Andrew: First off, thanks so much for asking me to participate in this interview session, I’m flattered to be a part of it.

I’m a husband to a beautiful wife, and a father to an amazing 10 month old son. I work as a full time web developer for Niagara University. In the evening hours, and on most weekends I do my best to refine MyInkBlog, and work on freelance projects.

My design background originated out of curiosity and necessity. I had always tinkered around in simple paint programs and art, but I had very limited practical experience in web design, or computers as a whole. My bachelor’s degree is in finance, and I didn’t foresee a career that had anything to do with design. However, shortly after taking a job at State Farm, I quickly discovered that selling insurance wasn’t for me. I quit that job, and stumbled around for a bit until I was fortunate enough to be referred to a job at a fine arts gallery. They put me in charge of anything design related; from the brochures to the website. It didn’t take long for me to realize that design rocked, and it was what I wanted to do for my career.

Andrew: Growth wise, I’m hoping for more of the same. I’m striving to continue a steady climb in traffic, and avoid the peaks and valleys that can occur by chasing social media spikes with list posts. My goal is that MyInkBlog publishes only awesomely useful design related content. Some specific goals would be to double the number of RSS subscribers, and Twitter followers that MyInkBlog has. I also would like to focus more on progressive web design using CSS 3 and HTML 5.

Andrew: Before taking the job at Niagara University, I was a graphic designer for a small group of newspapers. It was a fun work environment, but it was quite limiting, so I was definitely on the lookout for a new job. I had just started MyInkBlog, and was beginning to network with other bloggers. Adelle Charles of the FUEL network was one of the first bloggers that I connected with. She was really helpful and encouraging. She tweeted about the job opening at Niagara and I was fortunate enough to land the position.

The job itself is very rewarding, but challenging. It has really helped me improve my communication skills, because I have to work with so many different departments and personalities. My first task I was assigned to, was to revamp the entire website, from the design, to the content management system we use. So after a lot of research we settled on Silverstripe. Which has proven to be a great decision. I’ve learned a ton about an MVC approach to programming, if you’d like to know more about why I think Silverstripe rocks, check out “5 Reasons to Use SilverStripe For Your Next CMS”

Andrew: That definitely depends on the day. I think I focus more on the week as a whole. I try to get in about 15-25 hours per week. With a full time job and a family, that can be quite a challenge. So finding ways to be more organized and efficient is really important to me. I am definitely minimalistic in my workspace. The less cluttered my desk is, the less cluttered my mind is. Here are some tools that I use to make my life a little more simple.

Things – Keeps track of all my to-dos. It’s really easy to use, and has a slick interface.
Helvetireader – This is just a skin for Google Reader, but makes going through all my rss feeds beautifully simple.
Coda – All the tools I need to develop a website are in 1 flawless program.
Pad & Paper – Sometimes it’s just the quickest and easiest to write things down on paper or sticky notes. For more involved sketches I reach for my moleskin.

Andrew: My post ideas generally flow from my everyday design experiences, inspiration from fellow blogs, and inspiration from the outside. I find it’s really important to write down ideas as soon as they come to me, so that I don’t forget them. Once I’m ready to roll, I log into my Wordpress admin, and start writing out all the main points I want to cover. Then I work through all my ideas to establish a rough draft. I go through a bunch of revisions, and add images throughout the post to break up the monotony of the text. Then it’s time to publish and promote.

Andrew: My advice would be to only get into the design field if you have a genuine interest for it. If you are passionate about it, then success will come much easier. Never stop learning, and pushing yourself to get better. I’d also encourage you to be patient, and to try to take criticism as constructively as possible. We all, at some point, will have to handle rejection. If you can brush it off, and use the criticisms to your advantage, you will grow and improve. Lastly, it’s important to make sure you keep balance in your life.

Brian Gardner: I am a self taught web designer and internet consultant – everything I know has been learned by trial and error. A few years ago, I was working a day job for an architectural firm and started blogging. I really began to enjoy the idea of publishing content and when I sought out a WordPress theme to use on my blog, I couldn’t find anything I wanted. So I took a theme and started hacking away – only to find that I enjoyed that more than blogging.

Brian Gardner: The current state of the premium WordPress theme marketplace is… alive. There are a lot of newly formed theme development companies, many of which might not make it very fair due to the enormous amount of competition. This amount really has been a great thing for WordPress as a whole, as it has caused us all to push forward with better and easier ways to do things.

Brian Gardner: Ever since 2008 we have stayed GPL – our license hasn’t changed. At the beginning of that, we did provide download links our site – but chose to remove them as that isn’t a requirement of the GPL license. We really wanted to present our packages as a combination of themes/support – which is the way it is now.

Brian Gardner: The Genesis theme framework was really a result of wanting to simplify the way we handled themes, design and updating. It only made sense since most of our themes shared common code and css to base them all of one solid core of files. While I think that there’s a place for theme frameworks, if done well – there will always be a market for traditional themes as well.

Brian Gardner:This one is easy – continuing to build out Genesis as a solid choice for WordPress and develop the theme marketplace into a point where there a huge amount of designs to choose from.

Brian Gardner: This is a tough one – as I stated before, competition in the WP theme market is brutal. Be wise, and understand that success is not achieved overnight. It’s really important with any type of business to be unique and to offer something that the “other guy” doesn’t. Otherwise, you end up being overlooked as and considered inferior.

Fabio: Thank you very much for this opportunity Well I’m a graphic designer but I’ve been working with web design since 1999, actually I started playing with this thing called internet a little bit earlier, in 96. It was the very beginning, I remember I used to save pages on my computer to see how they were made, the codes and stuff like that. In 2004 I started my own web design studio, Zee.

Fabio: The story behind Abduzeedo is quite crazy because I had never thought of creating a blog, then in 2006 my office was robbed and they took my laptop and 2 external hard drives with all my backups. I found myself lost and decided to start a blog to backup my files and also to share my experiences and experiments in design and of course photoshop.

Fabio: I think it’s the influence of my generation, the 80’s with those neon lights, light effects, the video-games (atari).

Fabio: I believe inspiration is everywhere, it’s not all about finding it but most of the time knowing what you’re looking for, I believe if you have a clear idea of what you have to do and the audience you will be working for it’s much easier to “find” inspiration, we can narrow the options and perhaps the most important thing, we can sort of neutralize our personal opinion, because in the majority of works we’re not the target audience so we cannot let our personal opinion and influences interfere in the creative process.

Fabio: Since the beginning of the blog the idea was to share things we find online everyday and that inspire us. We still do that, we don’t have much planning, we post things that inspire us. Some contributors started series of posts so they can organize themselves, like the Perfect Office, Friday Fresh Free Fonts, Best of the Week and the daily inspiration are examples. If we do not post those there will be one or some readers sending email to us asking about what happened.

One thing we use a lot is the abduzeedo email, we use only one account, a gmail account where all the emails from abduzeedo are redirected to it. There we have labels so all contributors can read what’s going on with the blog, the suggestions, critics and stuff like that.

Fabio: I’ve been focusing more and more on Abduzeedo, while Fabiano and my brother take care of Zee. I help them with the creative direction on projects but I do not participate in the negotiations and business side of the process.

Fabio: First thing and most important thing that you have to do what you like to do, you have to be passionate about it. I always liked to play with photoshop and try different things, but before Abduzeedo I used to keep my experiments to myself. After the robbery I start sharing them and that promoted my name out there, giving me the chance to work on really cool projects for MSNBC, Wired Magazine, Digital Arts, PSDTUTS and many others. The web is all about content, if you have a good content people will find you.

David: I was introduced to the Internet at a young age, and – ever since my thoughtful parents chose to buy me a PC rather than a games console – I’ve been fascinated with websites and design. I have been designing and developing websites since the spritely age of 14, but have found myself become gradually more interested in establishing and growing blogs in recent years.

I completed a BSc in Management with the aim of embarking upon a business/finance related career. Designing and managing websites was always going to be a “side hobby”. This situation changed as my own websites grew both in traffic and profitability. Around the same time I graduated from University, I began to work part time for Envato setting up a new website called “Mac.AppStorm”.

David: Design Shack was one of the first “CSS Galleries” to grace the Internet, and it served the site brilliantly for a few years. The problem is that showcasing web designs serves a limited purpose, and there’s no way to really share knowledge or connect with readers. For this reason, I’ve been wanting to expand into writing our own tutorials and articles for a few years.

The main factor holding back the growth of the site was the amount of time I was able to dedicate to it. This changed recently when I hired a dedicated editor for the site – Josh Johnson. Josh is an incredibly accomplished designer/writer, and we’re working together to turn Design Shack into an invaluable resource for designers everywhere!

David: Time management is certainly crucial. My main day-to-day job is working for Envato, where I split my time between managing the AppStorm network and editing Phototuts+. Two things help me stay productive and get the job done: (1) the knowledge that a task expands to fill the time you allocate to it, and (2) a genuine interest and passion for iPhone/Mac software and photography.

Software helps too, and I use the following on a regular basis to help stay organised and “in sync” across my Mac and iPhone:

- Things
- Notational Velocity
- Instapaper
- Google Apps
- NetNewsWire

David: The website that I’ve found to be most exciting and rewarding is Mac.AppStorm. I’ve been editing the site for just over a year, and have grown it (with the help of some brilliant writers and developers) to almost 30,000 readers. The community surrounding the site is brilliant, and we regularly receive inspiring stories from readers who use the site every day.

David: As a big fan of “design”, one of the aspects of OS X that really drew me across was the interface design. Everything is simple, minimal and aesthetically wonderful on a Mac – from the design of the hardware, right down to System Preferences.

There are countless benefits of owning a Mac – reliability, security, and a vibrant developer community to name a few – but for me it always comes back to the design of the operating system. The care and attention paid to every tiny detail makes for a platform that just “works” the way you expect it to. It’s this same thought process that has lead to the iPhone being such a widespread success.

David: 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).

Elliot: Well, I’m primarily a designer, although within that I do stuff for web and print, and outside of that I also refer to myself as an illustrator, speaker, and author. I also write and record music under the Sourhaze pseudonym (Sourhaze), although that’s not quite as ‘professional’ as my design side. And right now I’m wearing the hat of journalist, editor, and publisher, as I’m gearing up to publish the first issue of 8 Faces magazine (8 Faces).

I started off by doing sites for friends’ bands and built up a small, music-related portfolio while I was at University. When I graduated in 2004 I landed a job as Junior Web Designer at EMI Records and worked my way up from there. I moved to Sanctuary Records for a more senior role, then went on to join Carsonified. I left there in April 2008 to go freelance, and formed Elliot Jay Stocks Design, Ltd. in October 2009.

Elliot: Thank you. That’s very kind of you to say! I suppose I did a lot of stuff that results in becoming relatively well known; things like writing for magazines, speaking at events, blogging a lot, going after relatively large clients, etc. I do all of those things because I love them, but they’ve also allowed me to make a name for myself in the process. The other contributing factor, I suppose, is that I’ve been told people often associate my work with ‘being different’, and because I’ve always been true to that and not been too afraid to intentionally break with current trends, I guess people have noticed that. I’m very fortunate because it means I usually get clients who want something interesting rather than those who just want corporate-looking cookie-cutter piles of crap that look perfect in IE6.

Elliot: I’m basically building a team of dedicated professionals that I can call on for bigger projects. They’re not employees (I couldn’t deal with the paperwork involved) and I’m not turning the company into a co-op (because the revolving doors will be wider than that) but they will be a small group of likeminded individuals making frequent appearances on a number of forthcoming projects. I’ve realised that there’s no way I can handle everything on my own anymore!

The other thing is that being a freelancer is still a little looked down upon in the web design industry — like you’re just a monkey for hire rather than an individual with a professional outlook and strong creative direction — and that’s something I want to get away from. The first step in that process was founding the company last October and the next step is building up this team.

Elliot: I love working with WooThemes; they’re great guys and good friends. I guess the popularity of ProudFolio has — like any client work — contributed in terms of how it’s exposed my work to a large number of people. WooThemes have made a big name for themselves and they keep getting bigger. Their nav system has been officially integrated into WP3.0, which is great: they’re finally getting the community respect that they deserve.

Elliot: I like WordPress because it allows me to do a lot with my very limited knowledge of (and interest in) PHP, and because I’ve been using it for a while, I know how to hack it into doing what I need it to do. There’s a lot of room for improvement, though: I’m hoping that we’ll see a fairly significant re-write in WP3.0 and that a lot of the complex workarounds will no longer be necessary.

Elliot: Don’t be afraid to be different. Get yourself known without getting peoples backs up. Be genuine in yourself and in your work.

Randa: I am a designer and marketing consultant specializing in custom WordPress sites. Beyond graphic design, my background includes work recommending, coordinating, executing and analyzing marketing initiatives for large brands, such as The Limited, Victoria’s Secret, Goody’s, Express and more.

Beyond designing for clients, I also own several kid-oriented web sites such as freestuff4kids.net and funplacedatabase.com. My most important job, however, is raising two noisy little boys.

Randa: The main social media site I use is Twitter. It’s absolutely great for networking, traffic, getting help with problems and social interaction. I do tweet my recent posts, but I don’t really think about using it to market myself. I think that just happens naturally as you interact with people in a genuine way.

Randa: I manage my time by doing work in short bursts and doing lots of work when everyone’s asleep. I’ve finally found an effective to-do app at teuxdeux.com. Also, my house is a wreck sometimes. I don’t have time for everything, so boring stuff like cleaning my house often falls by the wayside.

Randa: Over time my focus in designs has been increasingly on the clarity of the message of a site- what impression is a visitor going to get within the first 5 seconds and how quickly they’re going to understand your message and the actions you want them to take. It’s great to make a “pretty” design, but most important is the function of the design to deliver the message.

As for factors that have contributed to my growth, I think looking at a lot of good design, reading blogs and books recommended by good designers have all played a part.

Randa: Obviously, having a professional, super-sharp web site is key. Really develop your brand image before you spend a lot of time networking. Design a great logo, clarify your message – what do you do well and why should someone hire you to do it? – and make that message as clear as possible on your site.

Then, make friends and network like crazy. Engage other designers in conversation, by using your blog and through Twitter. Once you get to know them, let them know what you do well and that you’re looking for projects. Find ways to help others and do it for free. It will all come back to you in the way of business.

Adii: I’m a co-founder of WordPress themes giant WooThemes, along with being the founder of Radiiate (due for a reincarnation soon) and The Rockstar Foundation. I have a huge passion for business, strategy & entrepreneurship and at the moment that passion is being completely directed towards online channels.

Adii: This is not something that we’re overly concerned about just yet, as even though mobile is literally taking the world by storm, most people still use mobile as a complimentary medium to access online content. So the main focus is still on websites accessed via a browser on a computer. This is something we’re continuing to monitor, but we have no definite plans to roll out extensive support of this just yet.

Adii: First off, I don’t want this to come off as me saying that *my* business strategies are responsible for WooThemes’ success, as I have two great partners and all the strategies we have implemented is a collaboration of our combined efforts. So each of us brings a different angle to the conversation and it is within that fusion that we have found extremely valuable ideas.

I think generally, our success can be attributed to a few things:

Our focus on proper design and valuing design as top priority in each and every decision.

The fact that we have created a cashflow-rich company and that we have never needed to take outside funding to finance further growth / innovation.

Our unique approach to marketing ourselves to the extent that it is impossible to ignore us (with our products & services backing up our marketing messages).

To sum up our approach, I’d say that it’s all about being WooThemes and not trying to be like any other company that we know. This means that both our successes and failures have been completely unique to Woo and as a result we have grown further as WooThemes and not just as a generic company.

Adii: The competition has been good to us in the sense that it keeps us on our toes and we gather a lot of derivative ideas from what they are doing. But that said, we’re not overly fussed with what they are doing, as we’re keen to focus on our own approach.

If there’s anything that I think we’ve done differently to them, it’s the fact that we have collaborated with the best of the best web designers on the planet (which perpetuates our extreme focus on design) and our marketing which truly sets us apart from anyone else.

Adii: I’m not SEO guru and neither am I a big fan of SEO (I believe in other ways of marketing a website). That said, I think our themes are above-average in terms of SEO and whilst our SEO capabilities aren’t one of our important selling points, we’re looking to improve this for our users, as some of them do prioritize the SEO on their site. I however don’t think that we’d ever get to the point where – like Thesis – we market our themes as being perfect for all SEO purposes, because we tend to shine the spotlight somewhere else instead.

Adii: This is actually rather easy if you’re willing to look & work outside of the box. We have an established company and have enough resources to invest in innovation; so we will continue to explore & experiment with new niche areas in 2010.

The first area that we will make groundbreaking progress in, is our tumblog / Tumblr-like themes that will be powered by WordPress. We’re planning a bunch of behind-the-scenes things that we haven’t talked about; so we’re sure we’ll surprise quite a few people when these themes go out soon.

Adii: Start as early as possible and back your ideas. It doesn’t require a lot of cash to get started either; so just bootstrap as far as you can and when you have enough traction from users / customers, you can expand and maybe take on debt / funding.

Brian Hoff: I run a full time independent design studio in Philadelphia, while also speaking at events, writing for a few upcoming publications, and teaching part-time at a local college — all on the subject of design. I am also am the writer of the design blog, The Design Cubicle, which aims to help, educate and inspire other designers and those looking to hire design services.

I grew up from a young age with a love for drawing and painting. Coupled with my love and admiration of technology, graphic design was the obvious choice as a career (although when I was little I wanted to be a cartoonist). My work now mostly focuses on creating websites and brand identities for a variety of different companies across the globe.

Brian Hoff: My curiousity has always led to my learning, so school really didn’t teach me much as far as technical skills are concerned. However, creatively, yes it was worthwhile. School taught me how to better prepare, analyze, look at things, organize and other key elements on how to be a successful person, in addition to a successful designer. I do wish it focused more on the business end of design though.

I always told myself that if I had the chance to do it all over again I would let my passion and curiousity educate my career and study business in school. I’ve learned so much stumbling through my first year of business, and still have so much to learn. Could have saved me some time.

Brian Hoff: I do love me some good ol’ typography! As far as learning about type offline (and there are many great online resources as well) I read a lot of books and look at many examples of type and layout. I analyze what makes it successful or not.

Here are a few quality books on typography that I’ve read and recommend: Recommended Reading from Brian Hoff. My favorite being The Elements of Typographic Style. It will change your world and they way you perceive and understand type. Honestly I read it two and a half times.

Brian Hoff: Know the history of typography. Many typefaces were created with a reason and use in mind—not just to look pretty. For example, certain serif fonts were made with large x-heights which help to improve readability of small(er) body copy.

In addition to analyzing the typeface also look at how the space around the type is used. Improved typography can be small difference of adjusting the line-height, for example.

Brian Hoff: I worked as a software trainer for Apple, and during that time helped non-techical-folk use software and websites. It really helped me gain a better understanding of user experience and how the less technical savvy users interact with things online and on their computers. Many of the things I’ve learned during that time help when building websites for my clients.

Brian Hoff: To be honest, The Design Cubicle started as a side project of mine. I wanted to help inspire and educate others and really didn’t consider the success it is today. Had I thought differently it would be a part of my main site, BrianHoff.net.

The new Behoff.com, is more of a “ramble”, more personal blog, which is eventually (working on a redesign now of BrianHoff.net) going to be apart of BrianHoff.net. Again, not thinking when considering my web presence.

On the plus side of things, all three sites make it more possible for people to find me in different ways…. I guess. Also, the more personal blog, behoff.com, separates the more business-like Design Cubicle. Some of those who follow me enjoy only the tips and tricks, while others actually seem interested in what I’m doing or who I’m working with, in addition to hearing me ramble a bit.

Brian Hoff: Use your resources. Its amazing how many young people don’t use the internet to its fullest ability. I have a younger sister who can code up her MySpace page in a flash, however calls me to ask a homework question when the internet is right in front of her with millions of people and forums to get answers from.

Set up a good looking website. Start a blog to share your passion. Friend and follow people on Twitter. Use Facebook for more than looking at your friends party pictures. One thing about social networking to remember is that it’s no different than networking in the real world. Build relationships online. Help people. Excite people. Interact with them and don’t just “follow” people. And always: be kind.

Jonathan: I’m a designer/developer who currently works for Yahoo! as a front-end engineer after having spent almost four years as a freelancer.

Jonathan: Everybody has a different learning style and the style that I’ve found that works best for me is to dive in and just do something. I get an idea for a project and then work towards completing that project. Along the way, I learn what works and what doesn’t. I bring that knowledge forward onto the next project. Some people need a teacher or mentor to create a learning path for them to be effective. Other people need books. Students weighing the pros and cons need to be honest with themselves about how they can best learn what they need to.

There are, however, other benefits of formal education. It can establish a social network that can help you in getting a job and maintaining your career in the long term. Likewise, many schools offer up internships and placement programs that can make it easier to hit the ground running once schooling is complete.

Jonathan: Learning comes from my learning style. I learn by doing. I continually learn by having personal projects that interest me and that I can work towards completing. If I started running out of ideas then I’d be worried that I’d stop learning. Thankfully that hasn’t happened yet!

Jonathan: Blogging has had a huge impact on my career. It helped support me as a freelancer and was instrumental when getting the job at Yahoo!. It’s like one long resume and people appreciate that. While I don’t always have time to maintain the blog, I absolutely believe that it is a worthwhile project. I believe that it will continue to support my career in the future.

Jonathan: I have most definitely been using both HTML5 and CSS3 in my work. With HTML5, I haven’t been using any of the new tags but do prefer the simplified syntax such as the smaller doctype and not having to specify media type on SCRIPT, LINK and STYLE elements. I’ve also been using the custom data attributes on various projects. Basically, anything that I know that will continue to work across all browsers without any hacks.

As for CSS3, I have been using various techniques depending on the project. I really enjoy taking advantage of rgba, multiple backgrounds, CSS gradients, border-image along with a few other tricks here and there. I’m not sure I could narrow it down to a particular favourite because I enjoy all of them! I just look forward to more wide-spread implementations.

Jonathan: The trick is to get your name out and there’s any number of ways to do that. Traditionally, there has been marketing and advertising but in the web community, it has less value. What holds the most value is the act of creation. Put something out that people can use and they’ll remember that. Blogging is a part of that but it’s not the only avenue. Make a web application, make fonts, make Photoshop brushes, make whatever you want and make it available to the world. Creation is the new currency.

Jacob: Hi, Brian. First, I want to thank you for having me here. A little bit about myself: I’m a web developer/web designer, a book author, the site owner of Six Revisions, and the co-founder of Design Instruct.

Jacob: Being an independent publisher such as myself, to be able to publish high-quality articles regularly requires a large amount of discipline.

But I can’t take all (or even most) of the credit; the ability of Six Revisions to publish high-quality articles every day is due largely to the authors that contribute and believe in the site’s purpose of sharing useful information about web design and web development. If not for people like Cameron, Tomas, Shannon, Tyler, Jan, Fatima, Chris, Richard, Alex, Matt—and all the other authors (you know who you are)—Six Revisions wouldn’t be able to do what it does now.

However, the site still does require me to work my butt off every single day. Time management and task prioritization is key to my ability to keep up with a demanding workload.

I use two tools for task and time management. The first is my Moleskine, which I use sort of as a (very) bastardized GTD system. (You can see a photo of it on Flickr.) The second is Google Calendar for tracking appointments and deadlines. I set it to send me email reminders of tasks that have a date assigned to them.

Jacob: Writing MooTools 1.2 Beginner’s Guide is probably the most difficult thing I’ve had to do in quite a long time, compounded with the fact that I also had a website to manage and a full-time job to tend to. I wouldn’t mind being a full time author, but the topics that I’m interested in writing about require you to be in the mix—making (and breaking) stuff and developing new things.

One thing I can say about the book-writing experience is that it’s like a scary theme park ride: You get in line all giddy and excited, but when the ride starts to do its twists and turns, all you can think of is getting off the damn ride, wishing it’d be over soon. But when the ride’s finished, all you want to do is get back in line and do it over again! I’m in the midst of another book deal—I hope you all wish me luck that it works out!

The biggest challenge of writing a book is showing me how much I didn’t know about MooTools and JavaScript before writing the book—and then having to come to terms with that. The book merely scratched the surface of the power of MooTools, but even then, you’ll see amazing things that MooTools is capable of giving you (with just a little bit of practice).

Writing the book helped me understand JavaScript a whole lot more and has made me into a much better web developer.

Jacob: I’d prefer not to be asked the same questions over and over again, simply because it’s boring and shows to me that the interviewer didn’t want to take the time to learn about the subject. But I find ways to answer the same questions differently. I do interviews because it gives me a chance to share something about Six Revisions, Design Instruct, and my work that you wouldn’t normally be able to find out. I want to show that there is a real person behind these projects.

Jacob: Design Instruct is primarily a tutorial web magazine. Design Instruct is not a weblog, but rather an online magazine. That means higher-quality tutorials and thought-provoking articles, carefully and professionally presented to readers. You can think of it like a traditional print magazine, such as Computer Arts or Communication Arts, but with the advantage of the internet where you’re able to interact with the writers and the readers of the web magazine.

What’s frustrating about print magazines, to me, is not being able to ask questions or speak up after reading an article. The internet allows us to negotiate that flaw. We have a lot of plans coming up for Design Instruct—we’re still in version 0.1.2 – so we’re nowhere near where we want to be.

We’ll have a regular features that display readers’ work, articles that explore the topic of Design and Visual Arts, reviews of products made for designers and digital artists, and more. I can’t reveal much more, so you’ll have to stay tuned and see for yourself!

Jacob: Focus on the product you’re hocking, not the income stream. The best way to ensure your failure is by building a product for the sole sake of profit. A successful entrepreneur sees profit as a side benefit to creating and selling the product they’re passionate about. People on the web are smart, they know when you’re only about the money. They’ll happily buy your stuff if you’re able to show them that you believe in your product and that you’re passionate about it. Otherwise, it’s like pulling teeth.