An Interview with Michael Novikov

** not sure if this is in the right forum, but I feel mike should get decent exposure so hope this is not against the rules *

Today I will be interviewing Michael Novikov, well known designer and owner of various nifty sites such as flickcabin and humorcabin. The article will cover some basic things such as Mike's beginning in design and some of his plans for the future. I hope everyone will enjoy it and read the end for a full review on Mike Novikov's Services.


Stan Hello Michael , please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your goals for the future.

Mike My name is Michael Novikov and i am seventeens years old and I currently reside in NYC. My life long goal is to achieve a degree in law school. I also put in a lot of work into my designing hobby therefore its not just my career but also my life.

Stan Do you have any specific area in law in mind? I myself am going to law school in a few years.

Mike I am not one hundered percent positive on this but i am more heading into protecting businesses and in that case businessmen.

Stan last question regarding school, any schools in mind for undergrad/law?

Mike At the moment, none really. I am not really set whether I am ready to give up the web industry and switch to a corporate life.

Stan So Mike, when did you get into the "biz" or webdev community. You currently freelance and dabble with a few development projects.

Mike This all started at the age of twelve when i was involved into a game called CounterStrike. As any kid, my curiosity led me to wonder. At first i started developing websites for gaming clans and then headed towards the professional side.

Stan ya i hear ya, I started in the same way ahaha only a little further back in "Delta Force" but was into counterstrike for a few years

Mike I was actually playing Delta Force as well, but designing began for my counter strike clans.

Stan Alright, now to inspire some people, when you started what were making on average per design, and monthly on the web?

Mike When i first got my copy of Photoshop, money was never on my mind. It was having the name and the respect from others that led me to improve my designing experience. Ofcourse overtime i came to the point where my work was worth buying. I opened a studio, a web design firm under the name of MNV Studios and we began taking on clients. We had a team that consisted of Flash artists, coders, and designers. At first we charged from $50-$100 a coded template. As time passed, the studio closed and my freelancing life had begun.

Stan by chance do you have anything laying around from your beginning days you could show everyone to see how much you have improved?

Mike As a matter of fact, yes i do.

Stan Awesome, something else to inspire us all now


Mike This was back into the MNV Studios day, one of our first clients.

http://www.michaelnovikov.com/Interview/

http://www.michaelnovikov.com/Interview/modlist.htm

http://www.michaelnovikov.com/Interview/review.htm

This was back into the MNV Studios day, one of our first clients.

Stan So now that you have improved, what on average do you charge for your current designs? Examples would be like : Humorcabin and PokerForum

Mike A design like humor cabin will cost you $150 for the main and $25 for each extra subpage. If you are requested a vBulletin design style, it will cost you $150 for the Forumbit and an extra $50 for each other page such as a Postbit and a Threadbit.

Stan So what has helped you progress, or how did you do it?

Mike it was more of a work in progress. I took what i had with me at that time and i looked at other's people work. I started to mix it all together and came up with a unique style which few other artist mastered as well. Although the problem nowadays is that the stlye is very easily mastered and many have done so. I am at the moment converting into a different style since it is much harder for me to make money and provide my work as is.

Stan very good prices, very affordable for the quality

Stan oh and I forgot to ask, if there was any designer out there you "look up to, or are inspired by, who would it be?"

Mike There are a few designers that i look up to and that inspire. These would be Dan from www.loadingdeck.com and Tim from http://timbenzinger.com/

Stan I always remember tim for his infamous myspace profile, it is quite amazing.

Stan So any plan on making a switch from design to other niches to make money on the internet?

Mike Web development and that is what i am currently focusing on about. I own a few companies at the moment and i am planning to expand my horizion and the future of those companies

Stan Last question, any advice to beginners out there?

Mike There is one thing that i noticed about designers really, they follow the same trend. My main advice would be try to mix styles and create something rather uinqiue. Do not try to acomplish a style that is already out there. Create something new, inspire. You could be a perfectionist but you will need motivation and most imortantly a dream. If you are designer that is here to just learn a trend and make money, please leave. Designing is a feeling of passion and yes it is a resource to make money but without passion you will never achieve your goal.

Stan Thank you for your time Michael, if theres any shameless plugs to stick in nows your chance

Mike Haha, I would recommend www.humorcabin.com and www.tutorialms.com


The Review
After hiring Michael myself for a project that will be launched very shortly I had to write a rave review for him. Not because he asked for one but because I want to write one. Michael is nothing short of spectacular. From the day I decided to hire him he was working diligently on several variations of the site I wanted. Within 3 days Mike was fully done with the design and I had asked for several changes after many times of changing my mind. Mike never once got mad for me asking to change something and the end result is exactly what I wanted. I would highly recommend Mike as a designer to anyone needing work done. For such a low price it is truly great quality. If you want to check out his work look at : http://www.michaelnovikov.com/Portfolio/ mine is Talk Tutorials

Hope everyone enjoyed, and sorry this took so long to get posted.

-Stan

His designs are pretty good, but his code is impecable. Good job with the interview!

Not the most professional interview i've read. However still a pretty good read.

OMG, Delta Force, did you play DF2 by any chance at a high standard?

Jeff it was a very informal thing, if you want formal wait for our lee interview

Very good stan i liked it

Originally Posted by WardLarson His designs are pretty good, but his code is impecable. Good job with the interview!

Just to let you know, I code most of his designs If you mind telling me which ones are impeccable please do!

they are all just clean and quick (valid xhtml). I wish they were al strict but transitional is good too.

Nice marketing strategy, I've found the article a normal read but I didnt really find that HOW MUCH DO YOU CHARGE question related to the interview, the questions were far off from each other, that is, questions didnt have the similarity between them. Not all of them though, however good job. Nice attempt!

I am sorry if anything sounded a little off the professional side. I was simply asked to be interviewed and i answered my questions in a way that i will answer to anyone that asks them.

I hope you understand

Thanks a lot Stan for your time and i am glad that you had a pleasure dealing with me. In future, i hope to do more business with you.