Name:
Ari
Widjanarko
Age:
27
Current
location:
NYC
Name:
Thalia Kamarga
Age:
27
Current
location:
NYC
Web:
http://www.avocadolite.com/
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Ari &
Thalia
Hi!
Thanks for doing this interview!
Ari: thank
you for having us.
Thalia: oh, anytime :) Thanks
for even considering us.
So... Ari, tell us a bit
about Thalia.
Ari: Thalia was born in
Bandung, Indonesia. She came to the US in 1992 for high
school, and then studied Mechanical Engineering and Art at
Lehigh University. She loves Anime, Japanese food and Japanese
pop culture. She used to be a web designer, but now works as a
senior user interface architect at bolt.com. Oh, and she's a
real cutie.
And who's this Ari,
Thalia?
Thalia: Hmm, where do I start? Well,
this Ari is a partner of mine both in web and in life. He was
born in Indonesia and moved to the US when he was 18. He
graduated from a design school and has done print,
environmental graphic, web designs and probably more stuff
that I don't know. He loves to draw and he's been drawing
since he can remember. I think he's an great artist and
designer, but then again, I'm probably partial to him :)
Why the name avocadolite? What does it
mean?
Thalia: It doesn't mean anything. I
wanted the domain name to be random and meaningless. That way,
it allows me to put anything under it. The day I purchased the
domain, I was working as a waitress on a sushi bar. We had
many orders of California Rolls, which has avocado in it. I
thought fruit isn't a bad name for domains. Avocado.com was
already taken. So I added 'lite' after it. Avocado and lite
doesn't have anything to do with each other and the
combination of words does not mean anything. So it was
perfect…. Avocados are fruit, right?
Ari: Yup,
Avocadolite was Thalia's idea. I joined the project after
version 2 because it sounded interesting. We basically create
interesting and fresh design. Just for the hell of it. Often
times, we even try deliberately to do the opposite of current
trends. Like when 45 degree was the norm, we tried Art
Nouveau. Now that minimalism is trendy, so we do something
really complex. That is probably why some folks don't seem to
like us :). I like sushi too btw.
What education do
you have?
Ari: I graduated from Carnegie
Mellon University in Pittsburgh in 1997. I studied
Communication Design.
Thalia: I graduated as
Mechanical Engineer and a BA of Fine Art. I wanted to study
design, but parents wanted me to be an engineer. The first job
after college was web designer and I loved it. I still wished
I went to design school and learn more about design. So, just
a piece of advice: study what your passion when you're in
college.
The guy on you mainpage is truly amazing.
It must have taken quite a lot time to do that. Tell us about
it!
Ari: You don't see a lot of
ornamentalism in web design these days. So that's why we took
that direction. Besides, learning about the organic shapes was
really interesting to me because they were based on some sort
of mathematical system with mythical beliefs behind them. The
design also works for a tattoo.
Thalia: He is
the Future Buddha. And we didn't know it until 2 weeks after
the site launched! Yikes, that was bad.
What OS and
software do you prefer?
Ari: Mac. But I like
Windows too. Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Quark, the
usual.
Thalia: I'm a Windows person. Right now,
I'm using Windows ME at home, which I will not recommend to
anyone, even to my worst enemy. But sitting around people with
Mac at work, OSX sounds more and more yummy.
Who's
your favourite (web)designer?
Ari: TDR for
bringing back Swiss Design, John Maeda for his innovative
thinking, and many more.
Thalia: I like Mike
Young's work. I also enjoy Giger's illustrations and designs.
But my favorite would be Yoshitaka Amano's illustration and
character designs.
Where do you get your
inspiration? (books, sites etc...)
Ari:
Movies, videogames, New York City, and
friends.
Thalia: Mostly 'people watching' in New
York City, books and comics, movies, music,
places.
What do you enjoy doing when you're not in
front of the computer?
Ari: Exploring New
York. This city is really something, there's always something
new and interesting around the corner.
Thalia:
I listen and sing along to music. I also like playing video
games, although not as much as Ari. And of course, as a girl,
I loooooove shopping :)
Do you have any favourite
sites that you'd like to share with us?
Ari:
http://www.stereotypography.com/,
http://www.halfproject.com/,
http://www.brandnewschool.com/
Thalia:
yes, http://www.smokymonkeys.com/.
Their work is inspiring and different than most of the sites
you find on the web.
Thanks again for doing this
interview. This is your last chance to add something!
:)
Ari: Always have fun in whatever you
do.
Thalia: Shapelab rocks my socks… Thanks for
allowing us taking our time in doing this interview (we're
more than one month late!). And that 'who is this ari'
question makes me smile :)
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