I’m heading to FOTB in a few hours time. First time at the event and in Brighton too so I’m looking forward to a cracking 4 days.

Note to self, write things on here more often.

I’ve just got back from an evening in London, where I attended the Japanese event extravaganza that is the Pecha Kucha Night. Supported by D&AD, the evening provided each speaker with a 6 minute, 40 second time frame in which to showcase 20 slides and each shown for only 20 seconds at a time! - a great idea which proved to keep tempo up and interest levels engaged. These slides could be anything; the stage was open, and as intended some inspired, amused and even shocked too.

Speakers included professional, digital creative’s from the likes of Poke, Digit, AllOfUs, Mook, Glue and AKQA to name a few.

Part of me expected the night to be occupied by a lot of work from the companies themselves, however this was opposed with talks about personal works and personal interests, which proved interesting to witness the thoughts, finds and inspiration of the people behind the company names. - Culture and the history of gaming were also a few other topics of interest.

On a separate side note, personally it was real beneficial to experience first hand a few ‘different’ presentation styles for a change, which I’m glad to say opened my mind a little too.

A great evening and well worth the trip. I can’t wait until I’m living down in London where events like this are more accessible

Over the past couple of months I feel very fortunate to have been invited to co-ordinate and implement a 5 minute promotional motion piece for this year’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. The piece was produced on behalf of Live:lab and my brief was to capture the essence of this internationally recognised event and to convey a disjointed presence within the piece. I also wish to express my thanks to Luke Willetts who implemented some of the features and for his support along the way. Please feel free to play the short excerpt below.

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

A few images on location:

After wanting to attend the Future of Web Apps conference last year and unfortunately missing out, this year I am glad to say I am here and writing from a rather comfortable Microsoft bean-bag!

Things are amazing and I have met some really informative and exciting individuals, and furthermore have walked away from most talks feeling inspired and entrepreneurial!

For anyone who tracks Diggnation, be sure to check out their latest episode which they filmed here last night! (crazy stuff).

After which I attended the after party and after talking to a few fellow developers over a few nice free beverage (cheers Carsonified!) I began to realise how much Ruby on rails is taking over web development! so I can’t wait to explore that more.

Going to shoot now because break is almost over and this afternoon’s talks seem really intriguing. Peace out for now.

Last week I took a trip down to London to a film screen of Helvetica. A great weekend from all angles, with it being not only a chance to view this screening but to also experience only a side dish of what the west end’s design culture has to offer. (I can’t until my placement year!)

Definition: Helvetica is the name of a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss graphic designer Max Miedinger.

‘A widely used sans-serif typeface’. Hrm, I think that could well be an understatement. Its remarkable how much this typeface is used and I found it truly informative to discover not only its origins but also where you can find it today. I can safely say that for most of my 6 hour journey home I couldn’t help looking for its traces.

Another thing I brought away from the film was the fact I hadn’t until now realised the significance that the work of David Carson brought to the type and design world. I think his work is astounding and after learning more about the history of type from Helvetica, I respect how much of a legend he, and the other designers who were interviewed actually are.

For anyone interested in design and type I would strongly recommend Helvetica; an informative and also intriguing look on today’s world of type. Well directed, well researched and very comical. Nicely done Gary Hustwit.

What typeface shall is use…….Comic Sans of course!