by Alek Lisefski (Nov. 2004)
page
1 of 2
bluesheepstudios.com
Alek:
What are your artistic inspirations?
Ben: My biggest inspirations come from fellow high-end Flash sites, but I also draw a lot from architecture. For a big chunk of my earlier years I was pretty intent on becoming an architect, and used to draw floor plans for fun in my spare time (seriously). Thus, when I see a particularly funky building it tends to stick in my mind, and I think it comes through in some of my work. I also draw a lot from the simple designs of entirely-animated TV ads (like those blue credit card ads) and large flyers and whatnot.
Alek:
What is your creative process like—from the creation of the
first ideas for a project all the way through to the finished product?
Ben: I tend to really dive into projects. I establish a color scheme and a general style first, and then just start putting together an interface. I usually go through 4 or 5 before I find one I really like; with my own site, I actually had an entirely different site that was 75% done that I scratched because it just didn't feel right. I tend to do the opening segment last, since it's the most important part in my opinion, and the piece I do last is inevitably the piece I do best! Anyway, with client work, I put together a general concept piece with the index page and one section so that the method of navigation is clear, ask for feedback, and make any minor changes necessary. Sometimes, clients don't at all like how I've set something up, and in those cases I just ask them EXACTLY what they want and do it straightforwardly; no use arguing when someone really has his mind set on something. But throughout the design process, my main objective is to have fun. If a project completely lacks fun, I'll talk to the client to try and find a way to spice it up. People don't tend to hire me if they want something really boring.
Alek: How did you get started in the web/graphic design business?
Ben: Well, back in...6th grade (?) I think, I
was a huge fan of Blizzard's classic Diablo. Being 11 years old,
I was also into cheating. And I've always been an Apple fanatic.
So, what'd I do? I released a Mac Diablo cheating page, housing
some of the sAdest HTML ever to grace the Internet. I quickly updated
it when Diablo 2 came out, and it's still online to this day in
all its disgusting glory (http://macdiablo.da.ru -- still hosted
at Angelfire!). One day, a few 
months
later, I stumbled upon the Flash version of the search engine WhatUSeek
(which I'm sure is LONG gone now). I was in awe! I thought to myself,
"That's a website!? Holy ****!" One of my favorite Mac
resource sites at the time, Mac Things (also long gone now), released
a Flash version around the same time...and then I decided I had
to try Flash out. Flash 4 had just come out, and I headed over to
Macromedia's site and downloaded their 30-day unlimited demo. I
had so much fun! I re-designed my Diablo site in Flash, and it was
horrid, but I decided that Flash would be my thing, and I convinced
my parents to buy the full version. A few months later, I re-did
that Diablo site, and it was much better, and a few months after
that I released WebFeats v1. At that point I had discovered Flashkit,
which was then at its peak, and the people on the forums were very
supportive. My first few clients came from family connections, and
from there I started to get my first few "cool sites"
postings. The clients then started rolling in...and look where I
am now!
Alek: What formal training have you had in art/design and software? If little or none, what motivated you to learn it yourself (at such a young age)?
Ben: I've had very little formal training in art or software. I took a painting class for a few years in elementary school, and I think that's all. I taught myself Flash, Photoshop, and Fireworks, and really had fun doing it. What motivated me to learn it all? Well, Flash is awesome! I kept seeing cooler and cooler sites, and had a dream to someday be as good as all those guys up there winning all those awards. But were it not for the amount of fun I have designing, I never would have taught myself nearly so much. I saw that I had a talent, that it was fun, and it even PAID well, and I realized...why not!?
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