[interview] Liu Huan from DecayedWood

Full name: Liu Huan
Gender: man
Age: 23
Location: Shanghai ,China
Occupation: Postgraduate in East China Normal University
Interests: Chinese literature,guitar,PC game like CS,Hero 3
Website: http://www.liuhuan.com
Email: decayedwood@decayedwood.com

Q. For those who don't know you, who are you and what do you do?
My name is Liu Huan.I'm Chinese and I was born in Sichuan in western China.I've lived in Shanghai for about 6 years and now I'm a postgraduate of bio dept in East China Normal University studying cell biology.

Q. When did you first start working in Design?
First started in the end of 2000.

Q. What did you do before that?
Then I was a student in ECNU,seldom surf the web.

Q. What's your software of choice(most commonly used programs when creating
sites\graphics)?
Photoshop and Flash!

Q. What's your (design) literature of choice (your bookshelf)?
I usually read tut online and there were some useful design books for me .However, they were all in Chinese.

Q. What are you reading at the moment(doesn't need to be design related)?
National Geography.

Q. Do you remember the first website you created? What was it like?
That was a website created by Microsoft Word.*^_^*.There was just a picture of guitar on it which was modified by photoshop.

Q. If you weren't a web\graphic designer what other profession would you like to
have worked in?
Work in the goverment...

Q. Who are your career role models?
My best friend and teacher whose name is "laolu".Maybe you don't know him...

Q. Who is your all time favourite designer and why?
Laolu http://www.shangzhoudesign.cn

[b]Q. What are your 3 favourite design resources?
Cool Photoshop Brush,texture and flash components

Q. Where is you favourite design community(forum)?
Fmx and Dqs,also many Chinese design forum like Chinadu http://www.chinadu.org/vbb

Q. What is your all time favourite website and why?
2advanced. I love it for times.

Q. What do you prefer to work on? Websites, pixel art, illustrations, identity
or presentations, other(?)?
Websites and flash projects.

Q. Which languages or technologies interests you the most at the moment?
ASP

Q. Your favourite web browser?
IE

Q. What for you is the most important aspect of an accessible website?
It must be kind to the viewer and design idea must work for the topic.

Q. Describe a typical work day for you?
Wake up at 8:30 and open my computer,surf some forums and check the email.Then had lunch and sleep for a while. Usually design in the dawn and night.

Q. Which projects you've created are you proudest of and why?
A site about my volunteer life http://www.youth.ecnu.edu.cn/site/zjweb/index.htm .I've served as a postgraduate volunteer in western China in 2003 for a year and that gave me much pain and happy.

Q. How do you know when a design you've created is successful?
The customer is satisfied.

Q. What's your craziest client request?
Put a very big factory map in the site cover.

Q. What project(s) are you working on at the moment?
Now I'm working with a kart project for Shanghai international circuit.

Q. How many samples\mockups would you create for a client on a project(s)?
1,Sometimes 2.

Q. From time to time some designers experience a 'creative block' or a 'lack of
inspiration', what do you do if\when this happens to you?
Usually I look into the problem on how I can't work on and find a way to solve it.

Q. What do you spend your time doing when not designing?
Meet friends:D

Q. Any advice or words of wisdom for people starting out in web\graphic design?
You can be improved if you are interested in it.

Comment: Thank you for taking the time to be interviewed....

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