I recently did an interview with Spicy Web Designers, a site which interviews creatives on the web. Quite a few web designers whose work I admire have been interviewed as well, so it’s quite an honour to be among them. Thanks very much to Luc and Spice Web Designers for including me.

Read the interview here.

So we come to the end of another year.

Looking Back

2008 was good to me - I travelled a bit, worked hard, learned a lot about design, learned how to use Flash, designed an award winning website, participated in an art exhibition, contributed to and helped run a craft stall, finished my second year of Japanese studies, started getting used to my DSLR camera, spent plenty of time with friends, family and boyfriend, and most recently decided to move to Canberra and strike out on my own as a freelancer.

I feel like I’ve grown a lot professionally and as a person. I’m a shy person by nature so dealing with social situations doesn’t always come naturally to me, but I think I’m pushing past my shyness and really getting to know and meet more people, while feeling more comfortable and confident. It’s a great feeling, conquering a weakness. Part of it is the confidence in myself and my work I’ve gained from more experience working as a designer, and part of it is just really pushing myself to talk to people and discovering that it isn’t so scary after all. A year ago I was doubting my abilities, but I feel like I can enter 2009 feeling like a capable and experienced designer, ready to take on the world.

Looking Forward

new year, new diary

2009 promises to be a challenging year for me. Not only will I be leaving home for the first time, I’ll be moving to the other side of the country with my boyfriend and starting a business. There’s so many things that I’ve never had to deal with before that I will have to, but in the same way so many freedoms and chances to grow that I didn’t have before.

I’ve decided to not call them ‘New Year’s Resolutions’ because that seems to be a jinx, so here’s some goals of mine for the year:

• Get fit and healthy - I’ve been far too lazy with exercise this year, and my health is paying for it. Every year I resolve to lose weight and inevitably fail, so this year I’m taking a different approach and just aiming to be healthy and fit.
• Learn to cook - This is somewhat of a necessity, as I’m moving out and my current repertoire includes things like baked beans on toast and instant ramen.
• Run a successful business - My main goal is to really work at this freelancing thing and be able to live fairly stably with the money I’m making from it. I’m hoping to get to a point where I’m not digging into my savings for living expenses fairly quickly, and to be earning something similar to what I would be in full time employment within the year. Hopefully that’s a realistic goal!
• Keep on top of paperwork - Essential to my previous goal, and probably my biggest weakness as a business. I feel that I successfully conquered my shyness last year, so this is my big weakness I’ll be tackling this year.
• Keep improving - As a person, in design, in development, in crafts, in artwork, in Japanese, in photography… I don’t want to plateau, I don’t think I’ll ever get to a point where I won’t want to improve. I still have a lot to learn and a lot of things I want to be better at.

I’ll be heading out tonight to celebrate the new year in style, I hope everyone has a good New Year’s too!

Last week I hosted an art & craft jam, gathering my artsy friends at my house and just messing with different media. It was a good chance to branch out from what we’re used to (most of us just draw with pencil and paper or on the computer) and try different things - I brought out my collection of paints, ink, felt, clay, shrinky plastic, vinyl toys and random other craft doodads. Felt a bit like a kids party, but it’s great fun to just collaborate and create with other creative people!

Setting up

Arting!

Shrinky Plastic (by Sam)

Painting clay sculpts

Clay Sculpts by Geoff

Shrinky plastic charms by Maree