Ryan Esaki
www.ryanesaki.com


location: Kauai HI, soon to be Honolulu

Tell us a little about your background:
My name is Ryan. I am 22 years old and fresh out of college. My 2 passions are design and playing music and I am lucky enough to be making (a little) money doing both of them.

Design Education:
I went to Pacific University in Forest Grove OR and graduated with a degree in Integrated Media and a minor in Computer Science. I also read a lot of books, magazines, and web articles.

How did you start out as an artist and designer?
I went to college in the fall of 2000 fully convinced that I wanted a career in Computer Programming. When I got there I found out just how much I hated programming, I was taking some computer graphics courses on the side and found it interesting so I switched majors. I actually never heard of Photoshop of flash or any design programs other than msPaint until about 2 years ago, but after my first taste, I was hooked.

What inspires you?
Almost everything. I pull a lot of my color schemes from nature. Most of my design ideas come when I'm driving. I love seeing the work of other designers.

Describe your style of design:
I try to not limit myself to one style of design. I enjoy almost all styles and so I like to try to design in as many styles as I can.

What are your thoughts on Macromedia Flash?
Its come a long way. Flash MX 2004 is pretty awesome. They fixed up action script a lot. In the right hands, Flash is a very powerful tool that can create a much more interactive experience on the web than plain old html ever could

What would you like to add to your workstation to increase productivity?
I need a whole new workstation altogether! Right now I'm designing on a tiny dell laptop. Oh... I guess I could use another scanner since my old one broke.

What do you do besides design?
I play guitar with my friend Aldrine who was recently picked up by Roy Sakuma Productions. We've gigged around Kauai since high school and we're finally moving to Oahu to try our luck there. I am also a hockey fanatic and watch the Stanley Cup Playoffs religiously.

In two years where do you see yourself in the Design Industry?
Doing what I love and hopefully making enough money to get by.

What is more important for a designer, artistic qualities or design education? Choose one:
Artistic qualities with practice. You can learn all the software you want but if you don’t have the imagination to come up with cool new things you wont be able to produce anything worthwhile. Design education really isn’t enough. I speak from experience. You need to go out and practice. It's like trying to learn a musical instrument, someone can show you how to play it, but without practicing you'll never get good at it.

Music is a huge inspiration for designers, you being a musician what's your choice of music these days?
My taste in music is very eclectic. It's pretty much anything I think sounds good though I do have a soft spot for acoustic music. I love the pure tone of a well-played acoustic guitar. I'm actually not even really that good at playing music, I'm just lucky to be surrounded by talented musicians so I really admire those people that can make instruments sing. I have a friend who actually got his degree in Computer Programming but he too seems to find it uninteresting and boring.

How would you describe your experience with CP.
Computer Programming requires you to think in a totally different way than you're used to. You need to think like a computer thinks and I just had problems doing that. It is also very math intensive, lots of calculus which I didn't like. It really does take a certain kind of person to become a computer programmer and I wasn’t that kind of person.

Will you and your friend Aldrine be working on a CD anytime soon?
Aldrine recently cut a small 6 song EP that I played on some of the tracks. I really don't know the exact details of whets going on with him and Roy (Sakuma). I pretty much just show up when he tells me that we have a gig :P.

PACDESCO once had a community forum however it did nothing but produce ridiculous drama due to the type of subjects people were posting. What do you think of those designers who insult and degrade other designers?
There's a difference between constructive criticism and just being mean-spirited. A design forum like the one that was attempted at Pacdesco would theoretically be a great place for designers to ask fellow designers to give feedback on their work etc. There really is no reason for one designer to talk down to another. We are all lucky to be part of a unique field that mixes high technology with Art.

If you had a choice what would you want to see from the web in 10 years?
The biggest thing I would like to see is the complete standardization of the web. It is the only form electronic communication that does not have standards fully enforced and it suffers because of it. The W3C has a done a good job with its recommendations but there is still some browser and OS incompatibility.

What was the strangest request you ever received from a client?
Well it’s not the strangest, but certainly the most the most impossible. I once had a client ask me to teach him everything I know so he could make his own web sites after I went back to school. He offered to pay me $200. I said no.

If someone gave you a stage to the World and told you to send a message with less than 5 words, what would that message be?
Always be grateful.

What's the story behind the name Wind-Walk?
Haha. I always tell different stories to everyone when they ask me that question. I'll give you the real one though. A year ago this hosting company was offering a promotional deal that was way too good to pass up. I quickly signed up but I needed a domain name to go with my web space. I was very addicted to a game called Warcraft III at the time and one of the character's special abilities was a move called Wind Walk.. So... like any little kid would do... I named my company after a move in my favorite video game. I'm a dork. Haha.

I'm also a Guitar player and taught guitar for about 7 years however I taught only ear training, minor theory and guitar tablature. Are you theoretically trained for music or do you just do it because you love music?
I never had any formal training in music. I wish I did though. I play guitar and bass because I love to do it. I learned everything I know from friends or the Internet. We should get together and jam one day!

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