This week seems to have been particularly colourful with the post-it notes at Clearleft towers. The whiteboards, walls, doors and even the ceiling are covered in our fervent thinkings.
August is traditionally a quiet time in the industry but not this August, no Sir/Madam. Anna has been taking calls on all phones from a few potential new clients, the interns have started, while Clare and Andy have been working on an exciting new service that Clearleft hopes to be offering soon.
1. Interns and their Innovations.
The Interns of 2015 have well and truly arrived. For three months they’ll be working in a special pod area of the office to fulfil this brief: “Utilising digital technology to design a product or service that will enrich the lives of local Brighton residents.”
Welcome Chris Green: Chris is originally from Oxford, and recently graduated from an integrated bachelors/masters in Product Design at University of Leeds.
Welcome Chloe Finlayson: Chloe has moved from Scotland where she attended University of Dundee and gained a BSc in Digital Interaction Design.
Welcome Monika Bansal: Monika grew up in India, but is currently studying at Royal College of Art towards her masters in Information Experience Design.
Follow what they're doing here.
2. Congratulations
Clare passed her Driving Theory Test. Go Clare!
3. Afflictions
Ben White has recovered from his virus. Praise be.
4. Inspiration
Just to blow our own trumpet for a second: John Ellison, who also working with us for the next three months, offers a phenomenal insight into our working processes with his fly-on-the-wall blog 90 Days.
In terms of other trumpets: Andy B. would like to draw your attention to the controversial explosion around ‘#theconf’ from this week, following Anna Sarkeesian’s talk on Online Harassment.
Andy B. would also like to draw your attention to Suleiman Bahkik whom he heard speaking in Malmo. Suleiman is cartoonist who uses storytelling to give young muslim people new narratives and heroes in order to counter extremism.
Clare would like to draw your attention to a lovely book she’s just read: Any Human Heart by William Boyd.
Jeremy would like to draw your attention to these two blogs:
Web Design: The First 100 Years by Maciej Cegłowski.
And here’s why: https://adactio.com/links/9298
He would also like to draw your attention to the ethics of modern web ad-blocking by Marco Arment.
And here’s why: https://adactio.com/links/9378
5. Things in the organisation
While Ben has been out and about working with Brighton and Hove City Council, Rich and Andy P. were working with a London Council on their online form design guides.
Meanwhile back at the HQ there are some very exciting conversations and plans going up on the walls around a new service that Clearleft hopes to offer clients big and small, at home and overseas. Watch this space for more on that (Codeword: Workshops).
6. Podcastations
Jeremy has been grinning and saying the words ‘Listen to the Podcast’ a lot.
Do go and listen to the recent dConstruct podcast episodes, because they're worth it.
7. Invitations
In order of grandeur, we’re running 4 upcoming events that you’re most welcome to come to:
Andy P is looking for more teams to fill the last few slots for the Brighton Digital Karting Championships.
Content Delicatessen at Brighton Digital Festival: An event that introduces content, brand storytelling and content strategy to agencies, freelances and other digerati.
Ampersand Conference 2015: the Web Typography conference in November.
Dconstruct 2015: The tickets sales are in full flow - so get one while you can!
Have a great weekend. Adieu.