Designer – Jonathan Woodward
Website – jonathanwoodwardstudio.com
Blog – zero2illo.com/
Twitter – @jonwoodward

1. How much time do you dedicate to learning design every day?
I don’t dedicate specific time for learning each day (with client work and a one year old daughter, there just isn’t enough time) but I think every new job is a learning experience. Whether it’s researching an industry for a new branding project or Googling reference images of a specific bird to work out the best way of representing their feathers in my collage illustration style, it’s all visual problem solving and constant learning.

2. What other designers do you have contact with on a regular basis?
As we’re Location Independent and move around so much, I don’t really know any other illustrators in everyday offline life but that’s why the internet is so great. Using social networking sites like Twitter is like having a great bunch of like minded people that share your passion for design and illustration right next door.

zero2illo the site I set up for aspiring illustrators wanting to turn pro has also allowed me to make many great connections with fellow illustrators too. Even more so since I added a forum to the site when I launched the zero2illo 12 Week Challenge project as we have a growing community of passionate, talented illustrators who are always willing to lend a hand to other community members whether it’s a critique for another members work or just a few encouraging words and a chat from time to time.

3. Who are the top 2-3 designers that you respect and why?
Dave McKean
I think Dave McKean is probably one of the most creative people on the planet. Seeing his work at University was what made me want to be an illustrator. He just seems to be able to master any medium he turns his hand to whether that be illustration, writing, film making or music and he can pretty much draw the pants off anyone.

James Jean
James Jean is another pioneer that does things his own way with a unique and beautiful illustration voice. From his covers for the Fables comics (that looked like nothing else around at the time) to his self initiated projects like his Process Recess series of sketchbooks, he’s leading the way in showing what is possible for artists wanting to make a living from their work. His design sensibility, attention to detail and sheer drive is an inspiration.

James Gurney
Not only is James Gurney a master of his craft, responsible for the superbly written and lavishly illustrated Dinotopia books, he is a walking encyclopedia of art history and technique. He is also extremely generous with his time sharing his vast knowledge through his blog, presenting the information in his own unique (and often laugh out loud) manner. Another great voice in contemporary illustration.

4. What’s your favorite website or design you ever made and why?
Although not necessarily my favourite ever illustration, the most important illustration I’ve made so far is probably ‘One For Sorrow, Two For Joy’ as it was the first time I tried working in the traditional collage medium I work in today. It was from this point that I began to organically find my illustration style and voice after years of trying to force it based on influences from my favourite illustrators.

5. Have you ever been published in a book or magazine? What books or magazines?
I had my first ever published work in an illustration source book called ‘The Big Book Of Contemporary Illustration’ last year (2009). It was very exciting as the opportunity came at just the right time too as my current collage style was just emerging and this was a chance to get it out there in print.

The author found my work through my participation in Penelope Dullaghan’s amazing Illustration Friday project, so it was also a good lesson on the importance of taking part in projects like this as you never know who is looking.

6. What’s your favorite color in hexadecimal? How often do you find yourself leaning towards it with design projects?
I don’t have a favourite colour as such as my collages are made from magazine clippings (usually fashion magazines) where texture is just as important as colour to me in the choices that I make when working on an illustration.

7. What’s your most recent project we can look at?
The most recent illustration that I completed is the 5th bird in a self initiated series I’m working on called ’12 English Birds’ and was ‘The Puffin’. It was also a special piece as it was the first time that I created one of my collages digitally using Photoshop as my scissors and glue.

I’ve always purposely stayed away from digital as whenever I’ve tried it in the past it made me lazy and less creative with the textures and clippings I was choosing due to it being too easy to manipulate things in Photoshop. This time however, I forced myself to use only what was available in the scanned magazine pages and literally use Photoshop solely as my scissors and glue.

The only thing I miss about this new way of working digitally though is having an original piece of work that I can physically hold in my hands, but the greater efficiency in workflow going digital makes it worth while.

If you’re looking to print brochures or business cards check out NetDayFlyers.com.

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Not only can this guy draw with both hands, he can do it at the same time. To top that off he’s also doing it all upside down. To go one step further he spells forwards and backwards at the same time too (it’s towards the end of the video). It’s fun to watch more than once. Nice.

Ok now go get your latte.

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As Chandler from Friends would say, “Could there be any more screen sizes?”

I get asked so many times what screen sizes I design my websites for on a regular basis. Do I keep the sites fluid or make them static at a certain width. If I use a width for my websites being displayed, what’s the optimal width used. – These are all good questions, and I can’t say there’s specifically “optimal” width to use – not that I have noticed any way. Once we get some sort of web standards, we might find a a point where we are all within a range. This range sounds like a fairytale to me. My children might see it, but I doubt I will ever experience it.

My screen setup consists of 3 screens – these are the settings and sizes I have as of this post.

• 24″ widescreen monitor set at: 1920 x 1080
• 19″ full screen monitor set at: 1024 x 768
• 15.6 widescreen monitor set at: 1366 x768

Before you start thinking – “I only have 1 monitor, how does this relate to me?”, let me discuss the reasoning behind my monitors. I have 3 monitors because I have 1 widescreen and 1 full screen for testing purposes. My 15″ is my laptop and I plug my 24″ into it for a dual screen setup. I’m a professional web designer too, so this is typically a normal setup to do designs for my clients. If you are trying to earn a living from designing, I recommend having 2 monitors. Even if they are small you can pull all the layer windows over on 1 screen and the other screen can be used for your designing board. Makes it much faster to work on client projects. I would also suggest that having more than 2 screens might become a pain because there are too many places to lose your mouse. lol

What screen size should I design for?

While there’s no definite answer for this, there are some guidelines to follow. First understand that pixel size is not related to the physical screen size. Some people assume that a 19″ monitor will only produce a a specific size resolution. This actually pertains to your graphics cards more than your monitor.

Designing for a 1024 x 768 resolution should be your best option right now but the recommendation is to keep your web site fluid at 100% and then you will cover all the different screens.

Another good idea is having the image aligned left and utilizing the same color as the background. This image is much wider though but with the correct amount of overlapping layers you can create a Twitter background that looks seamless.

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Today is our official birthday on BoxedinDesign! With all our friends help (that includes you), we made it to 1 year!

Not only are my pets proud but so is the guy who comes by on a cart and sells sodas and snow cones. Your support has made our daily visitors continue to grow. I hear the first year is the hardest because it’s when bloggers give up because of the monthly fees associated with keeping the site up and running.

Thanks to everyone for all your help!

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Designer – Gordon Reid
Website – middleboop.com
Blog – middleboop.blogspot.com
Twitter – @MiddleBoop

1. How much time do you dedicate to learning design every day?
I count myself very lucky to be able to work on exciting and challenging briefs all the time and I often find that with every new project I learn new techniques and shortcuts that I wouldn’t have known before so I guess you could say I learn as I go. On top of that I do dedicate time to go through tutorials and often find helpful hints and ideas there, time wise I do this whenever I get an hour or so.

2. What other designers do you have contact with on a regular basis?
Thankfully through running the Middle Boop blog whereby we interview and feature a lot of designers I am in contact with some of the best designers from around the world. I also hook up with a lot of very talented individuals including Radim Malinic (Brand Nu,) Seb Lester, Rob at Sawdust, Norm at Waste and Neil Bunn as well as having worked on on projects with Simon Wild and Mike Harrison.

3. Who are the top 2-3 designers that you respect and why?
I really love the works of Hvass & Hannibal because they just create these amazing worlds within their design full of colour, shape and form. There really is no one else like them and what’s great is that they have been able to work for a lot of great clients without seemingly having to compromise their work.

I also really admire the work of Kate Gibb whose love for Screenprinting and collage and amazing work for bands such as Chemical Brothers and more recently Kate Nash has always inspired me to keep doing what I love doing. Oh and she’s also lovely to chat to and a self confessed lover of the Middle Boop blog which makes me happy.

Last but by no means least, I have always been heavily inspired by the works of practitioners at the Bauhaus and modernist/ post modernist designers such as Paul Rand and Lester Beall. Without these guys the whole industry would be a very different place.

4. What’s your favorite website or design you ever made and why?
Wow this is a tough question, I’m not sure I have one particular favourite piece but I am very happy and proud of my Digital Arts cover this was quite a big step for me in terms of more commercial design, it was a really great brief and had a fantastic response. I am also very proud of the work I did for the band Deerhunter this was exhibited in the world famous Rough Trade stores and was cited by a lot of people as one of the best gig posters they’ve ever seen, so that was really great and opened a lot of doors for me.

5. Have you ever been published in a book or magazine? What books or magazines?
I have had the great fortune of being published in many books and magazines all over the world, here is a list of the publications that have recently featured my work or interviewed me

IDN
Digital Arts
Digital Artist
Advanced Photoshop
Computer Arts
Maxim
Chew Magazine
Blanket
I also have some of my T-shirt designs featured in the book Torso and have contributed a new illustration for charity for the Memories Project book.

I also have articles and interviews in the upcoming Digital Artist and a tutorial in the next Advanced Photoshop both due out next month as well as an interview on tips for freelancing in this months Computer Arts.
When I was a student I would have never have imagined that one day I would be featured by so many publications that I have read so it really is a privilege to have so much interest from these people.

6. What’s your favorite color in hexadecimal? How often do you find yourself leaning towards it with design projects?
I guess recently I’ve been using a lot of golds and reds, normally with my work I like to combine bright, odd colour palettes early on to really make the piece of work stand out, so something like 996 600 and FF3 333 or thereabouts will be seen in a few pieces.
I try to keep everything as fresh as possible with my work but certainly these two colours if used well can really make a piece look vibrant and exciting.

7. What’s your most recent project we can look at?
The most recent piece that I can release is the piece I’ve just contributed for Steve Rack’s group exhibition called Toe Fluff, where each designer is asked to customise a character in which you can do anything as ling as it stays within the size and shape of the ball of fluff in the centre of the image. All of the proceeds from the show are going to charity and I’m very happy to be a part of it.

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Designer – Craig A. Bower
Website – designthatrocks.com
Blog – designthatrocks.tumblr.com/
Twitter – @designthatrocks

1. How much time do you dedicate to learning design every day?
I only wish I could dedicate time each day specifically for expanding my design knowledge! For me, ongoing development of my design skills is not something that I can set time aside to do…its something that happens throughout the hours of every day. Recognizing it and being able to utilize what I see and experience feeds my creativity and inspiration.

2. What other designers do you have contact with on a regular basis?
Locally, I have professional associates as well as friends who are designers/creatives that I communicate with regularly. Beyond that, social media has really opened the doors in terms of meeting other creatives from literally around the world. I have been fortunate to meet many fellow creatives via twitter, facebook, etc. that I now call friends. Whether it’s sharing creative inspiration, asking for feedback on current works-in-progress, or simply talking about music or the topic of the hour, regular contact with fellow creatives is a vital part of who I am and what I do. (And not just people in the creative fields, but everyone else as well)

3. Who are the top 2-3 designers that you respect and why?
I was exposed to Primo Angeli’s work early in my educational years (heavy emphasis on package design – which is actually what my degree is in). Angeli showed us all that we need to not only understand design, but understand how important the client relationship and their understanding is to the process. I have respected and been guided by that thinking throughout my career. Milton Glaser, Saul Bass, Paul Rand also set the standards…and how can I not respect those who paved the way? There are certainly contemporary designers that I respect as well…some well known, but many not :)

4. What’s your favorite website or design you ever made and why?

designthatrocks.com/Online_Environmental_Vehicle_Portfolio_of_Design_That_Rocks.html

One of my favorite projects was the design of a 53′ semi-trailer full wrap for the Peter Piper Pickles brand. What made this particular project so enjoyable was the total creative freedom I was given throughout the project and the level of involvement that I had. I became involved in the initial client meeting, through concept development, presentation and final design approval. As production began, I directed product photography, worked on photo editing/retouch, and created all of the final production photoshop files used for printing. I supervised and approved steps throughout the printing and final installation while bringing the project to completion. Client was very happy and I walked away from the whole experience with such a sense of accomplishment in what I had created-literally start to finish.

5. Have you ever been published in a book or magazine? What books or magazines?
I’ve had three articles published in FLEXO magazine (trade mag for the packaging/label industry) titled “Simple Designer Rules for Preventing Prepress Problems”, “Helper Applications for Prepress”, and “A Proactive Approach to Preflight”.

6. What’s your favorite color in hexadecimal? How often do you find yourself leaning towards it with design projects?
White – although coming from a print background, I prefer to think of it as C-0%, M-0%, Y-0%, K-0% rather than #ffffff. I am a big proponent of white space, and utilizing white space to provide balance and clarity throughout the visual language. I’m a firm believer that ‘less is more’, and often find effective solutions through use of #ffffff.

7. What’s your most recent project we can look at?
priceteamracing.com
mircorp.com/worldrace

I’m currently working with Price Team Racing on their branding and marketing efforts surrounding their entry in The World Race 2011.

In addition to designing their logo, website and marketing collateral, my involvement has led to a working relationship with the organizers of The World Race 2011 on the national race website as well as additional currently developing facets. Keep an eye open for the national media launch coming September 2010.

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