David Cox is the founder of Aevion.net, a blog where he shares his graphic design talents online. This young and aspiring designer (only 20 years of age) creates elegant pieces with such detail that the artwork becomes alive. Many will be surprised that David has never gone to school for design or art and is currently studying to become a Health Professional. His creativity is flourished through his passion to create things.

As David puts it nicely, “Graphic Design is my hobby, and I feel that if I can keep it optional, I will never lose my love or desire to create things because I will never be forced to create things on demand (as one might in school or a design related job)”. Even though he’s a Health Professional by day, he transforms into the creative Graphic Designer by night… two completely polar halves that make up a whole. We hope you enjoy the interview.

How did you get started and discovered that you wanted to be a designer?

I first started out in a computer science class when I was about 15. One section of the class was devoted to creating websites, and within no time, my passion was born. I spent the majority of the class making websites (we had the freedom to spend time on anything computer related) and I was designing and creating websites from then on out. I was soon introduced to the Gimp, a free photo editing software similar to Photoshop, and I built up my skills using that program before ultimately switching to Photoshop a few years ago. Throughout the five years since then I've loved every minute spent with Graphic Design (and I've made some good money along the way with it as well) so I knew that I wanted to be a Graphic Designer... even if it wasn't a full time profession.

What inspired you to create Aevion a tutorial site?

Aevion has come quite a long way since the beginning. Originally it was a tutorial site (brought on by seeing sites like Tutorial9, PsdTuts, and Abduzeedo, and wanting to do something similar), but it quickly became more of a portfolio for my art. I believe that if I hadn't have made this switch then I might not be doing this interview right now, nor would my Photoshop skills be anywhere near where they are today. It was during the time that Aevion was a portfolio site that my art flourished into what it is now, and it was also the time when my skills developed to the point that I can accomplish whatever I want with the software. Recently, Aevion returned to a tutorial site, and my portfolio has become a separate site... I'm trying to give my readers an easier way to find what they want on Aevion.net, primarily tutorials.