November 21, 2006
When I left the BBC a few months ago, they were kind enough to give me an Amazon voucher with which I bought a new Apple iPod Shuffle.
Well, Amazon took two months to actually get the stock in from Apple (don’t know whose fault that was, but the delivery date kept on going back and back with no word from either party.) But all that aside, I received it yesterday and it’s a little thing of beauty.
November 01, 2006
Following my month of supporting breast cancer, this site is now green again. If you’re reading this in an RSS reader, then you probably don’t give two hoots. However, if you’re reading this in a browser, then kindly dump your cache and refresh otherwise things may look a little odd.
It’s been nice being pink for the month I must admit. So much so that I’m considering a slight colour change more often. I may even put you, my readers, in charge via a little stylesheet switcher (user preferences? heaven forbid). Although I’ll probably end up tossing this thought on my steaming pile of unfinished, festering ‘things to do’. Like I haven’t got enough to do with a new business, a book to finish, a web-app to finish…
October 19, 2006
It’s been ages since I’ve had a stab at a Simple Steps series. So far we’ve had Better Typography, Designing Grid Systems and Typesetting. This one has been kicking around for a while so I thought I’d just publish the first couple and see where we go from there (of course there will be five, I just haven’t written the last couple yet).
Designing with colour is perhaps the element of graphic design which is the most difficult to get right. Why? Well, because it is the most subjective. For some, a palette of dark grey with splashes of bright pink will be just great; to others it would just be all wrong. Too many designers, whether schooled in colour-theory or not, end up making subjective decisions about colour and then when it comes to explaining those decisions to a client, things begin to unravel.
This first post in the series will be dealing with looking at tone and the value of limiting your palette.
September 25, 2006
I was listening to the @media ‘Hot Topics’ podcast the other day, which unfortunately I had to miss. The section of it which I found really interesting was the discussion on a professional body (which is about two thirds of the way through). Although the panel agreed that a professional body for our industry is overall a bad idea, I actually think they were talking about several different things.
September 18, 2006
You may guess from the complete lack of updates here that I’ve been rather busy since returning from holiday. Getting into the swing of things after a holiday is bad enough, but getting back into the swing of being a commercial designer again after four years at a public service broadcaster is a challenge. I’d like to think I’m up for it though. That said, working client side is an incredible challenge and, if presented with the opportunity, I think every designer should jump at the chance.
August 10, 2006
Yesterday I finally received my new mobile phone, a Sony Ericsson k800i, and it’s a little beauty. There were a few problems though.
Firstly, it’s a little larger than I expected. Not in physical size though - it’s a bit of an illusion. Because the sides don’t taper, like my Nokia 6230, the k800 just seems larger. The fact is, it’s only a couple of mm taller and about 3mm either side wider. I can live with it. Secondly, Vodafone ships the phone with it’s own ‘branded’ os and by God has it been beaten with an ugly stick. So, I took it upon myself to reflash the OS and install my own OSX theme.
July 25, 2006
Last week, I mentioned I was slowly drowning in a thickening quagmire of paperwork—estimates, invoices, contracts and things. I took it upon myself to design and build a system which would help sort me out, thanks to a bit of inspiration from Stan and the boys at 37signals. A week later and this little application is working rather well, even if I do say so myself.
July 19, 2006
A while ago now, like Jason, I realised I needed better organisation in my life, from both a personal and business perspective. I don’t consider myself a really busy person, although one thing has made me realise I need to be much more organised: I’ve got a lot on!(detect the slight edgy panic in my voice?).
I guess it all started last September when Khoi and I were discussing our panel for SXSW and he got me started with Backpack.
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I'm a graphic designer from near Cardiff in the UK. I've been a designer for over ten years now and primarily work on the web. I'm still partial to a bit of print every now and then though. I used to work for Agency.com in London as an Art Director before working as a Senior Designer for the BBC in sunny Cardiff. This was all before I took leave of my senses and formed my own design consultancy, Mark Boulton Design Ltd.
I've got a thing about grids and typography and occasionally ramble on about them to anyone who will listen.
If you're after simple, clean and effective web design; let me know.