Feb 25 2010

Auckland’s logo competition dilemna

Uncategorized - 5 months ago

Controversy surrounds the Auckland Council’s logo competition. At its heart lies the endless debate around speculative, or ‘spec’, work. Personally, my choice is not to participate in these, although unlike most designers, I’m prepared to admit that occasionally my hand is forced by not actually having a great idea.


Oct 17 2009

BeST Awards ’09

Uncategorized - 10 months ago

Alt Group had another successful night at the BeST Awards this year. Our Selecon identity took home the Stringer, and amongst others, the Hudson Gavin Martin website scored me my second silver.


Oct 2 2009

Hobsonville Point website

Uncategorized - 10 months ago

My latest website went live yesterday at www.hobsonvillepoint.co.nz. The site’s for a large government-run development at a former airbase northwest of Auckland. The site allows the CMS operator to create advanced layouts across multiple columns, and has an interactive timeline demonstrating how the development will err, develop.


Aug 27 2009

Coromandel theme for WordPress

Uncategorized - 11 months ago

I’ve just uploaded a modified version of my blog theme, named Coromandel, to the WordPress Themes website. Hopefully it will be accepted and available for download very soon. It’s been two years to the day since I decided to release it and a lot of work has gone into it before and since. Much of that went into squeezing more out of the system in an attempt to make the theme easier and more compelling to use. You can read more about it, and leave any comments, on its dedicated page.


Aug 15 2009

Semi-Permanent ’09

Uncategorized - 12 months ago

Another great festival, albeit slightly overshadowed by the mighty Webstock and last year’s event. Highlights for me were definitely the British contingent, most notably Allofus, Bibliothèque and Studio AKA.


May 31 2009

Theme options for WordPress 2.7

Uncategorized - 1 year ago

Amongst other features, WordPress 2.7 includes numerous improvements around the security and flexibility of user options for third-party themes and plug-ins. I’ve been trying to add an options page to my theme but I couldn’t find any clear, up-to-date advice on how to go about it for this particular version. Here’s how I did it.


Feb 22 2009

Webstock ’09

Uncategorized - 1 year ago

I flew down to Wellington on Thursday morning to attend my first Webstock and it was excellent. I made plenty of notes and in the rest of this post I will try to summarise my thoughts on the event and each of the speakers, and hopefully do them all some justice.


Jan 30 2009

Farewell, Devoil

Uncategorized - 1 year ago

I attended the funeral of my nearest blood relative (barring of course, my daughter) in New Zealand today. Bob Archer was my dad’s cousin and as I found out today, like me, he emigrated from the UK to be with his sweetheart. He received military honours at the service, with members of Bob’s local Returned and Services’ Association centre in attendance.


Jan 14 2009

SketchUp is awesome

Uncategorized - 1 year ago

We’ve been toying with the idea of updating the kitchen, and who knows, altering or extending the back of the house one day. After visiting a kitchen showroom recently and and getting the brush-off because we didn’t want a lucrative full refit, I’ve decided to visualise the kitchen myself in 3D using Google’s free SketchUp.


Jan 10 2009

Emily is one

Uncategorized - 1 year ago

It was Emily’s first birthday today, and amongst a multitude of other gifts she got this big red trike. We can’t believe it’s been a year since she was born, and it’s a such a cliché, but it’s true – it does go by too fast. She’s been so happy and easy-going, and we feel so blessed to have her. Happy birthday, gorgeous.