Today I am launching a new interview section that will feature some of the top design bloggers online today. We will be discussing their work and various related topics of design and inspiration.
The inaugural interview is with Chris Spooner, owner of SpoonGraphics, blog.SpoonGraphics and Line25. He is one of the most popular and well known blogger/designers in the field.
1. What is your background and what you do that sets you apart ?
I’m a designer who has found an amazing level of exposure through blogging. Most people may know me from my design blog over at Blog.SpoonGraphics, or my newer site at Line25.com. On both these sites I write design tutorials, post insights into my projects or provide design inspiration. I guess this blogging activity is what has set me apart from being just a local designer, as it has provided me with a platform to develop my name and brand around the world, and has enabled potential clients to see what I can do and what style of work I produce.
Ideas and Inspiration from the Drawing Board of Creative Web Design - Question #1
2. Of all your work what is your favorite and which has gotten the most positive response?
Many of my favourite projects are personal jobs I’ve created out of either experimentation or through tutorials. One client related project that received quite a mass of feedback was the logo design for Vivid Ways. After enjoying working with the client with pretty much creative freedom, I decided to document the project as a walkthrough on my blog, showing the stages of the project through sketches to concepts and giving an insight into how the logo was built in Illustrator. This led to a huge selection of kind comments and responses from the readers, which I’m forever grateful for!
Vivid Ways Logo - Question #2
3. Since a large part of my blog is about design inspiration, could you tell me what are some of the more unique places that you have found and go to look for design inspiration?
The majority of my inspiration is found online, which is probably a little boring! I do however find inspiration while out and about in the real world. Such examples include clothes stores and supermarkets, there’s always promo designs and cool packaging designs to be found. Whenever something I find something interesting, I’ll take a snap on my iPhone, or make a mental bookmark. Every now and again auch inspirations give me cool ideas for projects I’m working on, are could be developed into blog topics.
Chris Spooner- Daily Inspiration - Question #3
4. What does your average day consist of?
My average day usually involves a selection of client jobs or the creation of blog posts. In the morning I’ll sit down at my desk and check out a bunch of sites and social networks before getting down to my first project of the day. I’ll break for lunch when my fiancee returns home from her morning lessons as a Driving Instructor, check out some tweets and follow some interesting links. In the afternoon I’ll continue with a second project, before ending the day and heading away from the computer. Every now and again I’ll make time to catch up on my collection of RSS feeds to keep myself updated on what’s going off in the blogging world, and post out the interesting links I find to Twitter to share my inspiration with others.
Chris Spooner Interview - Average Day - Question #4
5. How long have you been blogging and how (or why) did you start a blog?
My main blog over at Blog.SpoonGraphics was my very first blog, and was established back in April 2007. The reason was pretty simple, it was basically a personal experiment with the WordPress platform that I aimed to use as a playground where I could test out new techniques. After a short while some of the tutorials I wrote gained some exposure and the blog grew from there!
During its growth the blog became an increased source of client work and started generating an income of its own through advertising. This was a major help when I decided to take a leap forward in my career and head out as a freelance designer. At two and a half years old it’s still growing well, and I’m still enjoying helping people out with tutorials and design related articles. I remember picking up plenty of useful tips from tutorials when I was learning Photoshop and Illustrator so it’s natural for me to put back into community.
Chris Spooner Interview- Question #5
6. Where do you see the blogging world in 12-18 months?
Since I started my design blog, I’m pretty sure the scene has become more popular. Now there’s stacks of design blogs out there, and has probably become a little more difficult to get noticed and get your content off the ground. The use of video is always becoming increasingly popular. The guys at Obox have landed on their feet with their From The Couch video series, and a good selection of designers are providing awesome vlog content (EG: Danny Outlaw & Aaron Irizarry). With this in mind I wouldn’t be surprised if more designers used the video platform to generate content. I personally love the ability that video has to give a personal connection to the host, which really helps generate friendship and a loyal community.
Chris Spooner Interview- Video Blogging - Question #6
7. What are your five favorite websites/blogs that you visit on a regular basis? what about each do you like?
I have stacks of design blog RSS feeds in my reader, but there’s always a select few news aggregating sites I visit on a regular basis to catch new content from beyond my little bubble. These include DesignBump.com, the news section of DesignM.ag and the user submitted content over at CSSGlobe.com.
The main thing I love about all three is that they all provide links through to popular articles from across the design community, and can often lead to me discovering some awesome new blogs that I’d previously never come across.
Chris Spooner Interview- Question #7
8. Do you consider the explosion of design related blogs over the past six months to be positive, negative or neutral? Why?
It’s a positive for sure, it’s always great to see others sharing their knowledge and gaining exposure as a result. The great thing about the design community is there’s no competition to be superior to the next person – Everyone is always willing to help out, even with client work and problems such as website bugs. This is something you don’t really see in other industries.
Chris Spooner Interview - Question #8
9. If there was one piece of information that you wish you knew before you started in this career that you could pass on to beginners what would it be?
I’m forever picking up handy new tips and pieces of advice, but one that has proved pretty important to me was in relation to freelancing and not being scared of contending a client’s opinion about a certain area of the their project. For instance if they have a particular requirement or change to a design concept that I feel could be done in a different way, I’ll be sure to offer my advice. After all, they’ve hired a designer to make something look and work great, so I’ll be sure to try and make it happen! Sometimes we get stuck in the habit of doing whatever a clients says; ‘Make the logo bigger’, ‘Change the font’ etc! Giving feedback against such changes and explaining why you’ve done something a specific way can help keep projects on track, and keep you enthused about the work. On the other hand there’s always the puppet-master clients who don’t care about the designer’s decisions and want it doing their way! You know the ones…
Chris Spooner Interview - Final Question