Donna Massam

After reading through both interviews I found that I was inspired more by Dan Saffer, I gathered from reading it that he is very passionate about his work. He made some very interesting pointers aimed for beginner designers, these were very helpful.

One thing that I learnt whilst studying multimedia at college that it is a good idea starting your designs on paper-based before going into the programs to design it, both designers mentioned this. Obviously to have a structured design development might not be fun to some as i know some designers prefer to go straight intp the program and design, I have had times of doing this before, but found that structuring my design development pays off in the long run, as your project is more organised and its easier to resolve problems. Thankfully though thanks to college i dont find it too hard to work in this way.

Dan Saffer also noted that beginner designers need to learn to have more variation in their work, this is something i have to learn to do, my designs i have noticed in the past have tended to have a very similar structure (and thanks to Simons lecture this morning i now have a better understanding of different structural architypes) I think in a sense the note i have already made above about starting on paper before in the programs would help with this, as i find that 'trial and error is a good technique to use, i struggle to do this in a program, one point that i have had prople tell me previously is that im too scared too go wrong, but i find this a different matter when designing on paper first, im not afraid to draw it wrong.

Both designers also mentioned reading, magazines and RSS Feeds about other designers and how they work, this has never really occured to me and I have been thinking about subscribing to a website design magazine, maybe it'l help me gain more inspiration.

I should try looking at websites such as the FWA for inspiration as they both mentioned this. I have always steered away from this thinking that its 'copying' or that the website is that complex i think "i cant do that" and just close the website, but obviously it is a good source for inspiration so im going to have to give it a try.

One thing that Dan said really applied to me, what he finds most irritating whilst working. "My own ignorance, lack of skills, or inability to grasp new concepts" I relate to this so well and find it extremely frustrating but im glad that im not the only one.

Both have also noted what they drink too, Joel drinks coffee and Dan drinks tea, so it might be a good idea to find a drink that helps to stimulate my mind when designing!.