Web Design in Oklahoma City

Today, we are going to get to know Element Fusion's Creative Director, Jason Zimdars. Jason has worked at Element Fusion since January of 2005, and his world-class design abilities have guided Element Fusion to achieve and maintain the high level of excellence our customers expect.

My interview with Jason actually turned out a bit longer than normal, and he's got some really good stuff to share, so I'm going to break it into two parts. Part one (below) focuses on Jason's design experience and his role here at Element Fusion. Part two (to be published shortly) will bring out some of Jason's outlook on the world of web design.

Me: How did you get started as a designer?

Jason: It seems like I've always been an artist and designer, so choosing this career was an easy task. As a kid, I was always drawing and creating. By the time I was in middle school and high school I had already started to do some commercial work: logos, t-shirt designs, political cartoons, etc. Design was always the way to make a living doing the creative things I liked to do anyway.

It was in college, around 1995, when I first fell in love with the web. The university offered a course called "Design Technology" that allowed us to explore some new media technologies. At that time there were no WYSIWYG editors like Dreamweaver so you really had to learn HTML. I was extremely interested in the medium so I poured all of my efforts into learning about the web. This continued over the next few years as I looked for every opportunity to explore the web. I even got my painting instructor to allow me to use Flash for a project. In the early part of my career after college I worked developing websites and user interfaces for software applications. This is really the foundation of my user-centered approach to design and to this day, I'm always the guy in product meetings concerned about the user's experience.

Me: What are your responsibilities as Creative Director for Element Fusion?

Jason: The creative director position at Element Fusion really lets me focus on the best parts of this job. Making sure we're producing great websites for our customers is the highest priority. My role extends to supporting our entire design team. Whether they need help with a tricky CSS issue or an honest critique on a design comp, it is my job to make sure everyone is putting out quality work that meets the needs of our customers and the quality standards we've set for ourselves.

Additionally, I am responsible for the design of all of Element Fusion's own websites and applications. This includes Element Fusion's main website and the sites for each of our products. I am also heavy involved with our products team in the features, design, and experience of the software products themselves.

Me: What do you love most about being the Creative Director for Element Fusion?

Jason: Element Fusion offers everything I could want in a job. Every day, I get to work with talented people doing work for some really great customers. I have the support and creative freedom to really design at a high level plus tons of customers and products that need unique design solutions. What more could you want?

Me: How would you describe your design approach or design philosophy?

Jason: I come from a very traditional design background. As I mentioned before, we weren't even taught web design in college. Instead, we studied more timeless design principles and the work of legendary designers like Paul Rand and El Lizzitsky. Like designers of that era, I believe that communication is the foundation of design. That our job as a designer is to help our clients communicate with their customers via the web and other visual mediums. And that communicating their message is more important that merely style.

(Stay tuned for part two, coming soon ... )