Phil Dobinson: Words in progress

This blog has moved

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 11:18:00 +0000

This blog is now located at http://phildobinson.blogspot.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://phildobinson.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.

Steve Jobs – "stay hungry, stay foolish"

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:59:00 +0000

Wedding - map test post

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:52:00 +0000

View Wedding Information in a larger map

China's 60th anniversary celebrations

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:07:00 +0000

This is stunning. Not just from the sheer military might but because it’s shot on a DSLR. In High definition. Technical gizmos aside though, the editing and use of stop motion and slow-mo really work. And really liking the pixelated camouflage bedecking the PRC army vehicles.

Very powerful – but is this photography or film making? (not that it matters). The creator is Dan Chung a photojournalist at The Guardian, who has moved away from static imagery into moving image. A photographer’s eye with an editor’s sense of timing.

Watch the video on vimeo.

Good reading

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:59:00 +0000

This is really, really good.
Ad-man Dave Trott waxes lyrical about all manner of topics.
Insightful, observational and engaging.
Worth a read.

(And written in a tight, concise manner befitting of the author's occupation - plenty of good stuff to muse over).

No. 5 Quote of note

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:41:00 +0000

"There is hope in honest error. None in the icy perfections of the mere stylist." I'm liking this quote by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Courtesy of 1977, thanks Paul!

Makes me think of the philosophy of Inky Finger Prints and the much respected logo of Minale Tattersfield

Beauty in imperfection, ideas over style, 80/20 rule, the human touch etc, etc. Maybe I'm missing the point but all that microscopic overanalysis of mundane details slows things down and delays the arrival of a solution. maximise the time you spend on generating ideas, bosh out the options, be pragmatic and save the crafting for the final chapter.

Got a new route to work!

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 11:34:00 +0000

Looks like it's going to be shorter, safer and quicker - F*ck yeah!
The pink line was my old route, the light blue line is my new path.

A sunday cycle ride with Em led me along a previously ignored set of Southwark back streets. This morning being up early and enjoying the sunshine cycle ride I explored further. A prime example of why it's good to step out of a routine and try something new. Bad Phil!

People, it's looking positive. My only concern is traffic volume during the school run and feasibility for returning that way in the evening. Ha Ha! - lets find out.

Wired up

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:26:00 +0000

Tonight sees BBC2 show the final episode of series 4 of The Wire.
That means there will only be one more series of the so-called 'greatest show on earth'.

I'm enjoying it, i've managed to keep up with the previous episodes and series but would have to admit that it just hasn't stood up to it's billing. Perhaps it's just been overhyped for too long - it first came to the small screen in 2002 and the last series finaled in March 2008. I wanted to really like it but alas it's all left me feeling a bit cold. I don't think that the marathon viewing schedule that BBC2 has imposed helped matters but I guess they felt it was the best way to maintain momentum.

Cons: Impenetrable, slow, overly reliant on vague details.
Pros: Range of interesting characters, use of local lingo - both in terms of institutions and geography. Nice mixture of stereotyping and surprise.

UPDATE: I've abandoned watching season 5 in real time. I plan to borrow a DVD at some point and get done in one shot. maybe. If i can summon the motivation.

A funny old year

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:25:00 +0000

It’s been a funny year so far. Having written about keeping it simple six months ago I now revist those words with the benefit of six months hindsight.

I can remember rumblings of discontent this time last year but paid little attention to them, for the past ten years I’d been in steady and reliable work since I graduated in 1999 – so why should I worry? I’d worked for myself, as a freelancer with agencies and representing myself and two years ago ended up in a full time job.

And then January arrived and work became painfully slow. Clients stopped calling, projects were put on hold and the directors at my company started to spend more time behind closed doors. What was even more surreal was that in a company of over 100 people only part of our business seemed to be affected. I work on Employee Engagement projects and even though our work load dropped off, the other offers in our company had more work than they could handle. Eg. In previous years I’d seen digital designers suffer, this year saw them travel unscathed through the financial meltdown. An example of learning from past mistakes of over employing and over stretching oneself.

In mid February the thirty or so people who make up my team were called into the board room and told we would now be entering a ‘redundancy consultation process’, ie two weeks to to justify your existence as an employee. It was probably the most stressful period I‘ve had to go through and I regret that it meant my troubles at work spilled over into my home life. Thankfully my partner was good listener, an intelligent adviser and extremely understanding.

The benefits of talking to partners, friends and family I can’t stress enough. Through talking about it I learnt a lot of my friends were or had gone through similar processes – for better or worse. And these aren’t just designers, every industry was/is being affected. It was a thought provoking time.

And when your standing on the edge, not knowing how things will fall one is forced to think hard and think fast about what one wants to do and where one wants to be. I’d long been thinking about pursuing a different direction (photography, printmaking, interactive design, writing, carpentry, cookery, travel, etc) and these interests started to form the basis for my next steps. I was all but convinced that my time at this particular company was over so mentally I was well prepared to move on and by investigating alternative occupations it showed me that there are always solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems. It even made me realise what I liked (and to some extents had taken for granted) about my current job; I valued the interaction with my colleagues, the opportunities to work on large scale projects and the lifestyle presented by the location of the office.

As it turned out I wasn’t made redundant. Several of my friends were though and I can only guess that it must be a terribly shocking and frustrating moment to be asked to leave a job you’d grown used to working in. The theft of financial security in these days of high consumption can only equal fear and trepidation and a destruction of one’s own confidence. And for those of us remaining I detect a conflicting and complex set of emotions. Gratitude from having been spared the axe, resentment at having to be dragged through the process in the first place, caution that the entire episode will be repeated.

So what have I learnt from this? I now know the importance of having a grand plan, a goal or a destination to aim for. Just like a lighthouse, in times of trouble it’s reassuring to have a marker to steer towards. It’s important to be constantly prepared, to have a safety net to fall back upon and a well stocked locker to get you out of trouble should the need arise. So I guess it’s all about being aware of what’s happening around you and recognizing the warning signs when they start to appear. And being in as flexible a state as possible so as to be able to adapt to changing circumstances with as much personal control as possible.

Footnote: this is very much an employee’s viewpoint. I am under no illusions employers undergo as tough if not tougher set of emotions and experiences. If I could offer advice to them it would be this: make the process of redundancy as quick and transparent as possible. Doubtless hard to do under the employment laws but perhaps less damaging in the long run.

No. 4 Quote of note

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:54:00 +0000

Alice came to a fork in the road. "Which road do I take?" she asked.
"Where do you want to go?" responded the Cheshire cat.
"I don't know," Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."

Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Jimmy Carr twitters away

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:17:00 +0000

I’m unconvinced by the whole Twitter thang but at least Jimmy Carr’s manner of delivery seems to suit the medium.

Here are his latest ‘tweets’ from Dundee, pure comedy genius.

i'm still on a train. it would appear someone's put Dundee right up in the north - presumably so they don't bother anyone.
"i think of Dundee as the 'Paris of the north' because its covered in dog shit and nobody washes." Good idea for an opening line tonight?
just been told Dundee is 'the city of discovery'. Presumably because the Discovery Channel made a wildlife documentary about the locals.
just in the interval of the show in dundee. i feel a little guilty cause i've been slagging the place off all day and i'm really enjoying it
what now? according to one twitterer earlier Dundee has only one night club 'Fat Sam's' named after the local beauty queen..i've got to stop

A little bit of street art out east

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:04:00 +0000

Not an underpass in Shoreditch, London - an underpass in Chaoyang, Beijing. Nice work from the This City Art collective.

A new undertaking by VJ/motion graphics designer Hao Bu Hao and photographer Oak Taylor-Smith – Two Beijing based English expats.

First exhibition featured Hao Bu Hao aka Martin Barnes' Caulfield inspired prints of Chinese icons. Forget about The Great Wall and The Terracotta Army, think instead of cheap packets of cigarettes and bamboo brooms leaning against air-con units. Bold, colourful imagery is now available to the people.

Le Corbusier at The Barbican

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 21:24:00 +0000

Le Corbousier at The Barbican
Originally uploaded by Phil Dobinson.

Exhibition signage by Bibliotheque. Nice adaptation of Futura bold italic and great use of colours - strong reds and blues contrasting nicely with dirty aubergine and warm cement hues.

Inky Finger Prints

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 01:12:00 +0000

Website revamp v3.0 in time for exhibition!

No. 3 Quote of note

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:49:00 +0000

"Walking these New Zealand Mountains stimulated my memory. My need for this strange landscape was profound. Travel, which is nearly always seen as an attempt to escape from the ego, is in my opinion the opposite. Nothing induces concentration or inspires memory like an alien landscape or a foreign culture. It is simply not possible (as romantics think) to lose yourself in an exotic place. Much more likely is an experience of intense nostalgia, a harking back to an earlier stage in your life, or seeing clearly a serious mistake But this does not happen to the exclusion of the exotic present. What makes the whole experience vivid, and sometimes thrilling, is the juxtaposition of he present and the past – London seen from the heights of Harris Saddle."
Paul Theroux, The Happy Isles of Oceania

Lights, Camera...Action

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 12:54:00 +0000

Good collection of ideas from film director Jim Jarmusch. Several things of note here that seem as applicable in the world of design as that of the silver screen, eg Rule #4: Filmmaking is a collaborative process - “work with others whose minds and ideas may be stronger than your own”. Rule #5 is also relevant but I’m sure I’ve heard that one before….

Here is a link to his golden rules of movie-making

Reminiscent of a good piece of design advice I learnt at college. My tutor - a short, energetic chap called Ed - would relate design to the editing process of a film. He believed the quicker one got to the bare boned, basic structure of a ‘product’, the quicker you’d be able to make key decisions. Ed’s point was that until you’d reached the rough-cut stage students would more often than not get bogged down in the details (the ‘fluff’) and progress at a slower pace than that of someone who could step back and view the project as a whole (the ‘meat’). Basic flaws became exposed whilst strengths and virtues could be amplified and refined.

SE Asia photos

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:47:00 +0000

Photos available to view from my trip to Vietnam and Cambodia - with a brief glimpse of Hong Kong and Bangkok at either end.

A year to remember

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:50:00 +0000

For me 2008 became the year of ‘just doing it’. The label came from my Dad who in answer to a query about a moral dilemma, he answered by saying ‘just do it’. His view being don’t worry about the future, worry about the present and stop faffing around. Mind you, this is my interpretation and therefore may not be what the wisdom my Dad intended to pass on.

But it worked. 2008 was a really good year, and among things of note:

I met a fantastic women who at the present moment of writing seems happy to describe herself as my girlfriend (I know – I can’t believe it either!).
A photo of mine was shortlisted by Tate modern for a companion exhibition to the street and studio photography show. This ended up in a lovely book produced by blurb.
Work became more stable and I’ve enjoyed making a load of new friends and feeling part of an organisation that seems to be moving in the right direction. It hasn’t been a walk in the park but it has proved rewarding, and some of the work I've produced I'm pleased with.
I visited Copenhagen for a long weekend, had a great time at Latitude festival and visited several countries in SE Asia over the Christmas period. I saw this last destination as a small victory as it required a degree of negotiation to get the time off. A case of ‘if you don’t ask, you won’t get’ or perhaps even ‘just do it..’
My front room now has a fresh lick of paint, a new floor and a lovely sofa. And how much nicer an environment it is.

So what about this year - what will 2009 be the year of? I’ve been musing about this whilst slumming it around the cheap hotels of Vietnam and Cambodia and I think in line with the cheery outlook predicted by the media – ha ha ha – this year is going to be the year of ‘keeping it simple’.

But what does this mean? In short it’s about concentrating on the important things and cutting out the extraneous guff that gets in the way, costs too much, never gets used, complicates, clutters....you get the picture. I realised whilst living out of a bag for four weeks that we in the west live very complicated lives and often the a little bit of room to think and breathe can make a world of difference.

Practically I see 2009 as being a chance to exercise the following processes:

Cycle to work four times a week (minimum)
Eat smaller meals, waste less food, cook more from scratch, consume less chocolate.
Spend quality time with those people who matter, cooking meals at home as opposed to patronising restaurants and pubs.
Think a bit more about where my money is spent - £4 a pint? Get real, I’ll take my business elsewhere. Bye bye snappy snaps, I’m going to get my photos developed via post in Hampshire where for less money I get a CD of scans and a free film in addition to a quality set of developed and printed photos.
Appreciate what I have in the immediacy – England has lots of great locations to visit and at long last this must be the year that the sun returns to our shores.
Get more sleep and get to bed earlier. Last year I seemed to be rising late and therefore losing precious day time hours, this will change.
Spring clean. Spring clean. Spring clean.
Simple entertainment - read more books, watch less TV and stimulating conversation.

Vietnam and cambodia sketches

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 13:56:00 +0000

Having arrived back in London I am now hibernating from the cold. Drawings from my trip are on my Flickr site. Take a look...

No. 2 quote of note

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:21:00 +0000

"I came to Tibet hoping to find answers to all my unasked questions, but I have discovered that even when the questions are clear, there are no clear answers. I am sick of traveling. I need to hold onto something familiar, even if it is just a tea cup. I cannot survive in the wilds - nature is infinite but my life has bounds. I need to live in big cities that have hospitals, bookshops and women. I left Beijing because I wanted to be alone and to forge my own path but I now know that no path is solitary, we all tread across each others beginnings and ends."
Ma Jian, Red Dust

No. 1 quote of note

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 04:14:00 +0000

"There are still many white mountains to cross but I am on my way home. I am leaving the wilds and returning to the dirty crowds of the city. But I am not afriad of them any more. They cannot hurt me now. I have changed."
Ma Jian, Red Dust

Robert Capa at the barbican

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 17:52:00 +0000

How very true.

Positive thinking

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:44:00 +0000

Congratulations Barack Obama! Interesting to see how people are a lot more optimistic about the future. Great things to come one hopes, big respect to Mr. Rascal.

Further evidence here

Hard work

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 09:18:00 +0000

I always remember one of the leading lights on my foundation course, Rob Mills, saying that the only way to feel confident going in to a presentation/a crit/a meeting was to have done lots of work.

Great ideas don't just happen - you have to have worked through the process, to have put pen to paper and hand to head (scratch-scratch).

On a similar, and more interestingly expressed, note are these anecdotes from big cheeses in Ad-land:

“…If you produce a lot of ideas, you’re going to find good ones in there. It’s about amount. It’s about quality. Quality comes from quantity. In the creative process you have to see the ad. Make, make, make, make, make, make, make, make it. In the end you look and see one good one, ah this is average, and you pick up the best ones.”
Marcello Serpa, CEO, Creative Director, ALMAP/BBDO.

Particularly like Dave's tip about generating ideas. Another thing I was told on my foundation course was to present work in boxes - helps to order ideas and I find it stops one dwelling on one part of the page. Also everything designed seems to ultimately end up being in a 'box' of some form or another.

“…I would work as long as it took. I forced myself to write as many ideas as I possibly could. So I would do stupid things like, I'd get layout pads and fill it with a hundred squares. Like post-it notes. And I couldn't leave until I filled each box with an idea, even if I loved the first idea."
Dave Droga, Founder/Creative Chairman, droga5.

Via: diaryofacreativedirector.com

Elbow at Roundhouse, Camden

noreply@blogger.com (dobo) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 21:40:00 +0000

A great gig, a great night. Why? In no particular order...

1. Music - 4 albums of diverse, intelligent and powerful songs, 2008 mercury Prize winners. Enough said.
2. Venue - Modern without being soul-less, History without being overbearing, technology without the gizmos, intimate without lacking presence. I think the Roundhouse is the best venue in London not least because you can get very, very close to the stage without having to push through the throngs.
3. Personality - Guy Garvey is a very charming man. Charming in a good bloke way as opposed to charming in a smarmy, lawyer/car salesman way. Engaged the audience in equal part with witty and touching deliveries between numbers, he is very much the spokesman for the band.
4. Anticipation - I brought these tickets five months ago. I didn't know what i'd be doing in October and I didn't know who i'd be going with. I just knew that it wouldn't be a problem on either count. I was correct.

A great gig, a great night.