One of my favourite (and scariest) dreams helped me write the short tale of ‘The School‘. The story is pretty much as it was, there was no need to artistically extend it, it was complete in itself. It was quite an unnerving dream, one of those that leave you out of kilter for the rest of the day, but then by embracing it, giving it life, I turned into something which was no longer just a bad dream.

I am currently improving my skill set in Illustrator, and have been looking for ideas to begin designing. A recent dream I had seemed pretty mundane – I was walking around ASDA (Walmart to you folks over the pond) as some heated issue was taking place and people were stressing over something. But the one bit that stuck out was when I stopped at a display of some bottles of rum. I picked up the bottle and looked at it, thinking, that looks so cool. So upon waking, I made a quick sketch on the glass wipeboard, and got on with my working day as normal, but I knew that I now had my project idea to work on in Illustrator. I gave it a little more thought, added a new brand (the other one was an existing pirate) and a bit of unique flavour, but the core design was the same. You can see the result here - it is still basic but I want to refine it and turn it into an advertisement.

So don’t underestimate your dreams for helping you out in your daily life, they can inspire, solve problems and give you the answers you need when you need them.  And when your partner, family or pet demand that you get your lazy hide out of bed, tell them you’re doing research.  (Of course, pets don’t understand this and still demand to be fed).

Now why is the rum gone?

I think my biggest gain has been going through alot of my old photos and giving them a polish and shine using HDR (high dynamic range) logic. What is HDR I hear you ask? Well when you take a photo it can only capture a certain range of light (and in turn colour and detail). So often to get a good balance of the main subject matter you lose detail in the darker and lighter areas. So true HDR, is to take 3 or more photos capturing the correct exposure for the dark areas, the medium areas and the light areas. Then using some software such as Photomatrix you combine the images to give you a final image that shows the detail across it and with it some fantastic results. You can read more about HDR here, I will admit that alot of my images are only using one image and some digitial magic in Adobe Lightroom, but this was due to the fact I did not take the photos with HDR in mind and so did not have the range of exposures required. Even so it is amazing what you visual information a RAW image contains and the results have been amazing compared to the now quite dull originals, please go see yourself. HDR is something I will have in mind with future photo shoots and I will set up the bracket exposure on camera.

The design page I am very proud of, I still feel it needs some tweaking visually, but then in the words of Leonardo da Vinci ‘Art is never finished, only abandoned’ and a deadline for launch is proof of that. It was a chance to play with unique navigation ideas to view the imagery, again it allowed me extend my coding knowledge through image maps and CSS which is great way to create some fun interaction and still have accessibility in the framework. From here I want to work on design skills and improve what I can create visually using Illustrator and photoshop, maybe one day be featured in those design feeds I keep tweeting or passing on via my google reader shared items.

Anyway, if you are reading this I hope you are at my website already, if you are viewing this through a rss feed, then go have a dig around.

So with the website project relaunch at an end, what is next I ask myself. Well I have a new website to build for a client, need to get my creative writing back on track with posts to Imagine Tales along with a novella. Alongside these as mentioned, more photography and desiging of which the result will be posted up at my website and written about here. And I really do need to get out on my mountain bike.

Till next time.

Through my google reader feed where I seek daily inspiration and current trends I came across this article about how designing a website should be content driven and so logically built using content as the base, then onto layout and finally the look and feel. Makes perfect sense, but industry has always designed static images in Photoshop first. Whilst at first it makes sense for resources and giving the client an idea of the concept, there are numerous issues involved. These include how fonts render and also trying to make content fit the design, so later on changes have to be made to the design. This format of working is residue left over when content, design and layout were all held on the same page. Today the design and layout are separate, which means you can nail down the content and functionality tesing early on  then build the layout around the content, experiment with the how users read the website, then improve on that with effective design methods to drive website users where you want them, be it looking a some nice photos, buying a toy car or socially interacting.

The other advantages of the ‘content – layout – design’ process is you can take care of those often under-rated issues of accessibility easily. Imagine someone was listening to your website being read out, it needs to make sense and often the layout and design is relied on to help it make sense, no good for someone who is blind. So when you add content without layout or design you naturally order it to make sense. Bingo! Along with certain other attributes in the code like image descriptions, headings and keyboard shortcuts your website becomes more accessible, which in turn also helps search engines get the best information out of your site. It really does make sense.

So frozendesigns.co.uk v7 then, well I am on day 2 of my two week leave from my job as a ‘Web Project’ bod to rebuild/redesign my website and I am already seeing the advantages.  I first listed what I wanted on the site (using my wonderful wipeboard), what would be on the landing page and the menu/website structure. As I began to add content, at this stage mostly just feeds from my twitter account, journal, google reader shared items and creative writing website ‘imaginetales.co.uk‘ ideas of the layout have formed, a natural way for it all to sit together.  I still have more content to add with a summary about what the purpose of the website is along with featured design/photography I have created. Then I can play with layout and finally the even more fun exciting bit of design and making it look awesome. From there I can take the layout and design to the child pages and also my wordpress powered blog to bring that into my website. Up till now I have used templates by others, now I need to use my own.

You can see my progression here and I will posting more on my journal as my journey to build my site and become a better web designer continues.

Till next time…

Read part 2 – Website Layout

Waking the Dead Copyright BBC

Anyway the programme itself is just a side product, the glass wipeboard is the juicy bit of hardware I want to blog about with you today. If you watch ‘Waking the dead‘ you know the glass wipeboard is a marvellous thing, it is where words are added, photos are stuck on, deep and meaningful looks are made through and of course the case is solved.  Since then I always wanted one, no real reason except it was cool!

So a visit to IKEA for the glass table top cover, a trip to B&Q for some mirror wall mounts and wet chalk pens from the stationary store and I have my glorious wipeboard. I never expected how useful it is in my life now.

The Wipeboard in all it's glory! (Ignore the reflection, I never invited him)

Beyond the strange scribbles and messages from my girlfriend as she drinks her coffee in the morning, it has helped me construct storylines for my stories on imaginetales.co.uk, brought the chaos of job applications and interviews into some sense, reminded me to buy coffee, pack for a journey and even keep my girlfriend sane getting ready for a night out in London.

I like to think it even has a small sense of style, whilst clear of scribbles and doddles it looked odd, but once you add content it has purpose and looks perfectly fine.  Either way it looks better than plain old whiteboard.

Geek Corner with the wipeboard alongside industrial music giants

My glass wipeboard is a wonderful thing and anyone who has to organise and easily get those wondering thoughts down before they get lost, I really recommend one!

So what has happened over the last of the late summer that has befallen the UK? Well friends have been married and begin new lives, engagement  and babies are arriving with each new marriage and new eras are beginning all around me.  OK, yes I am thirty-something and friends who I still see with air of early twenties are taking another step into adulthood. But this is no bad thing and it comes with lots of smiles. I hope they all will be happy.

As for me, I am still in that period of change that came up about this time last year and is still ongoing. Job interviews on the horizon (one tomorrow) and with luck I can finally start to plan abit further ahead than 6 months, maybe a snowboarding holiday or Alaska even and look at where I want to be in a few years.

My recent projects have been heavily impacted from job applications and a couple of freelance web jobs for clients and their new maritime business ventures.  On my Imagine Tales website of short stories I have finished the five part story ‘The Grass‘. This tale was started many years ago and it sat going stale with no direction.  At the time I wanted to write of demons, I think I may of recently watched ‘Trainspotting‘ judging by the main characters addiction issues and was still heavily indulgent in ‘Hellraiser‘. But I really enjoyed coming back to this tale now that I want to take my wiriting more seriously.  One of the things I enjoy about posting upto the website on a regular basis is that it forces me to write and lets it flow with ease. I don’t have the time to revise and revise and rewrite, so what you get is whilst given some edit treatment, it is pretty raw still. Even I am often not sure how the story will develop until I sit down in from the of the computer and reread the last part for inspiration to carry on the tale.

Prior to the ‘The Grass‘ I had written the ‘The School‘, a short story based on a dream that occurred last year, I rather manic time and one I wanted to escape and in which this tale highlights with alot of description. Dreams are funny things, some can be harrowing and leave you out of sorts for the new day, but then others leave you peaceful and calm. You have travelled and seen wonders, felt peace and all without leaving your bed.

Anyway one must depart now and begin to think about that job interview tomorrow. Put aside those to be written stories of home furnishing stores of Hell and stealing time.  Till next time my little minions.

This journal started as an experiment in blogging and as part of a drive to get more traffic to my site. But I soon realised that my journal had little direction, no real specific subject matter or concept beyond me going on about stuff in my life. I wanted an outlet for my photography beyond my Frozen Designs portfolio, I wanted to give my photos more purpose. Along with the photography I was writing and coming up with lots of little bits of fiction as ideas popped into my head.  So I decided to combine the lot of it and gave birth (in a manner of speaking) to Imagine Tales.

Imagine Tales is a new web venture for me, whilst frozendesigns.co.uk has been invaluable to me, I knew it was not suitable as it has always been a portfolio website and what I needed was more of an online book. So I ordered the URL, got a new wordpress installation ready and so it began. Hence why I have neglected this journal as my efforts have been directed elsewhere along with poor viewing statistics meaning I lost some motivation to update it.

But now I think about it, this journal does have some purpose it is an chance to blabble myself about stuff that is going in my life, whilst few may read it, it is something to go look back over and remember what makes me me! Not to mention; be able to tell you about cool stuff and also it is another avenue to promote Imagine Tales. So please go check it out,  have a read and subscribe to be notified of new tales being posted.

So what else is going on?

Well I have ventured into the world of motorbikes, passing my CBT a little over a month ago and buying a Yamaha SR125 to zip around on. I gotta say it is fun and traffic no longer seems much of an issue nowdays! I am already feeling the urges for a bigger bike, but that will have to wait till I can afford the big bike test in a year or so. Until then I shall have to feel inadequate at the lights when the big bike pulls up next to me being ridden by a cute blonde chick; like this morning. Still at least I won’t be wrapping myself round a tree from getting too much power too soon.

Today I purchased my first ever stamps for the purpose of collection, it is a new level of geek for me. But let me explain and who knows you could be buying them yourselves tomorrow, especially if you are a fan of the Sandman comics. It is the last release from the UK post office, and it celebrates the mythology of Britain, the artwork is by David Mckean and with it some sort pieces of creative writing by Neil Gaiman. You can get the Mythical Creatures stamps from the Post Office online or by queueing up, which is a feat of human endeavour in itself.

Neil Gaiman has wonderful angle on everything, it’s a little bit off to the side of the typical perspective and in that unique. You will have more than likely seen his latest creation in the guise of the animated movie Caroline, whilst I have not seen it personally I have heard great reviews.

So with the evening drawing near and I must embark upon my iron horse, well iron donkey anyway. I sign off for now and whilst I can not promise regular updates here, I will try to keep posting when I feel the need to shout from the roof tops. In the mean time go read some of my stories at Imagine Tales.

But it did lead me to thinking that whilst having a journal is all nice and well, the successful ones have a purpose beyond the own gratification of the blog owner.  So I need to give my blog direction and purpose. The two main creative outlets for me is my photography and writing, I am working on a bunch of short stories that I to get published, but also tie my photography up with it. Well my journal is ideal place to start it off, whilst it may not be my main stories, it will be my photography with some creative text. I will still add the odd link to things and stuff as well. So lets see how that goes!!!

Laying in Bed in my old Room

Old Room

Stayed in my old room last night.
Lots of memories.
Many smiles.
Some tears.
It was good to see you.

Onto another memory,

Many, many years ago when I was a Technical College at the tender age of 18. It was a dark evening between the departure of Autumn and the arrival of Winter. I remember being sat in the Library watching short films from Channel 4′s ’4mation’ collection. It was already a atmospheric and spooky night, the Library was quiet and generally empty. I grabbed one of the VHS videos off the shelf and sat back down at the CRT television with a the built in video player and massive black headphones. I had found a animation short called ‘The Sandman‘. I was engrossed in instantly, loving the style and story. It stuck with for many years, but had trouble sourcing a copy. But as seasons passed and returned the Internet grew and youtube was born. And once again I could watch the short animation that had spooked me out so much all those years ago. It was directed by Paul Berry who went onto bigger things with the likes of Tim Burton with ‘The Nightmare before Christmas‘ and ‘James and the Giant Peach‘. The sandman inspired by ‘Hoffmanns’ novella ‘The Sandman’ and is is very expressionist drawing on many infulences from German film to Hitchcock.

So if it is bright outside, wait till its dark. If it is noisy and busy around you, wait until your alone…

…is it dark?

…are you alone?

Enjoy…