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Marc Steinruck Interview

Dec 6, 09:10 PM by Marko

Marc Steinruck Interview


Interview with Mark Steinruck at steinruckdesign.com
Marko: Heya Mark !
Mark: Heya Marko!

Marko: For our reader’s could you tell something about yourself? (year old and other stuff)
Mark: How old I am? Yikes! I’ll turn 31 in December. That only really scares me when I think about it,
so thanks for bringing it up. I live outside Washington D.C. with my wife and two kids (boy and a girl).
Our house is a bit of a circus at times, but we have a great time and love every minute of it.

Marko: How are you doing these days?
Mark: Can’t complain.

Marko: When did you first encounter a keyboard or computer?
Mark: My dad taught computer science when I was a kid, so we had computers in the house for most of my
childhood. I really only knew how to use our Commodore 64 to play PONG (or something like it).
In high school I had a journalism teacher that gave me my first real introduction to computers.
I hated them. I just wanted to be a writer. That all changed.

Marko: What is your favorite art work /website!?

Mark: Wow, where do I begin? It’s hard to narrow it down to just one site. I love the work of Portland Studios
, Pixelgrazer , and of course the masterful
Jon Hicks. I really love all types of design. If
it inspires me, I’ll be looking at it.

Marko: when you launched steinruckdesign.com, were you happy with the result of the site?

Mark: I was happy when it launched. It’s getting a little old now. When I designed the site I was
working for a company that mostly did work with the U.S. Army, so the first design I did
was primarily blue and green. I scraped that entire design and decided to see what brown could do for
me. I designed and coded the current version of the site in one week-Sunday to Sunday. I have a very
gracious wife.

Marko: What do you do in your spare time (I do realize that spare time, in this context, is pretty relative)?
Mark: Spend time with my wife and kids. I work hard so that I have more time with them.

Marko: Do you have a favorite drink? How much of it do you drink?

Mark: Diet Cherry Coke. I’m an addict. I tried to back off a little when the nervous tick started from the caffeine.
I still have one or two a day.

Marko: Would you care to give us a brief overview of what a typical day is like for Mark Steinruck?
Mark: Get up at 6:30am to spend some time with God. Help my wife get the kids up, dressed and fed. Head off to work
and spend the day doing a little design and coding. Come home around 5ish and play with my kids.
Put the kids to bed and hang out with my wife just talking or watching our favorite shows on
TV (if football isn’t on that is).

Marko: I am always wondering how people such as yourself go about getting work? How do you do it?

Mark: So far it’s been word of mouth. I’ve never really gone after work. That might all change soon
as I’m taking the leap into freelance full-time starting Jan 1, 2006. So I might have a different
answer when that happens.

Marko: Who are some of your biggest influences?

Mark: Personally and professionally: God, my wife, my parents, my brother, friends who I’ve worked with, and
many of the great designers whose work I draw inspiration from every day.

Marko: Is your background in design? What was the progression into web development and design like? How did that take place and why?

Mark: I never anticipated that this would be my passion. I went to college and studied toward a journalism degree.
While I was there a good friend of mine emailed me one summer telling me about how he was able to
write something called HTML (whatever that was) and graphics showed up in a web browser called Netscape. It was amazing
and I was hooked immediately. We both ended up working at the same web development firm after college
and I’ve been in love with design and primarily web design ever since.

Marko: If you where not a designer/programmer what would you be?

Mark: An industrial designer. I think that job would be fascinating. I love looking at the stuff that places like
IDEO make.

Marko: How do you like our site mcville.net?
Mark: Not to shabby! A little to much scripty font for my taste though.

Marko: O it’s really that bad? :)
Mark: Nah! Rock on.

Marko: What kind of music do you fancy?
Mark: Anything but country. My library is primarily filled with alternative Christian bands.

Marko: What’s your favorite food?

Mark: Pizza with every kind of meat on it.

Marko: Where do you get out on Saturday’s?
Mark: I have two children…what is this concept of going out on Saturday that you’re talking about? :)


some relaxing question to follow

Marko: Chinese or Thai (food)?

Mark: Chinese (General Tso’s Chicken)

Marko: Coke or Pepsi?
Mark: Coke, Coke, and more Coke.

Marko: html or css?
Mark: Both as long as it’s clean.

Do you watch television?
Mark: Heck yes!

Marko: If so, do you have a favorite show?
Mark: Absolutely. I’m into 24 and The Apprentice and as much football as I can watch until the sad day that the season ends.

Marko: What would we find in your favorites bookmarks-bar?

Mark: Links to Stylegala, Netdiver, Couchfort.net and a about a thousand other sites that I frequent.

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

Mark: Nature and magazines. I used to think that looking at designs in print couldn’t influence my web design
in a positive way. Then I realized that my best designs came out of inspiration drawn from print.
So I just started stockpiling books and magazines for inspiration.

Marko: Thank again for having this interview, cheers m8!
Mark: Thanks for thinking that I’m interesting enough to interview.

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