Written at 3pm on 16.07.08
Filed under Life In The Real World / ALL CATEGORIES / Publication & Recognition / The Business
7 comments
Last month, while I was in Norway (yes, I’m back in Blighty now), I had the pleasure of being interviewed by the lovely Paul Boag on episode #125 of the Boagworld podcast, which crept into the wild last week. Boagworld is the longest running and most popular web design podcast, so I was thoroughly chuffed to be on it!
Me, on going freelance
When Paul invited me to appear on the show, he asked if I could talk about my recent experience of leaving the world of […]
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Written at 4pm on 09.07.08
Filed under Web Design / ALL CATEGORIES / Wordpress
30 comments
Today sees the launch of WooThemes, a project that offers a whole new world of ‘premium’ WordPress themes. Instead of paying for individual themes, you can subscribe to the WooThemes Club and receive every single theme we release over the course of your subscription, including the entire back catalogue. Behind all this is the team from the Premium News Themes - WordPress ‘rockstar’ Adii, Mark Forrester, and Magnus Jepson - and now me.
The first theme I’ve designed […]
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Written at 5pm on 28.06.08
Filed under Tutorials & Resources / ALL CATEGORIES
15 comments
It seems that a fair amount of people want to know how I create background images like the one on this site. Well, the lovely chaps at .net magazine have given me permission to re-publish the tutorials I write for the mag on elliotjaystocks.com, so, from issue #168, here’s the first (of many) web graphics tutorials - now completely free! You’ll want to download the source files, by the way, and here’s a preview of the end result. Click the thumbnail images to […]
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Written at 8pm on 09.06.08
Filed under Apple / ALL CATEGORIES
42 comments
You know I’m an Apple fanboy, but even I was disappointed at the relatively minor upgrades Apple have just announced to The Wonder Machine.
Yes, it’s got 3G. Yes, it’s got GPS. These were features that iPhone 1.0 users were desperately crying out for, and it’s great that they’re here. But if there’s one complaint that has come up time and time again when I’ve spoken to friends, family, and colleagues about the iPhone, it’s about the camera.
Firstly, the iPhone 1.0 camera only has a 2 megapixel sensor and so […]
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Written at 2pm on 23.05.08
Filed under That Internet Thing / ALL CATEGORIES
46 comments
I’m not the first person to write a relatively long and thoughtful article about Twitter; nor shall I be the last. But this has been brewing for quite some time, so here you go. Twitter fans, you’ll no doubt feel affinity with what you’re about to read, but newcomers and naysayers, this is for you too: five reasons why Twitter is important.
Oh, and due to the following collection of words sitting somewhere between a longer-than-usual blog entry and a mini essay, I’m using the tongue-in-cheek term ‘blessay’, coined by […]
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Written at 7pm on 17.05.08
Filed under Life In The Real World / ALL CATEGORIES
15 comments
I rarely write ‘personal’ blog posts these days, so I hope you don’t mind the break in writing about web design, apps, tutorials, etc., but several people have asked me how I’ve been getting on since I moved to Norway a couple of weeks ago. It feels kind of weird that I haven’t really said much about it, so as today is National Day here in the land of the Vikings, I thought it’d be a good time to spill the proverbial beans.
Well, it’s beautiful here. Beautiful and quiet. I’m […]
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Written at 12pm on 07.05.08
Filed under Life In The Real World / ALL CATEGORIES / The Business
13 comments
I screwed up. I made a mistake. I didn’t think.
Nothing that bad; nothing to cause too much extra work and stress; just a simple matter that I’d basically forgotten to address: in booking in new projects, I haven’t give myself enough time for each one to run over, as they inevitably will. I’ve got a pretty good feel for giving project estimates by now, but I haven’t allowed myself any leeway between each one. And in fact it’s not just about things overrunning: it’s about affording myself a little time to wind […]
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Written at 3pm on 01.05.08
Filed under Software / ALL CATEGORIES / The Business
21 comments
I’ve been promising a post about to-do lists for a while now, and I’m so enamoured with the beautiful Mac app Things that I just can’t hold it in any longer.
Until very recently, I wasn’t a fan of to-list apps in general. I’m not sure why that was exactly; I think perhaps it was because I associated them with ‘work’ and always stuck with my good ol’ whiteboard for personal to-dos. And I guess I also just really loved the tactile nature of a […]
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Written at 2pm on 26.04.08
Filed under ALL CATEGORIES / The Business
31 comments
I can’t believe it’s over so soon, but I’ve already finished the first week of being self-employed. And I can’t rave enough about the freedom of being my own boss!
As a few of you have asked, I thought I might document the early days of ‘the business’. I’ll try and cover a number of things as I go - business cards and personal branding, timekeeping and to-do lists, etc. - but for now I’m just going to briefly recap week number one.
An intentionally slow start
It hasn’t been a […]
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Written at 1pm on 23.04.08
Filed under Web Design / ALL CATEGORIES / Publication & Recognition / Speaking Engagements
24 comments
UPDATE: here’s the video!
If you want to download my FOWD presentation and workshop files, you’ve come to the right place. Read on…
No, I’m not dead. That 12% beer didn’t finish me off. I’m alive and kicking, and I can only apologise profusely for the lack of activity here on the blog recently. I blame FOWD, moving flat, setting up my own business, and getting ready to leave the country… fairly decent excuses, I hope!
So yeah, Future of Web Design. What a great couple of days! Thanks so much […]
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Written at 8am on 03.04.08
Filed under ALL CATEGORIES / Publication & Recognition
29 comments
As some of you will know, I write graphics-related tutorials for .net magazine (published as Practical Web Design outside the UK) on a monthly basis. However, this month’s issue is a special one, as it’s the first to include a feature written by me, as well as the regular tutorial. This 5-page feature is called ‘Create the perfect logo’ and discusses current trends in logo design, explores techniques employed by some of the world’s top designers, and walks the reader through a couple of case […]
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Written at 9am on 26.03.08
Filed under ALL CATEGORIES / Design inspiration
9 comments
Over the Easter weekend, Sam and I visited a local art gallery, which was selling souvenirs from an affiliated gallery down the road; one that’s currently showing an independent comics exhibition (and one I hope to visit before we move). Among the books for sale was a small comic called ‘A Gosling’ - written and illustrated by Stuart Kolakovic - and it seemed the perfect subject for the second post in the Design Inspiration series.
When I say this comic book is small, I mean so in every […]
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