Spicy Web Design Interview with Colin Grist

Colin Grist is a web designer from Bradford, West Yorkshire in the UK. He’s been featured on MTV and many various internet sites. When he isn’t working on freelance projects he is busy working full-time as a senior Web Designer for a large car rental firm in the UK he is busy working on freelance web design projects, practicing his drumming with friends or playing on his XBOX.

1. How did you first become involved with designing websites?

I first became involved in websites when (god knows how or why) I came across good ol’ Yahoo! Geocities back in the day I must have been 14 or 15 at the time,

Website building wasn’t such a big deal back then and I started playing around with the website builder that they had on there.

I thought it was pretty cool how you could just drop things in and edit text really easily, I didn’t have anything to build a website on at the time but finally settled on designing a website for a big nu-metal band at the time (my story gets worse doesn’t it?!) it gave me something to write about, sections to add in and images to put up.

I got really into it and started adding more and more content, about the same time I started using Adobe Photoshop 5.5 and started making basic graphics in that,

From there I have just learned and learned and learned, learned from my mistakes and you could say trial & error also.

I was going to school and doing subjects I found boring and was coming home and working on my own website, it was one of the first times I ever felt like this was something I wanted to do with my life.

What’s cool is that website I started out as a kid has evolved, changed names and is now very successful, it’s been featured on MTV news, had millions of hits, is in contact with the band it is based on and has a great fan base, so that didn’t work out too bad did it?

2. How long have you been doing freelance web design?

I would say I have been doing freelance properly for only about a year, I work fulltime as a senior web designer for a big car rental firm in the UK and before that I worked as senior web designer for a smaller company, so I have always been busy, I just started doing freelance as an outlet almost for designs I couldn’t get away with doing for clients in my day job, from posting this kind of work on my website I have had clients coming to me who like sites that are a little different, a bit more vibrant than the norm and that’s a cool thing to see.

3. What did you study in school and did it help you become the web designer you are today?

Art and Graphics were my two favorite subjects at high school, I was a very good drawer back then, so I guess that’s where my creative side has come from, I probably can’t even draw a stick man now though! I went on to do studies in Business and IT but I was already doing my own websites on the side from that. I never went to university and never took any courses in web design. I’m completely self-taught in what I do and I’m quite proud of that.

4. Where do you seek inspiration from to design sites the way that you do?

I spend a lot of money on design books, typography books, anything that looks cool, I can get inspiration from looking at anything really, I don’t have to look at a website necessarily to gain inspiration I could get it from a leaflet posted through my door and think “I like that font” or whatever. I think that’s the key, ideas shouldn’t come to you, you should be out there trying out things that are new, I’ve noticed a lot of websites are starting to look very similar in what they do, I think partly, that’s to do with the whole blog culture and products such as WordPress coming onto the market, using a theme is easy, but having your own identity, that’s where it’s at and that’s why I think web designers will always be safe in their jobs!

5. I see that you do a lot of press from various sites and organizations.  Is that how you promote yourself and your business?

If you mean all these web design directories that our out there, I think these are a fantastic way to be found. A lot of my business has been generated by people seeing my website on these types of websites; they’re one of the most powerful things out there in my opinion for someone who is trying to do things on their own. It’s also good to see a publics opinion of a design you have done, market research like that could cost thousands to any other company!

6. How do you usually price out your web design projects?

I usually price out projects from past experience. Pricing can be difficult because you don’t want to go in too steep as they might walk away, and freelancers like me can’t afford for that to happen, but on the other hand you don’t want to undercharge and then end up with 6 months solid work, so you have to live and learn when it comes to pricing, my previous jobs helped too as I had experience in what the companies I’ve worked for charged which, helps me to estimate how long something could take to do and what to charge.

7. What do you like to do when you have down time aside from building kick ass websites?

Well, I don’t have any free time really, juggling a fulltime designer role and then coming home to do freelancing is hard, and I know I’m not the only one who’s doing things like this, it’s hard but I enjoy it. Apart from sitting in front of a monitor all day every day, I like to sit in front of the TV! I’m a big Xbox 360 fan and have always been a big gamer, I’m also a huge music fan, I couldn’t live without that I don’t think, I also play the drums and like to hook up with my friends whenever possible for a bit of a jam.

Sometimes I like to just chill and literally do nothing too, I can’t beat lying on the couch with the girlfriend, my kitten Trogdor and a bottle of beer.