I recently had the opportunity to interview Rob Morris of Digitalmash. You may be familiar with Rob’s work, particularly his portfolio site which has been featured in countless design galleries and blog posts. Rob is a very talented designer and I hope you get something valuable out of the conversation in this interview.

A while ago I contacted Shopify to see if someone would be interested in doing an interview to talk about their hosted e-commerce system. Fortunately, Daniel Weinand (VP of Design) was happy to participate and share some insight that should be helpful to any designers/developers who work on e-commerce sites for clients. Throughout the interview you will see some screenshots of sites that are powered by Shopify, click the images to visit the sites.

I’m sure most of you are familiar with the popular design blog Webdesigner Depot. In much less than a year WDD has become one of the leading blogs in the niche. I recently had a chance to interview the man behind WDD, Walter Apai.

How long have you been designing and how did you get started?

As a kid, I used to draw cartoons for fun. In 1999, I started designing CD covers for my music compilation CD’s. Almost by accident, I discovered that I have a talent and real passion for design. I’ve always been attracted to art, in all its shapes and forms. Web design was the natural direction for me.

As a web or graphic designer there are a number of different paths you can take in your career. Freelancing is a great option for many designers, however, some have an interest in taking their business a bit further and adding a team around them.

Matthew Jurmann is the CEO and Director of Operations for CHROMATIC. I’ve had the opportunity to get to know Matthew over the past year and I thought that he had some valuable insight since he transitioned from freelancing to running a small company. Fortunately, Matthew agreed to share his thoughts in this interview. I hope it sheds some light on the subject and helps you to learn more if this is something that you have been considering for your career.

Many designers and developers get the itch to work on their own projects in addition to doing client work or a full-time job. For some this is just a creative outlet without the restrictions that come with client work or being an employee, and for others it is a chance to make an additional income. Part-time projects can even turn into a full-time income in some cases.

These personal projects may be blogs, web apps, or some other type of online business. Whatever the case may be, a personal project can potentially provide more rewarding work, learning experiences, and additional income.

Because many designers would like to pursue their own interests, I thought it would be helpful to get some feedback from a small group of designers and developers that have some experience in this area. There is a good bit of variety in this eight person panel. For example, some have completely left client work in favor of managing their own companies, while others intend to stay employed full-time and manage their own projects on the side. Hopefully the insight provided here will help you in your own work.

Many designers and developers are looking to earn an income from several different sources, and theme/template sales are an increasingly popular option. Within the past year ThemeForest has quickly become one the leaders in the industry, both in terms of providing designers with a place to sell their work, and also by providing buyers with great selection and prices.

I recently had the opportunity to interview freelance designer and blogger Henry Jones. Most of you are probably familiar with Henry’s blog Web Design Ledger, and he also launched Card Observer, a gallery of business card designs, a few months ago. Also, last year Henry sold his previous design blog, Design Reviver. Take a few minutes and get to know a little bit more about Henry.

Premium WordPress themes are obviously very popular right now. One of the premium theme marketplaces that is very interesting to me is Elegant Themes. With Elegant Themes you can purchase a one year theme club membership and get access to all of their themes for less than $20 per year.

Elegant Themes currently offers more than 20 different themes, and many have multiple color schemes or styles to choose from. With the club membership you also get access to the support forum and theme upgrades.

Nick Roach of Elegant Themes

I recently had the opportunity to interview Nick Roach, the man behind Elegant Themes. Nick has sponsored some giveaways here in the past, and people really love his themes. Hopefully if you’re already familiar with Nick and Elegant Themes this will give you a little insight into his life and his business, and if you’re not familiar with Elegant Themes, please take a minute to see what Nick has to offer.

Get to know more about the man behind Just Creative Design.

Most of you are probably familiar with CSS Globe. If you’re not, it is a very popular site run by Alen Grakalic that provides design news (through user submissions) on a daily basis. Alen also publishes some original tutorials and articles on the site.