Preposterous

Buy a freelancer a pint for Christmas! (Freelancers, add this widget to your blog too!)

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 04:32:00 -0800

Freelancers- Add this widget

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There will be Xmas beer.

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 10:09:24 -0800

Here's a sneak peek at some beer pint designs I'm working on for the Freelance Friday Xmas party invites...

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Perspective and Deconstructing Photosynth

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:32:00 -0700

Lately i've been obsessed with the panoramic images created by Photosynth, or downloadable from Google Maps Streetview. (As below, via Jamie Thompson)

But for me– more interesting than capturing a panoramic image would be drawing a panoramic image and then playing it back in some kind of 360-degree renderer.

Ok, so the concept is straightforward enough, but the execution has been turning my brain inside out. I started out trying to draw perspective grids– which quickly exhausted what little recollection I have of geometry, so I decided to go back to basics and just take some pictures.

The above picture is a 180-degree view of my table as rendered by Photosynth. Below you'll see the grid I set up with equally spaced dots, and coffee cups to represent equal heights.

See the full gallery on Posterous

In hindsight, I wish I'd taken the Photosynth from the middle of the dot-field I'd set up.

Next– let's see if I can actually use these observations to draw something.

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Some assembly required. This should be 'fun'

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 05:53:43 -0700

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Video game prototype – In Processing

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 11:54:00 -0700

It would be an understatement to say I've bored my friends to death talking about wanting to make this or that video game idea.

The biggest hurdle has always been finding a coder to actually build it for me.

But looking at other designer/makers like Shaun Inman made me realise I've got all the tools at my disposal, if I just pull my finger out.

Even more than that, it was the decision to do it as a *hobby* that was my watershed moment. It gave me the liberty to fool around and not worry about making something that stands a chance in an overcrowded marketplace.

I'd written some basic code in Processing when it occurred to me that I had enough there to bring my friend Loz's football graphics to life.

And here's the result - a really basic football game that's /almost/ playable.

[UPDATE]

With a few more tweaks I've made it into a complete game.

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Spotted @berglondon on the cover of this months Icon magazine —

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 01:50:19 -0700

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A comparison of YouTube's 'Cosmic Panda' channel templates –

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 06:16:00 -0700

I'm working on a branded YouTube channel, but there's surprisingly little info on designing for it.

Creator

Blogger

Network

Everything

and here's a look at how HBO's channel looked before Cosmic Panda –

and after –

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Pointing to something exciting to come, Google updates YouTube to match the Google+ plusbar UI –

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 03:29:00 -0700

I've never seen a big company move as quickly as Google has been lately.

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13 years on Yahoo! mail (and I don't even get a t-shirt) –

Sat, 02 Jul 2011 01:34:00 -0700

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Why Google is a utilities company - not an innovation company

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 05:48:00 -0700

My obligatory Google+ post.

There's not a lot to say about Google+ as a product – other than that it's just like Facebook, no more, no less. And yet, as a Google product, that's exactly what's remarkable about it.

Google– who usually try to reinvent *everything* by shooting for the moon, but hitting themselves in the foot– has simply made a well-designed, easy and intuitive Facebook clone.

And this suggests that Google is finally maturing in its approach to product development. That is to say– Google is realising that it is a utilities company, not an innovation company.

It has been a long-standing conflict for Google to come to terms with its inward sense of identity and its outward perception– and that its unconventional corporate culture doesn't reflect the practical use of its applications. Like a middle-aged man on a skateboard– how Google sees itself doesn't always match up to how the rest of us see it.

You can't blame them. They've hired the best and brightest talent of the digital world. Of course these guys want to push the boat out.

We don't want innovation from Google. We want scale, reliability, ease of use. We want web apps like search and mail to behave like always-on utilities.

So how do you behave like a utilities company? Just as you don't want your energy company to start changing the voltage on your power outlets in a 'beta test' or your water company changing the scents and flavours of your tap water – we don't want Google mucking around with the core services we depend on.

A utilities company adopts standards and pushes them out to its customers. And that's exactly what Google has done with Google+. Facebook has spent the last 7 (nearly 8) years refining and promoting the standard of social networking platforms.

Google can't not have a social network. It's a hygiene factor for them at this point– you can't have a service without social integration of some sort. So it was the right decision to not call upon their considerable brain-trust to 'reinvent social networking' – and just do what works. The web savvy public already 'speaks Facebook' – so don't invent a new language.

One thing Google does very well, however, is openness of data– and by acknowledging that Facebook's social networking model is the fabric of the current online universe– they've exploded a giant 'g' shaped hole in Facebook's social data monopoly.

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ILOVEDOODLE – Dino Tee

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 07:29:00 -0700

via ilovedoodle.com

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ILOVEDOODLE – doodling a smile

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 07:28:00 -0700

via ilovedoodle.com

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Oh look, it's a new homepage –

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:32:00 -0700

Scrapped the other idea, which involved illustration, and went with this one instead.

www.kaigani.com

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Another day, another sketch for a homepage–

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 08:14:06 -0700

The squiggles are a placeholder for something amazing, of course.

I've got lots of projects coming to fruition this year and it's made me re-evaluate my digital footprint, and my personal branding (which is important when freelancing).

I've never really been happy with my personal homepage in terms of what message I'm trying to communicate. This sketch comes the closer to what I have in mind.

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Dieter Rams 10 principles of good design, could equally be applied to good UX –

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 04:13:00 -0700

Good design is innovative.
Good design makes a product useful.
Good design is aesthetic.
Good design makes a product understandable.
Good design is unobtrusive.
Good design is honest.
Good design is long-lasting.
Good design is thorough down to the last detail.
Good design is environmentally friendly.
Good design is as little design as possible.

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Surprisingly honest messaging from 02 –

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 07:30:00 -0700

http://www.o2blueroom.co.uk/

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Business cards for @helenkennedy1, sent off last night as a rush Moo job –

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 05:16:00 -0700

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Developing the new @FreelanceFri logo –

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 05:40:05 -0700

See the full gallery on Posterous

I started with this concept, based on the design guidelines I'd developed for the evolving Freelance Friday logo. This is a small version for the avatars on Twitter, Meetup and Facebook as well as a full version for Flyers, etc.

@TimWhitlock wasn't too keen on placing an emphasis on the '5' over the 'FF' – so I made a new 'FF' based on the '5'. I wasn't happy with the letterform for 'F' used in this typeface (Archer), so ended up doing the type from scratch using the angles of the '5'. Resulting in this:

See the full gallery on Posterous

With some variations. However, now that I've made the logo more complex, the extra furniture on the avatar looks messy, so I took those elements out and just left the primary logo with some halo-ing effects.

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Oxidant's new landing page & positioning –

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 11:55:00 -0700

Website soon to be updated.

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Inadvertently bought a bottle of wine containing the @FreelanceFri logo –

Sat, 04 Jun 2011 12:20:00 -0700

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