Category Archives: design

Dribbble Invite Giveaway

Thanks to all submissions, but the two winners have now been chosen (See comments)

I have some very exclusive Dribbble invites – 2 to be exact.

If you haven’t heard of it before, Dribbble is a site which allows you to upload 400x300px previews of your design work. I have been hugely impressed with it so far, and invites are very elusive.

If you would like the opportunity of winning a Dribbble invite, please leave a comment (with an email address and website/twitter account) below, and later on I will choose the lucky two and contact them directly.

December 2009 Wallpaper

december-2009-wallpaper-macbook-pro

Merry Christmas everybody! After a short delay due to a holiday, the December wallpaper is now live. The wallpaper is based on a present, complete with wrapping paper, ribbon and tag.

The tiling pattern is actually based on the Koch Snowflake. It’s mathematical basis allows it to be tiled in a number of ways, which can be seen on this Wolfram Alpha page.

I’m really excited with the possibilities 2010 brings, so expect more wallpapers, blogs and other goodies still in the pipeline.

Thanks for reading, I appreciate all the comments and tweets and wish you all a Merry Christmas.

Close Up

december-2009-wallpaper-close-up

I hope you like the wallpaper. If you have any feedback or messages, please do leave a comment below.

Download the Wallpaper

November 2009 Wallpaper

november-2009-wallpaper-macbook-pro

After a brief, one month absence the monthly wallpaper is back!

The November 2009 wallpaper is very minimalist, based on a simplistic pixel grid, inspired by the recently launched cleartypemedia.com. The font is the fantastic Vegur (Extra Light) Don’t worry if this isn’t your cup of tea—expect a festive theme for December!.

Close Up

november-2009-wallpaper-close-up

I hope you like the wallpaper. If you have any feedback or messages, please do leave a comment below.

Download the Wallpaper

Designing for the Worst Client Ever

I have now (soft) launched the site in time for ScrunchUp.com‘s first edition, but I won’t lie, finding the time to work on my personal site has been tricky, and the version you see today will no doubt change in the coming weeks (just after I’ve had some sleep!).

In doing the redesign, the style changed at many stages, although most never made it past a quick Photoshop mockup. I knew I wanted a change, as I felt my style evolved, and the previous incarnation was no longer suited.

I had been working on this current style on-and-off for the past month or so, and I thought I had nailed the look and I eagerly began converting it to XHTML/CSS.

Always Finalise the Design Before Coding

Now at this point, if your client asks for changes this late in the stage, you ask yourself why the designs were signed off in the first place. But I was one of those clients!

The change of look came about after watching graphic designs videos on YouTube late one night. Afterwards, I was sketching s few logos, playing around with my initials and left it at that. the following day, I has only planned to make some PhotoShop versions of thr sketches for Flickr, but that soon turned into a major brand redesign. I had some positive feedback decided to bite the bullet and change my ‘brand’.

Never Rebrand One Week Before Launch

My old logo was Georgia based, and the site redesign focused on serif headings with additional touches of Adobe Caslon Pro. The new logo wasn’t going to match with the site. I had a dilemma.

Cue a week of frantic typographic redesigning and colour scheme changes; gone is the light brown, red and green in comes red, white and black.

The Results

I hope you like the redesign, but please bear in mind that the site is not 100% finished, and there are plans to add more in the coming weeks and months.