Name?
Patrick Kalyanapu

Age?
22

Location?
San Francisco, CA

Mac or PC?
This often surprises people, but even though I'm an artist/designer, I'm definitely a PC guy. From the moment I instinctively right clicked to no avail on Apple's one-button mouse, I've carried a grudge against those damn Macs. I have to use a G3 at work now, but I've gotten by by turning it into a pseudo-PC (w/GoMac & a two-button mouse).

Site(s)?
pkstyle.com (97-99)
introversion.com (99-?)

What is pkstyle.com all about?
Ideally, it was intended to be a visual representation of self. But reality, as we all know, is far from ideal, and for most of the duration of pkstyle.com, I did not remain true to my ideals. All too often I allowed things such as design awards, finding a job, and gripes about small type to swallow up my purely artistic agenda. Theory aside, if I could sum up what pkstyle.com actually turned out to be, I'd say that it was little more than a fancy pants portfolio.

What was the inspiration behind it?
I'd say the primary inspiration behind it was an overwhelming sense of urgency to "get started." For the longest time I had reluctantly gone through the motions in studying science, math, & engineering; pkstyle was to be my first small step in entering the art/design world. Having had no formal training in design or the arts, I think I subconsciously intended pkstyle to be the educational experience I never had. Turns out I learned a lot more about web technology, design theory, and myself than I could have any other way.

What made you end PKstyle?
Well...
1) pkstyle was a time for me to establish a design style that was distinctly mine. Having accomplished this already, it's time to move on and *implement* that style (as opposed to defining it.)
2) Although I might be known as "the guy from pkstyle" for a while, I'd really like to relinquish memory of the old site and completely start anew. Where I am as a designer today is light years away from where I was when I started pkstyle in 97.
3) I don't think I was ever fully satisfied with the domain name itself. It took me a long time to figure out a better alternative, but I believe I've found it with introversion.com. I plan on keeping this one for a long, long time.

What is this new introversion.com project?
introversion is to be the culmination of every artistic ideal that pkstyle.com failed to achieve. I feel that (with pkstyle) I've already mastered the basics, won awards, gotten a job, earned respect, etc. Now it's time for me to emerge from the realms of compromise & mediocrity and create in an unadulterated way, allowing the intricacies of my mind to have free reign over the creative process. Speaking in more tangible, less theoretical terms, you can expect to see (at least in the immediate future) an extremely rich presentation style incorporating sound, motion graphics, dhtml, original typography, etc.

I have this vision in my mind to blaze new trails and create stunning sensory experiences that people (including myself) will absolutely love. This is essentially my primary agenda for the site, but I'd also like to go further than merely presenting my aesthetic as I've done in the past. Based on the orgasmic response to pkstyle during its 2 year existence, I now feel inclined to share myself with the public in forms other than jpeg and html files. That is, I'm looking forward to distributing fonts, tshirts, & possibly posters (if overhead costs aren't too unbearable.)

What is the main inspiration behind your design work?
C.S. Lewis once said, "The only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection."
To me, when it's at its purest, the design process feeds upon itself...Sometimes I'll sit down and work on a single design for a whole day, doing an initial layout, switching colors, blurring & twisting, incorporating type, changing layer options, animating, etc. and it's as if I'm being led by some nebulous force into a very narrow path that seems to me to be perfect. I rarely (if ever) achieve "perfection," but it's what continually drives me on.

Where do you draw your ideas from?
One thing I've never had trouble with is coming up with ideas. The problem for me has always been finding time to pursue those ideas.
To answer the question, I'd say I typically draw my ideas from one of three sources:

1) observation ... whenever I feel particularly uninspired, I just look at whatever's around me. I rarely go wandering about without either my camera or a sketchbook.

2) music ... I can't imagine life without music. It quiets my soul, it wakes me up, it reminds me of days foregone, it incites my rage, it stings my emotions, it physically moves me, it...inspires me. There is a powerful relationship between music & design, and I feel I've only just begun to tap into it.

3) within ... I feel (as I'm sure most people do) that my life experience and perspective on the world is truly unique. Most of my art is born out of this unique perspective as I pour my deepest longings & resentments onto paper or canvas.

What do you know about Australian web designers?
Not much, unfortunately. I don't really even know anything about Australia for that matter. (But I do love Foster's commercials.)

What is your working style (Photoshop, Flash, etc)?
Well, I try not to spend too much time in any single application, or on the computer at all for that matter (although sometimes this is unavoidable.) My typical work flow consists of drawing/painting/shooting photos, scanning these raw materials, and then bringing it all together in Photoshop (I'm still quite content with 4.0.) I've also been spicing things up recently with Flash & Fontographer. Software aside, I'd say there are two principles that govern my working style:

1) experimentation. It's my contention that if you learn everything from a book or prescribed set of rules, your creative thinking will be forever tainted as a result. Hence, my working style and design techniques are deeply rooted in the process of trial & error.

2) originality. I cannot emphasize this one enough, especially for anyone who's ever published on the Web. As shameful as it is to admit, when I started out I was like a gutter rat stealthily probing the Web, picking up nifty tiling backgrounds and funny sounds and such, and posting (or rather, "relocating") these bits & pieces to my site. I carried on like this for quite some time, but eventually I wised up. From then on, I denied all urges to regurgitate content, and vowed to make everything I ever uploaded totally from scratch. This is perhaps the most important thing I have to say to those thousands of people out there filling up the Web with their personal homepages: Don't swipe...BE ORIGINAL!

[Standard boring question] Favourite sites?
Despite the fact that I've been exposed to tons of new sites & designers lately, my all-time favorite sites are rather old school. I'd say Jay David's Webpage Explosion & Jon Leong's The Eclectica were the two most instrumental sites in the development of my design style.

Any final comments?
INTROVERSION.COM. Check it.

Thanks Patrick!