LloydyBlog

America: Yes You Can

2008-03-02T01:05:39Z

Looking Back on 2007

2007-12-31T16:32:40Z

![2007 Montage](http://lloydyweb.com/blog/_gfx/071231_2007.png)

2007 [started with me looking forwards]¹ rather than backwards, and with a view not only to take opportunities that came my way, but make my own as well. On the whole, as with the other six goals I published in January, I achieved this to a certain extent, but there was still room for improvement.

[1]: /blog/2007/01/two_thousand_and_seven.php

### Career

The year began with me reasonably settled in Palo Alto and working for [Ning][n], where myself and the team were preparing for the launch of the potentially game changing yet awkwardly titled 'Your Own Social Network for Anything' product.

[n]: http://www.ning.com/

This landed towards the end of February, and with it the company finally found a path towards success, reaching ~~100,000~~ 70,000 social networks six months later.

Being part of a small, talented and close-knit group of people, and launching something this big was truly an amazing experience. In some respects it was almost like Christmas -- on launch night I couldn't get to sleep, instead staying up until the next morning playing with it and reading peoples feedback.

Once this initial excitement had passed however, the nagging feeling that this was not something I wanted to be doing returned, and over the next six months the thought 'it is only an opportunity if you want it' often passed through my mind. When I attended conferences I found that, unlike my colleagues, I wasn't able to speak of the product with the same level of excitement, and soon realised my interests lay far from social media.

However, it was at October's An Event Apart conference in San Francisco that the penny finally dropped. After listening to [Jason Santa Maria][j]'s talk 'Design Your Way Out of a Paper Bag', I left the room with the gut-wrenching feeling that not only was I doing a job I didn't enjoy, but in a role that didn't provide me with enough creative freedom either.

[j]: http://www.jasonsantamaria.com/

It is no surprise then that shortly afterwards I resigned, at the time with a view to returning to the UK to follow my long held dream of going freelance. A chance introduction to [Kelly Goto][k] put those plans on hold, and instead I ended the year working at [Gotomedia][g] in San Francisco.

[k]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Goto
[g]: http://www.gotomedia.com/

[4am Miracle](/blog/2007/02/4am_miracle.php)
[Finally, A Ning To Be Proud Of](/blog/2007/03/finally_a_ning_to_be_proud_of.php)
[Going to Gotomedia](/blog/2007/11/gone_to_gotomedia.php)

### Travel

Travel was a big theme of 2007, and whilst most of it was US based, it did allow me to get a more rounded view of the country.

The year started with a January weekend spent in Las Vegas with some friends. Unfortunately this trip was blighted by a badly-timed cold, and I spent most of my time either sleeping or drinking cough medicine. Having said that, I'm not sure if being well would have much difference to my overall impression of the place!

Things improved in March, when I finally attended the South by Southwest interactive festival in Austin, Texas. I absolutely loved this city, sort of a liberal island in heavily conservative waters -- although you still wouldn't want to upset the locals!

I wasn't able to catch as many sessions as I would have liked, but I did attend a good number of parties, and this first experience served as an excellent introduction to an event I intend making many return visits to.

April saw the first of three returns back to the UK, to attend the Future of Web Design conference in London. Whilst the conference turned out to be unimpressive, I did somehow find myself having dinner alongside messrs Budd, Rutter, Steinhouse, Ribot, Wubben, Boag so it didn't turn out too bad in the end.

The travelling continued through the summer months. A few days in Montreal to witness the marriage of Tung and Angela in June, also allowed me to indulge in a little architecture when I went to visit the Olympic Stadium in the city. The stadium is something of a white elephant, finished several decades after the games had come to a close, and the debt it created only paid off very recently. I was in my element however as I spent two or so hours taking photos of its eccentric form and daring design.

In August I was able to take ten days away from work to explore New York and San Francisco with my friend Ellen who flew out to see me. We managed to cover huge swathes of Manhattan, even venturing over to Coney Island, which was an experience in itself. On returning to San Francisco, I finally was able to step upon Alcatraz Island, as well as Angel Island which I didn't even know existed. It's probably fair to say that I saw more of San Francisco in those six days than I did in the previous six months!

Road sign on Highway 1 near Carmel-by-the-Sea, California

There were many other trips this year too, including Los Angeles, Napa Valley and Carmel, all of which helped make this a great year for (North American based) travel.

It will certainly be a hard year to beat, but with thoughts towards riding the [California Zephyr][z], attending [SXSW][s], visiting Spain and perhaps even a return to Australia by the close of next year, so I'm certainly going to try and keep up this momentum!

[z]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Zephyr
[s]: http://2008.sxsw.com/

[A Weekend in Las Vegas](/blog/2007/01/january_update.php)
[Falling in Love with Austin](/blog/2007/03/falling_in_love_with_austin.php)
[A few days in Montreal](/blog/2007/07/a_few_days_in_montreal.php)
[Exploring New York and San Francisco](/blog/2007/08/new_york_and_san_francisco.php)
[Reasons to be Thankful](/blog/2007/11/reasons_to_be_thankful.php)

### Personal Growth

What I've found really fascinating over the last year, is how my time in the United States has helped me understand myself better - the good and the bad. I was incredibly down in March essentially due to my habitual looking back and harbouring regrets of what could have been. Recently I've been wondering if I'm a deeply unhappy person, not to say increasingly cynical.

My job was definitely a large part of this. My interview at Gotomedia revealed to me how much confidence in my own abilities had declined, whilst watching tech developments in 'the valley' (can you say ~~monetization~~ Google AdSense) is enough to make anyone more cynical than they were before.

Having seen that money and status can not bring you happiness (not that it needed to be proved), I intend on using the next twelve months to try and resolve these issues, and learn how to be a more positive, happier person.

[Seven Goals for '07](/blog/2007/01/seven_goals_for_07.php)
[Time for a Reboot](/blog/2007/03/time_for_a_reboot.php)
[Goodbye California](/blog/2007/10/goodbye_california.php)

### Top Ten Highlights of 2007

![Travis at The Fillmore, San Francisco](http://lloydyweb.com/blog/_gfx/070505_travis.jpg)

1. [Watching Travis play live](http://www.flickr.com/photos/lloydyweb/sets/72157600171457265/) to an audience no bigger than 300 people at The Fillmore in San Francisco
2. Spending [an afternoon in MoMA with Ellen](http://www.flickr.com/photos/lloydyweb/1080306289/in/set-72157601363889748/)
3. Launching ['Ning 2.0'](http://www.flickr.com/photos/lloydyweb/sets/72157594561531695/)
4. [Photographing the Olympic Stadium](http://www.flickr.com/photos/lloydyweb/sets/72157600982445094/) in Montreal
5. [Thanksgiving](/blog/2007/11/reasons_to_be_thankful.php) at the Ford's
6. [Being part of SXSWi 2007](http://www.vimeo.com/409636)
7. My post-Future of Web Design Dinner
8. Discovering the joys of Poterro Hill, namely a bagel in [Thinkers Cafe](http://www.yelp.com/biz/thinkers-cafe-san-francisco), coffee and cookies at [Farley's](http://www.farleyscoffee.com/)
9. [Seeing El Jobso](http://www.flickr.com/photos/lloydyweb/sets/72157594561531695/) at the Palo Alto Apple Store on the day the iPhone launched
10. Leaving [Las Vegas](http://www.flickr.com/photos/lloydyweb/sets/72157594497022871)

### Conclusion

I can look back at 2007 with a huge smile on my face. Whilst it was always going to be an improvement over [the previous year]¹⁴, my desire to take a more proactive approach paid off on many occasions, and I go into 2008 with a clear idea of where I want to be and what I want to achieve, which has rarely been the case.

[2]: /blog/2006/12/that_was_2006.php

And with that, the book closes on 2007 and all that remains is to wish everybody a very Happy New Year:

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-24T09:09:31Z

As Christmas Day quickly approaches, I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has read my humble blog over the last year, and for the comments, feedback and support over what has been another interesting 12 months.

My review of 2007 will follow later in the week, but in the meantime, enjoy your holiday parties, be safe, and have a very Merry Christmas!

Santa and Rodolph icons created by 'LoBoCo' and available from iStockPhoto

Three Sullen Faces

2007-12-20T01:35:41Z

Having spent the best part of two years abroad, I'm finding it easier to guess where people come from by their appearance alone. On Monday, as I waited at the airport for my much delayed flight back to the UK, I spotted a family of three sitting across from me in a restaurant.

Gloomy faced, seemingly moaning, and with looks of disgust, they displayed all the characteristics of a typical British family. I tried to sit close enough so I could hear their accents, but these were hard to make our from their muffled grumbling. So upon finishing my meal, I walked past their table on my way out. Sure enough I was right.

Reasons to be Thankful

2007-11-26T08:41:33Z

Americans seem to have a holiday for everything (indeed recent weeks have seen Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day and Halloween), yet I must say I've always been a bit partial to the idea of a day of Thanksgiving.

Personally, I envisaged spending this years holiday not doing much, and was happily declaring "being British, I don't celebrate this holiday", which is my usual line in such affairs. I would have no doubt spent this four-day weekend updating my Facebook status announcing to anyone who cares how unthankful I am as I sit alone in my apartment doing nothing particularly useful.

Luckily that wasn't to be the case, as late Wednesday afternoon, my friend and former colleague Kyle asked me if I would like to join him, his family and a few of his friends in Los Angeles for a few days. Care of Southwest Airlines and perhaps the most enjoyable, stress free flight I've ever enjoyed, I arrived at LAX early Thursday morning, ready to be indoctrinated into celebrating a true American holiday.

This involved watching American football, gorging myself on Turkey and Cheesecake (all wonderfully prepared by Kyle's wife Sarah), before watching Home Alone and being subjected to Macaulay Culkin's painful over-acting!

On Friday, Kyle took me on a mini tour of LA. Having been warned by friends not to expect much, on driving through some of its districts, and seeing the few sights the city has to offer, I was inclined to agree. The Kodak Theatre (home of the Oscars) seemed to be located on nothing more than a high street, whilst much of the area looked unkempt and a little seedy. Other areas such as Beverly Hills seemed a world away however, and the coastal areas very appealing, so perhaps something of a mixed bag.

The remainder of my time with the Family Ford was spent playing Wario Ware: Smooth Moves on the Wii (a game seemingly developed under the influence of, well, God only knows), watching Helvetica and Michael Moore's Sicko (set in a fictional world where the NHS actually pay you upon leaving hospital!) and of course debating the relative merits of Ning, which is something of a pastime these days.

All in all, this is exactly how I would want to spend Thanksgiving, so a massive thank-you to Kyle and his family for looking after me so well. All of which serves as a healthy reminder, that there are many things for me to be thankful for in 2007.

See my photos taken over Thanksgiving

Chuck

2007-11-14T08:38:48Z

It's been a little while since I've been excited about a television show, and even longer since I've been evangelising about an American series (the last of which turned out to be a total dud). But this weekend I discovered a new televisual addiction, in the form of NBC's Monday night comedy 'Chuck'.

The show's title character Chuck Bartowski (played by Zachary Levi) is a self-confessed nerd, who works at the local 'Buy More' electrical superstore, and heads up their 'Nerd Herd' computer support team (think Geek Squad). He could have achieved much more in life had it not been for him being expelled from Stanford University, framed for cheating by his roommate and former friend Bryce Larkin.

Bryce is now a rouge CIA agent. Shortly before being killed, Bryce emails all the governments secrets to Chuck encoded in 1000's of images. Upon opening the e-mail, Chuck unwittingly absorbs these into his brain. NSA agent Major John Casey (Adam Baldwin) and CIA agent Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) are sent to retrieve this data, but on realising it is now locked inside Chucks brain, they stay to protect him, using his 'flashes' to help fight international terrorists.

This series has all the elements I look for in a show in order for me to turn on the box (and I need a lot of persuading these days). The plot, whilst far fetched of course, sets up a number of different and varied story arcs, whilst the cast is top-notch.

Chucks world is divided between life at home with his sister (Sarah Lancaster) and her boyfriend 'Captain Awesome', and his job alongside best friend Morgan (with Joshua Gomez playing the sidekick role brilliantly). This is diametrically opposed to his action-packed lifestyle working as an undercover spy (although often told to 'stay in the car') alongside agents Walker and Casey.

It's his relationship with Sarah though, that provides the thrust of the story. In order for the government to protect him, Sarah poses as Chucks girlfriend, and whilst both of them develop an affection for each other, Sarah is unable to tell Chuck her feelings for him given the situation. Yes, it's the typical will-they won't-they ploy, but hey, it worked for me in Friends, Scrubs and countless others, so no reason for it not to here.

The series is only eight episodes in (all of which I've watched repeatedly since I saw the seventh episode only a couple of days ago), so there is still plenty of milage left, but the shows creators should remember how quickly these romantic set-ups can become exhausting if not done right.

Of course I can't pretend my love of this programme has nothing to do with the totally gorgeous (and often scantly clad) Yvonne Strahovski, who provides yet more reasons to love Australia, if not the show!

Thinking back to Scrubs, which is finally ending (the last four series being lamented for their lack of humour), I actually see Chuck becoming its natural successor. Whilst different plots, they both have a broad appeal, containing the same mix of drama and comedy -- and in the case of Chuck, action sequences too.

I'm not sure what the UK outlook is for this show, but once again I will venture a guess and say expect to see it in Channel 4's Spring line-up.

Synergy Button Set for Leopard

2007-11-11T03:35:40Z

One of the tiny little annoyances with the upgrade to Leopard, was that Synergy, a great little application that provides control of iTunes from the menu bar, looked a little unpolished when using my favourite 'Tabbed' style interface.

I managed to survive a week noticing the white artefacts around it's edges, but come Friday night last week, I just had to create my own button set, which I imaginatively called 'Tabbed Leopard'.

This updated button set is based on the original 'Tabbed' style, yet aside from removing the white artefacts from the edges, it also removes the subtle pin-stripes and introduces a level of transparency to match the behaviour of the menu bar in Leopard. Here it is in action:

Download 'Tabbed Leopard.zip'

One Week With Leopard

2007-11-05T05:36:41Z

Probably the second biggest change for me this last week after that of my new job (especially given the amount of time I spend on my Mac) is the upgrade to MacOS X 10.5 'Leopard'. Sadly this hasn't been a totally enjoyable experience given a number of well documented UI flaws, as well as the usual slew of bugs you'd expect in a debut release.

In fact my very first action in Leopard was to submit an error report to Apple after a post-install kernel panic -- something I hoped wasn't a foreboding of what was to come. Unfortunately, having upgraded from my previous 10.4 install, it wasn't long before Mail.app was choking on to dos and notes, to the point that the application was totally unusable.

Given that I needed my Mac for my new job that Monday, I took the decision to perform a fresh install. This seemed to solve most of my issues, as well as give me an opportunity to re-evaluate which apps I really required, and update my folder structure.

One week in, I'm now reasonably pleased, but there are definitely areas ripe for improvement. These are mainly around the newer features, which I guess is to be expected. Anyway, here are some of my initial thoughts on the updated OS one week in.

Time Machine

Leopard's signature feature Time Machine is great. I think Apple deserves a huge round of applause for making an important yet pretty dull (and often complicated) process of backing up your data really easy and really fun.

Given how much the company has been advocating the 'digital life' in recent years, it would be irresponsible for them not to spend this much time on such a system. Whilst I deplore the other areas of the Leopard interface that have had every kind of visual effect thrown at them (I'll come to that in a second), I think such effects here are warranted.

One improvement I would like to see however, is the option to manually back-up. Given that I own a laptop, and as such don't have it plugged in to my external drive for much of the day, I would welcome the option to do a back-up at will, rather than wait for the system to automatically kick in when it wished.

Dock

Reflections all around in the new Dock. Also note the nonsensical perspective.

The other area that needs improvement is the new Dock -- although it could be argued there are much larger issues that still haven't been addressed since its introduction in 10.0.

Whilst much has already been said of it's appalling design, I just wanted to throw my hat into the ring as well. Like many other users, one of my first actions after installing Leopard was to visit the terminal and replace the 3D glass Dock with the (seemingly last minute and currently hidden) alternative.

I find it hard to believe a company so focused on design managed to come up with this. Effects seem to have been added purely because they can, not because they make any sense. I remember the same being true of Dashboard when it was introduced in Tiger.

Whilst most seem content with the alternative 'non-glass' style, I can't say I'm that much happier with this either -- the big white outline that surrounds it seems a little overkill to me (although compared to the glass version, I guess perhaps not). For me just the removal of this outline would make me happier. Regardless, I fully expect to be installing a third party app in the near future to give me more control over it's appearance.

Stacks

Aside from the Dock's visual 'enhancements' one other new feature is Stacks. Whilst I was looking forward to using them, the reality shows it to be flawed when used in some circumstances.

Stacks are a new way to represent shortcuts to folders that have been dragged onto the Dock. However the icon for each stack is represented by the fist item in that folder, so for example the Applications folder is represented by the Address Book icon (with others of course stacked behind it). This becomes a problem once you have similar files in the Dock -- suddenly you have no idea which icons represent folders, and which represent files. Not only this, but should the first item in that folder change, so does it's representation on the Dock. Soon, the only why to know what each icon represents is to hover over it.

However, when you see Stacks work in the context of the downloads stack, you can see that in some cases, they can work really well. In fact I love the downloads stack, which combined with a spring-loaded dock (finally!), works great. Another useful example might be a project folder you're working on.

For this reason I think the easiest and most suitable fix for this issue, would be for Apple to simply provide a few more options for how each folder is displayed (i.e. View as Stack, View as Icon). Another useful option could reinstate the contextual menu listing that was available in Tiger. Finally, Stacks really should have an additional visual indication, to distinguish them from other icons.

Finder

Finder, browsing a directory in Cover Flow view.

The Finder has also received a visual overhaul, and much like everything else introduced by Apple these days, its design is heavily influenced by that of the successful (and cross-platform) iTunes.

Whilst I'm glad the previous heavy metal interface has been discarded, the one problem with every application looking like iTunes is that it becomes harder to distinguish between them. One idea to combat this might be to give different applications different signature colours, so for example the left hand source list has a different hue.

Joining and browsing networks is a pleasure, and doing this is far more obvious than in previous versions. Cover Flow is relatively useful, especially if navigating a folder of images or documents, but I don't think I will be using it on a daily basis. Quick Look on the other hand has finally meant an end to the drudgery of opening the contextual menu and navigating to the Preview application. This feature alone is worth the upgrade.

Everything Else

Aside from the Dock and a few other annoyances, I'm happy with my new world. iCal has received a much needed visual overhaul, and having a consistent interface throughout the system (which many seem to be dubbing 'slate') is something I have been longing to see for several years.

It's great to see Apple finally settle on one style. Having said that, there are still a number of hangovers from the original Aqua style that I wish they would update - note how scroll bars and buttons are now a different shade of blue from that of selected menu items. I guess we'll have to wait for 10.6 for any more updates here.

Right now, there a number of annoying little bugs (such as 'AddressBookSync' continually crashing, which seems to happen when you do anything involving addresses or calendaring), but I'm sure the inevitable 10.5.1 patch will fix a lot of these. Hopefully these patches will also start to iterate upon some of the areas I touched on above, if only by providing a few more options and reinstating previous functionality.

A Worthy Upgrade

So, am I happy I upgraded? To be honest not as much I was hoping to be, but I still think this is a worthwhile upgrade -- I certainly don't feel as cheated as much as I did after upgrading to Tiger. Unlike then, this really does feel like an upgrade, one that constantly reveals little improvements over the previous version, giving a real sense that during it's 18 development cycle, no stone was left unturned.

Finally, if you are looking for a more in-depth review (and by in-depth I mean 17 pages long), then I can't recommend John Siracusa's review on Ars Technica highly enough.

Going to Gotomedia

2007-11-05T03:07:04Z

I'm about to invalidate my recent post titled Goodbye California, as it turns out I'm going to be staying in San Francisco -- at least for a little while longer.

Just two weeks before I was due to depart (with most of my furniture sold, possessions ready to be packed), I was introduced to Kelly Goto by Cindy Li, who I met earlier in the year at SXSW. After spending two hours with Kelly talking about my work and that of her company Gotomedia, and then spending a morning with her team, I accepted an offer to join them as an Interaction Designer.

It turns out their offices are just 25 minutes walk from my apartment, and given that I live on Potrero Hill (emphasis on the word 'hill') this is certainly going to give me some much needed exercise. I believe this new role will give me an opportunity to focus more on information and interaction design, having spent less time on this in previous roles, as well as finally forcing me to get to grips with JavaScript -- of which I have embarrassingly little knowledge of.

This job will also need to rebuild some confidence in my existing skill set, it becoming obvious recently that I have a low regard for it, especially when compared to how it's viewed by friends, colleagues and peers. I think part of this can be attributed to my two years at Ning where, unlike agency work, there was not a continual turn around of individual sites and projects, but rather a greater focus upon iterating upon existing designs and code (which is of course the nature of the beast).

To be honest, there is still a large part of me that wants to try the freelance route, but given my visa is not something I want to give up too easily, and that transferring it is a pretty easy process, I'm of the mind that I have nothing to loose my giving this a try. Just a week in, things are already looking great.

One last aspect that made this such an attractive job offer, was that it allows me to spend more time working from the UK. So for all of you that were looking forward to seeing me this week, you won't have to wait that much longer - I return to Britain for a month long stay this December 17th.

Define 'Distinctive'

2007-10-21T06:36:29Z

Last week the UK began it's journey into a digital-only televisual age, as the analogue signal for BBC2 was turned off in Whitehaven.

In just four weeks time this small Cumbrian town (the 'guinea pig' for a nationwide transition to digital-only transmission) will be the first place in the UK receiving the full gamut of digital television channels in place of the five current analogue ones.

Great news you would think, but I have to hand it to one woman who was reported as saying:

"I've got thirteen new channels, and there's still nothing on"

Given the current broadcasting landscape, it's hard to disagree with her.

Just as well then, that this week also saw an announcement from the BBC about it's restructuring plans, leading to "a smaller and more distinctive BBC" in six years time. I'm hopeful that will be the case, but given the corporation's plans to achieve it, I have my doubts.

I'm a big supporter of the BBC, and have always been happy to pay the licence fee whenever I've needed to. After-all, the BBC is a great British institution, respected by those it serves and admired around the world.

As television gets ever more commercial and populist in its nature, the more valuable a public-service broadcaster is becoming. By its very definition, the BBC needs to provide a service to the public, a service that is diminishing elsewhere and in my opinion, this announcement seems to completely ignore that.

For those not familiar about the BBC's plans, they involve spreading itself thinner across an increasing range of networks (television, radio and online) with a 10% reduction in programmes commissioned alongside job cuts, many centred around its news and factual divisions. Other plans include looking at selling TV Center, and allowing advertising on the BBC News website for those using it outside of the UK (which is an entire debate in itself).

Less is More

Now, I wholeheartedly agree that the BBC needs to become a smaller organisation with more distinctive content, but you have to ask how it can become more distinctive by having less original programming and yet more repeats. Furthermore, how can the leadership talk of smaller having launched seven new television channels and five new national radio stations in the past five years?

Whilst these were designed to drive digital take-up, surely it should have been the commercial sector providing incentives for the public to upgrade to newer technology. Perhaps if that was the case, we wouldn't have had them churn out hundreds of channels full of repeats, cheap American imports, and countless reality shows.

However, the newer BBC networks wouldn't be so bad if they weren't so wasteful.

A quick challenge to anybody reading this in Britain: turn over to BBC Three now and tell me what programme is showing. I would bet a hefty amount your answer is 'Two Pints of Larger and a Packet of Crisps'. If not that then 'Little Britain'. Whatever is showing, I can guarantee you it's a repeat.

Then there are the questions as to why the BBC broadcasts a channel for 6-12 year olds during the daytime, when one would hope children are at school, not in front of a television.

At the same time, one of the more worthy services, BBC Parliament, the true essence of public service broadcasting, seems to be constantly sidelined. If not running in quarter screen for half of it's life on Freeview, it's now having to make way for BBC HD if and when it comes to digital terrestrial.

Auntie Knows Best

Let's talk about distinctive, because distinctive does not always mean better.

I would call PBS here in the US distinctive, but I'm not being kind when doing so. Whilst it contains programming that is not available elsewhere amongst the dross that is US television (something commercial television in the UK seems hell-bent on replicating), it does so in a way that doesn't compete with other channels. Where the BBC exists 'to inform, educate and inform', PBS can barely afford to meet any of these criteria, and as such quality entertainment (that may attract people to the service) is non-existent.

We rely on the BBC more than we probably realise. It's the last remaining obstacle to a capitalists wet dream; a television landscape covered in promotions for its products, and news bent to its advantage. We need a publicly owned BBC in order to maintain broadcasting that is of value to the public, not commercial interests.

As such the BBC should be defining the standards for which commercial broadcasters need to follow if they are to compete with it. You need only look at the current revelations in the media about trustworthiness and honesty from our broadcasters to see why.

Whilst all networks, public and private can plead guilty to falling foul to bad practices and deceiving the public recently, remember that it was commercial broadcasters found to be defrauding the public, taking hard-earned cash out of peoples hands in dodgy phone-in competitions, and cheap competition channels (seemingly designed to encourage gambling at the mere site of a scantly clad woman).

Not one single failure at the BBC resulted in people losing money, but the corporation got just as much, if not more stick from the media about its failures. This is entirely fair, as we expect it to meet the highest standards. After all we are the ones paying for it.

With this in mind, you have to ask how making cuts within the news division is not going to lead to more mistakes, with corners continually trying to be cut.

Conclusion

It seems very likely that for the BBC's Royal Charter to be renewed in 2017, it will involve the abolition of the licence fee, but this would be something much harder for the government to achieve should the public believe they are getting value for money.

That's why I agree that the BBC should be smaller and more distinctive, but I question the manner in which its management is trying to achieve this.

Surely continuing to support the broad range of services it has set up in recent years, yet spreading itself thinner across them with less original programming, does not constitute smaller and more distinctive. At least, not in a good way.

Goodbye California

2007-10-14T02:37:05Z

Coffee shops. Sunshine. The small kick I get from seeing ~~licence~~ number plates with the word 'California' emblazoned across them. Badly designed currency. The way female news anchors have large lipstick smiles but deep manly voices. Strangers gleefully saying hello to you on the street. Having to risk your life every time you merge onto a US highway. My name somehow 'Pool' yet spelt with an 'i', and being mistaken as Australian.

Soon this will all become a distant memory. Last week I resigned from my position as Lead Designer at Ning, and as a result the visa allowing me to live in the United States will soon expire.

Ever since I received an e-mail out of the blue from Gina (Ning's CEO) asking me if I would lend the company some of my 'visual sensibilities' two years ago, life has been somewhat of a whirlwind. Having picked me up from the wreckage of my former employer (Orange Vision facing liquidation and mounting debts at the time) it returns me back to the UK with a greater degree of confidence, fresh perspectives on my profession and a new group of friends from around the world.

I have learnt a lot in the last two years, and worked alongside some amazingly talented and warm-hearted individuals. However there comes a time when you realise you are no longer being challenged or inspired by the work you are doing. The same interaction problems, colour palettes, layouts and type selections can really wear a designer down.

On a personal level I look back on the last two years with mixed feelings. With the many highs, of course come some lows, and a few hopes that were never realised. However when I think about this last year, one in which I attended many design conferences, visited Las Vegas, Austin, Montreal and New York, as well as lived in San Francisco, it really is going to be a hard one to beat.

I'm certainly going to try.

So what's next? Well, thanks to a raised level of awareness afforded to me thanks to my time with Ning, I'm going to dive into the world of freelancing (with the nervous excitement that comes with it) in the New Year. Signs are already looking good, and a few potential projects are already lining themselves up. Hopefully some of these will mean I can visit California again next year.

I would like to thank everybody I've met during my time here for making it such an enjoyable and enriching experience, one from which I hope many long lasting friendships will result. It really is no coincidence that I return to my homeland a man torn between two countries.

My British Radar

2007-10-01T07:51:45Z

Well, it seems like only yesterday saw the passing of August and effectively the end of summer and now October is banging on our doors, and about to barge it's way in. What the hell happened to September? Sure, as you get older, the passage of time quickens, but I'm always surprised by how quickly a year passes.

Whilst this passage is slightly disconcerting, one benefit is that it means the weekends come around quicker - and that probably says a lot about how 'exciting' life is here at the moment. So in an attempt to fill the void, I find myself writing another self-indulgent blog post.

Recently, I've been feeling in a slightly uncomfortable place, with a situation that can be summed up as follows:

Whilst I don't hate living here in the Bay Area, I do feel the continual longing to return home, and as such a refusal to settle down.
At the same time, my desire to actually live in the UK seems to be diminishing. In fact I'm almost reaching a point where I feel embarrassed to be British.

Friday night's Klaxons concert provided a perfect example as to why.

Half way through the evening, me and Fabricio found ourselves talking to a Norwegian student who was there with a large group of her friends. One of her English friends, who was trying to work out if this other guy was from the UK, came up to her and excitedly said:

"…he is, he is, I told you! I have a British radar!"

However I had already worked this out minutes earlier, and without having spoken to him.

The simple fact is, that to have a 'British radar' is simply to look for a group of loud, slightly over-weight idiots, full of self-importance and zealous pride, who collectively act like a bunch of morons¹.

I realised I had this deductibility when I was in Las Vegas earlier this year. Upon spotting a group of guys celebrating a stag party half way down the street, I got the sudden and horrible feeling we were linked by a shared nationality. As they passed, their Liverpudlian accents confirmed my worst fears.

(At this point I feel I should add that there is probably a certain age bracket for which the radar works most precisely. I should also mention other indicators include haircuts that can only be explained by a trip to Toni & Guy, and a dress sense that involves wearing clothes that look like they have been eaten by the dog.)

But hang on. Loud, slightly over-weight, full of self-importance and a zealous pride? I'm sure the same could equally be said of myself.

When I spend most of my day at the office correcting my colleagues for the use of 'zee' over 'zed', omitting 'u' from colour, as well as practically volunteering myself as a spokesman for the British Tourist Board, I'm sure they would agree.

There is no denying that all I find myself disliking about the British, the problem is, I am British, and so I too display the same trademarks.

I guess put more simply, the fact is now that I'm further removed from my place of birth, the more of it I see that I don't like. Yet at the same time, like a mother whose son has grown up to become a career criminal, an unequivocal love remains.

¹ The same of which could be said of The Klaxons, who were a massive disappointment.

8 Random Things

2007-09-24T02:31:27Z

it looks like my blog has been a little undernourished these last few months, but thanks to Diego tagging me in a meme, I have an excuse to at least post something for the month of September.

The Rules

You have to post these rules before giving you the facts.
Players state eight random facts/habits about themselves.
At the end of the blog post, you tag eight people and list their names. (Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.)
People who are tagged need to write about their eight things on their own blog and also post these rules.

The Facts

The back of my head has appeared on childrens television news programme Newsround, when they covered some sort of school based general election they did one year. I also got to meet Paul Welsh - which is about as exciting as it sounds.
I only ever seem to meet celebrities that have presented motoring related television programmes. So far that has included Quentin Wilson, Tony Mason, and on the plane to Frankfurt earlier this month, Mike Brewer.
For a long period of my childhood, I was convinced that I had won a competition on Blue Peter to win a robot, only to have been sent a letter saying it was given to a disabled child that appeared on the show that week. Turns out it was an incredibly vivid dream, but I'm disappointed I didn't get the robot all the same.
When travelling abroad, or indeed whilst living here in the States, I'm often asked if I'm Australian. I was even asked that by a taxi driver - in Australia! Needless to say, the cockney/brummy melting pot that is my accent surely has something to do with it.
My parents owned a dog that stared in a television advert for a Clairol Foot Spa in the early 1980's, and also in print campaigns for EPSON photocopiers. I'm told it got a bit much when he demanded his own trailer.
I'm notoriously bad at parking. The worst incident was when I tried to reverse park my car in a Tesco's car park. After trying for 5 minutes I gave up, only for a man in a Mercedes follow me and successfully accomplish the same manoeuvre. One of the passengers in my car then told me that he had serviced that mans car, and that he only had one leg. Shameful.
Since owning a mobile phone, I have kept the same telephone number (not counting the inclusion of the 7 as part of the Big Number Change exercise). I'm surprisingly proud of this fact. Whilst it wasn't always an easy thing to do, it is today and so annoys me incredibly when others change their numbers when they get a new phone (and then wonder why nobody calls them).
I still have all of my own teeth, with no fillings. Strictly speaking, a few teeth are missing thanks to an overzealous dentist, but not that you can tell.

Whose Next?

That was actually quite a hard list to compile, which is a little worrying. Anyway, as by way of this meme, here are the eight people I nominate to do the same:

Jon Roobottom
Lewis Burden - a good excuse to get your new blog design launched.
Simon Jobling
Trevor Morris - it's been too long without an update
Gareth Brown
Andy Higgs
Krystyn Heide - loving the new site design by the way!
Jon Aquino - even though Diego has already tagged you, consider this a little prodding to do so.

Thoughts on the New BBC Radio Logos

2007-08-28T06:30:14Z

Like fellow Multipacker Andy Higgs, I've been noticing the rumblings of change happening at BBC Radio. This last month has seen the gradual introduction of a new set of station identities, designed by Fallon, that should be fully rolled out by the end of this week.

In this overarching re-brand, each of the BBC's national radio stations has been given an identity that falls within an overall templated design.

Lets go back ten years. In 1997, the corporations re-brand put a stake in the ground. Every single logo within the organisation was brought into line by placing each department, division and station name over a unique background.

Whilst in some instances this resulted in bland identities, cross media promotion and marketing worked incredibly well. It was only natural of course, that over time each brand would want to break out of this straight jacket, and the corporations radio stations were the first to do so. In 2000, each station got a more sophisticated logo that was better able to reflect its output.

So whilst it's great to see consistency brought back across the radio services (if only in terms of naming - the mixture of 'BBC7', '6 Music', and 'Five Live' always annoyed me), it's a shame also that these logos have been replaced with a somewhat half-baked design.

Like Andy, I provide my thoughts on each logo separately below. Whilst they work nicely as a set (oooh, colours!), lets not forget that they need to work on their own too.

Radio 1

If you want to see how your licence fee gets spent, watch how every outside broadcasting truck, station furniture, website, etc gets replaced with this 'new' logo, whilst the only difference is the addition of a serif ascender to the once clean and simple logo. The change is so subtle to ask why make the change at all?

Well, part of the change is also the positioning of the BBC Radio logo, which is smaller than before - and scales pretty poorly as a result.

1 Xtra

Much like the Radio 1 logo, this is just a small update to what went before, all be it bringing it far closer to the design of it's sister station. The designers talk of how there is now a play symbol created between the 1 and the X. However, this is no FedEx logo (with it's clever subliminal arrow). In fact I'm pretty sure they noticed the play symbol after they designed it.

Radio 2

It must have taken all of 3 seconds to come up with this one.

The previous logo was actually clever visual gag for those in the know. As Radio 2 was born out of the Light Programme, so the 2 was created from 4 differently coloured neon lights. This was a great hook into the stations heritage, as well as provide a hint to the stations programming (variety). This logo could also be animated on TV trails.

It's replacement which is designed to 'catch up to where Radio 2 is now' provides no clue as to the stations content or personality, and whilst supporting graphics and imagery can help here, it's the logo that will be seen most often. This is a really poor excuse for an identity.

Radio 3 and Radio 4

Perhaps the two strongest identities of the set, if not overly simplified. I will be very upset to see the departure of the existing Radio 3 logo though, which was just beautiful.

Radio 5 Live

This was the first of the new logos I spotted, having seen it on the podcast artwork for Mark Kermode's film reviews. I honestly thought it was a mistake.

Much like the Radio 2 logo, this identity lacks no personality what-so-ever, except for perhaps looking incredibly dated. I also can't help feel that the 5 numeral should match the italicisation of the 'live' text.

We are told the associated logo for Sports Extra is green because that is associated with sport. Very imaginative.

Radio 6 Music

Designed to mimic the shape of a vinyl disc, or the ipod click wheel, this is yet another design that lacks polish with the centre of the 6 not being at the centre of the circle, meaning this visual hook is lost. Note also how it doesn't follow the style of the other logos.

Radio 7

This design essentially brings an element of the previous logo into the new template, which I guess works to a certain degree.

Asian Network

Probably the best logo of the set. Stylish, modern, and reflective of the station, if not a little awkward having to use the first letter of this stations name as it has no number. I can't help but think that the designer spent 90% of his time on this project designing this one logo, and then rushed the rest in the remaining 10%.

I will of course give these some time to settle in, and see how they are applied to the web-sites and such, but for me, this is yet another botched branding attempt from Auntie. Compare these new logos to their predecessors, and they seem incredibly flat and lifeless having lost all the dynamism they once had.

Alongside other recent identity updates at the Beeb, and the increasingly fractured nature of the BBC's brand, this latest effort confirms for me that the BBC is no longer the bastion of great design in the broadcasting industry it once was. And at a time when all of the BBC's creative departments have been privatised, is it any wonder.

Exploring New York and San Francisco

2007-08-19T08:18:32Z

You may have noticed the light posting around these parts for the last month or so, largely explained by my current (yet sadly short-lived) 'jet-set' lifestyle. A few weeks after my stay in Montréal, I spent ten days touring New York and my home town of San Francisco with my good friend Ellen, who braved the long flight over the Atlantic to come see me in America.

New York City

We spent the first four days in New York City, a city I had only briefly encountered last November. During our time there we walked around Greenwich Village, took in the sights and sounds of Times Square, Wall Street, Fifth Avenue and Central Park, sailed on the Staten Island Ferry, watched a Broadway show (the excellent Frost/Nixon) and spent an afternoon in MoMA.

We didn't just want to do all the touristy things, so for our penultimate day in the 'Big Apple', we took the subway over to Coney Island, a part of Brooklyn famed for it's boardwalk and fairground appeal. We quickly became disorientated as this seaside town felt a thousand miles away from the rest of New York.

After exiting the subway tunnel, we looked over a landscape much like that of North London, but as we got closer to Coney Island, it started to look more like a country from the former Eastern Block. Perceptions were skewed still as we walked down the boardwalk. On the one end you had the roller-coasters, Ferris wheels and of course 'Shoot the Freak', but as you moved east, these changed into nice apartment blocks supposedly home to the Russian Mafia - and I think we bumped into a few of the them!

A touching moment during our time in New York, was meeting a real New Yorker, who chatted to us whilst we sat next to the John Lennon memorial in Central Park. This pleasant old man, told us about how he had met Yoko Ono (and that she is really quite a nice person, happy to talk to visitors of the memorial), his time spent in Wales where he was stationed before the D-Day landings, and how he had used to go for breakfast in the World Trade Center. This was a guy who had seen it all, and was absolutely fascinating listen to him talk about all these events and more.

Other notable mentions - finding ourselves on the set of The Happening (M. Night Shyamalan's next film), a lovely Korean meal with David and Susannah, the funny old man in Esa-bagel (comedy in a bottle), and the school kid on the Coney Island boardwalk, who happily told his friends that seagulls were vultures, that not only eat humans, but also their own kind.

I was surprised by just how hot it is in New York around this time of year. Unlike San Francisco, there is no breeze in Manhatten, and so the heat just clinged tight and it all felt very sticky. Whilst it was great visiting New York again, it has a certain aggressiveness to it, which we were happy to leave behind as we travelled on to the more relaxed west coast.

San Francisco

We arrived in San Francisco Wednesday night, where I was able to introduce Ellen to my two flatmates, Tom and Gerir who were very gracious in allowing Ellen to stay.

Just as we had in New York, we covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time - the Golden Gate Bridge and Park, Fisherman's Wharf, Union Square and the mission district, practically using every method of public transport available to do so.

Thanks to Nancy, we were able to visit Monterey, Carmel and Santa Cruz, and thanks to Dan and Liz, Sonoma for a little wine-tasting on the Sunday. I was afraid we might not be able to escape the confines of the city, but thanks to these guys, Ellen was able to see far more of what California has to offer (and I was able to get a tan!).

On our last day in the city, we took a tour of Alcatraz and Angel Island. Alcatraz is a really fascinating place, although I'm not sure I was able to take it all in during the one hour we had to spend there, before we set of for Angel Island. This large island in the San Francisco Bay is not that well known, and feels miles away from the rest of the city, almost like a tropical paradise.

In fact, I discovered a lot of new places and experiences in this city I've lived in for 6 months now, and I'm grateful for that. Having said that, in the 6 days Ellen spent in California, we practically visited all of the places I had seen in the previous year, so not bad going!

It was great to spend some quality time with such a great friend, so a big thank-you to Ellen for making the trip over.

A good year for travel

Anyway, with Montreal, New York and San Francisco under my belt, I now just have a week back in the UK at the beginning of September to enjoy (although it will be spent mainly working from home). Looking back at my other travels this year (Austin, Texas and Las Vegas), I'm amazed at how much I've accomplished. This has certainly been a year of discovery and exploration - long may it continue.