Q:: Would you say then that these are equally the skills and abilities you need to have as a designer in order to be successful?
Ruby::
There’s a lot of stuff said in this particular community of, “Oh! She’s so talented” but talent only actually correspond maybe 15% of what you do. The rest is all skills: to be able to use your software well, to understand how colors work with each other, to understand how to create a feeling of vintage, modern or funky. You need to have these skills in order to be able to translate your talents and ideas into an actual finished product. Whether you think you’re talented or not, is irrelevant, because your creativity can be expressed through skills. Anybody can learn to draw, to paint or to work with Photoshop. It comes more easily to some than others, but whether or not you feel you have an artistic talent is not the key to success. It’s about developing skills to present your ideas in a coherent way.

Q:: Are there any skills still out there that you wish to improve for yourself?
Ruby::
What I need to do is to loosen up. I am very aware after all these years of working with commercial art and graphic design that I am little bit confined. I wish I could learn to become more free, more fluid in what I do. Less bogged down with clean lines and perhaps being less of a perfectionist would be a good thing too.

Q:: Creative team members are important component to make full use of a designer’s creation. Would you then apply onto the CT member similar ideas and requirements as you just described for yourself as a designer?
Ruby::
First of all, I don’t have a CT and that’s a choice. It’s really comes down to a fact that I am so appallingly disorganized that I couldn’t possibly keep on top of it. I’m also very sporadic and I don’t think it’s fair to have a number of people sitting and waiting for a new product when I honestly can’t tell you if I will have something ready tomorrow or sometime in December. I don’t know at the moment. So, it’s not fair and it’s not practical to keep a team of girls on. However, having said that, I would say to anybody who is interested in CT-ing for any designer, I hope that they would have a similar attitude to me. Don’t worry about what you think it should look like, don’t worry about whether it’s the same theme, the same style as somebody else’s work. Do what comes naturally to you. If it feels good to you and if it looks right to YOU, then what other people think is not relevant to the success of the layout. When you spend too much time trying to make it look like somebody else’s style or what you think people want to see, that’s when it become staid and boring and it just doesn’t work.

Q:: Would you agree that a layout is important to sell a kit?
Ruby::
I think it is to a degree, yes. Without any disrespect intended to scrappers, sometimes you see something and you think, “That’s so beautiful. I really like that. I love the colors" and so on, but have no idea how you could use it. Yes, it’s great if you can see some layouts, particularly if you can see some different styles. You have different people that use the same kit and come up with lots of different things. That can be very inspirational, if only to get over your own fear of not being able to do something with it.

Q:: You’ve been an experienced designer working in many different areas in art for many years. You have likely seen some kits sold at a very low price nowadays. With the effort, energy and requirements to organize yourself as described in the earlier part of our interview, how do you feel if the prices come to that point?
Ruby::
I can only say that it’s the product of the market. What we are talking about are basically digital files which are used for recreational purposes. We’re not talking about a whole corporate identity, like a Coca Cola logo or something like that where a company is going to use this as part of their money making exercise for a considerable length of time, and therefore worth spending a lot of money on getting it absolutely spot on. We’re not talking about that. We are talking about something you would buy to make one or two or maybe even a dozen layouts and then move on to the next thing. It’s a completely luxury item, if you like, it’s not of any intrinsic value to itself.

Q:: You introduced yourself as a designer from top to toe in the purity and depths of your heart, yet when it comes to earning money, you are still willing to look it from the user’s point of view.
Ruby::
I do think there are people who are designers or in the design business for different reasons. For some it is purely financial, some it’s purely creative and some a little of both. Others have their own, more personal, reasons. For example they make kits for themselves to use for their scrapping and then they think, “Well… maybe somebody else will buy it too.” For every designer there is a different motivation why they do it.

Q:: How do you manage your time working on your designs in various art sector and family?
Ruby::
Again, it’s not a conscious thing. It is just my life. The biggest problem I have on a day to day basis is not knowing what day it is. For me Tuesday or Sunday is the same. I do try to make a conscious effort and