Goals for 2008
Written at 10am on 04.01.08
Filed under Life In The Real World / ALL CATEGORIES
14 comments (closed)
Happy new year, folks! And what better way to start 2008 than with a blog entry about new year’s resolutions, eh? I didn’t picture myself writing something like this, but after seeing Keith’s post on the topic, I was inspired to create my own. I’d love to hear you from you guys about your own goals for 2008; if they exist, feel free to link to your own blog posts in the comments.
By the way, before we get going, I realise that some people find these kind of articles extremely tedious, so if you want to wander off and do something far more interesting, I won’t hold it against you. This list is as much for my own reference (for when we reach the end of the year) as it is for public consumption. One advantage in writing this on the blog is that I can guarantee public humiliation should I fail to achieve any of these goals… so perhaps that’s a nice little incentive to get my arse in gear.
Release a new version of this site
It’s not going to happen for a few months yet, but the site is in need of a facelift; not because I’m bored of the design - because I’m not - but because the underlying structure of the site needs changing to better incorporate both the existing content and the new content I’m dying to put in there. So it’s going to be a complete re-think, and in a month or so I’ll write a post about what I’m planning to do; hopefully with the aim of getting feedback from you chaps before I go and start anything.
Unveil my top secret, super-sexy, uber-cool new project
I’m so excited! But I can’t tell you what it is yet because that’d spoil everything. It’s being worked on right now and all I can say is that I’m hoping it’ll be a fantastic source of inspiration for the web community. More on this very very soon!
Write a book, or a chapter in a book
Despite some warning stories from friends who are published authors, I’ve decided that the next step in my career as a design professional should involve writing a design-related book. I have a couple of ideas that I’m going to put to some publishers quite soon, although depending on timescale, budget, and the nature of the book itself, I might be content with just writing a chapter in a multi-authored book. We’ll have to see how this one pans out, as I have almost no knowledge of the book publishing industry. It should be fun!
Speak at least 4 events
Mid-2007 saw me venture into the world of public speaking and I spoke at four events in six months, so I think it’s fairly safe to take that number as a goal for a whole year. I’d see four as the absolute minimum and I’ll be aiming for a lot more. I’d also like to do as many overseas events as possible, so I guess a mini-goal would be to limit myself to no more than half of these in the UK, if possible.
Release another album (or at least an EP)
From time to time I’ve been known to call myself a musician, although whether this title is deserved or not is somewhat questionable. But this year I’m determined to get another album out, or an EP if time ends up being a bit short (which of course it will. Who am I kidding?). I’ve already made two key decision about this next one: a) it’s going to be entirely instrumental to save you from listening to my less-than-angelic voice, and b) it’ll be download-only, as I see little point in releasing a CD these days. The thought of all those production overheads scares me.
Work out
I’m not going to share all of my personal goals here, but this one’s an exception. When I saw the video of me speaking at FOWD I was rather ashamed at the belly I’d acquired, and as I’m fairly skinny everywhere else and only ever seem to put weight on my stomach, it had the result of making me look… well… pregnant. So now’s the time to really get in shape. I’ve been at it for the last couple of weeks and it’s working well so far; let’s just hope I can keep it up for a year.
And finally…
As I mentioned above, it’d be good to hear from you guys about any of your own goals for 2008. And if you’ve written a similar blog post on your own site, please feel free to link to it. Happy new year, everyone! Here’s to a creative 2008!
14 comments (closed)
Comments are currently closed on this entry, but you can still read those that have already been posted...
Search
Speaking engagements
- Web Developers Conference 12th November 2008
- Spletne Urice, Ljubljana 29th October 2008
- SkillSwap Brighton 20th August 2008
- Future Of Web Design, London 17th & 18th April 2008
- Future Of Web Design, New York 7th November 2007
- SkillSwap Bristol 25th September 2007
- iDesign: design for life (part of the London Design Festival) 18th September 2007
- Oxford Geek Night 25th July 2007
Recent posts
- Why being freelance does not mean you have to work more hours
- Starkers for WordPress 2.6.2
- Forthcoming speaking events
- Thwart the design thieves feature in .net magazine
- Death to IE6
- Vote for my SXSW ‘09 panels
- Bypassing the new Delicious site
Categories
- ALL CATEGORIES (89)
- Apple (9)
- Carsonified (2)
- Cooking With Beer (1)
- Design inspiration (2)
- Life In The Real World (32)
- Publication & Recognition (21)
- Software (14)
- Speaking Engagements (11)
- That Internet Thing (15)
- The Business (5)
- This Site (14)
- Travel (10)
- Tutorials & Resources (10)
- Web Design (32)
- Wordpress (5)
- Writing (1)
Blogroll
UPDATED! I’ve been known to while away a few hours on these blogs, most of which are written by my friends in the industry...
- Jørgen Arnor Gårdsø Lom
- Jina Bolton
- Nathan Borror
- Mark Boulton
- Sam Brown
- Andy Budd
- Kevin Cornell
- Jeff Croft
- Jon Hicks
- I Love Typography
- Shaun Inman
- Roger Johansson
- Daniel Mall
- Kyle Meyer
- D. Keith Robinson
- Jason Santa Maria
- Dave Shea
- Jonathan Snook
- Jon Tan
- Typesites
- Tim Van Damme
- Khoi Vinh
- Web Designer Wall
- Rob Weychert
Recent Comments:
- Rajesh Pancholi said: sorry for the babbling : )
- Rajesh Pancholi said: Good for you, remember why you’re making the change and don’t...
- prisca said: Elliot, great to read you’re making such a success of your freelance life ;-)...
- Christoph said: Very motivating and encouraging article! But I have some second thoughts :-)...
- Pete Eveleigh said: BTW I loved this bit… I’m not the type of guy who’ll write a blog...
- Pete Eveleigh said: I tend to agree with what you say but the article doesn’t really say...
- Gary Stanton said: Wish I knew how you did that. I’ve been freelance for around three years...
- Phil Bowell said: Whilst your post is very encouraging, I’m in agreement with John (the...
- Dave Ellis said: I seem to be going the opposite way, I need to make a conscious decision to work...
- Alex Older said: I’m looking to make the jump after Uni depending on how things go and this...
Recent Reads
-
Basics Design: Layout (Gavin Ambrose & Paul Harris) - A beautifully designed book about beautiful design. Some key layout principles are presented in an engaging way, and this is more a book about inspiration than pure instruction.
-
Poe: Illustrated Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe) - Some fine contemporary illustrrators take on some Poe classics and the result is a gorgeous collection of words and art.
-
Penguin By Design (Phil Baines) - A history of Penguin Books’ cover designs, as educational and inspirational as you’d expect from this prolific publisher.
-
Thinking with Type (Ellen Lupton) - I first saw this sitting on a desk in the nytimes.com offices, and after thumbing through it, realised it was one of the best books about the technicalities of typography that I’d seen.
-
Hellboy: The Troll Witch and Other Stories (Mike Mignola) - The latest Hellboy trade paperback collects yet more classic stories, although this time Mignola is joined by other artists.
-
The Ten Commandments of Typography (Paul Felton) - A book of two halves (the flip-side deals with so-called ‘Type Heresy’), this is a witty but informative book bout typographical techniques.
-
Great Beers of Belgium (Michael Jackson) - No, not that Michael Jackson. This is the one who really knows his stuff when it comes to fine beers.
-
London: The Biography (Peter Ackroyd) - A lively, engaging book about the history of London, told as it the city itself were a living thing.
-
Tres Logos (various) - I could look through logo books until the cows come home; this kind of collection is invaluable to the identity designer, and this is, of course, just one book.
-
Business Cards 2: More Ways Of Saying Hello (various) - This is another great source of inspiration and a lovely ‘coffee table’ book that’s a joy to flick through even if you don’t need to design a business card.
-
Schild’s Ladder (Greg Egan) - One of the most full-on sci-fi books I’ve ever read, with its use of real physics and exploration of quantum mechanics shaping much of the narrative.
-
Wolverine: Weapon X (Barry Winsor Smith) - A landmark story in the history of this legendary comic book character, Weapon X has become a real classic.
-
Casa Batlló: Gaudi (various) - Sam and I visited Barcelona last year, where we saw several amazing architectural feats by Gaudi. This book captures some of the beauty that our camera couldn’t.
-
The Fundamentals of Typography (Gavin Ambrose) - This was the first bok I bought specifically about typography, and it pretty much does what it says on the tin, although a nice bit of history is thrown in as well.
-
Analog In, Digital Out (Brendan Dawes) - Magnetic North’s main man explores some arty, experimental projects without any of the ponce usually associated with the genre. This is a book about merging new and old ideas, and it’s inspiring all the way through.
-
The God Delusion (Richard Dawkins) - Possibly one of the most important books in print today.
-
Foundation’s Edge (Issac Asimov) - Another Asimov classic, this part of The Foundation Saga encapsulates some monumental ideas about humanity far beyond the boundaries of regular sci-fi.
-
Web Standards Creativity (various authors) - 10 great lessons for writing better markup, using the latest CSS, and adding subtle Javascript tricks
-
Transcending CSS (Andy Clarke) - Rethink the way you design and code. This book was hugely influential on me whilst building the latest version of this site and made me even more pedantic
-
Dune (Frank Herbert) - An absolutely legendary sci-fi novel full of very complex ideas... much better than the film!
-
Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman) - A dark and charming tale of a man who eschews normal life for the secret underworld of ‘London Below’
Flickr
View all of my photos on flickr
Joe Edwards
04.01.08
#
as a musician you might be interested in the oomix web site please check it out http://www.oomix.com - something I have a small involvement with - enjoyed your kill web2.0 slide show wish i had been at the speaking.
I follow you on twitter, you have provided me with some real design inspiration keep up the good work.
Joe
Polo
04.01.08
#
Cool, good lucks for your goals, i am looking forward to your super-sexy new project & your book (or chapter ^^).
Happy new year :)
Matt
04.01.08
#
Looks like a decent list of goals you’ve got there, I’ve got a couple of questions for you.
How high do you set your goals, are they seriously achievable targets or do you set the bar too high?
How do you decide on priority for attacking them or is it just a ‘take em as they come’ approach?
I did a similar list myself, but it was mostly just things I wanted to achieve with my blog itself as opposed to my life.. Though I am considering working out some goals for myself this year, I just hate to commit to a list and not achieve it all.. Sounds like I set the bar too high right..hehe..
Elliot Jay Stocks
04.01.08
#
Wow, comments already! Thanks guys! :)
@ Joe: Thanks for the kind words. I’ll check out Oomix. Oh, but it has a reflected logo!!! Ah, I couldn’t possibly use it… ;) Just kidding.
@ Polo: Thanks - you too.
@ Matt: Good questions. I’d say that all of the goals I’ve set above are ones I believe to be reachable. It’s possible that I may not achieve all of them (the book is probably going to be the hardest) but I think I’ve been fairly realistic. As for priority, I’m not too sure. I guess I’m mostly thinking about them chronologically. To that end, they’ll probably go something like this:
New site - July
New project - March
Book - start in April
Events - throughout the year
New music - June
Work out - throughout the year, starting now
The main reason I see them panning out this way is that my girlfriend is going travelling for three months from April - June, so I’m intending to get my head down for much of that time period and working flat-out on the most time-consuming stuff.
I had a quick read of your own article, by the way, and I think all of that stuff is highly achievable. Even a simple redesign could allow you to achieve all of that - and beyond - as I was shown in April last year (I previously had about 2 uniques a day and was completely unknown; since April that figure has drifted between around 400 and 2000).
Elliot Jay Stocks
04.01.08
#
Oh, one other thing: one of my mini-goals that I didn’t mention was to give my portfolio a much-needed content update, and I actually managed to do that today. Check it out!
Steve Killen
04.01.08
#
Look forward to your new website (hope it’s as good as this one) and your new project, Elliot.
Also nice to see the subversive design in your portfolio, it was one issue of .net that I gave a miss but almost bought for your tutorial alone.
Incidently, is your new album/EP going to have the pay what you want model?!
Matt Munsey
04.01.08
#
I am also hoping to get a site redesign out for my site pretty soon. Been thinking about it for a bit now and I have the general concept, just need to sit down and go at it. Going more organic this time around I think. Textures apposed to gradients ;)
Other goals include:
SXSW in March (This shouldn’t be hard)
Hitting up San Diego (Soon hopefully! As soon as it’s warm I swear)
More blogging. ( I hardly post anymore)
CSS Zen Garden Submission (Been meaning to do this for years)
And like you I could lose a little weight as well.
I would also love to make it over to your side of the world soon, but at this point in my life it is more of a pipe dream I’m afraid. Still, hopefully within the next couple years…
Elliot Jay Stocks
04.01.08
#
@ Steve: Aw, thanks! Hopefully the tutorial will eventually appear online. It’s interesting you should mention the pricing of the album / EP because it’s something I’ve already been thinking about. It might use the pay-what-you-want model, although (because I’m not a millionaire like the members of Radiohead) I might set a £1 or £2 minimum price point. Does that sound reasonable, do you think?
@ Matt: Cheers! Perhaps I might see you at SXSW, then! I’ve been tempted to do something for the CSS Zen Garden myself, but I’m put off by the huge backlog of designs - it might not appear for two years.
Matt Munsey
04.01.08
#
Actually, Dave Shea has recently started posting submissions again. He explains it in greater detail here, on his blog. Chances are now much better that you will see your design posted sooner then 2010 ;)
Jonathan E
04.01.08
#
I think there’s a lot of us with this same goal Elliot - release a new version of their site. I’ve been developing mine since the summer, but since life has gotten really busy and my commute has gotten longer I just haven’t found the time (or energy) required to finish it off.
I have some down-time coming in the next week or so though which I should be able to use to get a good portion of the new site finished. Hopefully.
Now, I’m no designer, so I can’t say it’ll be anything earth shattering and it probably won’t set the design community on fire, but I have something I’m pretty pleased with. If only I can get it finished before I get sick of it. :)
I can’t wait to see what you’ll cook up for your new site though, as judging from the reaction to this version, you probably will set the community ablaze ;)
Cheers to a brand new year!
Ian James Cox
04.01.08
#
My aim to speak at one event, to have one of my websites published in a leading graphic design magazine, to win one design award……
My real aim is to throw more paint around at home!
And……the baby shower, trust me mate…..we wall seem to have one! Fight the power…my power is called football and squash!
Tim Kadlec
04.01.08
#
Some great goals there. No lie, I was just thinking last night about how I wish you would put a book out — maybe dealing with the design process. I always enjoyed following your development of the Carsonified rebrand.
Ritchie
05.01.08
#
Mine is to win the the championship title for the CWA and learn basic in AJAX and PHP/MYSQL.
New layout for my website for this year. And gathering more inspiration/ideas for the design.
Michael Tosetto
06.01.08
#
Hey Elliot, you’re an inspiration. I regularly check out your work. I’ve similar goals myself as far as music goes. Working on a new album at the moment and have some samples up on my relatively new website - modifi.com.au. Check it out if you get a chance. Music is so time consuming, as is design and scripting, so balancing the two is always a challenge for me.
I know what you mean about the fitness side of things, I’m a stick developing a belly too. I’m also hoping the novelty doesn’t wear off on the fitness side of things. So far so good.
All the best for 08. Mike