A dash of the past and the road ahead

My tardyness is beginning to precede me and I’m tired of apologising for it. Aside from complaining about how busy I am and continuing to craft weak excuses as to why the site’s upkeep has taken a nosedive over the past 6-8 months, backed up by tedious promises of upcoming content; I’ll instead bestow you with a little update of where Redswish will be heading in the future and hopefully inspire you to stick with me and stay, if only mildly, interested.

The site started off as an experiement nearly 2 years ago, a blind date with blogging. I discovered that I enjoyed it and apparantly so did those taking the time to read my babble; so I stuck at it and tried to figure a solid direction for the website. However, as Redswish is almost exclusively the ramblings of a sole young fluttering designery type, me, a solid direction has been difficult to establish as my own direction in life tends to waver all over the place (future employers beware!).

I’ve realised it’s best to concentrate on topics surrounding what I do on a day-to-day basis, which ranges from creative and marketing strategy through web design to front-end development, and even a dabble in backend on occaision. But I’m not keen on writing about code; there are more than enough resources on the web to cover all those bases, and I learned early on that tutorials are better handled by those with more time on their hands than me. Lists… lists are the bane of my fucking life. On only the rarest occaision do I find lists of any relevance or use.

So seeing as though I tend to like the sound of my own voice so much; I’ve decided that, as it has very much over the past 10 months or so, the subject matter of the site will be mostly opinionated articles discussing online marketing, design, advertising, web culture, life experience, business and hopefully almost everything else that slips in the gaps between those delicate topics.

Design direction

At the time of writing there are still a few areas of the site requiring a tidy up, these will be addressed this weekend. Most designers will agree with me; no matter how hard you try you’re never happy with your own work. Especially at my age and level of industry experience I’m progressing at a pace that causes me to, on a rather regular basis, look back at my work of the past 3 months / 6 months / year and yell ‘what the fuck was I thinking?’. That thought had been creeping into my head for a while regarding this site. It was getting messy, it needed a new coat of paint. I could do better.

Hence why I refer to the new site as ‘a new site’. The content’s still the same but the direction has been redefined, the visuals have been refreshed and, after 3 months traveling and falling out of the circuit, it felt time to respark Redswish. Although we’re now drawing to the close of this year I intend to be putting a lot more effort into decent quality writing next year.

I’ve maintained some of the aesthetic values of the previous iteration of the site, notably the red/beige/white colour scheme. However, in an attempt to draw more attention to the content itself, I’ve included a ‘featured article’ banner at the top of the homepage and scaled back the clutter of the sidebar. I’ve also attempted to harness the power of whitespace to draw the eye to the post content itself, and made the personal decision to opt for serif typography as opposed to more monitor-friendly sans-serif fonts. The reason for this, I feel, was to establish a connection with written word on print, plus I feel it looks more ‘mature’ – more professional.

I added the red swirls in the header to break away from the site seeming too minimal or bland. Plus I like swirls. In 6 months I’ll probably hate them. The new logo on the other hand was for entirely personal reasons. I hated the old one. I felt a tug of regret in my stomach every time I glanced at it. “Christ I’ve got to get rid of that”. Hopefully I won’t be saying the same for the new logo in the future but that remains to be seen.

The Law

Redswish hasn’t, and never will, display ads. I’ve never blogged for money, and every time I visit industry blogs crowded with the same awful banners and mulicoloured sidebar ad blocks clamouring for space I’m filled with a sudden urge to hit my monitor. Don’t expect competitions or giveaways and I wouldn’t hold out for polls, surveys or comment comps. Not to sound old fashioned but I simply want to express my opinions on the industry, spare advice, experiences and stories that others will hopefully find interesting and relevant, and in turn provoke readers to share their own feedback and thoughts on such matters.

I’m more than happy enough to collaborate on articles and introduce guest authors, in fact it’s quite an honour. So if you fancy a natter give me a shout and we can sort something out.

Thanks, once again, for reading,

Nathan

Aside from persuing the standard activities of any sociable teenager in my evenings and weekends; I’ve been squeezing in a bit of time to work on the concept and designs for the new Redswish blog. I’ll be looking to scale back the irrelevant nonsense (to some extent) and ensure a steady stream of personally crafted, but objective and hopefully inspirational posts on the subjects of web design, digital marketing and life experience etc. Although this isn’t a drastic change from where I’ve slowly been taking the website, it will become clearer, the tone of voice and theme of the new site will hopefully be obvious.

Redswish is however a site built and maintained for you, my loyal readers. So I thought it only justified to provide a sneaky glimpse of the design approach I’m using to construct the new site. However I’ve hit a slight slow patch, that’s right – I’m stuck. And I want your help.

Please take a look and come back to me with the harshest critique you can. I can take it, come on! I want the new site to be as good as it can be, and your feedback will be an important part of achieving that:

Design 1:

Design 2:

Thanks,

Nathan

So I’ve decided to hold off publishing any new posts until the new Redswish launches in a few weeks. If you can hold out till then that’ll be great – I promise it will be worth the wait!

Until that momentous occaision feel free to follow me on Twitter or contact me with any ideas for articles or any topics you’d like to see on the site and I’ll file it all in my mound of ‘things to do’!

Thanks for the patience everyone,

Nathan

As much as I’ll try, it’s going to be difficult to ensure regular, decent computer access whilst backpacking through Indonesia, Australia and Japan so you may not hear much on Redswish regularly, or even at all, until I get back in October.

I will however be putting some focus into a travel blog, which really stretches me thin enough as it is. If you fancy checking it out, it’s not quite finished but I’ll be building it up as and when I can at thereandbackagain.nathanbeck.co.uk.

But I promise when I get back it’s a big step forwards for Redswish. There will be a redesign, possibly a slight rebrand a definite and solid change in direction. We’ll still chat about web and graphic design but also lots more. As I’m learning – there’s a hell of a lot more to being a great designer online than just a knowledge of HTML, CSS and a copy of Photoshop.

I want everyone to be a part of exploring and sharing that.

So, one last musing for you before I log off and get the backpack on. I was sat in McDonalds before (I know – visit a far off foreign country and eat at McDonalds… leave me alone!) and I wondered why they charge less for people eating out than inside. I used to think it was to save seats, which may apply at peak times. But no, it’s defnitely more than that, and so simple.

Persuading people to eat outside rather than in by charging a slightly lower price ensures more people with McDonalds on the street. Which means tens or hundreds of walking advertisements sporting the big yellow M on paper bags all over the place.

It’s quite possibly one of the most affordable and influential forms of advertising I’ve discovered. I can’t believe it took me so long to realise!

- The Bigest Ever List of Graphic Design Blogs?

Until a bigger one comes along

Through constantly trying to better myself and the quality of my writing I’ve learnt a lot and hopefully crafted some articles that have helped and inspired people. If not, well I’ve wasted a lot of time then! But I do feel that if you were to read through all the articles mentioned below you’d see how my writing and understanding has matured over the past 12 months…

Anyway, just a quick thank-you to the regular visitors and commenters and even those that have popped in and never returned again. The odd bits of support and kind comments keep me going. Here’s to another year!

A quick summary of some of the more popular articles from the past 12 months:

• How to sell a website
• Why I hate Flash sites
• CSS Horizontal Menu
• Creating a Wordpress Theme Parts 1, 2 & 3
• Death to IE6!
• A selection of top CSS Showcase websites
• What to do when you get Bloggers cramp
• Accessible Web Design – The Whats and Whys
• The power of Wordpress Custom Fields
• Increasing and maintaining blog traffic
• Different blog post styles
• Improving yourself as a designer
• Accessible Web Design – The How
• Managing brand consistency
• 10 SEO elements all websites should have
• Designing with data
• Designing from the inside out – Part 1 & 2
• Design constraints
• Designing with empathy

That’s just a selection. I’ve also write and have guest written for other blogs including the Flame blog and iFoh designs.

Shout Outs

There are a lot of people, designers and companies that have inspired and influenced me over the past year. I’m really sorry if I forget anyone but off the top of my head I’d like to thank David Airey, Jacob Cass, Matt@ifohdesigns, Andy Clarke,  Ian James Cox, Jeffrey Zeldman, Vandelay Design, Smashing Magazine, Adelle Charles, Chris Spooner, Carsonified, Elliot Jay Stocks, Nick La and so many more people…

Working at Flame since last June has been great fun, the people here are great and learning so much. So, here’s to another year!

So, nearly 3 weeks since my last article, it’s surely time for something fresh, new and inspiring.

Err, well no. Not really.

With full honestly, I have been immensely busy this past few weeks. Yep, even too busy to blog! ‘Heathen’ I hear you cry. Alas, it’s true. And I assure you’d love to return with an unbelievable article of only the highest quality, but I can’t even stretch to that for you. So to keep you busy for what will hopefully be no more than a few days, I will offer you the following:

Fifty People, One Question

The wonder that is Twitter offered me a little jem today. I can’t remember who it was who recommended this short viral video, but I thank them for it.

Fifty People, One Question is a beautifully crafted 8 minute long short where random people are grabbed on the streets of New Orleans and asked the question ‘What would you wish to happen by the end of today?’ (or something very similar). The idea is so simple it could almost be ridiculed, but the outcome is so fantastically composed, the emotions so perfectly captured and every aspect of the film including the editing, soundtrack and photography so considerately pieced together that the outcome is just superb.

Good eh? But seriously, please don’t just comment here (obviously do comment here, but follow the link through as well!) Check out the Fifty People, One Question website for more information on the video and other people’s responses.

A selfish note

I think it might also be worth noting that I’ve been asked to write for a Web and Graphic design tutorial site based in Manchester, for money. Don’t worry, I’m not selling out and will still be focusing on Redswish, but may throw the odd article out in exchange for payment.

The reason I’ve brought it up is mainly to thank the readers of this site who’ve helped it grow over the past few months and to reach the attention of a wider audience. It is only through this that the effort I’ve put into my writing has began to pay off, but it has also inspired and urged me to write to a constantly better standard.

So, once again, thanks all. I promise I’ll get something out again soon.

Nathan x

Today I received 3 spam contact form results from nathanbeck.co.uk, my portfolio site that ties in with this site (click on contact at the top and you’ll see what I mean).

They were all ’selling’ the same thing, but just spewed different bullshit each time.

Here’s the best:

Hello,
How would you like getting a logo’s (or) icon’s (or) header (or)template (or) banner designed free of cost for your website. We are giving away these services as a promotional measure for free of cost. In return we need a link at your site for each services at home or internal  page(Except link,resources,directory pages).So to get a new services all you got to do is mail us back with the confirmation of link and the page where the link added for our site. If not interested in any of these offer,and interested to do three-way link exchange,please feel free to mail me back.

Regards,
Rebheka.

I’m a freaking designer, it’s plastered all over my site and about 3 inches to the right of the contact form Rebheka filled in!

Perhaps she used an automated form-filling tool, perhaps Rebheka is actually a poorly paid Indian child slaving away for 13 hours a day posting and reposting the above email to hundreds of ignorantly selected sites. Perhaps I need to use a CAPTCHA, but I always liked the simplicity of my contact form.

We’ve seen it all before

I know, I’m sure you have. I just cannot get over the stupidity. I mean, you’d at least use correct English grammer. That email reads like it’s been processed by a cheap language translator.

I won’t post my response, yeah that’s right I responded! I’m sure you can assume the tone in which it was written. I just can’t believe anyone would possibly fall for such an email, it surely can’t be productive on ‘Rebheka’s’ behalf.

www.nathanbeck.co.uk will be up at the start of August, unfortunately it’s currently down because I’ve not been looking after my hosting.. tut tut.

So… 7 days and counting!