I have a degree in Chemical Engineering (which does come in handy when explaining reverse osmosis, acid rain and other unusual phenomenon)

  Please give us a brief bio of yourself.

My name is Dayton Pereira and I am the co-founder and Creative Director of Indusblue Inc., a Digital Marketing agency in Toronto, ON, Canada.

I have been in the internet industry since 1999 and officially started the company with my brother and business partner Darren, in 2002.

  What do you do for inspiration?

I read, surf the web, watch movies and observe things offline and think of ways to bring them to life online.

  Please list 3 of your favourite sites.

There are so many and they change everyday. I don’t mean to be a suck up here, BUT I can honestly say that FWA has been my homepage for the last 4 years, so if there was one site that was my favourite, this would be it.

I like adverblog.com and clickz.com for all my digital marketing needs.

  What do you regard as being your biggest achievement?

On a professional level, starting this company and not giving up. We have a long road ahead of us, but, I feel that everyday we get a little further.

  What software couldn't you live without?

Well, even to do simple things we need a handful of programs, so in that respect, I guess Flash, Photoshop and Fireworks (which is under used but brilliant). Yeah, those would be the big ones.

  What projects do you have in the pipeline?

Right now we are doing the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics site for the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) as well as working on a platform game for Viva, and a few dozen other things, some small and some big, that I can’t really talk about just yet.

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

There are many that I like, but, my favourites are group94, Fantasy Interactive and Barbarian Group. They do some really killer work.

  What effect on traffic do your new designs have?

Well Viva is our flagship traffic generator. We have been working with them for over a year now and they have seen a huge jump in traffic (700% increase in the double opt-in permission database and double the traffic with the launch of the service) with some of the promotions we’ve developed.

But, traffic doesn’t solely depend on the website, for us the entire campaign is what drives the most amount of traffic, banners, email, viral, print etc.

  Who is your target audience?

We don’t have one, our clients do.

  What area of web design lacks the most?

IMHO writing - and this is something I’m learning, but I find a significant imbalance between design and creative writing.

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

Oh it was horrible, cheesy music, bad design and corny writing. I’d share it with you but it was lost during the Great Meltdown of a Hard Drive long ago.

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

I haven’t, but Brian Hogg, our lead developer has, it’s called Flash Demystified. I might write one, it would be on food though, my other passion.

  What was the toughest thing you ever did with Flash? How long did you spend on it? Is it still online?

I think the Viva site was pretty difficult with lots of dynamic content, and a whack load of custom components. But we are over it now and on to the next impossible thing.

  Do you think Flash is here to stay?

It’s a great tool with a lot that can be done with it. I’d like it to stay but who knows.

  What are your views on design/graphic school. Do you think someone can get into the field without educational experience in a school environment?

I don’t have any formal training in design at all.

I have a degree in Chemical Engineering (which does come in handy when explaining reverse osmosis, acid rain and other unusual phenomenon) but everything I have learned has been through trial, several errors but mostly observation.

So I definitely think that anyone can do it, you just have to be passionate about it.

  When your company was just getting started, what did you find was most effective for getting new clients?

We didn’t let the tiny budgets of our early clients stop us from going the extra 100 miles to have our idea come to life.

Our first client was a musician whose site took two months to build and cost $500 dollars!

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

Read books! There is a wealth of really good information in books.

I only really started to understand Flash after I read Colin Moock’s Flash 5 Definitive guide, that opened a whole new world of possibility.

Also, use things from other disciplines in your design, print, architecture, culture, math – there are so many things around us that are great influences.

  What is the most expensive thing you've bought in the last week?

Outfitting the office with a few new machines, they are pretty sweet.

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

For a long time I worked from home (aka - clothing optional), but now I’m pretty casual at the office, nah, I’m not much of a labels man.

  Any parting shots or pearls of wisdom?

All you need is passion, persistence and observation.

  It's been a privilege, Dayton, thanks very much.

After being a fan of FWA for so long, this has been a privilege and an honour.