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Driving the Net with Carole Guevin

"Design is a gift handed out without gender consideration. Hard work and determination is what makes anyone succeed. Talent, wits, experience, worthiness and intelligence reside between your ears. As for the differentiating parts between the two genders, last I recall, they lie elsewhere in the body."

Carole Guevin is the founder / editor of netdiver.net, an online magazine that focuses on design and digital culture. Her PCs are located in Montreal and she is founding partner of Pixeltable, a communication design and web development studio. Guevin's work has been published in international books and magazines, and she also contributes to various events and projects. At the 2003 SXSW Interactive Festival, she will be leading a session titled "The Seven Arms of Creavity."

In three sentences or less, give us your vision of elegant web design.
The things I think are most important are style (distinctiveness applied to a preset objective / message), context (homogeneity between visual and content architecture), and intention (uniqueness in user interface and design elements and graphics).

At the 2002 SXSW Interactive Festival, you spoke on a panel about independent design. Can you give us some insights on the characteristics that define this trend?
A "new media" commands by its definition, a determination to explore and discover both inherent constraints / limitations all the while generating new guidelines which of course, need to be topped by pure creativity and enormous intelligence. Whew what a task!

Independent design is a lab. It is the petri dish where personal explorations can be applied, if successful, to clients' work. These 'out of the box breaking of all rules trying to surmount limitations of available technologies' experiments tend all to generate something new. Not because suffering from the newnewness syndrome, but due to the media being still emergent, in early stages of development. The community is relentless in pushing the boundaries. Thank God for them - I don't even want to think what the web would look like without them.

Like somebody said 99% of the web is obsolete, I will add: 85% of companies' sites have not yet sized and / or seized the opportunities the web offers. I firmly believe the web is YET to come.

Continuing with the theme of independent design, who are the developers who are doing the most exciting work in this field?
I really don't know. I would like to think that all sites displayed on netdiver point to these. But when you stop to think about it: there are millions of websites that I don't even know about, lest visited...naming names is meaningless, preposterous and of insignificant value towards ALL the designers out there, who, one way or another, due to their intense passion are moving the Web forward. What I know compared to what I don't know, boils to such an infinitely small fraction...it makes me almost uneasy doing this interview altogether.

I like to think that everyone that is working in this field - is contributing. You need quite a high level of passion, audacity, determination, and ingenuity. That, and being a bit crazy; the long hours, the constant learning, unlearning, relearning processes, the deadlines, the technology failures, the buggy code, the pressures...I mean if you want 9 to 5, security and no hassle...oops wrong career.

The technology industry has traditionally been dominated by men. Do you think the same gender inequality holds true for the web? If so, how have you carved a niche for yourself?
As I said elsewhere: "Design is a gift handed out without gender consideration. Hard work and determination is what makes anyone succeed." Talent, wits, experience, worthiness and intelligence reside between your ears. As for the differentiating parts between the two genders, last I recall, they lie elsewhere in the body.

Gosh I hope I don't trigger a let's throw her rotten tomatoes reaction. The fact that genders are unequally represented in ANY industry boils down very_very_very generally to the reproduction of the species: women have babies; men can't. So until men can have babies...or economic / corporate perception of babies is radically changed from production preoccupations to reproduction occupations...the situation will remain.

Speaking of women on the web, tell us more about the "powagirrrls" section of Netdiver.
I owe the inspiration to begin the directory to Kylie Gusset and to make right, my own ignorance. It dawned on me that extremely talented designers listed in the directories were in fact women, and I decided to give them the visibility they deserved. The directory is the embryo of another more ambitious project that I will certainly pursue as soon as my 36 hours / day chipset arrives!

At SXSW 2003, you're going to speak on a session covering the "Seven Arms of Creativity." What kinds of things will you be talking about in this panel?
'Creativity' will be considered from different viewpoints (process and practice). Expect an informal, relax and hands-on discussion style session where group dynamics are determining the flow. Here is a sneak preview: Defining 'creativity'? What is at stakes in terms of creativity? Surmounting the 'blank' space and state. Why anguish and questioning of our abilities lead to enhance creativity? Where to start (client brief)? How to interpret and assess the 'right track' (prototype / mock up)? How to deliver (constraints) and move on (limitations)?

In terms of creativity, who or what serves as your inspiration?
The work and thoughts of others. All we know is attributed to somebody else. There is no such thing as innate, inborn knowledge. Apart from reviewing 350+ sites monthly, I buy communication magazines and books, lots of books. When defining a new concept, I sift through my bookshelves, pick some magazines and books, and leisurely browse them. I never-never-never damage communication magazines nor design books by writing directly on pages: instead I use post it notes all over conductive ideas; when the 'project' is finished - I remove all post it and put them back to their spot.

Some are stacked on my 'book' desk, always are at arms length. On that table, sitting in neat piles are books / mags I have not yet read and others which are 'constant' companions. My studio is literally invaded by books and magazines. I cross-read / random read at least five or more books at any given time, I call this habit 'salad' reading. I read on very diverse subjects ranging from science(-fiction), business, technology or design. Sometimes I will read through an entire book in a matter of a couple of days. These books are full of highlights, notes in the margins; they are my work / thoughts in progress. The immense thirst for learning I have, has never relented. Inspiration is 90% perspiration; inspiration comes from challenging the unknown and my present limitations.

You also participated on the Website Demo Session at last year's SXSW Interactive Festival. What did you learn from the kinds of sites that were submitted for review in that panel?
That there is a need for concerted efforts in educating both clients and designers. That curriculum in colleges and universities has to be fed real-time information to pass along to next generation of designers. That the traditional medias have to make room for this new media resulting in increased coverage of our industry so that 'our' potential clients can truly learn about the tremendous efforts deployed by the community to meet their expectations and overcoming their resistance (mostly budget wise) concerning their web presence. That much more conferences must be given and books published. Finally, web communication design is still in infancy.

What are some of the most common mistakes made by inexperienced web designers?
Wanting to 'achieve' without taking the time it takes to learn the trade. We all were newbies - there will always be newbies - we all need to be newbies. Trying to jump or skip over this step is like expecting a toddler to act as a savvy and experienced CEO. Talent is the starting point, acquiring experience is the evolving point, confrontation with 'others' ideas is the fine-tuning point and success combines all these points. It takes humility, openmindness and a deep-set understanding that in 20 years from now, you might still not 'be there' and yet, knowing this, you persist.

Is there a Canadian approach to web development that differs from how we approach such challenges in the United States -- or do you think that the global perspective of the web obscures such differences?
Once upon a time we had 'local' TV channels; then came 'cable' TV channels, then 'wireless' TV channels you capture from flying-saucer-like-gadgets. Today, you can zap through zillions of channels in hundreds of different languages originating the world around, streamed to you through the same format, the same media, TV in this instance. The same parallel applies to the web. The web as a new media format requires convergence but local flavors hint and recall originating differences.

Aside from netdiver and running Pixeltable, what kinds of projects are you working on these days?
A lot! Too many??? Yummy...As a busy-bee-me, my fingers are in many pies and I need to keep the suspense until the launching pads are ready...but I can say a book is in progress. But, guess what? The studio website is in...the works...kind of speaking...since we auto-renamed last Spring. So I'll see you soon, gotta get back to it, right now.

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