As I attempt to write this blog post I am balanced rather precariously on my Wife’s pregnancy exercise ball, experiencing this new fad of using them as a replacement for an office chair and I must say it’s pretty great! Not only is it good for my back but it’s fun too as I find myself bouncing up and down every now and then, much to the probable dismay of the folks in the flat below me.
I’m also slightly distracted by the faint smell of urine which I’m 95% sure is a gift my precious month old Son left me when I gave him a cuddle as he went out for a stroll, strapped to the chest of my wife in one of those really uncomfortable looking carriers (I probably should have warned her…) so I apologise for any grammatical or spelling mistakes contained within.
I’m in Net Magazine!
Whoop whoop! I’ve been a reader of the magical and fantastical Net Magazine for quite some time now and long found myself wanting to enter their monthly design challenges. Luckily for me I was asked to enter and can’t tell you how excited I was when I got the brief email from them and knowing I’d be able to let loose and go wild (which doesn’t happen very often with most client led work).
The brief was to create a website for a Brewery, which proved to be quite a challenge for me as honestly I’m not a very big drinker aside from the occasional glass of red wine (I can’t stand beers and larger they taste IMO a lot like what my son left on me before his walk earlier).
My immediate reaction to the brief was to create a dark and moody site, featuring large full screen images of wood and other manly textures with strong, bold sans-serif type. I’m glad I decided against this and went down a completely different route as the two other designers featured in the mag both went for that kind of look and feel (which would have been a little awkward, kinda like when three lady friends turn up for a night out all wearing the same dress).
I’d recently redecorated our bedroom, changing from what can only be described as a horrible pooey brown colour to a beautiful bright and sunny yellow so I think the energy from seeing this colour everyday and night had influenced me slightly, so I had my primary colour sorted (yellow, not shit brown), now I just needed an idea.
I gave myself a brief (pretty risky seeing as they already give you one) but it really helped me get into the right mindset and I ended up creating a company that specialised in producing refined single malts. They also produced beer, but it was going unnoticed by their users so with that in mind I created Pebbletons and gave the design a split screen layout to promote both products with the same hierarchal importance.
It was really good fun, as it’s not very often you get given true creative freedom on a project and I like to think that my hard work paid off! I hope I get to do another one soon!
You can view the design challenge section by clicking on the link below, or if you’d like to own a copy (and you really should) you can find me in issue #280, June 2016.
If you’re looking help finding a web designer I’ve put together a guide on finding web designers near me
P.S I didn’t fall off my exercise ball, yay.