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Today WebM.ag is speaking with David Perel from Obox Design, David co-founded Obox but still designs as well as manages the team and handles the marketing too! David is the first of three interviews from “The Perel Trio.”

WebM.ag: So David, Tell our readers a little about yourself and what you do?
DP: I’m the designer and co-founder at Obox. I also manage all the marketing that we do. Long hours and lot’s of fun is what I do.

WebM.ag: What would you say where the best and worse experiences of your career?
DP: Best experience was launching From the Couch and seeing it succeed as well as launching Obox Themes. Worst moments were early-mid 2008 when business was super quiet and Marc and I were considering doing other things with our lives. From the Couch changed all that though.

WebM.ag: What is your role in Obox Design, and what do you enjoy most about working as part of “The Perel Trio”?
DP: We all get along very well and our skills compliment each other perfectly. I do all the designs, css and html.

WebM.ag: What social networking sites do you use to promote your business?
DP: Twitter and Facebook Fan Pages

WebM.ag: Your company is based in South Africa, is there a good design community there?
DP: To be honest the designers that I know of in SA are few and far between. The community that mingles is more from the marketing and programming side. It’s very rare that I bump into another designer. HOWEVER, Woothemes have some excellent designers and they are just 40mins away from Obox.

WebM.ag: What are your best methods for finding new clients?
DP: To be honest I don’t really know. We just focused on creating good content which people would watch. We also tried to attend every event in Cape Town and took our video camera with us. This allowed us to mingle with the influential people and eventually start doing web work for them.

WebM.ag: How do you keep yourself mentally stimulated whilst working on a project?
DP: I just put my head down and hustle, I feel that I am really good at the first 20% of a project. So I don’t need stimulation for that. It’s the last 5% that I really struggle with.

WebM.ag: Running a business can be tough, what tools help you through the boring day-to-day stuff?
DP: We use Outlook and Microsoft Excel. A pen and paper is also pretty good.

WebM.ag: When starting on a project design do you use typography as a primary design element?
DP: Nope, layout and colours are what influence my design path.

WebM.ag: What advice would you give to a newbie starting out in design?
DP: Take everything you can get and work your face off. Forget about price, just think about experience.

WebM.ag: Tell us something about you that you haven’t mentioned in an interview before?
DP: I used to spend 9hours a day playing the Playstation Game, ‘Gran Turismo’. I landed up winning multiple top international events and even started a social network which I designed and programmed from the ground up called ‘GT Playground’.

Im getting back into the game again, so if anyone wants to race me online, search for ‘Kartno38’. That’s me.

WebM.ag: So what can we expect from you going into 2010 and beyond?
DP: More awesomeness, we have lot’s of plans but we are focusing on growth in terms of traffic and sales of our themes. We want our themes to be the main income driver for Obox in 2010.

Quick Fire!

Music Of Choice? House music and Acid Jazz.
What are you reading? I’m not much of a reader, I read one book at the beginning of each year which will inspire me for the next 12months. In 2009 I read ‘The Secret’.
IE6, love or hate? What’s IE6?
PC or MAC? PC because you can get more power for the same price as a Mac.
Facebook or Twitter? Twitter

A Big Thank You To David!

Thank you for taking time out to chat with WebM.ag, if you wish to read more about David or about Obox Design and what they do you can visit Obox here: obox-design.com or you can keep up to date with the latest Obox news or speak to David via Twitter: @Obox

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