Paul Barugh is a 29 year old graphic designer living in London UK. We recently chatted with him about his website, paulbarugh.com, built with IM.
We chose to put a spotlight on his website as it is, other than showcasing his graphic work in a terrific and vivid way, designed in a very unique way.
Can you tell us a little bit about you and your site?
I left university in 2010 with a fine arts degree and quickly came to realize that I was not able to compete with the qualifications that I gained from my courses.
From 2010 to 2012, I was working odd jobs in call-centers and started thinking of ways in which I could pursue my love of art and design. I’d always been aware of graphic design, but never really understood what it involved and how I could find work in that field.
Late in 2012, I began learning Illustrator using Lynda tutorials while competing on freelancer websites to design logos. It’s something I’d recommend to every prospective designer as this taught me a lot about design principles and meeting a client’s expectations, while helping grasp the limitations of the software at the same time.
From there I moved onto more demanding briefs and began learning other software packages such as InDesign and Flash, while expanding my range of expertise by designing websites, POS packaging, print etc. Always moving forward and setting up the next challenge. I kept myself focused by looking at designers from around the world – comparing my work with theirs and making sure that I always had something to aim for.
What inspired your website design and what was the process of building a site like?
In 2013, I began to feel more confident about my abilities as a designer and started thinking seriously about finding work as one full-time for a studio or in-house design team – This is when I found myself needing a website.
I started off this process by finding out how difficult it would be to design and build my own site – it turned out to be very difficult indeed. Instead, I looked at a few different sites that offer templates instead and ended up choosing IM Creator.
I choose to start with a template even though I wanted my own design, this allowed me to familiarize myself with the functions of the service. Over the next 3 months, I slowly built my website with no specific idea in mind, other than it being simple to navigate and easy to use, with as much information on as few pages as possible.
It took a long time before I was happy with the aesthetic of the site. I knew I wanted it to have a stone effect and wanted a pastel color scheme, but the layout and execution took some experimentation. The site never really came together until I designed my own logo (this comes highly recommended). Not only was it fun, but really looks unique and professional when given the appropriate amount of attention.
My website is a portfolio – this means that it had no rules in regards to function, layout or aesthetic. It reflects who I am as a designer and this meant I had to think very carefully about everything that was used to build the site.
