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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

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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’