This post is part of the “Designer Spotlight” series, which features an interview with a designer/coder/mover/shaker who uses Flywheel.

Introducing Cody Peterson.

Cody is a designer and developer living in Portland. He usually makes web sites and web apps for different companies. (He’s also the drummer for an awesome band called Hers).

Where are you located?
I just moved to Portland, Oregon earlier this month. I was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska and lived there for 28 years.

What’s your workspace like?
I work out of ADX, which is this amazing “Community of Thinkers & Makers.” There are people doing woodworking, metalworking, upholstery, 3D printing, and all sorts of stuff. There is also a building for people who work on computers which is where I spend most of my time, unfortunately.

How long have you worked as a designer?
I have been selling design work for about seven years.

Is there something that sparked your interest in design?
One of my cousins was a graphic designer of some sort in the late 90s. He would come over and teach me some Corel Draw tricks and it kind of just grew organically from there.

Where do you find inspiration when you design?
I am a recovering RSS feed addict. I subscribe to over 500 feeds and used to check them daily. Now I can go almost two weeks without it, but still binge read every now and then.

What are three things you do to get the creative juices flowing when you’ve hit a roadblock?
I do a lot of interface design so I try and just get into the headspace of the person using the software. Usually if I think about it from their point of view the solution presents itself.

What are some bands/artists you listen to while you’re designing?
Lately I have been listening to a lot of Lucky Dragons, Townes Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen, and the new Little Wings album.

What’s the best part of your day as a designer?
Doing the work.

What’s the hardest part about being a designer?
Making time to just do the work.

If you couldn’t design, what would you do?
There are so many non-answers to this and it’s hard to avoid them. I think I would just be more of a content producer or perhaps a journalist.

Have a favorite design-related website?
BLDG Blog

Any up-and-coming designers who you think are awesome?
Ellen Wilde, Alex Brown, Anthony Bradley, there are so many.