Today, I’m talking to Benjamin De Cock. You don’t need me to introduce you to him, do you? Of course not. But I want to, so I’ll do it anyway. Benjamin is a Belgian designer, known for beautiful icons, pixel-perfect interfaces, and a boatload of fun animations on his sites. He works with the ever-popular Stripe, and has an app of his own, Kickoff – a collaboration tool that caused a bit of a stir when it first came out (but we’ll get to that later…)

Benjamin was a great interviewee, providing lots of food for thought – Read on to learn about his life and his work!

Hey Benjamin, thanks so much for joining us on The Industry. Tell us a bit about yourself and the work you’re doing.

I’m a 28-year old freelance UI and icon designer. I live in Belgium and I currently mainly work on two projects: Stripe as an external contractor and Kickoff as my personal project. I’m extremely happy with this setup as it gives me the opportunity to work on very different things with very different people!

How did you get into the design industry?

I have a bachelor degree in Graphic Design. I used to focus almost exclusively on print design since my classes were all about typography, corporate identity, packaging and stuff like that. My interest in digital graphics came later. I quickly became addicted to it for mainly two reasons:

• it was so easy compared to print to deliver your work and to share it with basically anyone on Earth
• it brings user interaction into the game, which is something I truly care about

I obviously started like many designers with website design, HTML and CSS before getting attracted more and more by software design which is now my main specialization.

If you hadn’t become a designer, what do you think you’d be doing now?

Good question! I feel so connected with what I do it’s hard for me to imagine something else. I don’t know if this answer counts as it’s still in the same industry but I’d probably say software developer. Otherwise, being a very good cook seems appealing to me.

What does a typical day in the life of Benjamin De Cock look like?

I usually wake up when my son wakes up (around 7:30am) and I take care of him until he goes to the nursery. After that, I have a shower, a quick breakfast and then this great moment where I spend about an hour with a delicious coffee, a good jazz album (thanks Thomas!) and my iPad in a comfortable couch. I catch up with my emails, Twitter, RSS feeds and a few other stuff before moving to my office, which is also at home. I repeat this coffee/jazz/iPad time after lunch and then I get back to work until 6pm. I also try to do a 30min walk in the countryside everyday but lately I haven’t been very consistent.

On your site, you use all kinds of awesome futuristic web technologies. At the risk of asking a clichéd question, where do you see the web going in the next, say, 5 years?

5 years is a decade with web technologies! It’s a tough question. While it may seem surprising as browsers evolve incredibly fast these days, I kind of think we’re going to slowly get back to a more simple web. The web has always been great as a documentation and sharing platform. Browsers work just fine to, well, actually browse the web. But we’ve been trying hard to use browsers to do more and more stuff and to even become real operating systems in some cases. It’s not working that well if you ask me. The mobile era made it clear apps are better when they focus on just one thing instead of trying to answer all your needs. The web has become too complex. I think we’re going to slowly get back to the basics, to a lighter, easier, faster and more accessible web. Back to the web!

You work on Kickoff, a collaboration tool for Mac – When that launched around a year ago, you had a few issues with the Mac App Store, right? Can you tell us a bit about this? If you were given the chance, what would you change about the App Store system as it is today?

The Mac App Store was still pretty new and the rules not very clear. Many apps were using custom in-app purchases (they weren’t available yet in the Mac App Store). However, the App Store rules claimed this was prohibited. So we submitted Kickoff (which had a payment system inside the preferences) and we described the buying process to the approval team in order to make sure it could fit the actual guidelines. We were initially accepted but then, for some reason, rejected after the next update. They basically made a mistake for approving it the very first time.

I think the App Store has greatly evolved since then. More and more people use it and like it, especially since Apple has been aggressively pushing their apps and OS updates in it. The main problem is, in my opinion, for developers. The App Store is just great for users, I wouldn’t make it very different. But, for people building the apps, the App Store is a mysterious black box where you can’t get any info on what’s actually happening with your products. It should definitely provide at least some information in order to let the developers improve their marketing, to reach their audience in more effective way and so on.

Your work has a lovely clean, glossy, airy feel to it. Where do you get inspiration?

Thanks! Apple has always been a deep inspiration source. I know it sounds cliché, but that’s honestly the case. They build the products I truly feel connected with, period.

What is your workspace like? Are there any design tools that you simply couldn’t live without?

I don’t have a lot of stuff in my office. I just don’t feel well in messy places. It’s like there are too many things my brain has to analyze. A simple, minimal workspace is what I need.

Regarding the actual design tools, I have this love and hate relationship with Fireworks. I think I couldn’t live without it but at the same time, it frustrates me so hard, every single day. It’s slow, buggy, and you really feel Adobe just doesn’t care about it anymore. It’s still however my weapon of choice for every design work I do.

And finally, for those looking to get started in the big bad world of design, what tips or advice would you give?

Practice. An awful lot. Work > Talent.