Not only is it enjoying immense traffic, its earnings from Google AdSense is enough to put a Makati executive to shame. Little do people know that behind the site are three young design-oriented siblings. VIxen.art founder Ada Lajara is a registered nurse while her sister Sabrina is a freelance graphic designer. They are in their early 20s and both of them blog too. The technical platform of vixenart is now handled by their 18-year old brother Galileo, a programming whiz. In the following interview, they share precious design tips, and more!

A. Ada: "Our first personal computer was when I was in 6th grade and the only things I search edin the net were Final Fantasy (3D game in Play Station) pictures. While browsing , I was wowed with FF websites’ design. So I said to myself, I think I can make those stunning designs too! There I started learning Photoshop. I read tutorials from the net and get inspirations from professional web and graphics designers. Actually my sister is better than me now. She’s pursuing what I started."

Sabrina: "If not being curious about what my sister is doing in net, I’ll be into playing Freestyle and Ragnarok forever. One day, she won dollars in a graphic design contest and I started to envy her!

Yes, I am inspired by my sister, wondering how she won that contest and how she made those glittering images, photo manipulations, and stunning graphics design. She taught me how to do this and how to do that, spoon-feeding. Then she told me to search tutorials in the web rather than spoon feeding. My sister once told me that I really have the potential which encourages me more to do graphics designs. And I started joining online graphic contests too.Winning in contest is a feeling of achievement! It feels great!"

Q. Any precious tips or advice you can give to existing and aspiring designers like you?

A. 1. Begin by creating simple graphic designs for your friends, play with your photos, and manipulate it.

2. Do not limit your style! Designing is both objective and subjective. Join art forums such as deviantart.com to display and show your works, accept criticism from other graphics designers.

3. Improve your style! Always search tutorials for new techniques in web design. Be inspired by latest graphic design trends. Hip for this year are Vintage/Retro style, Web2.0, Mascots, and Grungy.

4. Start joining online graphic contests. This is a great step for you to earn dollars. If the contest holder really loves your work, he may hire you to be his official graphic designer! Popular communities that you can join are forums.digitalpoint.com and 99designs.com.

5. Create an online portfolio of your works. Show off that you are now ready to take the next step to become a professional graphic designer.

6. Copying anyone’s idea is a NO! NO! Learn also to protect your works, visit creativecommons.org to license your work.

7. Do not do design if you’re not in mood. In our case, we do designs if we have good sleep over night. Do not forget to take care of your stomach too. Doing graphics designing while seating loses calories.

8. Save all your designs. Create folders and arrange it according to months if you’re starting and according to year if you’re doing design for a year. This is a good way to compare your works from previous months/years to assess if you are improving or getting better in designing.

9. Step into the next level of graphic design. Learn web design as well, learn CSS, HTML, PHP and other web languages related to web design.

10. Attend seminars about web and graphic design. Catch web design conference updates at webstandards.raquedan.com.

Enrolling in art schools is not necessary especially when don’t have enough budget. Passion and hard work,is all you got. Every successful person always starts in being a newbie.

A. Important. A blog with good design makes a good impression to your new visitors. A blog that is well designed for accessibility, usability and readability is a blog’s key to success. It’s not always the design, the most important is the blog content. What keeps the visitor coming back to your blog is your content. Design is beauty and content is brain. A beauty without brain is empty, but a beauty with brain is prosperity.

(For comments and inquiries, email annalyn.jusay@gmail.com)