Interviews | Webdesigner Depot

19 Dec
Web design predictions for 2012
Interviews, Web Designers, Web Developers
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Everything changes. The Internet and web design are certainly no exceptions to the rule.
As we move through the days and months ahead, it’s likely that in short time we’ll find ourselves talking about new design developments that haven’t rolled across our lips or screens yet.
We asked some of the leading web and user experience designers in the field for their predictions about what we might expect to see in the web design world in 2012.
Joining us are: Adelle Charles, Whitney Hess, Lis Hubert, Randy J. Hunt, Franz Jeitz, Michael Martin, Eric A. Meyer, Sarah B. Nelson, Jason Pamental, Jon Phillips, Dan Rose, Jared Spool, Nick Walsh, Tim Wright and Jeffrey Zeldman.
After you’ve had a chance to read their prognostications, please take a moment and tell us yours, too.   Best wishes for a happy, healthy, and well-designed 2012! Read more
9 Dec
An awesome HTML5 interactive music video
HTML 5, Interviews, Programming
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Designers and developers are pushing the envelope with what’s possible in interactive design on a continuous basis. And awesome new examples come out all the time.
One of the newest examples is an interactive music video for Evelyn, by ABBY.
It’s a fantastic site that gives you the opportunity to mix different instruments and vocal styles together, while the song is playing, for a completely custom experience.
We asked the developers how they created such an awesome interactive video, and got their tips for working on projects of this type. Read more
22 Sep
Mobile app design considerations for web designers
Apps, Interviews, Mobile
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Everywhere you turn these days people are talking about mobile apps. Apps for this, apps for that.
The statistics too, have been kind of staggering. One recent study by Flurry, showed that consumers spent 81 minutes per day using mobile apps, compared to 74 minutes of web surfing.
As more people begin to spend time on appms compared to the Internet, you may be wondering if mobile app design is an area you should begin to explore and how transferable your web design skills are.
In this post, we checked in with a number of experts in the field to gain their perspectives. Joining us are Robin Nixon, Aaron Maxwell, Sarah Lynn, Mike Gualtieri, Josh Clark, and J.D. Biersdorfer.
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13 Sep
Interview: Andreas Shabelnikov
Design, Interviews, Web Designers
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Even if you’ve never heard of Andreas Shabelnikov, you’ve almost certainly seen some of his work.
Originally from Latvia, he’s a freelance interactive designer and photographer who’s been involved in a number of high-profile site designs, including Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Last Airbender, Sweeney Todd, and the Stardust movie site.
Here Andreas talks about how he got started designing for such large studios, what his favorite projects have been, and his design process.
And he offers up some tips for new designers who would like to follow a similar career path. Read more
14 Jul
Interview with designer and typographer, Erik Spiekermann
Fonts, Interviews, Typography
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Throughout his illustrious career as a designer and typographer, Erik Spiekermann has created dozens of commercial typefaces (FF Meta, FF MetaSerif, ITC Officina, FF Govan, FF Info, FF Unit, LoType, Berliner Grotesk) and many custom typefaces for world-renowned corporations.
Erik and his wife Joan, revolutionized the world of digital fonts twenty-two years ago when they started FontShop—the first mail-order distributor for digital fonts.
This year, he was awarded the Federal Republic of Germany’s 2011 Design Prize for Lifetime Achievements— a most noble accomplishment. The exhibition, Erik Spiekermann, The Face of Type recently took place at the Bauhaus-Archive Museum of Design in Berlin.
Spiekermann is an Honorary Professor at the University of the Arts in Bremen, the author of the Adobe Press title, Stop Stealing Sheep, and the originator of the colorful map for the Berlin metro system.
He recently took time out of his busy schedule to speak to Webdesigner Depot about typeface design and what he sees next in his future. We thank Mr. Spiekermann for speaking with us and invite WDD readers to comment on how his contributions to typeface design have helped shape your work. Read more
24 May
Interview with Dribbble’s co-founder Dan Cederholm
Design, Interviews, Opinion
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Dribbble has quickly become one of the most popular communities online for designers.
It offers the opportunity for designers to get feedback on their works-in-progress, show off the work they’ve just completed, and otherwise network with others in the field.
While Dribbble has been largely successful in the design community, there has also been some controversy surrounding certain aspects of the site.
Dan Cederholm, one of Dribbble’s co-founders, took time from his busy schedule to answer a few questions about where Dribbble has been, where it is now, and where it plans to go next, as well as to address some of the criticism that’s been directed at it.
We thank Dan for this candid interview and invite all WDD readers to chime in and let us know what you think about it in the comments.
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4 Jan
Web Design Predictions for 2011
Design, Interviews, Web Design
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As is most often the case with the Internet, many of the trends and products people are talking about today weren’t part of our collective lexicon two and three years ago. And some, weren’t even discussed as recent as the first quarter of 2010!
As we head into the New Year, we were curious about what we can all expect to see in Web Design in 2011, and asked some of the leading Web Designers and Web Design Writers in the field for their predictions.
After you’ve had a chance to read their illuminating thoughts, please take a moment and tell us your predictions, too.
Best wishes for a happy, healthy and well-designed 2011! Read more
27 Dec
Are You a Comic Sans Criminal?
Fonts, Interviews, Typography
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Who knew that a college graphic design project could turn into an overnight viral sensation?
On Tuesday, December 22nd, UK-based graphic design student Matt Dempsey, 21, launched a cute primer called Comic Sans Criminal.
The elegant site instructs amateur designers how to use the most juvenile-looking typeface in a designer’s toolbox.
His cheeky project caught on, causing “Comic Sans” to trend on Twitter on Wednesday and gaining nearly 200,000 unique viewers in the first 30 hours of its launch.
Grace Bello interviewed Dempsey on behalf of WDD, about his design background, the popularity of Comic Sans Criminal, and the typeface personalities with which he’d like to go out for a beer. Read more
28 Sep
Interview with Web Usability Guru,
Jakob Nielsen
Interviews, Usability, Web Design
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In this article, we’ll be focusing on web usability and more specifically, on the views of world renowned usability expert, Jakob Nielsen.
He’s been called “the guru of Web page usability” by the New York Times and “the king of usability” by Internet Magazine.
Through his Alertbox newsletter and useit.com website, he has been educating hundreds of thousands of web designers around the world since 1995.
While his views can be controversial, especially for web designers, he remains the top leader in the usability field.
I recently interviewed Jakob Nielsen exclusively for WDD and asked him a few questions that should be relevant to all web designers interested in creating user friendly websites.
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9 Sep
Welcome to Skwak’s “Maniac World”
Illustrations, Inspiration, Interviews
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“Skwak” is an awesome French illustrator living in the North of France.
He created a graphic world that he calls the “Maniac World” where everything is exaggerated.
His works revisit children’s fairy tales and universal myths.
The adventures of his characters – the Maniacs – are inspired by situations from daily life (love stories, treason, manipulation, etc) and is always represented in a very exaggerated fashion.
The ‘maniacs’ express the idea of “too much”, escalation through power, wealth, plastic surgery, celebrity and much more.
We’ve compiled some of his best works for this article and have also included a short interview with “Skwak” about his fascinating work. Read more
28 Jul
Interview with SpecWatch:
The Naked Truth About Design Contests
Contests, Interviews, Web Designers
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“Spec work” stands for speculative work. It’s a term used to refer to any job for which the client expects to see examples with no guarantee of payment.
The Internet has accelerated its growth in the form of “design contest” websites, and these businesses have advertising machines that draw in thousands of unsuspecting designers who think it’s normal to give away their intellectual property for nothing.
With the increasing prominence of “spec work” businesses, we’re witnessing more and more about the downsides of the practice, and there’s one initiative in particular that’s documenting what goes on — SpecWatch.
David Airey, a well respected graphic designer, has approached WDD with this important issue and we felt it was necessary to bring light to this important subject.
Here’s the exclusive interview David conducted with SpecWatch for WDD readers. Designers take note… Read more
10 Jul
Impressive Pencil Art by Jennifer Maestre
Art, Inspiration, Interviews
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Jennifer Maestre creates stunning sculptures out of pencils. Yes, you read right: pencils!
Her work is hard to describe and difficult to compare with anything else that I’ve seen before.
She was originally inspired by the form and function of sea urchins:
“The spines of the urchin, so dangerous yet beautiful, serve as an explicit warning against contact. The alluring texture of the spines draws the touch in spite of the possible consequences.”
I interviewed Jennifer and asked her about her stunning art, her sources of inspiration and her beginnings.
I’ve also included a selection of her incredible work. A true designer with limitless imagination… Read more
8 Apr
Meet Jos Buivenga: The Designer of the Museo Font
Fonts, Interviews, Typography
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If you frequent design and CSS galleries, you may have stumbled time and time again upon an excellent typeface released last year that took the design world by storm. I’m talking about Jos Buivenga’s font ‘Museo’.
I’ve never seen a font being adopted so quickly and fondly by web designers across the world. It’s been listed as one of the top 10 fonts of 2008 by MyFonts.com
Museo is being used everywhere, web and print, including our own logo here at Webdesigner Depot. Museo Sans, its sans serif companion, was recently introduced and another style is in the works.
In this article, I’m interviewing Jos Buivenga, the author of the popular Museo font and find out more about his influential typeface, his design process and what the future holds. Read more
18 Feb
Meet Radim Malinic: The Graphic Artist Behind Webdesigner Depot
Color, Design, Interviews, Webdesign
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When I started crafting the idea for the Webdesigner Depot blog, I was looking for a designer that could create a design for the site demonstrating the fun aspects of design while being colorful, vibrant and using many different design elements. The blog was intended to be a relaxed, fun place to explore the different aspects of design.
I found Radim Malinic and his exceptional work through Webdesigner Magazine. I love the way his designs explode with boldness, color and shapes, truly demonstrating the infinite possibilities of design, being somewhat risky by breaking out of the norm. I wanted WDD to be exactly that, a loose grip on all things related to design.
Here’s an interview that I recently conducted with Radim, in order to gain more insight into his professional work, his personal life and the way that he crafted the memorable design of Webdesigner Depot, which is now featured in countless website galleries. Read more