This is a post in Braintalk

Braintalk with Steven from vandalydesign.com

1. Hi , who are you and what do you do?
I’m a designer and blogger (vandelaydesign.com is my home). I also write about social media and blogging at traffikd.com, which is basically a side project for me. Within the past year I also got into freelance blogging. I’ve written for Freelance Switch, Freelance Folder, Daily Blog Tips, Most Inspired, Blogtrepreneur, PureBlogging, and probably some others that I’m forgetting.

2. Describe a typical day at work?
My days have been changing a lot in recent months. I’ve been more focused on my own projects and less focused on client work. As I’ve taken on freelance blogging that’s also decreased some of the design work I do. I try to maintain two blogs of my own, a few other blogging gigs, some client design work, and development of some new projects of my own.

3. What do you enjoy most about your work?
I enjoy being able to pursue whatever paths I choose (assuming I can still make some money doing it, or at least have the hope of money in the future).I never planned on blogging actively, that just kind of happened. I like being able to work on projects of my own see what can be accomplished.

4. What do you like least about your job?
There’s always pressure to produce or to keep producing. Client work can be fun to get different experiences and work with new people, but there’s always someone to please. Managing my own sites there’s always the pressure that I put on myself to keep moving forward and to improve the results. I doubt that will ever end.

5. What is your worst enemy of creativity?
I guess it’s timing. My creativity doesn’t flow very well when I need immediate results. That’s why I prefer to work ahead whenever possible. I like to have time to experiment and explore options.

6. What do you do when you start a new project and you have NO ideas?
I usually go to paper. Whether it involves sketching out some layouts or jotting down ideas, it can all help me to get moving a little bit. Then usually some momentum will happen and things will pick up.

7. What inspires you the most?
In terms of design I guess it’s just looking at what others are capable of creating. I visit design galleries every now and then. I try not to take/steal ideas, but I like to see what other people are able to accomplish.

8. Do you listen to music while working? And if “yes” what music do you listen to?
Yes, most of the time. I listen to rock. Some of my favorite bands are Blindside, Collective Soul, Anberlin, Audioslave, Megadeth, and lots of others.

9. How do you deal with criticism?
Not as well as I would like to. Constructive criticism is obviously crucial to learning and improving. I think I handle criticism in person better than I do online. There’s something about knowing the person that’s criticizing you. Actually, I’m fine with most criticism online, it’s just anonymous criticism that bothers me (when people leave an obviously made up name). It seems like they’re afraid to stand behind their comments in that case.

10. What does your workspace look like?
My workspace is a bit cluttered and messy, but not too bad. I have a lot of notes written down - ideas and sketches for designs, and some brainstorms for blog posts. They usually stay in a folder but sometimes they make their way all over my desk.

11. Do you remember the very first web-project in which you were involved?
Yes. It was a website that I did as part of a college course that I took on web design (very, very basic stuff). I haven’t seen it in years, but it’s embarrassing just to think about it.

12. Is there any advice you would give our readers?
My advice is to follow your passion in your work. Designing websites shouldn’t be a job like most others (at least I don’t think it should be). Most people in this world hate their jobs. Designers have the opportunity to work with a lot of interesting people and to move forward in a lot of different areas.

13. What has been the most fun project to work on so far?
I enjoy running my own blog at Vandelay Design. I like being able to decide what I publish and I love the challenge of growing the blog and its influence.

14. Imagine yourself in 15 years… what do you see yourself doing?
Well, I’d like to be working online managing sites or businesses that I own. I don’t have specifics in mind yet that far down the road.

15. Please tell us 3 people who we should do this Interview with (Why them?).
Jacob Gube of Six Revisions is a really knowledgeable designer/developer and he is a great guy too.

Noura Yehia of Noupe is another one of my designer friends that I would recommend for the same reasons.

I’d also like to read an interview with Gino Orlandi of You the Designer because he has a lot going on with several different design-related sites that he runs, and I’m sure he has some good insight.


Steven … thank you very much for answering our questions
So if you want to visit Steven over at his Blog you should do that now