I run on a PC at work because it was cheaper to buy, and gives a better representation of how most people will see a site when they look at it online. At the moment I'm doing a collaborative project with Samisgraphic (a print designer from Auckland) on his Mac, and after getting used to losing the right click it's essentially the same.

I finished a BA at Auckland University in 1998, and realising there was pretty much nothing I could do with it I taught myself multimedia design with the help of a friend, Ebony Charlton whom I now work with. I was working at Auckland record label deepgrooves at the time, so I did their site as my first project, and then went on to make a (now defunct) online art gallery called Uniform.

Ebony and myself formed Corbus partners shortly afterwards and did a couple of nightmarish corporate jobs before we really knew what we were about.

In the middle of last year we merged with Kelvin Soh (a local print designer - who now goes under the label Openstate) and Pete Hibberdine (a copywriter/concepts guy) and took on an Office manager (Luke Casey) We used the Uniform name again to label our new company.

Since then we've been lucky to get liberal minded clients who don't mind us trying out fresh ideas on their sites. We've also had a lot of good support from the people at Webmedia, who've always shown an interest in what we are doing and pass us on clients who are unsuitable for them.

I've got really mixed feeling about this. I believe it is necessary to have some kind of education about design, but I got mine through looking at books, magazines and websites which have more contemporary stuff than you would see in a design course.

Also I think educating yourself about design is better because you tend to have more interest than you would have with someone forcing it down your throat.

I think that all good designers should be searching for an individual style, and to do that you need some kind of idea of what has gone before, a lot of which you would only get exposed to in a course of some description.

Also, I think the sense of community designers can develop in a course is important, it is always positive to have other designers you can bounce new ideas off around, and having been together in an institution is a lot easier than having to go out and make contacts on your own.

As far as the new multimedia courses popping up everywhere goes, I am always a little suspicious of their motives. Education has become a big industry since deregulation and I think a lot of people set up courses just to make money, rather than to educate.

You can always teach yourself how to use a program, help files are always getting better, and good books about new media tools are everywhere in good bookshops, so I don't think that kind of medium focused education is worth the money they want for it.

In my opinion ideas are what drives design, and no education is going to teach you how to think. You get that on your own. So, I guess I'm saying that education is important, but you don't need to pay someone to give it to you - you can get it on your own.

Yeah, we have had a couple. Unfortunately we are a small outfit, and like being small so we can take on less well paying but more satisfying jobs. We do like to talk to younger designers, and try to give them advice and contacts.

It has been really nice seeing a high calibre of young talent coming out the institutions and off the streets, but unfortunately we haven't been able to offer anyone a position. I'm sure in the future we'll be looking to expand a little, and when we do I would imagine that we would be looking for younger talent that isn't as jaded with the internet as a more seasoned designer and is more enthusiastic and keen to try new things.

I really like Josh Davis; he is obviously incredibly talented and has been the first high profile, genuine open source guy that I have seen. Zeldman interests me, I guess I see him as some kind of rabid guerilla soldier, up in the mountains fighting for a better internet. I also like the k10k guys, that 'good news/bad news' piece that was up there last year really struck a chord with me.

I think I'm trying to find something individual in my work and it seems very easy on the net to be the next tDR ripoff, Matt Owens imitator or whatever, so I guess I've got a lot of respect for all the good designers out there making independent content that is often very intelligent and thought provoking - I don't want to mould myself on any of them though.

Thanks. Congratulations on your site, There has been a need for something like it on the local scene for a long time, I'm really glad someone finally picked up the cue and did it.