Blog / Folio Redesign

I think its about time I refreshed my Blog/Portfolio with something a little cleaner. Something that doesn't rely heavily on a background image as its focal point and which isn't hosted by Blogger.

Over the pass two years almost, Blogger has done me proud and only cost me £6 for a domain. But I've grown out of its simplistic UI and lack of customisation options. I want more, and want to start from the ground up.

I've had a few ideas on how to "re-brand" myself, the one below being my favourite so far, but it will all change no doubt as I refine the idea and play about with it a bit more.



The main idea is to have a single band of colour stretching across the screen to show the user which page they are viewing. As the mouse hovers over the page titles, the corresponding coloured band will show to provide feedback.

Still not completely decided on the colour scheme, but over the coming weeks I'll play about some more in Photoshop, then start building it with HTML and css.

Looking forward to trying out some HTML5 features I've been reading about recently too.

Mixed 09

Been messing about over the last week or so, trying to nail this mixing lark. During every mix I've made so far, I've cocked at least once. This mix is no exception, but timing of tracks and cueing has improved quite a bit I think. The tracklist is a little weak, but haven't had much time to filter through the latest stuff.

Anyway here it is. Hopefully Mixed 10 will be delightful.

Mixed 09 by Duball F

Mixed 08

Its been an age since I last made a mix, but here's a short 30 0dd minute one to get back into the spirit of things. As always there's a ropey bit in the middle. Think I need to put some practice hours in.

Two changes to add also. Previously I was using Virtual DJ, a software package that came bundled with the midi control I use, but I've since upgraded to Traktor Pro. It's a hell of alot more conprehensive, and really makes VDJ seem like a 'toy' in some respects. Need to try out all the features, but its pretty slick to use.

Secondly is hosting. As you can see theres a waveform below. This is hosted on SoundCloud, a really cool site that's the music equivalent of Flickr almost, with elements of Twitter. You can follow people, download tunes and comment on tracks. Take a look. Anyway here's the mix.

Mixed 08 by Duball F

New Designers 2009

This week myself and 8 other Ravensbourne Interaction students have been exhibiting at New Designers in the Business Design Centre, Islington.

I've never been before, even though it seemed the kids from every secondary school in London went yesterday, but my school must of been tight. It's really impressive, with a huge range of projects, various methods of displaying work, and each college and university with its own presentation style. Some colleges 'flash the cash' more than others, but on the whole its a great way to see designs that could potentially be in your home in the near future.



In the past, Rave Interaction have taken the 'bog standard' route, and exhibited students work on the walls just like every other college tends to do. But this year we decided to be a little different.

The core premiss was to draw people in with something unusual, then interact with them while explaining our projects. For this we chose to slap a table tennis table in the middle of our exhibit space, as you do!

On wednesday 15th July, we dressed in table tennis gear (White top, shorts and socks, with our own individual coloured headband), and these needed to be of the Umbro varity of course. We played table tennis with each other, andinvited to play when they approched. Around the stand were 'take-away' leaflets, with a summary of our 3rd year projects in, with 4 portfolios, containing further information about the projects. Apart from this, we had no work on the walls. To continue the theme we stamped 300 ping pong balls with our exhibit logo, and our website www.raveinteraction.com. Occassional these would travel from our space and down onto the spaces below, so our details spread around abit.

From walking around the Design Centre, everyone was talking about our stand. Some people didn't have a clue what we were doing, and wondered why, but others really liked the fresh thinking, and different take on presenting work, and interacting with people.

It was great fun, and throughout the day I won every single game I played*. I'm such a great ping pong player**.

On top of the 'take-away' leaflets were Top Trump style cards for people to take. On them were our personal details (Phone No., Email, Website), and a blurb about out interests ans strengths. These went down really well, with people taking the whole set of 9 card (one for each of us). Each card has its own individual colour, reflected by the headbands we wore, and project headers in the leaflet.
*Not true, **Not true again.