This Saturday saw the now annual Barcamp Blackpool take place at the much loved Blackpool Pleasure Beach. With all the trappings of the seaside, donkeys, sun, sea, sand and hen parties. Oh and did I mention a web conference?

With only faint indications of what talks would be taking place before event, seeing what the day holds is part of the excitement.

I had grandous plans for Barcamp Blackpool, after a week of lively debate with my colleague Steve. We’d both decided to take the plunge this year and present a talk each.  With a catastrophic PC based disaster Friday night, my day at Barcamp started at 9am in front of the office computer.

The venue is situated next to my favourite childhood ride Noah’s ark. The combination of bright colours and fibreglass dinosaurs being rounded up by policeman just reiterates why I always wanted to be a designer.

So after an ice breaker it was on with the talks,

Knitting 1o1 by Cat Ashton

Real men knit, I couldn’t think of a more manly pastime so naturally I had to give it a bash. I’ve a new found respect for both the elderly and anyone with knitwear.

Emotional design by Dan Coverdale (me)

I used to be brill at presentations, in the end it ended up being rushed and I’m not sure I really got my point across. Still a useful experience for next year, thanks to all those that attended, and apologies for the cat half way through with lemons on. That was my big finish.

Girl Geek Tea Party

I stumbled into this one by accident, I say stumbled I was seated at the time obviously. I’m neither a girl nor a real geek (I’m a designer the similarities are endless).

But it was surprisingly good fun, now I’m already a competent html coder but I took much enjoyment in hand coding something from scratch in notepad.

Free of the usual trappings of Dreamweaver I don’t think you can argue that I created a masterpiece.

Ironically inspired by some conversation about controversial website design, I don’t think it’ll be appreciated in my time.

45 second pitching by Jon Atkinson

I found this talk particularly interesting, and picked up some valuable points on presenting and simply getting your point across without too much waffle.  As both a full time employee and a freelancer I’m not directly involved in to much direct pitching but it was definitely a worthwhile experience.

Stick man animation

It takes guts for anybody to step and make a presentation, and even as the youngest speaker this turned out to be a pretty good session.

David James by Steven Daniels

The session by my colleague Steve could best be described as intimate but definetly struck a chord with those attending. The overiding point I could relate was that of “don’t rush” the journey is more important than the destination.

Many thanks to Gemma and everyone who helped organise the day, Cat Ashton for putting up with my inability to knit and sense of humor and everyone who I met throughout the day.

See you next year.

I haven’t done much print, print is really one of those mediums you either master or fail completely at.

The task was to produce a promotional poster for the Billabong store in the Arndale store in Manchester, eyeing a nice portfolio piece I leapt at the chance. With a very loose brief of literally “make it look cool” I had pretty much free reign to produce something.

I was stoked (yeah I said stoked) to see the poster displayed prominently in the Arndale store, and as promotion on both the Billabong store Facebook and various websites.

You can just spy my poster design in the back, sadly I wasen’t in attendance for free manicures.

Picture courtesy Expix.co.uk

I’ve been slacking of late on my blog, sure your all missing me talk about fish on Twitter, what shoes i’m wearing and where i’ve been boarding. But i’ve been pretty busy with projects, so I figured i’d give you a little roundup.

To grow personally as a designer I step out of my comfort zone so i’ve been looking to do some print projects and brand design.

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After several late evenings, lunchtimes and weekend’s I finally launched my website. I’ve dabbled in personal websites before, from various photography sites to my now hugely successful motoring blog which hit 30,000 visits a year in 2009.

It’s only by building this site that I came to realise I’m my fiercest critic and what finally went live was the third iteration. After showing an old colleague my original site he made the comment “its a bit like everything else”.

I’d been trying to create something like everyone else but why not carve my own little niche out on the web? why relegate my picture to a far flung about me page. In times gone by I’d be wary about splashing myself all over a website but why not?

Fundamentally my portfolio is me, its who I am as a designer. Hopefully people get that.

Although whilst my picture may portray that I’m a kindred spirit to animal kind, I’m not big on birds.

Ken Block is gonna be rocking these DC Shoes Pro Spec 2.0s. in the World Rally Championship this year. DC Shoes are gonna shake up the apparel market in the WRC.

However much I try and deny it cars have always been a big influence in my life, and it was this Nissan Silvia S14 of San Fransisco based designer, enterpeneur and drifter Mark Arcenal which drew my attention to Fatlace.

Founded in 1999 Fatlace is a collective of creative, Dj’s, Photographers, car guys and everything in between. With a shop in the China Town District of San Fran and a global presence through the Fatlace.com portal. Their influence, products and ideologies span the globe.

Mark left his job as Global Digital Lead for Nike Sportswear late last year, so it’ll be great to see what collabs Fatlace comes out with in 2010. Recent blogs suggest pieces with HPI, Oakley and Nike could be in the pipeline.

I’ve had loads of products over the years from Fatlace, but its the logo that’s become so synonymous with the brand. Whether forwards or in the more atypical reversed design. The logo oozes cool and creativity. Adorning anything from a keychain to Manny Pacquiao’s shorts the Fatlace brand has become a lifestyle in itself.

2010 Fatlace Keychains

Fatlace / Formula Drift collab tee

Go check out fatlace at: www.Fatlace.com

All photos courtesy Fatlace

I’m big on goals and I learnt more last year than a did the year before. In my day to day job i’ve had the pleasure of working with some fantastic clients from locals to multinationals. But sometimes don’t you just crave the creative freedom you get with an unpaid project?

I’ve developed more as a designer by going for things outside of my comfort zone. I have my designers I inspire to be like, but its much more rewarding to carve out your own niche in a swamped marketplace.

Inspiration comes to me in weird places, its the curse of a designer anything from eating a sandwich to taking a shower. I want to be a better designer and I want to push myself, so why not embark on a project that ties my design, coding and new found love of Adobe Illustrator. Let’s push the boat out and include photography as well.

Now I love Apple products, I have an Ipod its brilliant at what it does and i’d quite happily take an Imac. But what is the ipad? what does it do? its bigger than a Kindle and a Netbook but smaller than a laptop.

What makes it revolutionary? tablet Pc’s are nothing new

We got a surprising amount of snow over Christmas, and more again early January. With my newly purchase board I went in search of some proper hills and proper snow. I’ve boarded at Chill Factore in Manchester, but nothing prepares you for real snow, its not groomed, its not compact and its chuffing cold!

I hiked up a hill past several sledgers using anything from a piece of faded Lino to a stolen roadworks sign. Top marks to the couple using what looked like an old blanket! Naturally I rang Sam to check out where the group we’re and I nearly collapsed when I reached this tower.

Maybe one of 2010’s resolution is to get a little fitter.

Needless to say I had to snowboard back down to meet the group, picture a 24 year old on his first snowboard submarining into a hole full of snow 12-14 inches deep, then trying to get out.

After finally catching up the group, who had two shovels in tow incidentally I made a beeline for the top of the slope.

Naturally somebody always has to go big, this guy was clearing the road gap off the smallest kicker i’ve yet witnessed.

Sam also went bit, then bigger. No double corks this time, could Vancouver 2010 beckon?

One of 2010 “To do’s” was:

“Hit a kicker on my board and do some freestyle snowboarding.”

And I nailed that! granted it was a small kicker, and I was trumped by Sam (several times), I can now legitimately wear bright coloured snowboard gear in future. Note the Bern helmet, Safety first and all that.

Well i’ll start by saying happy New Year, hopefully you’ve started as you mean to go on. Or hungover depending on how heavy your night was! I’ve set myself a new set of challenges for 2010, its the year I really want to push my design up a level.

So what did I achieve in 2009?