Posts filed under "broken-kode"
I said I wasn’t going to talk about the book itself until I had a url, but after tonight I’m pretty sure that ANYONE living outside the US will definitely not be interested in that URL even if I did give it to them. The reason is very simple, the shipping costs basically kill any and all thoughts of buying a book from Lulu if you’re located outside the US. Basically the cost of sending this 285 page book is $19.31. That’s just the god damn shipping. FUCK THAT. Seriously. That’s far too much to ask of anyone to pay for shipping on a single book.
The only saving grace is that I will be providing the book for sale via Amazon which means that the shipping costs will be considerably smaller. It’s a double edged sword however as the actual price of the book will be greater, due to including all the Amazon royalties and shipping costs. It’s a seriously cutthroat industry this publishing business, but I’m betting that even with the 25% markup by Amazon the final book price will be much more manageable. Still shocked me like you wouldn’t believe when I ordered my draft copy today.
I’ve got a lot of great things to say about the Lulu experience, which I’ll be posting soon enough, with LOADS of tips and watchits that I’ve encountered along the way, however their shipping calculator needs to be taken around the back and shot…several times…point blank.
This is the last time I talk about the book until I post the link(s) where it can be bought from. I’ll be writing some stuff about my Lulu experience when I finally get the book and hopefully provide some helpful insight and tips for people crazy enough to undertake a project such as this. I’ve finished formatting the book and I’m about to upload to Lulu and see what manner of trouble I’ll get into there.
In the meantime here’s the cover. This cover was actually my third attempt as the more work I did the more important this cover became to tie the package with a bowtie.
If you want to have a look at the cover on a grander scale, click here.
Michael god bless him has been trying very hard for years now to develop ideas (he’s really good at ideas, which is an unbelievable quality); his ideas (and he’s said this on several occasions) is to try and push people to go to his archives. He’s helped with developing the livesearch, or at least brought it to my attention. He did stuff to get the live Archives working, and then on his site he’s got a fantastic implementation for you to look at all his archives without actually leaving the cosy front page. Unfortunately the more I think about this the more I realise that he’s actually fighting a loosing battle.
What am I talking about? Put simply I read a great deal of stuff online. How much, well I’ve got over 200 sites in my OPML file at the moment, and it gets bigger every day. It’s honestly getting to the stage where I can’t keep up with all the sites. Lately I’ve been worse than usual, but that’s more to do with the fact that I’ve been STUPIDLY busy, mainly trying to sort this book out. I can’t actually keep up with everything and sometimes I’d rather read something a little while later.
Now the way I read blogs and I’m assuming that’s also how many people read them as well (might be making a big mistake but this is what I think), we read the freshest stuff. If we’ve missed a couple of posts it’s not the end of the world really, we might check it out. Now what happens when we come into a site that’s being published for over a year now. We’ve missed a lot of stuff. Does it matter? Maybe not, probably not. However for me there are certain sites that I wouldn’t mind reading and getting to know what the deal is really. I wouldn’t mind checking out the first season of Binary Bonsai or Chris J Davis or Avalonstar or Ifelse or Noscope or…and the list goes on. And that’s where this book comes in.
It’s a different kind of book. I guess what started off as something for me and maybe my parents and a couple of friends, is now part of an experiment. Is anyone actually interested in this stuff as a keepsake? My initial reaction is no, not really. So what happens if I actually make it into a professionally put together product. What happens if I enhance the book in several ways, not cut corners and provide it at a completely affordable price. Would that make a difference? I guess time will tell and I’m always interested in new ideas.
The unexpected thing was that this little experiment of mine has actually planted a seed in my head. A seed which is growing into something I didn’t really expect or can’t understand why it didn’t come to me before. So while this book is effectively the first one to come out under the Broken Kode banner, it won’t be the last. What’s more is that I won’t be the only writer that gets things published under the Broken Kode banner.
http://www.brokenkode.com/broken-kode-season-one-the-archives
Well I guess it’s time to start breaking out the champagne as I’ve got a load of posts to start writing. Part of the reason I’ve been so quiet over on BK is simply because I’ve actually dedicated every conceivable waking hour over completing Broken Kode | Season One. What’s that you ask? Well I originally mentioned the thought way back in August. Those that have been reading BK for a while now know that I generally have a good deal on my plate, however you should be aware that I complete everything I start, no matter how long it takes me. I won’t release it until I’m 100% happy with it and that is where the problem lies. Being a perfectionist in my personal work means that things take time to get sorted out.
I’m going to be writing a slew of posts about this topic as it really does merit the attention. Season One is the title of my first book, based on the first year of posts at Broken Kode. The reason behind the book came about for a couple of reasons. The first was the fact that I can’t be sure that I will be blogging forever. As much as I’d like to believe that I’ll be blogging to the day that I die, well that’s not a really realistic statement. No one knows what the future holds and so I’d like to capture these years of words that I have spent the time and effort to formulate into something that’s solid and tangible. Something I can look at in 20 years time and smile at. So collecting all my posts into a book sounded like a damn good idea to me. This was going to be a 1 week job where I would simply download everything and then just format the posts ever so slightly so that I’ve got them in one location.
After I began playing around, my design and curious nature took over. I started thinking about cool formats, cool layouts to play around with ideas just kept popping into my head, and I instinctively reacted to them. What I hadn’t actually factored into the equation the sheer task that I was actually proposing on doing. See after I started playing with the layout, putting the posts in and just having the title in there, just wasn’t enough. I started adding more information to the entire package. This included what category the post was under, how many comments and the final cherry on top, commentary for every single post. As all this material was being compiled part of the fun was going through the motions and trials of getting something put together ready to get published.
The ironic thing is that the blog was to be used as a method to catalog my journey to get published, only for those posts to be used as the first book I get published. That is what then made me stop and consider what it was I was doing. This was my first book. Any which way I cut it, that’s the first thing I get published, that will be on Amazon, ready for anyone to go out and buy. It’s a book with my name on the spine. It had to be perfect. It had to be something that was worth while. Something I wouldn’t mind slapping down some cash and reading through it.
Now I’m going to be honest, the first 6 months of the book are very hit and miss. There are some great posts in there, and there are some sheer garbage. I don’t mind saying that. No one starts off at the top. People build their style, build their voices. This book shows the progression in no small way.
So how could I enhance this book so it’s something someone wouldn’t feel cheated into buying and actually enjoying? Why would anyone want to buy it in the first place, it’s all found online in my archives? Well I’ll tell you all about that in the next post.
When I’m not talking much on the Kode, it usually means I’m up to something. This has been a pretty long weekend for me. I didn’t go to work on Friday because I was pretty determind to finish off several of my projects. You’d be amazed at the amount of progress someone can get done if he’s under a self imposed deadline. Of the things that was on the top of the list was to finally create myself a logo. This task is a lot simpler to say than actually accomplish because the honest truth of the situation is that I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to get myself sorted with a logo for like over a year now. I couldn’t for the life of me decide what I wanted the logo to convey. I couldn’t for the life of me sit down and come up with an idea and run with it.
Honestly I tried everything. I tried sketching, hoping that devine inspiration would strike me and I’d be off, however I’ve come to realise and accept that unfortunately my mind simply doesn’t operate that way. Sometimes I can force the issue and will eventually submitt. This could be because of time constraints, it could be because of lack of energy to continue kicking the point into submission. However Broken Kode is different. Broken Kode is in many ways a reflection of myself and as such I don’t care how long things take, as long as they’re done properly.
Sitting on something for a long time however is not good. Taking your time and taking a year and a half to think of a logo is silly. Now I don’t know if it’s because I sat down and I thought things through, or if the pressure got to me but Saturday evening it hit me. I knew exactly what I wanted my logo to convey. I knew what I want to say with it, and I had a clear image in my head.
I’m not sure how most designers go about getting ideas to create things, but due to my background in weilding a pencil and ink brush, I visualise the entire thing in my head before I’ve even begun. I can ‘see’ everything clearly in my head. The final result might differ in the details, but the overall outcome is pretty close to what I envisioned at the start.
The one thing that really annoyed me was getting something to work as 16px x 16px for the new favicon. After going down to like 50px x 50px there seriously was no point to the whole thing. So you’ll notice the favicon is a bit different to the real logo, but the essence is there. I’m not going to base my logo on the basis that it’s got to fit into a 16px x 16px square, anyway the logo is going to be getting a lot of use in the physical world, so that takes a bit of presidence. For all those IE users that can’t see the favicon (first of all switch to Firefox) here’s an image, 
This element only occupied 1/6 of my weekend. I’ll hopefully be announcing the other stuff later on during the week.
Today effectively marks 2 years of blogging. It’s soo strange but I remember the day I decided to start blogging like it was yesterday. I’d actually heard of blogging before that, in early 2003, however for the life of me I couldn’t see the appeal for myself or for the general public. I was as sceptic about it as most people I talk to about my site in general.
The blogging element of my web experience started off in Blogger as a way for me to update my site. That’s all it was, since I thought that was the easiest and simplest way. For a complete novice to these things it truly was/is the simplest way. As I got into it the blogging aspect more I realised that in actual fact writing my thoughts down in an organised and archived way was actually a great form of therapy. Upload all your thoughts helps clear them and make them less weighty in your head. It wasn’t until later on in the site’s life (a year later) that it evolved once again into something more, my link to people of the same mindset.
This is an incredibly powerful aspect that is lost on many people who don’t blog but have that opportunity. If you blog you’re talking about something. Someone is bound to find you via searching through the multitude of blog search engines and effectively continue the conversation where you thought it was over. It’s been an incredible 2 years that I can’t ask more of.
A while back, over at Joen’s site, I can’t remember what the topic of conversation was, but Joen effectively said:
‘You’ll realise that it’s not important what you say, it’s what your readers say’
At the time this comment to me aback and I thought:
Hang on a minute that’s wrong, surely you’re doing this blog for yourself. The fact that people would like to listen in on your thoughts is nice and if they contribute that’s nice as well.
The fact of the matter is however that it does depend on your reason for blogging at that particular time in your life. It used to be about the therapy, then it was about the internet projects, now it’s about the friendships and the people that passby here and say hello in their own way.
So effectively what I’m honestly trying to say is THANK YOU for reading and contributing to Broken Kode, it would have been an empty husk of what it is without everyone.
Here’s to many more years of blogging, sharing and creating friendships.
One idea I’m going to try and do this year (and who knows if I’ll actually continue with it, but it seems like a good idea now) is to write down what I want to accomplish by the end of this month. Baby steps, month by month.
RWebsDesigns Code cleanup I’ve got to clean up the code for Mark’s site as it’s a bit messy right now and not all that easy for the man to change and update certain elements that if I give them a few hours I should be cooking on gas. This is my first priority when I get back as it’s really important to close the book on projects in a nice big bow tie. Shuttle We’ve got a lot of work to do and January has been agreed to be the time that we do it. I’m completely dedicated to doing this properly so I’ll be examining EVERY single element of the design and making sure it’s there for a reason. This is the second most important element of work this month.
Broken Kode | Season One Blook The design of the book is complete. The posts have been formatted and included. My running commentary has been typed out. I’ve got 4 illustrations complete. This leaves me to complete the cover design and 8 more illustrations. The deadline is tight however I will have the entire package done by the 15th of January, ready to be printed as a draft to check for any mistakes and get it sent to Lulu.
Codename: Borg I’ve got several things to get cracking on this one, as Snook is building up momentum. There’s going to be a lot of sketching going on in the next couple of weeks but I really love the graphical direction we’re going with this, so working on this will be a bit of a break.
Broken Kode Remix I’ve had a little time to sit back and reflect on the year that passed. Not as much as I would have liked to be honest but things are slightly more clear now. One of the things that’s actually come from ‘sitting with myself’ is the fact that Broken Kode in it’s current structural form is actually restricting me creatively. The problem with this design is that it doesn’t hold the flexibility that I want.
In addition my needs and focus has changed slightly since it was launched over 4 months ago. In that time the changes to the site have been pretty minimal, so it’s about time I got itchy fingers again. However I’m actually hoping that the new version will address a lot of the points structurally that I’ve had currently to provide the level of information in the way I want to present it. Thing is the aesthetics are goingto remain very similar to what I’ve got here. Things will be rearranged slightly but hopefully you’ll understand the reason behind the remix and reshuffle. When I say it’s a Remix, the graphics will get used again but not in the same way. It’s a natural progression, however what started off as a slight tweak soon became a complete redesign. My problem was how I was going to incorporate the current image while at the same time build for the future as well.
This isn’t on the highest list of priorities but I feel that in doing this final tweak I can actually forget about the general design of Broken Kode for an entire year! That’s what I’m trying to build towards to be honest. Have the site I’ve always wanted that can be enhanced but does not need to be changed drastically. Roll on Version 5 | Remix.
In a way it’s really important for me right now at this particular time in my life to seriously take a step back, reflect and look at what’s gone before. It’s posts like this that actually make my blog an extremely important part of my life. The sheer amount of information and experience one goes through in a year is amazing. Since I generally can’t remember what I ate yesterday it’s even more important for people like me.
I’m going to warn you however that this is the single longest post I’ve ever done in 2 YEARS of blogging now. I’m generally a verbose person anyway. You’ve been warned.
Broken Kode and Design
In June I completed 1 year of my blog under the Broken Kode name. However the site was still gaining momentum in early 2004 from the release of Manji.
Manji and Rin Manji was released at the tail end of 2004, for Rin was released in March. I do want to thank two great personalities on the Broken Kode forums. James and Steph you guys are absolute gems and I thank you for all the help you’ve given to people throughout the year.
Alex King Theme Design Competition Coming second place in the Alex King WordPress Theme design competition was a great little boost for my thirst for creating better designed websites. I’ve still got a great deal to learn, however I’m a lot more confident than I was a whole year ago before the Manji and Rin. I’m only happy when I’m constantly learning and fighting to understand things, and these two themes gave me the necessary building foundations for the future.
Broken Kode Designs Which kind of leads to the fact that I designed this site 3 times this year. To me that implies that I seriously didn’t have much of a clue as to what I wanted, which isn’t completely true. It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster ride for this site as my needs and the reader’s needs has shifted. I had the idea for version 4 that I really wanted to implement. It’s been a very successful design and one that I’m very proud of and very humbled by all the nice comments people say about it.
Human? Based on a review of a book I did, I was invited to contribute to the book, which should get published sometime next year. I’ve included a double page spread and one of the playing cards. However due to my hard-drive crash, I actually lost that information, so I’ll get it like everyone else on the DVD that’s included with the book.
CoCo I introduced CoCo, which is actually not the first mascott I’ve ever created but definitely my favourite. All future BK designs will have the little guy in one form or another.
Emmortel I launched another website, Emmortel to coincide with May1st Reboot. I enjoyed doing it and I’m generally happy with the design, unfortunately I didn’t update it are regularly as I wanted to. This was also because I realised that I really should be putting all my efforts into Broken Kode, and that my portfolio section could be included into this site. That aspect of the site is still giving me some serious grief but it’s good that it’s on the main site as it motivates me even more to do something about it.
Broken Kode Originals A couple of weeks ago I introduced my first Broken Kode Original. One of many to come in the near future. I’ve got around 5 on my plate at the moment. I’d like to get to the stage where I’m commissioned for at least one of these a month. I think I could probably increase it to two a month but no more than that to be honest.
Broken Kode Shop This was something fun to do. I got a massive buzz getting those prints printed off. I didn’t do it for the money because if I did then I was going about it the wrong way that’s for sure. I’m just immensely grateful to all those people who have supported me in this whimsical idea of mine.
The second item to be offered from the shop is nearly completed and that’s my first blook. I’ve got some serious work to do before the 15th of January, however I’m excited about this package as it’ll be the first book I put on my shelf that has my name on the spine which alone gives me Goosebumps just thinking about it.
Introduction of Splash Panel I’m actually appalled at myself for taking this long to actually get this particular show on the road. I guess I was scared of the amount of time and dedication a site such as this would take. My ambitions for this site are very big. The plan is for Splash Panel to be the first destination people go to for news and reviews and information about the latest graphic novels. Fortunately for me (unfortunate for the industry) most comic book types are still in the dark ages with respect to the internet, as they honestly don’t know how to design a website or present the information for their sites. That’s an article I’ll be writing at some point to flesh things out more.
I believe the site will get a huge amount of momentum once I’ve done the design for it and had a couple of interviews under my belt.
Internet Projects
Work Progressed on Shuttle We progressed this a great deal in the past year. We’ve all decided to get on with it in the month of January and complete it all. The entire Shuttle team is completely dedicated to this date and it will mark one year of working on it (not continuously, just in bursts). I’ve learnt a great deal from Michael, Joen and Bryan. I’m hoping to pick up some stuff from Joshua and Chris. This project has definitely made me into a better designer, since now I question EVERYTHING I do. If I didn’t then I’d get hammered from the guys. This project has helped build and nurture my friendship with these guys, whom I hold in the highest regard.
Codename: Borg Borg has moved forward than just an idea and will hopefully be something I can be proud of in the near future. I don’t want to talk much about it just yet as we’ve still got a long road before we’re in Beta, but it’s going to be a really fun road I can tell you that much. Snook is a code-master. The guy’s sooo blasé about coding it’s unreal. Stuff that would make my head hurt he just shrugs it off and calls it easy, that bastard, lol.
9rules Network In July I was accepted into the 9rules network. While the added exposure has been great, honestly that’s the least important perk of being in the network. For me having gained several friends is worth more than 2 million hits a day. That’s what makes the network special, the people.
Inksmith In May I started thinking aloud. Seems I wasn’t alone in my line of thought. Others felt the same way. The project and idea lay dormant until I could actually give it the proper time it required and so Inksmith was born. The team behind the idea is top notch and is always and constantly expanding. We should be announcing something in the not to distant future regarding this little idea. I find it amazing how just the idea has sparked off loads of conversations but that’s a good sign as people have opinions, and once we’ve actually gotten the framework sorted out, people will appreciate what we’re doing that much more.
Internet Friendships One aspect of this year that I only really was able to put my finger on as I thought about this list more was the number of internet friendships I was able to build and nourish over the past year. It’s gotten to the stage where I don’t think too much about these things anymore but thinking back a year ago this wasn’t the case. I consider Phu Ly, Michael Heilemann, Joen Asmussen, Jon Snook, Bryan Veloso, Chris J Davis , Podz, Matt Mullenweg, Erik Sagen and all those crazy cats over at inksmith and 9rules as friends.
December also brought about the very first London WordPress meetup. I hope to repeat this in the near future as there are a couple of people that live in London that I would like to meet (yeah I’m looking at you Phu).
Life
Lebanon Problems in my country flared up again after 10 years or relative peace. This event is still being talked about and was fueled even more last night was an unbelievable interview with an ex-Syrian politician. The future of the country looks to be very electric over the next couple of months.
However this event spurred me into going back to Lebanon after 2 years. I was able to vote for the first time in my life. It was a bit of an anti-climax, although it was extremely important that I do that.
Basketball With the exception of the Corporate Games in Manchester, my basketball life this year was pretty weak. To substitute for my lack of basketball action I did take up running which I’ve been pretty lax on in recent months, however that’s more to do with work than anything else. The funny thing is I got a couple of nasty emails due to those posts.
London Attacks Went through a pretty tough time for the city of London during the month of July. Stathis of course went through worse, however I’m glad those around me got through this unscathed.
Reviews
Concerts I didn’t go to that many concerts this year, however those that I did I can say were extremely memorable. Here’s a couple of reviews:
Top Movies I actually watched loads of movies, however I didn’t review half as many as I would have liked to. I might make a more concerted effort next year.
- 25th Hour
- Kiki’s Delivery Service
- Batman Begins
- Leon: Special Edition
- Howl’s Moving Castle
- Serenity
- Sky Blue
Top Books I didn’t read as many books as I would have liked to, but the few that I did I must say I enjoyed greatly.
Top Graphic Novels To be honest I’ve written a massive post about this over at Splash Panel where this sort of thing is meant to be.
Time for reflection on the year that’s passed us by. This isn’t my end of the year analysis, (that’s still being typed out). It’s been pretty tough at work and that has propagated into my overall anxiety in general. Not really as calm and collected as I’d like to be. I simply flip very quickly and have less patience than I usually would give something. I’m not the only one that seems to be reflecting about things, Chris has hinted at this before, so it will be interesting to see how he follows through with this promise to himself.
One of the things that I don’t like is loose ends. I don’t like unfinished projects. I have understood something very clearly about myself. I’ve got a lot of enthusiasm for different projects and ideas and I will see them through no matter what. The only problem is that these things tend to take a lot longer than I actually want them to. I’ve come to live with that, however I’ve also found out that I have to set myself a deadline and work towards that deadline. In the end while it might seem hard at first to get into the rythem the final outcome when you look back so long as there is consistency little by little Rome is built.
So looking back and looking forward at what I want from the next year and what I plan on doing. This is a long one, so be warned.
Broken Kode
BK will always be my primary and main focus. It’s the first thing I check in the morning. I keep looking at it to see how I can enhance things and while walking down the street and an idea pops into my head I always think that I should really post that. If I could post everything that came into my head then I’d be as prolific in my writing as Podz is. The man is a machine. The main work that needs to be done on BK, is for me to get on and complete my re-align. I also want to finally clean up my code slightly and get rid of the indented CSS stylesheets that my plugins put into my XHTML. Effectively I want them linked externally not slapped into the damn code. That goes for Ultimate Tag Warrior, Livesearch and contact form.
I’m going to be retweaking my gallery section because to be honest I’m not terribly happy with it. I’ve got some ideas but I need to incorporate them into the v4.5 design. This leads into my next major item.
Weekly Illustration
Joen does an amazing thing every single month. He spends the time and creates these 5 illustrations that he posts and explains. The final product is often simple, however the execution and the thoughts are always exceptional. What makes me like these things even more is his consistency in delivery. He never misses a month and he’s always there with them, fresh on the table for all to consume. I’m hopefully going to follow that model, except I’m planning on doing this on a weekly basis. Spend no more than 5hours on an single illustration, it could be a composition, it could be more but I will be using Photoshop and Freehand a lot more to create.
Broken Kode Blook
I’ve been working on this, and hopefully before I leave for Greece next week I’ll have the formatting done and ready to go in Indesign, leaving me just with the illustration plates to complete in Athens. I’ve got 5 out of the 12 sorted out, however there’s also the cover that needs to be sorted out and I need to bug a certain somebody who will be writing the introduction to the blook. The deadline for entry into the Blooker is to get the blook delivered to Lulu is by the 30th of January, so I’ve got my work cut out for me.
Broken Kode Tees
These will happen next year. I’m sitting on the designs. All I need to do is go through a week of serious internet search and emails to find the best solution, and one that I can actually put my name behind and actually get these things off and out and about.
Shuttle
We have talked about this again and again. I think the entire Shuttle team HATES the fact that we haven’t actually finished the work on this. The good news is that part of our hard work has already been included in the latest WordPress 2.0 builds. I won’t go into details as to what is ours and what is the Dev team’s addition, that’s for another post when all of this has been completed. We are aiming to have the work behind Shuttle get included into the next version of WordPress (v5.4 or whatever). So that’s a deadline right there for you (but mainly for us so that I can pull my finger out and just get it done).
Inksmith
This was always going to be a slow burner. However we’re aiming to release something sometime early in 2006. I’m not going to talk more about it but this project will be phased in rather than one big massive splash. It will build and increase it’s overall presence in the minds of the blogger slowly but surely. By taking our time and thinking things through, this will benefit everyone a lot more than doing a hack job. There’s seriously no rush for these things.
Splash Panel
I honestly don’t need to try hard at all to write my posts. I’ve got an opinion about every single book I read. My main hassle is finding the time to actually do the redesign for the site, which will also bring put the site in the right direction as to what I want it to be. The hardest thing at the moment however is deciding which graphic novel I should be reviewing next. There are just too many choice and they increase more every single week. I’ll never be in a position of thinking about what to write about. Splash Panel basically writes itself.
Borg
Codename: Borg is something I’m very excited about. Jonathan was helping me out with a bit of CSS this week and he did something that to him was completely natural and simple, that seriously impressed me. That’s when I realised that the coding is best left to people that actually KNOW what they’re doing, and he definitely does. We’ll hopefully announce what this is all about early in the new year as we’ve been hammering and chipping away at it. We’re not going to announce everything until we’re effectively in Beta, so that’s the first hint that it’s an application….oh let the speculation being.
Sharq
Bryan and I will get round to this. I have a battle plan for this and hopefully we’ll be able to follow through in the new year. It’s going to be tough for the both of us, however it’s something that we’re both seriously excited about. It’s definitely going to fill and niche that’s missing in the WordPress community.
Art & Poetry
Stathis and I are working together on a book. It’s going to be a mixture of his poetry and my paintings. Definitely another slow burner, however he’s got the amazing talent of BITCHING and moaning at me ALL day about this. I thought I was an enthusiastic fellow, until I told him that this would be something that could be really cool to do. It’s going to be in full colour, and if can get it hardbound that’s the way we’re going to go.
As I announced this a while back I think it’s important to finish what I started. When I first started writing this post it was actually to say that I wasn’t going to go through with the whole t-shirt thing and that I wasn’t going to be able to produce the designs that I wanted in the way that I wanted to do them, and then highlight the reasons. Strange thing is as I was writing this I realised that I actually still DO want to get this off the ground, so I’ll put my thoughts/ideas/experience on the table and ask for YOUR input, what should I do and where should I go.
Just to record my experience with the guys at StreetShirts. I exchanged around 20 emails or so with the guys over there trying to get to grips with what I’d need and how I could go about getting my designs printed off as t-shirts. My main issue with the t-shirts was the final price that I would attach to them, over
I spent yesterday chilling out with Naoto and his family (that Scottish bastard Gordon tagged along as well). While we’re there we decided to do a few google searches (as you do) came up with this fantastic artist’s work, Naoto Hattori
You might have noticed that I’ve been pretty quiet lately, which is attributed to the fact that I’ve recently been commissioned to redesign an esteemed gentleman’s website. For those who have their ear to the ground know who I’m talking about, but that’s not what I wanted to talk about at right now, I’ll save that post for when the site goes live (sometime next week, I hope). No what I want to talk about is methodology in designing websites.
The Scenario The current client was effectively my dream client. After I sent in my personalised questionnaire which gives me a better idea of what they like and don’t like and what they want and don’t want, I was off. They only got to see the eventual product once I’d finished it. Was it a risk on their part to just give me all this trust? Maybe, but they did come to me rather than any number of the thousands of ‘web designers’ out there and that is what got me thinking about all this in the first place. The Issue We’re told at a very early stage in life that the client is always right. They have every say in changing stuff around and realigning and asking for tweaks etc, after all they’re footing the bill right? See this is where I don’t agree completely. Yeah loaded statement I know but here’s where I’m coming from before you jump up and down my throat.
In this particular case when looking for getting a website designed you effectively have an incredible amount of choice in front of you to select whom you’d like to get the job done for you. You hunt around and find a designer whose style you like. You decide upon that particular designer because you like what they’ve done. Choosing the designer is effectively the biggest choice you’re going to make. The creative decisions are not yours.
The Play This is where things become interesting; when you were asked to do a design the client put a certain amount of trust in you. I approach each design as if it’s one of my drawings. A lot of effort and time is put into every element on the page. I’ve been doing this for a while now and have a better knowledge of what works and what doesn’t. I’ve spent hours looking and learning from design magazines, books, movies, comics. All the while gaining experience and knowledge from all over the place. I see things differently. The ‘client’ hasn’t spent that time, or doesn’t have that spark to do it, which is why they’ve come to me. They know what they like.
The Spark Different people tackle this area in different ways. I’ve mentioned that I am now calling any website I design as a Broken Kode Original. I find that a lot of people offering web designing services lack that original spark. It’s like that additional element that elevates their work from the rest just doesn’t exist. ‘Web designers’ like that really annoy me. Show me some creativity dammit and stop using the word design as a crutch!
So effectively what I’m saying is that if you ask me to design a website for you, expect to give me a lot of input into what you like and don’t like right at the beginning and then see NOTHING until I’m done. Think of it as a painting, I never show a work in progress because you can’t see what’s in my head until I’ve got it on paper. If you asked me to do it for you, you obviously like what you see and therefore should have enough trust in me to provide you with a quality design.
I would love to get more website design commissions as they’ve not been coming in very often lately. Obviously I’m doing something wrong and not promoting that aspect of my work enough. However at least now I know how I want to approach designing websites that keeps me interested and vibrant. (Aside: Broken Kode will get realigned in the not too distant future)
Well I can definitely tell you it’s not about the money. I don’t need it, my hosting is pretty cheapo-tastic provided by Dreamhost. I haven’t really been able to take advantage of their referral scheme to be honest, someone did use me as their referee and I thank that person greatly for that, but that’s hopefully going to change in the months to come as I start pushing out a couple of Broken Kode Originals (what I’m calling original website designs by yours truely). My day job pays the bills with a little to spare (no I’m not filthy rich, just don’t have any bill headaches at this time in my life).
As far as I can tell no one’s gotten rich completely from subscribing to Adsense. The more and more I read from people claiming that it really wasn’t worth their time etc. So what the hell is the point? In this particular case it’s an experiment. I really want to see how much I can make in a 6 month period. I’ll eventually provide everyone with the results of the experiment as if I was back in Physics class back in school.
Sure I’m making ‘the man’ richer, but I’m getting a small piece of the pie so it’s slightly amicable to my weird sensibilities. It’s funny but not long ago I wrote on the designateonline forum that I refused to put Adsense on the site, and keep it cleaner. I guess never say never, but unless it actually is worth my while I don’t think I’ll be keeping the ads on here.
So I guess we’ll talk further in 6 months time. Hopefully we’ll have some hit numbers on here as well.
Right I’ve Google Adsense on the site (only in one location and far away from the main page, it’s just below the posts in the individual posts pages), just as a test. The problem is the damn thing’s not showing up. Quick question to everyone that uses this service, does it take a while before the ads start popping up? Do I need to confirm my bank account before these things start coming through? I’ll write more elaborately about this later on but I just wanted to know why the script’s not doing anything.
The title of the post says it all, lots of little things I’ve got on mind I’d like to get out.
» We’ve upped the InkSmith founding contributors to a total of 10. The latest additions are the impeccable Jennifer and the sublime Becca. You all know who I’m talking about.
» Thank god this week is over. Just handed in a scheme report design for an Embassy building. I’s been a mad rush to get it sorted, what should ideally take us roughly 5 weeks or so was condensed to around 1 week. So, long hours in the office have been the order of the day. Mental note, I will only accept to do projects if I like the mechanical engineer. If they’re a dick streer the fuck away from it. Luckily I’ve been very lucky in this regard generally. The reason is simple, on long office nights that’s who you’ll be spending the most time with.
» I did one of those cool 5 Question interviews for Dave Kellam. I really love what he’s done hacking the site to fit in. Very cool stuff, going that extra step. Also pretty cool being the first of the “blue and orange” interviews.
»I’ve started wearing my scarf, just in case people where wondering when I’d give the OK to accessorize properly. Now is the time people.
Finally got the information regarding how to format your comments sorted out. This has been on my to-do lists since I launched version 4, which is a sad state of affairs to be sure. Special thanks to Joen; well for actually giving me a way that doesn’t look crap, keeping everything nice and clean.
My computer is both one of my favourite tools, link to the outside world, online friends, but at the same time it’s my worst enemy. I actually had to leave the house and go down to one of the two local Starfucks in order to GET AWAY from my computer. In the past I’ve actually turned off the internet (or at least disconnected my computer from the net) in order to get on with other more pressing matters. I’m too weak now to do that, as I listen to music off the internet (via itunes), chit chat and reply to emails inbetween other things.
See the problem is I can actually find a milion and one things to do while I’m on the computer. Continue sorting out my blook, play around with a bit of code, chat to a couple of people about this project or the other. The list goes on. So I’m starting to think about the real reason why I’m not going to get my first graphic novel done any time soon. I’ve actually gotten a way bit through it going via the Collen Doran approach. The way she goes about it is actually drawing multiple pages at any one time. This makes it less of a slog and more interesting not knowning which page she’s going to work on in that particular day. At least that’s my understanding of her approach when producing the excellent ORBITER graphic novel with Warren Ellis.
The main problem that I’m facing right now however is the fact that in order to complete these various projects, seeing my friends has actually taken a hit. You can’t possibly get anything done if you keep going out, but at the same time if you don’t go out then your inspiration will be for nothing. However the fact of the matter is unless you sit your ass down and get on with the work then you’ll never get anywhere.
There are a number of getting things done websites all over the blogosphere. Some of the advise presented in these sites is very sound, however I find that I completely forget the advise and get back to my rubbish habits that don’t squeeze every waking second with some productivity. That’s actually when I start getting headaches. Nearly four years ago I suffered some serious headaches for a prolongued period of time, roughly 2 months solid, due in part to the physcological pressure that I decided to put myself under to try and get things done NOW. Also I’ve yet to find a proper PIM(Personnal Information Manager) that I can actually use, but I’ll be talking about that in the near future in much more detail.
The comic landscape wil change in the years to come. Historically when a comic book fan had an idea and wanted to do a comic they would set about doing it sometimes putting the actual things together, photocopying A4 pages and stapling them together themselves. These things would be called minicomics Quality varied considerably and usually wasn’t all that great. Truth be told I’ve never bought a mini-comic. My problem is the actual lack of quality involved in these things.
When I first started this blog, part of it was to chronicle my journey into getting my graphic novel published, of course I’ve not actually finished said graphic novel but it’s getting there. Now when I originally decided to set across this path, there were no alternatives save self publishing or going to various publishers to try and get them to pick up my book.
A few months afterwards Cafepress decided to roll out their book publishing division. This was to my knowledge one of the first ventures into print on demand models over the internet. I was extremely excited about the prospect of having my book published no matter what. Distribution would have to be relegated over the internet, however this wasn’t something that I was completely unimpressed by.
Now there are so many different ways of publshing opening up all over the place. Lulu seems to be the one to beat since they’ve decided to expand their reach to just the internet. There are of course restrictions to what can and can’t be distributed (which is oddly based on the type of book being printed i.e B&W versus colour), however the doors are open for anyone to grab a hold of this model and run with it.
Comic book ditribution is a niche affair. If you want something specific you need to go via a comic book retailer. While I like my comic book retailer they don’t stock everything. They never offer me a discount on ANYTHING, and the store seriously isn’t a welcome place like it was in Greece, where the comic book store was effectively a home away from home, so I don’t really care if I buy the books from them or not.
What the comic book store does provide however is a means to browse and let something JUMP AT YOU. It’s a very important part of buying books. Something will catch your eye. It could be the design, it could be the cover artist, it could be the title that grabs you. The flip through test is the second most important part of the process. Most books fail in this respect and are returned back to the shelf. A more virtual method of browsing is no doubt going to be developed in due time that makes browsing titles a little more intuative with normal practice. Stubbling onto something by mistake should be easier. The consisness of the search feature can be a bad thing at times.
Now the online distribution method is one that’s still in it’s infantile stage. The professional comic book creators have yet to jump onto this model. At least I’ve heard sweet fuck all about this being something very successful in the comic book industry. Since I can only see from my back yard I’ll say that seeing as I’ve not yet bought an online graphic novel this model hasn’t taken off, since I’m ALWAYS on the hunt for good books. I would love to find a gem here or there, however the ones I’ve been looking at online are not of the quality that I’d expect from a comic I’d pay for under normal circumstances. I know that’s being seriously harsh, however I will say that I’m also one of the easiest person to get to buy a well produced graphic novel.
There are ways of making it work (an article for another time) and I believe those people who are the early adopters maybe haven’t tapped into that way just yet.
After hammering this a couple of times (and in the process getting an even better understanding of exactly what makes PHP tick), I’ve formatted the snippets to be part of the main posts. This is mainly to give these random ideas of mine a home, that don’t necessarily require a full post, but also shouldn’t be relegated to the bottom of the page. This’ll hopefully mean more random geekiness from me in the future, or at least that’s the plan Batman.
Think of this as a complete and UTTER bargain. This is your chance to own Broken Kode. Hell I’ll even throw in the hosting for the rest of the year. According to Central Scrutinize if you extrapolate all those crazy numbers that have been thrown around the internet after the AOL buy-out of Weblogs Inc, then this little url is the most expensive url in the 9rules network. So much like Phu, I’m calling in my chips, calling it a night, and putting the site up for sale. Even though it’s priced at $2M plus, I’m feeling happy this evening, so $1M should be ok. Anyone interested can just send me a check.
Most of those links are coming from Rin and Manji users. I’ve talked about this extensively before so once again, all those who have kept the link in there, thank you kindly. All those who have linked back to BK just because, again thanks guys. Which reminds me I’ve got to sort out my blogroll. It’s on my list of things to do, once I’ve got my complicator up and running again.
What’s really funny is I don’t even want to imagine what Binary Bonsai or Photomatt would go for. Yes they’re both linked like CRAZY.
I hate ‘getting’ back into drawing. The reason is very simple as it takes me a good couple of tries before I remember how to hold the fucking pencil up straight. Yesterday was a very important day as it marked the FIRST day that I started drawing Sublime. I have eluded to this book for a good long while now. A version of the script has been lying on my floor for a good 4 months and to be honest I’ve been pretty chicken to pick it up and run with it.
I kept saying that I’d get around to it at one point or another once I’d finished the script completely. Needless to say that wasn’t the case. No I need to make a start now. If, or rather when I come back to modify pages, at least I’ll have made a step forward in the book itself. Sure it’s not going to be a masterpiece, then again, my first website wasn’t a masterpiece and neither has any other one after that been what I’d call perfect. Not even close. What I can say however and what makes it easier for me is the fact that there is an improvement every single time I get into the creator’s seat, and I suppose that’s what I’m hoping for with my comic book work.
A gradual progression of skill that will evolve hopefully from page to page. It’ll help me cut my teeth before I jump into the story that I’ve been putting off for the past 3 years.
The problem is that I’m the photoshop generation. Traditionally comic books are greated in the following way:
- The writer produces the script from which
- The artist draws, which then gets given to
- The inker, who comes along and does his thing.
- Then the colourist comes into the fold and tries their best to enhance the artwork.
- The letterer comes in and does his magic
When I start drawing a page I start imagining various things, I can see the page clearly in my head while the page is blank. Usually speaking the final page is reasonably close to my intended vision. When it’s not I blame it on my lack of skill. It does happen that your imagination is a few steps infront of your skill. The thing I’ve been noticing more and more is that now I won’t draw absolutely everything because I know it would take me very long to do manually, and wouldn’t be as perfect of clever as if I did it in photoshop.
One thing that my little experience with Emmortel has proven to me is that if I’ve got a deadline I will do everything that I have to to meet that deadline. I will not cut too many corners, just be professional enough to achive a specific level that is acceptable to me. I’m a complete anal perfectionist and so NOTHING is ever good enough. Nothing achives it’s potential. Everything can be done better.
However in order to get anywhere you have to try, try and try again; and you must have a deadline. A self imposed deadline, a set deadline, whatever. Something that makes you work harder and longer, and faster and with more passion and conviction than if it was left to the wind to see when it gets done it gets done.
With Emmortel “complete” I can turn my eyes onto a few projects that have been abandonded these past couple of weeks/month. So that it can be official (when I mean official, actually documented somewhere and that would be right here because I can run away from this post but it will always be there staring at me, haunting me) I think I’m going to give myself 20 days to finish off the first draft of my script ‘Sublime’. Twenty days because I fly to Lebanon on the 21st of May.
I’ve thought about this story for close to a year solid now. I’ve written countless (actually more like 6) drafts of the plot, I’m 30 pages into the current script, let the fun begin.
I’ve decided to go for a more dynamic approach to v3 of this site. There are a number of reasons, but mainly it’s because I’ve been sitting on this design for a while now, and I really wanted to start using some of the features I’d set up for it, mainly my snippets column. I plan on updating that part of the site pretty regularly.
The actual redesign was spawned from the need to showcase certain things and to actually highlight others. I knew that I wanted to showcase Manji and Rin a bit more on the front page, and subsequent themes I am actively involved in developing.
There are loads of tweaks I’ve got to get around to and complete a number of static pages, some of which are hinted at the top of this page, but I’m in no rush right now. If I build this content in such a way I’ll be able to reuse it later on down the line for future updates. I wonder how long I’ll stay with this design?
Themes Tangent: What I’ve found really amazing, is just the sheer number of themes that are now available for the WordPress community. We’re talking well over 100 themes and counting.
The trick now is to try and seperate the good from bad, from the ugly. Some I’ve got to say are exceptional themes. Blix is one theme I think is brilliant. It’s subtle colours and clean lines really do appeal to me. Another one is Green Marinee which I think is another slick addition to the great WordPress theme arsenal. K2 is lurking on the horizon, and Persian has always been around kicking ass and taking names.
Having a good looking site in WordPress is now not an option, it’s a given.
I’ve literally wasted 2 evening on trying to sort out my bloody update to the site. I was only intending it to be a slight tweak. Spent yesterday trying to work out how to make navigation bars in CSS lists,…the way I wanted. See that’s the crux of it. I have a navigation list but the way I’ve got it in my mind, it shouldn’t have been too difficult to implement. Unfortunately you factor in the difference between IE and Firefox and you’ve got a whole world of pain.
What’s worse is that after I finally got it to work, I remembered a fundamental flaw in the design, which has effectively scuppered all the work this evening, with the exception of those lists. Dammit I’m not even updating anything major here, just the index page. Guess I must be having an off couple of days right now. Not really in the mood, even though it’s been snowing in London and I’ve had a great productive weekend.
I guess at times like these it’s best to step away from the computer and come back to it in a couple of days when I’ve got my head sorted.
Right after University I spent a few months learning how to draw faces. I spent the better part of 3 months drawing portraits of my friends to understand exactly what the structure of a face is. From this little exercise I even got one of these drawing up in the Hype Gallery last year which was both one of the best experiences and worst experiences of my life. I’ve learnt a few things since then, 3 1/2 years. This is the first in a new series of portraits.
