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Thomas Silkjær Interview

Jun 23, 10:53 AM by Marko

Thomas Silkjær


Interivew with Thomas Silkjær at http://theundersigned.net

Marko: Hello !
Thomas: Hi there :)

Marko: For our reader’s could you tell something about yourself? (year old and other stuff)
Thomas: Sure – I’m 21 years old, married to a wonderful girl, Louise. I work as a graphic designer in Aarhus, Denmark, where I do all kinds of graphic design – mainly book design, company profiling, web design, brochures etc. I am the type of guy that gets an idea, and makes it work, and learns while doing it.

Marko: How are you doing these days?
Thomas: I’m doing great – being accepted for 9rules has been a great boost in my blogging motivation – now I feel it starts paying off, putting hard work into it all. Have lots to do, both on my blog and my webdesignbook.net project.

Marko: When did you first encounter a keyboard or computer?
Thomas: Haha, I believe it was back in 1991 or 1992, a commodore 64. Later a switch to an Olivetti (with 480mb HD, 50Mhz and 4 mb ram) – back then I was afraid of shutting down the computer, in fear of loose the wonderfull circles I had created in MS paint – don’t worry, I do know better now ;)
I switched to the mac platform in November 2003.

Marko: What is your favorite art work /website!?
Thomas: That is a tough question – I don’t have any favourite artists, I just like looking around and is stunned by different artists work. When it comes to art i really like much of the old pop-art.

Marko: When you launched theundersigned.net are you happy with the result of the site?
Thomas: Back then I was mainly focused on having an online portfolio – previously the site was located at undertegnede.com (undertegnede = the undersigned in danish), but wanted to go international. Editing WordPress more and more I started writing a little about it, and before I knew it, I was hooked and now I simply can’t stop blogging.

Since the launch I have changed the design on the site 4-5 times, but only now I am getting really happy with it – switching from fixed to fluid width.

Marko: What do you do in your spare time (We realize that spare time, in this context)
Thomas: Well, I blog ;) – I hang out with my wife and my friends, doing some web designing, free WordPress themes, hanging out on IRC to share thoughts and ideas. Recently I bought my first digital SLR camera, a Canon EOS 350D, so now I am also trying to learn how to take great photos – http://www.flickr.com/photos/theundersigned/.

Marko: Do you have a favorite drink? How much of it do you drink?
Thomas: Coffee! I think us Danes are known by that – our coffee addiction. I easily drink 1-2 litres black gold a day.

Marko: Would you care to give us a brief overview of what a typical day is like for you ?
Thomas: I wake up at 7am, brushes my teeth while I check my e-mail, kisses my wife goodbye and takes the bus to work. I arrive at work 8am, go home from work 4pm and hangs out with my wife, blogs or whatever :)

Marko: I am always wondering how people such as yourself go about getting work? How do you do it?
Thomas: As I have a daytime job, I don’t really do any active sales work – it happens people write to me for a quote, and that is mainly where I get my work.

Marko: Who are some of your biggest influences?
Thomas: I wouldn’t say any people are my biggest influence – I look through some webdesign showcases once in a while, and try to keep up with what is going on, and what’s hot.

Marko: Is your background in design? What was the progression into web development and design like?
Thomas: Yes. I have always loved to look at flyers, posters, books, typography etc, so I feel it has been a very natural process, that I was to be a graphic designer. I have used much time in my life, also my earlier years, on doing design stuff. I made my first website when I was 12, coded in notepad.

Marko: If you where not a designer/programmer what would you be?
Thomas: I think I would like a sales job :)

Marko: How do you like our site mcville.net?
Thomas: It’s a cool concept – always a good read! From a design point of view i would love less images and more whitespace.

Marko: If you could change something on mcville what would it be?
Thomas: Remove the menu hovers, the version number image and the “tyre-borders”.

Marko: What kind of music do you fancy?
Thomas: Everything from classical to heavy, besides dance/techno/trance and that really annoying radio-hit pop.

Marko: What’s your favorite food?
Thomas: I’m a very picky person, so I almost don’t like any food ;) I eat to stay alive.

Marko: Where do you get out on Saturday’s?
Thomas: Mainly hang out at friends apartments etc, but I like going to concerts in places like Voxhall etc.


some relaxing question to follow

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

Marko: Coke or Pepsi?
Thomas: Jolly ;) A danish brand!

Marko: HTML or CSS?
Thomas: Both, but CSS is most fun.

Marko: Do you watch television? If so, do you have a favorite show?
Thomas: Klovn, danish sit-com.

Marko:What OS do you use ?
Thomas: OS X 10.4

Marko: What would we find in your favorites bookmarks-bar?
Thomas: A huge list of web design showcases and a bunch of blogs

Marko: What inspires you? This doesn’t have to be design related.
Thomas: Music!

Marko: Thank you for having this interview m8 ,cheers!
Thomas: Thank you :)

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