All posts by Steph

Events

FOWD Day 1 – afternoon sessions

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I popped up a quick post about the morning’s activity here, should you fancy a looksee.

Day 1 –  afternoon

The highlight of the afternoon, and indeed the day for many people was the UX Masterclass with Web Standardistas. Despite their 19 hour trek from Belfast thanks to the infamous ashcloud they kicked ass to a packed room. It’s the second time I’ve seen them give a presentation and I’m completely enthralled by their attitude, work and passion for what they do. Their trademarked UX Recipe (which I will have to go into in a post all by itself) will hopefully raise the game for at least everyone who was there.

Allan Haley gave us the low-down on what Fonts.com are doing with their web fonts service. Now I get that he’s a sponsor and we need them to run these kind of events but it was all just a bit too salesy for me. It was nice to get a demo of what you can do with Fonts.com web fonts but I’d like to have seen a more objective talk on web typography taking a look at all the options side by side.

Paul Boag shook things up with his ’5 new skills every designer needs to know’ presentation. He had asked people via Twitter to guess in advance what these might be and got lots of the typical stuff in response – HTML5, CSS3, jQuery, web fonts etc. His response? If you’re not already using them, well, you’re screwed. Amen to that! His recommended toolbelt additions for designers:

  1. Marketing
  2. Copywriting
  3. Contextual Awareness
  4. Strategy
  5. Psychology

Check the Boagworld blog here for the full gist of his talk. I recommend the Boagworld podcast if you fancy some regular ramblings on all things web. It can be a bit long and chatty for my liking so consider the ‘bitesize’ version that’s available on iTunes too.

Events

FOWD London – overview of the morning

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So I’m at Future Of Web Design London today and tomorrow thanks to X Communications. So far, so good. Here’s a general gist of what we’ve been listening to and seeing, more in-depth posts will come later…

Brendan Dawes, Magnetic North – Play. Destroy. Create.

An interesting take on creativity and where to find inspiration for your work. He loves maths and applying it to create new information structures and interfaces. Check out one of his projects, DoodleBuzz.

Dan Cederholm on CSS3

A great practical look at how and where to use CSS3 in current web projects. Check out his experimental project (both in terms of content and code) at css3exp.com/moon.

Remy Sharp, jQuery for Designers

A quick yet accessible overview of jQuery for people who don’t do hard-core code and want to add some visual gloss to their web projects. Some useful bits and pieces too for those of us who’ve been tinkering with jQuery for a while such as the FireQuery plugin for FireBug.

Robin Christopherson on accessibility

A rapid overview on web accessibility at present particularly in a mobile context. Using CAPTCHA? Consider using TextCaptcha instead for greater accessibility for all.

Carsonified introduce membership.thinkvitamin.com

A subscription service of varying price levels offering web designers and developers video tutorials, online conferences and reduced price tickets to FOWA, FOWD etc. Launches next month, 50% off for FOWD attendees if they sign up during the conference. See membership.thinkvitamin.com for more.

Random

FOWD London – almost there

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So I totally jinxed myself by doing a rough calculation of the KM I would travel this week and posting it on Facebook. The price I paid was the volcano spitting more ash combined with an unfavorable wind direction that made air travel look dodgy for today.

Late last night the decision was made to get the only other means possible – ferry to Holyhead and train/bus/automobile from there. I’m currently about 40mins outside of London zipping along on a Virgin train. It looks like I’ll make FOWD tomorrow. This makes me very happy.

Of course with every cloud (pun optional) there’s a silver lining. Darragh & the Smirnoff Be There folk got into Heathrow earlier today and can’t leave till tomorrow so I’ve now got company for dinner tonight. I’ve also got to experience a whole bunch of new things including travelling a trail that my grandmother still recalls vividly of the day she travelled from Clare to London at the age of 16 to go and start a job.

Finally, it also gives me the opportunity to say that I (hopefully) by the end of the week will have travelled by the following means:

  • Bus
  • Train
  • Plane
  • Ferry
  • Tube
  • Tram
  • Shank’s mare

It’s good to be alive :)

Events

Like ink? Here’s an exhibition and a competition you might be into…

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“My body is a journal in a way. It’s like what sailors used to do, where every tattoo meant something, a specific time in your life when you make a mark on yourself.”

That’s Johnny Depp on his own ink and what caught my imagination when I read about an exhibition called ‘Ink‘ being organised as part of this year’s Bealtaine festival. Here’s the spiel:

Age & Opportunity has commissioned photographer Aidan Kelly to photograph and exhibit his images of the tattoos of older people. If, as novelist Jack London said, tattoos are a sign of ‘an interesting past’, then this exhibition attempts to capture the history that has been absorbed into a body.

I’m really looking forward to seeing the results. The exhibition runs at the Original Print Gallery in Temple Bar from this Sunday the 16th (opening at 2pm) and runs until the end of the month.

Ever fancied yourself as a tattoo artist?

Well then this might be your opportunity to give it a shot and maybe even unearth a new talent! DontPanic! are offering up quite a unique challenge in their monthly design brief with a ‘Skin Design Competition‘. Yes, you get the chance to design a tattoo and see it being worn on somebody’s skin. They’ve got a volunteer all lined up for the live tattooing of the winning design on July 22nd! Check the link for all the info.

Reviews

Unboxed: be.ez ‘Le Bag’ backpack for MacBook Pro 15″

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Also unboxed by big Clare accent too, apologies.

A few people were asking on and offline about what I eventually bought for my MBP and it was a bit of a gamble given there wasn’t great imagery or video of this specific model out there and it’s not in the be.ez resellers in Ireland, it seems.

The full range of backpacks, shoulder bags, sleeves and skins for all things Mac can be seen here, most are available via Amazon UK. First impressions are really good – it’s slim, light yet strong and comfortable to carry. I’ll be taking it to Clare and to London this week so I’ll report back after that.