This month Hotscripts meet one of the people behind the creative mind of HotScripts.com. Greg Pabst, their Graphics Designer shares with us a little bit about his background, his opinion regarding web standards and the tools that he uses. Join us now as we meet Greg.

HS: Can you tell us about your background and how you got into design?

I graduated from Southwest Missouri State University with a Computer Information Systems Degree in December of 2000. Programming isn’t my passion though, graphics design is. I am a self taught graphic designer; I started designing web pages in 1995. I always liked art classes in Jr. High and High School, I guess you can say that designing comes natural to me. I don’t remember why I started designing for the web, it just kind of interested me. I ended up getting a job for a guy that ran a small web designing company out of his home. I worked for another design company after that and then ended up at Communitech before I landed my dream job here at iNET!

HS: What is a typical day on the job like, for you?

No two days are ever alike that’s for sure. We have so many different things going on here at iNET; I am almost never doing the same thing on any two consecutive days. One day I might be working on a new layout for one of our sites, then it might be put on hold the next day and I might start another site. It’s not stressful here, but we do run a pretty quick pace. So there really is no typical day for me.

HS: What's your source of inspiration?

I really don’t know. I really don’t have a particular source of inspiration. I like to get ideas for layouts from looking at other websites that I come across as well as magazine ads.

HS: Would we be seeing another face-lift of HotScripts.com with the re-writing of hotscripts.com?

As it stands right now HotScripts will be getting a face-lift/enhancement. This will be the first face-lift since we acquired HotScripts, as the look that HotScripts has now was the result of a total redesign. A redesign is possible, but I don’t think it’s necessary since we just launched the current look and feel last June.

HS: If there was something you'd like to change about the Net, what would it be?

Hmm.. I never really thought about that much. No, I don’t think there is anything about the Net that I would want to change.

HS: What are your thoughts on web standards? Do you think we should design for web standards?

Oh yes, I believe everyone should design for web standards. Websites were a chaotic mess until the first “real” standards based browsers came out (IE 5+, Netscape 7+, Mozilla and Opera). If anything the standards make designing websites easier, because If you design it correctly the site will look correct on all standards based browsers. I’m not a huge fan of CSS only and no html sites. I understand the benefits, but I find doing that limits what you can do layout-wise for your site. CSS only sites tend to be pretty blah looking, usually with little graphics. I find CSS very useful for setting up page margins and defining all text styles though. It gives you ultimate control. The dilemma with standards is two-sided though. Not only do you have to get designers to follow the standards, everyone who uses the Internet needs to use a true standards based browser too!

HS: What's your primary tool for graphics? Photoshop?

Yes, Photoshop is my main tool, but I also use Illustrator for logo designs.

HS: And your HTML editor?

Dreamweaver is my HTML editor of choice. I would use nothing else.

HS: What's the maximum page size and load time you would recommend for a page?

I would say 45 seconds max for a 56K dial-up connection. I usually try to have my page size be no more than 100K.

HS: Please feel free to share with us any final comments, concerns, or important advice to the HotScripts.com members.

First, I would like to thank you for interviewing me, it was fun. Second, I hope everyone enjoys the new freshened HotScripts whenever that comes out.