Getting Inside Colorburned with Designer Grant Friedman

G

Having a large collection of design blogs leaves your options open to so much. You can find original content very quickly, learn a lot more through tutorials and freebies, and also get to know a lot of people in the design community. Colorburned is another very popular and well-respected graphic design blog which features some of the best design news, resources, and tutorials from around the web. This can include free textures, patterns, Photoshop brushes, tutorials, and a whole lot more.

Grant Friedman I got an interview with the designer, creator, and blogger on Colorburned Grant Friedman. We went over how Colorburned got started, where he gets his inspiration, where the blog will be going heading towards the future, and lots of other neat features! This was a very exciting interview for me, as I love learning more about the main players in the design community. So for all of you graphic designers out there, check out this very inspiring interview with Colorburned’s Grant Friedman.

How did you first come up with the idea for Colorburned?

I originally created Colorburned as a means to display and promote my portfolio while searching for a job. As time went on the focus of the site changed and I spent less time updating my portfolio and more time creating free design resources, tutorials, and articles.

Can you go over the design process, from original idea for Colorburned until the final launch?

Colorburned has gone through a number of transitions. In fact, I didn’t come up with the name Colorburned until several months after I started publishing portfolio items. I came up with the name by browsing through some of the menus in Photoshop (Colorburned was derived from one of Photoshop’s blending modes). After I had a name, I then started work on a logo and web design. I went through several logo variations and the site is now in its second version. I’m actually very happy with the current design, although I do plan on making some minor changes in the coming months.

Colorburned Home Page

What are some of the most popular topics covered on Colorburned? Are you looking to expand into other topics?

Over the last year or so Colorburned has made a name for itself for its collection of free, professional quality brushes, patterns, and vectors, although we have just recently started to focus a bit more on tutorials. Some of our more popular articles include this list of RSS Feeds for design sites and this popular set of Light Effect Brushes for Photoshop.

Does Colorburned make enough money to support hosting costs and such? What advertising company do you go through for ads?

Earning a living from blogging is quite difficult. Most bloggers earn less than $1,000/month from their site. While I don’t want to get into exact numbers, I am able to cover my hosting costs. In the end, I don’t do this for the money. I do it because I genuinely enjoy helping other designers.

How many people do you have writing for the blog? Are you usually open to user submissions?

Right now my site has a growing handful of guest authors but we are looking to expand. Anyone interested in writing some articles can find out more here: http://colorburned.com/write-for-us.

About how much traffic does Colorburned receive? Have you noticed any substantial increase in traffic recently?

Traffic graph As of July 2009 Colorburned receives about 90,000 visits per month. As each month goes by however our traffic has steadily been increasing; which is great!

What advice would you have for someone creating their own Graphic Design blog?

The best advice that I can give for anyone creating their own design blog is to stick with what you know. Don’t try to write about topics that you aren’t an expert on. If you do, your inexperience will show. The best bloggers find a niche and exploit it. Find yours, and you will have a successful website.

Visit the Site!

About the author

Inside The Webb

Inside the Webb is a blog based on new and popular web 2.0 sites, and all things social media. Here at the site, we try to collect all of the information we can on some of the most intriguing websites out there. We often publish many interviews throughout the months, all exclusive interviews with founders and developers of new social web apps.

About Author

Ian Carnaghan

I am a software developer and online educator who likes to keep up with all the latest in technology. I also manage cloud infrastructure, continuous monitoring, DevOps processes, security, and continuous integration and deployment.

Follow Me