Matthew Heidenreich is a designer from the Greater St. Louis area most notable know for his awesome web interface layout tutorials he publishes at PSD Vibe. I invited Matthew to discuss some of his experiences as a freelance designer, the impact of social media on his design career, and what inspires him to design websites.

First and foremost, thank you for taking the time to fill out these questions. To get started, can you give me a synopsis of who you are, how you got started in web design, and what inspires you to be a web designer?

Well to start things off, my name is Matthew Heidenreich. I’ve always had an interest for computers and what the internet had to offer. I started getting interested in web design around 4 years ago when wanting to learn HTML to make my own website. I realized that learning HTML didn’t really help you make a good looking website at all, but that graphics behind a website are what do so (this is not always the case, but most of the time). So I went ahead and looked into Photoshop and spent a lot of my time playing around with it and learning different techniques. Of course everything I ever made at first was rubbish, but you don’t know that when you first start out. I have played around with different types of photo effects, like photo manipulation, editing, and all that jazz, but I really enjoy doing web design the most, so that is what I do.

On PSDVIBE in the about section it says you publish Photoshop tutorials for fun. What are some of the steps you took to get you design skills to a level where you could publish tutorials for fun?

Ok, so I may have lied a bit. It isn’t always fun, because you will get stuck on a design. Once I have a layout designed, I am pretty efficient in turning it into a tutorial though and have fun doing it. I think anybody has the ability to create tutorials. It’s just that most people don’t like taking the time to take all the screenshots necessary to get the point across, and will cut corners, which will end up cause confusion for the reader.

Aside from PSDVIBE, you have a web design studio that you provide design services out of and other sites you manage. What are some tips you have for designers who want to start offering their services on a freelance basis, but just don’t know where to start?

With freelancing, it is always nice to find a place to go to find work when starting out, because work will not always come to you. A great website I used, and still use, is Elance.com. They give the opportunity for providers to find you by posting there projects in there marketplace. There are similar sites out there, i have just had the most success with them in the past. I must also note, it is good to have a portfolio for potential clients to view. If they don’t know your quality of work, they won’t bother looking into you. If you are just starting out, and don’t have any work to show, go ahead and offer them some free mock ups before being hired. This will make them confident that they chose someone who will fulfill there requirements.

Managing a business and managing websites can get tought. What advice do you have for people who do want to run a studio, but also want to manage other websites, but still stay productive?

When I figure that out, I’ll let you know . It is very hard to do everything at once. You just try to find as much time as you can to equalize time for all of them.

There’s a lot to say about getting yourself out there so people can find you. What type of impact has social media had on the success you’ve had in your design career so far and where do you see the future of social media headed?

Social media is what runs my website. I don’t really invest in advertising, because most of my traffic comes through social media mediums. I really enjoy being able to communicate with the people reading the content I provide, and social media provides that ability in an easier way than traditional means. As for it’s future, It can only help website owners, such as myself, in getting there message out there in a more convenient way.