Blogging and all that Malarkey

I’ve always thought of myself as coming from Irish roots. I never questioned it. My family are Doyles. Doyles were Irish. So, my roots were in Ireland. Except they’re not.

The RSPCA unveiled its first rebrand in 50 years this year, marking its 200th anniversary. In this video, I discuss their website, focusing on how it could benefit from its recent rebrand and tell better stories through its creative direction online.

In my latest Design Chatter video, I talked about how the RSPCA rebranded and asked if its website makes the best use of its new look. Here’s a written version of that, plus the full versions of my redesigns.

Back after their summer break, the four chaps decide whether each other’s improbable stories are a lie or the truth. Jon talks about his new car, Andy brings up his gout, and neither are at all cross about Paul and Marcus restarting the Boagworld podcast. This episode of One Footer in the Grave is appropriately sponsored by Allopurinol, the gout medication for when your big toe hurts like a b@stard.

Envato asked “What’s the state of web design in 2024? What comes next?” They sat down with four designers (and me) to learn what”s inspiring us, what drives us crazy, and how web designers can prepare for a future influenced by AI and rapidly evolving tools.

In this new video, I discuss the influential Swiss graphic designer Karl Gerstner’s work. I love Gerstner’s mastery of grid and how he used them to create consistent yet creative layouts.

For most of my career, I’ve encouraged designers and developers to learn from past masters of design and make inspiring web work. Now, I’m launching Stuff & Nonsense Premium Squarespace templates that help them do just that.

In this new video, I want to discuss Willy Fleckhaus’ work. His name isn’t often mentioned in the context of product and website design. I love Willy Fleckhaus’ mastery of layouts, his use of scale, and the ways he integrated images and text into compelling compositions.

Since, I suppose, the late nineties, every time a General Election comes around, the political parties roll out new websites. Having spent time studying Labour’s 2024 campaign website, I wondered what their previous election websites looked like. There’s barely anything left of Labour’s website from its victory in 1997 so I imagined what it might’ve looked like.

In this new video, I discuss editorial designer Otto Storch whose work I discovered while flicking through a new addition to my design library. I love how Storch playfully combines images and typography to create designs which are full of energy and movement.