In the first of a series of interviews, that North South Media are to be publishing in the up-and-coming months, we talk to Wolfgang Bartelme, one of the modern masters in online design and creativity.
Me: Hi Wolfgang!
Wolfgang Hey Paul!
Me: You are highly respected amongst your peers throughout the design world for the attention to detail you bring to your work. What got you started in designing for the web and at what stage did you actually decide to take this on as your chosen profession?
Wolfgang: I was already fascinated by the idea of the web back in the 90s and randomly started doing websites for fun. After a while I thought it would be nice to get a bit more professional and started to study “Information Design” at the university of applied sciences here in Graz.
Afterwards I worked as UI specialist at Hyperwave explored the depths of CSS – but it lacked variety. So I decided to run my own business’ and that was definitely the right decision! 
Me: Is there anything that catches your eye, anything that makes you think WOW!
Wolfgang: Personally I love Apple’s recent redesign. It’s a perfect mixture of
a clean, thoroughly structured and yet visually appealing site. The layout is very flexible, so that they can use very distinct styles for their product pages etc. while keeping the over all look & feel. Well done!
Me: Being in the SEO business I come across a lot of badly designed sites and one aspect of my job is to reduce the bounce rate of a site. What are the top 3 things that makes you want to exit a site as soon as you enter it?
Wolfgang:
- Bad design – well I know it’s actually all about the content, but I
can’t browse a site that’s hurts in the eye. - Bad design – you know from a usability point of view.
- Bad design – accessibility wise. Stick to the standards wherever possible! But don’t be too religious either
Me: I have noticed that you have evolved onto designing mini Devkits for applications – is this something that you would like to take forward more?
Wolfgang: Yeah I hope you guys enjoy them as much as I do. Basically I started doing them because I got loads of customization requests – you know
customizing a certain wallpaper, button or icon – and wasn’t able to do them all.
So I thought it would be nice to publish the PSDs so that people can either do these tasks on their own or just play round – for instance the “Smiley Devkit” was just for fun and I enjoyed the different variants people posted to the respective Flickr group. And yes, this is definitely something I wanna take forward!
Me: This Blog [NorthSouthMedia] runs on your Fresh Theme – I’m also aware of the Dark Theme Blog you have out as well – any more waiting to be released?
Wolfgang: I indeed plan to release my current “deep blue” theme, as soon as I switch to a new one. However I can’t tell any specific dates, since I currently don’t have the time to work on my own site
Me: When I get a new clients site I can see straight straight-away why it was never ranking in the Search Engines. Do you feel that web designers should at least understand some of the basics of Search Engine Optimization such as unique descriptive Titles of what the page is all about or are you of the assumption that designers design and that’s it?
Wolfgang: Well it depends on how you define the role of a “designer”. Personally I love designing the look of a page, as well as its semantic structure and HTML – IMO both tasks are closely connected to each other.
Me: What’s your opinion on Flash sites? Do you love them or loathe them?
Wolfgang: Flash is great for doing web-based applications or games. Now it’s even accessible for visually impaired users – so that’s great as well. However, I doubt that it’s the best choice for doing web sites especially web sites that focus on content.
Me: What’s your take on all these Web 2.0 sites springing up everywhere? Do you like the social interactivity or can’t you wait for 2.0 bubble to burst?
Wolfgang: Well, actually, I don’t really care Personally I like the general
approach of all those community driven sites – however IMO it’s already far too distributed: 10 bookmark services here, dozens of social networks there. Honestly speaking I already lost track of all the services I subscribed to
Me: Which Search Engine do you prefer and what Browser do you use?
Wolfgang: Google and Safari.
Me: Finally Wolfgang, I sometimes get inspiration from the bottom of a bottle of red wine, probably saying a lot about myself there but what inspires yourself to create some of your work?
Wolfgang: Personally, I get inspiration from the bottom of a bottle of beer –
just kiddin’. I made the experience that a long shower, some running or even a short game on my PS3 boost my creativity
You can read and view more of Wolfgang’s work at Bartelme Design & Blog.
I found your blog by chance . but i have to say that it’s great blog very useful information and very interesting subjects just greetings and good luck
i’m not going i will be always checking for updates.by the way Graz is a very lovely city I enjoyed it so much.