What do you regard as being your biggest achievement?

I'd have to say starting Oringe. And watching through the entire Lord of the Rings movie and not falling asleep.

  Please give us a brief bio of yourself.

I'm 25, Chinese-American, and I love pulling the pills off of old cloth couches.

  What do you do for inspiration?

Crack. Har har. Seriously, for design inspiration, I try to get relaxed, maybe by taking a shower, sleeping, or producing songs. Basically anything to get my mind completely off of things and let it wander. Inspiration usually comes from things you already know, but by connecting and combining them in new ways.

Reading about graphic designers of the past and relating to the challenges of their time can also be pretty motivating.

  Please list 3 of your favourite sites.

www.sacbee.com - for Kings basketball news, www.k10k.net - even though they haven't been up for months, I still type them in like every day to see if they're back, www.styleboost.com - always really, really, really cool links, plus I like the insight he gives on each one and of course: www.favouritewebsiteawards.com - a classic!

  What do you regard as being your biggest achievement?

I'd have to say starting Oringe. And watching through the entire Lord of the Rings movie and not falling asleep.

  What software couldn't you live without?

Flash and Illustrator. And probably Windows, since I heard it does something important.

  What projects do you have in the pipeline?

Hopefully some pretty cool projects and clients. If I ever get some time, I'd really like to work on some personal/experimental projects, too. And of course, lots of top secret stuff (like mindless site updates).

  Who do you rate as being the top 3 design companies?

Any company that can design something that has no obvious commercial value, yet still get paid for it, is a bad-ass company in my book.

  What effect on traffic do your new designs have?

Traffic increased 999999999%. Actually I'm not sure what your question means, but as you know, "sites that are more appealing, have more updated content, and are easier to use definitely receive more new and repeat visitors."

  Who is your target audience?

Do you mean for my clients? Whoever their target audience is. We generally work with any client who is forward-thinking. Or do you mean for me personally? Young hot groupies at rock concerts. Just kidding.

  What area of web design lacks the most?

I think the bridge between art and technology, or designers and programmers, has a ton of unexplored potential. We see that gap being bridged ever so often, but I'd like to see more.

Much of the web remains bipolar, with sites either only focused on design or only focused on programming.

  What did your very first site look like? Is it still online?

It looks like elephant dung and fortunately it's still not online. The HTML was written entirely using vi on unix back in '96. VI baby!

  Have you written any books, if not do you plan to?

Nope, although I did write a tutorial on the oringe v3 site:

www.oringe.com/vm/tutorials/v3.pdf

  Do you think Flash is here to stay?

Yeah, I believe it's inherently a better medium than most stuff out there.

It'll only get more widespread as more people learn how to develop in Flash and as Flash starts being used on different platforms such as Pocket PCs, Playstations, etc.

  What was the toughest thing you ever did with Flash? Is it still online?

The most challenging things I have done with Flash are mostly the Oringe sites, most of which are viewable at our site.

  How have you learned so many Flash/design skills and techniques and can you offer any advice for newbies?

Hmm...checking out sites like www.newstoday.com and www.favouritewebsitewards.com that have tons of links are a great way to start.

I still try to absorb as much good stuff as I can and keep a desire to constantly improve.

  What type of overcoat do you wear when Flashing, basically are you a labels man?

I wear Praddo, Guchi, and DKYN almost exclusively.

  Any parting shots or pearls of wisdom?

Brush and floss your teeth, and when web design stops being fun, take a break.

  It's been a privilege, Ben, thank you very much.

No, thank you Rob!