Interviews Archives - Page 12 of 16

7.5 Cat’s BIG IDEA

August 13, 2006 by Liz

Where to from Here?

And now that IÃ¢â¬â¢m getting to the point of retirement, IÃ¢â¬â¢m getting away from the actual work of design and am now spending most of my time on pro bono work. Hence NO!SPEC, Creative Latitude and Proscodi. And one more on the way … Cat Morely said.

But her life hardly seems to be slowing, in fact it seems to be gearing up. Before we left her or looked too far down the road, I wanted to know what Cat sees now.

Cat, what do you think most designers get wrong?

Depends what you are talking about. Wrong about choosing freelance over
inhouse before they have enough skills? Not enough education and experience before striking out on their own? Working on spec? Being gullible? Not being professional? I guess I answered your question …

What could Successful Blog do to support designers more?

Successful Blog has its own style. It caters to a range of professions
with diverse interests. If you were to attract designers, in my opinion
youÃ¢â¬â¢d have to teach them something they do not know. Something they
need to know. Something you know. Writing. A large number of designers
are crap at grammar and sentence structure. IÃ¢â¬â¢m one.

In order for this to work, youÃ¢â¬â¢ll need to first get their attention,
then get them to understand that they need to keep paying attention.

Cat, What is your BIG IDEA? When people think of Cat Morley, what’s the first thing you want them to think of?

First thing I WANT them to think?

Hmmm…. tall, slim, young, brilliant?

[deep sigh] not the truth, just wishful thinking.

The truth is IÃ¢â¬â¢m passionate about the industry of design. IÃ¢â¬â¢m demanding of myself much more than I am of others. I am very good at organising but IÃ¢â¬â¢m not perfect. I have a quick, fiery hot temper. I no longer shy from it as IÃ¢â¬â¢ve lived with it for way too long and know itÃ¢â¬â¢s not going away. No more than I am. IÃ¢â¬â¢m loyal to my friends and not adverse to attempting to see the point of view of those who IÃ¢â¬â¢ve disagreed with hotly. IÃ¢â¬â¢m not one to say I have Ã¢â¬Åno time for foolsÃ¢â¬Â as IÃ¢â¬â¢ve been a fool myself once too often. Live and learn, then live some more.

I tried to talk Cat into convincing one of her clients that she needed to call me in on one of her jobs. But once she explained the economics, we both decided it was wishful thinking.

Wishes are good things and one day I will meet her.

That Cat Morley is just too interesting to time run out without finding an afternoon to spend together talking about life and other stuff.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

7.4: Cat’s Advice and Her Favs

August 7, 2006 by Liz

Whew! Cat’s a Busy Designer!

I’m not going to list all of the places we’ve been with Cat. From OZ to design for the Queen is enough said. Tonight questions are a little closer to home.

Cat, What do you do when you’re not sharing your great links and ideas at Successful Blog?

I still have clients in the wings (the last ones before taking off into
unemployment), I keep Designers who Blog running. IÃ¢â¬â¢m project manager for NO!SPEC which means I deal with design orgs when spec competitions come up, I send out letters of protest and galvanize people to send out letters, etc. As project manager for Creative Latitude I confer with my team before we update, deal with new authors, come up with angles, etc. As the president of Proscodi I put together committees to deal with each element of setting up a design org, I meet other heads of design orgs, go to meetings, etc.

What advice do you have for new bloggers and young designers?

Bloggers – it always takes more time than you planned so be sure to write about something you love. And be prepared to walk away if itÃ¢â¬â¢s taking up too much of your life.

Designers – there is not enough room here for all the advice IÃ¢â¬â¢d give to a young designer, so the top priority would have to be:

– Get a degree. The best one you can afford. And then some.
– Learn about business, accounting, dealing with clients,
communicating, public speaking, hiring, etc.
– Learn to write. The majority of the designers I know have appalling
grammar. Myself included.
– Latch onto a mentor.
– Never stop learning.
– Get a life. Preferably your own.

What design work online do you point to as well done?

Illustrator: (Von created the icons for Creative Latitude) –
http://www.vonglitschka.com/
Web designer: (Nigel designed the Creative Latitude website) –
http://www.commonsensedesign.net/
Blog designer: http://www.pearsonified.com/

One more part to go. Cat tells her BIG IDEA.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

7.3: Cat, the Toothpaste, the Queen and Everyone

August 5, 2006 by Liz

How Does One Person Do All This?

So far we’ve met Cat as world traveler and designer, a child star in the Wizard of OZ, and a crusader in the logo wars which got her into blogging. Now as promised . . . Cat meets the Queen and takes over the world (so to speak.). [Read more…]

Interview 7.2: Cat Wentworth Becomes a Blogger

August 2, 2006 by Liz

Crusader Cat

If you read the beginning (7.1) of this interview you know that Cat Morley has been a few places and done a few things in her career as a World Designer. If you came to this week’s open comment night, you also know that Cat had a major role in Wizard of OZ written just for her.

Tonight a little more about the many things Cat has had going on in her life.

Cat, how did you end up as a blogger?

IÃ¢â¬â¢m a crusader with a hot spirit. When LogoWorks started showcasing logos that were remarkably similar to many, many other designers’ logos, I was swept into blogging along with others. Of course there were some bits that had to be in place first. I just happened to be test driving blogger for a client when it all came about.

Cat tells the story of how she started to blog on Creative Latitude. It’s called Blogs, Podcasts and all that stuff.

Here’s how the story starts . . .

If you asked me a month ago about spending my precious time updating an industry or personal blog, IÃ¢â¬â¢d say, “Never!” Sure, I have a business blog (now sadly ignored) which IÃ¢â¬â¢ve spent time on, but IÃ¢â¬â¢ve always pooh-pooed jumping in and keeping a blog just for the love of it.

Many times on “The About,” (About.com’s graphic design forum) IÃ¢â¬â¢ve passed a verbal grin in Chris Gee’s direction when he went on and on about the wonders and power of blogging on his blog thepreparedmind.com. Not for me. I felt I had better things to do with my spare time.

I’m really glad she changed her mind.

Next: wait until you hear about Cat and the Queen of England!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Interview 7.1: Meet Cat Wentworth, World Designer

July 31, 2006 by Liz

Meet Cat

I first saw Cat’s Blog, (click this shot to visit it) . . .

I discovered Designers who blog when I was looking for great designers to feature. Then she submitted her blog for the Link Leak Blog-to Show that Successful Blog held earlier this year. I was delighted to meet her and a new friendship was forged.

Now I get a chance to share this amazing woman and designer with you.

I sent Cat a number of questions that I figured she might answer over a number of days and they came back in a number of minutes. . . . That shows a lot about who she is.

Today we’ll explore how she got started.

Hi Cat! Where’d you grow up and how did you end up in that part of the world? What’s it like for a blogger there?

Ok, thatÃ¢â¬â¢s three questions.
a) Where’d you grow up
My parents were expats (expatriates) so I grew up overseas. Not all the time as in between we were stationed in places such as Fairbanks, Alaska where I lucked out and lived through the great Alaskan earthquake. Sadly, my aunt who was visiting did not. Our last posting was Blenheim, New Zealand. I will always remember the land of the long white cloud as godÃ¢â¬â¢s country. KiwiÃ¢â¬â¢s are a very lucky people.

b) how did you end up in that part of the world?
France was too expensive so I took off for warmer, more amenable lands.

c) What’s it like for a blogger there?
Lonely at times as the US is asleep for the majority of my day, and whooping it up when IÃ¢â¬â¢m asleep. But it also means I get a lot done.

What got you started in online design?

When I decided to relocate from Brunei, I realised working in web would be more practical than print, which was my entry into the world of design. To explain, in Brunei I had local clients and a range of off-station clients. With a possible move to another country (and perhaps another after that) working 100% via the intenet made more sense.

So that’s how Cat got to be a world online designer. Next we find out how Cat faced diversity to become a blogger.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Interview 6: Blogging Pro’s David Peralty

July 4, 2006 by Liz

David Peralty, Blogging Pro

A few days ago I posted about the WordPress Theme and Plugin Challenge set by David Peralty at Blogging Pro. In that post, I promised more information about David and his reasons for posing the challenge. Both are worth a closer look.

Since my post about the challenge, Blogging Pro has added news and articles that include lies that bloggers tell about blogging, how to lead a balanced life as a blogger, other WordPress themes and plugins, trackback bugs, and the great “bug in” on July 4th to rid WordPress of critters. Writing for Blogging Pro keeps a guy busy.

Yet, when we talked by email. David was unstressed, professional, quick and friendly. Here are three question that I asked him with the answers he sent me.

What prompted you to lay down the WordPress challenge?

As I have been working on Blogging Pro for the Bloggy Network, I have been noticing a shift in both the quality and quantity of themes and plugins for WordPress. With the community not inspired by many of the contests that were around, I really started feeling a little bummed at where the community was heading. Blogging Pro, being one of the bigger WordPress information sites, I thought it could be a great platform to entice others to step up and create something new.

Are you a theme designer yourself?

I have attempted to design my own theme called Phoenixtheme (http://www.phoenixrealm.com/2006/02/02/phoenixtheme-v02/). It was relatively simple, but it was picked up pretty well by many people,
who them customized it for their needs. I also did a quick conversion of an open source web design Andreas 07 (http://www.phoenixrealm.com/2006/02/02/wpandreas07-v02/) so that it
could be used for the WordPress platform.

Aren’t there already enough WordPress themes and plugins to go around?

Honestly, I still feel some very important areas have been ignored. How many grunge themes are there? Themes that are more girly in nature? What about good three and four column themes? I still feel that there are also so many ways WordPress themes could go that have not been explored.

Also as the community grows, I have been noticing that there are about a dozen themes that do really well, while all the rest are more or less ignored. I would like to see that upper level increase to a group of two dozen superb themes.

I also think the same of WordPress plugins. You might say “how many plugins do you need to integrate an image gallery into your site?” but honestly I have yet to come across one that does what I need it to do, how I want to do it. With plugins, the different workflow that people have has to be taken into consideration, which is why you can have a dozen plugins that do the same thing, but people will follow the one that works the best for them.

I think that there are still more plugins in the minds of creative people that if given the right incentive, and motivation, will be released and we will all go “Wow!”.

David Peralty thinks the community deserves a “Wow!” David doesn’t just write for Blogging Pro. He is one. Read his posts. You’ll see.

–ME “Liz” Strauss