Brandon Wilson
www.otterball.com, www.bukwild.com


BW: My full name is Brandon Wilson. I am 21 years old. I am currently studying art (painting focus) and photography at a Houston University.

Where are you from?
I have lived in Houston, Texas for 13 years now. Before Houston I lived in Louisiana, and before that I lived in Mississippi. Houston is a great city. It has a lot of culture and variety. Of all the big cities I have been in, I like Houston the best.

Design education:
I have had no formal design education, however, I have educated myself for the last 5 years via the Internet and design professionals / novices I come in contact with. I am now involved in an internship with the graphic design department of a large Houston area church. My mentor and boss have given me several personal projects that have greatly expanded my knowledge and appreciation for the history of graphic design. And he supplies me with books on Swiss design, grid theory, typeface design, etc.

Your photography work is very artistic, when did you first realize that your work was more than just snapshots and more of a piece of art?
Well... As I said before, I am a photo student so I have been stretched and pushed by my prof. to explore the artistic side of photography. Crappy snapshots = a failing grade. So I guess there was never a point when I made a transition from snapshot to art. I have always attempted (in recent history) to capture artistic images; whether it is through framing, film type, processing, or any other method. I have shot a fair amount of slide film and then had it cross processed at the lab. This gives very cool results.

I am fairly new to photography (virtually less than a year) and I try to push myself as much as I can. I am currently enjoying the hours and hours that I spend in the University darkroom printing and developing film. It is such an organic process. I think just being in the darkroom and smelling the chemicals inspires me.

How do you find working with clients as opposed to personal work?
Whenever I make personal work, I find myself trying to break all barriers and try something completely new. I am my toughest critic, for sure. So, it is very challenging for me to create personal work because nothing is ever good enough for me. I feel that I can always make it a little bit better. I tend to be fickle in this sense I suppose. But - when it finally works out it has a certain life and charm that is very different from client work. Often times I would categorize my personal stuff as Fine Art instead of design. Which is a big difference: personal work doesn't always have a message. Client work does. And the ultimate goal is to communicate THEIR message, not mine.

I find client work to be just as enjoyable and difficult, but in different ways. I like the fact that it requires me to be creative within given parameters. The time-crunching schedules and the making of multiple comps are demanding and sometimes restrictive, but can be freeing in that it forces me to stick with ideas.

Can you give our viewers a little history behind Otterball.com:
About a year ago, my long-time-friend Paul and I got together and decided to start a web design company. He is a very good programmer and I loved to design in my free time. The name "Otterball" means nothing. I think it was just some random couple of words that I came up with... I can't really remember how it happened. I still like the name though.

Our first project was with an elderly neighbor from down the street who wanted a website for selling a CD storage device. It was a horrible job, but it got us off the ground. From there we worked through word of mouth. We did a music producer's site who was producing an album for Paul at the time. We then came into contact with someone who was promoting Jahleela, an Austin based hip-hop artist, and did that site. It just slowly grew. We have been totally balls-to-the-wall about this whole thing and it has really paid off. We have have done more print work as time goes on.

Before being a part of the Design Industry what was your very first job?
I worked a hellish construction job for a residential alarm services company about 2 years ago. I prewired houses for alarm systems in the heat of the Houston summer. I was way overworked and the job was dangerous and difficult. Nothing like a little inspiration to finish my degree and start Otterball. The worst part was the tejano music.

Do you think that traditional art styles transfer across well to graphic design?
Absolutely. Art and design are very similar to begin with. There are all sorts of little things such as use of color shape and texture that can be gleaned from traditional art. I am personally inspired in both art and design by artists Terry Winters, Paul Klee, and Kasamir Malevich to name some favorites. I think inspiration can come from anywhere as long as it is genuine.

What growing trend do you see in Flash that you feel will stick around for a while:
Dynamic content driven by PHP and databases. Also, interfaces that are becoming more and more interesting and engaging. for example: http://www.bobschneidermusic.com/

What trend would you like to see go away:
Hmmm.... bad design for one thing. There are way too many scroll bars or buttons that are SO slow. The text throbs up and down instead of sliding - regardless of CPU speed. I hate that.

Describe your work station:
I work on a blazingly fast brand new PC and will hopefully get dual monitors soon to complete my uber-design-station: UDS. This next part is kind of pathetically funny. I work in a less than ideal environment to say the least: Paul's apartment, which really really really sucks balls. We are moving into a much better situation in about a month. I would rather not go into more detail about it... it's kind of embarrassing. I will say that my car was broken into this past summer and I had a lot stolen. So, you get the idea.

Can you elaborate more on the Otterball / Bukwild collaboration:
Actually, they just recently hired us within the last few weeks. So I am technically a Bukwild employee, but we are still working out the details on what is to become of Otterball. We were apparently recommended to them by someone at Kurt Noble (I am very appreciative of this, whoever it was). Bukwild contacted us from out of the blue one day in December 2003 and things rapidly progressed. We flew out to Sacramento a few weeks ago where Bukwild is located and sealed the deal. Life has been crazy, busy and exciting lately.

What was your first experience with Flash?
The first time I was interested in Flash was the summer of 2000. My friend Ben Godfrey was showing me a bunch of cool websites and I remember seeing Joshua Davis' Praystation. It was an old version obviously: the one with the calendar at the bottom. I was totally amazed and was hooked.

If there were one thing you could change about Macromedia Flash MX what would it be?
Ahhhh, there are so many things. I would like to be able to dynamically load PNG's. Only being able to dynamically work with JPG's and GIF's is a big headache.

Have you ever worked with someone who personally inspired you, if so who and why?
Ben Godfrey has inspired in multiple ways. I play guitar now because of him and I design now because of him. I work a lot with and next to Pete Suprean, a fellow art student. We inspire each other. It is good to have a mutual relationship like that. Symbiants I believe they are called? Sorry, that was pretty nerdy.

What is your all-time favorite movie and why?
I don't have one. I like watching movies, but have simply not been incredibly impressed by any single one. I prefer reading for a good story. (I know this is totally changing the question, but what the hell) I have recently read "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger and "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess. Both of these are very good. My favorite book is still "1984" by Orwell. That book is amazing.

Thank you so much for doing this interview, any last comment you would like to add?
I appreciate being invited to do this. It was fun. I really like how this site is so down to earth about stuff. Way cool.

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