be modified.

Do you use a web app to keep track of your contracts, if so, what one?
I currently use Bento to keep track of all my clients and their files, including the contracts. It’s not a web app, but it is a great app if you have a Mac!

Do you send your contract print, electronic or both?
Up until recently I used to print my contracts, but I started using electronic signatures as a new means since I’ve been working with clients from all over.

Jacob Cass
Just Creative Design

How do you handle your web maintenance contracts for clients?
I don’t do web maintenance (not my cup of tea) however I offer support for 3 months after the completion of the website.

Hourly or Per Project?
Per project but I have a “secret” hourly fee that I can base my fees on.

How do you close the initial design phase and move to maintenance?
See answer 1.

Do you use a web app to keep track of your contracts, if so, what one?
No.

Do you send your contract print, electronic or both?
Electronic.

Matt
Spoonfed Design

How do you handle your web maintenance contracts for clients?
I don’t have a set monthly fee. I charge per set of updates. The amount I charge generally depends on the size of the maintenance/updates.

Hourly or Per Project?
I charge per project. If I run into a problem on a project, I don’t think it’s fair to charge for that.

Do you use a web app to keep track of your contracts, if so, what one?
Nope.

Do you send your contract print, electronic or both?
It depends. Usually I do it electronically, but if the client wants, I send it on paper. I like being more flexible, and I let the client decide which way is easiest for them. I think the easier you make it for a client, the more likely they are to return.

Calvin Lee
Mayhem Studios

How do you handle your web maintenance contracts for clients?
I’m mostly a designer with some html/css skills. I try not to deal with web maintenance, kind of a hassle and a pain. Most times, my clients already have hosting and a webmaster that takes care of the site.

Hourly or Per Project?
I usually go with a per project amount. It makes it a lot easier, since I know how much a certain type of project would cost/take me. Once I get details of the project and a creative brief back from the client. I can really nail down the pricing. Plus, the client always wants to know the bottom line. I also make sure to put everything in writing, what is expected; sketches, number of samples, number of revisions, deposits, pricing, etc. So there are no miscommunications. Anything beyond what was discussed will be extra.

How do you close the initial design phase and move to maintenance?
It’s pretty much like 2 different projects/contracts. Once the design phase is completed, I have the client sign off on an approval form. Any design changes after the start of the build will be extra, on top of the coding, if there are any major code changes for the design.

Do you use a web app to keep track of your contracts, if so, what one?
Nope, I’m still old school. I set up a numbering system for my projects with folders assigned on a log, electronically.

Do you send your contract print, electronic or both?
I have done both in the past; recently, all have been electronic as a pdf. They can either send it back through regular mail or fax it.

Liam McKay
Function

How do you handle your web maintenance contracts for clients?
We tend to allow for a certain amount of fixes and changes within the initial payment, the amount of maintenance we allow for would depend on how much work we’ve done for them, the more work we’ve done the more fixes we will allow for. If for whatever reason additional work is required this can either be billed on a per project basis, or we can work out an ongoing fee for ongoing monthly work. We tend to allow for any tweaks or updates during the design stage at no extra cost.

Hourly or Per Project?
We tend to charge Per Project, especially for design work. Mainly because I just feel more comfortable working with exact figures, and I think a lot of people would tend to agree. I think it’s a little different with programing work, and there is sometimes a need for an hourly rate, but for the vast majority of our work we have a set fee.

How do you close the initial design phase and move to maintenance?
Once the client is happy with the initial setup and approves the work we will take the final payment. Anything on from this point would be seen as maintenance work, any work or tweaks or updates before this stage we usually allow for in the initial quote. Anything after the final approval is what we would class as maintenance.

Do you use a web app to keep track of your contracts, if so, what one?
At the moment we send our contracts attached to our invoices we send through Freshbooks, I think it’s just an easy way of keeping track invoices and contracts in one go really.

Do you send your contract print, electronic or both?
Electronic is always the initial method we send contracts in, but if it’s requested or required a print copy can also be sent. Although electronic for most people seems to be fine.

Join The Discussion

I’d love to hear your viewpoint on the matter. Drop in your two cents below. Or answer these questions:

• How do you handle your web maintenance contracts for clients?
• Hourly or Per Project?
• How do you close the initial design phase and move to maintenance?
• Do you use a web app to keep track of your contracts, if so, what one?
• Do you send your contract print, electronic or both?

I’ve gotten to know Liam McKay of Function through the web over the last couple of months, and I’m always impressed with him. He is a designer that is constantly growing and improving. Every design he creates seems to top the one prior. That’s impressive; and it’s something I always strive for in my own work.

I’m stoked Liam agreed to this interview. Check out his responses below, enjoy!

First off, thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions for MyInkBlog readers! Tell us a little about your background; where your from and how you got started in design?

Hey, thanks for the opportunity appreciate being asked! I’m from a small city in the middle of England called Coventry, I’ve always been interested in all things design related. Art was always my favourite subject at school as it was more hands on and practical, and from an early age I knew I wanted to do something related to art.

I’d always been familiar with Photoshop as it’s a tool my dad had on his PC, so I’d always play around with it and grew to do more and more until I was making (some very bad) websites. After school I decided to go to College and study Multimedia for two years. It was there where I really decided I wanted to be a Web Designer.

A lot of your newer projects are centered around WordPress themes. What is the big draw of this blogging platform? What are the advantages and disadvantages in comparison to some of the other major alternatives?

WordPress has always been something I wanted to get involved in. The first CMS I’d used was Mambo (now Joomla) which I learned to make my own themes for, but I would always come across WordPress powered sites, and was impressed with them. It was hard to ignore the growing presence of WordPress in the web world. So when it came to building function I decided it was time to properly explore WordPress. A decision that has proved since to be the right one for me, and I now love it.

Your designs are always original and brilliant, where do you get most of your inspiration from?

My ways of getting inspired always change. I’m always interested in looking at other methods of design, I love watching motion graphics, and browsing digital art. And a lot of this work is successful because the artists tend to be very experimental and explore with different styles, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. But you always take things away from experimenting, so even if it doesn’t work out it’s not been a waste of time. For more traditional inspiration I always look for quality sites and two of my all time favourites are Best Web Gallery and Pattern Tap as the quality of work on these are always top notch.

As a designer it can be nearly impossible to balance all the tasks that you want to accomplish at once. How do you try to do it? What does your typical day look like?

Again, I never really have a set method or way of dealing with things, but I try and keep on top of tasks by getting them sorted as soon as possible, for example answering emails as they come in, keeping record of invoices and payments as soon as they come in, that way you never have to ask yourself “have I sent that yet?” – A bit like when you get homework in and you do it on the first night rather than leaving it to the last day :)

As for a typical day, I tend to work quite late – I get up in the morning and get myself a nice mug of coffee, then catch up on my RSS feeds, twitter and emails. Then I have to take my sister to work, so I tend not to start any design work until after I’m back. But once I’m back I pretty much work from midday to midnight. Obviously I take breaks and eat! And this allows for the occasional TV viewing and XBOX360 Session! But I spend most of the day at my desk, working on client work or personal projects and experiments.

Other than Adobe Suite and the internet, what software, hardware, books, etc make your design jobs much easier to accomplish?

FreshBooks is really the only app I use, everything else I either write down, or record using OpenOffice for spreadsheets etc. I’m really not one for books, I can honestly say I’ve never read a full book in my life, I just don’t have the patience. But I do enjoy reading blogs, and I really do thing that reading blogs helps me get through and keeps me inspired and focused on my job. I’ve learned a lot, especially in the last few months and it’s all from various websites and blogs. I have a graphics tablet which I use from time to time, I really love it but don’t use it as much as I want to, but when I do use it it is a real life saver and time saver!

Which technologies are you not proficient at; that you’d like to improve on?

Well, I really got into XHTML and CSS at my last job, I’m not amazing, but I think it wouldn’t take too much work for me to perfect it, and I’ve learned a lot from working with my Developer at function, Spencer. But really I’d like to get more involved in the development side of things, as at the moment I focus purely on design. And while I’m now familiar with WordPress I’ve yet to design and code a full theme myself, but I’m hoping at some point this year I’m going to change all that!

What’s the best advice someone has given you?

I remember reading an article long before I decided to go freelance which basically focused on the idea that if you know you can make something work, it doesn’t matter what other people say. I was really in two minds as whether or not to go freelance, I was in a okay job which paid well for me at the time, but I just didn’t feel I was being able to do work that I was proud of. But there seemed to be too many complications and worries involved in going freelance, and a lot of people advised against it. It was frustrating, because I knew I could make it work, I had so many ideas, but I put it off for a long time. But after reading the article I finally decided that yes it’s not going to be easy, but I knew I had the dedication to make it work. I wish I knew the link to the article as that would be great here, but I don’t sorry!

Mac or a PC, why?

Mac! I’d been growing tired of my PC for some time. I’ve always used a PC, but I would always have problems, especially with viruses. And your PC crashing when you’re working on design work is the last thing you need. And only the other day I decided it was time to make the move to Mac, so I’ve only have a Mac for about 3 days now – But as soon as I got it home and started it up, it just felt right, and straight away felt like it was money well spent.

It’s early days, so I don’t want to say too much, but I can see why Mac’s are growing in popularity. And I used to be a bit of a Apple hater, but I’ve now got myself a iPhone and a iMac, which is a big change from a couple of years ago when I had a Zune and a PC. I think I’m more happy with my apple stuff!

When you’re not behind the computer designing and blogging, what do you enjoy doing to get away from it all?

Well, I’m only 19, so I’m still very much into enjoying myself. I like to try and keep the weekends free from design work if possible. I have a great bunch of friends who I love spending time with, so I try to spend as much time as I can with them. I really like driving and road trips, and having friends spread all over the country at university it means I get a chance to go on quite a few road trips and spend weekends in all sorts of places. Something I want to do more of I think! Other than that I quite enjoy playing games, although they have to be quite realistic games, I don’t like games with monsters and aliens, I much prefer more “real life” situations, GTA4 and sports games etc. Yeah I’m a little weird like that.

What are your biggest struggles when designing for a client?

I think the main thing I worry about when working for a client is that time where you send off the designs and are waiting for feedback. I get really restless at that point, checking my email every 4 seconds. It plays on my mind a lot. Thankfully people generally have great things to say, but I can never get used to that feeling when you first send your ideas over!

What blogs/websites have you been reading the most lately?

Usability Post is a site I’ve been reading a lot of recently. I think that Dmitry is a wise and talented guy and I love reading his tips and pointers on usability. One of my true favourites of the moment.

Design Shard. I’ve loved watching Max build up his blog, and go through a stunning redesign. His posts really are a real joy to go through. And I urge everyone to stick his site in your RSS reader.

We Are Not Freelancers. I’m really interested in what these guys are up to at the moment and I check them out as often as I can. And I find their recent project, From The Couch quite interesting. They’re great guys and I look forward to seeing more from them.

There’s a bunch more blogs, you can see some of my top picks here. And you’ll find MyInkBlog there of course!

What projects are you working on right now? What’s in the works for Function?

We’re actually looking on building up a network of sites. But we’re not rushing into anything just yet. We have some ideas, and even a cool program / app that we will be launching in the coming weeks hopefully. But right now our main focus really is on our client work and keeping the blog going as much as we can on the side.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to me, It’s been a pleasure, I always enjoy speaking to you and reading what you have to say, so keep up the hard work and I hope your readers enjoyed this little insight!

Have a question for Liam or MyInkBlog? Drop us a comment below.

I love discovering awesome Photoshop brushes. So it’s good news that I keep learning about new Photoshop brush sites. However, the market for any service can very quickly become over saturated with too much of the same. Despite the volume of these type of sites, I try to give each one a fair shake to see if they separate themselves in any manner.

BlendFu separates itself in a number of ways. First off, they have a lot of brushes; upwards of 1,400! Secondly, they are high quality. Most of the brushes are top-notch and high resolution. Lastly, I love the brush previews. When scanning through the well-categorized brushes you can expand and collapse the preview. This gives you a look at the brushes in the set and the resolution they are set for. You can also see the total number of brushes and the designer who created them.

You’re sure to find some awesome brushes there! Also, if your a designer, you can upload your sets; to get your design work seen and your name out there. Definitely give BlendFu a look.

One of the biggest perks of writing this blog is networking with some of the incredibly gifted designers. It’s through my blog and other social networks that I’ve had a chance to meet fellow designers like Jacob Cass of Just Creative Design. Jacob’s unique designs and creative process intrigue me the most. He was kind enough to answer a few of my questions, I hope you enjoy the interview.

Hi Jacob, thanks for taking the time to do this interview. Please tell the readers a little about yourself. Where you’re from and what you do?

No worries, glad to be a part! Anyway onto what I do… I am a freelance graphic & web designer based from Newcastle/Sydney, Australia and I also run a popular graphic design blog which focuses on offering free graphic design tips, articles & resources on all subjects of design. Topics range include logo design, web design, print design, branding, typography, social media, advertising & more! It also showcases my graphic design portfolio, which allows me to get freelance work through the use of my blog.

How has running a successful design community blog helped you land more freelance work?

By having the blog that I mentioned above, it has brought me higher search engine rankings and it has put my name out there in the design community which in turn means more visibility… My work is 40% local, 10% national and 50% international which shows just how varied the work is.

What are the design tools that you couldn’t live without?

Maybe not all design skills but these things are what I couldn’t live without…my research skills, my creativity, my scanner, my graphics tablet, Photoshop, Illustrator and Firefox.

What websites do you visit the most for design inspiration and knowledge?

I always visit my Google Feed Reader which has about 100+ feeds in it which always provides a good source of inspiration … I always use Delicious for my searches when trying to find stock and inspiration too – it is more accurate than Google in that area.

What factors influence your design (creative process) the most?

The main influence is finding out what the client wants and then giving them what they actually need… this is probably the most challenging part about being a designer.

You’ve had a lot of career success at a very young age, how have you done so much already?

In short… A lot of reading and practicing. A good starting point for those just starting out would be this article I wrote on How and where to get paid freelance work while you are still a design student – something which would appeal to young up and coming designers.

You are self-employed. What are some of the biggest day-to-day challenges that you face?

Fitting everything in! Emails, Blogging, University work, Client work, Gym, Sport, Social Life, etc. The business side of things are finally catching up to me also as I am getting more and more work so I am also trying to streamline that process as well.

What was your favorite project that you’ve worked on and why?

I think the most challenging project I worked on was the logo / branding for myself and my blog. I actually wrote about it in length… Logo Design Process for Just Creative Design’s Award Winning Logo

You love to travel, where are some of your favorite places that you’ve visited? What, if any, are the biggest challenges of keeping up with your work while traveling so often?

So far I have traveled to about 30 different countries around the Pacific and Western Europe but I would have to say Western Europe is my favorite as you can travel to so many places in such a short space of time and have a totally different culture change from each place. Every country has its own gems. The biggest challenge of traveling so much of course is keeping up with clients, work, emails and maintaining the blog however the best way around it is to plan ahead. For example, I set up email auto responders, got people to manage my blog and got guest articles to be posted on my time away etc.

What is the best piece of advice you would give someone just starting out in design?

Keep at it and don’t undercharge. Remember that there will always be someone better than you… and someone worse than you so don’t let that keep you from trying.

When you’re not behind the computer designing and blogging, what do you like to do to get away?

I am very much into the club/pub scene. I also love music, dance festivals, travelling and in the summer, going to the beach. These activities keep me busy.

What are your future goals/plans?

In the short future? Keeping at what I am doing, growing & learning. I also want to go to Canada to work on the slopes sometime next year. In the long term? Possibly working for a large design studio, while doing some freelance on the side and in the long long term, opening my own.

Jacob, I really appreciate you doing this interview! Is their anything
else you’d like to add?

Is this a hint? Hehe. Thanks for the opportunity for this interview Andrew and I hope your readers enjoyed it too! You can read more about me on my blog and you can also check out my portfolio too. http://justcreativedesign.com

That’s a wrap

Jacob, of course that last question was a hint, you know I have to promote my own blog sometimes, jk.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, or relay your questions for Jacob, drop me a comment using the form below.

Many thanks to Chris Spooner of blog.spoongraphics for taking the time to answer some of my questions. Chris is the creative and unique mind behind blog.spoongraphics. His site is renowned in the design community for having high quality tutorials, freebies and articles. His most recent tutorial on “How to Create a Vector Safari Compass in Illustrator” is yet another gem and certainly worth looking through.

Here’s the interview…

How and when did you get started in graphic/web design?

Strangely as far as I can remember I’ve always wanted to be a Graphic Designer, forget being a Firefighter or an Astronaut – design was my thing! Therefore throughout education I always went down the creative route, finalising in a degree in Art & Design.
Back when I was studying for my degree I also worked alongside a friend at his design studio undertaking various web and print jobs which was a great help to build up my experience in real-world commercial projects.

Tell us a little more about blog.spoongraphics and how you got started?

Blog.SpoonGraphics is my personal website that I use as a digital playground where I present design tutorials, articles and free giveaways. I feel the site allows me to develop and practice my skills without limitation whilst building additional experience of social media, search engine optimization and establishing relationships with fellow designers from around the world. The SpoonGraphics website started as my personal portfolio and a base for my freelance work, after seeing various design blogs on the web I decided to give blogging a go myself, I setup the subdomain Blog.SpoonGraphics, installed WordPress and began posting tutorials. Soon some of my posts gained pretty good traffic and the blog slowly developed to what it is today.

What other websites are you involved with?

I am currently working on a new project with a developer friend named myNiteLife, which is an online night life planner for my local city of Sheffield. The site will allow users to rate and review the local venues, upload photos and plan their nights out. It’s an exciting project that allows me to concentrate on the visuals while my experienced friend works his magic with Ruby on Rails. I also maintain my girlfriend’s driving instruction website; Revolution Driving Tuition, and have a small pligg based social news website called MTBvibe which collates Mountain Biking articles from across the web.

What’s the best part about working for yourself?

Although I haven’t taken the full plunge into freelance work, the main benefits I find are more freedom in terms of time and how many projects are managed, as well as the leisures of working from home.

Did you go to school for graphic/web design, or are you self-taught?

I studied through Hull University for a BA in Art and Design but I find self teaching to give the best results by researching topics and following the tutorials of others. Finding solutions to problems through experimentation for me, is the best way to pick up new skills and techniques.

What technologies do you know the least about, that you’d like to learn more?

I have been looking to learn Javascript recently and have just decided that jQuery will be my tool of choice, after following a couple of basic tutorials I seem to be able to pickup the syntax pretty well with it being similar to CSS. I’m now my quest to learn how to create a custom pieces of script to create a specific effects or functions rather than have to rely on ready made solutions!

What does a typical day look like?

I am currently under full time employment at a small Sheffield based design studio which means I undertake the daily 9-5 routine. A typical day involves working on various projects for both print and web such as leaflet designs, brochures, exhibition graphics and website design. Throughout the day I also enjoy browsing the internet, keeping up to date on various design related news and looking through my feed reader for updates on my favorite design blogs.

What was your favorite project that you’ve gotten to work on and why?

My favorite project so far would be the work created for Revolution Driving Tuition, being my girlfriend’s business it gave me (almost!) creative freedom. What was even better was the project entailed a huge range of design work ranging from the initial logo design and branding, through to advertising leaflets and posters, on to the vehicle graphics and finally the complete website design and promotion.

What software could you not make it through the day without?

I am constantly using the Adobe Creative Suite on a daily basis, particularly Illustrator, Photoshop and Dreamweaver. Without these programs my daily work would be much more difficult. However, more importantly without my web browser I wouldn’t be able to keep up to date with the design world!

Who has been your biggest inspiration?

I don’t have any individual person as inspiration, rather the design community as a whole. I regularly enjoy browsing inspirational lists found on design blogs which roundup various styles of illustration, digital art and website design. I have also been a long time subscriber to Computer Arts Projects magazine, which also presents plenty of great designers and artists in their articles.

What social media sites do you spend the most time at? What one’s have been the most effective for helping with your site’s traffic?

StumbleUpon has by far been the best source of traffic for Blog.SpoonGraphics, and would also be the one I tend to spend the longest browsing simply because it is never ending! However I do tend to find a lot of new and interesting content through the design specific sites of Design Float and Design Bump.

What sites are at the top of your feed reader?

I have many sites I enjoy reading on various topics of design, but the ones I find myself visiting on a regular basis are CSS Tricks, PSDTUTS , Web Designer Wall, GoMedia, Veerle’s Blog, Vandelay and Just Creative Design.

When you’re not on the computer, what do you like to do?

Myself and my girlfriend often enjoy checking out the latest movie releases at the cinema and I occassionally head out on my mountain bike for some offroad, downhill action!

What advice would you give, someone in your field who is just starting out?

The best piece of advice I could give would be to gain experience in the industry, gaining the knowledge of how projects are managed by established design studios can really help when it comes to taking on projects yourself. Having this initial experience is also a big bonues on your CV or Resume. It is also crucial to keep up to date on the latest news and technologies to keep your employability topped up, for example still being a completely table based web designer in these modern times would probably not get you very far in the web industry.

What methods do you use to get most of your projects?

Although I haven’t been promoting myself for freelance projects my personal website has attracted some useful business, having a selection of work presented in the form of an online portfolio gives potential clients the chance to check out what I have to offer. Having the blog is also highly beneficial in terms of traffic and the increased visibility of the whole site to the search engines.

What are your future plans/goals?

In the short term I am looking forward to working on some personal projects and maintaining Blog.SpoonGraphics with new tutorials and articles. In the long term my plans are to take the complete plunge as a freelancer.

That’s a wrap. Thanks again to Chris for doing this interview, I hope you’ve enjoyed it! If you have any comments, or additional questions for Chris, don’t hesitate to drop a comment using the form below.