Photo by Dustin Diaz, Flash Bullet on Twitter @ded.

Why do you enjoy social networking?

I love people. When I’m out and about, I am always people-watching. I’ve been known to drift off in conversation because I find myself intrigued by people nearby and what they do. This is why I love Twitter so much. It’s interesting to know what people are up to and what they have to say. This is also why I enjoy anthropology classes in school. So social networking is like this for me but online. It’s fun.

Favorite 3 typefaces on impulse, even if it’s Comic Sans or Papyrus. Go!

Hoefler Text, Myriad, Helvetica

What is your specialty in your industry?

I focus on both visual interaction design and CSS architecture. Oh, and I’m really good at eating cookies. I should do a conference talk on it one of these days.

Name one of your favorite webbies and why.

Only one? I have many to choose from… A recent favorite is Meagan Fisher (owltastic.com) on Twitter @MeaganFisher. She is a very good designer, a cool chick to chat with on Twitter, and a fellow fan of Twilight.

Sushi & Robots. I gotta know. Why the obsession?

Uh, because they are AWESOME? Jeez, like you even have to ask.

Haha, seriously, though, these are two of my favorite things. So I figured… why not put the two together for my site’s name? I like it. It totally works for me.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I want to act in a Tim Burton movie one day. :) Especially if it means I get to make out with Johnny Depp.

Any advice to complete web noobs?

While it is definitely good to know as much as you can about the web, find your one thing and get good at it. REALLY good at it. People will eventually seek you out for that… and you’ll get to do the other stuff along the way. At least that’s how it was for me.

Also, stand up for yourself and learn to say no. It’s easy when starting out to let people walk all over you and take advantage of you, especially if you are new. Your health and emotional state is a key part of your life, and more important to you than how much work you can get. I still sometimes struggle with learning to say no, but I work on it constantly, and advise you do too.

How did you get into art, development, speaking, writing, and design?

I’ve always liked creating things, whether they were handmade greeting cards, drawings, hand-made plush teddy bears, or whatever. Ever since I can remember I’ve been making stuff. When I was about 14, my dad showed me a website he made by himself using AOL’s web site creation tools back in the day. I was fascinated. He could type something and out popped a website! He was using very minimal HTML code (and relied heavily on tables), but this was enough to get my big hobby going. I would sit for hours and hours doing this in my evenings and weekends.

When I went to college, I chose art school because I wanted to be a graphic designer. Somewhere along the way I realized I could merge my hobby of designing things with my hobby of HTML — and actually make a living doing it.

The speaking and writing came as an added bonus. Once I got the first writing gig (the chapter for The Art & Science of CSS), the rest kinda fell into place. :) It’s great — I enjoy doing it and it works well as a primer for one of my future goals of getting into teaching.

Favorite Robot. Go!

Eve from Wall-E. She’s so cute.

Favorite Sushi. Go!

If sashimi counts, I really love sake (salmon). If not, and nigiri counts, I really love unagi (eel). But if we’re talking strictly rolls, I tend to go for a spider roll… or a caterpillar roll.

What is your one passion in the web industry?

Again, I only get one? :) I suppose I would go with sharing/teaching. I love that the web industry seems to be one of the most open industries in terms of sharing skill sets and techniques. This is something I want to be more of a part of.

Who is your favorite vampire and why?

Celine, the death dealer from Underworld. She is such a bad*** and she looks super hot in that black outfit.

Epilogue

Jina’s words and things can be read and bought over at her blog, Sushi & Robots. You can follow her on twitter @jina and she’ll probably talk with you, considering her social butterfly’ness. She is currently employed at Crush + Lovely, a company that shares her vision in creating relationships. If you want to read Jina’s works, I suggest checking out the following of her writings:

• The Art & Science of CSS
  Published March 2007
• 23 Beautiful Examples of Web Site Archives
• Writing an Interface Style Guide
• Make it Modular
• Creating Sexy Stylesheets
• Breaking Out of the Box

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 6th, 2009 at 6:38 am and is filed under Inspiration, Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.