Yeah everything has changed. I decided to take a leap of faith last year, and took an illegal internship with a designer called Jeff Johnson; who had recently moved back to Minneapolis from a year's sabbatical at Designworks in Wellington, NZ.

From there I was able to learn a lot about graphic design from an amazingly creative, prolific and supportive guy. He also introduced me to his friend Chank, who I have been a fan of for years now. Things went on from there. I completed 4 months working for Jeff and 3 months working for Chank.

At the end of that time, the Chank Company decided to apply for a visa to get me back and I returned mid-midwest winter in January 2001.

I realised that for most of the projects that I was working on, I was creating a custom typeface, or logotype for the project. I had an idea of how I wanted things to look and with the type industry as it is; it is very hard to find fonts that can work well with new designs.

Type design is a great field to work in because it is a finite process. It is less stressful to have 25 fonts in development that 25 design projects in development because you always know how much work is required to finish the job. Fonts are a product that can be made once and sold for ever so whether I created the font for a specific job or not, it will continue to create revenue for years to come.

It is always a buzz to see my fonts in use, from an ego perspective, I can look at an ad in a magazine, a headline in a newspaper, or a banner on a website and say 'I did that' unless the font is used badly, then you just keep it to yourself.

The web is seen differently by different people. A lot of people who work in the web design industry focus too much on making pages that look like other pages that they think look cool. For me its all about the money.

If a site doesn't generate money, what is the point of it? After the web 'implosion' and the corporate massacre of Napster, the way the web works has been greatly refined. Companies have been able to look at what doesn't work and learn from the mistakes of others and the result has been amazing.

Websites don't just focus on what's free and what's cheap, there has been a return to the customer, and companies that aren't prepared to build relationships are losing out. The www is a very important part of how the internet works, but it's not the be all and end all by any means. Sites that are regularly updated and easy to use will always win over the sites that showcase the newest wackyst design.

There will always be people designing sites to look good; when really to Joe AOL user, its about how fast he can get his sports results, recipes or order a new toner cartridge.

Obviously the way that information has to be presented has been changed now that most designers have been forced to do some kind of web design or another. Type that was designed to look good on screen is being used for print.

HTML grid style layouts are common in all kinds of design now. The impact of more households having computers loaded with software that was industry standard not so long ago; has meant that more people are becoming designers, just because they can. Websites loaded with clipart, stock photos and free fonts are rampant; allowing all kinda of cheeseball design to be made.

As a ratio, good design and bad design are each getting their fair share of the pie, and good design is constantly being egged on by the church newsletters and missing dog flyers.

The web has impacted design in hundreds of ways, and new avenues are being explored thanks to new technologies.

There are New Zealand designers who have their own distinctive styles.

I wouldn't say that there is an over-all NZ flavour to the design there. I know that not enough emphasis is put on fresh design and this is reflected by the attitude the industry shows to graduates and young designers.

I know of a handful of designers who have left NZ design for positions overseas, because the attitude that designers have for each other is so standoff-ish.

Good work cannot be created in an environment where people aren't prepared to learn form each other.

That depends on whether those people choose to return to NZ to work, and where they take jobs. In the worst case scenario, someone returns from an overseas job and gets placed in a senior designer position.

Then they are given projects to art direct and no one to train up underneath them to take over when they retire, if the experience is not passed on, young designers will continue to have to look overseas to find the training and respect they need to thrive.

Not much of my work has graced the shores of New Zealand. I worked on now retired remakes of macbuy.com and kraft.com. Target stores throughout the US are carrying pet first-aid kits (bow-ow and me-ow) by me and you will see my fonts on the new campaigns for radioshack and kraft foods in USA.

The new www.chank.com was designed by me and a new sparkytype.com is coming soon.

As for words of wisdom - Make you own style, and read old type catalogues. Use your own illustrations in your work.