When we are looking at BD4D, we feel that it has somewhat unique contents compared to other design portal sites. What was the purpose or what drove you to launch this site?
Ryan Carson: As soon as I moved to London, I realized there was a huge concentration of Creatives here. I was shocked to realize that no one was coordinating a time for them to meet each other and talk about their passions, motivations, and creativity. So I decided to start a monthly event with this in mind. I brought in a friend, Ryan Shelton to help. We began to tell others about the idea, and the momentum grew. Soon, we had quite a few people that were excited about it. Our main goal was to give back to the community that had been so gracious to us. We also wanted to make sure the event always stayed non-elitist and open to everyone.
In our case, we are developing a typical design portal site in Japanese. Do you have any thoughts or opinions on these typical design portal sites?
Ryan Carson: I think design portal sites are a beautiful thing, as their sole purpose is to add credibility, structure and inspiration to the creative community. In fact, we owe all of the exposure we have received, to design portal sites such as DiK, Surfstation, Pixelsurgeon, Digital Thread and Newstoday.
What were some difficulties you encountered while developing BD4D?
Ryan Carson: There was plenty of late nights where I felt like giving up. We often felt like the blood, sweat and tears weren't worth it. But after BD4D Event One was successful and we received a massive amount of positive feedback, we sat back, had a drink, and smiled about it. It was all worth it. To see the smiles on the attendees faces and hear stories about how they were encouraged and inspired. It was great. :-)
We are developing our site in North America. To us, we feel that British sites have different look and feel from North American ones generally. We have impressions that while many North American sites focus on incorporating photographs that are beautifully processed, many British sites focus more on pixel designs and animations which are interesting and fun. We would like to hear your thoughts on British sites in general.
Ryan Carson: I feel like it is a bad idea to box in sites into geographical constraints. I actually do not see a strong theme running through sites from the UK versus North America. The more I travel, the more I see that everyone has such a unique viewpoint on life that they can not be generalised into a "type" of design.
Do you have any Japanese sites that are your favourite or gave you an inspiration?
Ryan Carson: absolutely blows my mind. Yugo Nakamura has been an inspiration for me since I began tackling Flash. His technical expertise and his eye for beauty was beyond inspirational. He was (is?) a civil engineer and he was able to cross platforms into the digital realm and code amazing interfaces in Flash ... amazing. I also really admire Ryota Kuwakubo's work with physical interfaces and objects. His project 'Bitman' was a fascinating combination of personal wearable computing and entertainment. It's refreshing to see a creative breaking out and pursuing such non-traditional ends.
We feel that UK and Japan has lots of things in common. For example, both are small island, fashion and trend leaders, and everything is expensive (haha). What is your impression of Japan? How does Japan seem to you?
Ryan Carson: I think Japanese culture is amazing. I see your amazing technical expertise, which is manifested in functional, yet beautiful interfaces. I have always said that the next place I would love to live is the Japan. I had a friend that taught in Japan for a year. She was amazed at the pressure to conform to societal norms. I think that the West is missing out on a lot of the benefits that you experience in Japan, because of these pressures. However, I can imagine that these pressures might also limit creativity at times (however, I could be wrong). Therefore, I see my Japanese friends manifesting their creativity in unique ways. The difference in cultures in SO fascinating to me.
Do you have any favourite Japanese food?
Ryan Carson: Not really. Sorry! :-)
Please give some messages to Japanese people!
Ryan Carson: Please get in touch with Ryan and I if you are interested in starting a branch of BD4D in Japan. We would love to expand to your region, and meet many of you! :-)