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China's 60th anniversary celebrations

This is stunning. Not just from the sheer military might but because it’s shot on a DSLR. In High definition. Technical gizmos aside though, the editing and use of stop motion and slow-mo really work. And really liking the pixelated camouflage bedecking the PRC army vehicles.

Very powerful – but is this photography or film making? (not that it matters). The creator is Dan Chung a photojournalist at The Guardian, who has moved away from static imagery into moving image. A photographer’s eye with an editor’s sense of timing.

Watch the video on vimeo.

Good reading

This is really, really good.
Ad-man Dave Trott waxes lyrical about all manner of topics.
Insightful, observational and engaging.
Worth a read.

(And written in a tight, concise manner befitting of the author's occupation - plenty of good stuff to muse over).

No. 5 Quote of note

"There is hope in honest error. None in the icy perfections of the mere stylist." I'm liking this quote by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Courtesy of 1977, thanks Paul!

Makes me think of the philosophy of Inky Finger Prints and the much respected logo of Minale Tattersfield

Beauty in imperfection, ideas over style, 80/20 rule, the human touch etc, etc. Maybe I'm missing the point but all that microscopic overanalysis of mundane details slows things down and delays the arrival of a solution. maximise the time you spend on generating ideas, bosh out the options, be pragmatic and save the crafting for the final chapter.

Got a new route to work!

Looks like it's going to be shorter, safer and quicker - F*ck yeah!
The pink line was my old route, the light blue line is my new path.

A sunday cycle ride with Em led me along a previously ignored set of Southwark back streets. This morning being up early and enjoying the sunshine cycle ride I explored further. A prime example of why it's good to step out of a routine and try something new. Bad Phil!

People, it's looking positive. My only concern is traffic volume during the school run and feasibility for returning that way in the evening. Ha Ha! - lets find out.

Wired up

Tonight sees BBC2 show the final episode of series 4 of The Wire.
That means there will only be one more series of the so-called 'greatest show on earth'.

I'm enjoying it, i've managed to keep up with the previous episodes and series but would have to admit that it just hasn't stood up to it's billing. Perhaps it's just been overhyped for too long - it first came to the small screen in 2002 and the last series finaled in March 2008. I wanted to really like it but alas it's all left me feeling a bit cold. I don't think that the marathon viewing schedule that BBC2 has imposed helped matters but I guess they felt it was the best way to maintain momentum.

Cons: Impenetrable, slow, overly reliant on vague details.
Pros: Range of interesting characters, use of local lingo - both in terms of institutions and geography. Nice mixture of stereotyping and surprise.

UPDATE: I've abandoned watching season 5 in real time. I plan to borrow a DVD at some point and get done in one shot. maybe. If i can summon the motivation.

A funny old year

It’s been a funny year so far. Having written about keeping it simple six months ago I now revist those words with the benefit of six months hindsight.

I can remember rumblings of discontent this time last year but paid little attention to them, for the past ten years I’d been in steady and reliable work since I graduated in 1999 – so why should I worry? I’d worked for myself, as a freelancer with agencies and representing myself and two years ago ended up in a full time job.

And then January arrived and work became painfully slow. Clients stopped calling, projects were put on hold and the directors at my company started to spend more time behind closed doors. What was even more surreal was that in a company of over 100 people only part of our business seemed to be affected. I work on Employee Engagement projects and even though our work load dropped off, the other offers in our company had more work than they could handle. Eg. In previous years I’d seen digital designers suffer, this year saw them travel unscathed through the financial meltdown. An example of learning from past mistakes of over employing and over stretching oneself.

In mid February the thirty or so people who make up my team were called into the board room and told we would now be entering a ‘redundancy consultation process’, ie two weeks to to justify your existence as an employee. It was probably the most stressful period I‘ve had to go through and I regret that it meant my troubles at work spilled over into my home life. Thankfully my partner was good listener, an intelligent adviser and extremely understanding.

The benefits of talking to partners, friends and family I can’t stress enough. Through talking about it I learnt a lot of my friends were or had gone through similar processes – for better or worse. And these aren’t just designers, every industry was/is being affected. It was a thought provoking time.

And when your standing on the edge, not knowing how things will fall one is forced to think hard and think fast about what one wants to do and where one wants to be. I’d long been thinking about pursuing a different direction (photography, printmaking, interactive design, writing, carpentry, cookery, travel, etc) and these interests started to form the basis for my next steps. I was all but convinced that my time at this particular company was over so mentally I was well prepared to move on and by investigating alternative occupations it showed me that there are always solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems. It even made me realise what I liked (and to some extents had taken for granted) about my current job; I valued the interaction with my colleagues, the opportunities to work on large scale projects and the lifestyle presented by the location of the office.

As it turned out I wasn’t made redundant. Several of my friends were though and I can only guess that it must be a terribly shocking and frustrating moment to be asked to leave a job you’d grown used to working in. The theft of financial security in these days of high consumption can only equal fear and trepidation and a destruction of one’s own confidence. And for those of us remaining I detect a conflicting and complex set of emotions. Gratitude from having been spared the axe, resentment at having to be dragged through the process in the first place, caution that the entire episode will be repeated.

So what have I learnt from this? I now know the importance of having a grand plan, a goal or a destination to aim for. Just like a lighthouse, in times of trouble it’s reassuring to have a marker to steer towards. It’s important to be constantly prepared, to have a safety net to fall back upon and a well stocked locker to get you out of trouble should the need arise. So I guess it’s all about being aware of what’s happening around you and recognizing the warning signs when they start to appear. And being in as flexible a state as possible so as to be able to adapt to changing circumstances with as much personal control as possible.

Footnote: this is very much an employee’s viewpoint. I am under no illusions employers undergo as tough if not tougher set of emotions and experiences. If I could offer advice to them it would be this: make the process of redundancy as quick and transparent as possible. Doubtless hard to do under the employment laws but perhaps less damaging in the long run.

No. 4 Quote of note

Alice came to a fork in the road. "Which road do I take?" she asked.
"Where do you want to go?" responded the Cheshire cat.
"I don't know," Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."

Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Jimmy Carr twitters away

I’m unconvinced by the whole Twitter thang but at least Jimmy Carr’s manner of delivery seems to suit the medium.

Here are his latest ‘tweets’ from Dundee, pure comedy genius.

• i'm still on a train. it would appear someone's put Dundee right up in the north - presumably so they don't bother anyone.
• "i think of Dundee as the 'Paris of the north' because its covered in dog shit and nobody washes." Good idea for an opening line tonight?
• just been told Dundee is 'the city of discovery'. Presumably because the Discovery Channel made a wildlife documentary about the locals.
• just in the interval of the show in dundee. i feel a little guilty cause i've been slagging the place off all day and i'm really enjoying it
• what now? according to one twitterer earlier Dundee has only one night club 'Fat Sam's' named after the local beauty queen..i've got to stop

A little bit of street art out east

Not an underpass in Shoreditch, London - an underpass in Chaoyang, Beijing. Nice work from the This City Art collective.

A new undertaking by VJ/motion graphics designer Hao Bu Hao and photographer Oak Taylor-Smith – Two Beijing based English expats.

First exhibition featured Hao Bu Hao aka Martin Barnes' Caulfield inspired prints of Chinese icons. Forget about The Great Wall and The Terracotta Army, think instead of cheap packets of cigarettes and bamboo brooms leaning against air-con units. Bold, colourful imagery is now available to the people.

Le Corbusier at The Barbican

Le Corbousier at The Barbican
Originally uploaded by Phil Dobinson.

Exhibition signage by Bibliotheque. Nice adaptation of Futura bold italic and great use of colours - strong reds and blues contrasting nicely with dirty aubergine and warm cement hues.

Inky Finger Prints

Website revamp v3.0 in time for exhibition!

No. 3 Quote of note

"Walking these New Zealand Mountains stimulated my memory. My need for this strange landscape was profound. Travel, which is nearly always seen as an attempt to escape from the ego, is in my opinion the opposite. Nothing induces concentration or inspires memory like an alien landscape or a foreign culture. It is simply not possible (as romantics think) to lose yourself in an exotic place. Much more likely is an experience of intense nostalgia, a harking back to an earlier stage in your life, or seeing clearly a serious mistake But this does not happen to the exclusion of the exotic present. What makes the whole experience vivid, and sometimes thrilling, is the juxtaposition of he present and the past – London seen from the heights of Harris Saddle."
Paul Theroux, The Happy Isles of Oceania

Lights, Camera...Action

Good collection of ideas from film director Jim Jarmusch. Several things of note here that seem as applicable in the world of design as that of the silver screen, eg Rule #4: Filmmaking is a collaborative process - “work with others whose minds and ideas may be stronger than your own”. Rule #5 is also relevant but I’m sure I’ve heard that one before….

Here is a link to his golden rules of movie-making

Reminiscent of a good piece of design advice I learnt at college. My tutor - a short, energetic chap called Ed - would relate design to the editing process of a film. He believed the quicker one got to the bare boned, basic structure of a ‘product’, the quicker you’d be able to make key decisions. Ed’s point was that until you’d reached the rough-cut stage students would more often than not get bogged down in the details (the ‘fluff’) and progress at a slower pace than that of someone who could step back and view the project as a whole (the ‘meat’). Basic flaws became exposed whilst strengths and virtues could be amplified and refined.

SE Asia photos

Photos available to view from my trip to Vietnam and Cambodia - with a brief glimpse of Hong Kong and Bangkok at either end.