An Interview with Photoshop Expert Corrie Haffly
Welshstew: How did you get involved with Sitepoint?
At the time, I was working with PixelMill and writing a lot of customer support articles for PixelMill’s template products. My boss contacted SitePoint and found out that they were looking for articles about the design side of web design, including how-to articles about using graphics software.
I wrote a few articles for SitePoint, then joined on for a stint as their design blogger. I still contribute articles every now and then.
Christopher: How did you get into using Photoshop, and have you Always been computer-based, or did you start down the artist route?
I’ve always enjoyed drawing, calligraphy, and other forms of creative art, and my parents definitely encouraged my interests by allowing me to take art electives in junior high and high school and sending me to occasional summer art classes. My two older sisters (10 and 11 years older than me) were themselves artistic and also encouraged me by giving me cool art supplies on my birthday! My oldest sister was a graphic designer. I’d often stay with her and her husband during the summers and would inevitably play with the software on her computer, including Illustrator. I didn’t start using Photoshop, however, until my first encounter with web design during a summer internship the summer after my junior year, and basically taught myself how to make graphics for web pages.
Welshstew: How did you come up with your hourly rate?
I just picked a nice round number. 
Okay - that’s what I did the first time around. I was a little more thoughtful when I raised my rates three years later. I looked around at other people’s rates who seemed to have similar skill levels as me. I also looked at Freelance Switch’s survey report, which included average incomes of freelance web designers and developers (http://freelanceswitch.com/general/3700-freelancers-surveyed-the-results-ar
e-here/) and read a few articles online about “how to set an hourly rate.” I looked at my own financial needs and calculated how many hours a week I’d need to work at different rates in order to survive. Finally, I ran my ideas for new rates past some of my trusted clients, specifically those who had worked with many other designers, to see if they were realistic and reasonable.
Glynn: How do you get around ‘design block’? As a new starter to design, what could you suggest for me?
You’ll often find me surfing the web looking for inspiration. Sometimes I’ll go to one of the many web design galleries (such as cssremix.com) and just click around. This can get overwhelming sometimes, however! When I find myself more overwhelmed than inspired, I’ll pick a site that has a style that I don’t typically work in and try to design something in that style; or, I’ll find a web graphic that looks cool and try to imitate it. Just the process of getting started and doing something creative, even if I’m simply copying someone else, can be enough to jump-start my brain and help me get going in a different direction.
Tom F: What was the most difficult thing about writing your book?
Creating the initial outline was the most difficult thing about writing my book - once I had the outline in place, it was just a matter of pumping out the words and screenshots! Photoshop has a ton of features; I had to think about how to organize the topics into coherent chapters. Because the book is written in a question/answer format, I also had to anticipate questions that people might have. Something that seems obvious to me might be something a newbie would have trouble with; on the other hand, someone might want to learn how to do something that I’ve never even dreamed of! I did a lot of research in order to generate the list of questions for the book, then spent many hours organizing and reorganizing the topics onto chapter groupings that made sense.
Tom F: If I want to write a book, how should I get started?
Unfortunately I don’t think I’m the best expert on how to get started on writing a book, as I sort of fell into it myself! SitePoint approached me with the offer - I had no intention previously of trying to write a book.
You might be better off looking at the many other resources out there for new authors (Writer’s Market, or simply typing “how to write and publish a book” into a search engine).
But from just my experience, it seems that some of the critical steps are to be well-versed in a subject, be able to articulate thoughts and ideas clearly through your words, and get yourself out there by writing articles for well-visited sites. SitePoint, for example, will accept articles for publication if they are relevant and useful for their readers.
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