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The second day of FOWD NYC somehow managed to trump day one, which was already so fantastic. The morning got off to a great start with Cameron Moll encouraged us to push ourselves into areas where we’re not comfortable and to go ahead and make mistakes. He was followed by Whitney Hess who suggested [...]
Design Blog
Future of Web Design, day 2 November 16, 2011
Future of Web Design New York November 8, 2011
As I walked around the streets of New York I realised just how strong the design culture is here, evident in every independent coffee shop and boutique store. This place definitely has its own aesthetic like no other city I’ve visited yet. This is what makes it such a great city to have a web [...]
Typo London October 24, 2011
The set up for Typo seemed to be ’save the best for last’. Over the 3 day conference, I found Saturdays speakers to be the best of all, and nothing could beat Chip Kidd. His tales of his projects, how he’d arrived at the final outcome, and including the ones that had become ‘failed’ [...]
Letterpress studio July 21, 2011
Yesterday I dropped some booklets off at a local London letterpress studio for a work project. Theo was so lovely and showed us through how everything works and some of his projects. He has some beautiful old metal typefaces and picture plates to work with, as well as the modern plastic plates when need be. [...]
Design Jam London July 2, 2011
Yesterday I went to my first Design Jam, a one-day event for web designers and usability experts. I am so glad I went along, I think we had a great team and a great idea. We worked on rapid wireframes, user research, personas and user flow diagrams. I wanted to produce a layout for [...]
Poster illustration for uSwitch contact centre June 30, 2011
The uSwitch contact centre felt the need to brighten up their space a little, so asked the design team to make some posters using words and values that were found in a recent customer satisfaction survey.
We were allocated 3 words each, and I chose knowledgeable, professional and patient. I used a little bird character along [...]
Ampersand conference June 17, 2011
I was especially looking forward to Ampersand today because web typography is growing so quickly and conferences are such a great way to learn a lot in a short time. Some of the talks were a little disappointing as they were too vague and didn’t really have any substance, while others (like Jonathan Hoefler) were [...]
New Adventures in Web Design January 20, 2011
I was excited as I headed up to Nottingham, I hadn’t visited the city before and I was making the trip to attend New Adventures in Web Design.
The day was full of great talks with a strong underlying theme of introducing “higher” design into our work (I hate that term, but bear with me). [...]
Letterpress exhibition January 17, 2011
On our lunch break we visited the very impressive letterpress exhibition at Standpoint gallery. I immediately fell in love with “Never Let the Odds” – it’s such a beautiful piece I had to buy one, and I’m looking forward to seeing it on our wall!
I also especially liked “Tutti Frutti” because of the vibrant [...]
Beauty at the V&A December 9, 2010
We recently visited the V&A again when my cousin Bex visited London. I’m really glad she wanted to meet us there because it’s amazing what you discover new each time you visit London’s huge museums!
I love the pattern designs, but I think my favourite is the Modern exhibition with the mix of furniture, type and [...]
Illustration of Vegetables July 30, 2010
Photos are great, but illustration can be better for specific purposes. I love illustration of plants and vegetables, especially the old school botanical drawings and also this 70s inspired style of illustration. One of my most treasured books is a children’s Gardening Book by John Seymour (1978) because of the beautiful illustrations.
One of [...]
FOWD conference 2010 May 19, 2010
I’ve just spent 2 really awesome days at the Future of Web Design conference.
The talks were awesome, in particular I got a lot out of the sessions on Emotional Design and User Testing; and the jQuery for Designers information will also be really useful. It was great having the design clinics and hearing Mike Kus’ [...]