Robert Palmer a web & graphic designer based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Started designing and drawing from a young age and most of his design skills and knowledge are self taught.

Rob moved in to digital media while doing my Multimedia Design Course at Newcastle College. On the course he learnt a range of skills and software including Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, QuarkXPress, Cinema 4D, Flash, typography, future trends, new media and advertising.

1

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

Hi guys! Firstly thank you for inviting me to participate in this interview.

Well were do I start!? I am 26 (Soon to be 27!) I live with my wife and dog in Newcastle upon Tyne. I started out designing from quite a young age, I think I was in senior school when I really realised my passion for drawing and designing.

I spent most of my time after school up in the art department or over in the design lab either painting, drawing or building some sort of model in design and technology. These things ranged from a full sized version of a heron welded from metal, to a bespoke home workstation for my bedroom which included a spinning island for shelves and a base for my rather large aquarium!

So yeah I guess I was always kind of in the right environment to progress down the art and design route. It helped that my senior school was awesome and housed a ton of resources for these departments. It was also set in beautiful grounds over looking the river so we where never really stuck for inspiration.

I didn’t really get into the IT side of design until later on, in fact it was after my A levels and finishing senior school before I really got into computing. I took a computing course at my local college and then advanced to my Multimedia design course in Newcastle.

This course really spread the scope for me to more or less choose which profession I took as it was multimedia we covered a wide range of skills such as 3D modelling, Flash, Graphic Design, New media trends, Web design with a dabble of development and PHP basics, and a large proportion of it was about Accessibility in web design.

After graduating from my course I went solo for a while creating some small web projects to build up my portfolio. I was then given an opportunity to work as a Graphic and Web designer for a Printers in my neighbouring town of Sunderland. This really opened up the door for me as when I joined there was not really any form of Web department, so I was tasked to build the foundations of the web and digital side of the business. This grew quite nicely and we were tasked with quite a few nice web projects.

After a couple of years I felt it was my time to move on and expand my skills, so I was colored by my current agency Guerrilla. They have some great clients and an already solid and grounded digital team so I was buzzing to get my teeth in to some bigger projects and work with a team of developers and designers.

It was around this time (July 2008) That Branded07 really took off. I started running Branded07 as a portfolio site for m all my web projects but it has kind of developed into a variation of a work portfolio / blog / tutorial / design showcase kind of website, which is cool as it adds a nice variety of content on the site rather than just a portfolio site, and I have had some amazing feedback from visitirs of Branded07.

And that pretty much my journey so far!

2

Branded 07 is a one man show how do you juggle work commitments with what can easily be a full time occupation?

Well, it is proving manageable, but sometimes quite tricky. Basically my full time profession at Guerrilla sometimes means that I have to stay back and work late certain nights, so it is quite hard to manage my freelance projects.

It does involve an air of dedication to come back from work and then do another 4-5 hours of work, but I love my job so much the time just flies and I haven’t as of yet felt the burn out of doing two jobs! The only real sacrifice is I don’t see my wife half as much as I should, but I am dedicating a full Sunday off from work now so I can have a little more family time in my life!

Holidays and time off is also a pain as I have no cover to take on projects while I am away it it means pretty much closing shop for a week, but I find as long as my clients are aware of this early on it does seem to work out pretty well.

3

How did you get into design /digital art who and or what initially made you want to pursue this field?

Well to be honest I actually originally wanted to get into Architecture. My first course at uni for a year was Architectual Technology. I got half way through and found I really was not enjoying it, there was far to much maths and science involved and not enough design for my liking. But one thing I did pick up on the course was the use of computers in design.

I was also very into my computer games and the graphical side of games always impressed me.

I don’t think I recall ever a specific time when I thought “that’s what I want to do” I guess I have always kind of thought it would be the path I would take, especially with technology and the digital era evolving as it has, it was just the logical thing to do to move from traditional design styles to digital media. It was either that or classical art but I was always more technically focused so this may have been the wrong direction for me.

4

Please explain to us how and why you chose the name Branded07 ?

Branded07 actually came about because I “needed” a name for my site. I wanted originally to call my site “Branded”, but this domain was obviously unavailable! And the year I bought the name was 2007. I know, pretty un inspiring huh!? Well I am in the process of re branding my site any way and I have come up with quite a few new names which I am going to run through a questionnaire for the nice people who have signed up on my site to be involved in the sneak peeks throughout my re-design. So I guess, watch this space!

5

Running branded 07, have you found this blog a good way to find clients?whats the best thing about maintaining a design site?

Definitely, I have had all my clients come through my site rather than traditional means. I have also not paid a penny of advertising. I was lucky enough to be featured on quite a few different design galleries, and it was from here that I received the majority of my interest.

The best thing about maintaining my site is when I have a new project to present! I love hosting my new work and receiving comments (Good or Bad) about what I put up. Although I only like the bad if it is constructive!

I just get a buzz about hearing what others have to say about my work.

6.

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

Obviously web design has a range of milestones throughout the process and I guess most web designers have specific process they look forward to and ones that they really don’t. My favourite time is actually the PSD layout stage. Turning wireframes into a full colour visual is just great as it is at this stage where I can really bring the ideas to life.

7

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

Dedication and a will to learn. That’s all. If you read, carry out tutorials, practice and dedicate as much time as possibly to improving your skills then anything is possible.

Every day I find different inspiration and learn new skills. Also get out of the office a bit! Find inspiration from every day natural things. There is nothing more inspiring than going for a walk around town with your dog and taking some photos of different objects. You can use them for textures, colours combinations, backgrounds you name it! Any they are all royalty free!!

8

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

I am an Adobe fan, at the moment I work with CS4 Dreamweaver, Illustrator and Photoshop.

9

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

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

Only to keep working at what you do and put the time in, you will see the benefits and when you finally do, it is a great feeling! I am hopefully still at the beginning of my journey, and even though I have been doing this for 5 years, I am not even slightly bored and every new project is a new challenge! If you can get your foot in and get a portfolio built up, it is an amazing industry to be apart of!

Find Branded 07 here with an awe and inspiring portfolio you should definitely check out.

If you loved this insightful interview as much as we did  please let us and Rob know your thoughts cheers.Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

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