Alen Grakalic is the founder and owner of several design related sites, including the famous CSS Globe. He is a well-known designer, athlete, and blogger. Today I talk with Alen about his websites, the growth of CSS Globe, and his work as a blogger and designer.
Name: Alen Grakalic
Location: Rijeka, Croatia
Age: 37
Site(s): CSS Globe, Templatica, Easy Framework
Twitter: @CSSGlobe
Brian: Hi Alen, thanks for agreeing to this interview. Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your background on the internet.
Alen: Hi and thanks for having me! I am a freelance web designer/developer located on the coast of North Adriatic. I started with web at the turn of the century but I have been freelancing for the past 5 years. Nowadays I design, develop, blog, teach… On a personal note, I am married, father of a beautiful 7 year old boy and I enjoy long distance triathlon (known as Ironman triathlon).
Brian: CSS Globe has become a highly respected website for designers and developers to stay up to date on the latest news in the industry. What is it about CSS Globe, in your opinion, that has made it so well-received by the design community?
Alen: To be quite honest, I am really not sure. I would like to hear that from my readers. I have a certain criteria when publishing the news so I hope that is what is being recognized. On the other hand, I started publishing community news in 2005, well before many of the sites you see now, so it might be that people got used to CSSG 
Brian: You currently manage three online projects: CSS Globe, Easy Framework, and Templatica. How do you manage your time to keep each of these projects updated and running smoothly? What apps or tools help you every day?
Alen: Css Globe is actually the only site that I update daily. Other two get updated on occasions. I have a lot of client work so I don’t have the time to focus on personal projects as much as I would like to. My dream is to have 100% of my income from my own projects but I simply can’t make that extra step. Bills need to be payed regularly and I can’t afford taking couple of months off to bring my projects to the next level. Hope I will make it though…
Brian: What offline sources do you use to find design inspiration?
Alen: There are lot of great “offline” design solutions that you can take inspiration from. Since web design relates mostly to graphic design you can easily find inspiration looking at magazines, posters etc. What I find inspirational is not design related. I am most inspired when working on cool locations. I work on a laptop, so whenever I have a creative block I simply step out of the office, find a great spot and work. It helped me on more than one occasion.
Brian: How has CSS Globe impacted your freelance career?
Alen: Although most of the people visiting CSS Globe could be described as job seekers instead of job providers, I had my share of leads generated from the site. CSS Globe helped me to get my name out there, so rarely I need to introduce myself to potential clients which is a very good thing.
Brian: If you could start over with CSS Globe, what changes would you make? Why?
Alen: I can’t say that I would change anything other than perhaps the name. When I started I wrote mostly about CSS but now it’s all about web development. Perhaps I will change the name, but I can’t think of a way of doing that painlessly.
Brian: What advice would you offer to young entrepreneurs looking to establish themselves in the online world?
Alen: Be patient. Aim for quality and it will be recognized. I have witnessed many successful sites grow (even Smashing Magazine posted their updates on CSS Globe regularly when they started). It takes some time but if you have a goal and stay persistent, you’ll get there.
Thanks again to Alen for this insightful interview. Please feel free to leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below!
Mako Bijelic
March 26, 2010 at 5:03 am
Greetings from Banjaluka to my friend Alen!
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June 24, 2011 at 5:59 pm
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