The goal of the companies is to determine if you really are the person on your résumé, and they do this by first looking at your basic skills. Most of the hiring staff only want to contact applicants on the phone, because this is easier for them and more effective, so they will try to get you on the phone soon after your CV passes the initial basic requirements.

They also look at how dynamic a person is and try and determine a bit about their personality – previously working in groups is an advantage, as graphic and web designers have to do this every day at their jobs. If your personality and the basic skills get the OK, then the HR manager will probably ask technical employees more about your coding skills. Although it is a very quick process, it all starts with your résumé and if the one you submit is not good enough, you will never get a phone or direct interview.

1. Tell them where to find you

I do not mean your home address – this is something you should have in your CV anyway. I’m talking about your portfolio. If I want to hire somebody, I definitely do not want to spend time searching for him on Google. I am not hired to do this, if you are not smart enough to provide it yourself, your CV goes to the shredder. List your web page in the header of your résumé, so it is the first thing the hiring staff notices.

Keep in mind you also need to show your work. If you say you are good in HTML5, the company needs to be able to be convinced before you will be called for an interview.

2. Follow people to stay in touch

An important asset of a job candidate in the design field is to be in touch. It is important to use websites for inspiration, to follow other fellow designers on Twitter and exchange opinions with developers. Many companies ask during the interview who you follow in the design industry, either on Twitter, Dribble, Facebook or other media. I am not saying you should prepare an answer only for the sake of it, I am saying you should actually follow people in the industry.

Another question you might get asked is what did you do in the last year to become a better designer. This is a key one because it will show your potential employer you are really interested in what you do and are passionate about it. Moreover, it will show you continuously work to improve yourself and this is something managers like to hear. You can take different courses on the internet or pay for subscriptions on Lynda.com. Code School and A Book Apart are some other great resources you can use.

Image by Lifetracks volunteer group.

Your résumé should show that you are interested and look to grow as a designer or developer. You should be able to adapt to new techniques and show that you always have a hand on what is new in the industry.

3. Notice the job description

When applying for a graphic designer job, knowing ASP.net doesn’t help too much. It is an advantage, but it is not what you will be evaluated on. It is a good idea to write a personalized cover letter for each job you apply for; make sure it is unique and reflects why you wish to work for that company in that specific opening. Although you think they will not, I assure you HR managers notice when people send mass e-mails, so as said before, avoid doing it. You can create a good, strong impression if you write a unique e-mail to each job posting – as a matter of fact, as all of them are different, it would be stupid to send the same application to all of them.

4. No signs of experience

How do you expect to get a job if you have no experience in the field you apply for? I am sure there are job openings for inexperienced people, but they do not mean newbies. If the work you did before is not something you are entirely proud of, you can always create your own project. Use your skills to create a template and sell it on ThemeForest or any other similar website. Do you have a lot of client work that doesn’t show your creativity? It’s never impossible to make something on your own – a hiring manager will appreciate the fact that you design in your free time as well. If you think your portfolio can be improved, do it before sending out your résumé.

Image by Susanne13.

5. Show you are a designer

When you send out a CV for an engineer job, it can be a basic word format with no template. But when you apply for a design job, why not put your creativity skills to work and make a great template for your résumé? If you are able to design a stunning template for your CVs, this will scream creativity, care and attention to details and will move you to the top of the list right away. If you don’t have time for this, use a digital tool such as Zerply. The templates they offer look great and the portfolios uploaded there are very easy to maintain. Another tip is to send PDFs instead of Word documents and sending out your whole website (if it works as a classic résumé) can be effective as well.

Conclusion

These were only a few basic tips to improve your CV. Remember that while there is no direct contact between you and the company, the résumé is the only piece of work that will bind the two of you. It is always worth spending two hours on building a stunning CV than using two hours for sending out default templated résumé.

Keep in mind you need to show creativity and willingness to improve and your résumé will pass into the second round. Now if you are a good designer and have the necessary skills, you will pass through the third round and will be able to meet the hiring manager in person. But tips for a face-to-face interview another time…

Until next time, let’s stir up a discussion here. Do you have some other tips to give all of us for improving our CV?

Interviews give you great insights about how a person thinks, works and feels about his job and life. If you don’t usually read interviews, this is an opportunity to get an idea about how reading them can be an extremely useful learning method. Let’s get started!

“Bonus Question! Any suggestions out there for students or newbie designers trying to learn and grow as designers?”

“Absolutely! The best thing I ever did when learning to design was to spend copious amounts of time in my local Borders reading through all the expensive books on design and typography which I couldn’t afford to buy. There’s so much great information which isn’t yet available online, in fact with books often there’s a lot to learn simply by looking at how the books themselves have been designed!”

Collis Ta’eed interview at DesignO’Blog

“I see that you design brilliant icons. Give us some tips for designing an effective icon…”

“An effective icon should be simple and meaningful. So, make your icon as simple as possible. You can go fancy with the various effects, but keep your icon as minimal as possible. The entire point of an icon is to communicate a single message to the users.”

Nick La interview at Vector Tuts

“What are your best methods for finding/attracting clients?”

“The best way is having a very good network and let people know about your work. The promotion is the most difficult part of the process but as soon as you get a client and you do a good job, they recommend you. Also there are so many good sites to find jobs and even different ways to get work like writing tutorials for example.”

Fabio Sasso interview at FuelYourCreativity

“Walk us through your creative process. Do you start your process with references or sketches on paper or wireframes, or are your initial concepts more spontaneous? Is there some difference in thought processes between web and print projects?”

“The problem is that my process isn’t always the same; it mostly shifts depending on what it is that I am working on. The most constant part in my process is logo design where I almost always start with sketches in my little sketchbooks and scan them in to start the process in Illustrator. When designing websites it depends on how complex the project really is. When it is really complex I always start by wire-framing the most difficult parts before actually starting to move to Photoshop. Some concepts happen spontaneously, but not often. After receiving an OK from the client, I move over to create the final HTML/CSS part. There, I always start with structure first in HTML before starting to style things. The Illustrations that I draw almost always start on paper first, well at least the basic idea. Sometimes I end up with a different result due to experimenting.”

Veerle Pieters interview at Vector Tuts

“Lots of designers struggle when faced with the task of creating a logo for themselves. How would you advise a designer who is trying to figure out how to best to brand themself?”

“Tough question, especially given that I spent the bulk of a year on my own identity design (brainstorming, sketching, finalizing, then scrapping it and returning to the start). Settling on a design that represents you needs to be a very personal thing, so I guess if there’s one tip I can give, it’s to make your identity reflect who you are. With that said, it’s your client work that sells you, so if in doubt, why not opt for a clean, professional logotype?”

David Airey interview at Colorburned

“What, for you personally, are the pros and cons of being a designer?”

“The biggest pro is that I love what I do so it is not really work which gives me the highest satisfaction. The cons of being a freelance designer is that you have to be disciplined, your own boss and do all of the business administration yourself.”

Jacob Cass interview at Abduzeedo

“What books do you consider must read?”

“Providing you have the time, all books! With regards to design and development when I was writing my dissertation I really enjoyed Jeffrey Zeldman’s designing with web standards, it’s a really good book that provides the necessary foundations for good web standards. Other than that its been a while since I read any design/development orientated books. On my list to read though I would like Smashing Magazine’s book and also David Airey’s book, Logo Design Love. Outside of the work world I am currently reading Robinson Crusoe.”

Damian Herrington interview at admixweb

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

“I attended the secondary school and high school “Nicolae Tonitza” in Bucharest. Then followed The Fine Arts University “Nicolae Grigorescu” in Bucharest, Department of Graphic Design. Surely the 15 years of study were a great help. Studies matter a lot but they are just the first brick in the making of a web designer or a graphic designer.”

Simona Buzatu interview at SWD

“How does a student determine whether design is for them or they should pursue another career?”

“Do what you love doing. That goes for any career. If you are bored with the industry now, then it probably isn’t for you! If you love what you are doing, then work and fun can merge a lot of the time, which is a much better way to live than dreading the 9:00-to-5:00 every day. Yes, you need talent, but enthusiasm, a love of what you do and hard work can get you a long way. :)”

Rachel Andrew in a group interview at Smashing Magazine

“What are some of the best ways for new designers to find clients?”

“Go after them. Don’t expect clients to come to you if you’re new to the industry. What worked the best for me was cold-emailing agencies for their overflow work. Some people might think that’s spamming, but it isn’t if it’s short, relevant and only done to a company once.”

Amber Weinberg in a group interview at Smashing Magazine

“What advice would you offer to young entrepreneurs looking to establish themselves in the online world?”

“The Internet is an enormous space, and there’s room for anyone to make a living doing what they enjoy.

If you’re wanting to build a web application to fill a niche (or just solve an existing problem better than everyone else), check out 37Signals’ blog. They’re opinionated and contentious, but have some absolutely fascinating insight and advice to share.

If you want to start a blog, read Crush It. If any book will give you a background to the tools and techniques used in blogging today, this one will. It’s also worth following Skellie, a remarkably talented blogger and writer who manages Envato’s Tuts+ websites.

Don’t quit your day job tomorrow to set up an online business. Start small, and understand that building a presence online takes time. Jump on any opportunities that come your way, and don’t be afraid to fail. If you’re building a bricks-and-mortar business, failure is usually a financial disaster. If your online project fails, there’s a good chance that no-one will even notice (and it won’t cost you a penny).”

David Appleyard interview at Elite By Design

“You’ve worked for a number of studios. Was it a useful experience? What made you want to work for yourself?”

“Vital! This is a must for all designers or developers, no matter which studio you work for you will learn and you will learn a lot. I once worked for a studio which was possibly the worst place I have ever worked, getting out of there was like being resuscitated from drowning, but I still took positives from it. Even if all you learn is how to treat customers and fellow peers, you’ve learnt something vital.”

Rich Brown interview at Designinterviews.com

“In your opinion, what is the best way to test the usability of a website?”

“Follow the 3 basic rules: get representative customers, ask them to perform realistic tasks, and shut up and let them do the talking. You only need 5 users to uncover enough usability insights to keep you busy for months. Even though there are only 3 rules, they are routinely violated in many studies. For example, it’s wrong to test with your friends or colleagues. You need to bring in external users who are representative of the target audience and who don’t know anything about your project. And you can’t just let them fool around: they have to do real tasks. And, of course, you have to keep from biasing their behavior and giving them hints about how to use the site.”

Jakob Nielsen interview at Webdesignerdepot

“What role has social media played in your blog’s success?”

“Not a whole lot. Social Media is young, and for all we know, it might just be a trend. That’s not an attack (I’m addicted to Twitter), but it seems strange to me that there are so many “Social Media Experts”. That’s roughly equivalent to calling oneself an “expert at talking to people online over several mediums”. It just doesn’t make much sense to me. I grew up on the Web, so a lot of the online social scene is just a natural thing to me. It’s a great way to chat and connect with people, and it’s definitely offered a great deal of opportunity to entrepeneurs. Maybe it’s contributed to sending some traffic my way, but it’s miniscule compared to the tried and true methods of just developing quality materials.”

David Legget interview at Colorburned

“What is the most important question you ask when first meeting with a client to discuss a new design or project?”

“I think that first meeting should be 75% about them. Who they are, what they do, why they do it, who their customers are, what the goals of the project are. That kind of thing. Then 25% about you. Who you are, how you work, what you expect, things you have done in the past that might be relevant. It should be 0% about design, technologies used, or any specifics about what the final product might be. After you get a good feel for each other, then the NEXT discussion can be more focused on a proposal and ideas for a final product.”

Chris Coyier interview at Nettuts

“When you are low on inspiration where is a common place that you turn to?”

“I really like to look at design related imagery, a book cover, a poster, a typographic arrangement or a good typeface, anything from music to retro stuff like B-movies, music band posters or even illustrations and typography from medieval books can be a source of inspiration.”

João Oliveira interview at PSDTuts

“What words of advice would you give to an aspiring designer just starting out?”

“Sketch, sketch sketch. Also try different creative activities that you haven’t tried before such as photography or painting. You never know what you will be good at and you may pick up some really unique design ideas and methods you’ve never thought of before that you can apply to your work.”

Adelle Charles interview at Myinkblog

“What do you find to be the most challenging part of running a blog?”

“The most challenging aspect is continuously thinking of new content. I have a posting schedule of one post per week, with a roundup of interesting news articles every other week, yet I still find times when I’m stuck for content! On the other hand I’ll sometimes be able to schedule a batch of posts for the upcoming month.”

Chris Spooner interview at Inspiredology

“Do you think it’s important for a designer to not be restrict in using only photoshop and move on to 3d as well?”

“I have found it more effective to use a mix of 3d, photos and painting to achieve the level of detail I strive for in my images, but this is just my personal way of working. Some people can create fantastic images with photoshop only, and that’s just the way they work. That said, learning 3d can open up whole new worlds in your artwork. I can really give you the flexibility to create anything you dream up. I started with a program called Bryce, and this gave me the basic stepping stone into 3d. Cinema 4d is my preferred 3d package simply for its intuitive design and ease of use. Someday i would love to learn Zbrush to take my artwork to the next level.”

Christopher Haines Interview at Abduzeedo

“What are the biggest challenges that you face in web design currently?”

“My personal challenge is a lack of time to learn everything I would like to. For instance, I’d love to master motion tools, but still don’t have time. Maybe next year… In general, the biggest challenge is educating clients about the user experience, explaining why they need usability testings and reviews, and about the true powers of their web site or application. Many investors come to me with an idea of forums and/or similar community features, but they rarely realize that they don’t have resources to handle this. They often overhear the idea (or read a blog post entitled “Increase revenue with social network”), but can neither really understand nor explain why they need it.”

Marko Dugonjić interview at Nettuts

Conclusion

Interviews are definitely a great way to get inspired and to know a bit more about the professional world. With so much information available, the only wall between you and success is your will and motivation. Go after them!

So, what are web galleries?

What are Web Galleries?

Website gallery (or web gallery)- a web based gallery.

Whyzz defines gallery as:

Galleries are often small spaces, and they’re generally private—meaning that they’re owned by one person or a small group of people. They often show the work of one artist, or a small group of artists or works based on a particular theme.

Image by: Glen Converse

With this definition in mind, we can say web galleries are gallery-like or platforms that showcase the works of designers . These are websites created for the purpose of inspiring others. They’re especially great for beginners, and allow the original designers a chance to gain more exposure and show what they can do to the rest of the world.

Why Visit Web Galleries?

There are two main reasons why designers, and particularily beginners, should visit web galleries: to be inspired by others’ works and be motivated.

Image by: photosteve101

In any kind of field, especially in web design, it is important to be inspired by others’ works. This way, you have a role model, or a specific designer that really fires up your creative juices, that you can always turn to when you feel down, or when you lack motivation.

I have interviewed people who I find successful in the field they have chosen to work in and asked them questions regarding inspiration and web galleries. Take time to read and get inspired by their answers.

Questions:

1. As a blogger/designer/developer, who/what inspired you the most?
2. Why do you think we need an inspiration?
3. Do you visit other blogs? How often?

Rean said:

[1]“I’m a fan of theprofessionalheckler, and I can honestly say that I never really dreamt of becoming a full-time blogger, I only wanted to try it and see if it will work for me. Good thing is, I have really love writing ever since I was young and after seeing how blogging works and how wide the audience is I got hooked into it and I’m loving it.”

[2]“An inspiration may point towards a person or a dream, or both. Having someone to look up to makes you think “Wow, I want to be like him/her someday” or “I want to be better,” things like this will give you the energy to move forward. Some may go to the extremes of saying having a role model is their Raison d’Etre (reason for existence) but don’t laugh, in order to live people need something to look forward to, otherwise it’s a lonely world. Without an object of inspiration, people will become aimless, with an object of inspiration people are guided. Inspiration plus a touch of madness results in a dream come true.”

[3]“Yes, while drinking my coffee I read my favorite blogs. How often, you ask? 5 times a day, give or take a few.”

Rassel said:

[1]“Those people that I find are better than I am. I don’t want to be second best, I want to be the very best! You may find that very childish, but for me this is my way of motivating myself and putting in the effort and the work to be even better than the best.”

[2]“For when we are inspired, we always do things in an extraordinary way. We always reach for excellence in everything we do. Without inspiration, those things are not possible. And for me, inspiration is proportional to passion. If you have passion in what you do, I’m sure inspiration will also come through.”

[3]“Yes, whenever I lack ideas regarding my projects. I often visit Pattern Tap.”

Bench said:

[1]“My inspiration is my future. I always do my best so that I can meet my goals in life, and that is to be a successful designer.”

[2]“I believe that inspiration gives you brighter design. It calms your mind and makes your design acceptable.”

[3]“Yes, whenever I design I make it a point to visit web galleries. This helps me to come up with different ideas.”

Jerico said:

[1]“My fellow designers inspire me the most. When I see how beautiful their designs are, I get inspired to make my designs better than theirs.”

[2]“Of course if you are inspired, you tend to make a better design than the one that inspired you.”

[3]“Very often. These serve as my references for new layouts and designs. It’s useful to know what the new design trends are.

Joggerwalk said:

[1]“I don’t have a specific person, but I have some friends and classmates who inspire me with their works.”

[2]“We really need inspiration because it triggers us to do the things we like. It also influences us to come up with a unique idea or concept based on the things around us. Also, inspiration helps me fight laziness. Haha!”

[3]“Yes, when I have time.”

Stephanie said:

[1]“I am easily inspired by designs that I see as beautiful, amazing and full of emotion. It gives me the drive that if someone can do it, I can do at least as good if not better.”

[2]“We need inspiration to do what we want and to deeply express ourselves. It is something that motivates or pushes me to give my best.”

[3]“Yes, when I think that I need to get some ideas or inspiration I visit web galleries.”

Luigi said:

[1]“My inspiration is my dreams. I get inspired to be the best in everything I do to reach my dreams. And my dream is to be successful in the field I chose.”

[2]“For me, inspiration is important. This is where I get my ideas to do my job.”

[3]“Of course. During my free time, I make it a point to visit web galleries. You can learn techniques that you can use on your projects.”

With all of their answers, we can conclude that inspiration is an important factor that affects a persons work and one source of inspiration we can consider is web galleries.

Motivation is also important in any work. This keeps you moving towards reaching your goals. To be motivated, you need to have your inspiration, in any kind of work, motivation is necessary to do your best and enjoy what you do.

To keep up with the latest trends on web design.

It is important to know what’s going on around you. For designers it’s important to know what the latest trends are in web design. Why? The answer is very simple, so that they won’t be left behind. We all know that viewers want to see and experience the newest or the latest design trends.

Image by: Web Interactive Films

People always want the most current technology whether in gadgets, software, or the web design they see, or the website they hire someone to design. With web galleries, designers can stay current and see new technologies in use, and see the trends in design.

How to get the most from Web Galleries:

To better appreciate web galleries,and what you can learn from them, here are some ways that I believe they can be useful:

When you feel your design is ‘missing’ something or if you’re stuck for ideas.

Write down what parts of your design need work then when you look through the web galleries you can ask these questions:

• What element(s) don’t look good or work with my design?
• What part of the design am I having a difficulty with?

Image by: Martin Bright

Take note of your answers, for these will be the basis on what type of web gallery you need.

Try and define the type of web gallery you want to find.

After writing down where you are having issues of difficulty, try and search for a web gallery that is relevant to your problem. There are web galleries that focus on CSS, WordPress, typography, etc.

There are many galleries there that focus on a certain niche. Say if you are searching for inspiration for a Flash website, search for a web gallery that showcases great Flash websites.

To help you in searching, I will be listing some of the best web galleries that you may find useful at the end of this article.

Search, then take note on what you liked the most.

Searching is kind of like shopping. When searching, take at least 10–15 minutes of your time finding sites thatmay provide you the inspiration you need. Spend one minute or less on each and when you find one that inspires you, bookmark it so you can come back to it whenever you need.

Image by: Lukas Kummer

Visits web galleries you like on a regular basis

When you visit these sites regularly, you can stay current with new trends and learn techniques being used by others in your field.

Benefits of visiting Web Galleries

What are the benefits of visiting these web galleries?

• Designers can keep up with the latest trends in web design.
• It can be inspiring and help motivate designers to do better.
• It can help designers get out of a rut if they’re feeling frustrated by a design or at a loss for ideas.

And here are some of the great web galleries you can find on the net. Make sure to bookmark those that tickled your taste!

The Best Designs

The Best Designs showcases the best Flash and CSS websites grouped into different categories.

We Love WP

We Love WP, a web gallery that showcases WordPress powered websites.

Make Better Websites

Make Better Websites supports several designers by featuring their designs on the site. The nice thing about this site is you can filter your search with the tags and colors provided on the right panel.

Design Shack

Design Shack lists inspiring web designs, resources and tutorials to help designers.

Minimal Sites

Minimal Sites is a gallery dedicated to, what else, minimalism in web design. Designs are categorized to give comfort and faster searching on users.

DrupalSites.net

DrupalSites.net showcases websites that use the open source CMS, Drupal. The purpose of this site is to present the flexibility and advantages Drupal has to offer.

Design Flavr

Designflavr describes their site as: “A Design and Visual Art Gallery.” They aim to share the best design content they can.

Pattern Tap

Pattern Tap aims to give inspiration to designers regarding the best interface designs on the web.

Design Snack

A gallery that showcases CSS/XHTML and Flash designs as well as the designers.

Creattica

A gallery that compiles great designs and imagery where users can vote on each submitted work.

Styleboost

Styleboost has been showcasing beautiful websites created by several designers and developers for more than nine years from now. The good thing about this site is it gives an introduction to the different kinds of websites they present.

Nice Stylesheet

Nice Stylesheet gives a collection of website designs that make use of CSS and web standards.

Web Creme

Web creme features CSS web designs that can be filtered depending on your choice of color or month.

Design Bombs

A portal for all web designers and developers that aims to make it fun searching for the hottest sites on the web.

CartFrenzy

CartFrenzy gives you the best designed e-commerce and online shopping websites.

Best Web Gallery

Best Web Gallery is an inspiration site for designers with a wide range of websites that use Flash and CSS. They say that a quality design is:

Quality Design = Visual + Technical + Creativity

Best of Joomla

This is a community website that also contains a gallery of websites that use Joomla. The search can be filtered into your choice of color, topic, country etc.

Blog Design Heroes

Blog Design Heroes showcases well-designed blogs on the web that are grouped into categories according to platform.

Buzz CMS

A website gallery of several websites that use different CMS’ such as Joomla, Drupal, WordPress and the like.

TypeInspire

TypeInspire features typography created by many graphic and web designers. It aims to provide you with excellent typographic works for inspiration.

That’s it! I hope this article gave you some ideas on where to find inspiration and hopefully next time you’re needing some inspiration, or you need a new idea, you’ll check out some of these web galleries.

Your Thoughts

We know that we just touched on some of the ways and places you can find inspiration. We’d love to hear your thoughts, so if you feel so inclined, tell us:

• Who or what inspired you the most?
• How often do you visit web galleries? Which galleries do you like the most and why? Please include a link so maybe we can include them in a future article.

The art of handwriting is dying, I only have one friend who has a very artistic handwriting and when people do see her write they get mesmerized. That is one hint that it is a dying art: when people around see it like something straight from a fantasy film.

Handwriting as a Dying Art

Nowadays almost everyone are typing or texting(SMS), even documents that are passed around only require a signature. Today, many schools are shifting to computerized exams. Handwriting only occurs during lecture time, although in the university from where I graduated teachers give photocopies of their lectures or even a PDF.

Interview:

To back up my claim (or question) I have interviewed 22 people about handwriting as a dying art.

1. Do you think handwriting is a dying art?

Of the 22 I have interviewed 14 believe that handwriting is a dying art. Although people still write from time to time, the days when handwriting is something that defines the personality of the writer is nearly gone. This apply to calligraphy and cursive.

2. Do you still write?

Twelve said they still write regularly while 10 said they no longer write using pen and paper or very rarely does so. Most of those who commented further no longer write regularly, but they do believe that before technology overlapped traditional writing, people were really good with it.

I was even graced with their comments about this matter.

Ian said:

“Now, calligraphy style penmanship, however is quite dead. Go, go print :(  As an art form yes, it is dead in my eyes, but as far as communications are conerned, it will always exist. Nothing beats hard copies, you know?”

Anonymous said:

“I was taught wrong, or more like learned wrong.”

Jesse from the USA said:

“It actually is, I’m afraid. I use the computer a lot more. I wouldn’t say they forget about using paper and ink, it’s just in today’s world, technology rules. But yes, people do write a lot less in my opinion.”

Anonymous said:

“Yes, the computer era is taking over.”

Lucas from Minnesota said:

“Yes, it is dying. No, I  no longer write, unfortunately. The use of the internet and cellphones has abolished handwriting entirely. And I don’t write because my school asks for computer written essays and it’s easier to contact other people through the internet than through a letter.”

Charina said:

“Yes, most people today use computer. For instance, when communicating, instead of snail mail people use Yahoo Messenger, Facebook, e-mails, and SMS. Even at schools, projects are done using computers. It is seldom for teachers to give students instructions to come up with a handwritten essay.”

Karla said:

“Yes, it is a dying art. Even my boss writes like a kid.”

Rassel said:

“Because of technology, I think.”

Based on the interview I have conducted, people who agree/believe that handwriting is a dying art have more things to say on what caused its demise than those who believe otherwise. Now you’re wondering where did I gather people to answer my questions? 3 are long-time friends. Others, from Omegle. *laughs*

I think I deserve a praise because I’ve been verbally abused many times for asking questions. You know, there are lots of naughty people there. Good thing there are still serious people who are connected to the internet ready to provide creative and critical discussions.

Examples of Elegant Handwriting

The power of an elegant handwriting stirs the imagination. Seeing the images below automatically gives me the impression that the person who wrote them are elegant!

On a completely irrelevant but serious note, I am a Redditor (a reddit user) for 2 years now and it just occurred to me to search “handwriting”, to my surprise I found a discussion full of ultra cool handwritings.

Feast with your eyes! Calling all who have knowledge of graphology/handwriting analysis, please help us translate the handwritings below.

by: electrobutter

I find electrobutter‘s handwriting nice. A combination of print and cursive. You can actually visualize the fast strokes his pen makes.

by: Eugene Solomonik

A fantastic handwriting which incorporates fine slow curves and quick strokes. Mr. Solominik even has a special note for 1stwebdesigner!

Isn’t that sweet of him? Check out his Flickr, he sure loves to write. Thanks Mr. Solomonik!

by: paralemptor

You felt it too, didn’t you? That tingling sensation while reading the handwriting, it is like one of those books about witchcraft with rhymes. I’d have paralemptor write me a short story.

by: Frodo_Teabaggins

Dear Frodo_Teabaggins, teach me how to write like this. Please? Very elegant and free-flowing.

My Handwriting (deserves an H2 tag)

“Greetings 1stwebdesigner readers! How is my handwriting? I want to see yours too.  :) Cursive? What cursive? << LOL” –  for those who can’t read my handwriting due to poor camera resolution and the shaking of my hands, I had too much coffee.

Dainis’ Handwriting

Dear friends, I have successfully acquired Dainis Graveris’ handwriting specimen. Unique handwriting, I should say, for it combines both print and cursive in a very subtle way. Bonus: this is his journal.

Your Turn

If you have the time please do answer these questions:

1. Do you think handwriting is a dying art?

2. When was the last time you actually wrote?

3. If you are writing in print, when was the last time you wrote in cursive?

4. Link to your handwriting’s photo?

1/8/2011 UPDATE! - Around 5 minutes ago I was browsing Yahoo News and saw an article predicting things that babies born in the year 2011 will never know. Guess what? It includes handwriting! See 23rd item or 7th to the last.

1WD: Many of us may be familiar with you because of your website: “Theme Lab” For those who are unfamiliar with you, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your life?

Leland: My name is Leland Fiegel.  I’m a web developer and blogger.  I’m a part-time student, a Lost fanatic, and an NBA fan.  I’ve been running Theme Lab for over two years now as my primary blog.  I talk about WordPress, release WordPress themes, as well as post tutorials and coding tips.

1WD: How did you get started in web development?

Leland: Since I was around 10 years old, I was pretty fascinated with making websites.  I discovered the “View Source” button on my old Internet Explorer browser and examined and played with code until I eventually taught myself HTML.  I made a bunch of fun little sites (none online anymore, unfortunately) and just started getting in the business side of things about 5 years ago, when I started buying domain names, developing websites for them.  My domain addiction carries on to this day, although I’m getting better at not buying every good domain I see nowadays.

1WD:There is always a heated debate on WordPress GPL issue. Will you please share your personal views with us about this matter?

Leland:I’ve said this before, but I don’t believe there is any issue that gets the WordPress community more riled up than GPL-related debates. Arguments about commercial products and services, especially commercial themes, seem to always come back to the GPL in some way.  I personally try to stay out of it as much as I can, as I believe there are much more productive things you could be doing than sitting around arguing about things that have been argued hundreds of times over already.  It’s like beating a dead horse.  Some people might completely boycott non-GPL products, and that’s up to them.  Personally however, I don’t mind promoting non-GPL products as long as  I feel it’s a quality product.

1WD: Premium themes companies are growing like mushrooms. Do you think there is enough room for new WordPress premium theme companies in this over crowded niche?

Leland: It seems a new “premium” theme company pops up every day.  Usually they are started by people noone has every really heard of before, they release a few mediocre themes, and then they’re never heard from again.  These are what I call the “fly by night” sites.  There are other new ones, however, who do a good job managing their credibility and reputation, put out a quality product, get good buzz flowing (usually by providing awesome support) and they probably end up doing quite well.  Some established theme developers may say it’s “too late” to enter in the theme market.  I personally don’t believe that for one second, even though it may not be as easy to start up now as it was in the early days of commercial themes with all the noise.  Everyone has to start somewhere, and there’s always room for new, interesting, innovative, and quality new products.

Jungle Land - One of the most Popular Themes of ThemeLab

1WD:Each day, there are several WordPress theme releases in the community. What do you see in a “Quality” WordPress theme.

Leland:I see a quality WordPress theme as one with a clean design, with clean code running things behind the scenes.  It doesn’t necessarily need to have a boatload of theme options, a fancy magazine-style layout, or 50 social bookmarking icons built-in.  It just needs to work and let you focus your content, without getting in the way too much.  Themes that are slow loading, poorly coded, with subpar usability are themes that you should definitely stay away from, even if it may look flashy or “cool” on the front-end.

1WD:You are owner of Custom Theme, which offers custom theme development. What’s your day-to-day like?

Leland: I’ll be honest in that I haven’t really been getting many complete custom theme job requests lately.  Most of the work I’ve been doing lately has been mostly coding related.  Either coding mockups that people already have designed for them, or making “matching” WordPress themes so they can have a blog that blends in with the rest of their site.  There is a big market for this as people recognize the value a blog could add to an already established website.

1WD: How do you concentrate while writing code, and what is your favorite code editor?

Leland : First step, CLOSE TWEET DECK.  If I don’t, I find myself constantly checking it to see the latest updates.  And if I get a reply or a direct message and that little popup box appears, game over.  I’m Twitter addict too, in case you didn’t notice.  Closing Gmail also helps as well.  My favorite code editor would have to be Notepad++.  I don’t need any fancy features, just something a little more useful than just straight Notepad.

1WD: Any code pet peeves?

Leland: Let’s see, where do I start.  When I see “0px” instead of 0.  When CSS shorthand isn’t used properly (such as margin-top: 10px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; when you can say the same thing as margin: 10px;).  When I see a bunch of <br/> tags to create space, when you should be using padding or margins in CSS.  When I see a bunch of useless meta tags that noone cares about anymore loaded up in the header of a document, like “Last Updated” and “Revisit After”.  I’ll stop there, I think I have an idea for a future blog post.

1WD: What are your future plans?

Leland: I’m planning on keeping up producing free content on Theme Lab, as well as posting paid content as well in a new section called the “Underground.” There will be paid themes, tutorials, as well as a private forum for members.  It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while because I feel like I have a lot of WordPress coding knowledge to share.

Thanks for your time, Leland.

Feel free to share your thoughts with us. Do you think we should continue such interviews or any suggestions you want to give us. We are open for ideas. :)

Maybe you’ll be able to learn from their mistakes and adapt your work and aspect?  Be sure to read some of these interviews to gain some guidelines in design world. I’ve learn a lot from those interviews and such inspiration helps me as well in daily development stage!

1. Magnus Jepson of WooThemes

Magnus Jepson is a co-founder of WooThemes, a brilliant designer whose distinct style have become immensely popular. His design skills have helped push the aesthetics and functionality of WordPress themes to a whole new level.

2. David Airey of LogoDesignLove

David Airey is an internationally respected logo designer and creative. He blogs, designs, and has recently authored his very own Logo Design Love book.

3. Chris Spooner of Spoon Graphics

Chris Spooner is a talented young blogger, designer, and developer for Spoon Graphics and Line 25. His articles have made a lasting impact on the design community – from informative tutorials to inspirational showcases.

4. Henry Jones of WebDesignLedger

Henry Jones is a freelance designer and blogger. He runs WebDesignLedger.

5. Nick Roach of Elegant Themes

Nick Roach is the creator and owner of Elegant Themes, a top-notch premium WordPress theme provider. His company has grown at an incredible speed since its founding, and captures a wide niche of the WordPress themes marketplace. Nick’s designs are clean, elegant, simple, and aesthetic.

6. Jacob Cass of Just Creative Design

Jacob Cass is an incredibly talented logo designer and blogger under the name Just Creative Design. He has worked with clients from around the world and has recently moved to New York City to work with Carrot Creative.

7. Fabio Sasso of Abduzeedo

Fabio Sasso is a designer, blogger, and Photoshp guru. He runs the insanely popular design community, Abduzeedo. He has written dozens of Photoshop tutorials that have been widely received by the design niche. His skills and style have helped push the world of design to the next level.

8.David Appleyard of Design Shack, Mac.appstorm and Photo.tutsplus

David Appleyard is a blogger for several large websites including Design Shack – one of the first and greatest CSS galleries on the web – and several Envato websites, including AppStorm and PhotoTuts. In this interview, David shares his insight on design, inspiration, and time management.

9. Jacob Gube of SixRevisions

Jacob Gube (pronounced goob-eh) is a web designer and manager of Six Revisions, one of the largest online web design and development blogs on the internet. SixRevisions has published over 450 articles from over 30 contributors, making it an incredibly useful source of tutorials, guides, tips, and tricks. Jacob has been working online for over 8 years and his experience and expertise speak loudly in his articles.

10. Vitaly Friedman and Sven Lennartz of SmashingMagazine

The Smashing Magazine is an online magazine dedicated to designers and web-developers. Its main purpose is to deliver high quality content related to web design regularly. It is maintained by Vitaly Friedman, a freelancing web-developer and Sven Lennartz, the chief-editor of the German web design magazine Dr. Web.

11. Collis and Cyan Ta’eed of Envato

Collis and Cyan founded Envato in 2006. Now Envato runs over 15 tutorial sites, blogs and marketplaces. Envato is one of the largest design related companies.

12. David Leggett of Tutorial9

David Leggett, the creative mind behind Tutorial9 and the upcoming BetterBlogger.net. David was recently named by Retire at 21 as one of the web’s top young bloggers – 21 and under. An amazing achievement like this deserves some recognition

13. Chris Coyier of CSS Tricks

Many of us here at Net.tuts are big fans of Chris Coyier and his work on CSS-Tricks.com. Throughout the years Chris has published many tutorials, websites, and scripts to help designers and developers improve their skills. At this interview, we will sit down with the man behind these articles, and chat with him about CSS, design, and life in the town of Portland.

14. Dion Almaer of Ajaxian

Dion Almaer, a British expat living in Silicon Valley, tries to build user experiences that developers care about at Mozilla in a role that allows him to think about making life easier for Open Web developers.

15. Vlad Gerasimov of Vladstudio

Digital artist, Vlad Gerasimov, who is from Irkutsk, Russia. He runs Vladstudio which specializes in creating wallpapers for computers and mobile devices.
In this interview, Vlad shares with us his humble beginnings as a designer and how he got started with creating wallpapers as full-time self-employment. He also shares his ideas, inspirations, and future plans. Vlad has a unique style of illustration, with simple lines and shapes. His work has great themes, which promises to win the hearts of viewers and make them happy!

16. David Walsh of David Walsh Blog

David Walsh  is a well-known, twenty-six year old, web developer in the community. In addition to his blog, he contributed to the creation of Script and Style, and is a core team member for the Mootools framework. Today, we’ll talk with him about his day-to-day workflow, JavaScript, and web development in general.

17. Inside the Mind of ThemeForest’s Top Selling Author

Kriesi is ThemeForest’s top selling author; he, last month, broke the record of most sales in a single month, across all of the Envato marketplaces! It’s even more shocking when we consider the fact that he’s only 27 years old! In this interview, we’ll dive into his work process, and hopefully steal some tips and inspiration!

18. Maksim Loginov and Vladmir Loginov of Hand Made Font

Straight from Estonia, the guys from HandMadeFont give as all access to their studio and tell us a lot of special details about their incredibly typography and font work done by hand.

19. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg, is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur. As a Harvard student, he created the online social website Facebook with fellow computer science major students and his roommates. Facebook is a social networking site popular worldwide. Zuckerberg serves as Facebook’s CEO. Time Magazine added Zuckerberg as one of The World’s Most Influential People of 2008. Zuckerberg fell under the Scientists & Thinkers category for his web phenomenon, Facebook, and ranked 52 out of 101 people

20. Michael Martin of Pro Blog Design

Michael Martin is a blogger and designer at Pro Blog Design. He has had a large influence on the design community with his in-depth and incredibly useful articles on his blog.

21. Six Questions: Eric Meyer on CSS3

Eric A. Meyer knows a thing or two about standards-based CSS and HTML development. He’s a distinguished expert on CSS and HTML, an author of numerous books on CSS, co-founder of An Event Apart, a coveted guest speaker, a member of the A List Apart crew, and  founder of Complex Spiral Consulting

22. Martin LeBlanc Eigtved of IconFinder

An interview with Martin Leblanc the creative genius behind Icon Finder, An amazing interview where Martins shares why he set up icon finder, future plans for the site and his marketing strategy for promoting Icon Finder.

23. Interview with Professional Freelance Web Designer Shay Howe

In this interview with Shay, discussing the ups and downs of living the freelancing life, some great tips for those interested in becoming a freelance designer, plus a whole lot more! Avid readers of FreelanceSwitch will recognize where Shay is coming from, and anyone interested in the freelancing or work-from-home profession should absolutely give this interview a read!

24. Interview with Little Box of Ideas Design Blog

Little Box of Ideas boasts a great blog with tons of resources  for the design  community. To anyone interested in getting the inside scoop on this fantastic design inspiration blog.

25. Jad Limcaco of DesignInformer

Jad Limcaco is the man behind DesignInformer. Besides blogging he’s also a freelancer.

26. Bruce Livingstone of iStockphoto

Bruce is the founder of iStockphoto, the world’s biggest FREE image and stock website on the Internet. Back in 2006 Bruce sold iStockphoto for $50 million to Getty Images and has since stayed on as the CEO and in this interview he shares his top tips and lets us know how he has built up iStockphoto to such a high level.

27. Nate Whitehill of UniqueBlogDesigns

Nate is a mid-twenties Internet nerd, business owner, blog designer and race car fan. He work sfor a company he co-founded, Unique Blog Designs (UBD). He has been living the Internet lifestyle for almost well over two years and it has been exciting, to say the least.

28. Liam McKay of Function

Liam McKay is the founder of Function, icon and wordpress theme creator.

29. Mark Harbottle of 99designs

Mark Harbottle is a co-founder of sitepoint.com, and founder of the recently launched 99designs.com.

30. Jon Phillips of Syprestudios

Jon Phillips is a freelance web designer and is a well known figure in the online community as the guy behind top design related sites Spyre Studios, Freelance Folder and Design Newz.

31. Interface Designer Sam Brown

Sam Brown is a freelance Interface Designer from Scotland, who under the business name of Massive Blue creates a range of high quality websites, combining detailed design and top class code. Sam is also the guy behind such sites as Posh CSS, and the upcoming Remindness.

32. Daniel Weinand of Shopify

Born and raised in Germany, Daniel decided to study computer science and music at the University of Dortmund. He discovered a new joy in programming after encountering Ruby. Daniel is the VP of Design in Shopify.

33. Elliot Jay Stocks

Elliot Jay Stocks is a web designer, developer, author, speaker, and musician from Bristol, England. His designs are fresh, innovative, and inspiring. Elliot has spoken at several design conferences around the world, written his own book, and writes music in his spare time. Elliot is an incredibly creative person, and this interview will offer insight to his methods and design strategies.

34. Danny Outlaw of OutlawDesignBlog

Danny is one of the raddest creatives this side of the Mason Dixon line. He has freelanced from all over the world, but most recently lived in Costa Rica.

35. Andrew Egenes of DesignFloat.com

Andrew started DesignFloat 2 years ago. In this interview Andrew talks about his experience with creating a successful niche social media site.

36. Andy Budd

Andy Budd is a user experience designer and partner at Clearleft. He runs the dConstruct and UX London conferences, created the Silverback usability testing application and wrote the book, CSS Mastery.

37. Adii Rockstar of Woothemes

Adii Rockstar (born Adriaan Pienaar) is an entrepreneur, the co-founder of the very successful online startup WooThemes and a general creator of Rockstar Awesomeness.

38. An Interview With The Best Design Blogs To look Out For In 2010

This is a great article which features an interview with 12 web/design blogs which were started up in 2009 and are essential design blogs to look out for in 2010.

39. Group Interview of WordPress Theme Sellers

In this interview you have some top wordpress theme sellers. For anyone who has considered selling themes or templates, I think you will find a wealth of information from this experienced panel. If you’ve ever bought a WordPress theme or have wondered what it’s like to run a business selling themes, I think you’ll find some helpful info here as well.

I tried to select the most interesting and available interviews within two years about successful graphic designers and bloggers. Hope You will enjoy this article!

1. http://www.smashingmagazine.com

Vitaly Friedman

http://www.juxtaviews.com/2007/02/21/vitaly-friedman-smashing-magazine-interview/

2. http://www.abduzeedo.com

Fabio Sasso

http://www.fuelyourcreativity.com/interview-with-fabio-sasso/

3. http://meyerweb.com/

Eric Meyer (css guru)

He is total royalty in design world. Everybody knows him.

http://nettuts.com/articles/checking-in-with-eric-meyer/

http://www.thinkvitamin.com/interviews/css/eric-meyer (audio podcast)

4. http://freelanceswitch.com/ , http://www.psdtuts.com

Collis Taeed

http://help-developer.com/index.php/2008/07/interview-with-collis-taeed/

5. http://www.justcreativedesign.com

Jacob Cass

http://www.myinkblog.com/2008/08/28/interview-with-jacob-cass/

http://graphic-identity.blogspot.com/2008/04/interviewing-jacob-cass.html

6. http://www.cssbeauty.com/

Alex Giron

http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0/interview/cssbeauty/2006

7. http://www.davidairey.com

David Airey

http://freelancefolder.com/interview-with-david-airey-graphic-designer-and-blogger/

http://sharebrain.info/braintalk/braintalk-with-david-airey-from-davidaireycom-logodesignlovecom/2739/

8. http://www.tutorial9.com

David Legget

http://www.fuelyourcreativity.com/interview-with-david-leggett-tutorial9/

9. http://www.designbump.com

John Campbell

Sorry, I couldn`t find any picture with him. If You got one, please let me know!

http://www.marcofolio.net/reviews/an_interview_with_john_campbell_creator_of_designbump.html

http://www.designer-daily.com/interview-with-john-campbell-the-man-behin-design-bump-900

10. http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/

Chris Spooner

http://www.myinkblog.com/2008/07/15/an-interview-with-chris-spooner/

11. http://www.snook.ca

Jonathan Snook

http://www.adii.co.za/2007/07/11/interview-jonathan-snook/

12. http://css-tricks.com/

Chris Coyier

http://designm.ag/interviews/chris-coyier/

13. http://wefunction.com/

Liam McKay

Sorry, I couldn`t find any picture with him. If You got one, please let me know!

http://www.fuelyourcreativity.com/interview-with-liam-mckay/

14. http://www.shinybinary.com/

Nik Ainley

I would really suggest to visit his site – great inspiration there!

http://abduzeedo.com/nik-ainley-shinybinary-interview

15. http://www.99designs.com, http://www.sitepoint.com

Mark Harbottle

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/sitepoint-cofounder-interview

16. http://darrenhoyt.com

Darren Hoyt

http://outlawdesignblog.com/2008/interview-darren-hoyt-of-mimbo/

17. http://www.ginoorlandi.com/ - Updated..Gino has sold previous site and now can be found at this website.

Gino Orlandi

http://www.creadiv.com/index.php/2008/03/an-interview-with-gino-orlandi/

18. http://www.woothemes.com/

Adii Rockstar

http://outlawdesignblog.com/2008/interview-adii-rockstar-of-woo-themes/

19. http://www.designfloat.com

Andrew Egenes

http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/social-media/building-successful-niche-website/

20. http://vandelaydesign.com

Steven Snell

Sorry, I couldn`t find any picture with him. If You got one, please let me know!

http://www.fuelyourcreativity.com/steven-snell-had-his-sights-on-the-big-leagues/

http://shakin.ru/english/interview-with-steven-snell.html

And at the end I found at smashingmagazine pretty article, could be even e-book  – enjoy:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/09/05/50-designers-x-6-questions/

Thank You for attention!

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