Most of you already know who Sean Hodge is, but for those that don’t, he is the editor for Psdtuts+ as well as Vectortuts+. I will soon be conducting an interview with Sean about running these two blogs and I need your help. So read along about all the details and help us make this
a great interview!
Pose Your Questions in the Comments
Ever wondered how these blogs run? What’s it like behind the scenes? How is content chosen? How long does it take to go from concept to publish ready tutorial? Who makes up the team behind these successful design sites? Or any other burning interests you have on how these Tuts+ blogs run? Submit your questions in the comments? A good selection of these questions will then be answered by our editor in an interview format.
Sean runs the day to day operations of these two blogs, posting most of the daily tutorials, interviews, articles, and videos. We have a history of transparency on these Envato sites, and are happy to answer your questions!
About the Coming Interview
In the near future, I will be interviewing Sean about the logistics of running these blogs. We want to make it as informative to our readers as possible, this is why we want you (the reader) to post a question for Sean in the comments below.
In about a week or so I will pick out some of the best questions and present them to Sean along with my own set. So hopefully this will result in a learning experience for all our readers,
and provide you insight into the ins and outs of running a successful design blog.
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Thanks..
I’m always interested in what people use for inspiration. What do you use? Especially when your drawing a blank
@Scott – I really don’t draw a blank. I have way more ideas than I could possibly create. For me it’s more a matter of making time and saving energy to design.
Also, research is an important part of any project you tackle and should help smooth any creative blocks you might encounter. My creative blocks are usually more feeling lazy, than lacking ideas. That being said, I’m inspired by loads of artists work, sites, and everything around me.
I think a sketchbook is a great tool to start using, then you can go back to it in the future and be inspired by your own visual scribbles, and it helps find what really interests you.
how are you guys ?
Have you ever had the “wow, I didn’t know that” moment with any of the tutorials you published?
Palusko, this happens daily. I come across new techniques, visual concepts, techniques, and workflows that are awesome while editing the tuts all the time.
To be an editor for this site you must be in touch with designers and those who use Photoshop can you give us a rundown of 5 of your top resource and inspirational websites… this site rocks and i know there is no way it exists in a bubble, so i am interested to see where one of my top inspirational websites draws its own inspiration.
@Cap_Pro – When I look for artists I usually go to sites like Behance. I kill lots of time on Twitter and find artists there, finding links to loads of blogs. Our user link feeds often turn me on to roundups that lead to new artists work.
A couple of my favorite design blogs are http://vectips.com and http://abduzeedo.com/ and I find artists through those types of roundups. Like the weekly Vector roundup Rype does has led to me finding artists and commissioning them for tuts. Those are a few sites, but there are lots more. It’s actually kinda random sometimes as well.
1. Are their any more envato sites in the pipeline?
2. How much of design is inate talent and how much down to study and practice.
3. For some reason I pressume you are well travelled (maybe I’m wrong) which country is your favourite?
@Dave
There are always more Envato sites in the pipeline. I actually don’t always know what’s next myself. Sometimes I get surprised when a new site launches. I did know about http://cg.tutsplus.com/ and look forward to watching it grow. I’m not certain which one will launch next after that, but Skellie is looking into a Photography dedicated tuts site.
hey where is my question i asked you ??, i did nt joked. what ahwat happened.
@sriganesh – Sometimes it takes time for me to moderate the comments. It’s something 99% handled by me. I don’t always have time to moderate on weekends for example, but if I’m around, or can find time before I head out to do family stuff then I jump in and approve what’s there.
ok once again i am asking. i am an multimedia student and i need to ask one thing. i created a site for myself and friends and creative people and outsite who like to share there creative works and write tutorials. my motto is to gain knowledge from anyone.
- but what happened whe n i posted my psd designs in site , i got comment from smashmagzine- he discouraged me and my site. i got very upset.
—–
IS THERE A FACT THAT STUDENTS LIKE ME SHOULD NOT DO THIS WORK( RUN A SITE).
AND I GAIN KNOWLEDGE FROM U ALSO. AND I TOOK IT AS A ROLE MODEL FOR ME. AND I HAVE A POSTER OF YOUR SITE. WHICH I LIKE IT VERY MUCH. Y ?, PLZ HELP ME IN THIS. AND HOW TO IMPROVE.
@sriganesh – I think every designer should have a blog. It may not be something you focus on gaining much money from directly at least at first. But you can use it to share the knowledge you gain, as well as track your progress as a designer and visual thinker.
In your opinion, taking again the subject of free software (inkscape, gimp and aviary), do you think that there’s a real future for theese aps considering that the “interface” both for illustrator and photoshop has become so popular among legal (and not) users, and in the real world you must have knowledge with this apps if you hope to get your hands on a creative job as an internal in an agency (and to be an intenal is very helpfull, if not a must, for learn how to “do it” the fastest, and efficientest way, not to talk if you want to become a CreativeBusinesMan) but i’m 90% sure that in the freelance comunity at least 80% of he PS or AI copies are all cracked and running (and makin’ $) and the people using actively the free aps are still considerated as “geeks”.
To the question again:
In a world leaded by macroadobe, in business and freelance, do the free and online alternatives have a chance in short/medium term (if they have it at all) o become a real alternative in the busines world?
Can we expect to have an opentuts+ in the near future, considering, as an example, that aviary peacock is veryvery interesting if you try to give it a try?
in your honest opinion, Will macroadobe + apple + microsoft, considering all this money moving in the creative industry actualy and all the copyrightly stuff arround, acchieve the power to cut you out of the business if you can’t afford the licence? (if i want to buy a licence, and i want, i have to work without eating for at least 5 month!, not every designer bills 4000euro for a website but need to get the job done in a short period of time, and honestly, the only way i’ve found to do it is using macroadobe software, and as a plus, they are a standart as powerfull as the ISO standart)
Are we becoming macroadobe smiley slaves in the near future?
There’s a real solution to all this “monopoly” fact? if yes, which one?
Can i think that opentuts+ is a good idea?
opentuts+ could change a little bit the freelance market, helpin’ us to legalize our situation in the workbatlecamp.
i became very hopefull, i’m goin to re-download gimp for the 2372647th time and try to do something good to send you a tutorial, but can it be posted in psdtuts+? do you think is onorable?
thanks
GIMP Fail omg
@protorob – I appreciate your passion. Open source apps have really taken hold in CMS’s. WordPress is awesome and I love Drupal myself.
I’m not an expert in open source alternatives to Illustrator and Photoshop. I bought the bullet and purchased this software awhile back and I saw a return in my freelancing business form it, but that was my own personal experience.
If the open source tools allow you to export to formats compatible with the major design apps, and most of all the workflow is adaptable to how your client does business, then it works fine.
My opinion is these are just tools. In my mind it’s like saying how fancy is your pencil. But reality is your tools and workflow need to fit your client’s and/or employer’s business and workflow.
Now if you’re a fine artist, then use whatever you want, but commercial artists and designers have to cater to their market.
Is there ever going to be an envato network forums? Unless there is one and im blind?
If not could anyone direct me to some nice, newbies frendly forums? Thanks!
@Matt – This is certainly something we’ve discussed, but isn’t at the top of the list for our current growth path right now. Skellie would know more about this, but I think we’re more focused on launching and growing the sites with the structure as is right now.
What are all the programming languages do you know and which software can you use effectively?
For Example: Ajaz, PHP, Javascript, HTML, Ruby on Rails (Any programming or scripting language)
Software: Photoshop, Inkscape, GIMP, Dreamweaver, FileZilla (Your favorite ones I guess that you use often)
I know HTML/CSS. I know standards based design, but I do such a small amount of work in this arena anymore and haven’t been keeping up with this the last year, so my skills have really dwindled with their effectiveness. But I have a good strong core skill in this arena.
I don’t actually know much PHP, I’m certainly not a programmer. But I know how to Theme in Drupal to the extent that I can write really basic if statements and set up themes. I have a repository of code that I cut and paste, test, and know what it does as well. This is another dwindling skill though, that I don’t use enough anymore. Sadly, I don’t know any Javascript or Ajax and therefore am not a well-rounded front end designer.
I specializing more in creating the visual planning of the site, like visual wireframes, and design the graphics and template design, then I hand it off to someone to code. Having this background in html/css means I design sites that can be efficient cut up and coded. Before taking on as editor I was getting more and more work where I designed 90% of the time, and wasn’t coding much anymore.
Aside from design software, like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Fireworks, I use Coda mostly for coding and upload files – I even edit the tuts in Coda. There are a bunch of small Mac Apps I use for web design also, and Parallels for windows testing. There are too many to list here really.
do you believe in God?
I’m agnostic. So, religion or the concept of God isn’t important to me personally. I respect peoples faith though, as long as it isn’t forced on me. I’m more of a moralist and am more interested in how people interact socially, form and run people systems, like government and laws, and other worldy endeavors, than anything religious.
#how u ( stuff) make your meetings ?
#do u make a parties , hang out or celebrations together .. ? any photos ?
# what is your workstation looks like ? what is the gears you started with & what is dream (or on to-buy list )gears ?
@ims – 99% of my communication as editor is through email. It’s extremely rare that I talk on the phone or chat with someone. I do interact a bit on Twitter though http://twitter.com/seanHodge and I enjoy that.
With gear, I really want an office. Right now my drafting table is set up in our dining room. I’m starting to look at houses and really want to find a place with an third bedroom that I can put my office in. My gear is pretty good, but I’d like to get a nice Wacom tablet to play with. For a purely fun gadget, I’d love to get a Kindle, as I read alot – that’s on my wishlist for sure.
is u fall in love???
tell about ur first crush, who is that lucky girl…..
My wife Karen and I met in college. She’s from Venezuela and was studying the English language. She’s only a year younger than me. I was running an international studies group, after I returned from studying a year in the UK, and I met her in that group. It was really exciting to slowly get to know her. We dated for about a year before getting married down in Venezuela. Unfortunately, I still only speak a little Spanish.
We’ve been married for 8 years now and have a son together. We married in Venezuela, lived in Connecticut, Venezuela, and Florida together at different times. Things are going great with our marriage. I work from home, when I’m not jumping over to the local WiFi spot coffee shop, so our family has lot’s of quality time together. We go to the zoo, theme parks, the beach, and all kinds of fun Orlando area Florida type stuff on the weekends.
cool…..
)
(I like Love stories of others, because it didn’t happened to me
Study Spanish quickly
U learn designing quickly, but didn’t learn Spanish much in this 8 years (of marriage) ….
another question
Can you give me some few tips how to create an avatar like yours?
and did you already meet some hot girl web developer ?can you name at least 2?
what font did u used in psdtuts logo?
man this is not a question. I just wanted to say that I admire people like you that put all this time to teach others like me thanks for the all the great work.
VIDEOSSSSSSS
1.are you planning a “book” like smashing magazine?
and dont make same mistake they did with shipping…
if not,start now
I think that would be a very valuable book with 10text effects,10special effects,10interfaces….tutorials.Each one covering one “segment” of designing,and with like 10 for example text or type tutorials it would cover pretty much..
When and how did you know that you love design and multimedia? specifically how did you believe that you can be a good designer? The answer can really help me