Simon James (esjay)
http://www.esj.com.au Biography
I am a 25 year old designer, born in South Africa, living in and loving Sydney Australia.. Aside from my love for design i enjoy a mixture of BMX and Drifting to up the adrenalin.
Got my start in the creative world from my mum. She used to take me to her architectural firm when i was a baby, and to keep me occupied gave me pencils and paper to stay out of her hair - i'd draw quietly all day. All through school i only ever cared about drawing and graffiti, never paid any attention to anything else. Design was a natural progression and it's what i love.
Where do you work? What do you do there?
Working at Liquid Protocol in Sydney as part of a small but effective team. We do web work predominantly, but will take on just about anything...
How long have you been in this field?
Since early 2004, first job was a 6 month stint in working in Germany... drinking and eating sausages..
What role did (are) you play(ing) in the project?
The project is all mine! just random things i've designed for my own enjoyment in my spare time. I like to keep myself busy even when i don't have any freelance work on the go - over time it ends up being enough stuff to fill a new folio site...
What was (is) your inspiration for this project?
Hard to say. Feels like the whole 'personal folio' thing i do has been more of a natural progression than any direct inspiration.. but if i could name anything it'd probably be the first Semi-Perminant conference... blew my mind how talented some of the speakers where - really upped my motivation to keep doing my own personal stuff.
What is in your equipment/gear setup?
Mac + CS3
What are some websites you visit daily?
http://www.ntmy.org
http://www.cpluv.com
http://www.joshspear.com
http://www.uncrate.com
http://www.highsnobiety.com
Who's work do you most enjoy?
Jim and Jimbo Phillips old skate art is high on the list...
but as far as designers go i'd say guys like Demo Design (
http://www.demo-design.com), Rinzen (
http://www.rinzen.com/), no pattern (
http://www.nopattern.com/) also love anyone who can put together nice character designs, SuperDuex (
http://www.superdeux.com/) and Hello Freaks (
http://www.hellofreaks.com) are just a couple...
What advice can you share to people just getting into this field?
Have a fun side to balance the work side - have a personal website for you to muck about on.
Any other comments?
not really, thanks!
A few links that inspired
esjay is nice:
