HV-Designs.co.uk

October 14th, 2003 in Articles by Aaron

Interview With Web Design Guru Orman Clark

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I am proud to bring you a little more information on yet another Web Designer in our community. This man has brought freebies to the design community every day since the inception of his website, and continues to amaze us with his free work. Along with sharing his amazing talents with the rest of the design community he also has released a few Premium WordPress Themes (which can be found below) and they have been a great success.

His Work

Check out some of my favorite works of Orman Clark:

The Interview

Orman, thanks for taking time out of your day to answer a few questions; firstly we would like you to introduce yourself to the readers?

Thanks for asking me to do the interview, I always find it interesting to read about other designers and their processes so hopefully this will be at least mildly interesting to others ;) Well, my name is Orman and I’m a web designer based in the UK. I’ve been involved in design in one way or another for the last 8 years or so and these days I find myself either designing themes for WordPress or creating freebies for designers.

You run two websites, Premium Pixels and your personal website, which website to you think will become more pivotal towards growing as a freelancer?

I’ve had my personal website for about 18 months now (before that I relied on word of mouth) and that did a pretty good job of gaining some interest from potential clients. Fortunately, the first version of the site was picked up by a few design galleries which definitely helped in the early days.

More recently however, Premium Pixels has begun to gain some traction and has put my work in front of both peers and potential clients in a way that a static portfolio site can’t. Overall I think the interactive / conversational element will eventually lead to Premium Pixels being the main driver of any potential client projects.

Was Premium Pixels an idea that you had for a while and then setup or just something you set up one day realizing that you had some extra files laying around?

Actually Premium Pixels was very much a spur of the moment thing and I set it up without any real “plan” or motive. I’ve always toyed with the idea of starting a blog but came to the realisation that my passion for writing is nowhere near as strong as it is for design – all of my early attempts dwindled into nothing very quickly!

Design elements and/or tutorials seemed like the next logical step and so one weekend I set about designing the site and a handful of freebies to start me off. The whole process was very quick, maybe just over a week fitted around client work.

Where would you say that your inspiration for your designs comes from?

Most of my inspiration comes from the oodles of talented designers that share their work on sites such as Dribbble and Forrst. Sites like these are great insights into how other designers not only produce their work but the thought process behind it – often this is a greater lesson than simply viewing the finished product as you can apply the same logic to your own creations.

You have released two Premium WordPress themes so far on Themeforest. Any chance that we can look forward to some more in the near future? What about a freebie WP template?

Absolutely, I intend to release more Premium WordPress themes in the very near future and over the course of the coming year. In terms of freebies, all I can say is watch this space ;)

If your Themeforest sales increase will you focus more on releasing premium templates or will you keep your focus on your web design?

It’s no secret to anyone that knows me that I’m a huge fan of WordPress, I love working with the system and so I will always take an opportunity to develop more themes in the future. As for concentrating wholeheartedly on themes, that is something that remains to be decided however it is a strong consideration for the future.

As a prominent member of the design community I am sure you get approached to write tutorials all the time. How do you decide where to write your tutorials for?

Actually I have only ever been approached by Brandon from WebDesigntuts+ in regard to tutorials but I certainly welcome others to get in touch. When I heard what Brandon was trying to achieve with WebDesigntuts+ I decided right there and then that I would love to be involved. It is a perfect addition to an already fantastic network of sites and I’ve thouroughly enjoyed writing for them – hopefully they’ll be more to come in the future.

What would you recommend to the readers as a way to get better known in the design community?

Put simply, get involved. It’s a very cliched response to say “participate in the community” but I think it really is the key. Remember to be yourself, perhaps help out your peers every now and again but ultimately just get stuck in!

Any special plans in the near future that you can let us in on?

Hmmm, I can’t mention any specifics just yet but let’s just say that there are a few interesting collaborations in the pipeline that I’m really excited about.

The lovely debate: Mac or Windows?

Mac, hands down. I made the switch around a year ago and would never go back.

Another debate: Photoshop or Fireworks for Web Design?

For me personally it’s Photoshop simply because it’s what I’m used to and what the majority of other designers tend to use – makes collaboration a much simpler process. I did open up Fireworks recently to give it another go but without the practice simple things tend to take me twice as long which can get frustrating.

And finally; if you could become the lead designer for one company what company would you choose and why?

One that I owned! Right now I love the freedom of being freelance, working for myself and managing my own clients – I’m not sure I could go back to agency life just yet!

Thank you again for the interview Orman, it was great to get to know you a little better.

Well, there you have it, that’s Orman Clark. Keep reading on for links to his Social Network, his Premium Files, and his websites.

Keep In Touch

• Dribble
• Forrst
• Twitter
• Premium Pixels
• Orman Clark .com
• Premium WordPress Themes

Some More Work

Conclusion

There you have it. If you have any questions leave them in the Comments and I am sure that Orman will be happy to answer them as soon as he can. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for a more interviews, freebies, and tutorials.

This interview was brought over from my old personal blog to HV-Designs because I did not want to lose such a valuable interview and insight into such a great design mind.

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