Spicy Web Designer Interview with Tim Van Damme

Tim Van Damme is a web designer from Machelen in Belgium. He’s been designing websites for about the last 10 years originally starting to use Geocities “PageBuilder” and then later Dreamweaver to craft some beautiful interfaces. Even though Tim originally started off studying Accounting and IT he found his calling studying Interactive Multimedia Design and then going to work in the industry to learn everything that he could and is a much more successful web designer today because of it.

1. When did you first start designing websites?

I think it’s about 10 years ago I got interested in websites. It was also then that I created my first website with Geocities’ PageBuilder. I would later “evolve” to FrontPage, Dreamweaver WYSIWYG, and eventually start writing my own HTML and CSS.

2. Where did the idea behind “Made By Elephant” come from?  It’s a pretty unique name

That’s the dumbest story ever. I was at a pub with some friends and started drawing on the back of a beer coaster. I don’t remember why, but suddenly I was trying to draw an elephant with as little elements as possible. I took the coaster back home and threw it somewhere on my desk. About a week later I needed to clear my head and started vectoring the logo. Another week later the name “Made by Elephant” suddenly came up, so I wrote it down. When (a month later) I decided to go freelance and needed a name, I immediately thought of the elephant.

3. What is the biggest challenge that you face as a web designer today?

Teaching your clients the value of quality work. They often have a little brother or nephew that can do “the same” in half the time and for a tenth of the price. It’s our job to show them the value of clean and semantic HTML, tableless layouts, …

4. What are your 3 favorite web technologies?

XHTML, CSS and RSS (or isn’t that a correct answer?)

5. What is your educational background in? As it helped you in your career as a web designer?

I studied accounting/IT. After that I studied something called “IMD” (interactive multimedia design), but I wasn’t interested in Flash, Word or Powerpoint. So I quit and went working for a company for 2 years. Everything I know is through self-study. I always tell young people to quit school, and go do what their heart tells them to do.

6. How do you price your web design work?

It depends. Smaller projects usually are fixed price. Larger will be priced at a weekly/monthly basis.

7. Have you always been a web designer or what did you do before web design?

Always been a web designer. It’s all I want to do, and also all I know. It feels more like a hobby then real-life work. Been living my dream!