Interview With Adelle Charles

The Interviewer: Andrew Houle - myinkblog.com

Adelle Charles is the talented individual behind Fuel Your Creativity, and the principal creative director for the Fuel Brand Group. I’m convinced Adelle has found a way to get more than 24 hours out of a day. In this interview I’ve attempted to uncover just how she may go about that. Have a look!

adelle

MIB: Please tell the readers a little about yourself. Where you’re from and what you do?

AC: I was born in Central NY and moved to Rochester, NY to attend college at Rochester Institute of Technology. There I studied Graphic Design and graduated with a BFA in 2001. My girlfriend Sarah and I enjoy photography, watching movies and entertaining friends at our house. We have 2 adorable little dogs, Chino and Jameson, who control the household and know when the most inappropriate time is to find the squeaky toys we constantly hide from them. I also enjoy renovating our house when I have the time which hasn’t been very often lately! I am the Creative Director at Fuel Brand Group where I am responsible for all of the design and the general creative direction of the Fuel Brand Group and its network of sites.

MIB: You have a bunch of projects you’re working on right now. The Fuel Brand continues to grow and expand, tell us a little about what you have in the works.

AC: I have many projects going on right now-there is no shortage in ideas! In fact, it’s pretty hard to keep up! Last week we launched the Fuel Brand Network site which gives you a little insight on our upcoming plans. One of the most important sites in the network is the Fuel Brand Group company site. You can check it out, get to know a little bit more about the team behind these awesome ideas.

MIB: With all the sites you work on, how do you find the time?

AC: It’s true I have a bunch of Fuel Sites in development as well as my own personal freelance clients that I tend to - along with Fresh ID work. The good thing is I have help on most of these projects whether it’s one of my partners at Fuel or even outsourcing some freelance work. I spend the most time writing for Fuel Your Creativity, keeping up-to-date on emails and networking.

MIB: Do you have any time management tips you’d like to share?

AC: Hmm…don’t sleep? I’m kidding! Make sure you keep a tight schedule with tasks clearly outlined as it’s easy to get off task and surf around not getting your work done!

MIB: Readers of Fuel Your Creativity can always find awesome inspiration on your site. Where do you go to get your inspiration from?

AC: It really varies from day to day. Many times it’s by chance that I find a great link on Twitter and other days I check out Pattern Tap and various CSS galleries.

MIB: What are some of your favorite design blogs that you have in your feed?

AC: There are so many! I’ve *tried* to shorten the list: CSS Tricks, Woork, Spyre Mag, Web Designer Wall, Web Design Ledger, Six Revisions, Tutorial 9, GoMediaZine, The Design Cubicle & MIB.

MIB: What web apps and software (other than the Adobe Suite) help make your life as a designer a little easier?

AC: Yammer, Skype, Paparazzi, Textmate, Firefox, CSSEdit, Transmit, Twitter, Curdbee, Freshbooks, Backboard, Things, NetNewsWire & Mint. Again, I’ve *tried* to just name a few but…

MIB: You’ve recently redesigned FYC (which looks great!). Tell us a little about the design process, and the steps involved in a re-launch like that.

AC: Thanks! The process started with redesigning the Fuel Brand Logo. I knew there were more sites to come in the network and it needed to be flexible enough to swap out to other sites, colors & text. I also needed a mark that would stand out more than the previous “F”, and then the Flame was born. I decided to stick with the same typeface as previous logo which is Futura. I wanted to keep some of the same similarities and not deviate too far from the style. The logo was the hardest part. I picked a grid layout, started sketching & wire framing the main details then designed Fuel Your Creativity’s new blog theme in Photoshop. A couple a sleep deprived days later the new layout was complete!

MIB: Which technologies are you not proficient at; that you’d like to improve on?

AC: I’m not the best at slicing & coding and would like to improve on that. For me it’s faster to outsource to someone I trust - but I am trying to improve my skills when I have down time. I believe it’s important to know how the process works when developing/designing a website but for me it’s like 2 Different Brains.

MIB: What words of advice would you give to an aspiring designer just starting out?

AC: Sketch, sketch sketch. Also try different creative activities that you haven’t tried before such as photography or painting. You never know what you will be good at and you may pick up some really unique design ideas and methods you’ve never thought of before that you can apply to your work.

MIB: What other designers have influenced you the most along the way?

Jason Santa Maria has been a huge inspiration. I love his magazine style layout…the simplicity & grid. Yes, I heart the grid. Other fave designers include, Scott Hanson, Elliot Jay Stocks, James White & Chuck Anderson.