If you haven’t heard of My Ink Blog we highly recommend you check out this interview. It’s full of well written articles about web design, from landing clients and typography to development resources such as j query and JavaScript.

Intro

Andrew Houle a self taught graphic designer who aims to give back what he learnt from the web has established a prominent and knowledgeable design blog.

1. Hello and a warm welcome to Digital Art Empire, Andrew thanks for this interview why don’t you tell us about yourself, your blog and background in design?

First off, thanks for the opportunity to do this interview! My name is Andrew Houle, and I’m the creator and primary contributor of MyInkBlog.I sort of stumbled into the design field when I landed a job at an art gallery and was asked to produce the company’s graphics and website.

I loved all the design work, but I really developed a passion for web design. Since then, I’ve continued to develop my skills. I’ve learned so much along the way from all the awesome design blogs and resources out there. I eventually began MyInkBlog as a way of giving back to the design community for all it had given to me.

2. MyInkBlog is a one-man show how do you juggle work commitments with what can easily be a full time occupation?

Well, it’s not entirely a one-man show. I’ve had numerous guest writers offer some awesome contributions, most notable, Angie & Rob Bowen, Tim Smith, and Guilio Bai. Even with the great help, it’s a lot of work to balance a full-time job, family time, and freelance projects.

I actually just wrote an article entitled, Managing Your Time: A Design Community Discussion where I talk about how I’ve tried to improve my work-flow and gain some perspective from some other well-respected members of the design community. In short, I think the best way to improve your time management is with prioritization and scheduling.

3. What’s you typical routine for coming up with ideas, writing and then publishing them?

My ideas for posts generally come from my everyday design experiences, or from inspiration on other design blogs. Developing a routine or schedule is definitely something that I could improve on. I find it so important to write things down so I don’t forget them. Sometimes I use pen and paper, but lately I’ve been using Evernote. It’s a cool and simple app that allows me to store all my notes in electronic form, and I can view them wherever I have an internet connection.

4. Please explain to us how and why you chose the name MyInkBlog?

My wife, Grace, helped me create that name when I first told her about my idea to start a design blog. We were brain storming all kinds of different ideas when she came up with a play on words for inkblot. It ended up being the one that stuck, and since inkblog.com was already taken, we settled on MyInkBlog.

5. I know you have a lot of influences, which are the designers who have given you enthusiasm and which blogs spur you on the most?

I have far too many blogs in my RSS feed; it takes me forever to browse through them all. There are so many good ones, and so many designers that inspire me. I find Adelle Charles of the Fuel Brand Network to be very inspiring. She’s taken 1 blog and turned it into an awesome array of 12 sites and counting. My list of other blogs that inspire me could be rather long, but here are 5 of my favorites right off the top of my head: CSS Tricks, Soh Tanaka, Build Internet, Spoon Graphics and Kyle Steed.

6. What are your favorite areas in graphic design? And what do you look forward to the most?

I love initial design process. It’s the point were ideas are flowing and you are just beginning to sketch. I look forward to any upcoming technology improvements in web design. In particular right now I’m quite excited about the CSS 3 and HTML 5 developments. The Typekit project also has me quite intrigued.

7. What do you believe are the most important skills an aspiring designer needs to have?

You don’t necessarily need to be the most naturally gifted designer to be good and to succeed, but you do need to have a passion and a drive to improve yourself. I think this is true in every walk of life.

8. What are your tools of the trade and which software do you use?

I use Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver CS4 all the time. I find firebug to be an invaluable debugging tool. Some other programs/apps I use daily are: Tweetie, VMware Fusion, MAMP, Skype, Evernote and svnX.

9. Finally thanks for this interview with Digital Art Empire do you have any advice for our readers?

Thanks again, for this opportunity. My advice would be to have a passion for what you do, but make sure to keep balance in your life.

Find MyInkBlog Here

MyInkBlog is the creation of Andrew Houle and is designed to be a resource for web and graphic designers alike Most of us in this industry are self-taught; and would not have the knowledge we’ve accumulated if it weren’t for many kind and intelligent people who have helped us along the way.

Interview with Johnson Koh from 10 Steps

Ben Rama

Ben Rama is a Graphic Designer, CG artist & Cinematographer from London. He is the founder & creative director at Digital Art Empire Find Ben on Twitter