I have had the pleasure of connecting with Jacob, the man behind the very popular design blog Six Revisions, on multiple occasions through various social sites and I recently interviewed him for SpyreStudios. I hope you’ll enjoy this interview with Jacob! Make sure you stop by in the comment section and feel free to ask Jacob questions! :)
Hi Jacob! First I’d like to thank you for taking the time to do this interview. Can you tell our readers a little about yourself, what you do, where we can find you online and where you’re from?
Thanks for having me here to share my thoughts Jon! A little bit about myself… well, I’m a web developer/designer. I’m 26. I work with PHP, JavaScript (MooTools/jQuery), HTML/CSS, and a bunch of other random stuff. I’m the founder and chief editor of Six Revisions , a site that caters to web developer and designers. You can find me online in a variety of places: on Twitter tweeting about interesting links and what I had for dinner, on Flickr sharing freebies and random goodies, on Delicious bookmarking tasty links, on Please Critique Me providing constructive feedback on design projects, and on Design Bump lurking and looking for web design and development links.
How long have you been blogging and how (or why) did you start a blog?
Six Revisions has been up for over a year. It started out of need to have a place to share the things I learned while I was building sites and applications, and the other stuff that comes along with that, such as dealing with managers and clients and the helpful tools that I discover (like Web Developer toolbar for FF). I guess people liked the things I published, so I continued to do it. Fast forward to now where Six Revisions is at a point where other designers and developer that are like-minded – that have a desire to share the things they’ve learned and already know – write for Six Revisions.
A typical day in the life of Jacob Gube, how is it like? What do you enjoy the most about your work?
A typical day is very busy. I wake up between 5:00 – 6:30AM every day, depending on how late I go to bed the previous night. The first thing I’ll do is get a pot of coffee brewing. I don’t do anything until I’ve injected my system with a sufficient quantity of caffeine as experience has shown me it’s never a good idea to do anything without coffee
In the mornings, I focus on creative and developmental tasks because this is where I’m most productive. Later in the day, say around 3:00PM, is when I do the administrative and mundane stuff like writing emails and proof-reading articles. The day ends (or at least tries to) at around 9:00PM, though many times I’ll go as late as 11:00PM. I’m very particular about relaxing and not burning out, so on some days, I’ll do absolutely no work. A couple of these a month can sustain such a busy lifestyle without burning out.
I enjoy every part of my work, or else I’d be looking for another profession. I mean, we build things that people use and rely on; they can be the person next door or in a country thousands of miles away, how cool is that?
What does your workspace look like? Clean and organized, messy and chaotic or somewhere in between?
My workspace is very clean, uncluttered, and minimalist. I’m a big fan of simplicity and minimalism – I write about it, I boast about it, I tweet about it, and I encourage it. To me, a clean and uncluttered workspace equates to a clean and uncluttered mindset.
What would be the biggest mistake you’ve made as a designer / developer / blogger / entrepreneur?
I f**k up on a regular basis, so I have a ton to pick from. I’d have to say that one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made recently is not looking into PHP frameworks more seriously. It could’ve saved me a lot of time at work. I’ve been using JS frameworks, but never really bothered with PHP because, until quite recently, I thought they were too slow, too bulky, too complicated, and wouldn’t be able to meet some of the demands I had. CakePHP changed my mind.
If you could give a single piece of advice to people who would like to follow your steps, what would it be?
I’ll borrow from a popular Nike ad tagline: “Just Do It”. A lot of people get caught up in the details and quickly lose motivation to start up a project.
I say, just do it and see what happens. You just might surprise yourself. Do it now, release as soon as you can, let your users dictate what version 1.0 should look like.
What project are you currently working on that you’re particularly proud of, or excited about (apart from SixRevisions)? If you can’t talk about it for some reason, can you tell us what project you had the most fun working on in the past?
I’m working on a social news type site/application built on PHP. I’m so excited about it that I want to tell everyone about it, but it’s a bit too early to reveal any specifics. It’s a personal project – self-funded – and with so many things going on, it gets shoved off for more pressing tasks. But whenever I get a couple of hours to sit down and just write code, that’s what I do. The UI and the code will all be done by me, just sort of as a personal challenge.
Also, I’m finishing up a book on JavaScript, it’s been a long journey and I can’t wait for it to hit the printing presses.
If you had to chose only one typeface or only one app or software, what would it be and why?
Typeface: Rockwell font family, with Vectora a close second.
Wait, no, Vectora’s a bit more flexible than Rockwell since its sans serif which is great for smaller font sizes like body copy. But I’m really not a print designer, so Rockwell would be alright… such a tough question… can’t I just have two for this one?
One app/software: Dropbox. I would’ve said Gmail, but I guess I can try and live without Gmail and just use another email client – but Dropbox is critical to my workflow.
Your 3 favorite blogs or online resources (not necessarily design related)
What’s in your iPod?
Modest Mouse, Dispatch, Supertramp, Young Jeezy, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson…
Thanks Jacob!
I hope you liked this interview with Jacob! Make sure you stop by SixRevisions and follow Jacob on Twitter! Of course feel free to drop by in the comment section and ask Jacob questions!
The post Interview With Jacob Gube, The Man Behind Six Revisions appeared first on SpyreStudios.
