Aniko Deak is a freelance interaction designer who joined our crowdsourced design agency in May. He is a digital creative with a strong background in print design based in London. Aniko’s wide ranging skills include creative thinking and conceptual design, brand development or online brand implementation, typography, layout, interaction design and development (HTML, CSS, Actionscript), user experience (usability, information architecture,user-centered design) and art direction. How’s that for an all-rounder! His slick, minimalist and easy-to-navigate style is in high demand and as Apple always says “it just works”.

- How do you choose the fonts that you use

There are two things I consider when I choose a new typeface. First I think about my subject, what I am trying to communicate, what the message is, who my audience is and what emotions I want to evoke. All typefaces have ‘personalities’, they all convey messages with their characteristics and if you choose the right one for your subject you are on the right way to effective communication. The other thing I do I try to choose a visually fresh and interesting font, which is appealing for me and for my audience. Just as images and words can attract an audience, type can too.

- Describe your design style

In two words it’s very simple and clean. I would say I try to think function first and than design around it, if I can’t justify a design element I try not to use it at all, my subject is reduced to its necessary elements. The most important elements in my work are the type and the images, they have to say it all.  So I am using as little as possible but try to make it as pretty as possible…

- If you could be an animal, which one would you be & why?

Some of my friends call me gazelle or deer, I think because of the similarities of the physical attributes, so I’m gonna go with that… or it’s more practical to be on the top of the food chain, isn’t it? … so, shark would be a better choice I guess…

- What are your favourite web trends right now

I tend to be drawn to clean and minimal designs, which are really clever at the same time and give you that special user experience that you want to discover more…This type of design is very often white or light grey, with lots of white space around the text, no borders but grid always, large, edge to edge background images, which can emphasize your message and draw in the visitor…clever and carefully built navigation, which is really simple to figure out in a glimpse. It seems to me that all new trends in web design are coming from the need of simplifying and making it quicker and easier. For instance the appearance of the one page layout or the use of large footer on the first page is an attempt to show as many information as possible in the shortest time possible.

- (from Matt le Mont) What was your greatest success in achieving exposure?

I think the best thing to achieve exposure is to start winning awards, participate in competitions, to get into publications or making your own. Having your own blog can be a huge one, many designers made themselves well-known in this way. Personally I didn’t find getting exposure important until now, what I did so far is I got my own website and put myself on all social and designers’ networks I could think of…

- Also, what question would you like to ask a designer in a future Designer Spotlight?

Which one do you prefer freelancing or working for a design company?