Farewell 2008
Careful! This post is looking a little old and could be inaccurate in many, many ways
As we move into 2009 I thought I’d post about some of my highlights from the past year:
My Weblog
On March 21st I launched a new but incomplete website and blog. Although blogging is something that has possibly already reached its height of popularity it still seemed like a good way to expand upon and complement my portfolio. The version of the design that launched in March did not last too long however as this version of the site was rushed and a successor was quickly put into development.
transfusion moves to keanrichmond.com
My portfolio had been running on the trans-fusion.co.uk domain since 2003 but with the rebuild in May I decided to rebrand the website under my own name. With the blog being such a focus of the website it seemed best to brand the site under my own name rather than transfusion. Since starting the blog I’ve posted 63 times and received 31 comments. The traffic on the site is still low but working in the site and blog is a lot of fun.
Recognition
Even though the site traffic is low the website has been recognised in a few places, for both design and content. The site will not be winning any awards any time soon however but mentions from Smashing Magazine, Web Design is Art, We Love WP, ETRA and Rosenfeld Media have made the time spent working on the site worthwhile.
Conferences
In April I attended my first conference, Future of Web Design London. It was great to have the day just absorbing new information from the experts in the field. I enjoyed it so much that I will be attending again in 2009. In October I then went to the Future of Web Apps Expo, but not the conference. What this boiled down to was a quick wander around the expo floor and then sitting through the awesome recording of Diggnation live and attending the very busy after party.
This may not seem that much of a highlight but in July I signed up to Twitter. In the past few months it has become an invaluable tool for expanding my knowledge as more people in the industry move towards micro-blogging tools such as Twitter rather than traditional blogs.
Moving Home
At 24 I finally managed to move out of home. Although I spent four years at University away from home it doesn’t quite count as moving out. Now I’m living in Harrogate in a studio flat slightly larger than my old room, but size doesn’t matter it’s just good to have my own space without restrictions. The move did lead to almost 2 months without broadband which didn’t help when trying to build up this website.
Projects
Over the past year I’ve worked on 60+ projects varying from small updates to full builds. It’s great to get to work on such diverse projects as well as being able to work as both designer and developer on a number of projects. The highlights must include the redesign of the Bronco website and the redesign of UK Bathrooms in which they have gained a 100% increase in turnover since the redesign.
This year has been great and hopefully 2009 will be just as much fun.