Do you like looking at people’s design portfolios? I do! So today I would like to introduce you to Matthew Leak, owner of Status By Design.

Firstly, could you please tell us about yourself? (Who are you, where do you live, what do you do for a living?)
Hey, I’m Matthew Leak and I’m from Manchester, UK. I’m currently a student studying for my A levels at college, but when I’m not sat behind a desk studying, I’m sat behind a desk designing. I’m a Web & Graphic Designer, and I am the creative director of Status by Design. (www.statusbydesign.com)

Who/what is your biggest inspiration in life and business? Also where do you get your design inspiration?
The biggest part of my design inspiration definitely comes from wanting to better myself. I have seen some impressive designs out there, and I always say to myself when I see them, that that will be my artwork up there one day. Another vital part of my inspiration is the music I listen to. It might sound silly, but if I’m designing, I will almost certainly be listening to music, and the music I listen to definitely reflects the final result. In case you’re wondering, I am a huge fan of electronic music, the main genres being trance, house & drum and bass. At the time of this interview, I’m listening to Blames essential mix, it’s really good.
My inspiration in terms of who & business is definitely the crew over at Attik. Those guys are amazing.

You run two design companies and a blog, why did you start these?
I started freelancing around a year and a half ago. I did this because I knew that when I was older I want to be my own boss, or the boss of other people. I prefer the thought of working for myself much more than working for somebody else. So I decided to start while I could. There was nothing stopping me, so I just went for it. About a month ago I decided to start Status by Design. So rather than working under ‘Matthew Leak – Freelance Web Designer’ I am now working under Status by Design. To me the name says it all, and the name of the company is just perfect for a design company, it’s cool.

Have you ever had times where you thought yourself or your businesses as a “failure”? If so how did you stop feeling like it? If not how do you keep yourself so optimistic?
Yes. It was when I first started freelancing. I was working on a site, sent the concepts to a client, and he didn’t like them, so he didn’t pay me for my time. Although this was a setback, I used it to my advantage. This determined me to get much better. And over the past year and half to two years I have really excelled, and I’ve been told by many colleagues, friends & clients that I’m extremely talented for a 17 year old.

Have you any advice to give to those currently in the position you were in when you first started?
Just keep working at what you do, getting better and building up your portfolio. If you don’t have any work, or can’t get any work, then keep trying. Never give up. I like to keep web portfolios client based. But some of the work in my printed portfolio is from imaginary clients. This is a good way to practise, and to brush up your skills so when the time comes to sitting down with a real client, you have an impressive portfolio for them to see.

What plans do you have for the future?
I would like to have my own modern / slick design studio, with a reputation for being one of the best in the industry, and to have an impressive client base, like Attik. But in the meantime I am looking at building some partnerships with printing companies who outsource their Graphic Design work. So with a few relationships built, Status by Design will be well on the road to success.

Is there anything else you would like to add?
Thank you for interviewing me.
Thank you very much Matthew. I think that was a very good interview, I hope you all do too! Do you have any questions for Matthew?

Shane

The question that many people have been asking me for the last 6 months is “What happened to Lonely Designs?” Well now it is time for me to answer that question. For those of you that do not have any idea what I am talking about, I shall also include the history of Lonely Designs too.

The History of Lonely Designs

About a year ago I started my first blog, which I called Lonely Designs because it was the only domain I had at the time of planning the blog. I say planning, but really it ws just a quick mindmap and I have the blog up within about 5 days. You are probably wondering if I did the same for Success Circuit, I didn’t. I think the biggest difference between Lonely Designs and Success Circuit (apart from the actual niche) was that Lonely Designs I invested a lot into because I believed that I would make money instantly. This is where I started losing it. With Success Circuit I have not invested as much yet, but I have tried to plan much more and I am certian it will be successful. The aim of Success Circuit was never to make money, it was for Lonely Designs.

Lonely Design’s niche was Make Money Online (MMO), which you are probably laughing at as I made no money from it. You are correct, the niche was completely wrong and one I did not know much about. Some of you may be thinking that if Lonely Design’s did not succeed then my niche is wrong for this as well because I must not know about success? Well this time you are wrong, I have watched many people succeed and from my own failures I can see where I have gone wrong! I already think of Success Circuit as a success, which is one thing I never thought of Lonely Designs.

Now I need to let you know an important fact. I had been using NamePros since august of the year before and I had got a “friend” to join it. He was loving it there and making a lot of money but did not have paypal, so he asked me if I could transfer some money he had earned from paypal to namepros (NP dollars). Of course I thought nothing wrong with this. The amount of money that I transferred was $150. Remember that!

It was going well for a few months, until I got very busy. I did not have the sense to write posts in advance, so I had many days (even weeks) of no posts. At one point I even got James Murphy to write almost a fortnight of posts for me. This was a stupid idea, not because James is not any good but because I should of prepared for it, so for Success Circuit I have got many back up posts as well as writing posts in advance!

The End

As you probably guessed, the end was not far away. I needed money and the site was going nowhere, I needed to sell. I decided to sell it on NamePros Live Auction, and it sold for $155. This was no where near what I was hoping for, but I sold anyway. They sent me the $155 and paypal took $150 of it!! After investigating I found out that the “friend” I helped had actually scammed the money! I was not happy at all with them taking the money and I tried to find him, but he had disappeared . So I let them take the money as there was nothing I could do, and I felt sorry for them as I do not like scammers. But this left me with $5, not even enough to cover the logo! I lost a lot of money from this but it was worth it, as I learned so many things from it. Including how to blog properly!

Also, not only did I lose out but the person that bought Lonely Designs did not even put it back up! The site really was my baby, but I did not look after it properly.

The Problems

Well I have already said most of the problems but here I will just state them, so it is easier for you to see.

• Niche that I did not know but about
• Domain Name was not at all appropriate to the  site
• Not enough was planned
• Posts were not written in advance
• I did not have as much support as I needed
• I invested too much
• I wanted to sell too urgently
• I helped a scammer
• I sold for a price that could never of covered the investments I made
• I was not careful about who I sold the website to

Thank you for reading this. If you have had any experiences like this before then please let me know by commenting! Also please comment asking questions that I may not of answered in this post.

Shane