5 Questions with… Jonathan Snook

Jonathan is a prolific author, who writes regularly at his popular blog snook.ca, his column at Digital Web Magazine and for other technical publications, such as Sitepoint. He’s also coauthored two acclaimed books: Accelerated DOM Scripting with Ajax, APIs, and Libraries, and the approachable, widely-read The Art and Science of CSS.

We hope you enjoy our new series!

1 – With your redesign hitting the web the week of Jan 19, 2009, we’d like to know how you came up with the design. Where did you get the inspiration for it?

I touched on my inspiration a bit in my launch post. It started with a design I had put together for my Twitter app, Snitter, but going back even further, my inspiration came from seeing all the retro sites coming out. I took the idea and ran with it. It still took a few iterations to get where it is. My designs tend to be very simple in the beginning and then I slowly build texture into it. This was more evident in the last design with more visual flourish that existed within the design. The current design still needs some work and I’ve already been tweaking things when I have time. The header has more depth, the portfolio page has been revamped, and then I need to get the comments up to snuff. Design is an evolution as you see things that work and don’t work. My site is an evolution.

Snitter

2 – What three pieces of software do you use most on an everyday basis?

Mail.app, Firefox and Textmate. I’d expand on those but that seems self-explanatory.

3 – What does a day in the life of Johnathan Snook look like? And how many hours a week would you estimate you work?

My days are a blend of different tasks, some of it on personal work, some of it on professional work. That makes it hard to determine how many hours I actually “work” as a freelancer. Suffice it to say, I’m in front of the computer more often than I’m not. I should probably get out more!

Jonathan Snook

4 – Do you get a lot of offers from big companies to work for them (as in, as employee)?

Not specifically. I’ve certainly gotten requests from recruiters over the years but they’re usually turned down before the interview process has even begun. Since freelance has been going reasonably well, it’d have to be a heck of an offer for me to even begin to think about leaving the world of freelance.

5 – What piece of advice could you give to someone just beginning their career in web design/development that may help them succeed in this industry?

It’s all about passion and wanting to learn. I don’t believe that it comes naturally. I’m sure it does for some, but it doesn’t for me. I’m self-taught and I’ve learned all that I have over a long period of time. I learn it because it helps me understand all the pieces to the puzzle. I’ll poke around code, try and duplicate a feature in another language, I’ll do anything to get something to work or I’ll learn trying. It’s not about money, it’s not about fame. In the end, I’m just happy to get to do what I do.

Sidebar Creative

Bonus Question – This is an easy one. PC or Mac?

I’m all about the best tool for the job. I had been a Windows user since Windows 95 but after seeing the new MacBook Pros launch late last year, the pricing was right and I decided to take the leap. I’ve been very satisfied as it has really helped me simplify my workflow into a single machine. I run multiple domains locally for development, have access to Subversion or Git, can run multiple versions of Windows using VMware Fusion for testing. I like having everything all on one machine. There are also plenty of usable features on this machine that has made it more enjoyable to use than my old Toshiba but that has more to do with the quality of laptop design than it does the operating system. So, all that to say: Mac. Definitely, Mac.

5 Comments on "5 Questions with… Jonathan Snook"

  1. Jack F says:

    Enjoyed the interview, nice one TWS.

  2. cssProdigy says:

    Jonathan Snook is awesome, it’s great to hear some of his thoughts.

  3. Japh says:

    Great interview! Thanks, Jonathon. Looking forward to more in the series :D

  4. @all – Glad you guys are liking this first in the series. We have another one that will be posted on Friday so stay tuned ;)

  5. WelshStew says:

    K, as always great work.
    Question 5 is a fantastic one.
    Cheers,
    Stew

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