It was on a monday morning...

Too Busy with a Frog to Blog...

2012-02-08T04:36:00.000-08:00

I have had great fun developing a label for baby products. It involves a frog, and not just any frog. It had to look friendly. Baby like. Funny. A bit "Rainforest Cafe" but not as fierce. Clients are very particular about such things. Especially when the client is your daughter.

My girl designs kitchens for a living (or she did until the fertility fairy came to call) so she has a keen eye for family friendly stuff.

So what about me? Frogs aside, it has been a busy start for the company. Retail projects have picked up. On the graphic design side I have noticed that clients are still stressed but on the move and hiring. My job is to take the project and deliver on time; that takes a LOT of pressure away. "Thank you for turning this around so quickly" was a comment I had yesterday. Good to hear!

Price wise there have been NO changes. So the only surprises you get are the good ones.

Back to my roots

2011-11-24T08:22:00.000-08:00

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On the subject of Christmas cards here is a sneak preview of the Point Group's card for 2011. It looks for all the world like a cost saver (a black and white line drawing) but is in fact a return to where it all began.

Illustration was my first love (WAY before the computer made inroads into the design world). All layouts and design proposals were done by hand with pen and ink, pencils, markers and chalk. I worked for magazines, brochures, you name it I did it. Motor cycle couriers would wait patiently in the hallway of our cottage while I packed up the latest masterpiece; my children would point out their own efforts that would be drying on the radiator. I rather miss those days, so this year we dug out the old technology. Enjoy!

P.S.: One of my twelve drummers is Animal from the Muppet Show. You may spot the Right Honourable Charlie Watts, Blues Baron. And you may spot a Lord of the Dance?

Make a gift go a long way

2011-11-18T03:43:00.000-08:00

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If you are looking to order Christmas cards for your business and would like to include a gift, there is a nice way to spread the love.

Think of all the small to medium businesses and charity shops on your local high street. Think of their families/beneficiaries.

Think of YOUR business! It says a lot for your reputation if you support a good cause or small local retailer.

Go to a "small" shop. Get a voucher/pre-pay/credit note and include it in your Christmas card. Make sure it is easy enough for the recipient to get to before Christmas.

You could invite clients to a seasonal coffee/mince pie at your office and present each person with the Christmas card and voucher for a charity shop nearby. If they decide not to "cash in" the voucher for their free Oxfam apron then the gift is "doubled".

ENQUIRE ABOUT BESPOKE CHRISTMAS CARDS AT OUR MAIN SITE

Its a hard rain

2011-11-08T12:00:00.001-08:00

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I have been away rather a long time. Life has passed by in a flash. Like Dorothy, I feel that there really is no place like home.

I have another granddaughter, born on September 7th. My daughter has been unwell since the birth and is just starting to recover, (C-section, Epilepsy, Sepsis, newly emerged Thyroid Disease and Influenza) has managed to breast feed her new arrival and care for the toddler. My son in law is a Mensch; he is also soppy and has decorated the Christmas tree today.

The angry little redhead who put slugs into my food grater and used parmesan as Shake and Vac (he loved the ad and sang to his heart's content during the evil deed) is now Dr Spickett.

This economic struggle of epic proportions started almost three years ago. Since then, I am fortunate that most of my clients' businesses have survived. I have done everything that I can to HELP them survive. For my own ends? Absolutely not. The names of their children are in my diary. Wives that have been sick, always on my mind. The divorced, the bereaved, those who feel that life is kicking them too hard. Sometimes work just isn't that important. Stress and pressure is a from-the-top-down thing; if I can reduce the sense of panic and isolation and connect with another human being, then I will.

Mr Spickett is off to Glasgow this week. I will miss him sorely. But it will give me a chance to take in the impact of everything, shed tears, run in the park and party with old friends. Being the glass-half-full person that I am there is a great upside to be savoured. Most women of my age go through hell with loss of vigour, weight gain, sweats and nausea; I have been too busy to notice/too drunk to care.

I read on LinkedIn today that one of my clients likes Bob Dylan. It brought to mind a favourite song. It reminds me that life goes on.

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son ?
And where have you been my darling young one ?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Jumping through hoops

2011-08-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

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GCSE results are in. I sympathise with the parents and students that feel that they didn't make the grade. It is tough. It is upsetting. It is another day tomorrow.

I can recall being hopeless at math and loving art. Knowing how important math is I gave it the midnight oil. Later on, in that hot August, I stood in my Father's greenhouse and cried. C grade math, D grade art.

My interview at art school said it all really. They turned away applicants, telling them to retake math.

KIDS! Concentrate and focus on what you like doing. Retake math - you can't get onto higher ed without it.

GROWNUPS! Cut them some slack. AND TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR OWN DISASTERS.

Heatwave

2011-08-01T02:28:00.000-07:00

Why not visit our new website?

In the next couple of weeks will be busy. To coincide with the August heatwave we will be in the West End in preparation for a series of retail projects. I intend to use overground stations only and walk wherever we can! The development side of Point Design continues to be busy on the residential and commercial side which is a blessing in our stop/start economy.

The appetite for London property seems unaffected. Facebook are opening a second office here and demand on the residential side just keeps on coming. We are looking at development opportunities in between times, just as our interior specialist/specifier (our daughter) goes on maternity leave.

At this time of the year design for print and web is traditionally quiet. That said, enquiries for IPhone/Android sites is extremely busy so I won't be taking long breaks in Richmond Park for a while.

Before I sign off, may I congratulate my son, who is now known in these parts as Dr Spickett.

Singapore noodles and an early night

2011-07-17T13:36:00.000-07:00

IPhone? Android? Check out our new site!

Our regular site

After much to-ing and fro-ing and wearing a number of funny hats the website is officially updated. There is a lovely bowl of fresh fish marinading in the fridge which will have to be enjoyed tomorrow. The cats are pacing and I am tucking into Singapore noodles.

The property side of our company has been madly busy, with the residential project nearing completion and a commercial project in the pipeline. Our daughter/designer is going on maternity leave and our wonderful large format printer (man/machine/both) is back after the birth of baby two.

Happily I am too old/tired to breed so a quick note about the website!

Enquiries can be dealt with very quickly thanks to a wonderful little script written by the London Perl Mongers Group. These wonderful chaps have helped me no end. Our upgrade to Adobe Creative Suite 5 has made productivity a dream. And may I take this opportunity to thank the Apple Store in Kingston Upon Thames? Fantastic service. Got a graphics card replaced FOR FREE even though the machine in question was out of warranty.

On the new site you can see a slide show/portfolio which is still being developed as projects come in and we change and grow. You can see a CV for me and others to follow.

2011-06-29T06:38:00.000-07:00

Go to our IPhone optimised site

Go to our regular site

Nearly finished the site update. One man down due to maternity leave. Partner constantly on site at our interior design project. See you soon!

Staring at small screens

2011-05-18T04:40:00.000-07:00

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We are all going to have terrible eyesight problems if we fail to optimise our sites for IPhones and the like.

I have just spent part of my time in the USA on courses and seminars that deal with the IPhone question.

You don't have to pay Apple to create a neat little app for your business; web based apps are just as cool. The techniques for optimising a site for IPhone are best left to an expert. That said, they are not lengthy so relatively inexpensive.

There are pros and cons which I will discuss in the next blog USING PLAIN ENGLISH.

Project Updates

2011-04-06T13:33:00.000-07:00

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It has taken me a while to update the PROJECTS area of our site. There has been quite a lot going on!

We have still got a way to go before we get back to pre-downturn work capacity. The good news is that we have managed to hold prices at the same level.

Clients that are not VAT registered (we have small and medium sized clients on our books who have taken a hit with the VAT rise) should not be worried about talking to us as there is always a cost solution to take away the sting.

Dividing my time between the UK and the US I am aware of the price creep. Much of our work in the US is based around promotional/conference projects so I keep a close eye on what other people are producing. Sure enough, they are cutting down on printed material left, right and centre (even the Disney Corporation is making changes in this area). Much of the material goes online now.

The "browser war" continues to provide a headache for large corporations who are saving money this way. A friend working for one of the theme parks was working overtime recently to create hacks for the newly released version of Internet Explorer.

Feeling rather alarmed by this I revisited an ongoing development and sure enough, there was a shift in the shape of the page. It was an easy fix, but an annoyance.

There will come a point where so many sites will have hangs and errors that nobody will have the money to fix them. Slowing the web down does more than spoil user experience; it holds up vital medical research, hinders free speech and hogs bandwidth that we could be using for innovative technology like Google T.V.

I have made a living from printing and still do. However, I want to offer clients the choice. Seeing your "carbon spend" as a "budget" for the year is a sensible approach. We have high standards when it comes to "old" and "new" technology, making wise use of resources wherever we can. Why not look at our site and make an enquiry? it could turn out to be your best investment!

March hares

2011-03-20T03:43:00.000-07:00

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A sudden rush to get new projects off the ground has come with the good weather. The development side of our company is still seeing more residential/mixed use opportunities than retail commercial. The property client side of our graphic design and e-business has shown a favourable change, with more printed matter being ordered.

I spoke to some rather demoralised A level students last week who are having difficulty seeing a way forward. In a country where there are less jobs and university fees becoming a life mortgage I don't blame them.

Industry mentorship is all about giving our young people a "real world" flavour to their projects and trying to be encouraging. It is difficult to feel positive in the current climate but doing something good is rather uplifting. Schools are crying out for volunteer lecturers from all sectors so give it some thought! One afternoon a month makes all the difference to kick start some enthusiasm and look at the project afresh. A day away from the desk is good for me too!

The last Word

2011-03-02T01:10:00.000-08:00

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Any of you out there working in the Healthcare industry? I bet you use Microsoft Word.

After a challenging week I have decided that Point's AppleMacs will not be chasing the next update of Microsoft Word.

Healthcare clients insist that we Word format everything; it is important that they can make changes to documents on the fly (with legislative processes changing everything at such regular intervals they have to). We use Adobe Creative Suite 5 for our design and reprographic work, using an Adobe plug-in to convert the finished pdf to Word.

Terrible things happen to Word documents. They freeze. table formats change for no reason. We switch to the Windows PC and work there. "Microsoft Word is not responding. Windows is attempting to fix the problem". Windows makes a valiant attempt and fails.

The workaround that we use is pure genius on my part and Microsoft Word is now officially out to grass. I am in a comfortable menage a trois with Apple and Adobe, using an export command that enables my clients to open the document in Word the other end. They experience no malarky with Windows/Microsoft's "attempts" and "responses".

I make attempts of my own: "Do not be a Mac snob" and "Use Windows once in a while"; fail dismally. In conclusion, Kim will not be going "To the Cloud" any time soon. An entente cordiale with our (fantastic and patient) clients on the Microsoft side of the sea is the way to go. We are very happy up here in the Apple tree.

Slow, slow, quick quick slow

2011-02-18T08:30:00.000-08:00

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Amazingly, work that has been "will we / won't we" since the new year is always wanted "urgently". It is our pleasure to feed a variety of approaches and cost illustrations to our clients and point out where their money is best spent.

What seems to be behind all this is the fact that it takes on average four times as long to FIND the money for the budget, by which time it becomes imperative that as soon as the cash is there, we have to buy that time back for the client by turning the job around at high speed.

This is good and bad: bad in that we burn rather a lot of midnight oil, good that fast turnaround jobs get the money in the bank for us. Looking at the bigger picture, the bank manager will report us as a "green shoot". One blade does not make a swathe but many blades could make the banks confident enough to lend again. Hopefully England will become green and pleasant once more.

However, there is TOO slow and that is where good people can simply decide that it isn't worth it any more and give up. So is that not good for us, if people give up and that we have no competition? Wrong. Competition keeps you sharp. Lack of competitive instinct closes the mind. It is bad for our children.

To the leaders of our country I say come on, up the tempo a little. Tell the banks to lend again. Mr King, please don't threaten home owners with interest rates. Dance the quickstep!

The property game

2011-02-02T12:14:00.000-08:00

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It is quite encouraging to see a list of new jobs up on the board today - all property related and all demanding the full range of what we do: design, print, web and project management. Development projects in London and the home counties are enjoying a mini-boom at the moment.

We caught up with a friend yesterday lunchtime. In an area of London where everybody knows everybody else (Wimbledon Village, Ham Cross, New Malden and Coombe) a small gathering grows quickly as other people spy you in the corner and come across to say hello. Sadly, the interest has not trickled down to the men who wield the trowels and hammer the nails. There are so many women paying the bills now while skills go to waste.

Short of holding a bob-a-job week for these men, I shall appeal instead. Get the boiler serviced. Get the fence fixed. See to the pointing on the chimney stack. Once these guys are gone, they are gone. Look after them.

The long journey

2011-01-18T08:20:00.000-08:00

I have been working from New Zealand since the new year. My brother relocated himself and his business (window cleaning) to a beautiful outpost not far from Queenstown, South Island.

What struck me about the people there was their ability to adapt to their environment and to love it. Recycling is far more advanced out there; everybody knows their native flora and fauna. Water in the streams where my brother lives is pure enough to drink.

Kiwis are reluctant royalists, particularly on the South Island where they treasure their Scottish heritage. However, they were at pains to tell me wherever I went "Good on yer cruckutters, beating the bloomin' Ozzuz!" Cricket, Rugby, extreme sports, hiking, climbing, boating, fishing and farming are subjects dear to their hearts.

Britain's membership of the Common Market cut these people adrift in the early seventies. Nobody moaned. They just got on with it.

I'm not a fan of new year resolutions. Let's just get on with it too!

When Britain closes due to inclement weather

2010-12-21T07:33:00.000-08:00

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In between talking to our (heroic) couriers/suppliers and a trip to the dentist I have been catching the news. It would not be fair to pretend that I know anything about running an airport any more than I would expect B.A.A. to run The Point Design Partnership and her associated interests. Can I just say that covering the truth, hiding your true motives and poor accounting is actually ILLEGAL if you are a Limited Company.

With that bee now out of my bonnet (I'll miss anything fluffy enough to keep my head warm) can I let everybody know that they will have my full support in 2011; that I will do everything possible to cushion the blows of higher pricing; that we will treat your business with the love and care that we lavish on our own.

Enjoy your time with friends and loved ones; remember those that cannot be here and remember them with a smile.

See you in 2011!

Getting everybody round the table

2010-12-14T10:34:00.000-08:00

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Attended a planning meeting today. All went very well.

Everybody has their own ideas about how a website should go together. It is very important to get a team assembled and stick with it. Each player should take their role as the subject matter expert for that part of the site. Also, it is important to make sure us non-experts can easily access the information and understand what it is all about. What doesn't work is bringing in a close friend/relative/partner to criticise what has already been agreed. Volunteer users are far more likely to reveal where the interface is unclear or the language is confusing.

Sadly, even a good team can fall down if individual players are not "heard" at the very beginning. The idea that was dismissed early on can seethe away and become a big resentment in the end. So my job today was to answer many ideas/questions using one explanation of how we work at The Point Design Partnership:

You want your site to be: clear; inclusive i.e. gay-friendly; approachable for the novice without patronising; easy on the 40-plus eyesight; etc. Design a site to current world-wide-web consortium standards. Write instructions and review them with a real person, allowing THEM to help YOU re-write in plain English if necessary. Use colour contrasts that are clear and bright. Add images that make the user feel inspired by the site and welcome in your "home". It really is that simple.

We parted on excellent terms, with everybody fired up by the project which will be our first of 2011. Watch this space!

Not cricket

Before you read it in the paper, I'm announcing on Blogger that I haven't been anywhere near Shane Warne. I will probably Tweet it for good measure. Great cricketer, but he looks like he washes in cooking oil and wears eyeliner.

Snow days! But what about the economy?

2010-12-04T07:11:00.000-08:00

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"A bit of snow and this country comes to a standstill!"

Don't throw ALL of us under the (broken down) bus. A lot of us out there are coping very well. We are doing everything to get the goods delivered and we could not do this without the Small But Beautiful.

SBB's are often couriers, security companies, help desk chaps - a myriad of family concerns, home-workers and freelancers that are the modern day equivalent of the pony express. We could not be in business without them. Thank you.

This week we are dealing with Christmas card orders. It is thoroughly enjoyable and my work space is flooded with colour.

Many people can't get in to work and drive the more serious projects to a conclusion. They have kids off school and have to rely on short bursts of activity in between snowball fights and Heinz Tomato Soup. A little light-hearted seasonal mischief to break the normal corporate constraints can be a good thing.

And on top of all that...

Winter Vomiting Disease/AKA Norwalk-Like Virus.

It is back. Hopefully, the closure of schools and transport systems, as tiresome as it is, may send the virus packing quickly this year. On the gloomier side, if we succumb whilst off work anyway and before our much deserved holiday that may be better.

Get well soon!

Nice new software!

2010-11-24T14:33:00.000-08:00

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Further to my comments about the use / non - use of Adobe Flash on the IPhone, we recently upgraded our systems to Adobe Creative Suite 5. Now that we are sharing documents on the web and through intranets, it is good to give the audience more bang for their buck.

Everything that we do can now be formatted for electronic books (Kindle is one) which in theory makes everybody a publisher. This week we are busy with pharmaceutical guides written by consultants. Each pdf we produce is rich in links and enables the user to cut to the chase.

Considerations must be made for the myriad of reading and sight difficulties that can cause problems for your users. We had a comment from a client this week who was having problems producing a table of data for sight impairment. Yes, I would love to help - but what kind of sight impairment? There are so many.

The first thing that we do is run a client's corporate colour palette through a gizmo called a contrast algorithm calculator. It is clever but very basic! It will score a good contrast at different text sizes so that your information, buttons and links are clear enough, large enough and not confusing for the main variants of colour blindness.

Secondly, we talk to real people about the difficulty they are having, then tweak away until it works for everybody.

Anything that we produce for our screen audience is automatically saved to our server, which checks that everything is in place for a printed copy should anybody prefer a conventional library to an on-line library. Adobe really do have the inside track on creating the perfect workflow!

Schools out!

1972 is burned into my brain: the onset of my puberty, Butterscotch flavoured Angel Delight, Vesta Chow Mein and Alice Cooper.

Alice Cooper was seen as a menace; a whip for delinquency and depravity. We loved him. "Schools been blown to pieces!" That song was a call to rebellion for children everywhere. Our parents were disgusted by Alice, which made things feel even better.

Here I am in 2010: kids rioting on the streets because they WANT to be educated, Alice Cooper is teetotal and he plays golf.

Will somebody kindly Tweet me when Keith Richards joins the Salvation Army?

Christmas cards - pleasure or chore?

2010-11-19T07:41:00.000-08:00

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Christmas cards can be a really good way to promote a community initiative or charity. Corporate gifting is becoming less popular with this economic downturn on our backs, so why not donate a set amount per card and let the recipient know with a small message? It isn't expensive, and there are so many ways to do this. A couple of suggestions:

Buy your cards in an outlet of your choice - charity cards or the smaller local shops (both need your business this year!). Explain in a hand-written message that you will be sending an amount (per card sent) to your nominated charity.

An alternative - have some business cards printed with your charitable intention and place those inside the card. We can do this for you!

Another way? We will design and print the cards for you. Write the cards yourself or provide a spreadsheet and leave the mailing to us. We will make a discount that you can add to your charitable donation.

If you want to run to corporate gifting, look at charity catalogues like Tearfund, Oxfam, Save the Children, World Wildlife Fund, whatever you prefer. We can design and print gift tags in your corporate style, with a message outlining your charitable donation. Again, we will add a donation of our own.

AND DON'T FORGET! Your follow-up campaign in the New Year!

Some of your clients, employees and associates may not celebrate Christmas, so "Happy New Year" may mean a lot more to them.

Tell everybody how much you donated - say "Thank you" - and bullet point your services for the coming year, so that your clients think of you first! A simple postcard is absolutely fine - we can create a great little campaign for you.

The level playing field, and the crows that walk on it

Crows are portrayed as wicked, as harbingers of doom. In fact, they are fantastic parents and often pair for life. Mr Crow demonstrates courtship with dance and aerobatics. He leaves gifts of food.

Don't judge a book by the cover.

Two young people of note have announced that they are to marry. Much has been made of the fact that they are "from different backgrounds"; that they "broke up for a while"; that they met "very young"; that her engagement ring "had belonged to his (deceased) mother".

I can almost tick all those boxes myself. What shines through is that if you have something in common and share a sense of humour, give it a go. I married very young and remain so.

The ring thing? When my Mother died suddenly two years ago, my brother gave me his permission to pass her wedding ring to my son in law. My daughter wears the ring proudly. One day her granddaughter will wear it too.

Start the week

2010-11-14T07:32:00.000-08:00

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"Start the week" is something that I used to do on Monday mornings when I worked in Islington, many years ago. Since I started a company of my own it dawned on me that "start the week" meetings need to happen on Sundays; on Monday, people out there need me to hit the ground running (at a leisurely jog now I am officially middle-aged). So here we are, starting the week.

We did not embark on this mode of operation until the youngest was away at university.

Small children have much to say about STW. Much of it is unhelpful and off the subject. On the creative side, they like to use the hall wall for brainstorming sessions involving crayons and butter. They have a limited grasp of typography, unless you count the L-shaped toast crusts under the kitchen table.

STW today involves discussions around projects that we are closing, projects about to open, and a client of ours that has been treated brutally by a supplier. He neglected to tell me what had happened until gently pressed. In truth, I had not heard from him in a while and was concerned on a personal as well as professional basis.

Being ripped off hurts horribly. Successful people and the ordinary person on the street get that same, nasty feeling that sticks in the chest. It makes you feel sickened and is as close as it gets to discovering infidelity. Also, it makes you feel silly. So you don't complain.

I would never push a client who decides to use another company. I am not disrespectful to anyone who decides that somebody or another is cheaper, better, a relative/friend of theirs - it is all cool. My cousin only uses family because he says it is the only way to do business (he would probably find a distant cousin somewhere to shoot me where I stand if I cheated him).

What I DO push with any client choosing another service is the mantra "If you have questions or doubts, please email me. If you are not getting what you want, let me talk to them - it won't cost you a penny. I promise you."

The sad truth is that an increasing number of people end up paying twice: the people they mistakenly trusted and then me to put it right. I get no joy from this whatsoever: no self-respecting professional feels anything but bad when they have to fix the screw-ups of others. You feel embarrassment.

So I have gathered evidence to help this gentleman make a case. He should be comfortable with his decision whatever it is. Hopefully he will get the job done again and a heavy recompense. If he decides that they are so untrustworthy he would rather start again, he should get all his money back.

Grayson Perry

In this little corner of the world we can't seem to get a decent English Sunday newspaper. I like the Telegraph on Saturday/Sunday to see what I should be doing in the garden - sadly can't seem to get that here. Mr Spickett returns grumpily with The Hate Mail and the Screws of the World (I stay in bed because it is too embarrassing). He reads the rugby result and is thrilled to see how well we turned out against the Aussies. Then he complains bitterly "Helen Mirren is in here again!" before throwing the papers at me to read.

What utter dreck they are too. Before long I am crying with laughter. Peter Hitchens is throwing quills like a premenstrual porcupine. Liz Jones is quivering like a handbag dog with the runs. Helen Mirren thinks French people are nicer than we are. Grayson Perry, the transvestite potter, has alienated Radio 4 listeners by riding around Germany on a pink motorbike with his teddy bear, Alan Measles, encased inside a pink shrine on the pillion. The Germans were apparently puzzled but polite, probably thinking that Grayson meant to go to Holland but took a wrong turning.

Can somebody explain to me how visual gags work on the radio? Because they DO work. I was very wee when I used to listen to "Round the Horne" on the BBC "Light Programme" (Radio 2) and could "see" Julian and Sandy (I imagined them to look like Poofy Jim, the manager of our local Co-Op). I really did think that two Rabbis were riding down escalators on bob-sleds.

It could be argued that the pink bike and teddy bear shrine could have been done with sound effects. But doesn't poor Alan Measles deserve a holiday? He had a terrible bearhood with poor little Grayson (a.k.a. "Claire", Grayson's little girl alter-ego). So no, it is NOT a waste of licence payers money. If Radio 4 can pay me to take Toffy Joe to New Zealand at Christmas when I visit my kid brother, great.

Toffy Joe is named after my great-aunt's traveller lover:

"That caravan used to rock all night!"

"Shush! Kim's listening, Mum! Keep your voice down!"

"Mummy, Nanny, is Uncle Joe a REAL gypsy?"

"Yes, but he owns horses, and metal, and he's quite a toff!"

Voila. If Grayson can come up with a better "How I named my Teddy Bear" story than that, bring it on.

Over the big pond

2010-11-09T13:31:00.000-08:00

I'm busy in NYC taking some photographs. Nothing special - a client and myself like to keep a library of images that are ours and completely original.

Plenty of folk do this now; it is worth checking out http://www.flickr.com for a gander of what other people love and capture digitally to share with the world.

Online photographic libraries carry a selection of royalty free image collections which are reasonably priced but rather commonplace; it is not unusual to see the same image on different sites and printed media.

Flickr holds images from the Getty Image Library, from copyright expired "Commons" and individual photographers. A search for images on the Flickr website can be made by subject, or any other way that one may find intuitive: i.e. by tag, blog entry, or time in history.

The expired Commons can be both amusing (think Mr Grayson and Mr Chomondely-Warner, the 1930's gentlemen made famous by Paul Whitehouse and Harry Enfield) and fascinating.

I often search using the criteria of enthusiast/interest group, using terms such as “sea” and “sky”. The advantages of this method are that each group has “rules” for submission, filtering out irrelevant items from the search results; also, a passion for the subject creates superior and original images! N.B.: if you are working on that big pitch, "kittens" and "nice shoes" may be best avoided. Unless your audience are me and my mate Tanya.

Happy birthday, Angie!

My daughter's birthday is tomorrow. It is unusual for me to be lost for words, but I am. Angie is brilliant, funny and lovely. Lucky me.

2010-11-02T03:02:00.000-07:00

Our main site is at: www.pointdp.com

Designing for the web

I met up with a new client on Friday. He is very positive about a good looking website that will act as a "shop window" for his bespoke finance business. Pretty straight forward - no online shopping to deal with, who do you see as your key customers? What do you like about your competitors sites?

"They have something going on - stuff that changes and moves."

Much elaboration and discussion later, we both concluded that all these "things that move" do just that - and not much else really. So we concentrated on relevant content and how to make visitors to the site think "I can do something here! I can learn a bit about improving my savings/mortgage repayments/retirement and it will be easy!"

Of course we can get some dynamism into it - as long as it has a point and works on touch screens. Like the Apple IPhone. Which to date does not support Adobe Flash.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a Flash hater. A portion of our work is in the medical field, where much of the good instructional media on DVD and the web uses Flash well. Flash is a huge help with online learning. Built into software installation instructions it can help petrified newcomers get things right.

IS JOBS THE REAL JOBSWORTH? OR DOES HE HAVE A POINT?

The big however: Flash interactivity works great with a mouse. What about touch screens? Flash websites rely heavily on “rollovers”, which change colour and/or activate menus when the mouse cursor hovers over a "live" area. Apple’s touch screen doesn’t use a mouse. Web developers may be better off prettying up with HTML5, CSS and JavaScript - discarding Flash altogether. Just a thought!

IN THE MIND OF KIM: Prisoners get the vote

The government has exhausted all legal avenues fighting the decision and has "reluctantly accepted" there is no way of upholding the 140-year-old ban.

Prisoners awaiting trial, fine defaulters and those jailed for contempt of court are already permitted to vote but more than 70,000 convicted prisoners currently in UK jails are prevented.

I'm very excited by this. If you are a Member of the House and you are reading my "blog" (hate that word) do I have a deal for you!

Let us help you with your campaign literature!

You will have to visit prisons where you currently "sit": (not where you live, so no cheating and scuttling off to Ford for a game of Bridge and a slice of Duchy Originals fruit cake) and they may be a little scary. Offering the inmates a little free gift will have them eating out of your hand!

Our campaign leaflets could be a packet of Rizla: the big ones that kids use to play tunes on combs! Keeps them interested! Just think - every prison has a comb orchestra AND IT IS ALL THANKS TO YOU!

Or you could save your campaign money for sailing/eating posh fish in Cornwall next year and do this one useful thing.

SORT OUT THE PRISON LIBRARY SYSTEM.

My family tried to offload a dozen archive boxes of National Geographic magazines (saddos - but before t'internet they were great for homework). In the end they went to our Cancer Research shop, which is cool. We had initially telephoned our local prison: the telephone spokesperson admitted that there was no library on site.

I spoke to our M.P. Zac Goldsmith who was genuinely interested and said that he would mention the lack of a library to the Governor: "We are having tea next week". Good old Duchy Originals!

I'm still waiting to hear the outcome - did they have Duchy Originals? Or "man of the people" Mr Kipling? Will the prison get a library? I'll let you know.