Interview of Randa Clay: A Successful Freelance Designer

If you have noticed my blog then you must have realized is that I am really terrible when it comes to the matter of design and graphics. My blog has nothing outstanding in its appearance. To be honest with you, I have no skill in this field. Still, the designs of Randa Clay caught the attention of my eyes. Her portfolio is impressive. Her blog’s url is: http://randaclay.com/ and if when you go there then you will be amazed with the amount of resources and information about graphics design and use of design in blogging. Randa is an expert freelance designer and she is highly skilled on WordPress. I became interested to take her interview and emailed her the questions. Here is the interview for the readers:

Razib Ahmed: Why did you decide to become a designer? What factors led you to this career?

Randa Clay: I've always loved good design and enjoyed any opportunity to do things of that kind, but as an amateur, it was difficult to really get results I was pleased with. I gradually got tools like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and taught myself how to use them and gradually began to work as a professional in the field.

Razib Ahmed: In your work, what are the softwares that you frequently use to create the designs?

Randa Clay: I design sites and other graphics with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and WordPress is what I build most sites on.

Razib Ahmed: When did you start blogging? Is there a special reason that you opened a blog in the first place?

Randa Clay: I started blogging 2.5 years ago. I realized that having a static web site was not going to help me achieve my goals. Blogs are perfect for networking and building credibility, and they are great for ranking in search engines.

Razib Ahmed: These days, many companies and individuals in USA and in Europe tend to outsource a lot of projects to countries like India. Do you feel threatened by this? If not, why?

Randa Clay: I don't feel threatened by this, but the industry I work in is not one that has been affected as much. If I were a virtual assistant, I would feel threatened.

Razib Ahmed: From your blog, I understand that you are a big fan of WordPress. When you started using WordPress and would you like to share some information about the works you have done with WordPress so far?

Randa Clay: All the projects on my blog design page have been created with WordPress. WordPress is simply the best software I have ever used. It can manage just about any site and there are so many great plugins (add-ons) that do just about anything you can imagine for a site that I don't see any reason to build a site without it.

Razib Ahmed: What advice would you like to give a newbie in the field of graphics design? What are the programs (software) that they should try to be skilled in?

Randa Clay: I would advise someone new to graphic design to start a blog and write about what they're learning along the way, and work through lots of tutorials to learn how to use tools like Photoshop and Illustrator. The use of WordPress is growing exponentially, so it's definitely a good area to specialize in. Networking with other designers and learning from them is key as well.

Razib Ahmed: You are also a marketing consultant. Have you noticed any new challenge in the field of marketing for your clients during the ongoing economic recession?

Randa Clay: I haven't noticed any new challenges necessarily. The same ones exist, such as differentiating themselves from the competition, but they're even more important when customers are more scarce.

Razib Ahmed: Kindly, tell us a bit about your personal and academic background.

Randa Clay: I'm a work-at-home mom with 2 boys and my academic background actually includes several college degrees in music. I didn't study marketing or graphic design in college. My personal blog is at http://honestlycrazy.com .