Valerio Proietti Interview
Nov 14, 06:35 PM by Marko
Interview with Valerio Proietti at mad4milk.net
Marko: Hello Valerio !
Valerio: Hello Marko, how are you?
Marko: Fine tnx 4 asking m8
Marko: For our reader’s could you tell something about yourself? (year old and other stuff)
Valerio: I’m 23 years old and I live in Rome (Italy). I’m beginning to lose my hair and getting fat.
Marko: How are you doing these days?
Valerio: Pretty bad, thanks. the BETA of Mooflex (our CMS) is behind the doors, and I feel really stressed. There are still a lot of things to do, but I’m happy it’s coming out really good.
Marko: When did you first encounter a keyboard or computer?
Valerio: When I was about 8 years old my mother bought a zx spectrum. I used to play silly games half of the day (the other half I was waiting for tapes to load) and my mother had to use brutal force to make me leave the tv screen.
Some years later she bought a personal computer. It was a beautiful 386, and she protected it with a password. I had to learn programming to clone the password screen and make her type the password in my very first app. She gave up trying to stop me, and since then I’m in front of a monitor.
By the way, I noticed many other webdesigner’s first love was a spectrum. Maybe there’s a connection between Sinclair and webdesign?
Marko: What is your favorite art work /website!?
Valerio: I guess my very favorites are the works of Simone Legno (www.tokidoki.it , www.designergokko.it). I find it exceptional. And not just for the girls, I swear.
Marko: when you launched mad4milk.net are you happy with the result of the site?
Valerio: Happy? With our stuff?? Well, sort of. Me and Giorgio (my pal at mad4milk) have worked a lot on this one. But I’m never completely happy. I found out though that adding and fixing stuff here and there from day to day is a more productive way to deal with our own work.
Marko: What do you do in your spare time (I do realize that spare time, in this context, is pretty relative)?
Valerio: I watch tv, and play tons of homebrew games on my modded xbox. Sometimes at mad4milk, when we’re too stressed, we setup a nice DOOM2 deathmatch. A couple of days at week I practice with my band, and sometimes we go out and get drunk.
Marko: Do you have a favorite drink? How much of it do you drink?
Valerio: Milk(!), and I drink a lot of it. But it has to be cold. Lately, I found myself adding loads of coffee. No sugar, please.
Marko: Would you care to give us a brief overview of what a typical day is like for Valerio?
Valerio: There’s no typical day for Valerio, I guess. Sometimes I wake up at 7 in the morning, the day after I might wake up at midnight.
I start working, drink milk, work work, css, drink milk, work, mooflex, work, javascript, drink milk, eat something, css, drink milk, html, work, watch tv, play Quake2, work, mooflex and drink milk.
Take a random wakeup-hour, a random gotobed-hour shuffle all this and you get a possible day.
Marko: I am always wondering how people such as yourself go about getting work? How do you do it?
Valerio: We started something like three years ago with mad4milk, and we began with recommendations only. Our first job was a full shopping cart application for a ridi.culo.us amount of money. Then our site gained some visibility, and we started getting work from our contact form. Lately, lots of good projects come from there. God bless contact forms.
Marko: Who are some of your biggest influences?
Valerio: Hard one. I starded using css layouts after reading the great articles at mezzoblue.com, and after cssZenGarden came out. So I guess Mr. Shea was a big influence for me and my work. I also love the work of Ryan Sims, I’ll never forget www.justwatchthesky.com.
Marko: Is your background in design? What was the progression into web development and design like? How did that take place and why?
Valerio: Not really in design. But I was quite good at drawing cartoony stuff since I was 3. I’ve learned everything I know either from books or from the internet (internet is beautiful, isn’t it?).
When I was 19 I used to work for an IT company (MS related stuff, so I better not tell you their name, or they’ll chase me till death), and was not quite happy with my job there. They had (and still have!) a sucky website, so I started working on it and getting it better (much better, believe me). I showed them my work, and when they preferred the old one I just left and started mad4milk(.com, the tables one) with my long time friend Giorgio. I hope they go bankrupt now.
Marko: If you where not a designer/programmer what would you be?
Valerio: A musician! Go visit www.relationworkrock.com.
Marko: How do you like our site mcville.net?
Valerio: It’s not that bad. I just don’t really like the navigation. I think you should have used moo.fx :D
Marko: What kind of music do you fancy?
Valerio: Soft rock and pop corn. With a touch of melodramatic sweet tenderness.
Marko: What’s your favorite food?
Valerio: Well, since I don’t eat meat (yes, I’m a veggie) I have to like everything else. Just gimme something and I’ll eat it.
If I have to do the trem.endo.us job to choose my food, well, I choose Pizza (margherita), so I don’t have to cook that myself.
Marko: Where do you get out on Saturday’s?
Valerio: Get out?? No way. I watch startrek (yes, I’m a trekkie) lying on my bed on saturdays.
Hovever, on most fridays, I go watch local bands play and make fun of them.
some relaxing question to follow
Marko: Chinese or Thai (food)?
Valerio: Italian
Marko: Coke or Pepsi?
Valerio: Bud
Marko: html or asp?
Valerio: php
Marko: Do you watch television? If so, do you have a favorite show?
Valerio: My favorite show ever is Star trek (again, I’m a trekkie). But since I’ve watched almost all episodes of any possible variation, I enjoy watching Six feet under and Carnivale these days.
Marko: What would we find in your favorites bookmarks-bar?
Valerio: Tons of javascript related content. Loads of design related bookmarks. Lots of programming related links. An unbelievable high number of Bizarre/strange/odd stuff, and a Megatonic number of sites that probably doesn’t exist anymore.
Marko: What inspires you? This doesn’t have to be design related.
Valerio: Good Music, definitely. It doesn’t have to be some genre in particular. Any good song will do the job.
Marko: Thank again for having this interview, cheers m8!
Valerio: Thank you Marko! I guess I’ll go clean my firefox bookmarks now.
Nikita Kashner Hello world!
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a very smart guy…
good 3kb job
“Marko: html or asp?”
thats a dumb question, there is no way to compare, they are completely different…
yeah valerio is a cool geeky guy….not like other developers i have read of….!!
@hmm… yeah it was indeed a very dumb question!
Valerio RoX!