NEWCASTLE RADIO ON TWITTER

NEWCASTLE RADIO STATION

Back in September 2011, I attended an interview for the role of a web developer for an agency in Newcastle named "Th_nk". 

I have experience of working with PHP and developing CSS, but it was seen very quickly during the test session of the interview that I still had a lot to learn to take on such a technical role. That saying, the result was that I was not offered the place. The senior developer at Think was incredibly helpful when giving me feedback and felt that my enthusiasm for the practice was undoubted, but my skills were still in need of developing further. 

He mentioned that if this was going to be something I was serious about getting into, I needed to learn to hand code in HTML, so that is what I went about doing. 

Whilst picking up the basics, I felt that I needed to put some context to my learning and come up with a project that I could add to, learn more to better it and generally, have something that would keep me motivated. 

I came up with GumBum Radio. I love using social media, so set the site up to connect to Twitter where I began to tweet YouTube music videos that showed up on my site. At first a one page site, but as I began to tweet, I began to gain followers and in particular, independent artists asking to have their own videos tweeted to my followers. The growth in just  the first week, took the follower stats to 1000 and also got my radio station (I mean this in creative terms) to a featured station on reelr.tv.  

I have had the pleasure of now interviewing several artists and even held my first Tweeterview with a talented rapper Bl'eve Brown. I have a tune of the week and artists request plays every day. My last is an artist call DjCell Block who's last mixtape got 500,000 downloads before he approached me.

In addition, the connection that twitter has given me with these artists, has even resulted in couple of design projects for them, branding for Freezy and soon, a new site for Bl'eve Brown. 

Please take a look at the work and I hope you enjoy the music that these musicians fortunately share with me. 

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO GUMBUMRADIO. 

COMIC BOOK HEROES.

COMIC BOOK HEROES: 

After a flick through Tumblr, I found a piece done by another artist that inspired this work. In actual fact, it was embroidery, but the design of the characters gave me enough of a nudge to build my own using Inkscape. 

I have done some Marvel Characters, you can see them here on Facebook. 

WOLVERINE BUSINESS CARD DESIGN

BATMAN BUSINESS CARD DESIGN

IRONMAN BUSINESS CARD DESIGN

CAPTAIN AMERICA BUSINESS CARD DESIGN

BUSINESS CARD DESIGN - COMIC BOOK STYLE

WOLVERINE BUSINESS CARD TUTORIAL USING INKSCAPE OPEN SOURCE TECHNOLOGY.

The tutorial will show you how I put the card together.

FLYER DESIGN & GIMP

FLYER DESIGN USING OPEN SOURCE TECHNOLOGY.

As a Digital Trainer, I have to find ways by which my learners can develop at home without facing barriers that come from using mainstream software. Many don't have the programs at home and what's more, may not have the finance to purchase them either.

So finding GIMP 2.0 was a great breakthrough; as many of the tools in Photoshop can be found here too.

I placed this up on my YouTube Channel a while back, I tend to use the videos for teaching the small groups I work with, so don't expect a huge amount of traffic to them. This Flyer Design Tutorial has ended up with over a 1000 views, not much in the grand scheme of things, but still, not bad.

I love comic books so, thought a Comic Book Convention Flyer would be a good example to give.

If you have any questions, please get in touch. 

Oh iPhone I love you, my one man band in my pocket- Converging Technology For E-Commerce

Converging Technology is best defined by getting one thing to do many things. It's spread across a wide platform of technology as recently, I read that we now can take Facebook as a great example of CTech, as you can do so many things on just one platform i.e. chat, post, upload images, play videos, game. 

Back in the day of my Nokia 3310, I was mightily impressed at how I was able to play snakes for hours and when needed, text someone in the next room to put the kettle on! 

Well, how times have changed! 

In 2009, I began to build my own online portfolio to become a self-employed web and graphic designer, if someone would have said that by 2012, I could run my entire online e-commerce from my phone, i'd of been suspicious that chemicals were involved, sectioning be required, or simply call them a bare faced liar!!@£%! 

But I'd then have to apologise as in 2012, I can. 

The iPhone is the best example of Converging Technology I can think of, yes, Facebook, blah blah blah, well, I can log into Facebook and do all the many great things there on my iPhone! So secondary to the handset sadly. 

I love my iPhone so much. It used to be a case that when my work needed sharing, there I would be in a web editor replacing images, then opening Filezilla and updating content on my site. Or, I'd need an internet connection to upload to Facebook. Well, not anymore. 

I can upload to say Facebook using a computer yes, I do my design work there but, once its there, I can download the photo from my Facebook App, then share it on Flickr using my Flickr App, Tweet It using my Twitter App and Tumble It and Blog it using Tumblr Apps and Blogger. At last count, I have a following or like base of around 5000 including friends on FB, so using just a few touches of a screen all of them have the opportunity to see my work. 

In addition, thanks to PayPal bringing out their own App, I can receive and transfer funds using it to and from my bank account. If I need more supplies, the ebay App comes in handy and all from my wonderful phone. 

plus, Skulls and Bones is a good game too.....

Web 2.0 and The Effects On Web Design

Over the past few months, I have been looking into the notion of the 1 page web site and thinking about the value or point of a 10-15 page web site.

In truth, do you look at it all? From looking at the analytics...... no.

Well, swallowing this bitter pill that people simply can't be bothered to trudge through all my design content has been for the long term, a great help; as it's begun to help me design web sites for the 21st Century Internet User.

Web 2.0 gets banded about quite a lot these days, some feel its a look and other feel its a process (the eternal design debate, form over function). Well for me, even as a designer, I feel its the function that defines Web 2.0 best.

For me Web 2.0 relates the use of 21st century internet users and where they tend to go when online. This is a simple answer, social networking. Whether its to post pictures of nights out, chat or simply and narcissistic-ally share their every move or mood with people by status or tweet, like it or loath it, this is where we tend to be. In actual fact, my second browser is now open in Facebook...ha.

My new site for 2012 is 100% web 2.0 with 1 page and connections to the major social networks. Why because I look to capture my site visitors for the long term. Be it by following, liking or adding, my visitor is going to be able to hear from me for a while. From looking at my Facebook Page Insights, many of my likes have come from site over the past 28 days, so this is what people want. They don't necessarily want to re-visit the site, they want to hear from daily, how awesome!

Well, Here is the site, enjoy.