Name: Derek Moore
Title: Web Artist and Co-Founder of Simplify Advance
Website: http://dereksmoore.com
Location: Chicago, IL
Tell us about your educational/professional background.
I am self-taught. When I was 16-years-old, I created my first website. I continued to make a few more, coding everything by hand. Eventually I started to get paid for the work I was doing. Now I get paid for all of my work or at least I’d like to think that’s the case.
Tell us about your current job.
Currently I am running my own shop called Simplify Advance. We make custom web applications for people with great ideas. We also make our own ideas come to life. You can check out http://beanvsleaf.com and http://makeapeep.com, two fun foundation apps that instigated the birth of Simplify Advance.
What does a typical day look like for you?
I like to get to my studio early-ish and check my email. If I’m lucky, I will get some time to read through blogs. After that I get right into the tasks at hand for the day. I might be working on a logo, designing an interface, or writing some code to pull the view together, and I love doing it.
What kinds of documents do you produce?
I make websites.
What communication skills are needed for your job?
First off and most importantly, I need to be able to shoot out kick-ass emails on a daily basis. Secondly, phone conversations. I try to keep status updates to five minutes max and have been working on perfecting extremely concise phone conversations.
How did you prepare for your job?
When I was younger, I played with LEGOs all of the time. Instead of reading comic books, I would make my own. I wrote music, made movies, and took photos. I have always had a passion for creating things and eventually I landed on the web as my money-making creative outlet.
List three of your favorite professional resources/references/tools and tell us why they’re your favorite.
Trizel Business Tips – Trizel has kick-ass business wisdom and they are extremely clear and to the point about it. Some days I think they are in my head from the day before because of how on they are with their tips.
Color Schemer Studio – I’m colorblind, so I have to work in hex codes to understand colors…just kidding! I am not as much of a color pro as I would like to be and Color Schemer studio makes create color palettes a breeze. Not to mention you can even send your color palettes to Photoshop. Neat, eh?
My FontBook – I am a Mac guy and I love Font Book for installing and managing my fonts, but sometimes Font Book is too slow and previewing fonts with the text I want to use can be cumbersome. My FontBook is fast and makes previewing text for font choice easy.
How do you stay up to date in your field?
I read zillions of blogs, lots and lots of books, surf the web like a pro, and follow the ‘right’ people on Twitter and go to as many relevant events as possible to stay on top of my game.
How would you define professional writing?
I’m not entirely sure how to respond to this question. I am generally grossed out by corporate BS and try to be clear and straightforward when I communicate with clients. Simply put, I would define professional writing as writing that you get paid for or will eventually bring you in work.
Do you have any tips to share with other professional writers/editors/designers?
The biggest piece of advice I can pass along to any creative person is to never ever stop creating and never stop looking for new outlets to create in. Keep loving what you do!
Tags: In the Workplace, web design
[...] The biggest piece of advice I can pass along to any creative person is to never ever stop creating and never stop looking for new outlets to create in. Keep loving what you do! Derek Moore | Web Artist and Co-Founder of Simplify Advance [...]