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Is there a method to the madness?

"Everything can be a real pain in the ass to get right. If I thought to myself 'this little bit is going to take all day and no one will even notice' I might not do it... but luckily I never think ahead."

Stone doesn't follow any rules, but rather tries to break as many as possible. He doesn’t care what other people think about his work. "There usually is no 'right' answer," says Stone, "If you can rig that shit up and it looks cool and it runs all right, who cares how sloppy the programming is behind it?" He is always taking risks and is not afraid to make fun of his own work or challenge the current state of the web design industry.

One such example is the "modern" (as opposed to "postmodern") option available on certain parts of one of his sites, amplifier.com. Here suited figures gag the characters as large text appears proclaiming "This is a corporate takeover. The Amplifier investors saw this website and said, 'you can’t do that stuff on the internet…'" If not for the freedom that the internet allows for independent work, most of Stone’s projects would not be here for us to enjoy:

"I think there will always be garbage and there will always be people doing interesting things. Being able to 'self-publish' yourself is wonderful…I can say whatever the fuck I want. Of course my graphics tend to be handsome and my ideas tend to be funny…[but] if as an internet designer you had to go through 'proper channels' many things would never see the light of day."

What's great about Stone’s work and working process is that it is refreshingly haphazard and always experimental, always a learning experience. Stone never settles for the known or easy approach. He’s constantly trying to achieve things in his own new way or to do what others thought could not be done. Whereas most design firms employ all the latest in digital technology and programming expertise, Stone prefers to use only a few programs. "I am honestly only ace with Photoshop, Flash and a sound editing program," he says. He sees working with only these programs—and literally things he finds around his house—as an advantage. "I believe part of the 'solution to the approach' for sofake…has been using these limitations to our benefit. Like a weapon. All of the sites I have worked on are held together by tape and bubblegum"

I find it inspiring that with limited resources and relatively low technology Stone is able to achieve great results by supplementing with an overload of creativity. He mocks other companies who hire models to pose in front of a green screen as they shoot video with $3000 digital cameras, when Stone uses a $40 digital camera to take a picture of his wife, all the while dressed comfortably in his pajamas. "It's almost like some people want you to believe it all has to be very technical," Stone says, "But I’d like to think I punk rock most of the stuff I do. There’s no virtuoso playing, there’s no setlist, and usually there aren’t even any fans. It’s just a jack-ass (or two) jumping up and down on stage, playing what they want to play."

Stone’s instrument of choice is Macromedia Flash (a vector based 2-D animation and programming environment). Giving internet designers nearly unlimited possibilities for interactivity, animation, video and more, Flash provides the tools for designers like Stone to make manifest their wildest ideas. "It’s just software," Stone says, "It just happens to allow you to do whatever you want with it. You can make a movie, a cartoon, a game. I hear you can even make websites with it. So long as it remains a '1,000 ways to skin a cat' program, I think it will rock. If they try and standardize everything and say 'there is only one correct way to do this' then it will suck."

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