This past month

This last month has been a bit crazy. First of all England’s dire performance in the world cup has pretty much consumed me over the last four weeks. I’m honestly not much of a football fan, but international tournaments (especially this one) really get me hooked, so what do we reckon? Italy: 2 France: 1? That’s my prediction.

Then there’s been the work. I’ve got some news, which I can’t talk about just yet, but will in the coming months. It’s all very exciting but it means I’m currently working my ass off, and along with being ill again with the damn colitis, it’s made this past few weeks a pretty difficult time.

There’s a been a number of sites I’ve worked on which have gone live. Footballkitdesigner has just launched in Beta 2. Lots more functionality in there such as team kit designing and now you can purchase your kits online. The Kit Designer section is excellent and offers ways of adding team player names and possibly corporate sponsor logos.

Secondly, I’ve developed a brand and website for film industry sculptor, Bruce Gordon. It’s primarily a portfolio site which uses Expression Engine as its backend and lighbox.js to display the images (keeping it all nice and trim). What is interesting about this project is the photographs which are up there. There are some incredible construction photographs of sets such as the chocolate river in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the Batcar for Batman Returns. Fascinating stuff.

Next month I’ll be getting my new phone. I like new gadgets and this little beauty promises to deliver. I’ve opted for an Sony Ericsson K800i (the new Cyber Shot 3.2 Mega Pixel camera phone). I’m hoping with a camera this good on a phone, I’ll begin to take a lot more photographs as I’m wandering around. Also being a bit of a self-confessed Mac geek, I’m half way through designing an OS X theme for it using the delightful Sony Ericsson Theme Creator application for OS X. I’m currently working on a blue aqua theme, but I’ll probably develop a number of different hues over time. The only problem is I can’t change the default icons which is a bit of a shame.

August is looking busy but then Emma and I take a well deserved break to my parent’s place in Portugal. I’m so looking forward to just sitting down, sans-laptop, and just reading a book. Of course that will only last for about a day, then I will be bored and will probably end up redesigning this site. Again. 

Comments

I hope you’re right for Italy 2 - France 1…
I’m interesting about Expression Engine, works well? Why you decide to use this backend and not Cms like Joomla?

Antonio
Fri 7th Jul 2006
at 9:18 am

I works very well Antonio. I use EE for pretty much every site I build now. In fact, even if the website is flat files, I find it much quicker to develop the site using EE instead of coding up individual pages.

Mark Boulton
Fri 7th Jul 2006
at 9:32 am

Get well soon.

Eoghan McCabe
Fri 7th Jul 2006
at 10:18 am

Lovely sites, the layout of the Bruce Gordon one reminds me more of pages from a book than webpages, something I’m always trying to aim for.

My Italian girlfriend would kill me if she read this, but seeing as I’m half-frog I must say I hope the French win. The Italians have played such boring football.

This is the excellent Sony Ericsson Mac OS X theme I use. It somehow evades looking like a tacky port (the Mac OS X themes for Linux spring to mind) using the right widgets in the right places. Might be a good aid in making yours.

Stephen
Fri 7th Jul 2006
at 6:43 pm

I like the Bruce Gordon site Mark. Simple and well designed (as usual!)

I’m intrigued as to why you didn’t implement the next and previous image links on the lightbox.js work. Is it a usability concern or an aesthetic one?

btw - lightbox.js is spelt with a ‘t’ ;)

I will have to check back soon to ensure I don’t miss your news!

Hope the colitis clears up soon and lets you churn out the work unhindered.

Ben
Sat 8th Jul 2006
at 7:09 pm

Have fun with your new phone, but watch out for that joystick. I can only hope they’ve improved it. I have a K700i and while I really enjoy it, the joystick has been nothing but trouble. I’ve been considering upgrading to a w810i as that one comes without a joystick, however also sans the camera you’re going for.

Jerome Dahdah
Wed 12th Jul 2006
at 12:13 pm

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.

Mark Boulton Design

If you're after simple, clean and effective web design; let me know.