While the design work for Refresh is ongoing, I’ve started work on a proper design for this website. I’ll be expanding on just the blog to include a portfolio and a contact form. Here’s an early visual for the portfolio section.
I tell you, I felt every day of these last four years of not doing design full-time!
So very rusty!
[UPDATE] Here’s a new visual - perhaps not quite finished but much improved, I’m sure you’ll agree 
Pan’s Labyrinth is a fanciful and chilling story set against the backdrop of a fascist regime in 1944 rural Spain. The film centers on Ofelia, a lonely and dreamy child living with her mother and adoptive father; a military officer tasked with ridding the area of rebels.
In her loneliness, Ofelia creates a world filled with fantastical creatures and secret destinies. With post-war repression at its height, Ofelia must come to terms with her world through a fable of her own creation.
Slightly belated; Steph and I went to see Pan’s Labyrinth on Wednesday. I should point out that it’s a very disturbing film (considering the 15 rating) both in terms of the story and imagery. There were moments when Steph chose to look away. Consider yourself forewarned.
Seeing films like this reminds me that I should get myself down to the Cornerhouse more often. It’s dark, terrible, sad, funny and beautiful and the best film I’ve seen in a good while.
[rating:4.5]
So my predictions turned out to be 100% wrong Some random thoughts:
Perhaps it should be called Appleworld! The Mac didn’t get a sniff! Where were the hardware upgrades? Now that the Intel transition is complete, I’d have expected a refreshed form factor on at least one product (probably the Mac and MacBook Pro)… Where was the extended preview of OS X Leopard? Where was iLife ‘07? Where were representatives of Adobe and Microsoft, with CS3 and Office 2008 demos and release date commitments? Not even one more thing?
Apple TV is an interesting little gadget. I’m not remotely interested in using a videogame console as a music / photos storehouse. I’ve already gone to the trouble of importing and organising that content on my computer. The hard drive means that users won’t need their computer turned on to use it, which would have been a fatal flaw were that not the case.
I wouldn’t buy one for £199 though. I use my PS2 as a DVD player and I’ve got a nice amp, to which I’ve connected a dock - I don’t need to sync my music because I just plug my iPod in. I’m not fussed about looking at my photos on telly, and I’ve no plans to buy shows or movies from iTunes (a moot point in the UK). Without PVR features, I don’t care about it.
iPhone was a surprise to me. It’s long been a favourite on the Mac rumour mill, but until yesterday appeared to be nothing more. Wow, though. Wow. I have to confess, I want one and if I can ever come up with even the feeblest justification I will buy one.
I look forward to seeing what the other phone manufacturers come up with now. It’s already hurting RIM, Palm and Nokia’s share price so they will have to respond quickly. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to describe the iPhone as a generational leap in phones; hopefully Apple won’t find themselves out there with little incentive to innovate further.
There are questions to be answered about iPhone - does Apple intend to aggressively improve on it through software (I want an RSS reader, general purpose QuickTime player and touchscreen tetris!)? Will it be open enough for third parties to create additional software? Will they add other hardware features such as a video camera and sat nav? Time will tell.
Does anyone think that this issue of the options backdating at Apple, and the question of Steve Jobs’ involvement will end up as anything other than a whitewash?
Apple - much like Microsoft - is an icon and a champion of the so called American Dream. Steve Jobs is a very rich man and has powerful friends. It’s in nobody’s interests to ruin Apple and cripple an industry. If anything at all happens, I expect it will involve a Very Big Fine, some public shame and some scapegoats. Not Jobs though - he will remain as CEO and business will pretty much continue as usual.
I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I have enormous respect for Jobs. When I read Jobs described as a visionary, I nod my head. On the other, when I read Jobs described as a volatile character and a total son-of-a-bitch to work for, I believe it. I don’t want Jobs to be forced out (not unfeasible in worst-case scenario) because like others such as Walt Disney, he is the heart and soul of Apple. His departure with no suitable successor would be the slow death of the company as almost happened once before.
But it’s one rule for men like Jobs, and another for the rest of us, no? A lesser businessman with a smaller company, caught fiddling his books (or allowing others to do so through negligence) the way large corporates do every day, would go to prison for fraud. It’s been said that were a corporation a person, that person might be deemed a psychopath because of the utterly amoral way that they operate.
It may be best to go live up a tree.
Rumours are circulating that an updated version of the Xbox 360 is in the works. Personally, I’ll believe it when I see it - the supposedly leaked photo on Engadget looks like it could easily be the fantasy of a fanboy with a copy of Photoshop and too much spare time.
That said, pack in a HDMI port, large hard disk and a integrated HD DVD player for the current RRP of £280 or less and I’m interested.
Last year I had the pleasure of spending a few days in Dublin. Two of its attractions are Dublin Zoo and the Museum of Natural History. The museum’s large collection of preserved animals earns it the nickname “The Dead Zoo” among locals. We chose to go to the alive zoo instead.
I’m analogising. Bear with me.
Folio pieces are like museum exhibits - old works, frozen in time and presented out of context. Designs that may not even be in print or online anymore. Although they serve a purpose in an interview situation, they offer little insight into who you are as a designer/developer. Your personality, thought processes and influences don’t really come across. How often is the sketchbook as fascinating as the painting, the concept art more inspired than the finished film?
A previous version of Ste’s website was a one page affair, with a small Flash animation that chronicled the development of the logo for Help To Move.com. Put together quickly for a client meeting, this little animation said far more about his creativity than his current site. I’ve urged him to return to this approach with the next revision.
In time I’ll add a folio here, but I consider it a very low priority. There’s something more alive about the website-as-scrapbook.
There is some buzz in the office about doing the Great Manchester Run again. Ian, Zoe, Chloe, Kev and myself are up for it. Having done the run last year, I have a time to beat of 1 hour, 2 minutes. I need to get myself fit as a fiddle again, but the event itself is on Sunday May 20th so five months is bags of time… I’ve asked Steph to give me due hassle until I haul myself back to the gym
I may even be able to recruit one or two people this time, right Ste?
After last year’s bother of getting people to fill in the form, explaining Gift Aid (which people seemed shy about) and then chasing the money up I’m going to do things the easy way. I’m going to set up a Justgiving page and ask people to either make a donation there or to me personally in cash. I’ll then write a personal cheque. Much easier.
Watch this space! Once we’re properly signed up for the run, I’ll put a link to my Justgiving page on here. Don’t be shy, dig deep!
… starts tonight, and Celebrity Big Brother poises to dominate our televisions, radios and newspapers for the next three weeks. With the tedious self-promotion heartwarming love story of Preston and Chantelle consigned to history, one wonders what televisual splendour awaits those who are vacuous curious enough to tune in.
Rumoured housemates include H of Steps “fame”, fresh from a failed attempt to resuscitate his pop career and Jade Goody - who is one of the pillars of creationist theory. Evolution you see, simply wouldn’t tolerate her existence. A creature as fat, stupid and pointless as her couldn’t exist in the wild. Where is a sabre-toothed tiger when you need one?
Thankfully, I have my Bill Bailey and Planet Earth DVDs to sustain me through the dark times ahead.
It’s traditional just before a Macworld conference for all the mac websites to whip themselves into a salivating frenzy, trying to guess what Steve Jobs will announce in his keynote speech, and what will be that “one more thing”…
So why not have a go myself I’m as well informed as any Wall Street analyst (which is to say I have no bleedin’ clue what they’ll do), so here goes:
Those are minor things though… They let their 30th anniversary date slip quietly by but are hyping Macworld. There has to be something big and Mac-related on the cards.
There are a couple of mumblings around that we may see a 30th anniversary mac, as they unveiled the 20th anniversary mac back in 1997…
… which would be nice, but Apple have since perfected the all-in-one form factor with the iMac (what can they do? make it thinner still?), this wouldn’t be enough of a big deal to get the press and the ol’ share prices excited.
To be honest, I’ve no idea at the moment what the “one more thing” will be, but I think it would have to be an entirely new class of mac.
[UPDATE] The keynote is scheduled to be two hours long, which is much longer than usual. They’ve obviously got plenty to say for themselves.
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