Here is an excellent video from TED about Happy Design. Personally, I love it. Quite uplifting, and also he sounds a little like Arnie. Check it out.

Let me start by saying im not a fan of flash. Its not that it cant be used to produce amazing sites, in the right hands they can look amazing. Its just that more often than not they are used for completley the wrong situation.

Although very image rich and glossy, such things come with huge disadvantages. Flash sites in general are huge memory wise and the only way to get to even view one is to sit through a tediously long loading screen, which puts off the majority of visitors before theyve even seen a page of the site. Doubled with that, most are poorly navigated and rely on the user reaching for the non existing back button.In short, theyre are extremley situational and rely heavily on the skill of the designer and their ability to get the right mix of visuals and functionality.

That being said, ive come accross something that actually achieves all that.

http://quakequizsf.org

The site commisioned by the department of emergency managment in San Francisco, has a perfect balance of humour and information. It makes a great learning tool from information that might otherwise be lost in a long wall of text.

If this is the direction flash is taking then im all for it.

1704 (clean) from Ryan Aylsworth on Vimeo.

This is a video i stumbled upon a while ago, whilst looking through the excellent vimeo site.

Wether your a fan of the subject matter or not, i think the photographers done an amzing job of capturing real life event on a night out, with the effect that you almost feel included. In the huge exspanse of quickly flickers images you sometimes catch some real personal moments that i think ony work with brief timeframe that you are given to view them.

It looks to an intimidating task to try myself, but somethign to keep in the back of my mind when taking photos in the future

On a recent camping trip to glencoe and down to the start of loch Etive i took these panoramic photographs inbetween the rain showers. These are some of my first attempts at the format, so im going to share with you the method i used.

Having tried multiple stiching progams with varying results, Ive found the “Auto-align” feature in photoshop cs3 to be the most succesul and easiest to use.
To achieve this effect in photoshop, open up a new document wide enough to contain all the photos. Insert each image in as a seperate layer and align them up roughly as best you can. Select all the layers, either by holding down the command or ctrl key and selecting each layer or by holding the shift key and selecting the top then the bottom layer.With all the layer selected go to edit/auto-align layers. In most cases just select the auto function, however there are other choices you can make depending if you want a collage or perspective view. Select ok (this process may need a fair amount of memory so other software may need to be closed).

when its done all the layers should be aligned horizontally. The next step is to select edit/auto-blend layers. select panorama and make sure the box marked “seamless tones and colours” is ticked. Press ok.

Your panoramic image is now complete. Each layer remains seperate and all blending is achieved by masking, thefore each can be fine tuned in the adjustments menu for colours, levels etc.

There will be slight distortions at the edges due to the curvature of the camera lens and you will need to use the crop tool to tidy up the image. If the image hasnt worked out as well as you hoped you may need to go back to the start and reposition the layers better, perhaps tweeking the size or perspective of certain layers.

Having just started attempting panaormaic photos, these examples are only stiched together from 5 or so seperate photos, and i will have to try out some more ambitious efforts in the future.Panormas can make ordinary subject matter alot more interesting and you are by no means just limited to horizontal landscapes.

The web site needed to show off all of these features, with a heavy emphasis on utilising photographs to paint a picture of the cottages interior and surrounding.
The client also wanted a site that was visually descriptive and minimalistic. The inclusion of a php based calendar booking section thats could be updated instantly to provide guests with immediate knowledge of availability.

Raw scotland needed an entire company branding with a strong emphasis on a youthful adventure theme.  The designs were in need of brigh colourful  visuals that appealed to both young people and potential trip organisers.

The Website for raw scotland had to convey all the information in a brochure like manner butcut into sections ot appeal to the 3 different types of client that they are tryign to attract.

Having met with us and a number of other illustrators and artists, 50 murals were commisioned to depict the theme of travel accross many countries, particulalry the nations of the most common patron of the hostel.

The brief was set to come up with simple yet eye catching designs that summed up the country enough for all nationalities to recognise, while at the same time remaining true to the countries citizens.

Wax on was commisioned to produce a leaflet/poster to sum up the active and diverse approach to sport.

The brief was to have a simple clean layout with with vector quality diagrams that were clear precise and easy tyo understand.