Firstly I hope to improve my organisation and rejuvenate my motivation. Toward the end of 2011, as things got tough, my motivation was dented and I found even the simplest things slipping down to the bottom of my todo list. 2012 is a time to change this. I’m a firm believer in “the more you put in, the more you get out”.

It’s really about time that I focus on my own personal brand, get a new portfolio online and dedicate time to marketing myself online. I’m still not sure of the best way to organise this website but I’ll certainly be aiming for deeper social integration – Google+, Twitter and Dribbble.

I’ve decided to try and launch a couple of magazine style websites. Whether this be a design or web related website or something completely different I’m not sure (it could be both). I’m looking forward to experiencing the ins and outs of running such a site, marketing it and building up a community feel. If anybody has an idea(s) or would like to get involved then please leave me a comment below, drop me an email or throw me a tweet.

Along the way I’m hoping to press on and improve my PHP skills, Adobe Illustrator skills and perhaps learn a new CMS such as Drupal. I’m going to stop there and keep this short and sweet, hopefully I can make 2012 a BIG year.

(!) Any factual errors please correct me by posting a comment below or by dropping me a tweet.

Tarun Hari - Freelance UI Designer

Tarun was my first introduction to the web industry – he’s the one responsible for igniting my interest. On top of that he’s an absolutely brilliant designer and front end developer. I still find it funny that I managed to bump into such a great designer right at the very start (without even realising it). Fate, destiny or luck? Useful!

View his Website or Twitter.

James McDonald – Freelance UI Designer

Extremely talented UI designer. I think that more or less covers it. James has a really awesome design style that I can relate to. I recommend taking a peek at his dribbble or forrst pages – he’s regularly posting little UI gems.

View his Website or Twitter.

Tom Barrett – Open Source Architect / Developer

I’ve worked alongside Tom for the past 2-3 years (and continue to do so). He’s an extremely experienced developer with an eye on the bigger picture. He’s also a WordPress guru – if you need any plugin or backend development give him a shout. Developers often get overlooked but for me he’s an essential part of the machine. Essential and bloody good.

View his Website or Twitter.

Ashley Baxter – Photography

Ashley has a whole range of skills and interests but its her photography that I’m focussing on here. I don’t think she realises just how good she is, which is rather endearing. Regularly seen playing down her photographic skills, don’t listen to her. Pop over to her Flickr and make your own mind up.

Ashley also allowed me to use a couple of photos for a piece of university coursework which I am very grateful for, thank you.

View her Website or Twitter.

Rachel Shillcock – Web Designer / Front-end Developer

Another “better than she realises” individual. Only yesterday did I see her looking down at herself. Great design work, really lovely person and amazingly connected throughout the industry. Keep an eye out for the hashtag #projectBINK on twitter. I can’t say much more other than Rachel (and myself) will appreciate it.

View her Website or Twitter.

Toby Powell – 3D Visualisation / Web Design / Teddy Bear

What I’d call a creative swiss army knife. Not only can Toby do a lot of different types of work, he’s very good at them all. Jack of all trades, master of none? There are exceptions to every rule – here’s one. He’s also a part time teddy bear lookalike, what more do you want.

View his Website or Twitter.

That more or less covers everyone that I wanted to add to my initial list. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to add more over the coming months. I’d love people to do two things. 1. Leave a comment below 2. Visit the pages of everyone I’ve listed above.

(!) Any factual errors please correct me by posting a comment below or by dropping me a tweet.

Naturally not everything is 110%, but we wanted to push forward the new platform and gather some feedback. If you have any comments on the site or the band please leave them here and I will either deal with them or pass them on to the guys!

I’ve broken it down into each session I attended…

Legacy to Latest

This session was hosted by Kieran O’Shea and focused on upgrading from legacy versions of WordPress. Whilst I haven’t had real first hand experience with legacy versions of WordPress I could see how it would be a problem for a small chunk of users and the solutions offered up by Kieran seemed logical. The over-reliance on custom tables that legacy setups tend to suffer from was explained well. The point below (obvious yet often overlooked) was a key quote I took from this session.

“Plugins can both break an upgrade or be broken by an upgrade”

WordPress for Mobile

This session was full of little gems from Rachel McCollin. Considering the context of your website was a key point raised; do you need a mobile version? How will people use it? The idea that responsive website design can help bridge the gap between desktop and mobile was also prevalent as well as the different approaches you could take when making a WordPress site mobile ready.

“Mobile first, then desktop? A reversed approach to mobile design.”

How to make money out of a marketing agency

Although this talk was business related and less WordPress specific, I must say it was one of the top talks. Not only did Normal Wilson have a wealth of experience and knowledge, he also delivered his talk in a very polished manner. Some top notch business advice was on offer during this session.

“The balance is between having satisfied customers vs profits… Find a business mentor (even outside of your industry [sic]“

Theme Marketplace – Theme Force

Following on from the above sessions, Noel Tock delivered a fantastic insight into his own major project Theme Force. It was great to see such an honest assessment of his current project – what went well and what could have been done better. I particularly enjoyed the case study feel of this session. I’d like to wish Noel Tock and his team all the best with the Theme Force project.

“Give clients simple propositions”

10 steps to the top of Google

I took a bit of a gamble attending this SEO session hosted by Mark Adams, but I’m really glad I did. It was packed with so much useful information I couldn’t possibly do it justice within this post. Needless to say I’ve picked up a lot of useful tips and I’m excited to apply them to my web projects.

“Don’t underestimate the power and importance of talking”

Our biggest mistakes

The final session which I attended over the weekend was hosted by David Coveney. He bravely highlighted mistakes he’s made such as, looking at other people/other websites too much, avoiding the community and believing he was technically superior to others. Rounded off with a fun little demonstration which used skittles (yes the sweets – you had to be there!), it was an enjoyable talk.

“You need to understand the handout culture of business”

Where you there? Have I missed something? Let me know what you thought by leaving a comment below.

It’s no secret that its running on the Scherzo Theme by Leon Paternoster. I was actually introduced to this theme during WordCamp UK, in a session hosted by Rachel McCollin. I won’t touch upon the session itself (will be a future post), but needless to say the theme stuck out. Its extremely lightweight, unoffending and lets the content do the talking. Its also great for mobile viewing without me having to make any changes or rely on any plugins.

It might seem funny that a designer hasn’t designed his own blog

It might seem funny that a designer hasn’t designed his own blog. Whilst thats a valid point, I (like many others) have a real issue with designing for myself. Its the endless drive towards perfection that actually stops me from doing anything or releasing anything into the wild so to speak. I’ve been in a “just do it” mood lately – so here it is.

I touched on the fact that I’ve just been to WordCamp UK in Portsmouth, met some wonderful new people, gathered some fresh ideas and generally had an awesome time. I don’t want to go crazy on WordPress/WordCamp in this post as it’ll give me something to talk about in a follow-up post. So I’ll leave it there.

These “hello world” or “welcome” posts are difficult aren’t they? You can’t help but make them fluffy. So less about this post and more about what you can expect from my little corner of the web…

• Web design & development ramblings
• Social media chit-chat
• Music rants
• Generally interesting (to someone, somewhere) goodness

So if you’re not really into anything website or technology related, stick around. I’ll try and throw in some off the wall stuff.If you’ve made it to this point of the post, please leave a comment. If just five people leave a comment I think I’ll be overjoyed.