SpicyWebDesigners.com by Luc Arnold

Bert Timmermans is a web designer from the Liège Area in Belgium. He is a self professed “internet fanatic with a passion for development and design” who has been designing sites for the past 5 to 6 years. He is currently studying Communication Multimedia and design at Katholieke Hogeschool Limburg (KHLim) and is graduating in the next year. Outside of designing websites, Bert also designs for the iPhone using the iPhone SDK and he is creating some interesting apps for mobile users.

1. How did you get started in web design?

When I was young I always wanted to do something creative. So I picked a graphical education until I discovered the possibilities from what I could do with a computer.

2. When did you start designing websites?

My first web-design experience was about 5 to 6 years ago. I didn’t have a computer at first and had to create all my stuff at school. But after a while my parents bought me my first computer, a basic PC with one of the first flat-screen displays. At that time I was doing some basic HTML and my first steps with CSS. From that moment I was in love with the internet and all the possibilities.

3. What are the biggest challenges that you face in web design currently?

The biggest challenge is to keep challenging myself to do better each time. Because there is always a easy way and a hard way to complete your goals and picking the right one isn’t easy. I learned that you can’t make the perfect design but that you need to try to get as close as possible.

4. Do you code any of the web sites that you design currently? If so, what language(s) do you code in?

t try to combine the 2 jobs of web-designer and web-developer because it is nice to switch between them and gives you more insight. The advantage of coding and designing your own projects is that can think ahead if you are designing and that you can do allot by yourself. I can use languages like XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, jquery, xml, PHP, mySQL and some basic ActionScript 2.0. But I always wanted to learn more like Cacoa and create even cooler stuff.

5. Did you study design at school or are you self-taught?  If you went to school, how has your education helped you become a better web design professional?  What other skills has it helped you to gain and what else has it taught you about design in general?

I am still studying “Communication Multimedia and design” at the moment and will do my final year next year. At school I learned a basic of web-design and web-development but also things like online marketing and communication. This gives you a broader view on subjects and makes it easier to adapt to situations. But at school we also get the opportunity to develop our own skills and in my final year I can pick a subject of what interests me most and build my thesis around it. But things like design cannot be taught in school these are skills you need to develop on your own and challenge yourself to do better each time.

6. Since you first started how has the web design industry changed? Has it changed for the better? If so, how? If not, please explain?

As a student I see that the web is changing and very fast. For example, when I started designing websites my favorite websites where flash-based and where very dynamic, but if you look at the web today you see that flash is not so important anymore and that HTML 5 will rule the world (just kidding with the last part ). I also like the fact that the web becomes more mobile and the new technologies that are made for it.

7. What are your favorite tools to use when designing a web project? Why are they your favorite tools?

First off all I work on a Mac and I use only Photoshop and Coda for most of the time. I use Photoshop because it is the most advanced design tool but then again I only use 10% of the tools that are in it. Coda is my favorite app; it gives me the perfect tools and interface to do all my coding.

Besides these 2 programs I work also with the iPhone SDK to create my web apps and all the other CS4 programs.

8. I see on your site that you’ve done some projects using the iPhone API.  How have you found your experience developing for the iPhone so far?

Yes I use the iPhone SDK but only the web app related programs. First there is a nice iPhone emulator that comes in handy if you are build stuff for the iPhone. Second there is “Dashcode”, an app I don’t use but is very easy to create quick mockups of websites. And the good part is that it is free to use. To build my projects I found the necessary information on Apple’s developer website and for more tricks and solutions for the limitations of Safari I just used Google. So just start building your idea and look up the information that you need to get it right.

Sam Devos is a web designer from Hulste in Belgium. He studied Multimedia and communication technology. Sam has been designing websites for about the past 4 years since 2005 and his design work has improved a great deal so far since he started. His portfolio includes a wide range of web and print design work

1. How did you get started in web design?

I started in web design through my education which calls MCT (multimedia & communication technology)

2. When did you start designing websites?

I think I made my first back in 2005 which was a personal portfolio site but looked like shit.

3. What are the biggest challenges that you face in web design currently?

Finding job opportunities actually :p, improving myself on every design (I get often frustrated if I don’t achieve the design level I wanted), having a look at my site 2 years later and still finding it modern

4. Do you code any of the web sites that you design currently? If so, what language(s) do you code in?

Yes, I just can do the CSS /XHTML coding. I may do some JQuery in it but just for animations then.

5. Did you study design at school or are you self-taught?  If you went to school, how has your education helped you become a better web design professional?  What other skills has it helped you to gain and what else has it taught you about design in general?

Well school offered me the basics in Photoshop illustrator ,but  in my opinion you have to teach it yourself I don’t think arts can be taught…   it just using your eyes, and be good in picking colors  I guess. , but school helped me a lot in doing the web coding (CSS/HTML). Besides that I look a lot on design portals finding inspiration and of course buying some computer arts magazines.

6. Since you first started how has the web design industry changed? Has it changed for the better? If so, how? If not, please explain?

Well that’s not a simple question I can speak about for myself but I think it’s get harder and harder today to be  notable between all those other companies.

7. What are your favorite tools to use when designing a web project? Why are they your favorite tools?

I use” color cop” a lot for picking out the color code (#FF675F) on an image etc. Very useful if you see a damn cool color. And oh I use the web developer toolbar for FireFox very often, this comes handy if you don’t know what width to use on certain websites that must be viewable on 1024 screen sizes etc.. and for viewing some interesting CSS code beyond sites.

Davy Van Den Bremt is a web designer specialized in Durpal and Web Standards from Ghent, Belgium.  He originally studied Computer Science at University of Ghent.  In 1996 he found himself working on a website for a friend’s band and then started doing web design for small businesses and has been designing ever since.  

1. How did you get started in web design?

As soon as I got an internet connection I was intrigued by the power of the Internet. It’s power to the people. At minimum cost you can make a company brochure, a design portfolio, promote your music, … I wanted to be a part of that.

2. When did you start designing websites?

I think around ‘96 I started making websites for bands of friends of mine; myself … I used tools like Paint Shop Pro and FrontPage then. Tables! The horror!

Around 2001 I started working on websites for some small companies in my neighborhood.

In 2005 I discovered web standards. I participated in CSS reboot and May 1st reboot and got a lot of exposure there. That’s when I realized I could make appealing sites and took it more seriously. I also decided that the Web would be an important part of my career.

3. What are the biggest challenges that you face in web design currently?

I try to make my clients clear it’s in their best interest to skip the WYSIWYG stuff (TinyMCE and FCK) in their CMS and do some hand coding. I give them a small introduction and set up some classes for common styles. Not every client wants to work this way right now. The ones that do see the benefits clearly: consistent design and ease of work and by using semantic code better search ranking.

Web design is a challenge for me every time since I’m not a designer per se. I’m more of a developer. Since my day time job is developer, I don’t have much time to catch up with all the new CSS and JavaScript techniques.

4. Do you refer to yourself as a Front-end developer or a web designer?  Do you code any of the web sites that you design currently?  If so, what language(s) do you code in?

My website says “Drupal developer and designer”. I’m a mix of different things. As most designers, I do design, HTML, CSS, Javascript, php, Drupal, CakePHP, … I now do iPhone development too.

When people ask me what I do I always say “I make websites”.

My day time job is pure development: Drupal, jQuery, … My freelance stuff is mostly the whole package: design, slicing, Drupal implementation.

5. Where did you go to school and has it helped you become a better web design professional?

I studied Computer Science at the University of Ghent. I haven’t learned any design stuff there. Not much web too. More network and computer stuff.

It made me all round though. And it gave me a deeper insight in how the stuff that I do works and why it works. Like how do programming languages work under the hood, networks, image compression … This helps me a lot when I do performance tuning.

6. Since you first started how has the web design industry changed? Has it changed for the better? If so, how? If not, please explain?

Back in the days you had WYSIWYG. The code was under the hood, it didn’t matter that much how it was programmed. You had the occasional inline JavaScript which was mostly used for navigation stuff but for the rest it was not done. You also had websites that were “IE only”.

Then around 2005 I heard about designing with web standards. Not much people were using it. Now almost everyone is using it and I’ve seen a lot of people selling websites using some buzz words without knowing what they really mean: XMHTL, CSS, semantic markup… it’s all the same for them.

JavaScript frameworks have introduced JavaScript again. You now get a much richer user interface.

The latest trend seems to be big fonts and typography in general has won a lot of interest. And transparency is already a common thing these days.

7. What are your favorite tools to use when designing a website? Why are they your favorite tools?

For design? Photoshop! Of course.

Slicing and development? Basic stuff is of course Apache/MySQL. I use MAMP for local deployment. I couldn’t live without SVN (or any other versioning system) anymore too. I use Beanstalk as my hosted SVN server and Versions as my client.

My favorite editor these days for web design / development is Coda these days. The preview feature is great for slicing. The most important feature though is “projects”. You make a project with SVN, FTP and SSH settings and with 1 click or key press you login to ssh, upload a file via ftp, check in a file in SVN. I also made a plug-in to make my life as a Drupal developer easier.

Coda isn’t suited well for more advanced stuff. For FTP I use YummyFTP, for power editing Textmate.

Firefox is my favorite environment for HTML and JavaScript debugging. Firebug, YSLow and LiveHTTPHeaders are must have extensions!

I use Parallels for my virtual machines to test IE, Linux, … IETester makes it easy to have multiple IE versions on one machine.

Litmus is great for a final checkup to see how your design works in all browsers.

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!

Jan Vantomme is a web designer from Ghent, Belgium. He has been online since 1996 and fell in love with it from the start and began building websites in 1998. He originally started off studying Multimedia and Communication Technology but never finished and later on went back to school for Graphic Design in Ghent, Belgium. Aside from designing user interfaces and websites he also teaches at Sint-Lukas Brussels University College of Art and Design.

1. How did you first get started designing websites?

I got to know the internet somewhere in 1996 and I immediately liked it. I just knew I wanted to do something with the medium. I made my first website in 1998.

2. Where did you go to school and what did you study? Has this helped you in your career so far to date?

I studied Multimedia and Communication Technology (Kortrijk, Belgium) for one year but never finished it. This was the place where I learned about HTML 3.2, CSS and the basics of JavaScript. Later on I went to study Graphic Design in Ghent. I started my own studio about two and a half years ago. At this moment I’m teaching web design at Sint-Lukas Brussels University College of Art and Design. The course is about web standards, design techniques and the basics of navigation. So I guess learning about design and multimedia has really helped me to this day.

3. What are the top 3 tools you use when designing a website? Is there one web design tool that you couldn’t live without?

If there is one tool I can’t live without, it would be a text editor. My choice goes out to TextWrangler, BBEdit’s smaller brother. It’s free and fully scriptable with AppleScript. I’ve made my own set of scripts for TextWrangler to edit XHTML and CSS in an easy way. A while ago I’ve switched to CSSEdit for editing my style sheets. It is a nice piece of Belgian software and a lot better than the CSS-scripts I wrote. CSSEdit features a built-in browser where you can see a live preview of your website. The third tool would be Photoshop. It’s simply the best image editor around for designing websites. I’ve been using this application since version 3.0 and I almost never used any other image editor.

4. What is the most challenging obstacle you’ve faced?

One of the biggest projects I’ve done was an in-house job at a previous employer. I made a web application where people could design their own vinyl stickers and order them online. The application however never made it online. I’ve learned a lot about PHP, Apache and MySQL on this job.

5. Have you received any design awards or special acknowledgments for the websites you’ve built?

I didn’t enter any of my projects to a web design competition or award show because most of them focus on eyecandy, not on content. Most of my projects are content-based and made with web standards. The website I made for De Verdwaalde Ooievaar (http://www.deverdwaaldeooievaar.be/) was an item on television news the day it was launched and got a few full page articles in the Belgian newspapers. Things like this are more important to me than awards.

6. How do you price the web design work that you do?

Depends who the client is. I work with a few non-profit organizations who have a tight budget so I work a little cheaper for them. Big companies and government organizations usually have a bigger budget to spend so they pay the full price.

7. Do you usually work with web designers when you are brought in on other web design projects?

I’ll try to handle most of my projects myself. When I really need to work with other people, I’ll try to bring in other designers myself. Usually these are friends or designers I’ve worked with before. I did a few great projects with Lander Janssens, a former student of mine who works as a freelance web designer.