I had planned a larger post today, but I am so slammed with work and life that I decided to post in answer to Brian Gardner’s questions he recently tagged me with, as I knew I could write it quickly!
What is something that would surprise people about you and design?
It’s probably not a surprise, as I’ve mentioned it before, but like Brian, I am completely self-taught. It took me a very long time before I was really designing things I was pleased with, and I definitely found that having the right tools in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop made a huge difference.
If you could design one blogger’s site for free, who would it be?
The first person I thought of was Andy Beard. If he ever decided to dress up his site, I’d be game to participate.
What blog platform do you prefer, and why?
Like everyone else Brian tagged, WordPress is the obvious choice. It’s user friendly enough for a basic user, and advanced users can customize and tweak their sites to death if they want.
Aside from your own, what is your favorite blog theme/template?
I’ve used Brian’s Blue Zinfandel a lot, as the code is very clean and easy to customize. I have never used Michael Pollock’s themes, but I am so impressed with his stuff- I’d love to play with his Zeke theme. There a ton of others that I stand in awe of such as 5thirtyone and Subtraction that are using grid based design.
Do you have a blog-reading guilty pleasure?
I Can Has Cheezeburger cracks me up and I don’t feel guilty about it one bit. 
Read other designers’ answers to these questions:
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Hi Randa,
Good choice with Andy Beard’s blog. It’s testament to Andy’s content that he has a very strong community around his minimal layout.
I am busy juggling with sandbox 1.0 / Sandcastle now, and eventually I will be looking to give it some clothes.
Some of the things I want to do with it will be highly unconventional
I would expect nothing less Andy- looking forward to seeing what you end up with.
I love icanhascheezburger.com! Actually.. I am addicted
You self-taught designers… ug… How do you do it? I have tried numerous times to get “better” at design, and they all come out looking flat, or just a little off.
Great answers though.
[...] practically from day one. If you want to track down other bloggers-”sinners”, check out Randa’s, Charity’s, David’s and Tara’s confessions, in addition to already mentioned [...]
I like Blue Zinfandel too…
When I start blogging, 3 years ago, I started, like almost all, at Blogger… then I´ve tried WP, but I never really change from Blogger… I am use to it. And it let me publish with a own domain… But I know that the most beautifull templates are with WP… I am not sure if I should change… but time will tell it!!
Bye bye!
I’m also self-taught been fiddling with graphics programs since i was a kid. Can be a problem though, when you are left out a of a jargon loop – but then again there’s google for those issues.
PS – Any tips for a South African designer who just bought a house (gulp!) and now needs to earn $$$ from international clients…? How do I target international clientèle?
Hei, now I get some links to your favorite theme. Thank you
and about the self taught, I like to do that myself. But for many things, I just can’t keep up with the others. I’m just not smart enough to learn by myself. I found it faster to learn from the pro. While the problem is; it’s just so hard to find a pro who are willing to teach me