To identify our top 10 jewelry teachers, we ran a survey and asked respondents to write in the names of their favorite instructors. The survey was open to the public and was answered by our readers, BeadAndButton.com visitors, and Bead&Button Show enthusiasts. At first we were ecstatic to receive 229 names of teachers, plus a cascade of compliments about them. We quickly realized, however, that we would have to name just 10 of these wonderful teachers to our list. Not all of the best  teachers can be in our top 10, but the 10 people mentioned most in the survey are highly representative of all great instructors of beadwork, wirework, polymer clay, metal clay, and mixed media.

1. Marcia De Coster - http://www.marciadecoster.com/
2. Celie Fago - http://www.celiefago.com/ - E-mail: celiefago@comcast.net
3. Diane Fitzgerald - http://www.dianefitzgerald.com/ - E-mail: dmfbeads@bitstream.net
4. Mary Hettmansperger - http://maryhetts.com/ - E-mail: hetts@ctlnet.com
5. Lisa Niven Kelly - http://www.lisanivenkelly.com/lnk/lnk.php - E-mail: lisa@beaducation.com
6. Laura McCabe - http://www.justletmebead.com/ - E-mail: justletmebead@gmail.com
7. Anne E. Mitchel - http://annemitchell.net/ - E-mail: anne@annemitchell.net
8. Cynthia Rutledg - http://www.cynthiarutledge.net/ - E-mail: info@cynthiarutledge.net
9. Kim St. Jea - http://studiostjean.com/ - kim@kimstjean.com
10. Sherry Serafini - http://www.serafinibeadedjewelry.com/ - E-mail: sserafini1512@comcast.net

Internet Explorer was the first browser to support @font-face, going all the way back to IE4. They still support it the same way they did then: Using a proprietary format called EOT, or Embedded Open Type. EOTs font have restrictions in place in order to try to solve the licensing problem, for example EOT files can be tied to a particular domain so that other sites cannot hotlink to your font files, or download them for their own use. They also have support for font subsetting, or including only the characters that you need in your page. This can drastically reduce file size, which is always important when designing anything that needs to be downloaded over the internet. EOT files are a solution to the licensing problem, but some people do not like the fact that they contain a form of DRM. There have been efforts to create a specific web font format that all browsers would support, and would solve the licensing problem, but like any new web standard, these initiatives would probably take a long time to be finalized and implemented in all browsers. Rather than waiting until then, you can actually use @font-face today with a bit of work. Below is a list of the font formats supported by various web browsers.

Step One: Obtain Your Font

Because of licensing concerns, you cannot simply embed any font on your website. Your best bet is to get a free font. There are lots of great free fonts out there, and lots of sites have lists of free fonts that you can use with @font-face. The site I like for getting free fonts is fontex.org . They have all kinds of fonts, and it is pretty likely that you’ll find one that suits your design there.

Free Google web fonts 

Step Two: Convert Your Font

Because of the diversity of formats supported by the popular browsers, you’ll need to create at least three font files in order to get support cross browser. First you need a TTF or OTF font for Firefox 3.5 and Safari. Fortunately, most of the free fonts that you will come across will be in one of these formats. Second you will need an EOT file for Internet Explorer. Microsoft has a tool called WEFT  that can be used to create EOT files, but it was created in Windows 98 days, and has an awful user interface, and may not even run on your computer. Luckily, a hacker has reverse engineered the EOT font format, and published a command line tool called ttf2eot . Now don’t fret about having to use the command line, because you don’t have to. There are a few online tools that have created graphical user interfaces for ttf2eot. The one that I’ve found works the best, is the Font Squirrel @font-face Kit Generator . As it’s name implies, it is a tool created specifically for creating fonts for @font-face, and it can generate a number of formats including EOT. All you need to do, is upload your font file to their service, select your output formats and hit download. A folder with all of your converted font files, and a demo page will be downloaded to your computer once Font Squirrel is done converting your fonts.

Step Four: The CSS

OK. We should now have all of the font types that you need to get cross browser support. Now, we just need to write the CSS to actually embed the fonts. Building on the work of Paul Irish and his bulletproof @font-face Syntax , here is the code:

@font-face {
    font-family: 'Comfortaa Regular';
    src: url('Comfortaa.eot');
    src: local('Comfortaa Regular'),
         local('Comfortaa'),
         url('Comfortaa.ttf') format('truetype'),
         url('Comfortaa.svg#font') format('svg');
}

This code links to all of the different font formats that we have created, and will make the font work cross browser.

To use the font that you just declared in your CSS, you just need to reference it like a normal font. The name that you reference corrisponds to the font-family name that you specified in your @font-face declaration. Remember to always provide a fallback web-safe font for people using really old browsers, otherwise they will end up with their browser’s default font. For example:

h1, p {
    font-family: 'Comfortaa Regular', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
}

Examining the Appearance

Great! You now have your font working in all browsers. Now how does it look? Well, that depends on what operating system you are using. On Mac OS X, the fonts will look pretty good. On older versions of Windows, however, they might not look so hot. This is because Microsoft’s font rendering engine does not antialias (smooth) the edges of the fonts it renders. This produces a terrible look, which was recentlycomplained about by the users of Boing-Boing , who said that the font used in their redesign looked “awful”. In Windows Vista, Microsoft enabled a feature that had been in XP but not enabled by default, calledClearType , which aims to make their font rendering look nicer. There is a way to enable the feature in Windows XP, but most users have not. Thus, you as the designer of your page need to make the decision about whether to use custom fonts. In my own testing, custom fonts at small font sizes looked just fine. At larger font sizes that you might use for large headings on your site, the fonts didn’t look so good. In general, the more curvy the font, the more jagged edges you will see. If you have a large proportion of users using IE on your site, you are better off using something like Cufon  for the large headings on your site, and @font-face for the smaller text. Some fonts will look just fine at larger font sizes – it depends on the font. So do some testing on older Windows computers before you put your site live, and make that decision. If you need to use Cufon, there is a great tutorial right here on Nettuts  on how to use it.

1. Federal-Government Manager

Especially in homeland security, energy and the environment, health care, veterans affairs and defense. Common job titles: program analyst, program manager and director.

2. Higher-Education Administrator

Even in tough times, and despite annual beyond-inflation price increases, many people continue to pursue higher education. Neat niche: student-affairs administrator.  (No, I’m not talking about assignations.)

3. Program Evaluator

Is Head Start really worth the taxpayer dollars? Is it wise to train lab technicians online? What should the next-generation teen-pregnancy-prevention program look like? Program evaluators address such questions.

4. Global Business Development

Corporate executive specializing in global business development or managing global workforces are in demand. Speaking Mandarin, Hindi, Bengali, Russian, Portuguese, Arabic or Farsi is a plus.

5. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapist

The Mental Health Parity Act requires that mental health now be covered as fully as physical health, but many insurers will cover only cognitive-behavioral therapy because it’s both shorter and, on average, more efficacious than traditional psychotherapy.  Learn more: Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies

6. Immigration Expert

President Obama has promised amnesty or “a path to citizenship” for the U.S.’s illegal immigrants. Experts will be needed to figure out how to integrate millions of people who are typically poor, speak little English and have high health-care needs.

7. Researcher

Researcher with expertise in two or more of these subjects: physics, math, molecular biology, engineering and computer science. Key specializations and examples of work in each area: energy, genomics, neurophysics, diagnostic imaging and pollution control. Warning: After getting that PhD in hard science and math, you may need a one- to two-year postdoctoral position. Learn more: Career Guide for Scientists, The Science Careers portal from Science magazine

8. Health-Informatics Specialist

Health-care providers are switching to electronic medical records, using computerized expert systems to guide diagnoses and treatment recommendations, and collecting more data to evaluate quality of care. Learn more: American Medical Informatics Organization,American Health Information Management Association

9. Optometrist

This career offers a high patient success rate, good income, status and shorter-than-MD training: four years post-bachelors or seven years in a BS/OD program.  Learn more: Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11: Optometrists

10. Genetic Counselor

With personal DNA sequencing ever more informative and affordable, people face many more gene-related decisions. For example, if your genome doubles your risk of breast cancer, should you have a prophylactic mastectomy? Or if you’re pregnant and a test reveals your baby has the gene for a disease that has a 50-50 chance of being serious, should you abort? Genetic counselors help people decide what to do. A master’s is the terminal degree. Learn more: National Society of Genetic Counselors

 11. Patient advocate

Help ensure the patient gets to see the right specialist, do research so the patient is better informed when talking to the doctor, educate family members on how to support the patient during a hospital stay, sort through the mountains of bills and, if necessary, negotiate fees.  Learn more: About.com’s guide to Becoming a Patient Advocate

 12. Physical Therapist

This career scores high on job-satisfaction surveys, thanks to one-on-one interaction that lasts longer than physicians’ average of 12 minutes per patient, tangible patient progress and reasonable work hours. Plus, as aging boomers sustain more weekend-warrior injuries and worse, the job market could strengthen, although cost-control pressures are resulting in increased use of physical-therapy assistants, who have less training. A three-year Doctor of Physical Therapy is becoming the standard degree. Learn more: Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11: Physical Therapists,American Physical Therapy Association

13. Veterinarian

This career offers advantages over an MD career: shorter training, qualification to do a wider range of procedures, less paperwork and freedom from the uncertainties of health-care reform. Of course, your patients can’t describe what’s wrong with them.  Learn more: About.com’s veterinary career portal

When putting together a basic web site proposal, you should include the following elements:

Your Information:
Your background or company history, qualifications, skills, past achievements and contact details.

Project Overview:
The company you are submitting the proposal for, your understanding of their products and services, the target market, the goals of the web site and a rough outline of how you will achieve them.

Project Theme:
A description of style of site you are proposing. Elements from the client’s current branding you will utilize or new elements you will develop.

Special Considerations:
such as language, security or other issues pertaining to the company, site or target market that will need to be addressed.

Web site flow chart:
A diagram showing the different pages of the site and navigational structure.

Flowchart Description:
A detailed description of each web page, how it fits in with the overall web site theme and the project element it addresses.

Development Timeline:
This should be a description of each stage of the web projects’ development, the estimated completion date and notes regarding client consultation and supply of information/feedback from the client. This may also include milestone payments for involved projects and site promotion activities. Make it clear that traffic takes time to build up after implementation and promotion should only occur after the site has been tested thoroughly. Improper implementation can cost months of traffic.

Project Costing:
A descriptive breakdown of costing and total of quote including an end date before the price will need to be re-calculated. This will include items such as domain name registration, hosting fees and outsourcing for sections of the site you will not be able to develop yourself. Ensure you take into account items including travel time, electricity, telephone and consumables.

Factor in the cost of the proposal as well; a good proposal will take hours of your time and you should be compensated for that. In your eagerness to gain the contract, you may lose money if you quote too close to the bone. Bear in mind that things rarely go strictly to plan in web design and delays can be expected. Time is money. The going rate for web design services seems to be between US$25-$75 per labor hour at present; dependent upon the complexity of the task and the competency of the designer.

Terms and conditions:
Expectations and commitments. It is not unusual for web projects to be delayed due to clients not supplying feedback or content necessary to complete sections. It is just as important to be clear in what you expect from your clients as well as explaining your commitment to them. Conflict resolution issues and feedback mechanisms should be described.

Your clients will need to know what will occur if they do not supply information when requested, or request changes mid-stream and the action that you will take if you are running behind in the project yourself. You need to be clear on payment details and consequences of failure to pay for the services that you provide.

Mock-ups (samples).
Be careful not to give too much away, just enough to give the client a good idea of what the site will look like. Ensure copyright notices and intellectual property statements are in place.

Ongoing web site maintenance.

Summarize an offer of ongoing site maintenance or the implications of the client deciding to update or maintain the site themselves after it has been established.

The above points are usually sufficient to put together a professional web design proposal for a small to medium project. If drafting a proposal based on criteria given to you by the prospective client; be sure to address all the points.

If the client suggests the proposal documentation be a certain format, respect that. In the culling process, the first proposals to be binned will be the ones that do not address all the criteria the client has laid down.

Bear in mind that not all the web design proposals you submit will be accepted. Be prepared to do some heavy revisions to satisfy your clients and to find a middle ground where all parties feel comfortable. A prospective client asking for revisions is a good sign – they are genuinely interested.

Also remember that some companies will ask you for proposals purely to use as a comparison against another designer that they are interested in utilizing; so try and limit the amount of time you spend on the draft until the client gives indication of serious interest.

Amazon.com
No surprise. A third of the people who buy online shop at Amazon.com. That percentage would be respectable if you were talking about the customers for an anchor department store at som e local mall in Paramus, N.J., but Amazon is the anchor store for all online shopping.

Dell
The pioneer of direct computer sales online is selling $30 million worth of gear a day from its website, so it’s obviously doing something right. Dell’s ability to customize orders set the standard for online computer retailing, and its AskJeeves.com-like “Ask Dudley” feature amply handles the inevitable technical questions that first-time customers are bound to have.

IQVC
You might expect the king of TV-based shopping to make a seamless leap to the Internet, having distribution and customer service already in place. Unlike other superstores, the iQVC ho me page gives you tons of info without overwhelming you. Of course, maybe QVC shoppers just love being able to buy what they want, when they want it.

BEST AUCTIONS:

EBay
It isn’t just the never-ending cavalcade of inventory — 250,000 new items are put up for auction every day here — that keeps its 5.6 million registered users hooked. eBay figure d out that trust means everything to e-commerce. To that end, it was among the first sites to encourage its buyers to publicly rate sellers. This year eBay even insured transactions so that customers would no longer have to worry about fraud.

OnSale
Part outlet store and part liquidator’s auction, the best feature of the auction half is that it never refers to people who purchase products as “buyers” but rather as & quot;winners.” OnSale successfully gives shopping the air of sport — which helps explain its hugely male demographic.

BEST SHOPPING TOOLS:

My Simon
The “Simon” character on this shopping bot looks like the kind of doll that would become animated and go homicidal in a horror movie. Aside from that unsettling detail, this site is helpful; it shows you products and prices from more than 1,500 online merchants. Simon may look psycho, but he is at least smart enough to give people who are looking for camcorders and frying pans different ways to frame their product search.

Dash.com
If you were a corporation, Dash would be your vice president in charge of discounts. When you sign up for Dash, you get rebates from its participating merchants. You also get a downloa dable tool bar that follows you wherever you shop, telling you when you could be buying the same item for less at a Dash-affiliated store.

BEST GUIDES:

Productopia
Say you’re in the market for a digital camera. Or cookware. Productopia will give you three sets of recommendations based on quality, style and value. Then, once you’ve decid ed whether you want to be cheap, chic or sensible, Productopia refers you to online and offline vendors.

Esmarts
Have you ever gone for a drink after work and, when the bartender asks what kind of Scotch you want, you say, “Just give me the cheap stuff”? If you have, this site’s fo r you. eSmarts shows you the places where you can get your shopping done without having to spend too much money.

BEST MOST CUSTOMER-FRIENDLY:

Fogdog
This sports-gear and -equipment site gets a good grade for making its big inventory easily accessible. If you’re looking for football kneepads, for example, you need only two clic ks to go from Fogdog’s home page to a screen that shows pictures and prices for their entire kneepad selection.

Clinique
One expert told me that Avon was the giant of the beauty category, “but check out Clinique. They have very loyal customers,” she said. I can see why. This site bonds with you instantly. It hits you right off the bat with a survey about your skin type, and once you answer, it tells you what products you need. After you’ve shared that kind of intimate information, how could you shop anywhere else?

Petopia
Is there anything worse than people prattling on about their pets? This site, in addition to carrying a full line of pet products, has extensive community features that give pet owners a place to get it all out of their system: A sample discussion topic is “tell us some of the silly names you have for your pet.” Let’s keep that kind of talk online where it belongs.

Wine.com
The greatest virtue of Wine.com, formerly Virtual Vineyards, is its user-friendly, easy-to-understand search tool, which makes anyone feel like a wine know-it-all. And it treats you th e same whether you’re going to buy the $325 Pinot Noir or just click on the “bang for the buck” specials.

Cyberian Outpost
This computer-hardware and -software has a sales push embedded in its checkout process that obviously helps itself but can help you as well — it unobtrusively alerts you to other prod ucts that would complement your purchase. If you’re buying a G3 Powerbook, for example, Outpost shows you a raft of software and accessories that go with the computer. If its pitch were in-your-face, you would hate it. The cool part is you don’t ; it comes across as helpful.

BEST IDEA FOR A SITE:

CarsDirect.com
Its car-buying process allows you to bypass the dealer entirely. The interface is easy to use. You pick out the car you want, and as you add options like a CD player or side air bags, you see the price go up instantly. As soon as you begin the process, you also get a delivery date.

RocketCash.com
It almost sounds crazy, but it works. Here’s a way for parents to let their credit-cardless children shop online. You can set up an account for your kids and give them lump sums o r even allowances. Then the children can make purchases at affiliated merchants without giving out personal information. Parents can also restrict sites they don’t want their children visiting.

TheKnot.com
Gift registries online make sense, and this site shows why. Here, you can have friends buy you china, linen, an outboard motor or even pay down a part of some newlyweds’ mortgage. A similar site that just launched and is worth visiting is Wishclick.com. Instead of offering up its own product selection like TheKnot, it lets you carve a gift list from the vastness of e-commerce sites everywhere.

MOST CUSTOMER SATISFACTION:

Disney
The Disney name gives this site the closest thing it could have to a captive audience, but it still treats visitors like honored guests. Most surveys give Disney high marks for retaini ng its corporate character while making it easy to get at all the stuff your kids want.

DVD Express
Most stores carry the same stock of DVDs. But this site appears to have the greatest inventory not just of movies but also of fun paraphernalia such as movie posters and gear with movi e-studio logos. Plus, it’s known for pleasing shoppers.

Preview Travel
While Expedia and Travelocity are actually the most popular online travel agents, I prefer previewtravel.com’s ease of use. It really makes it simple to plan a trip. Not only can you book tickets and make hotel and car reservations, but you can c all live customer service around the clock and view guides that feature maps and videos of more than 200 destinations. Travelocity must like the site-it plans to complete a merger with Preview early next year.

REI
See all the thumbnail images of sleeping bags? Don’t they make it easier to decide which one to further investigate? Great design and easy click-through make this site the place to fin d camping gear. Bargain hunters can check out its REI-Outlet.com site.

BEST GIMMICKS:

Lands’ End
Already getting high marks from shoppers for its usability, the clothing-seller site upped its game in September when it began offering two new features: Lands’ End Live, which lets you enter your phone number and receive a creepy-quick phone call from a customer-service rep; and Shop with a Friend, which allows two people in remote locations to get online, page through the site together, use text-based chat and drop purchases into the same basket.

Garden.com
Site designers employ soft green hues and flower-bud images so artfully on this home page, they make your computer seem like the perfectly logical place to start working on a garden. E verything about this site makes you want to buy plants. Coming this Christmas: an interactive station where you can design and buy your own wreath.

Drugstore.com
This site understands that people buying shampoo and deodorant are simply crossing things off their to-do list and want to move quickly. It has armed the site with a feature called &qu ot;1-click” — pioneered by its online cousin Amazon — which lets you buy one thing after another, a click at a time.

WorldSpy
A place to comparison shop and research products, this site has plans in the works to offer free Internet service without forcing a user to watch a bunch of ads. How? Free surfers will have to start every trek from WorldSpy’s home page.

BEST GUIDES:

Productopia
Say you’re in the market for a digital camera. Or cookware. Productopia will give you three sets of recommendations based on quality, style and value. Then, once you’ve decided whether you want to be cheap, chic or sensible, Productopia refers you to online and offline vendors.

Esmarts
Have you ever gone for a drink after work and, when the bartender asks what kind of Scotch you want, you say, “Just give me the cheap stuff”? If you have, this site’s for you. eSmarts shows you the places where you can get your shopping done without having to spend too much money.

BEST MOST CUSTOMER-FRIENDLY:

Fogdog
This sports-gear and -equipment site gets a good grade for making its big inventory easily accessible. If you’re looking for football kneepads, for example, you need only two clicks to go from Fogdog’s home page to a screen that shows pictures and prices for their entire kneepad selection.

Clinique
One expert told me that Avon was the giant of the beauty category, “but check out Clinique. They have very loyal customers,” she said. I can see why. This site bonds with you instantly. It hits you right off the bat with a survey about your skin type, and once you answer, it tells you what products you need. After you’ve shared that kind of intimate information, how could you shop anywhere else?

Petopia
Is there anything worse than people prattling on about their pets? This site, in addition to carrying a full line of pet products, has extensive community features that give pet owners a place to get it all out of their system: A sample discussion topic is “tell us some of the silly names you have for your pet.” Let’s keep that kind of talk online where it belongs.

Wine.com
The greatest virtue of Wine.com, formerly Virtual Vineyards, is its user-friendly, easy-to-understand search tool, which makes anyone feel like a wine know-it-all. And it treats you the same whether you’re going to buy the $325 Pinot Noir or just click on the “bang for the buck” specials.

Cyberian Outpost
This computer-hardware and -software has a sales push embedded in its checkout process that obviously helps itself but can help you as well — it unobtrusively alerts you to other products that would complement your purchase. If you’re buying a G3 Powerbook, for example, Outpost shows you a raft of software and accessories that go with the computer. If its pitch were in-your-face, you would hate it. The cool part is you don’t; it comes across as helpful.

BEST IDEA FOR A SITE:

CarsDirect.com
Its car-buying process allows you to bypass the dealer entirely. The interface is easy to use. You pick out the car you want, and as you add options like a CD player or side air bags, you see the price go up instantly. As soon as you begin the process, you also get a delivery date.

RocketCash.com
It almost sounds crazy, but it works. Here’s a way for parents to let their credit-cardless children shop online. You can set up an account for your kids and give them lump sums or even allowances. Then the children can make purchases at affiliated merchants without giving out personal information. Parents can also restrict sites they don’t want their children visiting.

TheKnot.com
Gift registries online make sense, and this site shows why. Here, you can have friends buy you china, linen, an outboard motor or even pay down a part of some newlyweds’ mortgage. A similar site that just launched and is worth visiting is Wishclick.com. Instead of offering up its own product selection like TheKnot, it lets you carve a gift list from the vastness of e-commerce sites everywhere.

MOST CUSTOMER SATISFACTION:

Disney
The Disney name gives this site the closest thing it could have to a captive audience, but it still treats visitors like honored guests. Most surveys give Disney high marks for retaining its corporate character while making it easy to get at all the stuff your kids want.

DVD Express
Most stores carry the same stock of DVDs. But this site appears to have the greatest inventory not just of movies but also of fun paraphernalia such as movie posters and gear with movie-studio logos. Plus, it’s known for pleasing shoppers.

Preview Travel
Part outlet store and part liquidator’s auction, the best feature of the auction half is that it never refers to people who purchase products as “buyers” but rather as “winners.” OnSale successfully gives shopping the air of sport — which helps explain its hugely male demographic.

REI
Part outlet store and part liquidatorÕs auction, the best feature of the auction half is that it never refers to people who purchase products as “buyers” but rather as “winners.” OnSale successfully gives shopping the air of sport — which helps explain its hugely male demographic.

BEST GIMMICKS:

Landsí End
Already getting high marks from shoppers for its usability, the clothing-seller site upped its game in September when it began offering two new features: Lands’ End Live, which lets you enter your phone number and receive a creepy-quick phone call from a customer-service rep; and Shop with a Friend, which allows two people in remote locations to get online, page through the site together, use text-based chat and drop purchases into the same basket.

Garden.com
Site designers employ soft green hues and flower-bud images so artfully on this home page, they make your computer seem like the perfectly logical place to start working on a garden. Everything about this site makes you want to buy plants. Coming this Christmas: an interactive station where you can design and buy your own wreath.

Drugstore.com
This site understands that people buying shampoo and deodorant are simply crossing things off their to-do list and want to move quickly. It has armed the site with a feature called “1-click” — pioneered by its online cousin Amazon — which lets you buy one thing after another, a click at a time.

WorldSpy
A place to comparison shop and research products, this site has plans in the works to offer free Internet service without forcing a user to watch a bunch of ads. How? Free surfers will have to start every trek from WorldSpy’s home page.

davidope (David Szakaly) is a Hungarian/German graphic designer, living with his dachshund in a suburb of Budapest.

dvdp is the creative director and founder of the design atelier volll and Fredlig.
dvdp was raised in love – bilingual and bicultural (DE/HU), which explains a lot.
dvdp is living in a suburb of Budapest, with his dachshund Susie.
dvdp loves the danger: 2 liters of coke and 40 camels a day.

Visit his visual chinatown – inspiring stuff form around the globe and some own crap too.

http://www.davidope.com/

This series is exclusive to I Want You.

Interview

Tell us a little bit about your background?
To begin with, I’ve been drawing all my life. I draw the way I want to and the way I feel. I was born and live in the best country of the world, Ukraine, in the city of Kyiv. I have never studied drawing, never finished any art schools, probably, for the better. Because they would have told me which way of drawing is good and which is not. And I don’t know any rules, basics, anything about the composition of a “correct” drawing, any restrictions. I draw guided by my heart and my inspiration. Young artists, who attend academies or schools, often suffer from different rules being imposed on them, and that does not allow them to disclose their talents in full measure. They are suppressed with those rules and their creativity appears limited. I believe that one should practice more, draw more, do more and view the world with the eyes wide open.

Who are your main inspirations? / What are your influences?
Life itself is my inspiration, life is unpredictable, very interesting and it brings me a lot of surprises. And also my dear girlfriend, my muse. Her large hazel eyes are bottomless wells for my inspirations.

How do you keep motivated and interested?
My motivation is simple. I want to astonish and amaze the world we live in. With the help of my works I want to show that I have heart inside, to show the beauty it is filled with, and in that way to make people looking at my works happy, or maybe surprise them. Surprise them with my world.

Do you have any new projects coming up that you can tell us about?
I like both my commercial and non-commercial projects. My last projects were applying my drawings on fabric, trainers, and painting on walls, plates and dishes. Also I have some interesting projects on decorating cars, snowboards, fridges and other domestic appliances.

What do you know about your country’s design/designers?
I know that there are a lot of them, they are very talented, and they please me with their works. I am grateful to them for what they are doing and I wish them success in their work.

Any words you would like to pass it to new comer designers?
I would gladly wish one simple thing to both newcomers and experienced designers: to wonder every day, and always look at the world through the eyes of a baby, which is excited by everything, and which is glad to any opportunity to see beauty and do something that could excite other people. Be wondered and try to wonder others.

What is your most favorite commercial design of our own?
My most favorite project is still ahead, it is not created yet. This is just a beginning.

Name 8 designers you like it most?
-Cmart (Oleg Pashchenko),
-Dali,
-Picasso,
-Van Gogh,
-Bosch Hieronymus van Aeken
-Edouard Manet
-Tizianо Vecellio
-Kasimir Malevich

Any final comments:
Many thanks for the opportunity to present my works and myself in your great magazine, I hope that was not for the last time. If you ever visit Ukraine, I will be happy to receive you as guests. Especially since there will be a good occasion – in 2012 Ukraine will host a European football cup tournament. Come to see me, you are always welcome. My best wishes to you!

artist website

“French artist Jean-Sebastien ROSSBACH blends a classic painter’s sensibility with cutting edge technology. When not working on Merlin or creating covers for Marvel Comics, he teaches art to hopefuls at various workshops.” – Spectrum 17.

J.S. is the co-author of MERLIN, an ambitious 116 pages fully illustrated artbook about the legendary wizard published by Soleil editions.

BOOKS AND COVERS: Marvel (US) | DC Comics | Top Cow (US) | Warner Home Video | Tor Books (US) Ballistic Publishing (Au) | EMAP (Fr) | Soleil (Fr) | Gallimard (Fr) | Pocket (Fr) | Flammarion (Fr) | Fleuve Noir (Fr) | J’ai Lu (Fr) | Le Belial (Fr) …

RPG & BOARD GAMES: Blizzard (US) | Wizards of the Coast (Us) | White Wolf ltd.(Us) | Wizkids (Us) | Asmodée (Fr) | Rackham (Fr) | éditions du Matagot (Fr) | Sigh Press (Ger) …

MOVIES: Blur Studios …

VIDEO GAMES: Ubisoft (Fr) | Magic Lab (Fr) …

RECORD LABELS: EMI music (Fr) Earache Records (Uk) | Horch (Ger) | RagingPlanet (Pt) …

PRESS: ImagineFX (UK) | InQuest (Us) | Art Scene (Ger) | Science & Vie Junior (Fr) | Elegy (Fr) | Casus Belli (Fr) | DP World (Cn) | Art Photo Akt (Ger) WebEsteem (Pl) | New Web Pick (Cn) …

ADVERTISING: Atletico International (Sp) | SEAT (Sp)

livingrope@hotmail.com