1. Hi , who are you and what do you do?
My name is Aaron Irizarry I work at a company eLocal Listing as the web master and web project manager, I also design all of the user interfaces for the company’s admin environments, as well as for the customers, and lend support to the marketing dept. with some of their design needs.

In my time I run TIAL (www.thisisaaronslife.com) a blog geared towards contributing to the design community by writing articles on design, development and the pursuit of happiness.

2. Describe a typical day at work?
Get in about 5:30-6:00am California time, get some coffee , get my machines running, check some emails, start up tweetdeck (gotta stay in touch with my peeps). Then I just dive in to work whether updating projects, or designing, and coding sites/interfaces. Around 11:30 to 12:30 (on a good day) I try to get some lunch mostly Thai, or Vietnamese. Once I get back jump right back into the grind, most days I can wrap things up by 5:30-6:00pm every so often I am there later. Throughout the day I keep one eye on my blog, and on tweet deck, while I have files uploading or backing up I usually read as many blogs as I can to keep sharp.

3. What do you enjoy most about your work?
Though my job is very stressful, I have been allowed the freedom to learn a lot of what I do, when I came to the company I only did websites, but I have learned so much in a year and a half. Also everyday is usually something different so there is a lot of variety ay my job.

4. What do you like least about your job?
It doesn’t lend to a creative environment, lots of stress, and sometimes the planning is a bit hectic, so there are always a lot of changes, and even starting over. So being flexible is key (see the bend don’t break article I wrote for wearejustcreative.com)

5. What is your worst enemy of creativity?
Besides myself (being overly critical) , my environment can often derail me pretty bad. This is where my iPod has become a life saver I allows me to tune everything out.

6. What do you do when you start a new project and you have NO ideas?
If I can I play Xbox, or perouse the interweb for inspiration, and sometimes just walk away for a bit.

7. What inspires you the most?
It is hard to say… being outside and seeing gradients in a sunset, one thing that really inspires me is talking with other creative people about what they are passionate about, the projects their working on, their ideas stuff like that really gets me going.

8. Do you listen to music while working? And if “yes” what music do you listen to?
Music is a constant with me, I listen to a lot of different kinds of music, a lot of the time when I am designing, I listen to more melodic stuff like explosions in the sky and mogwai… when I am coding it is usually metal or something really driving… I am kinda like a musical garbage can I love all kinds of music… so it depends a lot on my mood.

9. How do you deal with criticism?
As best I can… sometimes it is hard to deal with if you know the source really doesn’t know what they are taking about… but I really try to reamin as open as possible, knowing that there is always opportunity to learn, and grow.

10. What does your workspace look like?
I have a g5 tower, a macbook, a pc laptop to create visio wireframes, and test stuff in ie, and also a beat up pc desktop to check out stuff in ie6

11. Do you remember the very first web-project in which you were involved?
I had to take over the design and management of the website for a band I was in… after that the rest is history. I was all in and never looked back.

12. Is there any advice you would give our readers?
Remain open… remain teachable, and just go for it don’t settle for second best (as much as you are allowed) and perfect your trade there is always room to get better… develop a passion for what you do and let it drive you.

13. What has been the most fun project to work on so far?
That is hard to say… I usually try to find fun in every project. The most fun I had was working on putting together some art shows… really any projects that are based on creativity… like music or art.

14. Imagine yourself in 15 years… what do you see yourself doing?
I would hope that I am still working in the creative field, but more on my own terms. I would really love to write a lot more, and even speak one day at conferences, but that is a goal for right now, but it is something I am very passionate about.

15. Please tell us 3 people who we should do this Interview with (Why them?).
Hmmmm,

First off Garth Humbert he is just a rad guy, with a ton of talent, and a great outlook on life. Let me know if you need his contact info. He currently works here http://www.startclear.com

Steve Espinosa, I work with steve, and have known him for quite a while, he is a brilliant mind.. especially when it comes to SEO, not to mention he is just a fun guy to be around. http://stephenespinosa.com/

Patrick Algrim, another cool guy with a great web design/marketing mind, always has fresh thoughts on creativity his blog is http://www.hellyeahdude.com.


Aaron…thank you very much for answering our questions :-)
So if you want to visit Aaron you should do that now: Visit www.thisisaaronslife.com. Or leave him a comment! :)