An interview with Alex+Alex

Please can you tell us about your backgrounds, and how you both got into web design and development.

Alex Wybraniec (@invisiblea):
I’ve always had a love of computers, which lead to me studying an Artificial Intelligence degree at Sheffield. The course was pretty much identical to the Computer Science degree, and in the final year, I switched to doing CS full time (there’s still an embarrassing article on the Sheffield Uni website I wrote about how great Computer Science at Sheffield was).

Leaving university, I attempted to get a job doing Java related work, and quickly discovered no-one was hiring, so I spent my time working in an Off License and reading up on more employable skills. Through a stroke of luck, a friend knew someone looking for a junior web developer in London, and I landed my first job at well respected digital agency.

From there (and usually due to the volatile nature of employment in the web industry) I switched companies a couple of times, but ultimately this meant I got to work on a wide variety of interesting clients. I’ve worked with worldwide charities, government agencies, high street fashion brands, social networks, cutting edge technology companies and even got to build an interactive kiosk for a pet food company.

Alex Torrance (@alex_tea):
It was never my intention to do web design full time.

I’d been playing around with websites since I first got a computer with a net connection in the mid-ninties, but I was focused on being a Graphic Designer, rather than a Web Designer. I was working part-time at FatCat Records maintaining their website and designing sleeves whilst studying my foundation. FatCat relocated to Brighton in 2001 and I stayed in London studying for a Digital Arts degree, and slowly became less interested in my studies. I dropped out of uni and continued freelancing, which paid off as the Sigur Rós artwork that lead me to drop the studies was nominated in the Best Recording Packaging category at the Grammys.

More and more I was offered web work over print work. After a few years I got a job at an agency, ostensibly designing record sleeves, but once they found out I could build sites, my workload shifted towards that. Artwork budgets were diminishing, and I became the person you went to for websites. I took the hint and decided to concentrate on web design.

Where did you first meet an what did you think of each other?

Alex T:
We met at the BT Digital Music Awards in 2006, through a mutual friend. At that point neither of us were really considering working for ourselves, and I’m not sure we even discussed what we were doing.

Alex W:
I later discovered Alex T almost fell out of the Lighting Rig of the Roundhouse that night, which would have probably jeopardised our ability to work together.

When did you, and what made you decide to, leave full time positions and set up your own business?

Alex W:
In January 2008, I’d just been made redundant for a third time, and had had enough watching good companies crash and burn due to factors beyond my control. Alex T had just finished doing the new TBWA London website, and had been approached about to start working on another project. Fearing his PHP skills were insufficient, we met up, and decided he would employ me to do the code side of things.

That project took considerably longer than we had anticipated, but it allowed us to discover we enjoyed working together and had a common love of design and technology.

Alex T:
I was made redundant in January 2007, and started working freelance to fill in the time before I got my book together and got another job, however the freelance work took over and I haven’t had a chance to look back. Working with Alex was going really well, so we just kept at it.

Alex W:
As with all good business ventures, the decision to go into business properly together came after a drunk night in the pub.

There are so many articles and commentary about the difficult relationship between developers and designers. How have you found working together and what do you think is important for a good dialogue/interaction between designers/developers?

Alex W:
The best thing about working together is that we have a decent awareness of what the other does, and there’s constant dialogue about the direction of a project. Nothing increases the complexity of a piece of work more than lack of communications between teams.

Alex T:
We know enough about each other’s craft to ask the right questions, but also respect each other enough to know where to let the other get on with it.

What are you up to right now?

Alex W:
At the moment we’re doing another redesign for TBWA London, and exploring the next stages of the Debut Art site. Aside from those, we are involved with various projects where we have buddied up with other companies. The nice thing about what we do at the moment is being able to work on a wide variety of projects with lots of different people. Our current project list ranges from independent record labels to multinational technology companies.

Where and what most inspires you?

Alex W:
Where is a bit of an odd question, but I guess I feel happiest in Barcelona, Berlin and of course London. Sitting on the tube with a notebook is probably where I do my best thinking. As for what inspires me, I’ve always loved simple ideas and functional design.

Alex T:
I don’t think inspiration is something you can consciously control, although you can influence it by surrounding yourself with good things. I suppose I am most influenced by Swiss Modernism, Bauhaus and the fin de siècle European avant-garde. I try to apply William Morris’s quote “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful” to my designs.

Alex W:
See, that’s why I work with him. He knows good quotes.

Who do you most respect in the web industry?

Alex W:
When I was younger, I idolised a lot of people, and believed that opinions were binary, either right or wrong. As you start to get the bigger picture you realise that while there are standards, there is not always a correct answer.

These days it is probably easier to pick out people who I think are damaging to the industry. We talked about whether we should name names in these questions, but that’s probably not productive. What I will say is listening to one source is always damaging regardless of whether that source is listening to lots of other people. Whether it is a popular blog dedicated to web-developers and designers or an event organiser who constantly wears a hat, at some point these sources are going to make mistakes, get things wrong and taint your ideas with their own. Listen to those who conflict with your opinions as much as those who encourage them.

Alex T:
There’s no one out there I idolise, but I do see a lot of good work around. I get worried by the amount of design-for-design’s sake stuff I see. Self-indulgent portfolio sites and people concentrating on the visual aspect of a site, forgetting that design is about how something works, not just how it looks. I like sites that are built well, like a Swiss watch, it’s the details people don’t notice that make the difference.

Which of your websites are you most proud?

Alex W:
Well there’s not much we can show you, so I think we have to say Debut Art. Aside from the wonderful varied content, we were really pleased with the final result.

Alex T:
It’s a site we both keep going back to constantly, and there are very few changes I’d make considering the original brief.

Alex W:
Debut is a good example of a great working relationship. They have really got the best out of us because they were keen for us to work their content into our ideas.

Tell us about the most difficult project you have worked on and what was the problem?

Alex W:
All projects should be difficult at some point, but there is nothing more frustrating than a client that asks for and then ignores your advice.

We also had the unfortunate situation where a client cancelled a project after three months’ work purely because they didn’t understand the development process. That was probably the lowest point we’ve had so far.

How are you finding business at the moment, what with the tricky economic situation?

Alex W:
It’s tough. When you have work, people take longer to pay. The big problem is people are jittery about money, and even if you have produced an amazing brief that matches the clients requirements and budgets exactly, all it takes is a bad story on the morning news for them to delay any decisions for another week or two.

When are you going to finish your own website?

Alex W: It is finished!

What tools could you not work without?

Alex W: Textmate, Firebug, SVN (and increasingly GIT), Terminal, VMWare Fusion
Alex T: Pen, grid paper, Adobe CS, CSSEdit, TextMate.

You can contact the Alex’s on Twitter at @alex_tea and @invisiblea.

— Posted on April 22nd, 2009 by Daniel in: Interview

Let us know what you think of this post. You can use Gravatar to upload an avatar that will appear next to your comment.