Rob Morris is an Australian graphic designer who thoroughly enjoys speaking about himself in the third person.” But now he speaks to WCB, lucky for us.
Name: Rob Morris
Company:Digitalmash.com
Job Title: Director / Jack of all trades
Nationality:Australian
Age: 28
What are your skills:Interface design, flash animation, print and identity, XHTML/CSS and a sprinkling of PHP.
How long have you been a web designer?:
I’ve been designing websites of over 10 years, but professionally since 2002.
About how many sites have you made?:
From start to finish? Not that many – say 20? But as a contributor to part of a site (interface or construction or whatever), hundreds!
What made you want to be a web designer?:
Web design allows me to be both creative and also use the other side of my brain for the technical stuff. I think having the ability to switch between these brain modes makes a good web designer.
What was the first web site you made?:
I’d been caravanning across Europe and when I was finished my travels I needed to sell my camper van. So I made a small website of sketchy drawings and photos trying to sell it. It was a very average site, but hey, the van got sold!
What would be the ideal web project for you?:
Anything where the relationship you have with the client is super-relaxed and very open. When I client has total faith in your ability and listens to your advice, work is a lot more fun.
What projects are you currently working on?
Currently working on a portal-type site for sneaker collectors called superkix.com – should be great. I’m also doing the frontend design for the official site for hip hop artist JAY-Z.
What is best part of being a web designer?:
Flexibility. I live in Japan and work with/for people from all over the world. There aren’t too many jobs where you can do that.
Tell us about your best experience as a web designer?:
My best experience was the first time I was featured in a web design magazine. Really exciting and rewarding.
Tell us about your worst experience as a web designer?:
I generally don’t miss deadlines, but once I was working on a flash animation for a banking site for an agency in Australia and was also in the process of moving to Japan. The bank was this agency’s biggest client. Anyway, there was a mixup and I had no internet connection for several days and missed the deadline which made the agency look bad. Not cool. The lesson – never miss deadlines.
What are the most important things to learn to be a good web designer?:
I think you need to learn how to stand out in a crowd. The web is flooded with stuff – everyone has a website. It’s your job to try to rise above this and make your clients’ messages be heard over the noise.
What advise would you give to our Web Courses Bangkok students:?
Be hungry to learn. I’ve written an article on my blog about 5 best/worst things about being a web designer. One of these is that you always have to keep learning, and it’s true. The technology, trends etc are always changing. Also, try to stay critical of your work. It’s not productive to be overly critical, but being able to always ask ‘how can I make this better?’ will mean you’ll always be improving
Thank you to Rob very much for taking the time talk to us, hope his advice helped.
If you want to know more information about Rob check out:
Web Site : http://digitalmash.com
