WebTemplatesBlog.com is happy to print our interview with Pat Heard, a notable Webpage designer of FullAhead who has also designed webpage templates. Pat has donated several of the webpage templates that he has designed to Open Source Web Design, and that organization has been kind enough to offer them free of charge.

I asked Pat about his work and how he got into template design - “I got into web design by accident. I studied computer programming at school, and in one of my jobs, they also needed me to maintain the website. I discovered that I loved the combination of programming and design.”

Pat continues, “That was about 10 years ago, so everything I know about the design part is self taught. As for how I got into open source templates - I stumbled on oswd.org about 2 years ago and decided it was time for me to learn css, tableless design. They had a contest running, so I decided to enter it. It took me 2 painful weeks, but at the end, I was able to enter ‘Drifting’, and was pretty surprised when it won. Since then, I’ve been doing templates as a break from paying clients because they give me the freedom to do whatever I want, and they’re a good opportunity to learn.”

Two other pages Pat designed are at Fullahead “Ecostructure Financial” and “The League of Extraordinary Bartenders”. Have a look at these, then tour Pat’s website. Pat also has some very helpful and concise words for designers and people new to the web in his brief info articles, case in point, his info on “Coding”.

I asked Pat about pricing on his work: a website design like “North Shore”, “template along with subpages would run around $600 USD. That site was actually a template project, so I created the code, and then gave it to my client for him to create the subpages, so it ended up costing him $350. ”

We briefly swapped ideas and Pat added, “My system is a PC, but that’s not so much by choice as by default. It’s just what I learned on and I haven’t bothered making the switch to Mac. I don’t use templates because I would prefer to create the design myself.” I asked Pat for his opinion on a good source for images, he mentioned Stock.xchng.

I have some affinity for his webpages using Web 2.0, and asked about that look, “If you’re curious about Web 2.0, try doing a search in google for some examples. Basically web 2.0 is a buzzword that describes sites that are: 1. Simple, with emphasis on useability (large fonts and headers) 2. Use soft colours, and not too many. 3. Use rounded shapes in the interface.”

It’s always a pleasure for me to talk with a designer who is creative and informative - and where there are no dumb questions. Pat is that kind of designer.

Arthur Browning