Once again we bring you one of our interviews with design and web professionals, as always our goal is to provide some educational and informative insight into how people work, what inspires them and how they got where they are. This month we’re talking with Veerle Pieters a graphic/web designer based in Deinze, Belgium. She runs a popular blog on veerle.duoh.com. Starting in ‘92 as a freelance graphic designer (under the name of Duoh!), Veerle worked on print before moving into webdesign and GUI (since ‘96). Since 2000, she runs Duoh! n.v. together with her partner Geert Leyseele.

How or where do you find inspiration?
I find inspiration in a lot of things. Sometimes it’s from stuff I see in books, on the road, nature, packaging, photography, music etc. There isn’t a golden formula that works every time so I try to have an open mind and look around a lot. One thing I can say for sure it’s never from the same source twice.

Who is the biggest influence on your work right now?
My partner Geert has a big influence on me and I’m sure that this is reflected in my work.

Where are your “design roots”? Print or Web?
My design roots are in the Print world since I’m a pre-internet designer 🙂 My formal education is in print design. It’s not as young people imagine it because back then desktop publishing was about to be introduced and it was very expensive. Most applications that I use today on a daily basis weren’t arround yet.

How important is it to know the history of design?
Tough question and I guess it depends on what type of person you are. I’m sure it can be a benefit to know this, but it will only improve your skills. A big part of being a designer is about having talent in my humble opnion. Some people are born with a knack to design beautiful, elegant work and others need to study and push hard to be at their best. Learning about design history can help you understand things better, where it came from etc, but I would say it isn’t really essential just an added bonus. Some things just can’t be taught.

Serif or Sans?
From a design point of view my preference goes towards Sans, but for a reading in books I prefer Serif.

Do you code and design? Are you a “Hybrid”?
I am a “hybrid” and love to code when I have been designing over a long extended period. Coding interests me and I have a natural curiosity to find out how things work. However if you ask me to choose I would definitely opt for my first love, design.

What’s your favorite part of the creative process?
When inspiration hits me with a good idea and I start implementing it or when the design is almost done and it only needs some finishing touches.

What makes your creative process different from everybody else?
Hard to answer since I don’t know how somebody else is working. It’s also not that structured. Not every project has the same process, because it varies on the type of job that I have in front of me. I mostly sketch things out in my little ideas book but on other occasions I immediately start in Photoshop or Illustrator.

What do you see as the single biggest shift in the evolution of design over the past 5 years?
If we’re talking about webdesign, I would answer CSS, definitely, and the flexibility that comes with it. If we come back to design in general, then maybe the fact that more designers now starting to realize that we aren’t just making things pretty, but that it needs to be usable as well. Another thing I also noticed is that it’s all becoming more technical.

What’s the difference between User Experience and User Interface design?
I wouldn’t have a clue to be honest since I’m not a fan of using buzzwords or labeling things. In my mind the user experience is a direct result of the user interface design so I think they just go hand in hand.

What makes one a web design professional?
I believe you have to work in the web business for starters. You become a professional when you take usability and accessibility into account throughout the entire design process and lastly keep the hunger to educate yourself with new and improved techniques. In our world the learning process never stops.

What are designers/developers doing right (or wrong) in the web 2.0 world?
Maybe they are more focusing on building things with the user in mind instead of before building it to just have a presence on the web.

You could say that some effects are overused. However I do not believe you should stop using an effect or trendy style because everybody else does. It’s all about what *you* create with it and how you apply these effects. The effects themselves aren’t bad it is what people do with them.

What’s your favorite flavor of design or development programs/languages?
I don’t have any particular flavor that I really like. A good example of what I prefer is in my art elsewhere section on my blog but you’ll see it’s diverse. One of the last ones that I posted is Scott Hansen.

As for programs, if we were talking about web design, I would say CSSEdit. I totally love this application and it has saved me a ton of time.

What is your favorite book?
I hope you are referring to Novels here? I like to read books from Harlan Coben and Micheal Connelly.

What is your favorite movie?
Hmmm, tough question because it changes a lot but if I have to name one, I love the Aliens series.

Who is your favorite musical artist (or What musical artist are you listening to the most right now?)
I’m a big fan of Miguel Migs and The Timewriter, Lisa Shaw, Blue Six, Soulstice, The Rurals and many others. So I don’t really listen to one artist in general. I usually listen to playlists of my favorite kind of music and that’s chill-house.

Bio
Veerle Pieters is a graphic/web designer based in Deinze, Belgium. She runs a popular blog on veerle.duoh.com. Starting in ‘92 as a freelance graphic designer (under the name of Duoh!), Veerle worked on print before moving into webdesign and GUI (since ‘96). Since 2000, she runs Duoh! n.v. together with her partner Geert Leyseele.