In their words:

Justin Cline is a web designer and art director from Denver, Colorado in the United States. Justin currently runs a one man design outfit called Ryu Graphix Design Studio. He originally started learning HTML in high school and started designing “real” websites until about 7 years ago. Justin is entirely self taught when it comes to web design by buying books and reading online which allowed him to advance his web design skills.

1. How did you get started in web design?

I got started because of my natural curiosity for how things work. Just like playing with LEGOs I wanted to see how websites worked so, I found online tutorials. I remember learning html by hand in whatever plain text editor was in OS9 – then uploading to a geocities account via my dad’s blazing fast 56k dial-up modem.

2. When did you start designing websites?

I started playing around with html in my earlier high school years, but didn’t start trying to build “real” websites until about 6-7 years ago.

3. What are the biggest challenges that you face in web design currently?

I’d say that trying to create something unique is fairly challenging these days… with all of the galleries and resources, it’s a lot easier to pull in ideas, but it also stifles some of the creativity. Also, learning to enhance my JavaScript (specifically jQuery skills) has been a challenge. I’m definitely wired to the designer side of things, rather than developer.

4. Do you code any of the web sites that you design currently? If so, what language(s) do you code in?

I do… I hand-code XHTML and CSS. Dreamweaver aids in speeding the little things up (like closing tags, formatting, etc.). I also know enough PHP to get by, writing custom functions and seriously hack up a CMS… and enough JavaScript to tweak existing code to my needs.

5. I wanted to ask if and where you studied at college or university, what you studied and ask how has your education helped you become a better web design professional? What other skills has it helped you to gain and what else has it taught you about design in general?

I’m entirely “self taught” — if I wanted to learn something, I read up online or bought books. I lucked out in having both parents with strong artistic background, so I was constantly immersed in art growing up.

I think these days, in web-design especially, that aside from the basics (which you can learn online easily) — by the time a curriculum was developed, it’d be outdated. Technology moves so fast these days that you really need to have the desire to learn and stay “plugged in.”

6. What are your favorite tools to use when designing a web project? Why are they your favorite tools?

I almost always will start with pencil/paper to develop the basic layout and user interface, and then flesh out the various types of pages. The paper is perfect for rapid prototyping and getting your ideas out.

From there I create a basic grey box layout in Photoshop based on a grid and make sure things are still working in a more “real life” form. From there I start adding some colors, imagery and embellishments. Depending on the client/project I fully refine the concept(s) in Photoshop or just enough to get the idea across. I find some projects are better suited jumping into coding early and doing most with CSS, but again it depends.

I use Dreamweaver to speed up the process, but mostly hand-code in there.

7. Do you currently run Ryu Graphix Design Studio? How many people currently work for Ryu Graphix?

Yes I do. Currently I am the only official employee and contract out the work I need done that I can’t handle myself. There may be some exciting developments on this soon though. Mums the word.

8. How do your commitments as an Art Director make you a better designer?

Leading an in-house team has been great; it’s helped force me to step “out” a bit. It’s good having people under me, whom I trust so I don’t have to be the “pixel pusher” but rather director. Our team is small enough though where I still get to do my fair share and step into the projects I want to.

We’re wrapping up the 2nd of some MAJOR Wordpress installs for our buddies over at Cypher13. This collaboration has been a kick-ass experience. They have been handling the stellar design, then turning it over to us to make the designs a reality. We’ve been head-down… slicing/dicing, coding/styling, and generally hacking up Wordpress to do our own evil bidding.

Stay tuned for a post on the launch of these projects in the next few weeks. We’ve missed you real world… hopefully we’ll see you soon - maybe at Artcrank? Cheers!

CALL FOR REFEREES. SUPER AD SUNDAY IS HIRING OFFICIALS.

During the Super Bowl, the real action happens between possessions. Vote on your favorite Super Bowl™ ads through the magic of cell phone text technology. And call fouls on the rest. Join the officiating team at Jackson’s Sky Lounge

Sunday, February 1st | Doors open at 3:30 PM

Jackson’s Sky Lounge (upstairs)
1520 20th St., Denver, CO 80202
 303-298-7625

Tickets:
$20 NDAC Membes–In Advance
$30 Non-members–In Advance
$30 NDAC Members–At the Door
$35 Non-members–At the Door

event info: http://www.newdenveradclub.com

register at: http:// www.regonline.com/63367_692434j

Creative Team:

Photography:
Bryce Boyer

Art Direction:
Jeff Mason, Hero Design Studio
Greg Ryan, Juice Communications
Steve Miller, NetNewsdesk

Copywriting:
Brian Wilkens, The Integer Group

RiNo (River North Art District) seems very cool so far. We’ve really only been dealing with moving and getting everything situated, but we’re hoping to wander around and explore soon. After a look at their site, we can see we’re in some good company. It seems like there are quite a few designers around.

BMGI: Recession Proof Your Business
BMGI: Chief Innovation Officer

The massive event that is the Democratic National Convention is coming to our home in the next week, and we’re trying to get prepared. While we’re all hoping that some of the gossip we’ve heard about the events that may transpire is false, we all know this will be a landmark occasion.

The art community is also getting involved in the upcoming convention. Handfuls of local artists have been prepping for the Manifest Hope show at Andenken Gallery (2990 Larimer Street) that will run Monday, August 25 though Thursday, August 28th.

“Manifest hope will showcase some of the finest modern contemporary artists, acclaimed NY painters and sculptors, activated grass roots and street artists, and present the most widely recognized pieces seen throughout the 2008 presidential primary campaign, as well as newly commissioned works and previous works on loan from some of the United States top artists.”

Whether it’s goign to be the entire spectacle that will be the DNC, or just the Manifest Hope show, we hope that if you are in Denver next week - make a point to show support in some way. Stay safe Denver, and let’s work to gether to make a change.

The big three at Cypher13 have launched their re-designs, and we have to say they look great! Very clean and strait forward, based off of the same frame, but each has some top notch animation…

Justin Cline, Principal/Creative Director here at Ryu Graphix he released his personal site. Head on over to JustinCline.com to check it out. He’s been updating a lot more than we have and you can check out more of our new works over there. At least until we all find time to re-do this main site.

We’ll be heading down there, and hope to see some of you there. It’s at Plus + Gallery (2350 Lawrence Street, Denver). Check out the link below for event details and for registration info. Big bonus too… Rob Angermuller from the JoyEngine crew will be one of the judges.

http://www.aigacolorado.org/eventdetails.aspx?eid=147

We’re very pleased to announce that WDA (WebDesignAwards.com) has awarded the new JoyEngine site an award for being one of the best and most progressive css websites on the web!

Since it’s launch in the last week of December, JE 2.0 has been getting tons of traffic and a lot of great reviews. The JoyEngine crew has been great to work with and their clean, precise layout has made this a very fun project to make a reality.

At the time of writing, the JoyEngine site was up at #1, but please head over and vote for it anyway!