11th July 2008 by Jason C. Filed under: Events
Well, that was a nice break. I’m sorry that I’ve been so long in between posts again, but hey – I’ve seen the stats and let’s face it it’s not going to make a massive difference to the server loads at Blogger, is it?
You’ll be ecstatically happy to hear that since I last posted I’ve been on holiday to Portugal to see my best friend getting spliced to his most excellent girlfriend. It was grand to see them do that, and even better that I got to be the best man without having to give a speech! I did get one ready last-minute, but there was no call for it, so in my pocket it stays. Shame, it was bloody brilliant.
Last night I went to the ScreenEdit’s Sessions event. It was a good event: I caught up a bit with somem people I haven’t seen in a while, drank some free beer, and saw a couple of good talks.
The first was by two Mark and Tim from AllofUs. They went through some example of the work that that agency does and told us about the time they spent in Seattle working at Microsoft’s HQ as part of MS’s Artist in Residence programme. The second talk was by Brendan Dawes of mN. I’ve seen him speak once before, at Adobe Live last year, as you may have read on this blog. He was brilliant again: he’s just got that certain charisma that you need to get the crowd on-side with you.
Brendan talked mainly about some of his personal projects and showed some of his early work for club 18–30. It was shit. Thankfully he’s improved somewhat, and talked us through some of the experiments he went through to get to his Cinema Redux prints. These are where he processes a film and converts it into artwork. A couple of them are exhibited in MoMA in New York. I was very impressed with that, but also slightly scratching my head. I always do that when I see project of this nature. It’s not something that is totally inaccessible: for example, you don’t need to be a fine artist or sculptor. The whole thing hinges on the idea, that’s the key, not the execution. The reason I’m scratching my head is because I haven’t had that idea and wonder what might be if I ever had that inspiration. Would I actually follow it through and do something about it, or would I just file it? Anyway, Brendan inspired as he did last time I saw him talk, so I think I should go and see him talk once a month, just to keep that energy going.
A successful night, then, it seems for ScreenEdit. If they have more events like this, I will definitely go. I suggest you do, to.
13th September 2007 by Jason C. Filed under: Events
Mix UK 07 was decent. I spent most of my time in Track 4. Unsurprisingly, I suppose, because I was helping out the Screenedit team here and there, and that was their track.
I would have been in that track anyway regardless. They had some good speakers on. The ones I caught were (thinking hard):
- Tricky and Dr. Neil Roodyn
- Hoss Gifford
- Jason Arber and Richard May
- Hugh MacLeod
- Conchango
- AllofUs
- Seb Lee-Delisle
I think that was all of them. As a surprise, at the end of the last session (the “sneak peeks”) session previewing some of the forthcoming Microsoft bits and bobs, we were all given a copy of Vista Ultimate and Expression Web Studio! Wicked. Thanks, Microsoft!
10th September 2007 by Jason C. Filed under: Events
Mmmmm… just as I though I’d miss out on all the events happening this year a last-minute opportunity came up to visit Mix 07 in the UK. I’m pretty pleased about that, I can tell you. If you’re going down there on Tuesday 11th, then come over and see me: I’ll be the one taking photos for the designer / developer competition. Why not enter? There are some great prizes.
See you there!
7th June 2007 by Jason C. Filed under: Events
So, I went back for more. Today had a different feel for me, though. For a start I didn’t have to queue up outside because I’d arrived slightly earlier. In good time to catch the first speaker of the day that I wanted to see: Hillman Curtis.
I saw him speak at Flash on the Beach, six months ago. Parts of the talk were the same: thankfully only the best bits. He was talking about portraits he did of dancers for a gallery in New York. It’s good to hear someone with his profile talk about his work and his motivation and his background. He’s a good speaker, engaging and warm.
Next up was Neville Brody. There was more than a full house to listen to his talk. The event had to be streamed into the next conference room because too many people wanted to see him. Luckily for me, I managed to bad a front-row seat for the live show ;o)
It’s great listening to Neville speak. He’s an inspirational figure for me: I got through university practically on the strength of “The Graphic Language
” books alone. Again, rather than talk about technique or process, he talked a bit about his background, and about the designer’s role as representative of the public when facing the client. And about being brave. I could listen to him for ages – even though he’s not what I’d call a natural speaker, his manner and the content of what he’s got to say carry a lot of weight and also just seems worth listening to.
The last speaker I saw was Brendan Dawes of mN. Another interesting figure. He’s a charismatic presenter, and in common with the other speakers I saw today his passion shines through the talk. His talk was billed as a ‘web showcase’, although really it was about where to get the inspiration to make a good experience great. The answer according to Brendan is certainly not sitting in front of a computer. He was very convincing, and I’m glad I hung around for his talk: I was tossing up whether to go home or whether to go to his talk, when I thought I’d take a look in his book “Analog In, Digital Out
” to see if it would help me decide. After flicking through, I though “I’m staying for that.”
N.B. Book links are Amazon Associates links.
Technorati: Adobe Live 07
5th June 2007 by Jason C. Filed under: Events
I’ve just got back from this large live advert for Adobe CS3. The keynote was OK, the guys from Adobe showcasing the tighter integration of the CS3 suite now that the former Macromedia and Adobe apps are now under one roof. It looks like the work flow is much improved over the combination of CS2 and Studio 8.
I won’t re-hash all that content here, as it’s available lots of places elsewhere on the web. I will say though that I think there are some nice nifty touches in there that will help smooth away some of the awkward parts of the typical web build work flow. For example, the ability of Dreamweaver to remember the source PSD and optimisation settings of each image. In the properties box, click on the little Ps icon and you’re taken right back to the PSD file which you can edit, then paste straight into Dw using the same optimisation settings you previously used. You can directly import the PSD into Dw, too. When you try, a Fireworks optimisations box pops up and lets you set your ideal settings for the web image format of your choice. It’s great.
There are loads of little improvements like this across the whole suite of applications. The real test will be in the field, as ever. On the whole, positive.
There were a few familiar faces around the place today. Jon Harris and John Allwright from Microsoft (who didn’t have a public presence there) and John Davies from Flash on the Beach too. Between sessions I even got to go and browse some Japanese art at a nearby gallery on Camden Town Passage. I’m looking forward to going again tomorrow. Maybe I’ll buy something. If I do, it’ll have to be Japanese art, because there didn’t seem to be anywhere to buy CS3 in there.
Technorati: Adobe Live 07 Adobe eventstools cs3
9th May 2007 by Jason C. Filed under: Events
Here it comes again. Flash on the Beach 2007. Last year, it was a great event, as you will have read here or elsewhere on the web. They’re going to have to do a lot to live up to that, but I think they can do it. What with the addition of fireworks. No, not the Adobe software type, but the real ones. You see, this year one of the event days is Guy Fawke’s night. Cool!
Technorati: FOTB, fotb07
4th May 2007 by Jason C. Filed under: Events
I’ve just been invited by Adobe to Adobe Live 2007. I’ve signed up for both days and the developer day, too. Should be interesting, if only to see what others have done so far with CS3. Also I’ll be hanging around the book stands, keeping an eye out for Essential ActionScript 3.0
by Colin Moock. I’ve got ActionScript for Flash MX: The Definitive Guide
and Essential ActionScript 2.0
and both are great books. Unfortunately, I think the event is just that bit too early, and the book won’t be available.
Something else I’m looking forward to is handing out my new business cards. They are the lovely mini cards from Moo.com. Beautiful! If you see me there, be sure to ask for one!
Technorati: flash Adobe Live 07 Adobe events
N.B. The book lnks above are affiliate links
22nd December 2006 by Jason C. Filed under: Events
We’re all winding down for Christmas now, of course. A week of pies, roasts and more cheese than you can wave a fat-filled sausage-like finger at. But there is an ache in my heart. Ever since going to FOTB, I have seen the power of AS3 and the Flash 9 player, and I want a piece of the action.
So what I’ve done is downloaded the Flex framework SDK from Adobe. It’s free, and you get everything you need to build Flash 9 swfs except the skill. Wish me luck. I may be some time.
Technorati: fotb06,
FOTB, as3, flash
14th December 2006 by Jason C. Filed under: Events
OK, this post is going to be completely boring to most (ignores heckle about usual quality of blog posts). It’s really a reminder for myself.
The speakers I saw at Flash on the Beach were:
Technorati: fotb06, FOTB
10th December 2006 by Jason C. Filed under: Events
You’ll no doubt have already read the hundreds of blog posts across the blogosphere about Flash on the Beach. Well, it’s all true. As far as I’m concerned, it was a great conference. Made great by both the quality of the speakers and the quality of the other people there.
What I was looking to get out of it I got. I went looking for inspiration and the enthusiasm to go and create some funky flash movies to push myself and to get a bit more familiar with flash. I haven’t done much flash work in the last few months, so it’s great that I’ve got my flash mojo back.
More blogging about the conference to come…
Technorati: fotb06, FOTB
