So yea, I haven’t really written much recently. Truth is, it’s for a combination of reasons.
Firstly, I’ve been slack, but additionally, I just haven’t had the time to commit to writing blog posts of any merit. So first, what I’ve been up to, then some news.
Working for the IGCP
If you follow me on twitter, you’ll be fed up with hearing this. For those who haven’t, over the last few months I’ve been working almost non-stop with the IGCP to re-design, build and launch their new website. We’ll we went live last month and I think we’re all pretty pleased with it. The guys were a dream to work with and put a lot of faith in me which I can only say thank you for.
I’d also like to say how grateful I am, and how lucky I feel, that I got to go to Rwanda and see the Gorillas myself. I spend 6 wonderful days training the team and touring through Kigali, Gisenyi and Musanse and I’d recommend a trip to anyone interested in seeing a beautiful country, even if it is one that has such a strong sigma still attached to it. Although we must never forget what happened there, we must let those images go as our portrait of Rwanda, as it is, truly, a fantastic country.
A swan song
Due to the fact I’m not writing, but also to the fact I’m taking on more and more ‘out of hours’ work I’ve decided to re-jig things a little bit in terms of blogging and work. In a few months time I’ll be switching out all of my portfolio stuff to blackrabb.it. This will leave this site free for blogging an musings which I’ve felt for sometime now should run apart from my portfolio stuff.
I’ll still be available to do sites and graphics, you’ll still deal with me and things behind the scenes won’t change much, I just feel this is the right time to split the two sides of my personal design brand.
Today seems like a good time to come back in from the proverbial blogging wilderness . Why? Well two reasons really. 1) I’ve neglected to write anything here for a while, mainly because I haven’t been passionate about anything for a while and I don’t write well without passion and 2) I’ve found something I’m passionate about. (OK that’s technically the same point twice but still).
June 5th through 11th sees 6 days of design loveliness across the fair city of Bristol and I’m glad to say, I’ll be a part of it as they’ve kindly asked me to blog about the event. You can find out more about BDF by hitting the nice, subtle link below:
The Bristol Design Festival is a celebration of creativity in Bristol and the South West.
Through a unique and exciting programme of exhibitions, seminars, workshops and competitions we aim to give Bristol and the South West the recognition it deserves as a hub of creative excellence in the UK. The Bristol Design Festival encourages the participation of members of the public and designers from all levels, not just design professionals and businesses.
Industrial & Product Design, Graphic Design, The Crafts, Digital Design, Animation, Architecture, Sculpture, Fashion, Furniture, Illustration, Graffiti and more…
In addition you can follow @Bristol_Design on twitter and check out their blog. I’ll be blogging about the event next Sunday so expect pictures and ramblings there after.
If you’re around between the 5-11 next month, do come down. If you bump into me, mines a Peroni
If you’ve been to this site recently you’ll probably know that I’m to release the first of many totally free wordpress themes, and in keeping with the Shakespearian naming scheme, I’d like to introduce you to Othello for Wordpress.
About Othello
Othello is a completely free, out-of-the-box solution for wordpress and is perfect for entry level users. That’s not to say it’s basic however, in-fact it’s far from it.
Othello boasts advanced css3 webkit/mozilla features, wordpress widget support, banner advertising space, basic SEO optimisation & a simple set up process.
Technical features
For Wordpress 2.7.1 and above
Wordpress widget enabled
Default widgets pre-styled (excluding the calendar widget) for fast set-up
Based on the 960 grid system but written in em’s for better accessibility
Written in valid xhtml strict and styled using css2/3
Advanced webkit and mozilla features including animated transitions, rounded corners, opacity and rgba colours
Semantically structured with basic SEO requirements met
Latest versions of Safari, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, & Internet Explorer are supported
Internet Explorer 6 is supported in a visually limited, but still usable fashion.
Basic accessibility requirements met and in most places exceeded
Plays well with plugins
Released for free under creative commons license, share and share alike.
Setting it up
Othello is built to work almost straight out of the box, however there are still a few steps to undertake to get it up and running.
Open up the header.php file and add your own 468×60 banner. Save
Replace the default logo (logo-simple.gif) in the /img/ folder with your logo. Save.
Upload the Othello theme folder to wp-content/themes.
Upload the included plugins to wp-content/plugins.
Login to wordpress and activate the theme.
Activate the required plugins.
Open settings and select Similar Posts.
Set your preferences, 3 posts works well. All other defaults can stay as they are.
