A slow year for me at the cinema. Parenting etc.
All in all, a pretty good bunch (apart from The Double, which was excruciating). And it was jolly nice to see a couple of my all time favourites on the big screen.
It’s Tuesday evening, therefore I have decided I am going to write a film. It’s good to have side projects and entertain the occasional long-term hair-brained scheme. I’ve been meaning to become the next Billy Wilder/William Goldman/Joe Eszterhas for a good couple of decades now, but I keep getting waylaid by life’s incessant demands and interesting things on the telly. But now it’s Tuesday evening; now it’s time to get this done.
Read MoreA long time ago, when I accidentally became a designer, I had this book. It was probably about the thickness of an issue of MacUser. On every page of this book sat twenty or so very small photographic thumbnails.
Read MoreBoyhood is quite unlike any film I've ever seen. If you've seen it, you're no doubt a little bit obsessed and want to know more about it. A good place to start is with the Boyhood FAQ, but it's also well worth having a dig through this lot:
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Cutting and pasting and streaming and tweeting – all distant metaphors that have taken on their own meanings. My life on screen is one of appropriated verbs, relationships between words and actions that would have made little sense not so long ago. One recent addition to this gibberish-to-my-dad lexicon, to my daily routine: pinning.
Read MoreWork is done for the day, or at the very least it's been tucked away and minimised, hibernating until tomorrow morning's burst of inspiration and caffeine. Firstborn is fed and going through the motions of his strict running up and down regimen. Desk is cleared and carefully arranged to tidy, right-angled correctness. Four fingers of Kit Kat are aligned just so beside a fresh cup of coffee (in standard issue Pantone mug, naturally). And me, I'm nestled nicely into the lumpy comfiness of my chair, eyes staring into my iMac, fingers poised over my iPad. There is calm, there is readiness. Bring on the WWDC keynote.
Read More“Anyone who says that a manual is a creative straitjacket is a moron. Without a manual you will end up speaking a dialect. A good manual allows you to speak a language.”
Design legend Massimo Vignelli doesn't beat around the bush in his introduction to Manuals 1, Unit Edition's study of corporate identity design manuals from the 60s, 70s and 80s. The book – currently being republished via Kickstarter – boasts 21 examples of these printed design-bibles from the pre-digital era; each communicating a common purpose across fields as disparate as international sporting events and space exploration, telecoms and transport. Within them, the lexicons, syntax and grammar of each brand's design.
Read MoreI had a horrible, horrible thought in the shower. This happens far too often. I'm not sure if it's been plumbed in incorrectly or something, but every time I go in there, I end up having some kind of terrible epiphany. It's like a little cubicle for emptying the mind, rinsing away all the mental detritus and imagination grit. All that's left is a dark pearl of an idea. I should've learnt by now that if I want to stay happy, I should just avoid the shower at all costs. To hell with cleanliness, I need my sanity.
Read MoreDoing what you love for a living is a joy, so finding it hard to separate ‘life’ and ‘work’ is no bad thing at all.
Read MoreIt has a lovely heft to it, my clipboard. Very satisfying to hold. A slim yet solid sliver of aluminium with corners rounded just so, blatantly fashioned to sit on a designer’s desk next to the usual hardware. It feels substantial, lasting, heirloomy. Yes, that’s right. I love my clipboard. And it’s not just because I get easily distracted by shiny things; it’s because I’ve grown dependent upon it for keeping my life in order. Without it, I’d be an utter shambles.
Read MoreSo you're going to be a parent? Congratulations! Good for you and your loins. You probably think you know what you're in for, don't you? You've spent the last nine months umming and ahhing over pink muslin squares and blue muslin squares and cream muslin squares, you've picked out those nice little Converse-ish booties that look a bit like yours, and that book you loved when you were little – the one about the caterpillar with the eating disorder. Everything is ready, right?
Read MoreThere are few experiences in this world more exciting than unpacking a brand new Mac. Pulling that silver slab out of the pleasingly sloped trapezium box, it's just so satisfying. A new thing, all mine.
Read MoreI’m putting dead things in a box so that others may gaze upon them at their convenience; driving pins through butterflies. I’m updating my portfolio.I do this every couple of months, and it always drives me a little potty. I’m proud of my book covers, but this is a thankless lump of a task. And it feels unnatural, for books to be displayed in this way, demanding to be judged by their covers alone. Books are objects, printed and weighty and out there somewhere, scattered beyond my reach. Not flat images on a website, static and abstract. Is this all I do, make JPGs?
Read MoreI need to cull. I love my twitter feed and all the characters that populate it, but I really do need to cull. Several hundred voices all yammering at once is a bit too much to take in, so I need to get it down to a sensible number. A number that works.
Read MoreNo. I can see what's about to be asked and no, I don't want to answer it. I'm sorry ma'am, I don't know you, and you can't make me answer it. No no no.
“What do you do?”
Can I get out of this somehow? Perhaps I could distract her and sidle away to the buffet. I saw mini-quiches. You can't very well interrogate a complete stranger at a wedding reception when they've got a mouthful of mini-quiche.
Read MoreIt's monday. I've had more coffee than is sensible and I'm trying to out-stare multiple deadlines. Wife and firstborn are frolicking in town, so I've been left to my own devices. And the devices have started to develop personalities.
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