The more I learn about Char, who writes on Essential Keystrokes, the more convinced I am that we are kindred spirits. Brian, a much newer acquaintance, is causing me to raise my brow for the same reason. Both have tagged me with a fun little meme – 5 things about design and me. So here goes…

What is something that would surprise people about design and you?

I’m mostly self-taught. I have a degree, but it’s not worth the paper it was printed on. I quickly surpassed those who trained me at the first two firms I worked for, so that didn’t help much either. It worked out though. I have an affinity for books and enjoy learning on my own. I’ve learned more in the past two years as a freelancer than from schooling and work experience combined. Thanks Amazon.

If you could design one blogger’s site for free, whose would it be?

That’s a loaded question. This is me side-stepping it.

What blog platform do you prefer, and why?

WordPress, no doubt. I’ve been using it as a platform to manage this whole site (not just the blog) for about 18 months. I love having the power to customize it with plugins and the versatility of WP theming has really captured my imagination. It has also enabled many freelancers (myself included) to add a valuable service to their list, or create a profitable small business where none existed before. How cool is that?

Aside from your own, what is your favorite blog theme/template?

It’s a tie between Derek Punsalan’s 5thirtyone V2, and Kyle Neath’s Hemingway theme. I like a lot of James Koster’s work as well.

Do you have a blog-reading guilty pleasure?

Well, normally I can’t stand partial feeds but one remains in my reader despite the small teaser of content. Design View, by Andy Rutledge. He comes across as arrogant but the guy knows his stuff so I guess he can be. A shining example of his prose is entitled Hungry? Want another bullshit sandwhich? How can you not click a title like that?

Who’s next?

I think everyone I would’ve named has already been tagged… except Paul? My lovely readers are invited to chime in too! Let us learn 5 things about design and you.