R. A. Iverson, 1987

Q & A

What is your favorite tool and why?

Photoshop is unquestioningly my favorite tool, with Dreamweaver coming in second. But unlike Dreamweaver, which I feel has some shortcomings as an IDE, I don't think I could live without Photoshop. It is indispensable to me because I use it for SO many things, like:

• Composing / compositing artwork and graphics
• Image retouching, color correction, and compression
• Prototyping, comps, and storyboards

As an artist, what is your favorite material and why?

Since my preferred medium is electronic, my favorite material is binary data: 0 and 1.

I enjoy creating digital art because you can go so many different directions with it and encompass so many different media into one composition. It is very rich in that respect. It is also easy to reach a large audience with digital art.

The only drawback to digital art -vs- traditional art that I can see is that at this point it cannot engage all our senses. With traditional art, you have the added spatial and tactile elements of experience, and sometimes olfactory as well. This is an interesting problem and one that digital media is not yet ready to address, since as humans, we perceive our environment in a distinctly analog fashion. Until we are able to digitally simulate and directly connect (wetwire) our brains such that they interpret a stimulus in a virtual environment in a similar manner to a real life environment, we won't be smelling, touching, or tasting the Internet...

Perhaps this is not such a drawback after all, since there's no substitute for engaging with real people in real life!

What patterns emerge in your work? Is there a pattern in the way you use color, texture, typography, or light?

I have a tendency to like curved, organic lines and rounded or shaped corners in my designs. I tend to design for a clean look with maximum use of white space, sans serif fonts, and one or occasionally two decorative fonts. I will often use type for logo design.

As far as color, left to my own devices I tend toward blues, greens, and aquas for my main color, with a warm, bright color or two as an accent, although these decisions are definitely context sensitive, depending upon the needs of the stakeholder and users. Black, white, and grey are often prominent in my designs as well, and I enjoy the play of light and shadow as well as shape and form, especially in monochrome pieces.

I have been trending more and more toward simpler, minimalist designs during the past couple of years, as I feel we are already bombarded with too much extraneous information in this hectic age. Our eyes and brains need empty spaces in which to slow down, rest, and collect our thoughts.