Timothy Tran
www.timothynguyentran.com

Tell us a little bit about your background?
My family and I moved to the United States from Vietnam back in 1979 so I was only 1 yr old at the time. I later moved a few times, but remained mostly in southern California most of my life.

Where you are from?
I'm from an area in southern California known as Orange County.

Design education:
I have an Associates degree in Graphic Design from Westwood College and now I'm currently working on my Bachelors in Media Art and Animation at The Art Institute of Orange County.

How did you start out as an artist and web designer?
I've been drawing since I was little and originally I wanted to be a comic book artist, but computers got in the picture and caught my attention. After getting my hands on a computer around the age of 17, I started out messing around with HMTL and Javascript. I was one of those kids with an Angelfire website that had just about every annoying javascript you can think of, from mouse trailers to welcome popups, you name it, I had it all. It wasn't till 2002 was when I got serious with web design. I started out doing freelance work for small businesses and friends, which eventually lead to my current position as a web developer at Living Logos Entertainment, a gaming company in southern California.

What do you see in the future of Flash and Macromedia products?
Personally I think the use of Flash and other Macromedia products will increase. As processor speeds are increasing each day and more people are getting broadband connections, the use of Flash will be more appealing. Macromedia has laid out the groundwork and will remain on top over Java applications and Microsoft's Sparkle. Macromedia still has its work cut out though because their recent release of MX 2004 isn't that impressive, but I remain optimistic and believe Macromedia will continue going strong.

So many new designers emulate other artist, what are your thoughts on that?
To me there is a difference between "ripping" and being inspired and few people know the difference. There is nothing wrong with being inspired, I surf the web all the time to study what others are doing. I've seen tons of work that you can tell they have been influenced by another artist, but on the other hand you can tell that they have managed to incorporate their own ideas and styles. I'm all for that and have no problem with it. It's pathetic when I see an exact copy of another person's work where no new ideas or elements have been added.

If web/graphic design did not exist where and what would you be doing now?
I would most likely be doing more 2D illustration work.

Any actionscript tips you would like to share with our viewers?
Well I can't think of anything specific off the top of my head right now, but one word of advice to any newcomers to Flash. You do NOT have to have an extensive knowledge of actionscript to build a functional and cool flash site. Many people think I'm a hardcore actionscriptor, but in reality I'm not. You can build a site with just some basic actionscript commands and tweens. Flash is all about fooling the viewer's eye so how you build it isn't really important, it's how it's presented is all that matters.

What do you know about Hawaii design/designers?
I've seen some pretty nice work produced by Hawaii designers. I noticed a lot of hip hop related styles and nature-influenced styles, which is nice.

What's your favorite PC game and why?
Definitely Warcraft and Starcraft, they're both like a game of chess where strategy is involved, but only digitized.

What do you like/hate about the net?
It's a great way to broaden your knowledge on just about anything you can think of and makes networking with people a lot easier which is why I'm grateful for the net. What I do hate is the amount of advertisement being forced upon me by spywares. I guess that's the price you have to pay to use the net.

Do you think that Flash is cool or overused?
I think it's both; flash is an excellent tool to make the web more interactive and more appealing to the eye if used correctly. Some people get carried away and all they concentrate on is having the coolest effects. I myself have to admit that my personal work is really flash intensive, but it's just me trying to push the boundaries of flash. For my client work, I tone things down and consider certain things like usability, functionality along with aesthetics.

Do you prefer technologically advanced sites or sites with simple but good design?
I don't really think it matters, I've seen some excellent sites that have been built with just CSS and HTML. I've also seen some excellent sites incorporating Flash and Cold Fusion. I believe the end product is more important than how it was built.

I've noticed you are a regular on kirupa.com, what are your thoughts on sites such as kirupa, flashkit and other similar websites?
I think they're an excellent source for learning and getting answers for problems. They also offer a great way to share your ideas and get feedback on your work.

What are your bad personal and design habits?
I have a problem with keeping things simple. On certain projects, simplicity is the best way to go, but I tend to go wild on my designs.

Design styles you hate:
There isn't a style I hate, I just think some are overused which makes it boring seeing it over and over like those Photoshop brushes. They're great, but after seeing 50 sites or so designed with the same brushes it gets redundant.

How would you like to be remembered?
That one dude with the robots on his site. =)

Do you have any new projects coming up that you can tell us about?
I'm currently working a flash animation series called Hyper Nurb and I'm also building a site for the Orange County Outlawz, a professional minor league football team.

Favorite food:
Italian food, especially Lasagna.

Final comments:
I would like to thank Marc for the interview, these were great questions and I hope my answers have been helpful to others. I would also like to thank my sponsor, www.dynamohosting.net for providing the killer hosting for my site and my client's sites.

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