To those of you that have watched the ‘Destroy The Web 2.0 Look’ presentation, by now you should know who is the man behind it. Apart from designing websites, Elliot Jay Stocks is also a writer and a speaker at conferences and events . His portfolio is nothing less then impressive, from Massive Attack to Beth Orton, he also re-design Carsonified and gave it a fresher looks. Currently working at Carsonified, he will be leaving the company this April to venture on his on. I’m sure he will do just fine on his own and wish him all the best. To Elliot, good luck and thank you for answering these questions.

Q. Hi, how are you?
A. I’m very well, thank you! :) Busy, but well.

Q. Prior to your current gig at Carsonified, what have you been up to? Did you have a formal education in graphic design?
A. Prior to Carsonified, I worked in the music industry for three years: firstly at EMI Music, which was my first job after I graduated from university, and then at Sanctuary Records. I’ve never had any formal graphic design training, as what I studied at university was actually film, video, photography, and new media, and the new media side was almost entirely conceptual; meaning that if we wanted to major in that side of the course (which I did), we had to pretty much teach ourselves. However, my Dad is a graphic designer, so I think it was in my blood! He taught me stuff like perspective from a very young age and I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. I used to design and illustrate posters, leaflets, and brochures for school, from when I was about 10 through to when I left. My teachers were my first clients, I suppose! Strangely, I didn’t turn to the computer for design until I was 16.

Carsonified won’t be my current gig for much longer, though: I’ve decided to leave the company at the end of April and set up on my own, so that should be a bit of an adventure! (Ed - Good luck!)

Q. What is your design ethos?
A. Wow, that’s a tough one! I’m not sure… I guess I always try and make something beautiful to look at. Design should be about creating something functional and usable, and while they’re definitely priorities of mine, I’ve got to admit that I’m really into the ‘art’ more than anything. Again, I suppose that comes down to my drawing background. As long as I can spend my days making something beautiful, I’ll be happy.

Q. How do you approach a web designing/development project, starting from the planning up to the execution stage?
A. Well, I chat to the client and ensure I get a detailed brief, then begin sketching ideas with pen and paper; usually just wireframes. I’ll then make a wireframe or two in Photoshop, refine after feedback from the client, and then start the actual ‘design’: the pretty stuff, basically. That will be further refined after more client feedback and when everyone’s happy with that I’ll start writing the HTML and CSS. Although I have a few regular code snippets I use for each project, I often write a lot from scratch, as I try and make each site better than the last. Once that’s done I’ll either do a little bit of PHP, turn it into a Wordpress theme, or hand it over to a dedicated backend developer. Databases and the like are of no interest to me!

Q. What do you think the most common mistakes designer make when designing a website?
A. Copying everyone else. We’re all guilty of it, of course, but it’s a mistake I see everywhere. The best sites out there are the ones that dare to be different, even if it’s in a very subtle way.

Q. Apart from computer related stuff, what do you like to do during your free time?
A. I compose and record my own music, although I guess a lot of that is computer-based now. I also do a lot of writing, and although most of that is on the computer, I always carry a notepad around with me. I try and write a lot when I’m travelling - which is something I love doing - as I have a kind of casual dream about being a travel writer. Literary aspirations aside, I just love the idea of sitting outside a street cafe in a foreign land, writing about what’s going on around me. It’s part of why I’m going to go and live in Norway for a couple of months from May.

Q. You have been mention in numerous website for your css coding skill. What are some of the projects that you are most proud of and why?
A. My personal site (elliotjaystocks.com) is probably one the designs I’ most proud of, although to be honest the CSS could be a lot neater. I’m proud of the Future of Web Apps Road Trip site (futureofwebapps.com/roadtrip) in terms of both design and CSS, although there are always things that could be improved upon. I’m actually still really proud of the site I made for Massive Attack’s ‘Collected’ album (massiveattack.com/collected), back from my Flash days.

Q. Who do you consider as your ‘guru’ or the people that have inspire you in your personal and professional life?
A. There are a group of people from the Web Standards crowd that continue to influence me in terms of XHTML and CSS. In terms of actual design, I love what Miguel Ripoll (miguelripoll.com) does; I think he’s one of the few web designers who gets the balance right between design and illustration, and his designs also challenge the medium and remain unique, even though he has a pretty distinct style. I have a lot of respect for him. However, I’d have to say that my favourite artist / designer of all time is Alfons Mucha (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfons_Mucha); I could look at his stuff all day.

Q. You gave a talk about destroying the web 2.0 design look. What really prompted you to talk about that subject?
I was just fed up with seeing reflected logos all over the place - it was ridiculous. Amazingly, though, I think my talk and its accompanying video and slides seem to had an effect, judging from the number of people who have embedded them into their blogs. It turns out a lot of people were fed up with those cliches as well!

Q. What is your prediction about the Internet, for let say, 10 years fro, now? Will it be totally different from what we have today?
A. My first reaction is to say it’ll be totally different, but when you think that HTML and CSS have remained virtually the same in the last 10 years, I’m not so sure there’ll be a great deal of progress. Flash may be doing some great things by then, though, because it’s continued to develop at such a fast pace. Although I no longer deal with Flash much these days, I have a lot of respect for it in terms of web-related innovation.

I’m pretty sure that mobile web browsing will be a lot more popular in 10 years’ time, too; possibly even overtaking desktop-based browsing.

Q. What are some of the gadgets and software that you can’t live without?
A. My iPhone, just because I love being able to email and surf on the move, although in terms of what I really need, I suppose it’d be my MacBook Pro. If I had to name my favourite apps, they’d have to be Photoshop, TextMate, Transmit, and Twitterific.

Q. Thanks for your time. Any last words?
A. Only to say thank you for the interview!

Website : http://elliotjaystocks.com/

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