This is a post in Braintalk

Braintalk with Jon Phillips, freelancefolder.com

1. Hi , who are you and what do you do?
My name’s Jon, I’m a blogger, designer and musician. I’m from snowbound Montreal, Canada. I’ve been designing sites for about 3-4 years, and for the past year and a half or so I’ve been focussing more on blog designs and WordPress. I’m also a guitar player, been playing for 14 years now.

2. Describe a typical day at work?
Sure! Well, for me it’s more like a typical ‘night‘ at work. I find I’m most creative between midnight and 4am. I usually start my day by replying to emails (right after the coffee) and messages on various sites like Twitter, and then I’ll do all the blog related stuff like approving/deleting and replying to comments, check the stats, etc… then I go into ‘design and coding’ mode and work on client’s projects, mostly blog designs. I’ll sometimes schedule chat sessions on Skype or on the phone with clients to discuss projects and answer questions or offer support.

3. What do you enjoy most about your work?
I’m very happy that every day is totally different, that’s one of the main reason I love freelancing!
I also really enjoy the creative process, getting input from clients and working on creating something that fits their personality and/or business.

4. What do you like least about your job?
I would say keeping track of invoices, payments, money in/out. I’m so not an accountant! That’s one hat I really don’t like to wear, but it’s part of the game.

5. What is your worst enemy of creativity?
Distractions! Creating something out of nothing can take a lot of energy and I’m really trying to get rid of distractions as much as I can. This is probably why I enjoy working at night so much!

6. What do you do when you start a new project and you have NO ideas?
Well if it’s a personal project I usually have tons of ideas but if it’s a project for a client I’ll try to ask as many questions as possible to get a good idea of what the client is looking for. I also visit many CSS galleries for inspiration. But sometimes just going out for a walk or going for a drink with friends can get the creative juices flowing.

7. What inspires you the most?
I get inspiration from a lot of different sources like music, architecture and books. Also, I’ve been playing music for the past 14 years and I’ve came to realize that inspiration is everywhere whether you’re writing a song or designing a website, you just have to be able to find it, which can take some time. I really enjoy looking at logos and great typography, that helps me get started when I design a new website.

8. Do you listen to music while working? And if “yes” what music do you listen to?
Of course I do! I’m into all sorts of music, but I prefer rock, heavy alternative and metal. Loud guitars! Though when I work I listen to a lot of different things from Darkane to Fiona Apple.

9. How do you deal with criticism?
I love to get feedback on my work! I think it’s a very important part of any design project. I’m really ok with criticism, for as long as it’s constructive. It also depends on who is criticizing my work.

10. What does your workspace look like?
I find my desk is a mess, but I like it like that (I think?). I just can’t work if it’s all clean and organized, I need some chaos to be able to work and be productive.

11. Do you remember the very first web-project in which you were involved?
Sure I do! And no, I won’t give you the link! haha
My very first project was a website I did for a friend, all using tables! Everytime I feel like I need a little encouragement or I feel like my designs are not real good I just go to this website and I can’t help but smile. Yes, that site is still online and my friend is still very happy with it! (don’t know why though)

12. Is there any advice you would give our readers?
Sure!

• Always have a schedule and stick to it.
• Don’t underprice your services. It may be tempting to charge less to attract more clients, but you may end up overworked and underpaid.
• Connect with other people in your field via networking sites. Believe it or not, Twitter is probably my best source of referrals.

13. What has been the most fun project to work on so far?
I enjoyed working on all the projects I did so far, but I have to say working on FreelanceFolder, which is a personal project, has always been really fun cause I have control on the design, content and can make improvements anytime I want without having to ask for approval. Also because this blog is aimed at people working in the same field as me, so it’s a great networking tool.

14. Imagine yourself in 15 years… what do you see yourself doing?
15 years from now? I hope I’ll be able to make a comfortable living playing music. I will probably still be designing sites cause I enjoy it, but I think if everything goes according to plans I’ll focus more on my own sites than client’s projects.

15. Please tell us 3 people who we should do this Interview with (Why them?).
Steven Snell of Vandelay Design: Steven is an excellent writer and had posts about design, freelancing and social media published on tons of blogs. He’s really a great guy and I’ve been following the Vandelay Design Blog almost since the begining. He also wrote posts for FreelanceFolder.

David Airey: David is a very talented designer and I simply love his work and really enjoy reading his blog. I met (online) David almost 2 years ago when I started blogging, and have been a reader of his blog ever since.

Vitaly Friedman and/or Sven Lennartz of Smashing Magazine: Smashing Magazine is such a great resource site! They improved this blog so much over the past year, no wonder they got so many subscribers. I’d love to read their answers!

Thanks a lot Thomas for interviewing me, it’s been a lot of fun!


Same to you Jon.
So if you want to visit Jon over at his Websites you should do that now