Interviews | Webdesigner Depot

28 Sep

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.

Welcome to Skwak’s “Maniac World”

Illustrations, Inspiration, Interviews

30

“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

134

“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

105

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

Interview with Web Usability Guru,
Jakob Nielsen

Interviews, Usability, Web Design