Written at 11pm on 01.01.09
Filed under ALL CATEGORIES / Speaking Engagements
6 comments

Happy New Year, everyone!
The first day of a new year would seem like a good time to relaunch a website. Jeffrey Zeldman and Eric Meyer have done just that with the new-look An Event Apart, and Zeldman’s offered a brief write-up about the redesign on his blog.
Of course, the relaunch of the An Event Apart site is not the real reason I’m blogging; have a look at the page for the Chicago show in October and you’ll see that the line-up includes… little old me!
This […]
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Written at 12pm on 22.12.08
Filed under Life In The Real World / ALL CATEGORIES
25 comments

On the first day of this year, I wrote a post about my goals for 2008. As the year now draws to a close (where did it go?!?), I thought now would be a good time to reflect on some of those goals and make some more for 2009.
Goals I achieved
- “Write a book, or a chapter in a book” - I’m putting the finishing touches to my first book over the next few days and it’ll be published by SitePoint in March. Expect to see details […]
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Written at 12pm on 15.12.08
Filed under ALL CATEGORIES / Music
12 comments

Since writing part 1 of my new ‘Studio Diary’ series the other day, you might be wondering why I’ve gone so quiet. And you would be right to wonder.
Unfortunately, I’ve had to temporarily put my music-making plans on hold. The reason for this is that the book I’m writing now needs to come out a month earlier, and therefore I need to write it a month earlier. Ultimately it should result in more high-street exposure for the book when it comes out in March, but sadly I’ve had to […]
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Written at 5pm on 11.12.08
Filed under Web Design / Software / ALL CATEGORIES / Publication & Recognition
16 comments

Today sees the launch of a new OSX application from my friends at Realmac Software. It’s called LittleSnapper and it rocks.
I’ve had the pleasure of testing this app from its early alpha incarnations right through to the final line of betas released this week, and I can honestly say that it’s one of my favourite pieces of software for OSX and I’m using it daily. So I was absolutely thrilled when the guys asked me if I’d like to be interviewed for a case study! You can read it here.
So what […]
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Written at 5pm on 02.12.08
Filed under Life In The Real World / ALL CATEGORIES / Music
30 comments

I’m excited, because tomorrow is the first day of the recording sessions for my new album.
What? I hear you cry in confusion. You’re a designer - not a musician! Well, for those of you who don’t follow my ramblings on Twitter, I’m taking (most of) December and January off, not doing any client work, hanging up my designer’s overalls, and donning my musician’s cap. Of course, whether or not I create anything decent remains to be seen, but you’ll be seeing - well, hearing - the results on this […]
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Written at 11am on 27.11.08
Filed under ALL CATEGORIES / The Business
49 comments

This is a topic I’ve been discussing with some friends quite frequently, so I thought it was worth turning into a post. Ready for a bit of controversy?
Don’t expect to get any work done in the first hour of your day.
Resign yourself to the fact that it’s just not going to happen. Better yet: don’t even attempt to get any work done. In all seriousness, you will feel much happier - and end up being more productive - if you spend the first hour of the day catching up […]
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Written at 3pm on 24.11.08
Filed under ALL CATEGORIES / Publication & Recognition
9 comments

When I was a nerdy teenager and dreamed of one day becoming a rock superstar, I - like most nerdy teenagers who dream of one day becoming rock superstars - whiled away hours imagining various ‘rock’ scenarios. One of those scenarios involved me getting interviewed by magazines. Something about people wanting to hear my thoughts on the world seemed extremely alluring, but it was so unlikely that I filed it away along with the rest of my teenage daydreams.
Web design’s a funny thing, however, because although my chosen […]
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Written at 12pm on 19.11.08
Filed under This Site / ALL CATEGORIES
34 comments

A couple of weeks ago, I started advertising on my site. Before I go any further, please let me start this post by giving you my opinion on online advertising:
The majority of it is evil, shallow, intrusive, and pointless. However, there are a few occasional exceptions to the rule. SidebarAds are one of those exceptions.
The Deck / SidebarAds / Fusion Ads
Most of you are probably familiar with The Deck, the Coudal-organised ad network whose members are very big names in the web community (Veerle,
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Written at 11am on 14.11.08
Filed under ALL CATEGORIES / Publication & Recognition / Speaking Engagements
7 comments

With the end of the year rapidly approaching, and having just got back from 2008’s last speaking gig, I thought now would be a good to time to consolidate my presentations from all of the events I spoke at this year.
Future of Web Design - London, UK (April)

The first speaking event of the year was a particularly memorable one. On the day of the actual event, I got on stage with Andy, Jina,
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Written at 9am on 24.10.08
Filed under Web Design / ALL CATEGORIES / Wordpress
17 comments

Last week I launched the new version of samanthacliffe.com, home to hundreds of beautiful photographs taken by the exceptionally talented young lady known as - you guessed it - Samantha Cliffe. This young lady also happens to be my girlfriend.
Now, before you scroll down for my tedious explanations, please head over to the site and take a look around. Virtually every photo on there is available as a print, so if you want to buy one, please just let Sam know. Alternatively, you can visit her Etsy […]
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Written at 1pm on 21.10.08
Filed under Travel / Web Design / ALL CATEGORIES / Speaking Engagements
11 comments

UPDATE: I’ve got a promo code for WDN that’ll give you a discount on the ticket price. Scroll down for info…
I’m really excited to be announcing some more speaking events; this time for the first few months of 2009. I gots me some travellin’ to do!
Oxford Geek […]
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Written at 11am on 13.10.08
Filed under Web Design / Life In The Real World / ALL CATEGORIES / The Business
29 comments

Last week I wrote a post called Why being freelance does not mean you have to work more hours, which seemed to resonate with a few people. But I hold my hands up for deceiving you with the title, because - as I realised a couple of days after posting it - I didn’t actually explain the why; in other words, I offered no explanation as to how I work less hours now that I’m freelancing.
Not only that, but I came under some criticism (fair […]
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