September 04, 2007
Yesterday saw the launch of Khoi’s and Liz’s fantastic joint venture in providing a platform for short, concise design writing: A Brief Message.
The opening piece is by none other than Stevan Heller. It’s a thought-provoking piece, concisely written in under 200 words, and asks the question ‘Is print dying’? Again. It’s a question that has been asked many, many more times than ‘Which is best—fixed or fluid?’
August 25, 2007
When I worked at the BBC, I participated in a workshop where the entire department went through a Myers-Briggs Personality questionnaire. I think the aim of the workshop was for all of us to understand, to some degree, the personality traits of our colleagues.
The Myers-Briggs test was originally devised in the Second World War by Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers. The form of the test I participated in was a very long questionnaire which, when analysed, highlighted your personal preferences. That’s a very important aspect of the results—they describe what you prefer to do, not what you do all the time.
I was sceptical at first, but after completing the test, and the following workshops, i’ve had some fantastic insights into my own preferences—particularly when carrying out my job day to day.
August 22, 2007
Over the past couple of weeks there have been a few things going around that deserve more of a mention than my lowly ‘Of Interest’ sidebar. So, here they are:
August 08, 2007
Over the past year or so, the industry has been making some great inroads into streamlining some of our processes. We have Microformats for standardizing how we mark up certain data. John Allsopp’s Web Patterns is gathering pace and recently Tantek et all started work on solving the ‘why do I always have to re-enter my user data in every social networking app?’ problem, or the easier to say, Social Networking Portability. These are all great and everything, but they have data at their core, not the presentation of that data. Until recently, we didn’t have a usable system for creating layouts.
That was until a Norwegian chap called Olav Frihagen Bjørkøy released a CSS framework called Blueprint last Friday. The key difference between this and other frameworks is Blueprint has been created from a typographic design basis.
July 28, 2007
That’s right. The time has come to ramp up. We’re looking for an exceptional designer to join our Cardiff based studio. You will be based in South Wales and work out of our studio in beautiful Cardiff Bay.
You will work on a range of challenging and interesting projects—from web apps to branding—for companies large and small. You need to be creative, passionate and enthusiastic. You should be thorough, with a keen eye for detail bordering on obsessive. You read blogs (you probably write one of your own). You know your way around Web Standards, in addition to the usual desktop apps. You will have a minimum of three years experience. Pay level, and details, will depend on experience.
If you fit the bill, we’d love to hear from you. We’re in a hurry though. Deadline for submissions is Monday 13th August. Interviews will commence the following week.
July 28, 2007
We’re all busy. I know that. Just indulge me, okay?
For the past month, I’ve been chasing my tail and it’s beginning to show. The permanent four o’clock shadow; the dark rings under my eyes; and the ability to fall asleep at the drop of a hat—something I’ve never suffered with before.
This morning, I went along to the Cardiff Flower Market with The Wife at the incredibly ‘un-weekendly’ time of 7.15am. Whilst bathing in the early morning sunshine, I was trying to think about how to create more time so I can balance off the crazy time of it recently. I reached some sort of conclusion based on a book I read last year—The Power of Full Engagement—which was recommended by my best mate, Phil. The conclusion I reached was; it’s not about how much time you have, or how you use it, it’s about finding balance by adding routine and triggers.
July 04, 2007
If anyone has done any work for themselves—painted a painting; made a model; built a shed— you will know how difficult it is to finally stop. It’s about the love you see. The craft. Anything done for yourself has to be just right.
In April of this year, I became the Director of my new design consultancy, Mark Boulton Design Ltd. Since then, I’ve been beavering away to get a website up to let the world know what it is we do and who we’ve done it for (so far). Today Mark Boulton Design launches.
June 15, 2007
There has been a lot said recently about Vertical Rhythm. Richard Rutter began the work on 24ways last year with the piece ‘Compose to a Vertical Rhythm’. This was built upon by Wilson Minor on A List Apart recently with his article on Baseline Grids. All sound typographic advice. If you haven’t read both of them, I’d urge you to do so now otherwise you know what I’m on about it in this post.
At @media this year, I presented ‘Five Simple Steps to Better Typography’. Step two in my presentation was was Vertical Rhythm where I reiterated some of the excellent points Richard made in his article and also the presentation we both gave in at SXSW in March. I also added something of my own: Incremental leading, or Incremental line-height.
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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.