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Stuart Frisby Interview

Jan 11, 03:16 PM by Marko

Stuart Frisby Interview


Interview with Stuart Frisby at 36-degrees.co.uk

Marko: Heya Stuart!
Stuart: Hey Marko, happy new year!

Marko: For our reader’s could you tell something about yourself? (year old and other stuff)
Stuart: I’m a web designer, musician and student, I’m 21 later this month and I live in Liverpool where I study Japanese and International Business. I’m originally from Coventry and yesterday I got back from my holiday to find I had something like 7000 spam emails waiting for me, which was nice.

Marko: How are you doing these days?
Stuart: Not too bad, drained after the festive period, but I laid off the booze and turkey this year, so at least I’m not two stone heavier than I was before Christmas.

Marko: When did you first encounter a keyboard or computer?
Stuart: We had this mythical creature in a cupboard at the top of the stairs my Mum used to talk about, an old commodore, and although it didn’t work anymore, that was my first sight of a computer, after that it would have been school where we were blessed with a well equipped IT department. I switched over to apple last year though, and I now own an iMac and an awesome little 12 inch iBook which I just got.

Marko: What is your favorite art work /website!?
Stuart: Wow, thats hard. I have to say I’m not a big art fan, music is more my bag, anything by radiohead will do just fine. As far as websites go, I would only bore you by listing ones I’m sure you already know, orderedlist, snook, ala, joshuaink, etc, etc.

Marko: when you launched 36-degrees.co.uk are you happy with the result of the site?
Stuart: I actually launched 36-degrees.co.uk back around 1997/8 as a music site, and it was ok, I was learning HTML for the first time, and having fun. I had to close that down a few years ago due to time constraints, and since then it’s been my blog/portfolio/dumping ground. I’m never happy with it, my last design has gotten old in the teeth by my own ridiculous standards and a new incarnation(/realign/whatever the cool kids are calling it these days) Should be launching any day now.

Marko: What do you do in your spare time?
Stuart: I’m in an acoustic two piece called ‘Hang up, Call back’ (hangupcallback.36-degrees.co.uk), it’s basically me and one of my flatmates writing and performing songs. We are planning on recording our first EP within the next month or so. I’m also a bit of a gamer, I live with three gameheads, so we play a lot of PSP, Xbox, PS2, even the occasional bout of goldeneye on a dusty old Nintendo 64. Favourite in our flat at the minute is taiko no tatsujin on the PSP, everyone should own it! Other than that, a listen to loads of music, read (Haruki Murakami mainly) and socialize. I am a student after all!

Marko: Do you have a favorite drink? How much of it do you drink?
Stuart: Beer. I don’t really drink spirits or alcopops. I’m a straight down the line, lager drinker. I drink a fair bit, the student lifestyle is perfect in Liverpool! I only really go onto anything stronger once I’ve reached my liquid capacity, by which time I should really be in bed, and not dancing like a fool in some sleazy eighties bar!

Marko: Would you care to give us a brief overview of what a typical day is like for Stuart Frisby?
Stuart: Sure. I usually get up around 8/9am (unless I have early lectures), have a cup of tea and check my emails. Attend a couple of classes, go home, play some Pro Evo Soccer with my flatmate Steve. Lose. Go out for a few beers, and then spend the best part of the night at my computer doing all the usual web type things.

Marko: I am always wondering how people such as yourself go about getting work? How do you do it?
Stuart: Word of mouth mainly. Sometimes you have to go pimping yourself out, but you just have to be confident, it helps when you can bring up a good portfolio of previous work, but I don’t think you have to have been in the industry for ten years to earn good money. The best policy is to always do a good job, then you will find people will keep coming back, will recommend you to other clients, etc.

Marko: Who are some of your biggest influences?
Stuart: In terms of web design, my passion was reignited a couple of years ago when I got into the whole standards movement. People like Dan Cederholm and Dave Shea were big influences, or at least their sites were. My influences though are mainly musical. Bands like Radiohead, Idlewild, Seafood, Placebo and Sigur Ros inspire and influence me much more than any website ever could.

Marko: Is your background in design? What was the progression into web development and design like?
Stuart: No, not at all, I just stumbled into web design, and have stumbled my way through to this point. I haven’t had any formal design education, I think I just have a good sense of what works, and the patience to get things done, which is probably more important than four years of design school!

Marko: If you where not a designer/programmer what would you be?
Stuart: A musician, definitely. Maybe the dream isn’t up yet! I actually intend to move to Japan after my degree and work there, possibly in education, whilst maintaining my interest in web design of course.

Marko: How do you like our site mcville.net?
Stuart: I bet it looks a lot worse with my ugly mug on it, but it’s not too shabby!

Marko: If you could change something on mcville what would it be?
Stuart: I’d take my picture off of it, I have visions of it being used to put people off hotlinking or something equally suitable for such a sight!

Marko: What kind of music do you fancy?
Stuart: Almost anything with guitars! at the minute I’m really getting into stuff like Sigur Ros, Mew and Royksopp. I love Radiohead, Bob Dylan, Idlewild, all the good stuff, but I have pretty eclectic tastes, I’m even partial to some real eighties madness when I’m in the right mood!

Marko: What’s your favorite food?
Stuart: Anything I don’t have to cook. Seriously though, Indian or Chinese, I can’t pick just one!

Marko: Where do you get out on Saturday’s?
Stuart: If I manage to get back to Coventry where my parents live, and where I’m from, I have a season ticket for the local football team, coventry city, though we are pretty useless these days. If I’m in liverpool it’s usually a leisurely stroll into town to do some shopping followed by a visit to the pub!


some relaxing question to follow

Marko: Chinese or Thai (food)?
Stuart: Chinese

Marko: Coke or Pepsi?
Stuart: Coke

Marko: html or css?
Stuart: html

Marko: Do you watch television? If so, do you have a favorite show?
Stuart: Peep show is TV gold, that and Hollyoaks (for different reasons, for those not in the know, go googling!)

Marko: What would we find in your favorites bookmarks-bar?
Stuart: lots of webby type stuff, my own sites, guitar tabs, japanese stuff for uni and some sports sites.

Marko: What inspires you? This doesn’t have to be design related.
Stuart: music, money and beautiful women.

Marko: Thank again for having this interview Stuart ,Cheers!
Stuart: No probs Marko, it’s been good, almost like therapy, I imagine, not that I’ve ever had therapy of course, but if I did, I imagine it would be like this, but without the computer, and with a comfy sofa. See ya!

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