Posts filed under 'Design'
Crackle… Is anyone there?…
Is it really mid-April?! Blimey. What changes have remained undocumented here in my blog? Not much really. Just a complete change in my lifestyle, an imminent change in my location and untold other little things along the way. Lets start with the main one.
The Plan™ has been achieved. Not the way I intended it, but I’m not complaining. After spending the last 6 years trying to escape the unfair pigeonhole of new media and be recognised as a print designer, in February I found myself on the receiving end of a redundancy as the company I worked for closed it’s print department.
Downheartened? Yes. Disappointed? Not really. My interest in my design career fizzled out almost two years ago and this was the kick in the arse I needed to take my burgeoning photography business seriously. I considered getting another design job for about 30 minutes. I considered throwing myself into a serious freelance design career for about a day. In the end I know what I have to do to achieve my dream and those things would just get in the way.
So, some careful financial restructuring, a bit of helping/freelancing for previous employers to top up the coffers, and away we go. Ignoring the naysayers. Not worrying too much about the risks. Not looking down.
April 19th, 2007
“The London Design Festival is an annual event to celebrate and promote London and the UK’s design creativity. It brings together a diverse group of partners from different sectors - from the very biggest to the very smallest - and runs from 15-30 September.
This year, LG is proud to be one of those partners. To show our support we are staging a virtual event called Twenty-First Century Design Icons, an attempt to find the top five design icons from the last six years.”
My list:
1. The Apple iPod
Easy. Changed the face of music and gadgets across the board.
2. Toyota Prius Hybrid Automobile
Brave, but successful. Anything that persuades yummy mummys in California to ditch their SUVs has to be good.
3. Motorola RAZR Mobile Phone
Caught the imagination like no phone before it. Now everyone wants to be thin.
4. TomTom Go Standalone In-Car Navigation System
Took sat-nav to the masses.
5. Canon 300D/Digital Rebel Digital SLR Camera
The first affordable professional quality digital camera. Responsible for a resurgence in photography as a hobby.
Discuss.
Designers whose list I would like to see:
Jay Prynne, senior designer at Esterson Associates, who always disagrees with me on things like this.
Technorati tag: lgdesignicons
September 26th, 2006
What can I say? It was going spare. That extra DVI socket was just plain going to waste. It’s worth all the Starship Enterprise jokes. And it sure makes using InDesign easier. Can’t be good for my eyes though? Hmm.
January 11th, 2006
So de-construct are four years old. Doesn’t seem like five minutes since Deepend went tits up. Any gathering attended by ex-Deependers is always interesting, as there’s always someone to talk to who you haven’t seen for ages. I’m notoriously bad at keeping in touch with people, which usually means bumping into people I feel that I know really well, but who I haven’t spoken to for 6 months at a time.
Hence Gabes’ startled expression above.
October 14th, 2005
Last year’s London Design Festival opening reception was a grand affair. In the British Museum, rubbing shoulders with untold artifacts stolen from all around the world, great canapés, bumping into all sorts of friends…
This year we were in the National Gallery, surrounded by gloomy and depressing paintings. There was nobody there of any interest, apart from some freaky Bride of Wildenstein look-a-like (Plastic surgery – don’t do it kids). The canapés consisted of endless miniscule lumps of over-cooked puff pastry with various different things added, none of which distracted from the over-cooked puff pastry. BN1 was necking the champagne at a furious rate, so we left before he lost it and attacked Van Gogh’s Sunflowers with a puff pastry missile.
This year’s guest of honour was the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who—unlike Prescott last year—sounded like he had thought about his speech before he turned up. He mingled too:
Even Tom Dixon’s bench made of elastic bands was particularly unimpressive. Sitting on it produced a distinct feeling of being precariously suspended, and fear of breaking my arse on Trafalgar Square had me standing up before you could say ‘boing’.
Roll on next year.
September 20th, 2005
