Monday, 14. March 2005
Pixeleye im Webdesigner Magazine
pixeleye, 12:24h
Yippi...heute morgen war dann endlich das Belegexemplar im Briefkasten.
Das Webdesigner Magazine aus England hatte Ende Januar ein Interview mit mir gemacht - in der aktuellen März Ausgabe ist es auf einer Doppelseite zusammen mit diversen Screenshots erschienen. :) Und sogar auf der Titelseite bin ich unten drauf. Cool.
Hier das Interview:
PROFILE: Dirk Behlau (Web Designer #104)
How did you get started in the interactive and Web design business?
It started back in 1995 when i bought my first 9600 modem and discovered the early days of the web. In the beginning of 1996 i started with my first personal website playing around with the Compuserve Homepage Wizard which was very very limitating after 15 minutes ;-) Due my job in a marketing agency i had to time to develp the company website and did relaunch after relaunch shorty. That´s how it began – today i work for customers from Europe, USA and Canada.
How have you improved as a designer and what would you say are the main attributes you need to be successful?
It´s a mixture of experience, creativity, inspiration, talent and hard work ;-) Don´t copy to much style and look at trends. One of the important things to do is to be open minded an learn every day. Focus on your strenghts and add completely new fields from time to time. I started with webdesign only and now i am doing a wide range from web/print, photography, articles/interviews for magazines, marketing/pr etc. I think my level is quite good point now but there are still lightyears of things to learn for me. There are good times and bad times like in every job – the main point is that you have to believe in yourself and your work.
What would you say are the key creative software tools that you use during typical design projects?
It´s mainly Photoshop, Photoshop and Photoshop ;-) I started with Version 4 and i loved it from the beginning...also Dreamweaver, Indesign and a little Illustrator . That´s it.
www.pixeleye.net is a particularly nice example of an online portfolio – how useful have you found it for promoting your talents online?
Pixeleye.net is online since 1999 and has gone through 4-5 completely redesigns. The current issue is online with few modifications and updates since summer 2003. The site is divided into three main parts: the portfolio itself, my daily design blog and my articles/interviews. I did it that way because i recognized that it would be too much information to be packed on one site only – information overflow alert. The site is quite well known...i receive friendly feedback nearly every day from around the world (especially from Asia/Japan). And of course it´s a nice showcase for customer and agencies as well. I really couldn´t exist without it. A lot of contacts and jobs came through my “webworld”.
You currently have several different sites up and running. Why did you decide to do that and how difficult is it to maintain them all?
I always needed my free projects besides my commercial work. Commercial work is quite limited in creativity because you have to design under the rules of a styleguide, customer wishes etc. In my free projects i can do it 100% like it want to it to be. Some examples are my Design & Lifestyle Magazine Sceyelines (www.sceyelines.net), the Space Invaders Shrine (www.spaceinvaders.de) and the Bookportal Designbooks.net. In 1999 i started the bestflashsites.de Portal where i presented new flash sites...which is offline for over one year now because there are nowadays a lot of sites in this field. Free projects are time extensive but so much fun i don´t want to life without them ;-)
Are there any other designers or peers out there who you’d like to emulate in some way?
I like Interior Designers like Verner Panton, Eero Aarnio oder Karim Rashid – but i have no special graphic designers or style i like to emulate.
Would you say that there is a certain style that is indicative of your work, and what would that be?
Some people often say that my work is recognized by them as the Pixeleye-Style...whatever this is ;-) I like clean and fast websites which are also very visual and stimulating. The style and type of design depends on the different projects and which audience the site is addressing to. An entertainment site has to be completely different from a companies site. But in the end my style could be described as something like “Visual fresh and clean”
What essential piece of advice would you give anyone looking to break into the Web design or new media industry?
Webdesign is not just the Design. And it´s not just Programming. You have to know much more things like usability, psychologie and how visitors see the site. Be open minded, keep in touch with other creatives, learn from them and do it your own way. Try to develop your own style.
Which of your projects have brought you the most pride and why?
The Space Invaders site is a big hit. It was feature nearly everywhere in Magazines and on TV and until today over 5 million visitors entered the site. My Sceyelines Magazine worked out very well, too – i published three issues until now and over 60.000 downloads have been made...thank you all
Could you suggest any exciting work that you might currently be involved with?
One of the latest work i just finished is the Pixeleye Racing Portal (www.pixeleye-racing.com). I am sponsoring several dragracing teams and race events from europe and usa with media services like websites, marketing or photography. This site features the teams and screensavers, videos and wallpapers can be downloaded.
Another project exiting project for me is my own DVD Dragracing Serie which i will release under the Pixeleye Racing banner in cooperation with two professional cameraguys this year. I just finished also the new website for the “King of Europe” (www.kingofeurope.net) Racing Event which will take place in the next summer in Belgium.
And not to forget the monthly Lifestyle Magazine “encore” (www.encore-mag.com) where i am involved from the start. Every issue is a new visual orgasm and so much fun to be part of it.
Das Webdesigner Magazine aus England hatte Ende Januar ein Interview mit mir gemacht - in der aktuellen März Ausgabe ist es auf einer Doppelseite zusammen mit diversen Screenshots erschienen. :) Und sogar auf der Titelseite bin ich unten drauf. Cool.
Hier das Interview:
PROFILE: Dirk Behlau (Web Designer #104)
How did you get started in the interactive and Web design business?
It started back in 1995 when i bought my first 9600 modem and discovered the early days of the web. In the beginning of 1996 i started with my first personal website playing around with the Compuserve Homepage Wizard which was very very limitating after 15 minutes ;-) Due my job in a marketing agency i had to time to develp the company website and did relaunch after relaunch shorty. That´s how it began – today i work for customers from Europe, USA and Canada.
How have you improved as a designer and what would you say are the main attributes you need to be successful?
It´s a mixture of experience, creativity, inspiration, talent and hard work ;-) Don´t copy to much style and look at trends. One of the important things to do is to be open minded an learn every day. Focus on your strenghts and add completely new fields from time to time. I started with webdesign only and now i am doing a wide range from web/print, photography, articles/interviews for magazines, marketing/pr etc. I think my level is quite good point now but there are still lightyears of things to learn for me. There are good times and bad times like in every job – the main point is that you have to believe in yourself and your work.
What would you say are the key creative software tools that you use during typical design projects?
It´s mainly Photoshop, Photoshop and Photoshop ;-) I started with Version 4 and i loved it from the beginning...also Dreamweaver, Indesign and a little Illustrator . That´s it.
www.pixeleye.net is a particularly nice example of an online portfolio – how useful have you found it for promoting your talents online?
Pixeleye.net is online since 1999 and has gone through 4-5 completely redesigns. The current issue is online with few modifications and updates since summer 2003. The site is divided into three main parts: the portfolio itself, my daily design blog and my articles/interviews. I did it that way because i recognized that it would be too much information to be packed on one site only – information overflow alert. The site is quite well known...i receive friendly feedback nearly every day from around the world (especially from Asia/Japan). And of course it´s a nice showcase for customer and agencies as well. I really couldn´t exist without it. A lot of contacts and jobs came through my “webworld”.
You currently have several different sites up and running. Why did you decide to do that and how difficult is it to maintain them all?
I always needed my free projects besides my commercial work. Commercial work is quite limited in creativity because you have to design under the rules of a styleguide, customer wishes etc. In my free projects i can do it 100% like it want to it to be. Some examples are my Design & Lifestyle Magazine Sceyelines (www.sceyelines.net), the Space Invaders Shrine (www.spaceinvaders.de) and the Bookportal Designbooks.net. In 1999 i started the bestflashsites.de Portal where i presented new flash sites...which is offline for over one year now because there are nowadays a lot of sites in this field. Free projects are time extensive but so much fun i don´t want to life without them ;-)
Are there any other designers or peers out there who you’d like to emulate in some way?
I like Interior Designers like Verner Panton, Eero Aarnio oder Karim Rashid – but i have no special graphic designers or style i like to emulate.
Would you say that there is a certain style that is indicative of your work, and what would that be?
Some people often say that my work is recognized by them as the Pixeleye-Style...whatever this is ;-) I like clean and fast websites which are also very visual and stimulating. The style and type of design depends on the different projects and which audience the site is addressing to. An entertainment site has to be completely different from a companies site. But in the end my style could be described as something like “Visual fresh and clean”
What essential piece of advice would you give anyone looking to break into the Web design or new media industry?
Webdesign is not just the Design. And it´s not just Programming. You have to know much more things like usability, psychologie and how visitors see the site. Be open minded, keep in touch with other creatives, learn from them and do it your own way. Try to develop your own style.
Which of your projects have brought you the most pride and why?
The Space Invaders site is a big hit. It was feature nearly everywhere in Magazines and on TV and until today over 5 million visitors entered the site. My Sceyelines Magazine worked out very well, too – i published three issues until now and over 60.000 downloads have been made...thank you all
Could you suggest any exciting work that you might currently be involved with?
One of the latest work i just finished is the Pixeleye Racing Portal (www.pixeleye-racing.com). I am sponsoring several dragracing teams and race events from europe and usa with media services like websites, marketing or photography. This site features the teams and screensavers, videos and wallpapers can be downloaded.
Another project exiting project for me is my own DVD Dragracing Serie which i will release under the Pixeleye Racing banner in cooperation with two professional cameraguys this year. I just finished also the new website for the “King of Europe” (www.kingofeurope.net) Racing Event which will take place in the next summer in Belgium.
And not to forget the monthly Lifestyle Magazine “encore” (www.encore-mag.com) where i am involved from the start. Every issue is a new visual orgasm and so much fun to be part of it.
