Web Templates Blog is happy to present another in a series of interviews: today we talk with the notable Webpage Designer, Stuart Robertson of DesignMeme. Stuart has not only put together a great portfolio, he does consultancy, and has written some very readable and informative articles, some of which appear in A List Apart. One look at Stuart’s portfolio and I had to ask some questions.

I had to ask my favorite opening question – How did you get into webpage design? “I was working for the Government of Canada in an in-house video production studio during the mid-90s, and they needed someone to help put their Intranet together. I was working on a computer (an AVID nonlinear editor) and was under 30, so I guess I seemed like a good candidate to be given the “Learn to Write HTML” book and given the assignment. It wasn’t too long after that when I discovered Jeffrey Zeldman’s site, which I found very helpful and inspiring. I still do.â€?

Early work – “I did a lot of very plain looking HTML pages for work, but the first “fun” sites I did were for a multimedia class I was taking. One had a spooky skeleton on it, and the other was a 3D rendering of a pulp-noir detective’s office. They both used a lot of images, and didn’t have very intuitive navigation — but were definitely fun.â€?

I asked Stuart about his comic strip and fantasy pages. “I know a lot of comic artists and filmmakers, so quite a few of my sites have had a comic/fantasy element in them, but the majority of the work I’ve done is actually for government and education sites. I’m working on sites for the University of Guelph and the Museum of Nature in Ottawa right now. I like to do a variety of different types of projects, so you’ll see more of a comic/fun quality on my personal site compared to the work I might do for the University, or a corporate client. Although I’d be more than happy to work with one of the big comic companies, or do something for next summer’s big hollywood blockbuster.â€?

Stuart told me a little about where he gets the killer art. “Sometimes an artist will give me a mockup of a page they’d like to see produced, and I’ll turn it into a website. With Nate Piekos’ Dead Ends site — he gave me a visually complex layout, and because I didn’t have the time to chop it all up into a hundred little images, I thought of floating invisible link boxes over the background. That’s where the CSS Night of the Image Maps article came from. . . Other times I’ll create the artwork myself, or add to any existing artwork supplied by the client. I use Adobe Illustrator quite extensively, and enjoy drawing and painting — although I haven’t been spending nearly as much time with traditional media as I’d like to.â€?

What is the next major development in webpage design? “I think the current big things are Feeds, Social Networking, and AJAX — and these will continue to have an impact on the way pages are designed for the next few years. . . I see a lot of potential in the CSS2 and CSS3 selectors and CSS generated content, and have been doing a lot with that lately. Both of the Firefox extensions I wrote this year are based on CSS generated content to add text and images to the page. . . When Digital Ink devices are introduced, I think that will have a major impact on webpage design and aesthetics. Having a screen that is sharper than current 72/96 dpi will mean a lot more detailed images and textures, and people being more comfortable with reading longer passages of text.â€?

I asked Stuart if he had ever worked with website templates? “I’ve used a few templates when setting up blogs and content management systems.â€? Stuart went on to say his website template providers have been, “Just open source template providers, and the ones that come with things like Blogger. I think the K2 template for Wordpress is particularly nice, and I really like that we’re seeing regular people setting up blogs and being able to use nice designs for their sites.â€?

I wanted to know about Stuart’s experiences with website templates. “I think giving people a choice of nice looking and well coded templates when they’re getting started is a good idea. Once they’ve been using their site for a while they can make more informed decisions about what they would like to see in a custom website design, and hire a professional web designer to create it.â€?

About Flash technology? “Flash is great. My brother Kevin is a very talented Flash animator and developer and I’m always amazed at the things he’s able to do with it. I’ve seen him produce comics, movies, and even recreate old school video games with Flash. He’s currently using Flash to digitally ink his daily political comic — so it’s a very versatile tool.â€?

What about the advantages and disadvantages of using Flash? “I think HOW you use Flash should really depend on the nature of the project you’re working on. If you’re trying to create a site for a government agency with important information you need to make available to the widest possible audience, then Flash might be best used in a more limited way. It shouldn’t be used to display the main content or navigation. On the other hand, if you’re doing a website for a new movie or game, then you might want to use Flash more liberally to create a very interactive experience. . . I don’t think Flash will be as accessible as using regular HTML + CSS anytime in the near future. It doesn’t get indexed by search engines as well, and you can’t use the popular online translation tools to render the content in another language. But it’s excellent for displaying complex changing data, creating games, or watching videos. I don’t see it as an alternative to HTML+CSS, rather something to add to them.â€?

Stuart talked about his sources of inspiration? “Even though the coding on the site isn’t always that impressive, I really like illustrator’s websites for all the artwork they include. For example, Dave Hartman is amazingly talented, and seeing all the creative artwork and movies he produces makes me want to get even more things done myself. I find inspiration from looking at old movies, posters, books and ephemera. I also like getting outdoors and going for walks in the woods. . . Right now though, I think the biggest source of inspiration is spending time with my family. I have a 19 month old son, and watching him discover the world is amazing.â€?

I got Stuart to mention some favorite webpages of other designers. “I’m always very flattered to have my work included on sites like CSS Bloom or CSS Beauty because there are so many outstanding examples there. I also really like the CSS Zen Garden. Outstanding work all around. Individual sites I’m impressed with include Vincent Marcone’s, of My Pet Skeleton, who lives here in Guelph as well, and I’ve always enjoyed his artwork and Flash animations. Michael Lalonde of Orneryboy fame combines a fun comic, and great website design.â€?

I asked Stuart about the toughest project he had encountered. “I was working on a project where I was spending a lot of time explaining why things like accessibility and web standards mattered, and trying to understand why the other members of the team wanted to pick expensive proprietary solutions over commonly used open-source ones. The blog and podcast at Manager Tools has some great advice for managing meetings and dealing with some of these issues.�

What are your interests and dislikes in webpage design? “I enjoy seeing websites that combine attractive designs with elegantly simple coding. I also enjoy sites with compelling content that I can learn from. I like seeing a wider range of people producing their own blogs, podcasts and videos and putting them online. I teach 3rd year web design at the University of Guelph-Humber in Toronto, and I really enjoy seeing my students publishing their own material. Even if the designs and coding are very basic, I think it’s great that more people are getting off the couch and publishing on the web. . . Cheers!”

Web Templates Blog thanks Stuart Robertson for information, guidance really, in his interview, and the personal style of his portfolio.

Arthur Browning