Considine

Apr 26, 2007 by John    No Comments    Posted under: films

There’s not many actors who really stand out for me but I love Paddy Considine. First saw him in 24 Hour Party People and found his little character quirks and expressions very amusing. In America wasn’t really cutting edge cinema but I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to. He nailed the lead in that, and made Samantha Morton look clumsy. Tonight I saw a bit dead man’s shoes again and was reminded that I actually do have a favourite actor. This scene is great and so is Dead man’s shoes. I love a good dose of revenge! De Niro can kiss my fat one. Hasn’t a patch on Paddy.

Sure he’s just a big softy

Apr 23, 2007 by John    No Comments    Posted under: art, drawing

New drawing….

Shahzia Sikander

Apr 23, 2007 by John    No Comments    Posted under: art

I got around to visiting the IMMA for the first time in ages over the weekend. The Georgia O’Keefe exhibit
is very small and not her best work and second on the bill is Alex Katz, kitsch, camp, large scale portraits.
Not bad but the highlight for me was Shahzia Sikander.
She specialies in small Indo-Persian miniature painting but her large scale work is really good too, a mixture of current illustration trends & more traditional Pakistani influences. The animation
on display is also fab, a clever motion graphics mash-up of her own illustrations.

What is web design for?

Apr 20, 2007 by John    No Comments    Posted under: books, web design

What is this book for!? It’s not for me that’s for sure but it’s not for anyone. I don’t know who would read this. It starts with the same old tedious stuff you get for novice web material -history of the internet etc. Yawn. Then when the content eventually starts its mostly related to really big budget web design contracts. The guys who are doing those sites don’t need a book, that thirty pages in is still explaining what a browser is. So it goes from that to the scoping, planning, organization, user testing etc of large and complex sites. There’s nothing for the thousand’s of web designers like me and our clients who do sites for small to medium business and organizations. People who don’t have budgets for a month of research, and use cases and meetings and contracts and other crap that just doesn’t happen in grassroots web design.

I kept waiting for it to get better but it just got worse. It’s packed full of the kind of ridiculously useless common sense that always gets my goat. This nugget takes up half a page: "Clients can find designers in a variety of ways. They may have had personal contact with someone in the company, or the designer may have been recommended by a colleague. The client may know about the supplier from the trade press or work with a client in their industry. They may have found the suppliers name in the directory….." yadda yadda yadda. Might as well be saying "A designer may get up in the morning and brush their teeth. Or the designer might have a shower first".

The language throughout is fairly dubious. Lots of talk of ‘suppliers’ and ‘engineers’ and things you don’t associate with web design. Suspicions are confirmed when you get to the test cases. A few of them are unapologetically products of industrial design. What is Web Design? Well It’s not a bloody Arm band Sensor that’s for sure! I thought it might get interesting when I got to the test cases but they very quickly end up sounding like minutes from a boring meeting and aren’t greatly insightful.

In this industry a 4 year old book would be extremely dated and trust me it is, it looks and reads like a ten year old book but that’s still no excuse for all the elements that make it such a useless book. I wouldn’t be so harsh if I just made a bad purchase, and it wasn’t for me but like I said at the start – this book isn’t for anyone! I bought this alongside its more recommended big *sister What is Design For? I’m still interested in reading about good web design practice and theory, but this is a bad start! I suppose I’ve only myself to blame for such a hasty internet purchase.

Zippy woz here

Apr 14, 2007 by John    No Comments    Posted under: drawing, zippy

Download large version.

(Original photo by Straws)

And, Zippy, the wonder years…

Smartbride.ie

Apr 9, 2007 by John    No Comments    Posted under: css, web design

Smartbride is a web site that coincides with the launch of a book called “How to have a champagne wedding on a bucks fizz budget”. I got this site done just in time for an Irish Times article it appeared in on Saturday about people cutting costs for weddings. Funnily enough, I got a mention in the same article because I bartered web sites for wedding services (photographer, jeweler, chauffeur, hairdresser & cake maker) when I got married.

I like jobs like these, you get a nice image to work with (shoe from the book cover) and you’ve got an agreed colour scheme and half a banner straight off. The site isn’t entirely finished yet though, there’s a few sections ‘under construction’.

Rice Krispie dust

Apr 6, 2007 by John    No Comments    Posted under: random, stuff

I’ve always loved Rice Krispie dust, so I love the last bowl in the box where all the dust is. Only recently did I discover a use for that mortar and pestle in the kitchen. Actually you don’t even need the mortar just get your bowl of Rice Krispies and pestle away. Voila! Instant Krispie dust!

Life!

Apr 5, 2007 by John    No Comments    Posted under: css, design, web design

I’ve been working my arse off trying to get this LIFE site finished. It’s probably the best design I’ve done but I’m sick of the sight of it at the moment! There’s a lot of work to it – a member section, and a minisite that’s going to be used as a template for other chemists. I’m looking forward to getting it finished off and getting a full nights sleep!

However I did have a bit of fun earlier (which I’m paying for now because I’m dying to go to bed but have to get this site done). I scanned in a sketch that I did during the week and chucked it into a photo. I wanted to do something better with this – but for now here’s Zippy, the Wonder years.