Exclusive Interview with James Dvorak

At home in a pair of blue jeans and a t-shirt, Seattle-based web designer James Dvorak looks like an average guy, but he has much more up his short sleeves than it appears. He's a new media designer with expertise in areas of concept, site development, site design, interface design, Flash design, Flash action scripting and video. He graduated Western Washington University, where he received a BA in Graphic Design and New Media. His online portfolio will wow you for its disarming approach no less than for its client list and online awards. Among other projects, the prestigious Brook's running shoes video was released by James last May. We at Template Monster first became acquainted with James not through his work but through the kudos printed about his work on various website awards pages.

WDL: Who are you and what do you do? Tell us something about yourself that we cannot learn by reading your portfolio. Make yourself a real guy for our library visitors.

James Dvorak: Who am I? Well, I am just an ordinary guy that drank a few too many beers while designing my online portfolio.. Currently, I am freelancing around the Seattle area, and I have been doing just enough work to pay all the my bills. In the remaining hours of the day another designer (Scott Scottscity.com ) and I have been working on our own little interactive design studio. We have been putting together some promotional material and hopefully we can get our site launched in the near future. Litfusedesign.com All I can say is that our new site will be crazy, really crazy.

WDL: What are your other current design projects?

James Dvorak: I have been working on my studios website Litfusedesign.com in all of my spare time. As far as paid work goes, I just finished a footwear technology piece for Brooks Sports, Footwear Technology

WDL: Have any future projects in mind?

James Dvorak: In the future I really hope to start up my own firm, because I don't want to go back to a cubicle.

WDL: How can a guy break into the web design world?

James Dvorak: As for advice on to how to break into the web design world, I would just say, never quit working on your portfolio. After I graduated college the only job I could get was deliver pizzas but this gave me a lot of time to work with flash and develop some pieces for my portfolio. After that I had a flash production job, but I kept working on my on cool pieces and experiments for my book. Then the work kept getting better and better.

WDL: What sort of attention has your online portfolio brought you? Would you say it's profitable to have one if you're a web designer?

James Dvorak: My online portfolio as brought my a lot of recognition over the last year. It has really helped me stand out from the other freelance designers in the area so I guess it has been pretty profitable. I have almost made enough money to buy beer and feed myself.

WDL: You graduated Western Washington University (WWU), where you received a BA in Graphic Design and New Media. According to the university’s rules, students intending to major in Design at WWU are required to apply to the Art Department, and only after completing one year of basic Art Design are they allowed to join the regular Design core courses. Does this mean you know something about Art?

James Dvorak: Ya, I graduated from Western Washington University and they had a really good design program. They always seem to turn out some really good designers. When I graduated I had a pretty average portfolio, but I just kept working on it and I think it has gotten a little better.

Ya, just to get into the Art Department you have to summit a portfolio before you can take any art classes. Then after taking all of the foundation design classes you have to summit your design portfolio to the department to get accepted into the advanced design classes. This made the design department very competitive and it really pushed everyone to do really good work. I don't know how I made it through...

WDL: While we’re on the subject, which do you prefer - interactive or traditional media? You display both in your portfolio.

James Dvorak: I prefer interactive, I just put traditional section on my website because I was having so much fun building site06.

WDL: You do specialize in Flash; in fact, your site is based on this Macromedia technology, which requires high bandwidths, and which was one of the reasons you took your site down for over two weeks in June 2004. Can you say anything to reassure designers contemplating using Flash to power their websites? Are there any special Bandwidth issues they should keep in mind?

James Dvorak: Ya, right after I launched my site I had some problems with the amount of bandwidth I was going through. My first 2 hosts shut my site down within a couple days, and stuck me with some serious bandwidth overage charges. (bandwidth overage charges really suck when you don't have a job) I eventually found a new host Flashlevel.net and my site has been up ever since.

WDL:Of your favorite hobbies, which one has a chance of eclipsing your web design career and why?

James Dvorak: I really like getting out of my office and riding my motorcycle, but no one will pay me for riding my bike.

WDL: According to your online bio, you like watching baseball in your free time. With this in mind, we would like to ask you one final question: Who would you rather be - the Lou Gehrig (the iron horse) or the Ty Cobb (daring and unpredictable boy) of web design?

James Dvorak: I love watching baseball, mainly the Seattle Mariners, I sure hope they do better this year, but I can't play baseball at all. I can't catch a ball or anything, but it sure would be cool if I could....

WDL: Thank you for your time. It was a great pleasure to talk to you.

James Dvorak: Ya, same here. Thanks for interviewing me. I respect what you guys are doing.