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Simon Collison Interview

Nov 2, 12:03 AM by Marko

Simon Collison Interview


Interivew with Simon Collison at agenzia.co.uk / collylogic.com

Marko: Heya Simon !

Simon: Ayup, Marko.

Marko: For our reader’s could you tell something about yourself? (year old and other stuff)
Simon: I’m 32 years old, live in Nottingham, UK, and I once had to kill a rabbit by breaking it’s neck.
Marko: LOL

Marko: How are you doing these days?

Simon: I’m tired, emotional, stressed, grumpy, hungry and want to go home.

Marko: When did you first encounter a keyboard or computer?
Simon: My first computer was a ZX Spectrum when I was 12 years old, but I got bored with it and went out to play instead. I didn’t get another computer until 2000 (a lovely iMac), so I had a lot of catching up to do.

Marko: What is your favorite art work /website!?
Simon: Favourite artwork? Hmm. Anything by Banksy these days. I worked within visual art for years, and until a couple of years ago I would have said something pretentious. Now the only art I care about is music, film, illustrators and good design. That stuff actually has a purpose. Sorry, I’m a bitter “visual” art cynic nowadays. Burn down the galleries!
Favourite website? Crikey. Probably Bearskinrug. It’s perfect in every way. Wish I’d built it.

Marko: when you launched collylogic.com are you happy with the result of the site?
Simon: Yes, because it seemed to become popular overnight – all because of those bloody ticked-off links. To be honest, I’ve never been that happy with it, as I want it to be more personal. Imagine if you could build a control panel for your life, and collate everything you care about in one place. That’s how I’d like it to develop. I’m already scanning in half my life in preparation for this.

Marko: What do you do in your spare time (I do realize that spare time, in this context, is pretty relative)?
Simon: Take deep breaths, worry that I should be working, smoke lots of cigarettes, drink lots of tea. Once I’ve done that I might go out on my bike, climb a mountain, go to a gig, or do my chores before Emma gets cross with me.

Marko: Do you have a favorite drink? How much of it do you drink?
Simon: Beer (the fancy bottled ones like “Speckled Hen” or “Wiggle Waggle”), Coca Cola, Jack Daniels, red wine, lots and lots of tea. I’m drinking an increasing amount of coffee too.

Marko: Would you care to give us a brief overview of what a typical day is like for Simon Collison?
Simon: Wake up late with a small hangover. Kick cat off bed. Get ready in ten minutes flat. Steal girlfriend’s tobacco. Walk to the office as fast as possible. Stick iTunes on. Trawl email. Trawl RSS feeds. Trawl various Mint stats. Trawl million emails from Britpack folks. Swear a lot about clients. Drink tea. Smoke roll-up. Panic about lots of projects. Abruptly put phone down on people. Worry about more projects. Smoke. Tea. Walk home a bit slower. Speak to cat. Speak to girlfriend. Feel guilty about not cooking. Watch The Simpsons. Coffee and roll-up. Stay in and watch obscure satellite channels OR spend all night on the laptop OR go back into Nottingham for booze, music, expensive cab rides. Go to bed watching a nice horror film on the portable. Snore.

Marko: I am always wondering how people such as yourself go about getting work? How do you do it?
Simon: I’m not freelance, so other Agenzians go out in the field selling our wares. That said, we’re lucky in that our work is out there and people tend to contact us now because they’ve seen Poptones or The Libs. From a personal level, I get lots of offers off the back of stuff I’ve done for Burgerman and Black Convoy, or from people who can’t get their head around Expression Engine. I think you just need to display a certain niche or thread through what you do, and the people who like that will find you.

Marko: Who are some of your biggest influences?
Simon: Web-wise? The usual suspects. All my Brit buddies – especially Malarkey, Hicks, Budd (and I should say Oxton, as he’s always nice about me). Yanks like Bowman and Inman are just untouchable really. And Roger “Cooler Than Ice” Johansson needs his own TV series.

Marko: Is your background in design? What was the progression into web development and design like? How did that take place and why?
Simon: No, my background is in art. High-brow, contemporary, modern, pretentious art. I originally bought a Mac to help me produce catalogues and posters for my art shows, but in the end I just cut out the art and started playing with HTML. For two years I slowly built a large art portal – a static site that looked like it was database driven. The founders of Agenzia saw it, liked it, and asked me if I wanted to learn more about building websites. And that was that. Lucky.

Marko: If you where not a designer/programmer what would you be?
Simon: A forest ranger with my own jeep, probably in the Lake District. More likely an artist or illustrator. Maybe I’d just walk the earth dribbling and talking to strangers.

Marko: How do you like our site mcville.net?
Simon: You have too many of those funny badge things in the sidebar – I never understand those things. And your side menu goes mental in Safari. Some of the content is a bit bunched together. Otherwise, it’s white with some blue, and that’s the way I like it. Love the scrawly font. Great interviews.

Marko: What kind of music do you fancy?
Simon: Today it is The Arctic Monkeys. Yesterday it was Elbow. Last week it was RJD2. Next week it’ll probably be The Beatles (again). I like music that is spikey and loud, but well-crafted. Punky, alternative, not too metally or whincy. Sometimes I like music to go “bleep”.

Marko: What’s your favorite food?
Simon: Emma’s chicken marinaded in lime and tarragon. Sweet and Sour Pork (Cantonese style). Yorkshire Puddings. Strawberries.

Marko: Where do you get out on Saturday’s?
Simon: If not a dirty pub that sells real ale, then maybe a gig if I’m lucky. Perhaps a swanky party or a film. To be honest I go out on Friday’s, but that’s not important is it? I’ll go anywhere that hasn’t got drunken meat-heads in cheap shirts trying to beat me up.

some relaxing question to follow

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

Marko: Coke or Pepsi?
Simon: Coke – it’s the real thing. Pepsi is for kids and people who don’t put JD in their pop.

Marko: html or css?
Simon: Both. Was that a trick question?
Marko: heh no :)

Marko: Do you watch television? If so, do you have a favorite show?
Simon: More telly than I used to watch. Obviously The Simpsons, Futurama, Family Guy. Anything about explorers or penguins. I quite like X Factor (where desperate people audition to be a pop star). I know I shouldn’t, but it’s great car-crash TV.

Marko: What would we find in your favorites bookmarks-bar?
Simon: Server tools, Basecamp links, loads of web dev stuff, links to all the sites I’ve helped build, affiliates stuff, lots of music sites, URL shorteners – loads of favelets from Andy Budd’s site.

Marko: What inspires you? This doesn’t have to be design related.
Simon: Bits and pieces from everywhere really: The Beatles, Johnny Cash, Olafur Eliasson (Icelandic/Danish artist), Kevin Cornell, Pete Fowler and my colleagues at Agenzia. I also find waterfalls, cigarettes, trainers (sneakers), mountains, Iceland, alcohol and woodland animals quite inspiring.

Marko: Thank again for having this interview, have a nice day m8!
Simon: Thanks Marko – I’m off for a roll-up and a cup of tea now. It’s been a pleasure.

  1. — John Labriola    Nov 3, 09:02 PM    # Loving the interviews. Boy you keep good company! Keep ‘em coming!
  2. — Marko    Nov 4, 12:37 AM    # hehe thanks John,yeah some great interviews are comming,thanks again for reading mcville-btw. anyone who want’s to donate bandwidth contact me.
  3. — John Labriola    Nov 4, 02:35 PM    # What do you mean about donate more bandwidth? Server bandwidth?
  4. — Marko    Nov 4, 05:34 PM    # Yes indeed we need more server bandwidth !- maybe we will have to change hosting , I’ve asked media tempel for a partnership still didn’t get a awnser :(
  5. — John Labriola    Nov 5, 03:53 AM    # Hmm who is your host? I use eHostPros. They’re pretty cheap, and so far no issues. Unfortunately, I do not have too much bandwidth myself. I am thinking of upgrading their service. Good luck!
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