This is a post in Braintalk

Braintalk with Matt Owens from Volumeone & Athleticsnyc.com

1. Hi , who are you and what do you do?
My name is Matt Owens and I run the design studio Volumeone in New York. I am also a partner in the design collective Athletics

2. Describe a typical day at work?
I get to work between 9 and 10am. Depending on the project, we will confer with our team and plan out the tasks for the day. Every morning I make a list in my notebook of everything I need to accomplish. If we don’t get to it it gets pushed to the next day. I have a record of everything I have done by day from the last 10 years. I always use a composition notebook with graph paper. After tasks are assigned I get to work. Designing, managing, writing proposals, whatever needs to get done. I also try to slot in some personal work time within the day to break up my energy. I usually grab lunch and bring it back to the studio. I try to leave work at 7pm everyday unless we have a pressing deadline.

3. What do you enjoy most about your work?
I enjoy when things come together and you have good ideas. I also enjoy working with other people and learning from them. Lastly, I like pushing myself to learn new things and to grow as a designer. My skills and visual ability are always changing.

4. What do you like least about your job?
Only a few things. I hate it when I don’t feel like I have good ideas and I also get aggravated by clients. I feel like I am a pretty clear communicator and am also pretty patient. When I feel like clients are thinking or demanding unrealistic things I tend to get frustrated.

5. What is your worst enemy of creativity?
Over thinking things. As I have grown older and more educated I tend to second guess my own instincts. I have to always remind myself to loosen up and just enjoy the moment of creating.

6. What do you do when you start a new project and you have NO ideas?
I think the best thing to do is to always treat projects as if they were somewhat of a client project. If you can put together a process and filter things through that process something will inevitably come from it. Even if the ideas that result lead to other things.

7. What inspires you the most?
The people around me. My brother Mark and the folks in the studio and my friends. I tend to be most inspired by the people close to me.

8. Do you listen to music while working? And if “yes” what music do you listen to?
Not all the time but often. Here are a few things I am listing to.

http://www.myspace.com/herculesandloveaffair
http://www.myspace.com/pontiak
http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/emittrhodes/albums/album/100759/review/5945851/emitt_rhodes
http://www.atouchofclassusa.com/eatpreylove.html

9. How do you deal with criticism?
If the person giving the criticism is someone I respect then I take their thoughts seriously. I never claim to have all the answers for a solution but I do have my own opinions. So when it comes to criticism I like to have a dialogue as opposed to having opinions be just right or wrong.

10. What does your workspace look like?

11. Do you remember the very first web-project in which you were involved?
The first website I made was the website for my school in 1995.

12. Is there any advice you would give our readers?
Work hard, be smart, play nice.

13. What has been the most fun project to work on so far?
The Meridians project was a lot of fun for me:

You can read more about it here.

14. Imagine yourself in 15 years… what do you see yourself doing?
I would love to do more things that are purely creative and involve making. When you run a studio the majority of your time is spent keeping the process moving and managing expectations. I really enjoy the craft of design and see myself creating more and managing less.

15. Please tell us 3 people who we should do this Interview with (Why them?).
Mark Owens. One of the most creative and intelligent people I know.
David Ahuja. One of the best motion graphics designer I have ever met.
Alex Trochut. His work is amazing