The Developer Spotlight is an interview session with many of the top designers and developers of interactive media from around the world. This edition will be an interview with Cosmin Truta, Founder & Chief Creative Officer of Grafika Designs located in Montreal Canada.
HIA: Cosmin, Thank you for taking the time to talk with us. I am hoping that by sharing stories and interviews of developers all over the world, we may begin to be a source where business owners, designers and developers can go to share ideas and learn from one another. Most importantly, we are keeping with our mission to highlight great talent from across the globe.
Cosmin: Thank you for the opportunity. It’s a true honor.
HIA: First off, tell us a little about your background.
Cosmin: Originally from Romania, born in a great historic town called Brasov, I came to Canada at the age of 11 with my parents and my brother. I pursued an education in Computer Engineering at McGill University, and combined with my artistic roots (as both my parents were music professors), and my passion for design, Web development was a natural career path for me.
HIA: How did your business start and when?
Cosmin: It was during my second year at university, in 1997, that I realized how my love for design and ability to create unique solutions was stronger than my desire to becoming an engineer and work with hardware, so I decided to shift career paths and Grafika Designs was born.
HIA: Cosmin, tell us a little about what your company does, types of projects, clients, etc.
Cosmin: Our focus is on designing and developing custom websites and e-commerce solutions tailored to our clients’ needs, using latest technologies and trends. We have never used and don’t believe in template based designs, out of the box shopping cart solutions or commercial CMS systems. We developed our own shopping cart solution and back-end Admin tools which allow our clients to manage their websites and online stores extremely easy with features specifically designed with their needs in mind. Using only custom developed solutions allows each client to grow their website and functionality over time at their own pace and budget. Our clients are small/medium size private and public companies, in industries such as health care, legal services, pharmaceutical, biotech, research, child care, arts & media, consumer goods, b2b, retail, electronics, educational, fitness, construction, real estate, non-profit, food, photography and more.
HIA: What do you think is the most important thing about your work in terms of the customer’s perspective?
Cosmin: I think it comes down to two main things: quality of the projects (both front-end and back-end) and devotion to each client by exceeding their expectations and building long lasting relationships.
HIA: Talk a little about how you have seen the trends in web design changing over the last few years in terms of how you design, code and generally what elements are important.
Cosmin: I’ve seen a big change in web design trends in the last few years especially when it comes to websites being more focused on visuals and branding through the use of photography and artwork and much less detailed content. This is driven by the fact that we have less time and we are less patient and we want the info right away. As far as design, we have shifted towards more simplistic, less heavy and more flat styles.
HIA: Where do you see web technology and design going in 2015 and beyond? Are there things on the horizon you plan to begin adding into your workflow?
Cosmin: I think Responsive Web Design (RWD) is going to be one of things that we will see grow a lot in 2015 and the next few years. It is something we offer to our clients and that we see a lot more demand for lately.
HIA: Where do you turn for creative inspiration?
Cosmin: Oh wow, pretty much everywhere. The web in most part, magazines, tv and our surroundings.
HIA: We know that you have entered the Horizon Interactive Awards in past competitions. What do awards programs do for you and your business and why did you decide to participate with the 2014 Horizon Interactive Awards.
Cosmin: Yes, we have been entering the Horizon Interactive Awards actually for the last 7 years and winning at least one award every time, and we will continue to enter every year because it is a great awards program with reputation and highly respected in the Web design industry. The first reason we submit our work every year to awards programs is to get a sense if our work is truly as good as we and our clients believe it is. The second reason is that being awarded for our websites builds a strong trust for the quality of work our company delivers helping clients in their decision making when it comes to choosing us or another agency for their project.
HIA: Do you have anything else you’d like to add to our interview?
Cosmin: I would like to thank you once again for the opportunity to do this interview. It’s a great pleasure and honor to be part of such an amazing website. I also want to congratulate you for a spectacular job year after year in bringing together so many exceptional creative projects from all corners of the world.
Cosmin, thank you for taking the time to talk with us. I wish you the best of luck in this year’s competition and with all that you do for your clients.