I’ve always had a soft spot for the people at Smashing Magazine and I loved being at their Smashing Conference last September, so when they asked me if I’d like to be a part of their workshop programme, I didn’t hesitate to say “yes.” This coming June my wife and I will be heading back to beautiful Freiburg where I’ll host a ‘CSS3 for Responsive Web Design’ workshop.
Back in 2009, I took what I thought would be a trip of a lifetime to Japan to speak and host a workshop at Web Directions East. I spent a hectic few days in Tokyo then set off for a place I never thought I visit, Hiroshima. I’ll never forget standing, in tears in front of the A-Bomb dome, or visiting the shrines on Miyajima Island. I met new friends and went home with stories to tell.
If you listen to Unfinished Business, you’ll know that I’m a big, big fan of Hammer For Mac, the app its developers say lets you create HTML builds & templates quicker, more efficiently & more conveniently.
Hammer works for us because these days we mostly deliver static HTML and CSS templates, instead of static visuals, and we rarely develop complete sites.
I’d always admired the work of, and the people behind the Web Standards Project. What they had achieved in only a few short years in bringing browser vendors and tool authors together behind open standards was nothing short of magnificent, so when I was asked to join the project on March 31st 2005 it was an ambition fulfilled.
Handheld is “the conference for all things mobile” that’s happening in Cardiff, Wales on 27th – 28th November 2013 at the Wales Millennium Centre. Handheld has a fabulous line-up of speakers and tickets go on sale on March 1st, St. David’s Day. (You can get get 10% off your ticket with the offer code unfinishedbz.)
If you needed another reason to head to beautiful Cardiff Bay, I’m hosting a new workshop, “CSS3 for Responsive Web Design.”
I decided that this year I would spend more time in universities and with students than I would at conferences. Maybe that’s because my son’s a student and I’d like to think that he’d appreciate a visiting lecturer. Maybe it’s because I’m not ready for the pressure of larger events yet. Whatever the reason, this week was all about students and my visits to Winchester School Of Art and Manchester Metropolitan University.
With the help of Tapbots’ Netbot client, it looks like App.net might be gathering steam. If App.net’s your thing, you’ll now find me there too although I guess I’m not alone in being unsure when I’ll use App.net instead of Twitter.
Follow me on App.net. (Damn that name isn’t getting any easier to say.)
I know RSS isn’t perhaps what it was for a lot of people, but it’s still as important to me as Twitter as a source of good content, and well, you know what they say about eggs and baskets. Today I’m making some changes to Stuff and Nonsense’s RSS.
It was January, 2011 and an email arrived from a name I recognised.
Would you be available for me to phone you to discuss a potential project? I’ve attached an NDA. Could you sign a printed copy, scan and send it back to me?
John Jones
Jones Olson
Some conferences just have ‘that’ special feeling. @media was the first for me in 2005. The An Event Apart in Seattle in 2010 where Ethan Marcotte first talked about responsive design, another. Most recently, the first New Adventures also in 2010.
Sorry to break into your Diamond Jubilee celebrations, but my Flexible Responsive Web Design workshop on the 19th September in Freiburg in Germany sold out so fast that Smashing Conference and I are hosting a second day. That’s right. We didn’t want disappointed Germans. Especially after Engerlaaand will be beating them in Euro 2012.
This one’s the day before the conference, on the 16th September.
You know the drill.
I’ve given Vitaly and his Smashing Magazine team some (good natured) stick over the years, but (to their credit) they ignored me completely and have built a fabulous business that publishes the website and books including Smashing Book #3 that I was proud to write the closing chapter for.
Now they’re organising what I predict with be one of the best web conferences anywhere this year. The Smashing Conference will be held in beautiful, historic FreibergFreiburg in Germany on 17th and 18th September and the speaker line up is tremendous. Heck. It has three of my CSS heroes, two of my favourite people in the whole world, AND more. What a show it’s going to be!
As you probably heard, I’m taking a break from speaking this year (apart from Austin (see what I did there?)), but I will be hosting a Fashionably Flexible Responsive Web Design workshop on the 19th. It’s an updated version of the workshop that was so well received in Australia earlier in the year. (You can grab the slide deck from that from Speaker Deck to give you a taste.
You know the drill.
I’m looking forward to the Smashing Conference so much. So much! It’s going to be super, smashing, great.
I guess if you’ve been following my tweets or Instagram photos, you’ll know that I’ve been in Australia presenting a series of ‘Fashionably flexible responsive web design’ workshops. I had the most amazing time in Australia and I want to say a huge thank-you to John and Maxine for helping me make it possible. I’d also like to thank everyone who attended for contributing to the discussion and sharing their experiences.
I couldn’t have built a full day’s workshop without referencing the work of others. So my special thanks go to John Allsopp (again), Mark Boulton, Brad Frost, Jeremy Keith, Ethan Marcotte, Brian and Stephanie Rieger, Luke Wroblewski and all the designers and developers whose work I featured.
With the Australian tour now over, I’ll be working on adapting the workshop’s content for a new video. More on that another day. But today I’m making available the slides from my Australian workshops on Speaker Deck. Of course slides without commentary and context are worth only so much. But hell, you just had to be there.
It’s only three weeks until I’ll be flying down under to Australia to escape the British winter. While I’m there I’m hosting four Fashionably Flexible Responsive Web Design workshops — one in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
This Fashionably Flexible Responsive Web Design workshop’s completely new and I’m excited because as well as talking about hot responsive topics, I’m putting the focus of this workshop onto design. In particular we’ll cover how to make the design decisions that designers (and developers) need to make everyday in the responsive workflow:
I’ve been evolving the format over the last few months at private events for NRK and Finn.no, both in Oslo, and if the reaction of those folks is anything to go by, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane will be a blast.
“Thank you for a great day. It really inspired our developers and we’ve just rolled out the first of our responsive pages already. If our developers get this excited every time you’re, here I think we’ll need to have you come over every other month.”
Espen Dalløkken — Finn, Oslo, Norway.
For the next few weeks, I’ll be refining the workshop’s content some more and building some brand new boilerplates for attendees to take away. I hope I’ll see you there.
It’s only three weeks until I’ll be flying down under to Australia to escape the British winter. While I’m there I’m hosting four Fashionably Flexible Responsive Web Design workshops — one in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
This Fashionably Flexible Responsive Web Design workshop’s completely new and I’m excited because as well as talking about hot responsive topics, I’m putting the focus of this workshop onto design. In particular we’ll cover how to make the design decisions that designers (and developers) need to make everyday in the responsive workflow:
I’ve been evolving the format over the last few months at private events for NRK and Finn.no, both in Oslo, and if the reaction of those folks is anything to go by, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane will be a blast.
“Thank you for a great day. It really inspired our developers and we’ve just rolled out the first of our responsive pages already. If our developers get this excited every time you’re, here I think we’ll need to have you come over every other month.”
Espen Dalløkken — Finn, Oslo, Norway.
For the next few weeks, I’ll be refining the workshop’s content some more and building some brand new boilerplates for attendees to take away. I hope I’ll see you there.
I can’t quite believe that it’s been six years since Drew MacLellan first published 24 ways. Now ably assisted by a talented team of volunteers, Drew’s made his magazine a web designer’s stable read.
I’ve had the honour of writing a little something for it every year. My contribution, There’s No Formula for Great Designs is out today.
Andy Clarke re-examines the formula used to convert static to fluid grids, and describes how he adapts it within his own custom grids to maintain connectedness in designs across devices. Like great design, there’s a perfect Christmas out there somewhere, but there’s no formula for it.
Every year, I agonise over what I write for 24 ways, because the overall quality of articles just keeps on getting better. My top pick of this year has to be Front-end Style Guides by Anna Debenham.
24 ways is a shining example of people volunteering their knowledge and time, giving back to our industry to help others. I’m proud to have contributed again.
(I’ve gathered links to all my articles, including past writing for 24 ways, onto one new page.)
I’ve just come off stage at An Event Apart San Francisco where I delivered ‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes’, my talk about CSS3 animations, for the last time. The talk uses a a mad, mad, mad, mad manimation as vehicle to explain CSS3 animations and encourage people to use them (and other emerging CSS properties) for more than for cool, edge case demonstrations. For everyone not at An Event Apart this year, I’ve uploaded my slides on Speaker Deck.
Five Simple Steps are holding a Christmas sale, with 30% of all their books in all formats. There’s plenty of gifts for all the family, but you know what everyone wants, don’t you? That’s right. Hardboiled Web Design.
The Hardboiled Web Design Digital Edition (PDF, ePub & mobi) is only £12:00, but there’s nothing quite like the smell of print on Christmas morning. So get the one you love the Paperback & Digital Edition for only £29:00.
Ho, ho, ho.
There’s been much written about responsive design, but so much of it has focussed on aspects of technical implementation rather than about the design decisions that responsive design demands. So next February (2012), I’ll be travelling down-under to Australia to host four, yes four, ‘Fashionably flexible responsive web design’ workshops.
I gave my first talk of the year at An Event Apart in Seattle. I’m speaking at all six of the events this year (and hosting two workshops ). I called the talk Smoke Gets In Your Eyes after the first episode of Mad Men because I was showing, for the very first time Madmanimation, the Mad Men opening titles recreated using CSS.
When we created our Hardboiled Web Design workshops, we wanted to work with partners who give our customers something extra. So we can’t be more pleased to have three amazing partners for our workshops in the UK — Microsoft, VPS.NET and Campaign Monitor.
It’s been two months since my new book, Hardboiled Web Design, was published by Five Simple Steps and a few weeks since the paperback started arriving on desks and shelves around the world. It’s been incredibly exciting to read how much people love it. Now preparations are in full swing for what comes next, Hardboiled Web Design workshops across the UK.
No it wasn’t a revolutionary new device. It wasn’t even the release of The Beatles music in a lower quality, more expensive format. Oh no, it was much more exciting. Hardboiled Web Design workshop dates in 2011. Yeah! No kidding!
After a year in the planning and six months in the making, my new book, Hardboiled Web Design is available to buy from Five Simple Steps
Hello. I’m Andy Clarke, a well-known website designer and writer on art direction and design for products and websites. I help businesses to deliver engaging customer experiences and unique designs.
Hire me. I’m available for coaching and to work on design projects.