mcville: Nathan Pitman Interview

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Nathan Pitman Interview

Jul 10, 07:38 PM by Marko

Interivew with Nathan Pitman of nathanpitman.com

Marko: Hello Nathan !
Nathan: Hi there Marko.

Marko: For our reader’s could you tell something about yourself? (year old and other stuff)
Nathan: I’m 29 years young and live here in the UK with my wife Jo and our two addorable little girls; Neve & Isla. We’re expecting a third little person sometime in November.

Marko: How are you doing these days?
Nathan: Very well thanks. Life is hectic but heading very much in the direction I want it too.

Marko: When did you first encounter a keyboard or computer?
Nathan: My first encounter with a computer would have been way back when I was still at primary school. My dad had a IBM ‘luggable’ which had a tiny 4 or 5 inch ‘green on black’ display and weighed a ton. There were no graphical games, just text based adventures, which were great!

Marko: What is your favorite art work /website!?
Nathan: That’s quite a difficult question to answer really, I don’t think I could say that I have a favourite website or piece of artwork although I’ve always admired contemporary architecture such as the Telefonica Communications Tower in Barcelona.

Marko: When you launched nathanpitman.com are you happy with the result of the site?
Nathan: My personal website originally started as a portfolio piece which I reffered potential employees and recruitment agencies to but over time I abandoned all the other domains I had collected for personal stuff and decided that the approach of using my ‘name domain’ for my journal/blog would be most beneficial since it would help to build my brand and focus my attention. The website has evolved quite a bit over time and I’m still not really happy with it, but it’s difficult to find time to commit to it these days.

Marko: What do you do in your spare time (We realize that spare time, in this context)
Nathan: Spare time, you really think I have any??? In the average working week there are only really a few small slices of time which I’d call spare. In addition to the 9-5 I also work evenings Monday through to Thursday. Once the kids are in bed I relax downstairs wth the missus for an hour or two before heading back up to the office.

Marko: Do you have a favorite drink? How much of it do you drink?
Nathan: Coffee would have to be my favourite ‘non alchoholic’ drink, I consume 3 or 4 cups most days. If you’re talking about drinks of the intoxicating kind then it has to be a Guiness.

Marko: Would you care to give us a brief overview of what a typical day is like for you ?
Nathan: I’m usually up somewhere between 6 and 7am depending on how generous my little girls are feeling. I start work at 9am, my commute up the stairs is 20 to 30 secs, a little longer if I encounter traffic on the landing. Most days it’s clear and I arrive in the office with relative ease and a distinct lack of stress. Other days I may step on a small childs toy and curse my way up the final flight of stairs.

I usually spend the first 30 – 40 minutes of the day responding to email and getting things in order for the day ahead. The rest of the day is (ideally) commited to doing some actual work. I join the family for lunch at 12 and finish up in the office at 5pm.

Marko: I am always wondering how people such as yourself go about getting work? How do you do it?
Nathan: Word of mouth and reputation seem to be my greatest alys at the moment. The majority of our business at Nine Four is through referals from existing clients.

I did have plans for some kind of formal marketing when I started the business last year but nothing ever came to fruition. I do have plans to finish work on our own website in the near future, hopefully this will help to build on the visibility of our brand and generate further leads.

Marko: Who are some of your biggest influences?
Nathan: Brody, Stark, the Attik... Although I can’t say that I draw upon my creative influences in a very visible manner. When I was at college I used to spend a lot more time absorbing what was going on elsewhere in the creative industry, I feel that right now I’m a little distanced from that, this is something I want to change.

Marko: Is your background in design? What was the progression into web development and design like?
Nathan: I originally trained to become a product designer, studying 3 dimensional design for 2 years and specialising in product design for another 2. The progression from 3d designer to web designer is actually said to be a very common path. The founders of ‘deepend’ back in the 90’s were both trained product designers (but then they did go bust after becoming hugely successful). As a 3 dimensional designer you focus on the physical interface, how a user interacts with a product in more than 1 dimension. Perhaps it’s not obvious, but there are a lot of paralells between 3 dimensional design and web/interactive design. I think that my education in 3 dimensional design prepared me well for being able to look beyond the concept of ‘pages’ and embrace the challenges that you face as a web designer.

Marko: If you where not a designer/programmer what would you be?
Nathan: A racing driver perhaps. I love driving, and I love sports cars.

Marko: How do you like our site mcville.net?
Nathan: Sorry but I’m not a big fan of the ‘tyre tread’ borders, ditch them and open it up left and right with a bit of white space and I’d be happy, I’m very much into ‘less is more’. :)

Marko: If you could change something on mcville what would it be?
Nathan: Ditch the ‘tyre treads’. :)

Marko: What kind of music do you fancy?
Nathan: My music tastes are pretty broad, back in my college days I was a big fan of bands like The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Orbital, Underworld etc. More recently I tend to listen to more chilled out tracks; Air, Zero 7 etc, the new Keane album is rather tasty too.

Marko: What’s your favorite food?
Nathan: Chicken Korma, Pilau Rice and Peshwari Naan please.

Marko: Where do you get out on Saturday’s?
Nathan: Er, well, if you mean in the evenings, to be honest I don’t get out much. The last time I did was for an old work reunion. Most Saturdays Jo and I just relax together at home with a beer, a takeaway and a film. We have small children. We don’t have a social lives. ;)

Some relaxing question to follow

Marko: Chinese or Thai (food)?
Nathan: Chinese.

Marko: Coke or Pepsi?
Nathan: Coke, Pepsi just turns to bubbles. That being said, I don’t really do fizzy drinks. They eat into my teeth on contact, for some reason I have very little enamel to protect them.

Marko: HTML or CSS? :D
Nathan: You mean ‘XHTML’ or CSS right… um … can I say both?

Marko: Do you watch television? If so, do you have a favorite show?
Nathan: Yes, does anyone really honestly answer no? My favourite show of the moment has to be Lost. I just finished watching season 2.

Marko:What OS do you use and what browser?
Nathan: Windows XP Pro and Mozilla Firefox.

Marko: What would we find in your favorites bookmarks-bar?
Nathan: I don’t really use favourites as such, I have a delicious account which you can peruse but my most regular reads are in my RSS reader (Sage). I could list them all but there’s far too many, and I’m far too lazy.

Marko: What inspires you? This doesn’t have to be design related.
Nathan: My children, my wife and the obscure and ridiculous business ideas I have late at night.

Marko: Thank you for having this interview m8 ,cya!
Nathan: No worries, nice to talk. Take care Marko.

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Nathan Pitman Interview

Jul 10, 07:38 PM by Marko