Name:
Justin Fox

Age:
24 (16.05.75)

Location:
Darlinghurst, Sydney Australia

Mac or PC:
Macs. I find it hard to respect and/or employ a designer who is passionate about PC's since I feel macs are more in tune with creativity and visualisation.

Site(s):
Australian INfront

The Boss:
I'm the boss!

Design education:
Bachelor of Design (4yrs) University of New South Wales College of Fine Arts. Was a tough course. More conceptual than practical so I'm happy I chose the right one. Concepts go a lot further than fancy tricks.

Hunk, spunk or flunk:
Hmmm, spunk is it. Spunk is everything. Spunk makes the world go round.

Disgusting personal habits:
Is this a psychological question, like in interviews with big corporates? Am I really meant to say something like "I concentrate too much on getting things to look perfect?". he he

Nice personal habits:
I'm always open, always handing out... even to sponges (people who just sit there and absorb).

Hobbies off the net:
Playing my sexy Fender, skateboarding, clubbing/dancing to phat breaky, hiphop beats.

Favorite quote:
Was "go with the flow" but then I heard "only dead fish go with the flow" so I then used "design is a life sentence" but now it's "nothing is something"

What do you know about Australian web designers:
I feel that a lot of the older generation Australian designers have and are actively destroying our international design abilities. The picture of the Australian designer is a man in his late 40's, bald with a beard and big square glasses. We seem ashamed of our design work and this is so wrong. And with web design we see the big American influence. Web sites with a million links off the home page, database driven nightmares. Big Australian web firms even operate like American design firms. I know that there are many great Australian web designers. Most are young at heart and innovative. It shows in their work but their work gets watered down by the commercial big guns that contract them.

How did you first learn of the internet:
Chris Mountford from Think Internet Consulting is just the biggest techie ever! He introduced me to the web. I remember thinking that I would need a hole punched in the wall for sockets, modems, cables, sheesh, what was this internet thing?!

What do you like/hate about the net:
I love the internet and all it's possibilities but I hate the high price you have to pay for faster surfing.

What drew you to web design:
I started out in CD-ROMS and the web was an easy progression from there since I had the ground work in interface design, hierarchy and animation.

What is your working style (Photoshop, etc):
I spend 90% of my creative time in photoshop. I use a lot of masks, layer effects and free form sketching with the mouse (I never did get any good with my wacom tablet).

Do you think that Flash is cool or over used:
I think it's cool but it's a fill in. When bandwidth gets bigger and compression gets more advanced we won't need flash so much. I see a lot of repetition out there. Lot's of people using flash in the same way. It's like the internet is discovering drop shadows for the first time and everybody's flogging it to death.

Do you prefer technologically advanced sites or sites with simple but good design:
I prefer simple but awesome design. Technology advanced sites are necessary too but through a 56K modem the experience is ruined.

Do you have any cool design tips:
Hahaha! I have too many! But a general one would be to look inside yourself for inspiration. No one in this world is you. You have an amazing brain filled with inspiration. The way you were brought up was different. Culture, the way you learnt, what you learnt and basically, how you see things. So if you get a mental/design block... just turn to yourself for the answer or the style.

Favorite sites:
Tough question which I hoped to avoid! I always fall in and out of surfing design portals. (Shift, Uploading.com, Digitalthread etc) and I like finding like minded people out there (Jay David, Harsh Patel, Matthew Willis, Ann Snowberger). But I have to be honest and say that my personal site and the DFM site are my favorite sites!
My personal site (http://www.cia.com.au/dfm/tintin) is like a memory container to me. I have no need to redesign it every month. I just keep inconsistently adding to it and it will serve as a great internet diary for me to look back on in the future. It keeps my design work fresh since I am in total control and I feel free to experiment and not to be judged for what I upload there.
My business site (http://www.designfixmedia.com.au) on the other hand is redesigned nearly every month. I am never happy for too long with the way it works and the way it looks. I put a lot of time and effort into it since it is a major part of my master plan. Sometimes I think it would be easier to get another designer I admire to design and implement the whole DFM Design Fix Media site but that feels too much like a cop out to me! So instead I design and refine with perfection in mind.

Favorite designers:(Web or otherwise)
I respect Dave McKean. He's better known for the covers of Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics) He got me into the whole digital art thing, texture, emotion, depth. I respect David Carson for opening my eyes to type as image and to be more aware of my surroundings and reflect what I see around me in my work. And as far as web designers go. I like Jay David's style, also check:graphic havoc, eboy, hel13, twenty2product.

Design styles you hate:
I'm not too into the techno fluorescent look, the design for design sake lines and arrows. But there aren't really any design styles I hate. Everyone to their own in the style department. I'm not the fashion police.

Do you think web designers will become the design elite:
Hahahaha! I think designers into video, motion. The power of text, animation, audio and video in unison is GOD like and the internet is shaping up for it so yeah, the people that can already dabble with these mediums are set perhaps, to be the web designers of the future... we can only stay static for so long.

Do you see yourself as an influential web designer:
To some yes. I think people getting into web design, perhaps from a passionate point of view... or even as a career. I have a lot of advice I feel is worth listening to. Advice about freelancing, working dealing with employers, bosses. I think it's arrogant advice in many ways but sometimes you have to push otherwise you just end up being one of them. (the herd!).

How would you like to be remembered:
As someone who makes many marks. I have always been into reaching a pinnacle and then dropping everything because I reached personal satisfaction. I always wanted to play and scream on stage, jump around and go beserko. I did that and I am happy about it. I wanted to be a professional mountain bike rider. I didn't do too badly in a big comp in Goulburn and I was happy with that. I'm now 24... I am the president of my own design firm and I have a beautiful warehouse studio in Darlinghurst (which'll take me 40years to pay off! he he) There's a lot more I want to do out there and I'm too aware of this to be caught in a rut so I'm determined to do a lot more in the coming years.

Any final comments:
I think I've said enough... no? Hmmm, visit my sites!

Thanks Justin!