February 2007 – dots and spaces

threadless submission no.1

Posted on February 28, 2007 by dots and spaces

My first submission to threadless met with some approval from the
hardcore voters that patrol the site – such fun to have finally given
it a go. Now what I need you to do is hit the link above (or below) and head over
there to vote! vote! vote!

if you have any suggestions, please let me
know – I won’t be able to re-submit this idea, but I’ll be able to take
them onto the next idea.
If you’ve never visited threadless
you’ll see what an amazing site it is – all the designs come from
visitors to the site, who also vote on the best, which then get made
and form part of the roster of t-shirts. Its a simple idea, but a great
one.

big day for small man

Posted on February 23, 2007 by dots and spaces

Today was the day, Emil Rhys Caspar entered this world. Mum doing good, Dad wobbly but very happy.

Cinema No.6

Posted on February 22, 2007 by dots and spaces

Cinemano6

Cinema no.6 is the ideal place to get your fix of foreign films, american and british indies and the stuff that scares the multiplex. Its present home is in portsmouth’s historic dockyard, at action stations. Since our move to Fareham, our usual haunt, Chichester’s New Park Cinema is a bit far away, and we’ve yet to visit harbour lights in southampton.

So No.6 is where we go. Lately we’ve seen some amazing movies, Almodovar’s Volver, the french film – The Beat that my heart skipped and also american movies Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (which was just about ok) and Little Miss Sunshine, which was fun and frothy. We keep hearing rumours that no.6 is in difficulty, but there are new monthly programmes and now a website where you can sign up to a weekly listings newsletter.

Cinema’s like this exist not just as an alternative, which is a bit patronising, but should be regularly supported and should enjoy the same publicity as the multiplex down the road. So go on – enjoy your saturday night at the pictures.

new design site

Posted on February 15, 2007 by dots and spaces

A couple of weeks ago I attended a seminar run by the design council which explored the ways in which to encourage small businesses to use design as part of their strategic thinking. The idea being that investing in design should be thought of in terms of benefit and investment just as much as say, employing more staff, investing in technology etc.

I’ve set up a little site very quickly using the free google.pages tool – its very easy to use and has allowed me to trail a new idea I have. I’m still not very sure what its about, but I’m thinking about it as an experiment. I would welcome your comments and appeal for hypothetical problems to solve. These are strategic problems where design would play a role in solving them.

This is very different to the usual route I take as a graphic designer, (less image-maker, more conceptual) but the idea is to allow yourself to multi-task – to be the creative – the solution could be product, print, web-based or simply a concept. I know that many people do this already, but as I think more about this, it could become quite interesting.

we’ll see – I wanted to explain the appearance of these new pages and hope you’ll forgive me as I have a little play.

this site is an eyesore

Posted on February 9, 2007 by dots and spaces

Frost

I’m so tired of looking at this site and wondering what to do with it. The last couple of tweaks to colour and banner have been appalling – I really have been quite clueless. But then its february, there are other things to think about, get the house ready, keep warm, fix bicycles and watch films. We are going to see "The Prestige" on saturday, I have a feeling its not going to be very good.

I think it might be to do with energy – I have very little. I’m not really all that keen on the big detox and get fit burst that we attempt after christmas – in france they wait until springtime, which is much better – you can actually go out and enjoy the big outdoors, rather than hang about in gyms. For a while I use to go, but I just don’t like them – nobody wants to be there, the view (of other sweaty people) is rather limited and the air is less than fresh. Nothing beats hitting the lanes and scooting through the countryside.

I know we’re going to be very busy, very soon, but I can’t wait.

so, bear with me, I will have a proper think about dots and spaces – this tweaking has got to stop.