An amazing Illustrator from Germany – He is fast becoming a high end designer .

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Fin Andrey Gordeev on the web .

http://gordei.com/

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Introduction:

Having recently graduated from the University College London with a Masters in Physics, Franz maintains the design resource site FudgeGraphics which is described as an ‘inspiration of design lovers’.

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

Hello. First of all I would like to thank you for this opportunity. So my name is Franz Jeitz, I was born in October 85 (which makes me 23 at the time of this interview) and I come from Luxembourg. 4 years ago I moved to London for university where I just completed a Masters in Physics. As a kid I did not draw on everything and apart from school assignments art and design was not on my regular schedule.

It all changed when I formed a band with friends and took on the job as designer. Slowly, but gradually I learned how to use Photoshop and Illustrator and discovered that I rather enjoyed it. After the band split I did not stop indulging in design. I followed many blogs and at some point decided it was time to give back to the community. That’s how Fudgegraphics came to life. Not only allowed it me to grow as a designer and to further develop my web development skills, but it also meant that I’d be an active member of the design community.

2 In terms of your designing careers where would you like to be in 5 years? Would you to prefer to work for a design agency or freelance?

In 5 years I would like to have built a solid client base whom I truly enjoy working for while still having the time (and financial security) to invest in the blog. I think working freelance and working for a design agency both have their perks. At the moment I see myself more as a freelancer since it gives me the liberty to grow and evolve. Even if I were to have job in a company I would always work freelance on the side.

3 You are currently studying a masters in physics which seems totally unrelated to graphic design, are they compatible?,do you draw inspiration from one to the other ?

As a matter of fact I’ve just graduated. You’re right design and physics are totally unrelated at first look. However I do not regret finishing my studies, before taking the plunge to go freelance full-time. On the one hand there is the security that a degree gives you and on the other hand the last 4 years helped me to grow (up). It was a great experience. Furthermore I think that the mathematical aspect of physics transcends into my design such as geometric forms which I use extensively.

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

As mentioned before it all started with the designs I did for my band at the time. it was however the design community which made me want to pursue this field. I can’t emphasize enough how great the community is. Only 2 months after launching the blog I already felt part of it due to the incredible friendly and helpful members. This gave me the strength and motivation to fully invest myself in it. There’s always the jealousy aspect which comes into play. Browsing through other designer’s portfolio and thinking “Wow! I wish I could create something like that” is a great motivation.

5 Running Fudge Graphics have you found this blog a good way to find clients ?What’s the best thing about maintaining a design site?

The blog helped me to find some of my clients, but most of them I get through referrals from other clients. The greatest benefit of having a design blog is being able to be involved in the design community and learning something new each day. With every article, tutorial and freebie I try to challenge myself. The same goes with the calendar wallpaper series where I try out new techniques every month.

6 How much does the design community play a part in how you run fudge graphics and what content you publish?

Strangely enough the design community plays a major role in terms of what content not to publish. It is important to stay up to date of current articles so that you don’t copy someone’s idea, which most of the time is involuntary. That is probably the hardest part of running a blog. Coming up with new ideas is very challenging. Studying the design community and other design blogs gives you a good insight into what the readers want whether it’s a certain type of inspirational article, tutorial or which Photoshop brushes are most popular. The market is evolving fast and it’s important to stay on top of it.

7 What do you plan on doing when you graduate from University College London?

Now that I’ve graduated I will focus all my energy on the freelance career and blog. I want to broaden my design skills and maybe some day sell apparel and posters of my designs.

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

I couldn’t live without Photoshop and Illustrator. I use them daily. At the same time I’m a big fan of traditional media such as paper, pencil and watercolors. They’re a great asset when giving your digital work a more organic feel. I can’t work without music, so iTunes is another program I use daily.

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

Thanks for having me. As a final word I would like to say that if you’re really passionate about design then go for it. The only person standing in your way is yourself. There will always be designers who are better than you, but that shouldn’t discourage you. It should be a motivation to improve your skills and evolve as a designer.

Find Fudge Graphics here.

Fudgegraphics was born in April 2008. With exams coming up I thought it would be a perfect time to start my own blog. Fudgegraphics can be described as a design inspirational blog. It is a source of freebies such as photoshop brushes, textures and vectors. I aim to make the quality the highest possible. With a design community so giving and helpful and nice it is my pleasure to provide free resources for like-minded people. Furthermore fudegraphics hosts my personal portfolio.

Johnson Koh is a graphic and web designer from Singapore. 10Steps.SG was created with the purpose to share his experiments with Adobe Photoshop and interesting news he come across in the design world.

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

Hi everyone. Thanks for asking me to do this interview. I’m feeling flattered. I come from a Multimedia Media background where I learnt the basics of Adobe and Macromedia applications. I used to be a heavy Flash user, where most of my portfolio works are developed with it. I started blogging only in the mid of last year. It is a whole new experience for me and I am totally addicted to it now. WordPress is just too fun and easy to use.

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

I am more frequent with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash.

3.  10Steps.SG is an interesting name. What is the philosophy and thinking behind it?

Photoshop is an amazing tool where effects can be created in many different ways. My initial thought is to make some cool works in Photoshop within 10 steps. Then put these experiments down in tutorials for those fresh designers as a head start to using the tool. However as time passes by, our regular readers’ knowledge have grown so fast. This is when I did not try to keep the initial plan and go on with writing tutorials focusing on more details and advanced techniques. Although, the blog name is still kept as it is J

4.  What are your plans for your design career over the next couple of years? How do you see 10Steps.SG growing and in which direction?

10Steps.SG is constantly improving itself with new features and better layouts. Many kind souls have been helping me to grow the site by sharing my posts on social networks. Hereby, I will take this chance to thank every single one of them. Although tutorials will still be the key focus on the site, I will also be doing up more freebies for my readers’ to download. So stay tuned!

5.  How much does the design community play a part in how you run 10Steps.SG?

Design community definitely plays a big part. A simple digg or retweet from them can make a difference to my articles. Without their support and constructive feedbacks, 10Steps.SG will not be what it is today.

6.  What content you publish and motivating you to succeed?

Designing is my personal interest and motivation. Anything that associates with graphic design will excite me and I want to share them with others who are having the same interest as me.

7.   Who are the top 3 artists you look up to and draw inspiration from?

They have to be Fabio Sasso (Abduzeedo), Georgio Xanthos (WeirdInk) and Masaki Hoshino (Hybridworks)

8.    Are you a self taught designer or have you been to a design school?

Mine is not really a design school. Apart from playing around with some Graphic Design tools, I also learnt Visual Basic and C++ programming, though I did not score well for the later.

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

Be passionate and focused on everything you do. Wish all the best for everyone here.

Find 10Steps .SG over here http://10steps.sg/about/

And Johnson‘s portfolio here http://www.evographik.com/

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.