UPDATE: here’s the video!

If you want to download my FOWD presentation and workshop files, you’ve come to the right place. Read on…

No, I’m not dead. That 12% beer didn’t finish me off. I’m alive and kicking, and I can only apologise profusely for the lack of activity here on the blog recently. I blame FOWD, moving flat, setting up my own business, and getting ready to leave the country… fairly decent excuses, I hope!

So yeah, Future of Web Design. What a great couple of days! Thanks so much to everyone who came along and said such nice things – it was by far my favourite event I’ve spoken at yet. I got to meet a bunch of ‘online’ friends in the flesh (people like Sam Brown , Tim Van Damme, Sarah Parmenter, Miguel Ripoll, Hannah Donovan, Jeremy Keith, Ian Young, and Larissa Meek to name but a few), hang out with some old friends I see far too sporadically (people like Andy Clarke, Andy Budd, Jon Hicks, Jina Bolton, Paul Boag, Laura and Alex Francis, and Daniel Burka), meet loads and loads of friendly faces from the interwebs (thanks for coming to say hi!), and I was lucky enough to take part in not one, not two, but three different parts of the event. Here’s a brief summary…

Photoshop Battle

The most amusing part of the proceedings was the on-stage Photoshop Battle I shared with Jon (that’s me and him in the photo above (credit: Vectorfunk)), Jina, and Hannah. The whole thing was commentated by Andy, who bore the brunt of our juvenile humour. As one might expect when one is put on stage and plied with beer, professionalism went out of the window…

Like the rest of the day, this was all filmed, so hopefully the video will be online shortly. If you want to see the end result, it’s up on Flickr. :)

My presentation: ‘Print Is The New Web’

Again, the video should be online soon, so I’ll update this post with links as soon as I have them. For now, though, you can download a PDF of my talk. Basically I looked at how web designers can take inspiration from print design, and even got all poncey and started blabbering on about how narrative structure theory relates to the web design. Don’t blame me – blame the 12% beer (supplied, by the way, by my Belgian chum Tim Van Damme)!

Rather than summarise my own talk (that’d just be daft, wouldn’t it?), I’ll point you in the direction of Jeremy Keith, who liveblogged the entire event. (He got the title wrong, but I’ll forgive him, as he’s a lovely chap.)

My workshop: ‘Professional Photoshop Effects’

And if all that wasn’t enough to finish me off (not to mention the numerous parties and the 5.30am starts every day), I taught a half-day workshop on the Friday morning. I think it went well; it was my first ever workshop (bar a brief session at the Start-Up Clinic) so it was hard to tell. But the feedback seemed positive and for those of you who wanted access to the files I was referencing, here they are (warning: 64MB download).

Wrapping things up in more ways than one

Friday was also my last day at Carsonified, and I’d like to thank everyone who came long for my leaving party (even though really it was just yet another FOWD after-party)! As some people have been kind enough to tag me and / or include my name in their photos’ titles or descriptions, you can check out photographic evidence of my Photoshop battling / presenting / teaching / partying-with-a-fireman’s-helment-on over on Flickr.

Next up…

Yesterday was a big day for me, as it was the first as my own boss. I’ll be blogging again in the next few days to review my first week of freelancing, so… um… “stay tuned,” as they say in showbusiness…