Marc A. Ebalaroza
www.thehttpgroup.com Tell us a little about your background? Well, before getting into this whole Internet, Graphic Art, Flash craziness, I used to be a professional musician working as a performer and as a studio musician. I also taught guitar for seven years. I also had a normal job working at a financial institution, but I hated that crap.
Where are you from?Born in Honolulu, Hawaii raised in Pearl City
Design education:None. But if you count reading every book that's out there and online tutorials than - plenty.
What was your first experience with flash?How the fu** did they do that?!
What inspired you to create this site?Actually, I was in the middle of working on the 3rd version of my personal site when I thought, it seemed to be a bit egotistical to have a site all about myself. And since the idea of creating a community site was always on my "To Do" list I figured why not do it now.
Also, in majority of the design forums I've been to there were just too much professional designers bashing on novice ones without really giving them inspiration. Construction Criticism was more like a comment from Simon Cowell from American Idol. The funny thing was, a lot of these novice designers had more potential than the professional ones and I just felt it was about time there was a community that didn't just cater to the 'Elite' but every designer who loves what they do.
How is it working with large corporate firms such as Nissan?Honestly, I do it because it pays the bills. There's a difference in personal and client work. Clients are always right, if they want pink stars floating across the screen then pink stars is what they'll get. A lot of my client work is 30% me and and 70% them. And if you're working for someone where "Quantity" is more important than "Quality" you really have no choice but to minimize your skills with their sometimes non-creative ideas.
Just a note: This was when I was working at another firm. DM (Digital Mediums) is my new home now and it's all good there!
How did you start out as an artist?I've been always drawing since I can remember. At the ripe age of seven I received a scholarship for the Academy of Arts in Honolulu for creating a Thanksgiving Story Book that I wrote and illustrated. I can vaguely remember what the story was about but it got me a Scholarship. Unfortunately, at that age I just wanted to play with my friends and watch cartoons so I quit before I could really learn anything.
It looks like you're getting a lot of recognition for this site, how does it feel?
I think the only reason why this site is getting noticed is because of the designers featured and not me personally. I did once create a website for the Soldiers in Iraq which was presented on CNN's news ticker but that was also because the site was for the soldiers and not me. Unless I can be as good as Joshua Davis or popular as Eric Jordan than I can honestly take the recognition but to say "I" am representing Hawaii I think that's a lot of bullshit.
Weren't you a regular on Flashkit?Yes. I was one of those who couldn't stand it when designers would put people down. I used to get into quarrels with some of the mods there because they would kiss each others ass and allow that crap to happened. I think they deleted my membership when I completely told this one dude off and made him feel like an idiot for his degrading comments.
With broadband a household necessity do you still think it's important to cater to dial-up and 56k users?I like Chris Lennartz answer to this question. But for clients, anything can be done, if I got to cater then I cater.
What is your all time favorite flash site?Anything that has smooth and clever transitions,a cool unique navigation and overall design artistry...it's all good to me.
How would you explain a flash website that's overused?Way too much movement has to be everyone's idea on a overused flash website. It's like going to those sites with tons of animated gifs at all corners of the page. Completely horrible.
Do you prefer technologically advanced sites or sites with simple but good design?For non-flash I love a site where the back-end kicks and the site does everything dynamically, but for Flash and Designer sites I love simplicity.
What do you see in the future for Flash and other Macromedia products?Overtaken by Adobe? Kidding, it can only get better right?
What do you think is more important in today's Graphic Design industry, design education or artistic qualities? Choose one then explain:I sometimes ask myself does experience always have to do with how much education you have? Our Art Director, at honstudios.com, in hiring for Graphic Designer told me that there were many educated people who applied for employment who had the smarts on how DTP software function but had no artistic features in their work.
I for one do not have any prior education in Graphic Design or Web Development. Everything from software to code were all self taught. I'm just glad that I was born with having an artistic eye for things. Don't get me wrong, I strongly believe in education, however I also believe that there are many uneducated natural talented individuals who would love to showcase their work if someone would just give them a chance...wait with this site I am giving them that chance...Wait did I even answer the question?
How would you like to be remembered?If someone does remember me I would like them to remember me as a good husband and father.
If someone gave you a stage to the world and told you to send a message, what would that message be?"Get interviewed on this site!!"
What's your all time favorite (non-PC) video game?I suck at PC games but my all-time favorite non-PC game would have to be Defender. I could kick ass on that. Sorry, anyone born in the 80's would not know of this game, yeah, yeah I'm pretty old.
Final comments:"Never thought interviewing myself would be this fun, I had a blast.
