Thinking

We’re currently on the look out for an experienced UX Designer to join our team of renowned experts. So if you’re talented, passionate and have ideally 5 years of dedicated UX design experience, we’d love to hear from you. Take a look at the full details (and online application form), and let us know if you think you’ve got what it takes to be the next Clearleft’ie.

Our Channel 4 News iPad/iPhone app has been launched, and gosh, we’re rather proud of it! Now you can enjoy up to the minute news (and rather splendid design) wherever you are!

We’re very happy to have two more super sponsors on board for dConstruct, Shopify and vzaar. Shopify will help you create a fantastically fetching online store (and of course, we’re all for things looking their best), and vzaar provide a rather ace professional video platform, which we’ll be making use of for dConstruct.

And don’t forget, conference tickets may have sold out, but there are still places at our four fab workshops - and with a ticket for one of those you’ll also snag a complimentary conference pass!

We were thrilled, and pretty gobsmacked, after dConstruct tickets went on sale yesterday morning and sold out in a very speedy seven hours! Obviously everyone else is as excited as we are about this year’s event. It’s still possible to snag a ticket - by attending one of our rather super workshops you also get a pass for the conference, so be sure to check out the details for those. And for those of you who’ve already bagged your ticket, we’ll see you in September!

We’re very happy to announce a trio of fantastic sponsors for this year’s dConstruct: Hoefler & Frere-Jones, Authentic Jobs and MailChimp. Like us, the Hoefler & Frere-Jones folks are nuts about typography, and in fact also just sponsored our first ever Ampersand conference, which took place here in Brighton last Friday and was mighty splendid (if we do say so ourselves). Having been a super job source in the US since 2005, Authentic Jobs has recently launched a UK site, so we Brits can now enjoy their recruitment-enhancing goodness. And we’re keen MailChimp-ers, making use of their marvellous email marketing services - we also can’t resist their cheeky monkey mascot! So, welcome all - we look forward to seeing you at dConstruct in September!

There are just two weeks left until dConstruct tickets go on sale! Don’t forget to make a note that they’ll be available from 11am on Tuesday, July 5th… and they’re likely to sell out fast, so be sure to nab yours early!

The conference will take place here in lovely Brighton on Friday, September 2nd, and we’ve another really splendid line up, including Don Norman, Frank Chimero, Craig Mod and Kelly Goto. We can’t wait!

There have been lots of oohs and aahs here at Clearleft HQ as we’ve watched the creation of various rather spectacular, beautifully designed Fontdeck goodies. These have been made to form gift boxes which have been sent to a handful of folk we admire - and now there’s a chance for some lucky souls to win the remaining three, very limited edition, boxes. For the chance to get your mitts on one, check out the Fontdeck blog for full details. And of course, if you haven’t already hopped along to the Fontdeck site, be sure to check it out - it’s an entirely elegant one stop shop for webfonts!

Also, for those of you tickled by web typography, don’t forget to snap up one of the few remaining tickets for Ampersand, which takes place here in Brighton next week!

We’ve spent the past few months working with various local community groups, arts institutions and conference producers to arrange what we believe is going to be the biggest festival of digital culture in Europe. Backed by our friends at the Arts Council, the Brighton Digital Festival will run throughout the month of September and involve around 30 events; from art exhibits and community meet-ups, through to international conferences and events.

Kicking off the festival on the 2nd September will be our very own dConstruct conference, followed by Brighton’s first Maker Faire. So if you’re in town for the conference, make sure you stick around. Following hot on our heels is the new Update conference, while mid month we see the return of the ever popular Flash on the Beach. Finishing the season we have Improving Reality, a brand new conference focussing on digital arts.

As well as the big conferences, we’re going to see a load of smaller talks and community events happening during the month of September. We’ve also got some interesting digital art exhibitions and installations planned, including “A Machine to See With” from local art collective Blast Theory.

We’re still looking for more events, so if you’ve got an idea for something you’d like to run, please drop us a line.

Goodness, it’s nearly time for this year’s dConstruct! Tickets will be going on sale at 11am on July 5th, so be sure to make a note of that - we’re expecting, as usual, that they’ll sell out rather swiftly, so snap yours up before they’re gone. We’ve another really splendid line up, including Don Norman, Frank Chimero, Craig Mod and Kelly Goto, which we’re very excited about. Keep an eye out for full details which will be announced in the coming weeks.

After a month of gadding about appearing at conferences, and clocking up a rather impressive amount of air miles, we finally have a full compliment of Clearlefties back at HQ. Rich, James Box and Cennydd all spoke at SXSW, Jeremy appeared at Drupalcon in Chicago and An Event Apart in Seattle, and Cennydd was the closing plenary speaker at the IA Summit in Denver. Returning to Blighty, Andy and Harry both spoke at Brighton SEO. Next up, Jeremy will gad forth to Amsterdam for Mobilism, and Andy and Cennydd will both be at the IA Konferenz in Munich, where Andy will be the closing keynote speaker.

As if all that weren’t exciting enough, UX London takes place next week! We’re really looking forward to spending three inspiring days with a great group of UX folk. Yet again it’s completely sold out, but if you’ve already nabbed a ticket we’ll see you there! And for more inspirational goodness, don’t forget to snap up a ticket for Ampersand, our new web typography conference, which takes place here in sunny Brighton on June 17th.

We received a huge number of submissions for our UX London student bursary - and what a varied and creative bunch they were! Of course it was tricky picking our favourites, but three particularly imaginative entries really stood out. And so - drumroll, please! - the winners are: Jenn Bagehorn, Damian Gribben and Kate Ivey-Williams. We had asked entrants to tell us why attending UX London would be useful to them and their future career, to which Jenn sent her very impressive portfolio of design ideas, Damian created a spectacularly splendid website, and Kate wowed us with a wonderful animated video. We look forward to welcoming them to UX London - and to seeing what they do next!

Tickets for Ampersand, our new typography conference, go on sale at noon today. We’re very excited about the event, which promises to be an inspiring day for web designers and type enthusiasts. Ampersand represents the overlapping worlds of type design, web design and software, and is a must for anyone working with words on the web. The conference will take place at the Brighton Dome Corn Exchange on June 17th.

We’re very pleased to announce Adobe as Premier Sponsors of UX London. They’ll be joining us in London next April, and we look forward to seeing them there for what promises to be another fantastic event. There are still additional sponsorship places if you’d like to be part of the super UX festivities. And don’t forget to register if you haven’t already - the current ticket price is only available for a limited time!

It’s all go in the rather elegant world of Fontdeck. The webfont service was a highly commended entry for Most Innovative New Technology in Econsultancy’s Innovation Awards, which we’re thrilled about. And of course that follows hot on the heels of its recent win at the BIMAs. Illustrating just how impressive the fonts on offer can look, you can now see a gallery of Fontdeck served sites. Take a peek and see how a little Fontdeck typography can inspire your site.

We’ve rolled out the welcome mat again for our new User Experience Designer, Harry Brignull. Harry is a veteran design researcher who has previously worked at Flow, Madgex and Amberlight. In addition to his splendid work, Harry spreads the UX word by helping to run the thriving UX Brighton events, and curating the famous Dark Patterns wiki. We’re delighted that he’s now part of the Clearleft team.

Back in November we took part in a World Usability Day promotion, donating 100% of Silverback app sales to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. In addition to our own sales, our friends at Optimal Workshop included Silverback in their World Usability Day bundle, and we’re thrilled to say we’ve reached a combined total of $8,500!

The hard-working folk at the Fossey Fund are thrilled too. President and CEO Clare Richardson said: “The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund protects and monitors silverback gorillas and their groups every day in Africa, so it is especially wonderful to add the support of Clearleft, Optimal Workshop and Silverback software buyers to our efforts. This donation will help us continue our daily efforts to save this important endangered species, including the all-important silverbacks, who are known for their strength and leadership in guiding the other gorillas.”

At Clearleft we’re continuing to support the gorillas in donating 10% of Silverback profits to the Fossey Fund. They currently need help in raising money to build a fence at their gorilla rehabilitation centre - a costly project, but essential for the well-being of the orphan gorillas. To make a donation, or for more information, check out the Fossey Fund website. You can also follow them on Twitter.