Blogging and all that malarkey

A few weeks ago, BBC Question Time’s Fiona Bruce announced the programme was coming to nearby Chester, so I filled in the online form and applied to be in the audience. I completely forgot about applying until a researcher phoned me the day before the show and asked if I were still available. I was.

So far, Rishi’s announced the general election to the soundtrack of Things Can Only Get BWetter, spoke to reporters outside the Titanic exhibition (spoiler: It sank,) was photographed under an Exit sign, and accidentally grew big ears after announcing a crackdown on Mickey Mouse university degrees. Yes, it’s all going very well. But, even with all these mishaps, Labour can’t take victory for granted. Sadly, their website design sucks. So, I imagined what I’d make if Labour came calling.

In this week’s General Election campaigning, Reform’s Nigel Farage announced he’s standing for a seat in Clacton after promising everyone he wouldn’t stand as a candidate. Farage popped up on BBC Question Time, which, in fairness, promised they’d invite politicians from other parties. Speaking of novelty candidates, I hope the BBC will stand by their promise and invite someone with real common sense policies like Count Binface. The Count has obviously been too busy conquering the galaxy to get his website ready for the election, so I imagined what I’d make if Count Binface came calling.

Finally, the UK general election campaigns are underway, and the parties are pushing their messages to voters. With the Conservatives desperate to cling to power, Labour anxious to seize it, the Liberal Democrats hoping for more MPs, and Reform looking to claim the far-right vote from the Tories, how do I think their website designs are fairing?

I missed the exact date, but a few days ago, my blog turned 20. I’m not up there with Jeffrey or Jeremy, who’ve blogged consistently for even longer—I neglected my blog for periods of time, and posting was often irregular—but still, here we are. It’s twenty years since my first post.

My earliest blog posts date back to 2004. There’s very little in them which is relevant today, and they’re full of dead links, which, I’m told, is bad for my site’s SEO. So recently, I’ve done two things to hide these posts from search engines.

Andy, Jon, Marcus, and Paul are back—sooner than expected—for another fun-packed episode. They talk about who’s voice they’d each like as an AI companion, Apple,Apple’s new iPads and why devices are now so thin that they crack when Andy sits on them. Then, inevitably, they discuss what they think about the new Dr Who.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is out and I’m seeing it this coming Saturday. I’m so excited that I decided to update one of my responsive easter egg headers—Kerfuffle on the Planet of the Apes—with more efficient, modern code. In this final post of the short series, I’ll explain how I added animations and subtle transitions to bring the design to life.

Jon posted about his icon design for ShareOpenly, so I decided to add it to my blog too.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is out, and I’m so excited that I decided to update one of my responsive easter egg headers—Kerfuffle on the Planet of the Apes—with more efficient, modern code. Today, I’ll explain how I made the layout using a combination of container queries, Flexbox, and grid.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is out, and I’m so excited that I decided to celebrate by updating another of my responsive easter egg headers—Kerfuffle on the Planet of the Apes—with more efficient, modern code. I’ll explain how I did it, starting with the new optimised SVG images.

I’m tending and posting to my blog a little more since the recent redesign and as part of that effort, I’ve brought back two very old-fashioned things: A blog roll and an RSS feed.

I don’t remember exactly when—but it was around 20 years ago—Back in 2005, ^* Rob Weychert turned his (and our) pal Jason Santa Maria into a talking head of Jason’s alter-ego, Virtual Stan. Stan had a backstory, which I don’t fully remember, plus a robot pal called Zorthron.

I don’t look at my analytics often, but after last week’s site revamp, I thought I’d check to see which pages were popular. Oddly, a post in my ancient archives about CSS specificity had been getting a fair few Google referrals, so I decided to spend a few hours updating that, too.

This week, I launched Design Chatter. It’s a weekly one-hour Zoom call where like-minded designers can give each other constructive, friendly feedback.

The nerds of a feather are back for another episode. They talk about whether social media is now either dead or useless for promoting our work and whether old-fashioned email is replacing it. Paul explains his monthly newsletter strategy and how, for him, it’s replaced social media. Then, the boys discuss what they should do next, as they ’ ve (obviously) reached the pinnacle of their careers.

It’s been almost a year since I left Nozomi Networks, and between now and then, I’ve had plenty of time to think about the types of projects I would like to work on. I learned a lot from working alongside developers building products, but my passion has always been for using design to communicate ideas and messages, not simply problem-solving.

Although there have been periods over the past few years where I’ve worked as part of a team, I’ve mainly worked by myself, at home. My wife has a keen eye for detail and often has off-the-wall ideas. My clients are also wonderful, and they seem to appreciate my process, which involves talking every day and sharing work as it develops. But there have often been times when I’ve felt working mostly alone was isolating.

One of my favourite CSS writers Ahmad Shadeed has written about CSS Masking and I thought I could put his techniques to good use on Emma’s website.

For years now, I’ve kept sauce sachets in my car’s glove box—I mean, who actually keeps gloves in that compartment?—just in case I needed it for a burger or bag of chips. That’s why I was really pleased when The Cheeky Condiment Company got in touch asking me to design a website for their condiment-carrying charm bracelets and necklaces.

Emma Bodger is a film/television producer, and recently, I’ve spent time working on her visual identity and a new website. It’s been a lot of fun, and I also learned more about SVG while working on it. I’m digging into the details this week, and today I’ll reveal the Easter Egg theme which I hid on Emma’s website.

Emma Bodger is a film/television producer, and recently, I’ve spent time working on her visual identity and a new website. It’s been a lot of fun, and I also learned more about SVG while working on it. I’m digging into the details this week, and today I’ll explain how I made experimental banner images for Emma’s home page using SVG masks.

Emma Bodger is a film/television producer, and recently, I’ve spent time working on her visual identity and a new website. It’s been a lot of fun, and I also learned more about SVG while working on it. I’m digging into the details this week, and today I’ll explain how I made an experimental word search concept for Emma’s home page.

Emma Bodger is a film/television producer, and recently, I’ve spent time working on her visual identity and a new website. It’s been a lot of fun, and I also learned a few things while working on it. I’m digging into the details this week, and today I’ll explain the pseudo-3D design I created for Emma’s home page banner.