New horizons

has it really been nearly 6 months since I last posted here? Oh dear...
To be honest this year has been pretty insane, non-stop work and lots of exhaustion. Hopefully that's all going to change in the next few months as I'm just about to move on for a new opportunity.

I've really enjoyed my time at Fjord, although it's been crazy and non-stop work, it's pushed me harder than any other role I've taken on. it's completely changed my portfolio of work, giving me exposure to lots of very interesting projects for the BBC, Orange and Nokia. All of them have challenged me in new ways. It's also left me more confident in my abilities as a visual designer and even as an interactive designer.
Even though the new role is going to be amazing, it's really a sad feeling to be leaving Fjord. The company has changed so much in the last 18 months it's an extremely exciting place right now. Last year Chris Liu took over as MD and has revolutionized the London office. I really owe him a lot. He's been a real inspiration and great to work for.
As I said I'm sad to be leaving as I think they are on the verge of something massive. Still I guess it's good to be leaving somewhere a little sad, knowing you have made a bit of a difference to the direction the company is going while heading onto something new and exciting rather than trying to avoid the door slamming on the way out.
I'll blog about the new job when I have more details to share.

Life of an international playboy

As mentioned in my previous brief post, the lack of presence here is due to a new job. It's not like I haven't wanted to post here, or had things to post about. No siree bob. My life has been a constant stream of bloggable events.
Actually that's a lie. I've been working my boney white ass off. Probably like I have never done before. Or for a very, very long time. To illustrate this point I'm currently posting from Gate 38 of the South Terminal of Gatwick airport. Up until a month or so ago I had been commuting weekly to Yahoo in Hamburg for the past few months, monday in London, Hamburg in the afternoon and then back to good ol' Blighty on the Thursday. I've just started doing it again and it's an interesting experience, the life of an international playboy, and it really is as truly as exciting as you can imagine.

Ok that's not entirely true and by entirely I mean not at all.

I hate airports.
I hate the smell (which, thanks to the smoking ban has been transformed from a smokey, greasy food, wet dog and tax free perfume smell to just greasy food, wet dog and tax free perfume smell) I hate the people, I hate the families, I hate the grannies, I hate the brits who queue for their plane too early and the Germans who refuse to adhere to any kind of queuing manners at all. I hate the cheap airline, the wasted hours, the crap tea, the delays, the stress and the turbulence.
Apart from that traveling each week on the red eye is a joy. Especially the 4.30 start, followed by a 12 hour day in the office and then dinner in a hotel food dispensary of some sort or the nearest place that I can understand the menu and they don't put bacon on everything.

It's great.
I love my life!

The best of it is I finish at Yahoo! this week, no more traveling there after tuesday. That means, hopefully a much more settled lifestyle, more blogging again, proper working hours and home cooked food more often. Not as glamorous as being an International Playboy but it'll do.

And the best thing, I'll be able to write about my experience working for Yahoo! and that my friend, is a whole different story...

Monchique

Apologies for the state of my last post, it was a bit rushed trying to get one up before I legged it onto a plane (yet again) for a long weekend away with everyone from Fjord. Currently we have 35 odd members of staff spread between the UK, Finland and Germany and we all went up a mountain in Portugal to help plan the future direction of the company (as well as consume vast amounts of port). It was a really positive weekend. I won't bother with the details but I came away with a greater sense of ownership in the place I work and also a clearer picture of my place in that.

To give over a brief idea of Fjord's history, they have been developing concepts primarily aimed at the mobile market, many of our clients are from that field and develop software or devices aimed at handsets. Fjord's philosophy has always been that handsets or mobile devices are enablers and access points into greater social networks. This idea is becoming more and more prominent and we are finding our skills increasingly in demand.
As I have said before, the thing I love about being here is having a belief in the ideas we are developing.
We are trying to make communication easier.
We are simplifying complexity.
We are trying to bring a human face to technology.
As this is happening the ideas we are pitching are increasingly abstract concepts. We are describing devices or solutions that are about filling gaps or introducing new possibilities. It's getting harder to explain these things through case studies or power point. We need a way to make these concepts tangible.
I guess that's where my role is going to be.
I am going to use storytelling as a tool to explain the concept we design. It could be a demo movie of the final application.
It could be a story explaining the area we have identified for development.
It may just be a visual mood board setting the stage for an idea or it could be something completely abstract.
We are still working out the details but it's pretty exciting and I'm really looking forward to it!
In fact there is a big culture of change at work at the moment and it's an exciting time for everyone there right now. I'll write more about it when I have a clearer picture to paint.
(Yet again this is another rushed post but I'm trying hard to keep writing even when I have a flight to catch!)

work experience..

I had really interesting meetings with two companies this last week or so. The first one was 'Imagination', a real blast from the past back to my old Uni days. Quite a few friends of mine were really keen on their methodology and belief in 'Brand Experience'. They have amazing vision, fantastic offices and excellent work plus it was great to finally get over there and have a look around.
The other company was a place called 'Fjord' and that was equally as interesting. The work they are doing is outstanding and incredibly unique. It's refreshing to go into a studio that is innovative and successful as well as really nice people. They are working in the mobile market, developing interfaces and apps for a variety of phone producers and technology companies. It really gave me a glimpse of the current mobile development industry as well as reminded me of the way 'multi-media' was when I first started in this business all those years back! If I am honest I have been always been looking for another period like that.
I think it was when I was most challenged in my career. The boundaries constantly shifted due to the rapid advance in technology and also due to the fact none of us actually knew how to do what we were supposed to be doing! It made for exciting and fascinating times. I feel that the advances in mobile technology combined with the shift in towards concentrating on user-generated content on the web marks an equally interesting period.
Well, I hope so anyway!