Interview: Jacob Gube from Six Revisions
March 25th, 2010 by Tweet
We are back with our fourth interview in our interview series, where we will be conducting personal interviews on fellow designers and developers! We have been getting some great interest, and we are so excited about the upcoming interviews we have scheduled for the next few weeks. This week was great honor and we were thrilled to be able to interview Jacob Gube from the iconic design blog, Six Revisions. This intelligent, creative, matter-of-fact guy is so laid back and was great to interview, and remember that he is not only a designer, but he is a developer, blogger, and book author. In addition, he runs one of the top ten design blogs out there, Six Revisions, which is on the Smashing Network, and he has written numerous guest posts for Smashing Magazine, and other great design blogs. Sit back and enjoy! And, remember, please email me if you are interested in being interviewed, or if you would like to nominate someone to be interviewed!
Thank you so much for doing this interview for Admix Web. Can you give us a brief background on yourself?
Thanks for having me here on Admix Web! I’m Jacob Gube, a web developer and web designer. I am the founder of Six Revisions, a website for web developers and web designers, and with my brother, the co-founder of Design Instruct, a web magazine for designers and digital artists that focuses on high-quality, detailed tutorials. I also just recently finished writing the book, MooTools 1.2 Beginner’s Guide, published by Packt Publishing.
Do you consider yourself a web designer, web developer, blogger, or all three?
I consider myself to be a web designer, a web developer, and a web publisher.
Why Design/Development as a career? What were your inspirations for that profession?
Design and Development is a great gig! It’s a solid combination of creativity, science, and logical thinking. There isn’t a day spent on the job when you’re not creating something new.
My inspiration came from being in love with the Internet at a (relatively) young age. I enjoy the connectivity and social aspect of the Web, and being a person who makes websites gives you the opportunity to facilitate that.
Do you do more front end or back end web development?
These terms are ambiguous. To me, web development is what I consider to be server-side and client-side programming. Creating a web application, for example, is what I would define as “web development”, or a job being done by a web developer. Front-end web development, to me, is standards-based HTML/CSS and theming a CMS using their API. This is, in my opinion, the job of a web designer, along with being able to create the site design in a graphics software such as Fireworks or Photoshop. I’d say I do equal amounts of both activities.
Are you self taught or did you study design/development?
Self-taught. I learned on the job.
How many years have you been in the field, and how has the field changed during that time?
I’ve been a web developer/designer professionally for 6 or so years. Before then, though, I was a hobbyist. So if you count that time, then I’d say over 10 years. The field has changed drastically in that time span, and I can write an entire book answering this one question. To save you from the agonizing pain of me ranting about all the changes that’s happened since I first started working as a web professional, here’s the summary: Websites have evolved into a more dynamic, rich, social, and interactive medium.
Can you describe a day in the life of Jacob Gube?
A day in my life is quite ordinary, actually. Some may even say boring. I wake up, brew a pot of coffee, and then, I start working after I finish a cup of that freshly-brewed coffee. After I finish my day, I eat dinner and watch my DVR’ed TV shows. Pretty normal, if you ask me.
What does your workspace look like?
My workspace is all black and silver. My keyboard, mouse, all the way down to my notebooks and pens all match with a black and silver theme.
Would you define yourself as introverted or extroverted? Describe your personality?
I’m introverted. Many would say I’m the shy type until you get to know me. I also have a very decisive personality—some would call this being stubborn or pigheaded. When I set my eyes on something, I tend to be unrelentless in pursuing it until I succeed. Some might say I’m a bit whimsical in that I don’t circumspect things too much, but it’s only because I’ve learned to trust my gut instincts, which rarely fails me.
What makes you unique?
I don’t eat fruits, which some might find strange. I have no explanation as to why I can’t stand any fruit produce.
What is your favorite color? Does it infiltrate your designs?
I have two favorite colors: Red and Black. It infiltrates my personal projects (such as Design Instruct and Six Revisions).
Explain the significance of your company name.
In my line of work, you typically have to go through several revisions before you arrive at the final product that you and your client is happy with. That’s where the “Revisions” part comes from. I chose “Six” just because it sounded good and looked aesthetically-pleasing when combined with “Revisions”.
Are you a Mac or a PC? Why?
PC (Windows). I like building my own computers and it’s the operating system I’m most comfortable with. I just like the freedom of choice when it comes to Windows (or Linux). With Macs, you’re pretty much tied down to just one brand, and you’re at the mercy of whatever Apple decides to do or not do with their products.
But, in the end, you should choose what works best for you and your style. I can see many benefits in using Macs. For example, when you build your own PC and something breaks, you have no one to turn to (unless you can identify which component is faulty). With Macs, they offer you support and warranties, which can be reassuring given that our computer is our primary tool for getting our jobs done. Fortunately, I haven’t had a PC break on me; at least not in a way that I can’t fix myself.
What design tools do you use? Which tools would you suggest to fellow designers/developers?
I use Photoshop primarily.
A non-design tool that I suggest you use, especially if you work in teams or have multiple computers, is Dropbox.
Do you work better under pressure or do you need time to cultivate your ideas?
I work very well under pressure. When I’m under the gun, it forces me to come up with creative solutions that I wouldn’t have come up with if I were comfortable and complacent. Having a limit in time or resources makes you do things you’d never do or explore if you had bottomless options.
Tell me about Six Revisions: What made you start it and why do you write?
I started it as a means to catalog all the things I learned while making websites. I started writing with the intention of sharing good information to other web developers and web designers so that they can bypass all the trials and tribulations I had.
What is your favorite blog article you have ever written? Why?
My favorite ever? That’s a tough question to answer since I’ve written so many! I’d say, out of nostalgia, “20 Websites That Made Me A Better Web Developer” because it was a pivotal post that truly gave Six Revisions its first major exposure (on Digg and Reddit). After that, things just snowballed!
What are some of the design and development blogs you read on a regular basis, why?
I read Smashing Magazine, Abduzeedo, Envato sites (PSDtuts, Nettuts, etc.), Ajaxian, and Coding Horror every day. I do, however, have many more sites that I subscribe to that I read quite frequently. I read these sites because they’re trustworthy, reliable, and simply because they publish great stuff.
My favorite quote is, “Life is what happens when you are busy making plans.” Are you are planner or a doer?
I’m a doer. You can’t get me to plan and sit in on meetings-about-meetings and on “Five-year-plan task groups”. To me, the more time you spend talking, the less time you have for actually do the thing you’re talking about.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I see myself being 10 years older.
Where do you see design, the web, and development in 10 years?
The Web is so constantly in flux that it’s hard to foresee or predict that far ahead. If you look back to 10 years ago, no one would’ve imagined the situation we’re in now.
What are your thoughts on the opinion that mobile technology will replace the desktop computer?
It is the future. As soon as they can provide the same power and bandwidth that desktop computers offer, you’ll see that no one will want to be tied down to just one workspace.
Please share some pearls of wisdom for up and coming designers in the field.
At the early stages of your professional career, it’s very tempting to take on low-cost and low-quality jobs for the sake of experience (and money). It might also be tempting to partake in crowd-sourced competitions to bulk up your portfolio. I’ll tell you now that this is the route I took, and it was the most detrimental thing I’ve done to my career advancement. These gigs don’t teach you how it really is: Oftentimes, these jobs will cost you more in terms of opportunity and being able to learn and gain good experience.
Focus on quality and not quantity. You can last on Ramen noodles for quite a long time (trust me, I know) – just hang on for a little bit and hold out for good jobs, and in the long-run, I guarantee you that it’ll be the best decision you’ll ever make.
Can you show us some of your work?
How can people get in contact with you?
You can email me at jacob[at]sixrevisions.com. You can also get a hold of me on Twitter as @sixrevisions.
Holly Lamarche is a writer and attorney from New Orleans, Louisiana. Holly lived in Santo Domingo for two years, where she taught at a local private High School, and she currently writes and edits part-time for AdmixWeb and lives in Lafayette, Louisiana.
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Jacob is an inspirational web designer. His writing on SR and DI are really great. Good know more about about. Great post holly.
Glad you liked it! Holly loves doing the interviews, and this one was a good one!
Jacob always inspire me.. and its nice to see interview of him.. Great job Admixweb.
Yes, he inspires us as well! Which was why it was great to interview him! Thanks for your comment
Jacob is one inspirational guy! glad to read this interview thnx admixweb. I agree with Jacob on that PC comment, I pretty much do the same.
Thanks for your comment! Glad you liked it and found it inspirational!
Thank you again for having me share my thoughts, this was quite a fun interview to participate in.
To everyone up there above this comment, thank you for your support and kind words. I’m glad to have inspired you in some way.
Thank you so much for letting us interview you. It was great!
Jacob to me is a great guy doing great things in the design community. His projects Design Instruct and Six Revisions are also two of my favorite websites. This guy has it all to inspire and instruct. Keep up the good work Jacob.
Holly thanks for doing this interview and sharing it with us.
Great interview!
SrR indeed rox..
i follow much of the photoshop tutorial there
thx SR