Continuing our theme of interviews, I thought it would be an intresting idea to get a recognised and established designer on the site, sheding some light on the contrast between coders and designers; coming up with some pretty good conclusions. So I was looking through my twitter list (yes, again) and I found Grace Smith. I remember about 7 months ago, Grace started following me and we had a little chat over @replies, not much else. As I ramped up the requests for interviews, I sent Grace one and she happily said yes. Grace has been amazing to work with and has kept me up to date on the status of the interview unlike some *cough cough* others.

First of all, Could you lead us through a brief history of your life? Where you live, what you do?

Well, I’m a 25 year old gal from Northern Ireland. I grew up with a love of art and drawing, along with a real interest in technology. In fact I remember spending hours on MacPaint on my dad's original Macintosh in the late 80's.

I went to university and studied for a degree in Multimedia Design, which covered a wide variety of interactive design and technologies. I graduated nearly four years ago and shortly after started work as a graphic designer for a local company. Concentrating so much on print work made me miss working on web projects, so after a year I started to freelance in my spare time and build up both my contacts and portfolio. I now freelance though I still have a contract with the print company which fits into my freelancing schedule, as I enjoy working within both the web and print industries.

How did you get started out on the web and what inspired you to get into coding?

My web design knowledge before University was close to zero, I I actually remember spending a lot of time learning HTML in my first few weeks! At university we were exposed to so many technologies in the first two years (like javascript/asp/php etc) that were all so new to me, it really ignited my passion for building websites and learning new languages.

What languages do you code and which one do you think is more 1. powerful, 2. simple and 3. you enjoy more?

I am a front end developer so my main languages are; (X)HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Ajax, jQuery and splashes of PHP.

Most Powerful: CSS drives the look and feel of a site so personally I feel its extremely powerful. With the new features in the upcoming CSS3 specification, such as advanced selectors, multiple background images, opacity, drop shadows etc its going to allow even more creative use of CSS.

Simple: (X)HTML - Its the foundation of any website and HTML was the first language I learnt. Its like an old friend now

Favourite - Im a web standards geek so it has to be CSS. I never tire of working and experimenting with it.

What sites you use for inspiration and do you recommend any to our readers?

A quick rundown of my personal favourites would be:

For sound programming advice and a great source of tech commentary I recommend Coding Horror at: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog

NetTuts is an excellent resource: http://nettuts.com, with some great tutorials, tips and screencasts, its a must bookmark.

For CSS its tough to find a better place to learn new techniques than http://css-tricks.com by Chris Coyier and CSS Play by Stu Nicholl's: http://www.cssplay.co.uk

For inspiration im finding Photography and in particular Flickr groups more and more inspiring. Especially those on typography and grids such as: http://www.flickr.com/groups/thegridsystem/pool/

Elsewhere sites like Web Designer Wall:
http://www.webdesignerwall.com/, Smashing Magazine: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/ and Noupe: http://www.noupe.com/ are all great for keeping up to date on trends and finding inspiration.

Do you have any other hobbies? if so what are they and why do you enjoy them?

Yes I like to step away from my mac now and again My main interests centre around art, music, movies and photography. Although im very partial to some serious Mario Kart action on the wii

Do you run a PC, or a Mac, why?

Well I was always a PC gal. However two years ago I tired of my clunky and ever slowing PC and bought a 20' iMac which then turned into a love affair with apple

It has made work much more enjoyable and productive and when your running your own business those two things cannot be underestimated. Although I still have my PC to perform additional browser testing.

What software couldn’t you live without and could you name 3 reasons?

Adobe Photoshop CS4, reasons being:

1. Photoshop has been my image editor of choice for as long as I can remember, so familiarity and ease with it has to be the number one reason.
2. With CS4 the new photo editing workflow, printing options and the kick-ass Content-Aware scale, together with its fantastic 'standard' features and tools make it for me the most powerful image application.
3. I may be a geek in saying this but I actually enjoy firing up Photoshop and going from a blank canvas to fully fledged design, its the tool I use most and even after years of using it I am constantly learning new ways to improve my process and methods.

What’s the program you use to code in? What is so good about it?

Coda - As it integrates everything that I need; namely a code editor, css editor, preview pane, SSH Terminal, website management and an FTP client. The interface is not only beautiful but very clear and easy to use. I could live without it but I wouldnt want to ;-p

When you first started out, how did you promote yourself? If at all?

I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve had to do very little marketing. I submitted my portfolio site to the main CSS galleries when I released it in March 2007 which sent a lot of traffic to the site which in turn lead to enquiries and from this I started to develop an international client base (mainly USA).

I built on this by becoming involved in the web community by reading and commenting on blogs within my niche and tried to develop my brand within the community. I now attend networking events and conferences such as Barcamp, FOWA, Bizcamp etc and have been interviewed on several sites and podcasts.

Next on the agenda is to dedicate some time to building a blog and writing on a regular basis (about time I know!)

What was the first coding job you ever got?

It was for a local business and was a simple 3 page brochure site. Although the first website I built was in my first year at uni and was completely made in tables with a blue background and white text, its pretty hard to forget!

Finally, Where can we find you on the web, Be that your twitter, portfolio or other?

Portfolio: http://www.postscript5.co.uk
Twitter: @gracesmith
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/gracesmith
Stumbleupon: http://postscript5.stumbleupon.com/
Delicious: http://delicious.com/postscript5
Lifestream: http://www.gracesmith.co.uk

What is your favourite interview so far? Who's do you prefer? (A designers or a coders?) Leave your thoughts in the comments below and be sure to sound off your answer!