I was very pleased to get the chance of an interview at Web Designers Interviews.

Rich, please tell us a bit about your background. How did you get into web design? How long have you been in it? Did you get any design education?
I got into design around 1998, later than I would have liked and therefore missed the opportunity of an education or at least a degree, though it certainly hasn't held me back. After college, I started an Amiga software distribution company which was working out really well but for those of you who can remember the Commodore Amiga, it just wasn't happening after the mid 90's. During this time I was hand coding websites and designing CDRom covers so it was something I was interested in, but didn't think of it as a career path. It was only when Commodore sold out to Gateway that my business ceased and I realised I had a strong interest in design.

What projects were the most important in your career?
During my time as a junior designer I was given the opportunity to design a site, flash game and e-cards for an FMCG brand called Enjoy Organics. It was such a responsibility and a lot of pressure to deliver something at the level required, I didn't even believe in myself at that time, I just had great guidance from the team and my senior.

You've worked for a number of studios. Was it a useful experience? What made you want to work for yourself?
Vital! This is a must for all designers or developers, no matter which studio you work for you will learn and you will learn a lot. I once worked for a studio which was possibly the worst place I have ever worked, getting out of there was like being resuscitated from drowning, but I still took positives from it. Even if all you learn is how to treat customers and fellow peers, you've learnt something vital.

You've partnered up with another designer Susannah Whiteand yet you don't have a common website. How is this partnership helping you?
Susannah is my partner in life and business, so we work together on a lot of projects. Having the luxury of working alongside another designer whilst working for yourself is extremely beneficial for bouncing ideas off each other, you're constantly learning whilst working alongside a respected peer. We're still a young collaboration which is why we don't have a common website yet, we just haven't got round to working on it. There will be a ‘Brown & White' website eventually so watch this space.

Please explain the color scheme of your portfolio. Was it dictated by your last names?
Of course! We toyed with the idea of being less literal, but it's such a gift identity it would have been a real shame not to use it. Sometimes an idea is just so simple and perfect why try to be clever about it.

Your skills include graphic and interface design, front-end development, illustration. What kinds of projects do you prefer - those centering around one of these skills or those that span all of them? Why?
I'm actually moving away from front-end development, design is my passion so that's the area I wish to concentrate on. I'm now in my 12 year as a professional, over the years It's been a necessity to have an adequate level of multiple skills to get by but I've found the higher the level you work at, the more you need to concentrate and put all your focus into one thing, otherwise you're in danger of being labelled a ‘jack of all trades'.

How would you describe the style of your designs?
I try not to let personal style overtake a design and always approach each project differently, however if I had to define my own style I would say simple yet striking and timeless. I love timeless design classics, give me an Anglepoise Lamp, a Miles Van Der Rohe Barcelona Chair or a Charles Eames Coffee Table any day. I love to keep things simple yet striking, I absolutely adore good typography, favouring classic typefaces such as Helvetica, Din, Bodoni, Avante Garde, Clarendon etc. I try to avoid trends, web trends are a bit like shopping at Top Man or Ikea or listening to chart music, they have no depth, durability, originality or style... style is important!

Is it hard to find clients these days?
Direct clients yes, but mainly due to limited budgets and not for the lack of enquiries. We mostly work with other studios, this way we don't have to rely on finding our own clients and working with other studios allows us to maintain a certain level of quality because we tend not be as restricted by budgets.

How much time do you spend working each day? What does a typical day look like?
A typical work day could be around 10-12 hours, 6-7 days a week. I tend to start the day browsing my google reader feeds and answering any enquiries for around an hour with a cup of tea but once I start a project it's hard work right though the day until late evening breaking for lunch, walking the dog and dinner.

I had this notion that working for myself would consist of working around 3-4 day weeks allowing plenty of time to myself, but I don't think I've ever worked so hard in my life. I try to keep up with my blog and twitter updates when I get a chance but finding time to work on my own projects is almost impossible.

Is it easy to generate ideas? Where do you find inspiration?
I find the ideas stage is often the hardest, but it's the most rewarding of the stages. I like to allow plenty of time for putting together moodboards and wireframes. The moodboards consist of things I like the feel of for the project at hand, it could come from anything from product packaging, typography, colour schemes, magazine layouts, photography, posters, shop fronts... anything really.

When you were a beginning designer, who did you admire and try to follow?
I don't think I tried to follow anyone, digital design was still very early when I started. When I got into design professionally, as a junior I certainly took a lot of inspiration from David Carson, I loved his unorthodox approach, breaking pretty much every design rule but his work was phenomenal. I remember trying to emulate his print design on screen and failing miserably. Like myself he didn't study design at university so he was a real inspiration to me. I used to read magazines such as Creative Review for creative ideas, old Habitat catalogues and Wallpaper magazine for layout ideas. 10 years ago, (as I remember) Coolhomepages was the biggest and most popular online gallery at the time, if not the only digital online gallery. I remember looking at these amazing designs on Coolhomepages and thinking one day I would love to have a site featured on here.

What would you recommend to beginning designers now?
Get as much experience working in studios as possible, don't even think about working for yourself without a good 6-10 years of experience behind you. You can only really learn and improve by working with people better than you. I've been designing professionally for around 12 years now, I don't particularly think of myself as a good designer, I just know I can do a good job. I still have so much to learn, I want to be better and that will happen with time and effort.

 

Brown & Whitehave just launched a new website for the UK based rock band The Pineapple Thief.The band are anticipating the imminent release of their new album 'Someone Here is Missing', and to help promote it has a big bold shiny new website. The interesting thing about the build of this site is the whole thing was built on the wordpress platform which we will be exploring more on future projects. The artwork on the site was designed by the legendary Storm Thorgerson who is famous for his sleeve design for bands such as Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.

Check out the new site.

We went to see Marina & The Diamonds last night at the Norwich Arts Centre, didn't know too much about them prior to going, after a terrific performance I'm very much looking forward to the debut album. You can view a couple of photos from the gig here.

We've finally launched a new portolio site for illustrator Andy Ward. Andy wanted a new site, designed to feel more professional and branded. The design needed to be sympathetic to his illustration style, or at least complimentary with an overall feeling of fresh, friendly and clean. Visit the site here.

My flyer design has been featured as a double page spread in the Japanese publication 'The image of business cards today.'

We went to see Breakestra last night at the Norwich Arts Centre... the bad points about the gig is Mixmaster Wolf wasn't there on the night, I had to stop dancing an hour and half into it (yep it was that long) because I was dying to use the toilet, and my right ear drum feels very damaged today... the good point was it's easily the best gig I have ever been to... period! This has now raised the standards of gigs so high I'm concerned I will be disappointed with anything else, if you get the chance to see them, don't hesitate, get a ticket!

You can check out a few photos I shot on the night here,unfortunately I couldn't get any other angles ;)

We have a Brown and White holding page! A special mention for Susannah, who spent ages kerning various typefaces for a very long time, well done sweetie. Full site coming soon (depending on how busy we are)...

I just got in from walking the dog and Miss White said she had some very good news. The Skylinehas been featured on Site Inspire...whoop! My favourite site has just featured one of my finest pieces of work which is an impressive achievement for me as I see everything featured on here is the cream of crop of digital design.

This week I've been featured in Web Designermagazine as a CSS All Star!

www.rdbrown.me.uk is the personal showcase for Norwich based freelance web designer Richard Brown. The site was designed in December 08 and launched in January 2009. At the time of the design process I was adamant on staying well away from the sketchy/homemade look which was a very common design trend of the moment. As much as I liked it, I just couldn’t bring myself to design something that had already been done 1000 times before and something I would be bored with after only a few days or weeks from launch. I wanted something clean and minimalist that would allow the work in my portfolio to speak for itself, something that wouldn’t confuse visitors and displays what I do from an instant glance.

The css and scripts used are extremely simple yet effective. There’s a nice jQuery script called Sliding Boxes for the latest portfolio pieces. I’ve also used twitter and flickr badges to pull in my latest social networking feeds.

Sliding Boxes
For my portfolio site, I used a really simple yet effective Sliding Box jQuery script by designer Sam Dunn to display my latest work at a glance. All of the sliding box animations work on the same basic idea. There is a div tag (.boxgrid in my css) that essentially acts as a window where two other items of your choosing “peek” through. I decided upon using just one sliding effect to keep the selections consistent, but there are actually six different transitions you can select from, you can take a look at the options here http://buildinternet.com/live/boxes/.

Using the script itself is extremely painless. Simply insert the script in the header of your page, here you can specify the size and duration of the transition. Customize the css to fit the style of your website, then simply insert a line of code specifying the div class, alter the image path, description of the project if necessary and amend the link path to the correct destination. 

I'm so pleased as I've been getting rather a lot of coverage recently for a few sites I've designed on various css galleries and blogs even winning some awards! Here's just a few of the featured links:

Moluv
- Featured Site Award Winners for Zaum & Brown and Sick City Club: The freshest web designs come from the creators of the world's best-looking web sites.

Smashing Magazine
- 30 Fresh and Inspirational Portfolios With A Twist

The Best Designs
- Zaum & Brown featured.

CSS Mania
- Zaum & Brown gets voted as a 'favourite'.

Design Shack
- Zaum & Brown gets featured.

Make Better Websites
- Zaum & Brown featured.

abduzeedo.com
- Zaum & Brown featured under Web Design: Awesome Magazine Style Sites

Konigi
- Zaum & Brown and Sick City Club featured.

Design You Trust
- Zaum & Brown website & flyer design, Rich Brown Portfolio and Sick City Club featured.

There's been many other featured sites too including Creattica, Spyrestudios, Design Bombs, Pattern Taps, CSS Creme, Light on Dark, Design Flavr, Net Vibes, Best CSS Gallery, Design Fridge, CSS Fresh Blend, CSS Wow, CSS Perk, We Love CSS, CSS Daddy and many many more.

Miss White & I went so see Michael McIntyre last night at the Theatre Royal in Norwich and I have to say it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. We could almost relate to all of his 'middle-class' observational humour, just brilliant. If you haven't seen him before, check out the click below from his Live at the Apollo show.

My portfolio has been featured on Design Shacktoday, I'm feeling proud of myself :)
Thanks Design Shack!

I chose to leave my day job after about 12 months consideration. I saved up, put some money in the bank and took out a bank loan to last me 6 months mortgage payments just in case I failed miserable. Luckily, thing have gone very well for me, I didn't need to touch any of my savings and I paid the loan off within 6 months. So why are most designers afraid to go it alone as a freelance web (or print) designer? I can only assume it's a distinct lack of confidence in themselves... not necessarily their ability to do the work but to go out and get the work, have the self discipline, communication skills with clients and day to day running duties of a business.

Although there is a significant increase in the number of graphic designers offering freelance design services, I don't know whether it's down to the recession or they are realising they are truly underpaid and freelancing potentially provides better opportunities and higher pay. I thought it would be worth writing a bit about things I have learned so far and if you decide to follow me in the realms of freelance design, then here's some important rules for you to follow to achieve success:-

1. I learn't this in my previous place of employment when they sent me on a time-management course... you have to learn when to say 'No'. It is important to be able to say 'NO' if you disagree with the clients brief. Don't be afraid to re-write the brief of you have a legitimate reason for doing so and be confident in explaining your reasons. After all, you are the professional, you're not an artworker and there's no point in being a doormat if you believe the clients requests could have a major impact on the output of the product (which they will blame you for later on). If the client resists, be polite, be positive, hold your ground... if they really won't accept your changes, try to compromise but make sure they are aware of your concerns. In worst case scenarios, don't be afraid to pull out of the project but because you may encounter trouble that is not worth your time or effort and there are many more clients out there appreciative of your skills
   
   
2. Communicate well with your client, don't be afraid to ask questions. I tend to find clients speak to you with the assumption you know everything about their product or service and majority of the time I haven't a clue what they are talking about. So I find it imperative to get as much information about them and their services or products, make notes, offer suggestions, ask about competitors, what they like, what they don't like. Always be polite, positive, and persistent.
   
   
3. Whilst working as a freelance designer, make sure you always push yourself to research, lean and enhance your working skills and keep up with modern trends and styles. It's a never-ending process, and to fall behind puts you behind.
   
   
4. Relax! Find the time. I have a puppy which forces me to go out every day for a walk, even when i'm up to the eye-balls with deadlines. It gives you some breathing space and refreshes you. Sometimes I find I can waste 30 minutess looking at my screen thinking.. 'my god i'm tired'... I would be much better off stretching the legs for 30 minutes, returning fresher, more relaxed and more awake!
   
   
5. We have to enjoy what we're doing or what's the point? Even when you get those jobs that seem never ending, and the clients always changing everything. As designers, I think we were born to moan, and moaning is healthy as long as you don't do it to your client and you can it as a positive challenge. Ideally the challenge is cracking this job that's just not working, and when it's right you'll be much happier for it. If all else fails, just think of the paycheck if that's what it takes to get you through it, but whatever it takes, enjoy it.
   
   
6. The importance of a relaxed personal life. I left full-time employment because of the stress of day to day work which reflected badly on my overall personal happiness, which then reflected on my enjoyment of working. As a freelance designer I've found my work is much more enjoyable, it's in my own time and my time is managed by me. I do find more time to myself where I can either work on my own creative projects or if I wish simply hit the playstation at 2 in the afternoon, or if I wish to do these things all day and not actually start my work until 8pm is my choice, it's a case of freedom which I find very valuable to a happy life.
   
   
7. Good working relations is vital as a freelance web designer or graphic designer. It's very important to build good working relations with anyone and everyone. Even those that aren't necessarily repeat customers... ask yourself... will they be back next year with design tweaks, or a new website or a new brochure. There's also good word and mouth which is more valuable than anything, it's how I get most of my work and rely on it heavily. Implement ethics and honesty, do not commit to promises you can't keep, it's always better to be truthful and meet expectations.
   
   
8. Take the time to learn about business and finance. As a freelance designer, you are managing a business of your own. Just because you have no employees or office space, it doesn't make it any less of a business. You are the boss of your company and you have to learn the ABC'S of business, learn about tax, invoicing, retrieving payments, tie management, project management, talking to clients, meeting deadlines, everything is done by you and is your sole responsibility.
   
   
9. Do not take rejection or criticism personally. Not every client will appreciate how long you've taken on kerning your type or even know what it is. Not all client's will appreciate a pantone isn't used in web design, not every client will appreciate your experience in laying out a user journey. Because of this, they will come out with some brash ideas, some of which a just not viable, but you have to consider one thing, they know their clients better than you do, so if they want to make the 'SAVE MONEY' offer bigger, brighter and flashing... it's not because they don't like your work, it's because they know their clients well.
   
   
10. Hit your deadlines! Whatever you're freelancing in, whether you're a freelance web designer or a freelance graphic designer it's important to hit deadlines. Be professional and committed. If you can't hit the deadline don't take the job on, one missed deadline could result in bad word and mouth and the results could be a lot worse for you than one unhappy customer.

 

Our puppy Chloé was spayed a couple of weeks ago and yesterday we took her for her first walk in the park since the operation. It was a hot day, she got tired very quickly but loved every minute of it. Here's a couple of photos of me and Chloé enjoying the sunshine.

Miss White & I went to see Howling Bells in March 2009 at the Norwich Arts Centre. It was a fantastic performance even though I'm not too keen on the new album. It was amusing to see lead singer Juanita get extremely frustated by the Norwich crowd as they were so quiet and rigid, we felt young at this gig which is a rarity now we've hit our 30's... I can only imagine this is the reason behind their more accessible pop focused 2nd album and image change. Regardless of all that, we met the band... apart from Juanita who seemed to bugger off rather early after the show... bought myself a t-shirt and got it signed :)