Great food can be appreciated by anyone. Think about that when you build a web site.

Please give us a brief bio of yourself.

I am Jamie Kosoy. I am a senior developer.

What do you do for inspiration?

I read a lot. I like old games... the LucasArts SCUMM games and Sega Genesis games and Scrabble and Monopoly. I like to try to figure out how to bring some of those things into our work.

Please list 3 of your favourite sites.

Nike Air

Adobe FlashOn

Glaceau

What do you regard as being your biggest achievement?

I'm here. Someone out there is reading this. It's pretty humbling.

What software could you not live without?

TextMate. I'm a coder, so I naturally go for the lightweight text editor. And Flash, I suppose.

What projects do you have in the pipeline?

I'm going to be teaching at Parsons the New School for Design beginning in the Fall. I'm thrilled to have that opportunity.

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

Not counting the Spaceship, I'm a fan of Odopod, AgencyNet and 2Advanced.

What area of web design lacks the most?

On Flash sites, nobody seems to give enough love to their preloaders. Preloaders are an opportunity, not a bane. They're the preface to an engaging story. Love them. Cherish them. Make them beautiful.

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

I recall making a web site about Lint in high school for some contest. I won.

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

I've written a couple of articles for Adobe DevNet . And there's our labs blog of course.

I'd love to write a book at some point, but I don't know if it's in the cards... at least not yet.

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

We're always finding a new way to push the limit here. I remember working pretty hard on trying to create a faux 3D engine for the LOST web site.

Adding to the complexity was trying to obfuscate the paths to some of the hidden content on the site. I failed pretty miserably on that second part...the site had been cracked and blogged about within 24 hours.

Do you think Flash is here to stay?

The short answer: I don't know.

The long answer: It doesn't really matter to me. I mean, I want it to survive... I love the expressiveness Flash affords me. But if it did die, it would be because some superior technology came along that allowed us to be even more expressive. I'm rooting for it though...I like Flash.

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

It depends on what you mean by 'educational experience.' If you mean schools teaching students to learn Flash and Photoshop and Maya, no. I see no value whatsoever in being trained in specific software or languages.

Students need to be taught how to problem solve creatively, how to best flex both sides of their brains on the fly, how to speak confidently about their work and most importantly how to adapt themselves when the interactive media schtick turns on its head.

I won't make any assumptions about what the marketplace will look like 10 years from now beyond this: It's going to be radically different. It's radically different than it was in the 90s. And radically different than the 80s. And on and on.

In order for someone to have a sustainable career in this line of work, you first have to be able to grow and change with the technology. Mastery over whatever technology will come naturally as a result. Unfortunately, those needs don't always align with the 'we need it yesterday' demands of a client...

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

I f#ck up a lot. I would download scripts, tinker, break 'em, rebuild 'em. Rename the variables to see how they worked. Document them myself. Try to improve them.

My first real mentor offered me this advice about coding: If you've written it more than once, you've written it wrong. Concise code is less likely to be buggy. Oh, and flow charting helps a lot.

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

Renting skis for a trip to Vancouver.

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

I'm trying to keep it simple these days. Solid color t-shirt, blue jeans, Adidas. Done and done.

Any parting shots or pearls of wisdom?

Great food can be appreciated by anyone. Think about that when you build a web site.

It has been a privilege, thanks very much.

Hey, thanks a ton.

Big Spaceship