Writing

Everything filed under Writing, including entries the room itself holds back until they are checked.

358 entries

2026

Very full-stackWith AI in the loop, one person can now carry a product from brand to infrastructure. The lines are blurring, and I think that is the point.

2020

The goal isn’t to run the marathon, it’s to become the kind of person who runs marathonsNow that the London Marathon is postponed, along with lots of other races, here’s why I’m keeping going and adapting.
Autism, kids, self-reflection and why I’m running the London Marathon for #AutismThis Summer, our two kids and I were diagnosed with autism. So what did I do? Start running, of course! Here’s why.

2017

Introducing The Thread on MediumFor the last couple of years, Makelight, the learning community that I help run has been really growing. It’s turned into a wonderfully…
✔︎ See the kids during daylight hoursWe should put what really matters at the heart of how we work

2016

Do what you love (and pay the bills)On growing a passion project into a passion business without taking investment.
EphemeraldsOn the temporary nature of the things we create
Quietly getting on with businessFor the last few months I’ve been unusually quiet online.

2015

Getting back to the drawing boardI’m leaving Makeshift, so what’s next?
Hacking happiness into the daily commuteHow rethinking part of my daily routine is having an effect on how happy I feel each day
If software is eating the world, who’s running the restaurant?There’s a gender gap in tech. Can we narrow it?

2014

Cheers, Medium!You turned me into a writer
Internet of Things, where are you?Visualising the devices around you right now
Introducing “Founder Stories”Startup founders sharing what they’ve learnt
Let’s distribute the futureWhat would you give a child to inspire an interest in technology? A box full of awesome things perhaps?
Lining things upHow do you choose your next project?
Monsters! Everywhere!Sharing my love of drawing monsters with my kids
An awesome team formingA big welcome to some new makeshift faces
Announcing: Twitter lists of your event attendeesWe have list off!
Drawing to thinkIs a doodle good for the noodle?
Are you building a hack, a product, or a hackquaduct?Bridging the Hack/Product Gap
Watch: Encourage your kids to code even if you can’t yourselfA 7 minute lightning talk at Kidcrafters
Leading at the code-faceBalancing technical leadership with writing code
Learning to say “no”On becoming a non-yes man
One hundred piecesCan I write one hundred pieces of writing in one year?
My dad turns into a robot!A tiny game you can play to encourage your kids to code
Startups—get a room!Pass the remote
Step away from the screenApply sunscreen instead?
Teh Guardian FTW!!!1!A tiny, subtle hack on TheGuardian.com
Towards a greater understanding of technology for everyoneIn response to the response to the Year of Code
The idea funnelIs killing ideas just as important as coming up with them?

2013

30 days of MediumWhat I’ve learned from my first month writing on Medium
A hack is worth a thousand picturesCould making a prototype be better than using words and pictures to communicate your idea?
A tiny act of feminismWhich child gets the pink beaker?
Accelerating serendipityCan you make happy accidents happen more often?
Back to #startuplife with MakeshiftI’m doing a new thing.
Create something every dayWhy I made this my rule for living, and what happens when you decide to make things all the time
Hacking at Do Startup
Get back to the craft
Hack it in a day
Hack, Play, Learn — Slides from Google Campus
Higher resolutionsCan you commit to doing something every day in 2014?
How do you decide whether your idea is worth making?For the last few years, concentrating on “getting good at getting fast”.
Ignore the newsWhy I gave up listening to mainstream news so I could concentrate on things that matter
Internet filtering will do more harm than goodI’ve written to my UK Member of Parliament about new opt-out internet filtering proposals aimed at protecting children
Introduction
Learning by hackingI do hacks. Tiny prototypes for digital things that I show to people quickly. And for five years I’ve been doing, on average, one a month. I call it sketching with code. Here are some of the things I’ve learnt.
Let a thousand flowers bloom
Make it up as you go alongI’ve been making up bed-time stories for my kids.Could imagination and improvisation prepare them (and me) for the modern world?
MakefulnessIs seeking a state of flow what work is really about?
Don’t just do one thingCould parallelism be an appropriate way to find the thing you should focus on?
Hackathon and on and on24 hours of hacking! Crèche not included
Hey Twitter! Let me send a private link to a friend…URL be back
How can we teach all the kids that want to code, how to code?A shedcast with Clare Sutcliffe, co-founder of Code Club
How to lose form data and alienate peopleOn poor form
How to send links via direct message in Twitter now they’re bannedA couple of handy hacks for getting round the ban
Magnificent failures, hand made video game cheat books and the absurdity of startups: An interview with Ryan HooverTalking shop
Make a useful thing and don’t be a dickStartup or upstart?
Not just another blogOn making an article engine for Makeshift’s new website
On the joy of small software!Building things that just do one thing well
Shedcast #1: Stef on the early days of MakeshiftThe first in our series of podcast conversations from our two-story shed at Makeshift (yes you read that right)
Shedcast with Joe ScarboroOur first guest conversation in the Makeshift Shedscraper, with Joe from 3 Beards
Showing your work in progressShow people early, get feedback, listen
Sketching with Code
Stop feeding the beast
The ideas won’t run outSo don’t worry if you have the idea fear
The Little, Big IdeaHow just doing the first, tiny part of your idea can help you find out what you need to do to really make it a big idea
This is from everyoneThe Web will only be for everyone when we can say that it’s from everyone too
What gets done is what gets doneHow long working hours don’t help you in the long term
When to give upThe right course of action might be to stop what you’re doing, and regain your biggest asset – yourself.
Will I really steal your idea?Some people demand signed non-disclosure agreements before they will tell you their idea. I’m not one of them any more and here’s why.

2012

A place to make and do
Artist or Hacker?“Arthacking and exhibition to remember” is the theme of the next Digital Sizzle hackday , one of East London’s many tech industry meetup events.
BootbuckleA vanilla Padrino project for starting new projects. Uses Compass, Susy, HAML, Sprockets, Heroku, MongoDB, Mongoid, Memcached.
Change Nation - the tech behind the scenes
Concluding thoughts on my researchConcluding thoughts on the research
Culture Hack East 2012 (Video)
Culture Hack Scotland 2012 - 3 of my hacksCulture Hack Scotland 2012 - 3 hacks
Digital Sizzle - a short documentary
Hacking an island?
The Exploralaboratorium - six week-long hacks for Comic Relief
Finance apps for a small business - what I'm using to make my life easierFinance apps for a small business
Getting good at getting fastI’m about to write up my research for NESTA/Clore’s paper that set me off on the task of researching culture and hacking.
Hack, Play, LearnBuild, Measure, Learn.
How and what are cultural organisations learning from hacker culture?For the past few years I’ve immersed myself in the world of hack days, and become pretty interested in collaboratations between hackers and artists / cultural organisations.
Hacking with GLA environmental data
How to block behavioural adverts that follow you around while you browse
Loftify, a one-day hack for National Hack the Government Day
Loosely-coupled productivityA short conversation on Twitter made me realise something.
My Eigg residency, part twoIt’s the end of my second visit to Eigg and it’s been eventful!
Playfully hacking on things that matter
Refocussing the residencyI’ve been thinking about what I’m supposed to achieve with my residency on Eigg this autumn, and came to some conclusions today.
Returning to Eigg
Speaking in Shetland about Eigg and Geeks in Residence [video]
Sketching with Code
Skit
Telling stories with hacksA couple of history hacks while on Eigg — two things that might be of use to others.
The Hack as the Message
Through the Lens of Demarco - Hack 3 for Culture Hack Scotland 2012

2011

2010

A letter to David Burrowes
A letter to my MP on the day of the Digital Economy Bill second reading
Email your candidates
Get geo-position coordinates from a UK postcode with RubyIntroducing Pat, an ultra-lightweight Ruby gem for postcode->geolocation in the UK.
Grandma’s House – a short filmFilmdash is an annual 48-hour film-making challenge where participants plan, script, shoot, edit and upload a film based on a theme and an individual brief to include certain lines of dialogue and a prop.
I'm disappointed
Introducing Caboodle
Launching a monster startup - Aframe
Link “Scientists”I get frustrated when I see an interesting article on the web that starts with “Scientists have discovered…” and followed by a surprising new ‘fact’, backed up with a write-up, some quotes but no more information on what the research is, by whom.
"London Wedding Photographer" Emily QuintonAfter the recent move to London it was time to update partner Emily Quinton's site.
Monster MountainI surprised a few people on Twitter on my birthday when I spent the evening doing this illustration.
Plzen
Random Play
TesselationI’ve recently become reminded of an old fascination I had with tesselation. Earlier this year I helped Emily with a design refresh involving this pattern:
Tweet an MPThe Digital Economy Bill for me is the single-most anger inducing piece of proposed legislation that I’ve yet heard.
Urban Ideas Bakery - Pilsen
Yes and…Something I’ve unconsciously been doing to avoid those kinds of conversations is to start my sentences “yes and” instead of “yes but”.

2009

4IP idea: Dear Sir MadamIt’s a service that lets you as the ‘angry customer’ to make use of an expert tool to put together the perfect complaint letter, with little effort.
4IP Idea: Easter XEaster X is a geocaching competition that will happen in Easter 2009.
4IP Idea: How to Look Good OnlineIt’s “How to Look Good Naked” for social networking.
4IP Idea: MismashMismash: mashups that are plain wrong.
5 Counter-intuitive rules for creative peopleHere are some counter-intuitive rules that I’m following at the moment, and if you’re a ‘creative entrepreneur’ they might apply to you too:
A bunch of 4IP ideasLast year 4IP hit the West Midlands web scene and asked for our ideas for public service digital content and services.
A Google Wave HaikuI am also excited about Google Wave, and I like the way that on signing up for a developer account there was a box titled “Write a message to the Google team”.
A letter to my MP about Ian TomlinsonWatching the video of the police assault on Ian Tomlinson got me very angry, so I’ve written to my MP about it.
Artists Taking the LeadI’m involved in one of the shortlisted projects for Artists Taking the Lead, which is a competitive pitch to the Arts Council who will be awarding several groups £500,000 for artistic projects to tie in with the Olympic games.
BCC DIY Hack Day collected memoryAs the culmination of the first week of our community-powered effort to build our own website for Birmingham City Council, the BCC DIY Hack Day was a real show of how much an informal group of people can now achieve in a short space of time.
Charles on SerendipityA very quick but enlightening conversation with Charles Hunter that’s given me some exciting angles to take in my research.
The Culture Question: What does Birmingham need?The Big City Plan is out for consultation, and it asks some pretty big, and open questions about the city.
Daedelus on SerendipityAn interview with the musician Daedelus on the subject of ‘accelerated serendipity’, the occasion of which in itself had serendipitous qualities - someone else Tweeted, I was nearby, we hadn’t seen eachother since he stayed at my house for a show a few years ago, I had my notebook, conversation ensued.
Does BCCDIY risk devaluing digital marketing?Here’s an interesting criticism of BCCDIY - that it risks “devaluing the commercial aspects of digital marketing”.
Guardian: Digital technology for public services and communities could make bottom up more effective than top downI just left this comment on an article on the Guardian site that seems to be very relevant to BCCDIY.
Help me choose my leadership research topicI have two ideas that I’ve been working up for areas to research during my Clore fellowship.
Introducing - Help Me InvestigateHelp Me Investigate.com is now in Private Beta, which means I can finally talk about what I’ve been busy building recently.
London C-all-in-gSome changes are afoot, and it’s high time I blogged about it. In short - I’m going to be in London doing something exciting.
Mix: A Gift to Future SelvesAnother in my series of experimental, filmic, soundscape, found sound, ambient, folk, classical montage mixes.
New Type Records SiteSeven years ago John Xela and I started a label called Type.
On SerendipityI’ve settled on looking at the idea of ‘accelerated serendipity’, which I think actually encompasses the other topic I was considering: ‘conversational leadership’.
St.Boredom’sI had an unexpected trip to hospital this week which wasn’t much fun, but I’m fine and just have ‘take it easy’ as medicinal advice to take away.
The best vampire film ever made?Last night I watched “Let The Right One In”, which is one of the best films I’ve seen for a long time, in any genre.
The search is on – we’re hiringI’m looking for three people to join the team at All In working on something very exciting indeed!
Twadio - “The Sound of Silence”Announcing Twadio - The silent radio station that plays in your head
Two Big City Plan WordlesAhead of the coming end of the Big City Plan consultation here are two Wordle illustrations of what’s being said.
Wedding Photographer of the Year 2009I’m incredibly proud of Emily Quinton for winning the prestigious title of Wedding Photographer of the Year 2009 this month.
What should the Library of Birmingham be and do?

2008

10 things to ask yourself about your new web site home page layoutI’ve just been chatting to a friend of mine, Chris Garrett, about a new home page layout for his new venture - a video production company operating in the UK with international clients.
3form Shortlisted for a Webby!A nice start to the week - we’ve been shortlisted for a Webby award for the First Light Movies website.
5alist - Top five lists to share with your friendsAnother week another rapidly-deployed Web idea from Andrew Dubber and me (with a little help from Jason).
5alist upgradedAndrew and I spent a few hours on 5alist.com this week, and we now have some nice new features and tweaks.
A great conversation with Shawn Morton from ProfilacticI’m not alone in thinking that Profilactic could be one of the big stories of 2008 - a service that lets you aggregate and manage all of the various feeds of information that you publish as a person and have them pulled together into a ‘lifestream’.
A mixed bag weekThe last few days have been a mixed bag and I wanted to put something online about what I've been up to.
A Webby Triple - One Nomination and Two HonoreesThe announcement of this year’s tranch of Webby winners is getting ever closer, and this year I’m feeling pretty great about having a triple decker trifle of awards cake.
An advance preview of the new Redpoint Climbing Centre in BirminghamTonight was the unofficial preview night for particularly keen people to see what’s been going on at the new soon-to-be-opened Redpoint Climbing Centre in Birmingham’s Gun Quarter.
Andrew Dubber does existI can confirm that Andrew Dubber does, in fact, exist.
Why Andy Burnham’s plans for censoring websites with film-style age certificates won’t workHow would you feel if everything you tried to access on the internet were filtered for “unacceptable content” by government censors?
Archive TV LaunchesI’ve been working with Cassie Leedham and Chris Garrett on the launch of a great new TV production company specialising in historical crime drama-documentaries based on true stories from newspaper and library archives.
As promised… bikehuggerWe’re in a ‘want us to do stuff?’ mood so we head over to Bikehugger at the request of someone who left a message at sxswm and got an interview with a Bikehugger blogger.
Ben made a wish and it came trueTo celebrate the launch of I So Wish, Dubber and I decided to grant a random wish that someone had made.
Big City Plan public consultation - who’s in?It’s all been a bit quiet online about the Big City Plan for a while now.
Birmingham Big City Plan - The VideoGiven away at the Big City Plan launch yesterday was a lovely little 5 minute video by Squint Opera.
Birmingham Bloggers Meetup 2The Birmingham Bloggers Meetup events look set for great things.
Birmingham Bloggers Meetup 3 - Coworking and a Social Media CafeLast night was the third of the Birmingham Bloggers Meetups, and it was an even bigger affair than the last two probably put together.
Birmingham Bloggers Meetup Podcast and PhotosThursday night saw the first ever Birmingham Bloggers Meetup happen at the Kitchen Garden Cafe in Kings Heath. I made it down for the first hour or so, and it was a small, cosy event in nice surroundings. More photos here.
Birmingham from the balcony one eveningI love living where I live - in the evenings we get fantastic views of the sky over Birmingham.
50+ Birmingham Twitter users you need to followTwitter has really taken off in Birmingham (UK) this year. Here’s a list of some of the people who are using it and I think you should be connecting with you if you haven’t already!
Blog Action Day in BirminghamBlog Action Day is happening for the second time this year, and is an attempt to bring together bloggers from around the world to discuss a shared issue.
Broadcast magazine feature on digital media in BirminghamI was interviewed a couple of weeks ago for a piece that Broadcast magazine have written on the state of the digital media scene in Birmingham, and it’s been published today.
Clore begins
I’m a Clore FellowI’ve been awarded a fellowship with the Clore Leadership Programme, and today I am off to London for a day-long event welcoming the twenty-two people who are this year’s group.
Connect or Protect? How can we open up our ideas and keep them safe at the same time?My new company is registered!
What other brands can learn from the Courvoisier Future 500Last week I was picked as one of the top 5 in the Future 500, which is sponsored by Courvoisier.
Creative Republic is Open for Business!Creative Republic is now open for business, but what is it, and what’s it for?
Creative Republic Launch Party and CharterLast night was the launch of Creative Republic and was a great evening.
Creative Republic Launch VideoVideo from the launch of Creative Republic, with speeches from Helga Henry and Pete Ashton as well as shots from the night and a few interviews with Creative Republic board members.
Dad’s OkayWe all had a bit of a scare last week.
Day 1 - our summary - “it’s all about conversations”In a brief respite from the geekery, a few of us from SXSWM got together for a chat to summarise our first day.
Does Birmingham need a Creative Director?I was in Design Week again this week. This time for an article on an idea that’s gaining some traction in Birmingham at the moment - should the city have a creative director?
“Please don’t discount these voices” - accepting the Webby for First Light MoviesI’m in New York accepting a Webby award for the work that we did with First Light Movies - an organisation that enables young filmmaking all across the UK.
Dorking at DorkbotWe went to the fantastic Dorkbot party and met up with the organisers.
Emily has a photo blogWelcome to Emily, who has just joined us with her new blog at Emily Quinton Photography.
Emily is being featured in Professional Photographer MagazineProfessional Photographer Magazine asked Emily to write a second piece for them, this time a “day in the life of” piece documenting her day spent shooting a wedding and then a multi-millionaire’s birthday party.
Entering the Clore Leadership Programme with a Personal Organisation ChartIn brief - ever tried drawing a diagram of how you fit into your work environment?
Follow our progress at SXSW Interactive on sxswm.comI’ve organised a group of digital media types from Birmingham to go to South By South-West (SXSW) interactive (SXSWi) with the support of Digital Central.
From “Gold Rush” to “Good Rush” - Social Media gets ethical in 2008If 2007 was the year of the “Social Media Gold Rush”, 2008 is the year of the “Social Media Good Rush”.
Getting a fix on SerendipityAs part of my Clore fellowship I have agreed to produce a Masters-equivalent piece of research around a particular area of ‘leadership’ that interests me.
Give Powerpoint the Bullet. Do something interesting insteadYesterday I gave a talk at Birmingham City University’s Business School on the induction day for a new course - the MSc in Business Creation and Development.
“Going to be a dad” on TwitterA cute new service for new Twitter soon-to-be dads: Goingtobeadad.com
Hello new blogger!Congratulations on starting a blog - nice to have you with us!
Hello WorldToday is the first day of Birmingham’s Hello World conference being held at Millennium Point.
How to make a Life FeedYou make yourself a Life Feed — a single RSS feed that combines all of those disparate bits and bobs of content that you’re busy making and puts them all in one place for easy consumption.
How to recycle your old computer equipment in BirminghamI’ve been getting rid of lots of old computer equipment this week.
Hypercontext“It’s Mr Neologism again” was the first reaction to another of my on-the-spur-of-the-moment word-coinings.
I’m blogging for the Birmingham PostIn an interesting turn of events I was invited by Joanna Geary of the Birmingham Post to join their new blogging team.
I’m blogging my new startupTo coincide with my thirtieth birthday I received the exciting news that I have just received £50,000 of seed funding for my new business idea.
I’m TigBounder over at BINS has set up a game of ‘blog tig’ with the following rules.
Introducing Odadeo - a new site for dadsFor Fathers’ Day 2008 I have launched the ‘private beta’ of new site that I’ve been working very hard on for the last three months.
Introducing Tweetlet - twitter for pregnancyWouldn’t it be great if you could use Twitter to keep up to date with how your baby is developing during pregnancy?
Is The Wire better than an MBA?I’ve been obsessed with a TV show called The Wire for the last few months.
Jubilee Debt Campaign, BirminghamIntroducing a new blog for the Jubilee Debt Campaign in Birmingham.
Let’s take the ideas in the Big City Plan and run with themIn the first of my video blog posts I was pretty amazed by one of the comments in particular that came back and it looks like we’ve spawned a project if I can find some people to collaborate with to make it happen (open invite).
Making a music video in 5 hours for Film DashThis is a music video I made today for the track Ut Nos Vivicaret taken from Xela’s forthcoming album In Bocca Al Lupo, on our label Type.
Mass intimacyIn a great write-up, Daneil W. E. Light talks about a collective sense of connectivity, opened secrecy and intimacy based around the idea of ‘we’ instead of ‘i’.
Give your homepage a mini facelift in about 3 hours“The plumber’s tap always drips”, or so they say. The same is true of web consultancies.
Minority Report interfaces will soon be realPretty amazing video of an experimental immersive human computer interface that has the feel of the famous Minority Report system, with music from Deaf Center on our own Type Records.
My leadership development day on the cultural leadership programmeLeadership development day on the cultural leadership programme
On turning 30 and thinking “so that was my twenties…”I’ve just turned 30.
One of my images on the first Birmingham Journal of Literature and LanguageI’ve just received my complimentary copies of the first Birmingham Journal of Literature and Language, and on the cover is one of my images.
Peter Broderick - “Float” CD and VinylPeter Broderick’s amazing debut album is now out, and my first copies arrived on my desk today.
Podcast of The Big City Plan LaunchThe Big City Plan launched yesterday and I was there to see (and hear) it happen.
Rationalise Your Online Identity with Profilactic and ClaimID“Identity” is a hard-to-pin-down concept, especially when it comes to your ‘online identity’ in a world of Facebook profiles, Twitter and what seems to be becoming ‘multiple online identity disorder’.
Recession busting business modelsNesta asked some of their contacts what they thought were the best business areas to be working in to weather the storm of the recession, and they’ve used a Wordle to visualise the results.
Sam Amidon at the Tin Angel, CoventrySam Amidon, the artists behind our favourite album of this year “All is Well” was doing a show over at The Tin Angel in Coventry.
Snowladen BranchesI’ve been getting slow on processing my images - getting them off the camera and onto the internet.
South by South West (Midlands)In short - a bunch of Birmingham digital media types are going to SXSW Interactive in Texas next week, and we are doing a ‘remote control blogging’ thing where you get to ask us to attend stuff and report back for you.
“Surface Unsigned” - How not to score a PR own goal when criticised onlineSocial media enables anyone to be a critic of anyone else and to have their criticism heard by all online, which means we must all be careful about what we say and how we act online.
SXSW BacklogOookay…. So it’s been a bit quiet around here since I came back from SXSW Interactive.
SXSWi 2008 First ImpressionsI’ve spent a lot of my time recording my conversations with people at SXSWi and I’ll be posting a few of them here.
Tagged Audio: An interview with Hugh Forrest from SXSWI have converted this recording to a ’static video’ and used Viddler to tag the timeline so that it is more searchable and scannable.
Talking coworking, xml facial expressions and other randomness with Alex Hillman and othersSXSW is all about the conversations you have - Alex and others who drop in and out during our chat provide a great first one!
The Big City Plan Charter - Any Questions?Today is the launch of The Big City Plan Charter, a document that puts down in writing some of the ‘big ideas’ that are under consideration for the future of Birmingham.
“Thank you” to the Cultural Leadership ProgrammeThe Cultural Leadership Programme are generous sponsoring my Clore Fellowship, and they just released the news about the five of us that they are funding.
The Art of Influence for the Arts CouncilPete and I presented at our first ‘double act’ speaking event today.
The Big Picture - A huge photography project in the West MidlandsToday is the launch of The Big Picture.
The Big Picture breaks a World Record (and generates a mini debate)It’s official - the West Midlands, UK has made the world’s biggest photo-montage according to the Guinness World Records officials.
Top 5 in The Future 500I’ve been picked as one of the top 5 in the Observer newspaper’s Courvoisier The Future 500 list for 2008 (a bit of a mouthful!)
The New Created in Birmingham DesignWe’ve spent some time rebuilding the Created in Birmingham site, updating the design, adding some extra features and generally adding improvements throughout.
The “One week until Clore starts” brain-dumpMy Clore Fellowship starts in just over a week, and I’ve got lots of thoughts rolling around about what this means, and what I’ll be doing. So I’m thinking them through here… any ideas, let me know.
The Post-SXSW Interactive “Brain Dump”Last night the crew from the SXSWM trip got together for what we were calling the ‘Post SXSW Brain Dump’ which is available as a 1 hr 15 min video on Bambuser.
The pre-startup preparationI only found out on Friday that I’d been given that all important ‘yes’ on the seed funding to make this thing happen, but already I’ve been making some great progress as well as encountering some pretty tough obstacles to overcome.
The SXSWM Gang is Back in TownWe’re variously getting over the jetlag, collating all of the information we gathered, sending emails and connecting online with the folks we met, trying to work out what to do with all of the ideas.
Top 10 Usability Mistakes for Blogs - How Does Yours Rate?The prolific usability guru Jacob Nielsen has a handy post called “Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes” and last night I thought I’d scope them out and see if I needed to make any changes to this site.
Video: Is the future of ‘online’ actually ‘offline’?With my head fried from the SXSW Interactive experience this is a short (1:47 min) video piece of me talking about how it’s the offline impact that social media can offer that will validate out use of these technologies.
We Won a Webby Award!The First Light Movies website that we built at 3form has only gone and won a Webby Award!
Web 2.0 or Blah 2.0?Here’s a summary of the talk Pete Ashton and I gave in which we attempted to explain what Web 2.0 is (or is not) and how it is relevant for small creative businesses.
What do the BBC leadership have to say about the future of Birmingham?In short - they’re investing in media production outside London and they see Birmingham as being important to delivering on that promise.
What do you wish for in 2009?If you could wish for one thing in 2009, what would it be?
What is accelerated serendipity for?In an attempt to break some of the backblog and to get me publishing more regularly, how about video for the format, and to start with how do you think we can make serendipity have real outcomes rather than just ‘nice ideas’ being generated?
Where is the Creative and Cultural Web Traffic in Birmingham (Part 2)Finding out where web traffic in a city is, which are the important sites, which ones have loads of users, which ones have none is a difficult task for anyone who’s interested.
Why are we podcasting instead of using text?Tom Scotney just put up an interesting blog post questioning the usefulness of the video and audio that we’ve been putting online.
Why doesn’t Birmingham have wifi like Austin?A conversation with Pete Ashton at SXSW about Birmingham’s woefully inadequate and probably very expensive wifi solution, compared to the ‘everyone just make their connections free’ model that Austin has.
Why “Power or Powerless”?I woke up this morning in New York - I’m here for the Webby Awards this evening, and to start the day I tuned into a debate that was happening courtesy of the Birmingham Post, back home in the UK.
“Why South By Southwest?” VideoChris Kershaw from Ideas For Life has been following us on our SXSWM trip.
WordcampUK comes to BirminghamGreat news for Birmingham’s ever-growing blogging and social media scene!
Yay for Created in Birmingham! A joint Guardian Media Innovation AwardWhat a nice way to start the week - Created in Birmingham has picked up some national interest and gone and hit the big-time with a big ‘ol compliment from the Guardian in the shape of a MEGA award nomination for Best Independent Blog.

2007

10 sites that make running a business easierFor the launch of the new Digital Central website, I’ve written a feature on useful web tools for business.
100% GeekThis week I attended the bTWEEN conference on interactive media in Bradford.
30 albums on TypeThis month sees the release of TYPE30. Thirty albums in five years isn’t bad going really.
3form is 3formingOver the six and half years that 3form has been running we’ve achieved a great deal, won lots of awards and worked with some great people on great projects.
A List Apart Web Design SurveyA List Apart (I think I last looked at this site some time around 2000) are running a web design survey.
A new lens for SpringWhile I was in Hong Kong I bought us a new lens and we’re both really happy with it.
All my mixes in one podcastThis weekend I’ve collected all of the music mixes I have published on the web into one podcast.
Am I getting behind the curve?Yesterday I took part in a survey I found through the Digital Birmingham site, called the Digital Curve.
Are my posts too long?Am I being too verbose? Should I be posting shorter, snappier blog posts?
Artfest: Luminarium Levity II by Architects of AirThe other highlight of this year’s Artsfest for me was the Architects of Air piece in Eastside called Levity II.
Artsfest: Friday was a BlastArtsFest, Birmingham’s free arts festival (and Europe’s largest apparently, if that means anything) kicked off on Friday with a fantastic piece of performance art/theatre/engineering/pyrotechnics/steampunkery called Blast.
Autumn RecoveryI’m starting to think that this modern life we live is more and more becoming a constant blur of overlapping interventions, interferences, opportunities and threats.
AutumnThere’s something about that particular light you experience when walking under old trees on a cold, blustery day’s end, with a clear sky overhead and leaves scattering underfoot that summons memories of years past and thoughts of the future.
Back from holiday - here are a couple of new sitesBefore going away, we managed to get a couple of projects finished.
Backlog!Taking some inspiration from the recent postal strike, I think I’ve also generated a backlog of bloggable bits and bobs to post here.
Birmingham Clone TownBirmingham is a ‘clone town’.
Birmingham - the Big City Plan “City Team”I’ve been invited to be part of Birmingham’s ‘City Team’ which is a group of people brought together to come up with big ideas for how Birmingham might change for the better over the coming ten to twenty-five years as part of a ‘masterplanning’ process being branded as “The Big City Plan”.
BoostedYesterday I spent a couple of hours facilitating a panel at a one day mini conference called Boosted.
Change your wireless router password right nowYesterday I was honoured to attend my first School of Computer Science Industrial Advisory Board meeting at Birmingham University.
Common Purpose - Matrix Programme - Track the Money DayMatrix – an 11-day programme, starting with a two-day residential course and then one day a month.
Compton VerneyAt last week’s Bank Holiday we had a day out at Compton Verney, which was lovely.
Create Something Day 1: SplotTo be honest, Monday was a very silly choice of day to start my “create something new every day for a week” idea.
Create something day 2: Get your people to blog my peopleMy second day of creating something every day for a week.
Create something day 3: Searching for bokehSummer seems to be upon us for a short while, so I took a few minutes out of the day to find some nice bokeh in and around Moseley/Kings Heath on my way into work.
Create something day 4: A Certain AmbiguityThe news today is that Penguin Books’ Indian branch have decided to use one of my Flickr photos in the cover of one of their books - A Certain Ambiguity by Gaurav Suri & Hartosh Singh Bal.
Create something day 5: A rebrand?I’m posting this on Sunday - day seven of my “create something” week.
Create something day 6 and 7: Peter Broderick – FloatJohn Xela and I spent the weekend talking about our ideas for the artwork for the new album “Float” by Peter Broderick coming out on Type in a few months.
Created in Birmingham on FacebookI’ve been doing some research for a project that I’m working on at the moment that will rely on Facebook’s new system that allows people develop their own ‘applications’. You may have seen some of these - usually involving throwing pigs at eachother, trying to bite oneanother in some kind of lycanthropic fantasy involving ninjas or in the form of little bits of “that’s too much information, dude” revelations… all of this being ‘virtual’ of course.
Crowdsourcing scales up - Who wants to redesign Birmingham?The meeting was one of the first of what looks set to be a year-long series of meetings, discussions, public debates and events all based around what is being called the “Birmingham City Centre Masterplan”.
Deaf Center and Skallander photosSome photos from the Skallander / Deaf Center show in Manchester at the Sacred Trinity Church, Salford.
Digital Pioneers arrive in Hong KongI’m here as part of a project called Digital Pioneers with the British Council.
Do Schools Kill Creativity?A fantastic talk by Sir Ken Robinson on the importance of creativity in education.
Doing The National Wedding ShowI spent the weekend helping Emily with her stand at the National Wedding Show at the NEC.
Emily’s Birmingham wedding photography businessThis weekend I spent some time helping Emily out with an update to the website for her Birmingham based wedding photography business, surprisingly called Emily Quinton Photography.
Facebook apps are the new blackThis week I’ve somehow seemed to strike a nerve with a few of my clients by talking Facebook Applications.
Fierce! Festival hits 10 yearsThis year’s Fierce! programme has been announced.
Fierce Ten out of TenMany congratulations to the Fierce! team who deservedly won the Birmingham Creative City Award for Best Brand on Thursday.
Futurology for the Cultural sectorI was asked by Ben Payne from the Birmingham Rep to put forward some thoughts on a significant issue that the cultural sector will face within ten years.
Get your Name in LightsFierce! Festival launches its Name in Lights project today and we’ve been working into the night to do our best with the new website.
Getting some inspirationYesterday I was one of the partipants at (and the photographer for) the Channel 4 Inspiration Session on Design and Multimedia organised by Ten4 Magazine and 4Talent.
Going greyWell, it was bound to happen sooner rather than later but as of today I am now officially past it…
HomeIt’s been a long month… I’m happy to be home again.
Hong Kong - CyberportAnd so begins our Digital Pioneers programme in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong Day Two – BokehSunday in Hong Kong feels much like any other day with its bustling urban sprawl during the day and Bladerunneresque neon blaze by night.
Hong Kong - Receiving our Digital Pioneers awardsI’ve been made to feel really welcome here in Hong Kong.
How about we design Birmingham with a WIKI?Too many ideas, not enough time to write them all down before I’m on to the next thing. That’s my problem.
“How are you doing?”… “Oh, busy”I’ve been to a few events over the last week and I’ve started breaking my rule of not using the word “busy” to describe what I’m up to.
How to set up a simple professional portfolio site/blog in about four hours
I am going to create something every day for a weekFor the past few years, I’ve had a pretty simple personal rule that I try to abide by every day.
Igloo ImpossibleIt’s that time of year again, and in time honoured fashion I’ve put together a little festive game for your mouse-clicking enjoyment.
IlluminateI’ve had the pleasure of being involved in Plus - Birmingham’s international design festival for over a year now.
Impressions of Hong KongI’m back in the UK after an intense few weeks, first in Texas, then Hong Kong.
In conversation with Scott RossI was lucky enough to have a chat with Scott Ross, CEO of Digital Domain.
Is Birmingham “Getting it?” - Creativity and Culture feature in the West Midlands Power 50Yesterday evening was the launch of the Birmingham Post’s much anticipated supplement, the “Power 50 - Who is really shaping the future of the West Midlands?” at Birmingham Future’s AGM.
Is having your music licensed in a TV ad “selling out?”Over the Christmas break we had some success at Type when a track from one of our artists was used in the latest Honda advert.
Khonnor in shock TV appearance (sort of)If you were particularly observant you might have noticed that last night’s episode of the IT Crowd on Channel 4 had an assortment of Type goodies on the set in the background, including Khonnor’s Burning Palace seven inch.
Kong Kong - Behind the Scenes at Happy ValleyTo top off a great day, last night we had a behind-the-scenes tour of Happy Valley, Hong Kong’s horse racing stadium.
Live blogging my new iPhone purchaseI’m in the Apple store Bullring right now taking early adoption to a whole new level (maybe).
Live blogging SXSWiI’m starting to find other people blogging SXSW… first up it’s Coline Devroe who’s already finding out about free beer and t-shirts!
Moseley Folk Festival is Lovely with a capital LToday we took the day out and went to Moseley Folk Festival which is running in Moseley Private Park all weekend.
Name in Lights: And the winner is… Una WhiteThe winner of the Name in Lights project was announced last night at a champagne reception in Birmingham city centre.
Name in Lights is going viralI’ve just looked through the statistics for the Name in Lights site that we launched before I went out to Texas last week.
Nought for the DayDid you know that atheists, agnostics and humanists are banned from expressing their thoughts on Thought for the Day?
Oh No Logo – an article for the Birmingham PostFollowing the blog post I wrote about the new 2012 Olympics identity, I was invited to write a short piece for the Birmingham Post which was published today.
One of my photos is in the Guardian photography supplement todayI haven’t seen it yet, but this image was chosen with five others for inclusion in the Guardian’s photography week series of supplements.
Out of Hours: To Blog or not to BlogThis evening I’m heading over to the Light House in Wolverhampton for a get-together and some informal discussion on the ‘whys’ and ‘wherefores’ of blogging.
“Photo Finish” for Channel 4’s 4TalentThe guys at Channel 4 have started a new site called 4Talent and I was invited to put together a “how-to” guide for photographers looking at setting up a portfolio site using free tools and software like Flickr and Wordpress.
Plus Festival 07 - Moving Type FoundAs a first post on Plus 2007, here is a series of ‘found type’ photographs I took during the event.
Plus Festival 2007 OpensAfter a year of work, we’re all very proud to announce that Plus - the international design festival opens its doors at 10am tomorrow for five days of inspirational design events, perfomances, talks by leading designers, exhibitions, interactive installations, even a real-life version of Pacman played out by humans and cameras!
Plus Festival: Live Pacman front-pages YouTubeOne of the funnier parts of the Plus Festival was the ‘live pacman’ game that was running for most of the five days.
Portable Film Festival - an interviewWhile I was at SXSW I had the opportunity to have a chat with Andrew Apostola, the Creative Director of the successful Australian ‘virtual film festival’ Portable.
Reporting back on CrowdsourcingSo - I’ve just got back from two days of discussions, speeches, presentations, private chats, video interviews, and so on.
Sharing the Web - Mouse, Camera, ActionI was interviewed yesterday by Dr. Simon Davey on behalf of the Media Trust New Media Thinktank and the ICT hub for an article to be published in their forthcoming newsletter.
Shortlisted for an RTS awardWe found out on Friday (yes I know I’m slow) that our work at 3form with Maverick for Channel 4 on the 4Tips project has been shortlisted for a Royal Television Society Innovation award!
Sofia without StefanThis week I was in Sofia, attending the funeral of a trusted friend and work colleague at 3form, the designer Stefan Marinov, who died very suddenly and unexpectedly last week.
Spring is here and Flickr is backI’ve spent the last few weeks without Flickr.
Stretch Hummers in TexasI was really shocked that in somewhere like Texas, with its history of close connection with the oil industry there was very little awareness of the environmental issues that we hear about every day in the UK.
SXSW - Colin Devroe of Viddler gives me the lowdown on how to grow a video sharing siteI finally met up with Colin Devroe from the online video sharing site Viddler.
SXSW - Fortune telling with Chris Messina: the future of online identityI had an interesting discussion with Chris Messina, one of the brains behind the OpenID project.
SXSW - Lego playpenThere’s a Lego playpen for anyone tired of talking about ‘building’ things in the digital sense and get some real hands on fun… funny that this seems to be more popular with the adults than the kids!
SXSW - The $100 laptopThere was a chance to play with a new ultra-lightweight $100 laptop.
SXSW - The Great British Booze-UpI went down to a party thrown by Clearleft, Boagworld and @media 2007 called the “Great British Booze-up”.
SXSW – the iPod guideThis is a great idea – an application that installs all the festival event info onto your ipod, so you can carry it around in your pocket instead of a huge booklet.
SXSW - Urban regenerationI took a short walk around Austin, TX while I’m at SXSW… the streets are quiet, traffic is calm and they there was an eerily quiet demolition site in amongst the bland architecture.
SynaesthesiaI am currently working towards a photography accreditation with the Royal Photographic Society (Associateship).
Ten 4 Magazine Issue 7 is outIssue 7 of Ten 4 Magazine is out, and the images I shot at the Channel 4 Inspiration Sessions day are in it.
Ten4 Magazine Feature - The Sound of SellingTen4 Magazine have uploaded a selection of features for Issue 6, due out soon.
The Creative InboxGood sources of information are few and far between, and with the constant rise of RSS feeds and email lists I’m often feeling overwhelmed with ‘input’.
The London 2012 ident - a flop of Olympic proportions?The new ident for the London 2012 Olympics has just been launched.
Type Records and Red Deer Club Present…Tonight is our Type Records night in Manchester with a line up to be proud of.
Use your webcam to make video micro-contentOn the last day of SXSW2007, Texas I was hanging out with the guys from Viddler and we decided to do an SXSW video wrap up.
What is Birmingham’s Creative Direction?Another in my series about Birmingham’s Big City Plan.
When things just line upI managed a day off today - it was lovely. Not a bit of work in sight.
Where’s the creative and cultural web traffic in Birmingham?About six months ago I came up with the idea of setting up a blog to talk about all the creative and cultural things happening in Birmingham (UK), where I live. I’m a relatively busy man so I hooked up with Pete Ashton, blogger extraordinaire, who was thinking along similar lines so we got the thing off the ground - Created in Birmingham.

2006

A new photoblogHaving been banging on about how amazing blogging and photoblogging is, I’ve finally found the time to set up my own little piece of the web.
Channel 4 IdeasFactory / Nesta - Creative Hub launchI gave a speech at the launch night of the Creative Hub series of events.
Channel 4 IdeasFactory / Nesta - “Photo Finish”Photographer and web designer Stefan Lewandowski - whose clients include Vivienne Westwood and the V&A - will explore the huge potential in gaining international recognition for your work through the Internet.
Ryan Teague

2005

Sonar 2005: Type Records showcaseA few of us from Type flew over to perform at the Sonar festival in Barcelona.

2004

Neo Ouija showcase, BernA recording from the Neo Ouija Showcase at Dachstock Reitschule, Bern, Switzerland of minimal and warm electronica.

2003

Default at the Bull’s Head, BirminghamA recording from one of our regular, now defunct Default events that took place in the then newly-renovated Bull’s Head in Moseley, Birmingham, UK.
Type SamplerThis was the original hour-long sampler when we started Type and is a mix of music that was forthcoming at the time, as well as some unreleased material that never saw the light of day, including one of my tracks (8 minutes in) called “The sun, the sky, the sea”.

undated

Writing elsewhereOccasional articles and essays, mostly on Medium