Interview with designer & developer Tim Parker

Hi Tim, tell us about yourself in a few sentences - who are you?

I am a web designer and developer at Mixcloud based in Shoreditch, London. I've always been into photography as well, but these days find myself taking the camera out less and less which hopefully will change soon!

Talk us through your creative process and a tool you can't live without?

For me the creative process always starts with a pen and paper, these are still things I can't live without! After lots of notes, doodling and sketching out ideas it's onto a variety of design tools depending what direction the project will go. I tend to use Photoshop for piecing UI together, Illustrator & After Effects for Icons and Animation and when making prototypes out I've recently been using Adobe XE as it's super quick and handy to put things together in. It's obviously super important for us to be discussing as a group along the way to get feedback on ideas and have input to make sure the final design is the best it can be. The process never really ends though, be it A/B testing or revisions based on feedback, it's always evolving which is part of why this is exciting to be a part of.

What design trends can we expect for 2017 and beyond?

Good question! Maybe people will start using gradients and spice things up again? Not to say of the flatter stuff isn't great, it's just a bit samey! I've noticed a lot of people going with this 'brutalist' style lately, goes hand in hand with the hipster thing that's happening.. I see that expanding a bit more as well. Really I have no clue, let's see what happens…

Is there a design fad that you absolutely hate?

I could probably go on for days about this question, haha. Probably the completely pointless stuff that goes on on Dribbble daily or hiding navigations on websites for no reason.

Describe the project you’re most proud of.

Hard one that, I'm really fussy and always think thing's can be improved! I guess I'm pretty proud of the Mixcloud iOS / Android apps as it was a big challenge to move to native code and redesign at the same time without making it too much of a visual leap for the users.

What role does photography play in your work?

A pretty big role as lots of side projects revolve around photography be it for inspiration or the content itself. At Mixcloud most photography tends to be on the commercial side and although I don't find it as exciting as the design of the website it's still crucial to make sure it's consistent and of a high quality.

Your #1 Tip for storytelling:

Go with something authentic, unique and make sure it's of a high quality. Getting some kind of emotional feeling from the images can help massively!

What are three images you love on Picfair?