Quick fire questions with designer folk #2

Following on from the first set of quick fire questions, here’s the second dose of designers (Some new and a couple from the previous post). Hopefully you’ll be able to relate to some of these guys and gals, so leave your comments or let me know if you want to take part next time.

First lets introduce them all and then get their answers.

Who’s taking part

Niki Brown
Website
@nikibrown

Gavin Strange
Website
@JamFactory

Craig Thompson
Website
@TiltShiftDesign

Joel Cage
Website
@joelcage

Phil Stringfellow
Website
@psdesignuk

Odin Dutton
Website
@twe4ked

Drew Douglass
Website
@DrewDouglass

Matt Allen
Website
@sdmix

Luke Power
Website
@Tegalad

Jamie Gregson
Website
@Jazzybam

Callum Chapman
Website
@callumchapman

Rachel Shillcock
Website
@missrachilli

Right onto the questions!

Question #1 - Are you Mac, PC or…?

• both! 15in mpb and a teeny little netbook!
• Mac
• PC
• Mac
• Both
• Mac
• I run Mac, Windows, and Linux
• PC
• PC
• Mac
• Mac
• PC

Question #2 - Your favourite hex value/colour

• #333333
• #75CD00
• #0A4748
• #ff8400
• #336699
• #222222
• #FF0084
• #1f293d
• Blue
• #FF0000
• #2293C4
• I can’t pinpoint an EXACT hex colour but I love deep, rich purples.

Question #3 - What’s your design speciality?

• jack of all trades, master of… some?
• Web / Graphic Design
• Web and Motion graphics
• Typography
• Graphic
• Web design
• Web
• Photography
• web and graphics
• Graphics
• Graphics, Illustration
• Web design & Graphic Design

Question #4 - One thing you wouldn’t leave your house without and why?

• iPhone - i’d go nuts without it
• My keys. Because otherwise I’d be locked out.
• My Moleskine notebook for scribbling down the ideas/concepts/plans for supervilliany that bubble up through my consciousness on a daily basis.
• Mainly my iPhone as it’s like having a mini Apple Macintosh in your pocket! Very handy indeed
• Mobile phone - my link to the design world once I leave the house, and also has tons of images of the main source of my inspiration, my 3 year old daughter.
• Wallet and phone So I have money and I’m contactable. My phone also has twitter and emails so I almost have everything with me.
• As boring as it sounds, I’d have to say my MacBook Pro. I’m always running around meeting with clients and showing them things on my computer, it is vital to have it with me.
• I really want to say my mobile, but I seem to always loose that a lot these days.
  As ‘original’ as this will sound, I always have a camera on me, whether it be my phone, my instant or even my SLR.
  I’ve always taken too many photos of my life, I say its because I’ve got a bad memory so I use photos to remind me of cool stuff that’s happened which is kind of true, but really, I just love taking photos.
• Most probably a sketchbook and pencil so that I can write and draw ideas when they strike me like a thunderbolt from a clear sky.
• My iPhone, it keeps me connected to everything! But only when I need to be.
• My iPhone - text, phone, emails and internet access all in one
• My Nokia E71. I do everything with it. I can access my emails, ring people, text people, take photos, browse the web, store vital notes (that I will always, always forget unless I make such notes) and so much more.

Question #5 - Your favourite beverage to work with?

• redbull
• Tea
• Tea
• Tea
• Tea
• Coffee
• Mountain Dew Baby!
• Tea
• Tea
• Tea
• Tea
• Lucozade Sport

Question #6 - What is your favourite tool of the trade?

• illustrator
• Wacom Graphics tablet
• Photoshop and After Effects
• Adobe InDesign CS4
• Photoshop
• Photoshop
• Coda followed by BaseCamp for project managment.
• Adobe Lightroom
• Sketchbook and Pencil
• My Canon 450D
• Damn, a hard question! Pencil, Illustrator and Photoshop combined Let’s say Pencil & CS4?
• Photoshop by far, I use it everyday in almost everything I do.

Question #7 - What do you wish you could have designed and why?

• there’s some pretty clever package design out there that i wish i could have designed.
• The 2012 Olympic logo, as i think it could do with a few ‘improvements’
• http://www.foehn.co.uk/index.asp - Abstract and sexy…even if it does use flash and ASP
• Anything by Jonathan Barnbrook because he is a cocky sod with big balls. Barnbrook brings issues to light & harnesses the power of design to make change to society. Oh and his typefaces are rather splendid to.
• Originally, it was the Donnie Darko website which was such a well-designed, abstract Flash based website it inspires to want to design such websites myself.More recently, however, I would have loved to have designed is Google Wave. Such an innovative piece of software, easy to use, and great to look at it in it’s simplicity. Roll on the full version.
• apple.com, simply because its a nice looking website and millions of people use it every day.
• http://carsonified.com/blog/ - I don’t know exactly why, it’s just one of those designs I can’t get enough of. It’s extremely pleasant while not being overdone.
• Oh man, there are so many. Being mainly a photographer all my life, the design side of things is still quite new to me and I come across things all the time which inspire me and make me sit there and think ‘I wish I’d done that’. One which I’ve been shown recently was http://www.vimeo.com/5437401 video on Vimeo, where they created an advert to promote HP Workstations ability to bring to life anything the creative mind can conceive, and I think you’ll agree that it hits the button.
• Currently, it would be the Mini Ninjas website, its beautifully designed and encapsulates the fun that can be found within the game.
• A strange one, but some character designs for Wall.e. Because I’d love to be able to draw that well.
• The initial concepts of the iMac and/or MBP’s
• This is a toughie…I wish I had the creative flair and mind to design some of the pieces of furniture that Marcel Breuer has designed. I think they’re really beautiful, such as the Wassily chair, but unfortunately I have no eye for furniture design! I’ll definitely stick to my day job.

Question #8 - Your favourite artist or musical track to listen to while working?

• the album leaf
• Anything heavy or fast - From Prodigy to Slayer!
• Mr Scruff or Foo Fighters
• Anything by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I like listening to Jet’s new album ‘Shaka Rock’ too but i mostly end up air guitaring or air drumming or air bassing..
• Too many to list, but 30 Seconds To Mars tend to be on a lot
• Hermitude
• Silence is golden
• My Bonkers Collection (Hixxy, Sharkey, Dougal etc)
• It varies from month to month, just something to get me in the zone!
• More recently, the DJ Hero soundtrack!
• I don’t have a favourite track, but I love listening to up-beat dance music whilst designing
• I love to listen to almost anything, but mostly rock so any rock track makes me work much harder and gets me in the mood for designing!

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