Cups of Tea 2221 - 2347

Omgeeeh! He's alive! Sorry folks, it has been a SERIOUSLY hectic 3 weeks since I last blogged. For the most part, I've essentially been living in London all week for various interviews, coming home to work weekends, and then disappearing back upto London on Monday morning. Something that, to be honest, has left me tired and skint! Depressingly broke some might say, but hey, gotta spend money to make money I guess!

As such, there's been mini briefs, pitches etc. to do in preperation for these interviews, but in all honesty, I don't really know if I'm allowed to show them in a blog format, which is a bit wierd! But saying that, I certainly wouldn't be showing that work on here if I was a part of that company, so I'll play to the side of caution and not re-up it here... If you really want to see it, let me know and I'll show you the whole pitch haha!

But seriously, I'm pretty drained! Today, as it's been my only 'real' day off in the past 3 weeks (and by day off, I mean chance to vegetate), I've just been playing the new Assasin's Creed. (A.) Because I deserve a little bit of a break and (B.) Because I know the trade in value will spiral faster than water down a plughole if I don't get rid of it this side of Christmas... Under normal circumstances, I don't like trading in my 360 games, but I really want Rayman and all my spare cash this month if for presents... So it has to be done i'm afraid!

On that note, I'm going to disappear... Want to have an early night so I can get up and work on another sudo-blogging idea that should be quite fun! And unlike this one in the past few weeks, that'll be regularly updated because it won't just be by me! Winning.

M x

Cups of Tea 2218 - 2220

Not a lot to say, ladies and gentleman, as I am blinkin' well tired! Not been able to get on with a podcast related piece of arty work because I've not got a source image for one of the people on it... So I'm going to have to go away leaving something unfinished, which is well annoying!

Anywho, I've got to be up early to get my train to London.

M x

Cups of Tea 2214 - 2217

Ok. For those of you who know me, really, and I mean really well, I've just spent the last three hours playing with, and loving Flash. No. This is not a joke, although 'loving' is probably to strong a word to use... more toleration that leads to a general sense of self satisfaction, but it's slowly building it's way up in my estimations from Total Shit-bag to Disgruntled and Unreliable Acquaintance.

But Mat, what about the stuff you said you were going to do yesterday? Like that sodding infographic running piece you've been working on? Well blog reader, I'm glad you asked. I realized that, as I believe I also blogged last night (and if I didn't, I apologize), I'm in London for the better half of next week, which means I won't have my Laptop at my disposal... Which means unless I take my files on a flash drive and pray to Jesus my Brother's copy of CS2 Illustrator can open them, there's not a lot getting done this week... Alternatively, I'm setting myself another challenge for the up coming week, which you will see soon!

But yes, back to the Total Shit-bag Disgruntled/Unreliable Acquaintance that is Flash! I've been doing some motion graphics! Shock Horror! Something completely outside of my comfort zone? And in a program I've not left a name on? Surely not? Well Internet, you'll be surprised at what a pleasant experience it's been! REALLY! Apart from a few forgetful mistakes on my part (putting more than one item on a layer I wanted to motion tween) and some utter 'WTFs' on Flash's part (a large letter I appearing from no where mid-playback), it's been alright... 200 frames, 8 seconds out of 221 down. By my calculations, that's only 5525 more frames to go! By that time, I imagine I'll either love or loathe Flash again, only time will tell, but I'm guessing it's going to go back to being a Total Shit-bag. You may have guessed, but that's my new thing. Yeah....

On a design you can view note, have a look at some of the work by Australian Like Minded Studio, there is some stunning examples of Type there (for you Rhys...), the bellow being my favourite!

M x

Cups of Tea 2202 - 2213

Two days without blog updates! I am disgusted at myself Ladies and Gentleman! Nevermind, nobody's to blame... Except maybe me? You forgive me? Awww, you shouldn't have. Really, I need to be held accountable...

Just a quick blog update today as my day has been taken up by some rather pressing matters of future employment (and maybe a little bit of Halo...), just to post up a flyer I did for another standing up comedy in Caerdydd, maybe if you're about that area, you can go along to it! Who Knows!

Apart from this and said job interviewing etc. it's been a pretty slow day! In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's been a pretty slow week on the design front... Halloween Party Monday, Driving Lesson + Freelance Tuesday, Work Wednesday, Freelance and some Gaming Thursday and employment related stuff today... Next week however, I intend to start redesigning the website (finally!). Also Running will restarted as well as the hopeful completion of a long over due running magazine style thing...

M x

Cups of Tea 2198 - 2201

Hey, Sweden! Oh Dear God, I just started off this blog with the most obscure of obscure references, but as I'm trying to stick to the whole stream of consciousness blogging malarkey, it has to stay... For those interested, it was a quote from John Carpenter's 1982 classic, THE THING! Obscure pop cultured reference box is ticked, now all I need is to set in Helvetica with some Triangles on a star covered background, then I'll earn my Hipster Blogger Boy Scout Badge!

Could Hipsters be Boy Scouts? Or would that just be to conformist? Though I bet the irony factor of them wearing the uniform would suffice to make this bit workable... Jeez, I don't half type crap sometimes...

So moving on, just because I felt like I haven't been reblogging enough and spreading some design joy... I just thought I'd repost a load of cool stuff I've seen over on Swissmiss over the past few weeks that have brightened up my day... All of them could potentially be probable cause to question my mental age and sexual preference, but just remember, it's not polite to ask those kind of questions!

First up, we have one of the greatest things I've ever seen... For those who know me well (and as the rest of you can probably guess from reading this blog / looking at my work), I'm really not a fan of Jabba text. I despise using Jabber text! I'd much rather right my own body copy or source an article that has something to do with my work, than to us 'Lorem Ipsum'... Luckily for you lovely people (more so for the Girlies I guess), there is now a less boring solution if you haven't the time to type your own copy, but are afraid that latin's just not your thing... I present you with 'Cupcake Ipsum'.

Essentially, it just creates a load of Dummy copy, but with cake types / flavors (and even some love...), now ain't that lovely!? Give it a try imho, it's quite funny!

Then onto two quick 'I want's (as I'm aware this is becoming an essay). The first, are these awesome Post It Note Watches! Which would save me scribbling stuff on my hands all the time in work...

The second (and this is where my real nerd comes out), Pantone Christmas Decorations! Bahahah! If I get my own place by Christmas, they will be mine! And The whole of Christmas will be CMYK themed... Who Needs Red, White and Green, when you can spice things up with some Cyan and Magenta?

And on that note, it's bedtime... There's a full day of work ahead of me tomorrow! So Merry Designmess to all, and to all a good deadline free night.

M x