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An initial foray into the world of blogging mostly about design, a bit about the internet and one or two personal thoughts.

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Simple Web Presence

Posted by Amanda Sharp
Amanda Sharp
Partner/Designer Soapbox
User is currently offline
on Tuesday, 16 October 2012
in Websites · 0 Comments

 murrays logoWe have just whipped up this snazzy little logo and single page website for a local agricultural company called www.murraysseedcleaning.com.

A single page business card'esq web presence is just perfect for a start up business or your first foray into the online world!  Easy to update, expand, get to grips with SEO and web managment in an every increasingly web dominant world.  You need no knowledge of web managment nor do you need any software, it is fully accessible directly on the web and comes complete with an instruction booklet and your hand held for 2 months. The content management system we use is about as easy to use as Microsoft Word.

murrays website

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The Power Hour

Posted by Amanda Sharp
Amanda Sharp
Partner/Designer Soapbox
User is currently offline
on Wednesday, 19 September 2012
in General · 0 Comments

hourglass-300x268I think I can safely say I am a rather unorganised person, as a designer I seem to operate on ‘fire brigade’ managment!  However, I recently read a report on how to master my disorganisation, get on top of things and get organised.  The report tells you how to rationalize your time spent on a project, how to approach things in a way that will help you to achieve more.  When I read it, it seemed nothing more than common sense and why did I never do it before!  There are 16 simple guides to follow, and as I was so taken with them I thought I would share them with you, here is the first one.

There are many times we joke about ‘Multi-Tasking’ we juggle design projects and general business, the truth is this is not at all effective.  This does not mean you can’t work on more than one project simultaneously… just don’t try to complete them all at the same time.

  1. Set yourself a ‘Power Hour’ and work in 1 hour time blocks. (use a timer if it helps)
  2. Use a separate file for each major project you are working on, work in this hour from one file (i.e. one project).  This way you are not distracted by looking at all of the tasks from your other projects and getting overwhelmed. (also keep all username and password relating to this project in this file so they are always at hand, but do make sure they are safe).
  3. Take a break only when you have finished your ‘Power Hour’.. and make it a short break.

This method really does work, I find I get more done in my ‘Power Hour’ than I ever did in a ‘Normal Hour’, you  should try it!

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Avaaz - A good idea

Posted by Justin Strong
Justin Strong
Partner/Designer Soapbox
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on Thursday, 19 January 2012
in Personal Thoughts · 0 Comments

 

www.avaaz.org

I signed up to this site many years ago in a petition to stop whaling or some other lofty goal. I must admit I was a more idealistic person at that time, however I have remained a member and will do so for many more years. The reason behind this is that it is a site with a noble idea, a good intention, that however jaded we become we should try to keep alive. It tries to fight any injustice using the only means open to it, petitions.

Obviously for these petitions to have any meaning it needs support, more people means a larger chance of being heard. It’s a way to have your say no matter how insignificant you might feel, and for this reason I keep signing. I get angry with a lot of what happens around us and in other parts of the world, mostly due to the fact I feel helpless and impotent by not being able to prevent what is happening.

Last year though I did feel good, when after pressure from Avaaz and others they prevented Japan and its conspirators from increasing the number of allowed whales killed for "science", when more aid was sent to southern Sudan and for many other reasons before and probably to come in the near future. It’s my little way to fight back and all it requires is for me to sign a petition. Yes, it isn’t much but at least it’s something, so I encourage everyone that reads this to do the same.

Their latest fight:

Blackout - Click here to save our free internet!

Today we could save the free Internet and stop the US Congress passing a law that gives them the power to censor the world's Internet. Public pressure is at boiling point and we are turning the tide. Let's stop the bill now -- sign the petition!

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Blowing Bubbles

Posted by Amanda Sharp
Amanda Sharp
Partner/Designer Soapbox
User is currently offline
on Tuesday, 22 November 2011
in Events · 0 Comments

Not only are we Graphic and Web Designers we are also fans of Star Wars and Comic Art, so last Saturday we headed off to Leeds to attend the 5th Annual Thought Bubble. The Leeds Comic Art Festival known as Thought Bubble is part of The Leeds International Film Festival and is held each year at the Saviles Hall, Leeds.

It was the announcement that Adam Hughes would be appearing as a guest that made attending Thought Bubble one of the ‘must do’ things we wanted to achieve this year. Justin has been a long-time admirer of Adam Hughes’ work and wanted nothing more than take the opportunity of getting an original Adam Hughes sketch. Alongside displaying their comics and artworks some of the guest artists offer to do sketches for their fans and admirers.  When we finally got to Adam’s table after a long time queueing we asked him if he would please sketch us a Twi'lek. He also had some prints of his work for sale which we couldn’t help but take advantage of and came away absolutely thrilled to bits with our sketch and print.

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