For today’s design blog  interview I had the privilege of speaking with Steven Snell.  You can find his articles on most high profile design blogs but mainly he is the man behind 2 extremely popular design related blogs – Vandelay Design and Designm.ag.   I hope you’ll enjoy todays interview with Steven in which we discuss blogging, design and what the future holds for him.

Can you begin by explaining a little about your background? Where are you from? How did you get your start as a designer and blogger?

I live in New Jersey (US) just outside of Philadelphia. I got started designing websites about 7 years ago when I took a basic course on web design my senior year of college. We learned HTML and table-based design and by the end of the semester I was able to design a very basic site. We didn’t learn any CSS, so after that I started learning at my own pace with the help of some books and a lot of online tutorials.

Design Interview - Steven Snell

You have quite a variety of successful blogs but why do you think that your 2 main blogs (vandelay and designm.ag) have become so popular? At what point did you realize that blogging had really started to pay off for you and your business? What do you do on a regular basis to increase your popularity?

I started to realize the potential of blogging when I had a few posts at Vandelay Design that made the front page of Delicious. Those posts received a good bit of traffic for a site that had never had more than a handful of visitors in a day. I started to use the blog as a way to get people to the site in hopes of getting more inquiries for design work, which I did. After a while I decided that I liked blogging as much or more than designing sites for clients, so I started using ads to monetize the site so I wouldn’t have to rely on design services exclusively as a way to make money from the site (at that time I had a full time job and designing/blogging was part-time).

I’d say whatever success I have had with my blogs is primarily the result of consistent effort. Ever since I got the first rush of traffic I have always put in a consistent effort to continually improve the blog(s). It’s been a learning experience, I didn’t know anything about blogging when I started, so I’ve had plenty of terrible posts and mistakes along the way, but I’ve just stayed focused on improving.

The only thing I really do on a regular basis to increase the popularity of my blogs at this point is content development. I also do a good bit of networking with other designers and bloggers, but that is something that takes place naturally, not something I set out to do each day.

Design Interview - Steven Snell

Your eye for design and attention to detail is clear when we look at your lists of top sites in each category as well as your posts on web resources, how do you keep tabs on everything that you find and how do you find your favorite sites?

Well I started five gallery sites over the summer and they help me to keep tabs on some of the stuff that I find. For example, if I’m trying to remember what portfolio sites really impressed me, I can simply go to Folio Focus (http://foliofocus.com) and they are all right there for me. Although gallery sites do take some work to maintain, they are helpful for organizing sources of inspiration. Other that that, I use Delicious to keep tabs on things and I also have a running list of sites that I come across. I have a bunch of categories and when I find something special I just paste the URL in the list.

As far as finding the sites, I get a ton of submissions to my gallery sites, plus I also subscribe to about 10 galleries aside from my own.

Design Interview - Steven Snell

How has blogging affected your design business ? Has blogging opened up possibilities that you might not have had otherwise or are the two kept separate? If you had to choose one, which would it be?

Blogging has definitely opened up a lot of opportunities for me. In most months I make more money from advertisements on blogs than I do from design services, plus I have done a lot of freelance blogging in the past for sites like Smashing Magazine, PSDTUTS, Webdesigner Depot and several others. If I had to choose between designing and blogging I would probably choose designing if I could work on some of my own sites/projects. I don’t have any desire to spend all of my time designing for clients and I also don’t have any desire to spend all of my time writing blog posts.

Design Interview - Steven Snell

Of all your projects, which do you spend most of your time with, what parts are most time consuming and what do you wish you had more time for?

For the last few months DesignM.ag takes up more of my time than any other projects. I publish more frequently there, plus I moderate the community news and the job board. I wish I had more time for everything! I have a number of things that I’d like to do with both of my blogs, plus I’d like to spend more time on the galleries, and I have a few other projects that I want to start but don’t have the time (one has been on hold for over a year).

Design Interview - Steven Snell

What tools are essential and a must have for you on a regular basis. Online and offline

Some of the sites/tools/apps that I use everyday: WordPress, Photoshop, Delicious, TweetDeck, Fanurio (time tracking and invoicing), BuySellAds, and probably some other stuff that I’m forgetting.

Design Interview - Steven Snell

What does a typical day consist of for you?

Each day is a little bit different. A fairly typical day includes getting started by checking/responding to email, moderating comments, and updating gallery sites. Then most of the day working on new blog posts (I try to get posts done early in the week and client work later in the week, if it’s not urgent). When I have personal projects that require extra attention, like a site re-design, I’ll try to block off days with no other work.

Design Interview - Steven Snell

What big things can we expect from you going into 2010?

I have a new gallery site for icons that I’ll be launching before 2010, probably in the next week. I have two projects that I’ll be working on early in 2010. One is a revamp of the DesignM.ag job board, there are a few improvements that I’d like to make. Also, I plan to launch a new site that will be a part of the network of gallery sites. It won’t be a gallery site itself, but it will be related. That is a few months away.

Design Interview - Steven Snell

The cliched but very important final question – What advice would you give to any aspiring blogger looking to make it in the industry?

My best advice is to put in a consistent effort and give it time. I’ve seen so many talented people want to make an income as a blogger, but they don’t have the patience or the willingness to put in the work at the front end. Building a successful blog from scratch requires a lot of effort before you will get much out of it. If you go in with a long-term focus and a plan to dedicate time each day or each week, you will be able to reach your goals.

Design Interview - Steven Snell

I want to thank Steven very much for his time, I hope you liked this interview and found it as valuable as I did.  Make sure you stop by Vandelay Design Designm.ag and visit Steven on Twitter

For our second designer interview I had the privilege of speaking with Jacob Gube, the man behind the very extremely popular design blog Six Revisions.   I hope you’ll enjoy hearing from Jacob, He has an expansive set of design and developments skills.   Besides being an amazing designer and running one of the top design blogs he is also an all around great guy, always taking time to answer emails and to help out whomever he can with his expertise…

1.  Thank you for taking the time for this interview, Could you please start off by telling us 7 things about yourself we may not know from your website

Hi Ben! Well, first, let me start by saying “thanks” for having me share my thoughts here on your awesome blog. Alright, seven things you may not know about me:

1. I love video games and I try to make time for playing them.
2. I don’t eat fruits unless they’re in liquid form (the texture bothers me).
3. My favorite beer is Newcastle Brown Ale.
4. I’m a proud Windows user, primarily because of #1 above and because I build my own PCs.
5. My favorite color combination is Black (#000000) and Red (#9e0b0f).
6. I don’t particularly like watching professional sports, it bores me, though I used to play a lot of sports when I was still it in school (soccer, basketball).
7. I drive a Nissan.

Interview - Six Revisions

2.  What is your design and development background and how does that play a role in the work you produce?

Professionally I started out as a graphic designer (freelance). Now that I’m more of a web developer, my background in design makes it easier to stand in as a designer, or to design a website/webapp that I’ll also write code for myself.

Interview - Six Revisions

February 2, 2008 was the first blog post I wrote. One of the things that really kickstarted the site is the success it has had in social news sites; particularly Digg, StumbleUpon, and Delicious. So I guess one main decision I’ve made is to put that at the forefront of Six Revisions, by placing Digg, SU, and Delicious buttons at the top of each post.

Another thing that I think has helped greatly is my decision to venture outside of Six Revisions, and contribute to other weblogs such as Smashing Magazine, ReadWriteWeb, and Webdesigner Depot. My first guest post was a blog post exchange between me and Steven over at Vandelay Design; It was about Flash-based sites. Guest posting helped get my name out there and it also enabled me to connect with people like Steven and Vitaly (of Smashing Magazine).

Finally, opening up Six Revisions to contributing authors was the best decision I’ve made. When I was the only one writing for the site, I couldn’t maintain a regular schedule and it was difficult to keep the content variety high. It’s a pleasure to work with other writers and Six Revisions would not be what it is now without them; they’re as much a part of the site as I am.

Interview - Six Revisions

4.  How has your professional design and development work influenced Six Revisions and vice versa?

I’d say my professional work greatly influenced Six Revisions. The idea of doing Six Revisions actually stemmed from me needing to catalog all the things I learned while working on my projects. Most of the articles I write results from having done something on a project that I want to record and share with others.

Six Revisions has made me a better designer and developer because it forces me to stay ahead of the curve and continually learn about web design and web development, and to improve on what I know now.

Interview - Six Revisions

5.  What is the most exciting/interesting thing you currently are working or have worked on?

I can name a lot of interesting things I’ve worked on, and it wouldn’t be fair to narrow it down to one project. To me, I have a special place for Eclipse Window Tinting (http://www.justtintit.com/) because it was the first project where I did everything from graphic design (logo, print materials) all the way up to web development (MySQL database and PHP for the quoting feature). It was the project that indicated to me that you can be a jack-of-all-trades successfully if you really wanted to.

Interview - Six Revisions

6.  What/Who is your biggest influence in this field? Why?

Again, I can name a lot of people and things that fit into this category and I don’t think I’ve answered this question the same way regardless of how many times I’ve been asked in the past. Alright, who’s it going to be this time, let’s see… I’ll go with… Smashing Magazine. Why? I think they were really the first major weblog that managed to find success by focusing on comprehensiveness and quality of posts versus frequency of updates. I mean, even now, with only 1 post a day, they’re able to maintain a high Technorati ranking (which bases the rank by the number of other weblogs that link to an article of yours) versus other weblogs that update 10-20 times a day (the more posts you have, the more links you can get, the higher the chance you have of getting more authority versus another weblog that doesn’t update frequently).

Interview - Six Revisions

I’ll go with Adobe Dreamweaver because it’s the IDE I use. I can live without it, but having it certainly makes the job easier. I can name 10 more tools, but that’s the one I use on a daily basis that I would say is critical to my productivity.

Interview - Six Revisions

8.  I read somewhere that you named your blog Six Revisions because “you’d perform several revision rounds based on the client’s feedback” – In your experience, how do you see the client/designer relationship in regards to the final say and direction of a project? Has this changed over your career or remained constant?

My stance is this: I’ll try to convince you/argue with you/show you evidence until I’m blue in the face that what I’ve created for you is what I think the best way to do it is — but at the end of the day, considering that you’re the one giving me money to do a job and that it’s your business at stake, you’ll have the final say. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you and don’t expect your project to go into my portfolio. Of course, I say all of this in a cordial manner, but in essence, that’s my view and that’s always how I’ve done it.

Interview - Six Revisions

1. Write on other blogs (bonus tip: contact me about writing for Six Revisions)
2. Maintain a regular schedule, whether it’s one post a month or five posts a day.
3. Don’t give up so easily.
4. Cover a topic that you’re passionate about.
5. Get to know the people in your niche.

Interview - Six Revisions

Next 6 months: new site design (which I’ve said was my plan a year ago and still hasn’t happened) and just more quality content for readers to enjoy. Next 5 years… who knows.

Interview - Six Revisions

I want to thank Jacob very much for his time, I hope you liked this interview and found it as valuable as I did.  Make sure you stop by SixRevisions and follow Jacob on Twitter!

Today I am launching a new interview section that will feature some of the top design bloggers online today.  We will be discussing their work and various related topics of design and inspiration.

The inaugural interview is with Chris Spooner, owner of SpoonGraphics, blog.SpoonGraphics and Line25.   He is one of the most popular and well known blogger/designers in the field.

1. What is your background and what you do that sets you apart ?

I’m a designer who has found an amazing level of exposure through blogging. Most people may know me from my design blog over at Blog.SpoonGraphics, or my newer site at Line25.com. On both these sites I write design tutorials, post insights into my projects or provide design inspiration. I guess this blogging activity is what has set me apart from being just a local designer, as it has provided me with a platform to develop my name and brand around the world, and has enabled potential clients to see what I can do and what style of work I produce.

Ideas and Inspiration from the Drawing Board of Creative Web Design - Question #1

2. Of all your work what is your favorite and which has gotten the most positive response?

Many of my favourite projects are personal jobs I’ve created out of either experimentation or through tutorials. One client related project that received quite a mass of feedback was the logo design for Vivid Ways. After enjoying working with the client with pretty much creative freedom, I decided to document the project as a walkthrough on my blog, showing the stages of the project through sketches to concepts and giving an insight into how the logo was built in Illustrator. This led to a huge selection of kind comments and responses from the readers, which I’m forever grateful for!

Vivid Ways Logo - Question #2

3. Since a large part of my blog is about design inspiration, could you tell me what are some of the more unique places that you have found and go to look for design inspiration?

The majority of my inspiration is found online, which is probably a little boring! I do however find inspiration while out and about in the real world. Such examples include clothes stores and supermarkets, there’s always promo designs and cool packaging designs to be found. Whenever something I find something interesting, I’ll take a snap on my iPhone, or make a mental bookmark. Every now and again auch inspirations give me cool ideas for projects I’m working on, are could be developed into blog topics.

Chris Spooner- Daily Inspiration - Question #3

4. What does your average day consist of?

My average day usually involves a selection of client jobs or the creation of blog posts. In the morning I’ll sit down at my desk and check out a bunch of sites and social networks before getting down to my first project of the day. I’ll break for lunch when my fiancee returns home from her morning lessons as a Driving Instructor, check out some tweets and follow some interesting links. In the afternoon I’ll continue with a second project, before ending the day and heading away from the computer. Every now and again I’ll make time to catch up on my collection of RSS feeds to keep myself updated on what’s going off in the blogging world, and post out the interesting links I find to Twitter to share my inspiration with others.

Chris Spooner Interview - Average Day - Question #4

5. How long have you been blogging and how (or why) did you start a blog?

My main blog over at Blog.SpoonGraphics was my very first blog, and was established back in April 2007. The reason was pretty simple, it was basically a personal experiment with the WordPress platform that I aimed to use as a playground where I could test out new techniques. After a short while some of the tutorials I wrote gained some exposure and the blog grew from there!

During its growth the blog became an increased source of client work and started generating an income of its own through advertising. This was a major help when I decided to take a leap forward in my career and head out as a freelance designer. At two and a half years old it’s still growing well, and I’m still enjoying helping people out with tutorials and design related articles. I remember picking up plenty of useful tips from tutorials when I was learning Photoshop and Illustrator so it’s natural for me to put back into community.

Chris Spooner Interview- Question #5

6. Where do you see the blogging world in 12-18 months?

Since I started my design blog, I’m pretty sure the scene has become more popular. Now there’s stacks of design blogs out there, and has probably become a little more difficult to get noticed and get your content off the ground. The use of video is always becoming increasingly popular. The guys at Obox have landed on their feet with their From The Couch video series, and a good selection of designers are providing awesome vlog content (EG: Danny Outlaw & Aaron Irizarry). With this in mind I wouldn’t be surprised if more designers used the video platform to generate content. I personally love the ability that video has to give a personal connection to the host, which really helps generate friendship and a loyal community.

Chris Spooner Interview- Video Blogging - Question #6

7. What are your five favorite websites/blogs that you visit on a regular basis? what about each do you like?

I have stacks of design blog RSS feeds in my reader, but there’s always a select few news aggregating sites I visit on a regular basis to catch new content from beyond my little bubble. These include DesignBump.com, the news section of DesignM.ag and the user submitted content over at CSSGlobe.com.

The main thing I love about all three is that they all provide links through to popular articles from across the design community, and can often lead to me discovering some awesome new blogs that I’d previously never come across.

Chris Spooner Interview- Question #7

8. Do you consider the explosion of design related blogs over the past six months to be positive, negative or neutral? Why?

It’s a positive for sure, it’s always great to see others sharing their knowledge and gaining exposure as a result. The great thing about the design community is there’s no competition to be superior to the next person – Everyone is always willing to help out, even with client work and problems such as website bugs. This is something you don’t really see in other industries.

Chris Spooner Interview - Question #8

9. If there was one piece of information that you wish you knew before you started in this career that you could pass on to beginners what would it be?

I’m forever picking up handy new tips and pieces of advice, but one that has proved pretty important to me was in relation to freelancing and not being scared of contending a client’s opinion about a certain area of the their project. For instance if they have a particular requirement or change to a design concept that I feel could be done in a different way, I’ll be sure to offer my advice. After all, they’ve hired a designer to make something look and work great, so I’ll be sure to try and make it happen! Sometimes we get stuck in the habit of doing whatever a clients says; ‘Make the logo bigger’, ‘Change the font’ etc! Giving feedback against such changes and explaining why you’ve done something a specific way can help keep projects on track, and keep you enthused about the work. On the other hand there’s always the puppet-master clients who don’t care about the designer’s decisions and want it doing their way! You know the ones…

Chris Spooner Interview - Final Question

Thanks very much to Chris for taking the time to answer these questions today.  I hope you found him to be as informative and interesting as I did.

Be sure to visit his blog