Fire Studios

We sit down for another installment in FS Interviews, this time with Jake Mize, a profesional web designer and a pretty damn good one at that. We're going to talk about his favorite projects, go to software and languages, and getting a degree for web work.

Hi Jake, thanks for agreeing to sit down and answer my questions. If you could introduce yourself to the readers that would be great.

Well my name is Jake Mize and I am 28 years old. I have grown up along the east coast my whole life, some in Georgia, South Carolina but mostly in Charlotte NC. I graduated with a BFA in Art with a concentration in Graphic Design. So my school training consisted of about 90% print design and 10% web design. Unfortunately there was very little web offered at UNC Charlotte at the time. I graduated in 2004 and started working at a Ad Agency in Salisbury, NC called Miller Davis Studios (http://www.mdstudiosinc.com). I worked there for about 3 years working a lot in with the swimming pool industry. One of those years consisted of an internship during school which also counted as a class credit. During my time at MD, I was submerged in Flash and Web work from day one. This sparked my interest and transition into web design. I then left MD and went to work for PRstore (http://www.prstore.com) were I essentially became the Web Development Manager. By the end of my 2 year stent with PRstore I was managing a team of 2 and working on jobs for 20 - 30 franchise PRstore's across the US. After PRstore I accepted a job at Red Ventures (http://www.redventures.com) , such an amazing company. Most of my work here consist of designing sites that generate sales leads for large companies like DirecTV, ADT, Clear (4g Wireless Internet), Sears, and many others. I also run BoomSkins (http://www.boomskins.com) which is a small little company that creates creative skins for Apple products.

As a web designer, what has been your favorite project to work on and what set it apart from the rest?

Favorite project, man thats a tough one. I have probably worked on atleast 500 - 600 sites. Some where very intense and some where quick turn around templates. I'd have to say that it was probably a site that I did in my free time. I think I did this mock up back in 2006 - 2007 or so just for fun using some images that a Hip Hop artist put on his site. I really enjoyed incorporating my talents in web design, love for music, and respect for this artist all into one project, on my own time frame. By now the style is a bit dated!

When developing your projects, what are your "go to" languages? Are you a plain HTML/CSS guy or do you build around a CMS such as WordPress or Drupal?

Definitely HTML and CSS. I used to dabble a lot in Joomla but ended up hating it. Now if I use any commerce it usually involves WordPress. Drupal didnt really appeal to me. Joomla and Drupal seemed very easy for a Programmer or Designer to understand but I found that it became messy once passed to the client.

You list Actionscript as one of your skillsets, but in recent years flash sites and components have become increasingly rarer due to the abundance of Javascript frameworks. What's your take on this phenomenon? Have you converted to using a library like jQuery, MooTools, or Prototype?

HAHA, man I really should take Actionscript off of my list! Back in the day I was good with flash, especially AS2. I did a lot of full flash sites with ease and I was able to write a majority of my own logic as well as modify a lot of the code I found and make it work with what I was doing. But now, especially with AS3, it's very confusing to me. It probably hasnt helped that I havent had to do much flash in the past year or two. Im not sure I agree with most people that it's a dying medium, you can definitely do a lot with it and I think if Apple ever allows it on the iPhone and iPad that it will create a spark in the industry for flash developers. I also have to admit that I enjoy the fact that less people have asked me for a flash intro in the past year that they used to. As for other mediums, I definitely use jQuery a lot. You can create the animation effects that you used to have to do in flash. And its nuts all the stuff you can do with it these days.

Your portfolio states that you have a BFA from UNC - Charlotte. Do you feel this degree better prepared you for your future jobs or was it a personal mission rather than professional?

This is what I have always thought about this question. Graphic Design and Web Design are one of the few fields where it doesnt matter if you have a degree or not. If you are good you are good, and it will definitely show! Nobody really cares if you have a degree from SCAD or The Art Institute, people want to see what you can create or if you can write good code. Sure going to college helped me have a broader understanding of Art, its history, its techniques, etc but a lot of what I use everyday I learned the first year I was out of school. From then on its a process of leaning on your own.

Final Question: How did you come around to being a web developer? Was it a childhood fascination or just something you stumbled into?

Well it definitely wasnt a childhood fascination, I dont really remember having the internet until I was like in 9th grade. Before then it was DOS and floppy disks. I do remember being able to adapt quickly to the DOS prompt, it was always fun browsing around in there, trying to figure out what commands would lead me into different directories and what not. Just like everyone else at the time I had a AngelFire site which I modified with all kinds of animated gifs, haha, man those were some good times! Once I got into college my fascination with web grew and I really made the switch during my first year out of school.

Finally, do you have any parting words for the readers?

I really just encourage anyone that is in our field or is thinking about going into web design to focus on always improving yourself. Continue to find new techniques and push your talents. Don't be afraid to take vacations! Vacations have been lifesavers for me, very refreshing to step away from design, clear your mind and get inspired. Enjoy what you do and dont settle for less.