Who
Jeff Croft is a well known web designer, speaker, and even author. Although he isn’t a full time freelancer or business owner, we can learn a lot from his experience. Without further ado, I give you Jeff Croft.
1. Can you briefly tell us a little about yourself?
Sure! I’m 31 years old, and I’ve been working on the web since 1995. I’ve just recently moved to Seattle, WA from Lawrence, KS to work full-time for Blue Flavor, a small, well-respected web and mobile design firm. At Blue Flavor, I’m doing all sorts of varying design projects for clients, as well as internal projects, as well as community outreach — that is, blogging, speaking at events, etc. Previously, I worked at the Lawrence Journal-World, a newspaper company, where I did web design for several media property sites (newspapers, TV stations, magazines, etc.) and worked on Ellington, a commercial content publishing system built atop Django, the Python-based open source web application framework.
2. How long have you been 100% self-employed?
No. I work full-time for Blue Flavor now, and have almost always had a full-time job. I did make a go at establishing a small web firm with my cousin several years back, but it didn’t pan out well enough to keep us from needing day jobs. It was nice side work, though. Currently, I’m not really doing any freelance or side work, because I just don’t have time. I have a few ideas for web apps I’d like to build as side projects — probably with my cousin — but most everything is on the backburner now as I get settled in here in this great new city.
3. What did you do before you took the leap to full-time freelance?
Well, I don’t do freelance full-time (and basically never have), but before I got into web design, I was in school studying music education with designs on being a music teacher. That was back in the mid-nineties. In 1994, I created my first personal web page and was excited by the personal publishing and community aspect of the Internet. I started as a hobbyist and got a part-time job doing web design while in college — but before long I was making more money than I would have teaching music. I had a daughter and wife that I needed to support, so I gave up college and started working on the web full-time. The rest is history, as they say.
4. Was it an easy transition and why?
It was pretty easy. It made great financial sense for me at the time, and I really, really enjoy web design. But I’ll always have a small regret about not finishing school, and I do miss music, as well. But, it was a pretty easy transition, I’d say.
5. Can you briefly walk us through a typical work day for you?
It’s actually hard for me to describe a typical work day at Blue Flavor — I haven’t had one yet! My first day in the office is tomorrow. For the past month, I’ve been working for Blue Flavor from my home in Lawrence. A typical day in that scenario was me waking up about 8am Central, get showered and online to start working on my projects, and getting an hour or two in before the rest of my cohorts on the west coast really got going. The Blue Flavor crew uses iChat (both IM and video conferencing) and Campfire (from 37signals) to communicate throughout the day, and used Basecamp (also from 37signals) to track projects. With these tools and plenty of dedication from everyone on the team, I never felt too out-of-the-loop working from almost 2000 miles away.
6. In a typical week, how many hours do you work on the following:
- Client Work: 30
- Personal Projects: 8
- Blogging: 3
- RSS reading: Way more than I’d like to admit.
- Learning: I’d say all of the above is learning. I learn while doing client work, I earn while doing personal projects, and most of my RSS feed reading is related to learning more about the industry. It’s hard to say, but I bet I spend 60 hours a week “learning” about web design.
- Other (describe)?: I spend a few hours a week networking (usually this means keeping in touch with others in the industry via IM) and as much time as I can with my girlfriend, friends, and family.
7. For you, what do you think is the best way to attract new clients?
In my experience, nothing beats word of mouth and networking. Get your name out there, and the business will come to you. Back before I had done much networking and getting my name out there, I had a really hard time getting enough work to sustain me full-time. Today, I never spend time actively trying to solicit clients, but I turn down (and/or forward on) a lot of potential projects. I just focus on staying on top of the game and being “in the public eye” a little bit, and everything works out from there.
8. If you had to list several industry ‘mentors’ or ‘heroes’ who would they be?
I have so many heroes when it comes to web design. Among them are Khoi Vinh, Mark Boulton, Jon Hicks, Cameron Moll, Jason Santa-Maria, Shaun Inman, Jina Bolton, Dan Rubin, and Bryan Veloso. Also, some of the early pioneers of CSS like Jeffrey Zeldman, Dave Shea, and Eric Meyer. Without their work, I’d be nowhere. I’ve head the pleasure to work with Wilson Miner and Nathan Borror, both of whom are just amazing designers. It feels funny to call them “mentors,” as they’re both younger than me and good friends of mine, but I learned a ton from both of them and they definitely deserve the title. I probably learned more from them than anyone else, really. I’d also call Mike Davidson a mentor of sorts. He’s done a lot for me — getting me job interviews, helping get my name out there, and convincing me to move to Seattle. I definitely owe Mike several margaritas (with no salt, of course).
9. What is the biggest blunder you see other web design companies do?
I think the biggest blunder is designing for the client, rather than for the end user. As a designer, I consider it a big part of my job to be the defender of the end user. The client has different goals than the user of their web sites. Their goals are important, but more often than not, their goals are best reached by creating a really great user experience. Clients sometimes tend to want to over-market themselves on their site. I always say, “if they’re seeing this, they’re already on your site. You don’t need to convince them anymore. You just need to please them.”
10. What is the most under utilized web element/technology in your opinion?
Even as much hype as they’ve gotten recently, I would say web application frameworks like Django and Rails are the most under-used technology. There’s a learning curve there, and so far, most great web designers and developers haven’t been willing to bite the bullet and learn about these tools. But if they did, they would be astonished at how much more productive they can become. Django, in particular, has changed my life. It’s made me able to do so much alone that I never could have done without a dedicated programmer before.
On the design side, I think PNGs are totally under-used. They’re better than GIF in almost every way, but they’re still almost never used. It baffles me.
11. On the flip side, what is the most over used web element/technology in your opinion?
Definitely blogging packages like WordPress, MoveableType, and TextPattern. These are great tools for blogging, but it’s amazing how many non-blog sites are built on top of them. Why? Because people are too lazy to learn really appropriate tools (like Django and Rails), and would rather shoehorn a round peg into a square hole because it’s “what they know.” It really irks me.
12. Rapid-Fire Recommendations (URL and optional comment):
- Must read blog (other than yours): http://wilsonminer.com/ — Dude blogs less often than Haley’s Comet comes, but when he does, it’s worth the wait.
- Must visit website: The only website I can’t bear to go a day without visiting is Flickr. It’s the only social network that ever “stuck” for me. I never get bored of Flickr.
- Unusual site you visit daily: http://indexed.blogspot.com/
- Most inspirational site for you: http://ted.com/ — Possibly the greatest content on the web, and a helluva great web site, to boot.
- Best site you’ve seen lately: I’m still finding great new details at the recently re-done apple.com.
13. If there was one bit of advice would you have for those interested in creating or growing their web design business, what would it be?
Network. Network. Network.
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