Timeouts are lightning-quick interviews, five questions to help you get to know the players holding court at Dribbble. Thanks to Sacha for being today’s interviewee.
Who are you? Let us know where you hail from and what you do.
My name is Sacha Greif, and I’m a designer/developer from Paris, France. After living in various countries, I’ve now settled down in Osaka, Japan. My wife is studying here, so we’ve settled down in a quiet neighborhood near her university. Life in Japan is actually pretty laid back, although always interesting. As a designer there’s a lot I can learn here, especially from packaging and product designs.
I used to be a freelance UI designer, but I now focus on my own projects, such as Sidebar, Telescope, and Discover Meteor.
I’m also one of the co-organizers of the Hacker News Kansai meetup, and a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner.
What are you working on?
My main project right now is Discover Meteor, a book about the Meteor JavaScript framework. This project involves a lot of coding, a ton of writing, and practically no design whatsoever. I miss design, but at the same time I love the feeling of building something I can truly call my own, so I don’t see myself going back to freelancing.
I also maintain Sidebar, a daily newsletter of the best design links. If you’re on Dribbble, you’d probably like it!
Choose a favorite shot of yours. Why is it a favorite?
This (evolutionS) is probably my favorite shot, not because it’s especially good-looking or got a ton of likes, but because I think it’s a great illustration of how Dribbble can be a great tool to help you improve your designs (in this case, the logo for Sidebar).
That’s one thing I miss about not designing more. It can be pretty hard to find people to give you feedback on your code or your writing, but thanks to Dribbble you can get feedback on any design in a matter of minutes!
Tell us about your setup. What tools did you use to create the shot (e.g. hardware, software, pens, paper, blowtorch)?
I used to be a hardcore Photoshop guy, but I got frustrated that no matter how good my Photoshop comps were, the end result often looked nothing like them. So I now adopt a more flexible approach, where I do the majority of my work right in the browser, and then use Photoshop, Illustrator, or Sketch later on for specific design elements.
I feel like the more you focus on the end result and what you want to accomplish, the less tools matter. This is why I like artists who paint a picture out of stuff like chewing gum or toast, they show that when it comes to design, the end justifies the means.
Choose a favorite shot from another Player. Why do you dig it?
Menu Update (GIF) by Rally Interactive. I picked this one, but I could really pick any shot by Ben Cline [creative director at Rally]. I find his work unique in the way it combines great typography, gorgeous colors and textures, and awesome animations. I feel like being good at just one of those would be enough to be an outstanding designer, but mastering all three is really amazing!
I don’t know if it will ever come, but I dream of a future where all software is just as polished. In any case, seems to me like Dribbble is a step in the right direction!
Find Sacha at Dribbble, on Twitter, and at SachaGreif.com.
Find more Interviews stories on our blog Courtside. Have a suggestion? Contact stories@dribbble.com.
