As a designer, Dribbble is one of those essential sites to both promote your own work and draw inspiration from others.
Dribbble is a closed community of designers where users need to be invited in order to post their work (either by another user or by the Dribbble team)
Well... late last night, I got drafted to become a Player (Dribbble uses a lot of basketball terminology) - Nice!
I've only posted up a couple of 'Shots' yet but its nice to finally be able to get involved with the community.
Check out my profile
Thursday, 18 October 2012
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Making Ideas Happen: My two pennies worth
So as part of my self development plan, I'm trying to read more (which shouldn't be difficult as up until now I've hardly ever picked up a book!). I'm not entirely sure when or why - I must have subconsciously been taking in all the references while on Behance - but I decided to pick up a copy of Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky, CEO and founder of Behance.net.
The book focuses on how to push your creative ideas forward and shares insights from some of the creative world's top individuals. Scott talks about organisational skills through the use of action steps; harnessing the forces of your community and building upon your leadership skills.
While reading Making Ideas Happen, I noticed a lot of traits in myself and my fellow co-founders of Prama - in particular the section about Dreamers, Doers and Incrementalist (myself being the Dreamer). I've noticed a subtle change in the way I approach my daily task list and the way I write down my action steps. I've even started creating a list of back burner items to refer to later.
Overall, I would highly recommend Making Ideas Happen to anyone who is looking to channel their creativity to either launch a new project of their own, or just streamline the way they manage the projects they already work on.
Follow Scott Belsky on twitter @scottbelsky
The book focuses on how to push your creative ideas forward and shares insights from some of the creative world's top individuals. Scott talks about organisational skills through the use of action steps; harnessing the forces of your community and building upon your leadership skills.
While reading Making Ideas Happen, I noticed a lot of traits in myself and my fellow co-founders of Prama - in particular the section about Dreamers, Doers and Incrementalist (myself being the Dreamer). I've noticed a subtle change in the way I approach my daily task list and the way I write down my action steps. I've even started creating a list of back burner items to refer to later.
Overall, I would highly recommend Making Ideas Happen to anyone who is looking to channel their creativity to either launch a new project of their own, or just streamline the way they manage the projects they already work on.
Follow Scott Belsky on twitter @scottbelsky
Tuesday, 15 May 2012
The Cult of 'Done' Manifesto
During my daily round of Stumbling, I came across the Cult of Done Manifesto by Bre Pettis
Now go get something Done.
It goes a little something like this...
The Cult of Done Manifesto
- There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
- Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
- There is no editing stage.
- Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.
- Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
- The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
- Once you're done you can throw it away.
- Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.
- People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
- Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
- Destruction is a variant of done.
- If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
- Done is the engine of more.
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| Poster to accompany the Manifesto by James Provost |
Now go get something Done.
Tuesday, 24 April 2012
Realise your potential
Today I came across this post on Facebook which I found pretty inspiring!
"Once, a man was passing an elephant when he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that this huge creature was being held by only a small rope tied to it's back leg. No chains, no cage. It was obvious that the elephant could, at any time, break away from that bond, but for some reason, it did not.
The man saw a trainer nearby, and asked why the animal, just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” the trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller, we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”
The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds, but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.
Like the elephants, how many of us go through life, hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before?
Realize your potential, come out of your old beliefs and the fear of failures. Just because you couldn't do something at one time, or something didn't work earlier, doesn't mean you won't be able to do it now."
"Once, a man was passing an elephant when he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that this huge creature was being held by only a small rope tied to it's back leg. No chains, no cage. It was obvious that the elephant could, at any time, break away from that bond, but for some reason, it did not.
The man saw a trainer nearby, and asked why the animal, just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” the trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller, we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”
The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds, but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.
Like the elephants, how many of us go through life, hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before?
Realize your potential, come out of your old beliefs and the fear of failures. Just because you couldn't do something at one time, or something didn't work earlier, doesn't mean you won't be able to do it now."
Monday, 26 March 2012
Watch your back
As I slowly but surely approach 30 I look back at the last ten years and realise that I haven't done enough to keep fit and active. I've never really been into sports (other than cricket where you spend a lot of time just standing still) and the gym was always a major chore.
Recently however, after a bit of peer pressure I've decided to join in a weekly game of 6-a-side football with some close friends. My wife ( an avid Arsenal supporter) is thrilled to bits about it. I on the other hand; a guy who not only doesn't play football but doesn't even watch it was feeling a little worried. Would I be able to last an hour? Could I even last 5 minutes? Only one way to find out eh....
Week 1 was a killer. I was out of breath within minutes, get a stitch on my side and get a cramp in my leg. I could hardly breathe when I got home later that night.
Now in week 6 I've noticed a huge improvement in both my health and stamina and also in my ability to play the game. I'm finally starting to feel healthy again.
Totally Trollied!
On Saturday afternoon i went shopping in Tesco with my daughter. As usual, I end up with the trolley with the dodgy wheel which keeps pulling to one side - why are all the trollers at Tesco like that?
Anyway, so I'm having to walk at an odd angle and really forcing the trolley to go in a straight line to avoid smashing into the aisles and after getting a bit frustrated by my trolley I gave it a swift jerk as I walked out of the store. At this point I thought nothing of it but I could feel this sharp pain in my lower back by the time I got back to my car.
By the evening the pain grew and I could hardly stand or sit... So off to bed. I wake up on Sunday morning in the most agonising pain in my lower back. Unable to get out of bed without feeling like I'm about to die. I can't even bend down to pick my daughter up, which is pretty heartbreaking. No doubt I won't be playing football this week!
I'm loading up on Ibuprofen and applying lots of ice packs so here's to hoping I have a speedy recovery.
I guess the moral of all this is, no matter what your age and fitness level, do not take your health (and especially your back) for granted.
Recently however, after a bit of peer pressure I've decided to join in a weekly game of 6-a-side football with some close friends. My wife ( an avid Arsenal supporter) is thrilled to bits about it. I on the other hand; a guy who not only doesn't play football but doesn't even watch it was feeling a little worried. Would I be able to last an hour? Could I even last 5 minutes? Only one way to find out eh....
Week 1 was a killer. I was out of breath within minutes, get a stitch on my side and get a cramp in my leg. I could hardly breathe when I got home later that night.
Now in week 6 I've noticed a huge improvement in both my health and stamina and also in my ability to play the game. I'm finally starting to feel healthy again.
Totally Trollied!
On Saturday afternoon i went shopping in Tesco with my daughter. As usual, I end up with the trolley with the dodgy wheel which keeps pulling to one side - why are all the trollers at Tesco like that?
Anyway, so I'm having to walk at an odd angle and really forcing the trolley to go in a straight line to avoid smashing into the aisles and after getting a bit frustrated by my trolley I gave it a swift jerk as I walked out of the store. At this point I thought nothing of it but I could feel this sharp pain in my lower back by the time I got back to my car.
By the evening the pain grew and I could hardly stand or sit... So off to bed. I wake up on Sunday morning in the most agonising pain in my lower back. Unable to get out of bed without feeling like I'm about to die. I can't even bend down to pick my daughter up, which is pretty heartbreaking. No doubt I won't be playing football this week!
I'm loading up on Ibuprofen and applying lots of ice packs so here's to hoping I have a speedy recovery.
I guess the moral of all this is, no matter what your age and fitness level, do not take your health (and especially your back) for granted.
Thursday, 8 March 2012
Ready to snap!
No... I'm not about to lose my cool and start shouting at everyone; I'm talking about snapping photos.
I've always been a keen photographer and have spent the last couple of years snapping away in the Asian Wedding market under my company Rivaaz Photography.
As with most things though, this too has taken a bit of a back seat as of late and it wasn't until I logged into my 500px.com account this morning that I realised that I haven't picked up my camera in what seems like forever!
So this is my pledge; as part of my attempt at learning some new skills; to pick up my Canon 5D mkII again, get off my backside and take some pictures!
I've always been a keen photographer and have spent the last couple of years snapping away in the Asian Wedding market under my company Rivaaz Photography.
As with most things though, this too has taken a bit of a back seat as of late and it wasn't until I logged into my 500px.com account this morning that I realised that I haven't picked up my camera in what seems like forever!
So this is my pledge; as part of my attempt at learning some new skills; to pick up my Canon 5D mkII again, get off my backside and take some pictures!
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
The first step
Towards the end of last week, while making some small tweaks to my LinkedIn profile I came across some interesting groups for front-end developers. Several clicks later I found myself on some current job opportunities and decided to see what the general requirements are these days - the last time I applied for a job was in 2003!
It soon became pretty apparent that I was a little behind on my knowledge.
I've always thought of myself as an early adopter of new technology and trends. I follow a bunch of RSS feeds which keep me on top of what's hot and what's not, and I'm constantly 'Stumbling' to soak up some new info. However, I seem to have been left behind on a few topics which really count - such as HTML5, SASS, LESS and even some CSS3 to some extent ; topics which will benefit my portfolio and help improve my skill set.
This weekend I decided to set up a personal blog and make a conscious effort to learn some of these new skills which have passed me by. The plan is to document what I'm learning and hopefully engage in some conversations with people in a similar position along the way.
This image sums up my thoughts pretty damn well!
It soon became pretty apparent that I was a little behind on my knowledge.
I've always thought of myself as an early adopter of new technology and trends. I follow a bunch of RSS feeds which keep me on top of what's hot and what's not, and I'm constantly 'Stumbling' to soak up some new info. However, I seem to have been left behind on a few topics which really count - such as HTML5, SASS, LESS and even some CSS3 to some extent ; topics which will benefit my portfolio and help improve my skill set.
This weekend I decided to set up a personal blog and make a conscious effort to learn some of these new skills which have passed me by. The plan is to document what I'm learning and hopefully engage in some conversations with people in a similar position along the way.
This image sums up my thoughts pretty damn well!
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| via: Hannes Beer |
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