This year’s .Net award winners were announced last week, with some of the biggest names in web design and development being honoured for their work in the last 12 months. The Heart Internet sponsored young designer of the year category was won by the superbly talented Dan Edwards from Sussex. We caught up with Dan to congratulate him.

Hi Dan, congratulations on winning the award! What does being named young designer of the year mean to you?

To be given recognition by your peers for something that you love doing is very humbling. I consider myself very lucky to be able to spend every day practising my craft and working on great projects, the fact others recognise that is amazing.

What do you think swung the votes in your favour?

I’ve worked really hard this year to build myself a portfolio I was proud of, I think my work reflects this and I also stepped out of my comfort zone and organised a conference. This was not just hard financially but the hours were long and it’s pretty scary when attendees with Twitter at arms length were ready to tell you exactly what they thought. I think people respect that.

But I did offer everyone a cat gif if I won, which I’m hoping no-one remembered, so maybe it was that.

  Who did you speak to at the awards ceremony?

I finally got to meet Dan Eden and Ben Howdle. I’ve spoken to these guys over Twitter for the last year but never met, so that was nice. I also met Steve Buckley from HN London, a really nice guy who I hope to be working with soon. I met so many other great people too, everyone was so friendly.

  What are your tips for gaining recognition within the industry?

Be nice, work hard, don’t quit and don’t settle. I think it’s important to keep learning, it doesn’t matter if you’re a designer, developer, content strategist, user experience ninja or whatever; I dedicate at least a day per week to learning something or doing something other than client work. It allows me to be at my most creative, no brand guidelines, no framework, nothing but a white canvas and all the tools at your fingertips to go and make something.

You organised Altitude last February, what’s it all about and are there any plans for another one next year?

Altitude was born because I love events, I’d been to a few conferences and what I always enjoyed most was talking to the speakers after the event or listening in to Q&A sessions. On these occasions there were no slides or time for rehearsals, just off the cuff advice and answers. I wanted to bring this to the stage, get rid of the slides, and just sit down and talk. That’s exactly what we did. I teamed up with a friend of mine and we organised the whole thing in under three months. And yes, there are absolutely plans for another.

How important are events and conferences in helping to build your professional network?

I don’t attend events or conferences to build my own network, I go for the content. However what happens when you get a few hundred like-minded people in a room is pretty magical. You meet great people, finally put a face to the name of that guy you spoke to on Twitter and work seems to come naturally off the back of it. People like to work with people they like, so be nice, get out there and talk to people, you’ll make some great friends if nothing else.

What advice would you give to anyone trying to organise their own web design event?

My first reaction would be – don’t.

That would be wrong though, when I think about it. I would recommend it, it was by far one of the proudest moments of my career but it was really hard work – I mean really hard. We worked for three months solid, evenings and weekends trying to organise speakers, sponsors, website, brand and then finally selling tickets. You don’t (well we didn’t) make  any money from these kind of events, they are absolutely a labour of love but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

What are the most important lessons you’ve learned from working as a web designer?

Collaborate. Working with others gives you such a different look on design, especially working with those that you admire. I learned a lot from creating projects for fun that were either part of a collaborative project or just a Dribbble rebound. It’s all collaboration of some kind and getting feedback on this and making mistakes is all part of the journey to becoming the designer you want to be.

Are there any projects you’ve worked on that you are particularly proud of?

I am particularly proud of Altitude, however from a web point of view I’m working on a couple of projects right now, one is called 52 Freebies and is launching very soon. It will be a way for designers, developers and font lovers to download a high quality resource once a week. Another I have been working on is a book creator app and marketing site both launching fairly soon. The .Net Build Off was really fun too, there is a case study for it online.

Now that you are the young designer of the year, what are you going to do next?

I’m working on both projects I just mentioned, as well as other client work. I’m also going to be designing my first app as part of a collaboration with Ben Howdle and Daniel Tomlinson which I am very excited about. I’m also (hopefully) going to be speaking at a couple of events later in the year which will be a nice change for me – and a huge challenge.