Sta.sh
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself, where you come from and what brought you to deviantART.Well my name is Mike Demetriou, I am 19 years old and I am from Cyprus. I studied graphic design in High School and my best friend there had a deviantART account and I got interested in it so I gave it a shot.
2. What is your most favorite icon out of your gallery?My most favorite icon in my gallery has to be the Typewriter Icon I made. It took many hours to make and it is only made with gradients and some dropshadows and inner glows only. I love it because it was my first attempt of making an icon like that.
3. I'm guessing from the multitude of Mac based icons and interfaces in your gallery, you are an Apple guy - what is your most treasured piece of Apple equipment?Haha! Well I love Apple products but I don't even have an iMac or any other Apple computer. I had an iPhone and iPod Touch a few months ago but I had to sell them to make some money. I will get them back soon!
4. What's your current desktop wallpaper?My desktop wallpaper is my Ocean Breeze wallpaper. I have it on since the day i made it.
5. When did you start making icons, and what your first experiment?I started making icons but simple ones, since I didn't have many skills back then or experience, for windows and they were round and shiny. I made a small set and posted it here on deviantART. Haha I was so happy.
6. Do you have any inspirational artists here on deviantART, if so who?Of course I do! ~Svengraph , *LazyCrazy , ~artbees , *SoundForge, ~Kamikaze00X and my highschool buddy ~Thvg.
7. If you had to redesign one icon that you haven't already, what would it be and why?I would redesign my Espresso Machine icon because I did not give it much details and now that I got more experience since the day I made it, it would be great to give it a better shot.
8. What software do you use to make your icons?I make all the layers in Adobe Illustrator CS3 and then edit everything in Adobe Photoshop CS4.
9. What projects are you working on at the moment? What can we expect from you in the near future?I like to keep my future icons a secret. I like to see what people think of them when I first post them on deviantART. For example I wanted to make something for MAC users to use for Christmas and I thought "whats better than a Christmas icon set"? So I made 3 Christmas icons named ChristMAC icons and they got over 300 downloads in 24 hours. That shows to me that people like them and really shows their support.
10. Do you have any tips for aspiring iconists and interface designers?YES! Always think one step ahead. Do not always try to design something that has already been made, but with your own style. I'm not saying don't do it though. But always try to make something new, something better and something that hasn't been made before. That will definitely have your own unique style. But anything you do has it's own benefits.
11. Finally, is there anything else you'd like to say to everyone reading this?Yeah I would really like to say that you should and must always follow what you think it's right and what makes you happy. Icon designing makes me happy and I got many opportunities to help others with my icon designing skills. You can do that to by trying your best. But when you make something or design something beautiful that you made and love, don't ever say "I did my best" or when someone tells you it's not good don't ever say "Well, it's the best I could do". Always say you can do better because you always CAN do better. Try hard and you will succeed in what you believe in. Do not ever give up. And always when you do something remember, Practice Makes Better!
Some of ~MDGraphs' icon work:
~Thvg
Jan 25, 2011
Professional Interface Designer
~MDGraphs
Dec 8, 2010
