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Today WebM.ag is speaking with the man responsible for Blog Spoon Graphics and the Line25 blog amonst other things! Chris is a successful blogger and freelancer designer based in the UK.

WebMag: Welcome to WebM.ag Chris, Tell our readers a little about yourself and what you do?
CS: Thanks! I’m Chris Spooner, I’m a self employed designer slash blogger who spends his days working from home. My days are a mix of client projects and content creation for my design blogs, Blog.SpoonGraphics and Line25.

WebMag: What are you up to at present, anything cool/interesting?
CS: Right now I’m trying to work off a few current projects to concentrate more on the blogging side of my life. I tend to go through stages where I hate client work, then after a short break I head back out to look for new challenges to keep my skillset sharp.

WebMag: You have been very active on various blogs and magazines with interviews and tutorials, how does this rank compared to just plain old design work?
CS: The exposure I’ve gained through blogging has been amazing, and has led to some awesome opportunities. Plus, creating my own articles and tutorials has complete creative freedom, allowing me to do whatever I want without the typical client inputs getting in the way! On the other hand, I do enjoy every day design work as it often provides problems that need solving, and puts me in situations where I need to focus on something I wouldn’t otherwise challenge myself with.

WebMag: I know your a fan of dailybooth.com, are there any other sites you frequently visit?
CS: I’m always open for jumping on the next bandwagon, and Dailybooth, just like Twitter, seems to be growing at a really good rate and could be the next big thing. I also have a bunch of RSS feeds in my reader that help me stay up to date with the design industry, so I’m forever catching up on new posts from stacks of design blogs.

WebMag: You do a great job on blog.spoongraphics.co.uk and line25.com, what made you share your skills with other designers?
CS: I’ve learnt a lot of new techniques by following articles and tutorials, so writing my own tuts is a great way of helping others out. It’s also a good incentive to try out new creative styles myself, so I use both sites as playgrounds to try out new things. It’s great to see people befitting from the information I put out there.

WebMag: What advice would you give to a aspiring designer?
CS: Keep practising and experimenting with various tools and styles to find your comfort zone. Also try to keep up to date with any trends or changes in the industry, being on the leading edge can be a great way to develop yourself as an employable designer. Taking the time to socialise through Twitter, or by blogging can also open up doors to some great opportunities that can give your career a big boost.

WebMag: So what hardware, software and tools do you use to create your works? Or is there anything you might recommend?
CS: I work with my precious MacBook Pro and Cinema Display, along with a Wacom tablet. Software wise I use the Adobe Creative Suite, with most of my time being spent in Photoshop and Illustrator.

WebMag: Your promotion and branding of blog.spoongraphics and line25 as well as yourself as a designer has been superb, how has this effected your business?
CS: Most of the promotion and branding I’ve done has been out of fun, so having this benefit me business wise has been great. Nowadays every enquiry I receive is a result of the exposure I’ve been lucky to receive through interviews, magazine articles or my blog posts themselves. Highlights are clients from around the world who appreciate and value my work (mostly!), and the opportunity to design such things as skate deck and t-shirt merchandise for the band Fall Out Boy – Something I’d never have ever expected I’d land if asked a few years back.

WebMag: So are you a web designer-graphic designer or vice versa, how do you define yourself?
CS: I’m always giving my title as one or the other. Web designer sometimes gets the more interested response, although can usually lead on to ‘Oh, I have a problem with my computer, could you fix it?’. I sometimes introduce myself as a design blogger to see the reaction!

WebMag: Tell us something about you that you haven’t mentioned in an interview before?
CS: Hmm, there’s been some crazy questions in past interviews, and I’ve covered things like favourite food etc. What about… I’m thinking about taking the test for a motorcycle license sometime in the new year. That’s something I’ve come to fancy doing quite recently. I wouldn’t myself a little cruiser to roam the roads on!

WebMag: Away from the web, how does Chris Spooner relax?
CS: Laura and I both enjoy heading off to the cinema, and the past couple of Winters I’ve been skiing with friends. I’m looking forward to arranging something in the snow for this year too.

WebMag: So what can we expect from you going into 2010 and beyond?
CS: I’ve been wanting to cut down on client work for a while, but whenever I do, I feel guilty that I’m not bringing in any projects and go and take on some more work! Once my current work is out of the way I might concentrate on developing my blogs with some more detailed topics, spend some time rehashing the site designs and maybe take on some little personal ventures I have in mind.

Quick Fire!

Music Of Choice? Rock
What are you reading? The computer screen, that’s about all I read!
IE6, love or hate? Hated and long forgotten.
PC or MAC? Mac
Facebook or Twitter? Twitter

A Big Thank You To Chris!

Thank you very much for your time Chris we love your work here at WebM.ag and your welcome back anytime! If you want to view some more of Chris’s work or contact him you can catch him on Twitter: @chrisspooner or via blog.spoongraphics.co.uk, line25.com or chrisspooner.com

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