Mark Forrester - Independent digital designer and online entrepreneur

Best weekend ever. It certainly was. By a long shot. Glastonbury 2007 is hard to sum up in words. It is too much of an emotionally charged experience. Instead of attempting to describe it, as I am sure I will not do it justice, I have made a couple lists and linked to lots of videos.

Most memorable moments

• The knee deep “mud” around the urinals and watching some poor bugger wipe out in it.
• Chemical Brothers – Hey Boy, Hey Girl.
• Given a business card by a wizard. A genuine real wizard.
• Nizlopi – JCB Song. Then meeting Luke (Nizlopi singer) and getting a signed CD afterwards.
• Covered in mud, and most probably traces of urine, throwing frisbees in the crowd watching The View.
• Mastering the art of subtly peeing in a pint glass when stuck in the middle of a 100 000 people.
• Damien Rice. My best live acoustic performance ever.
• Finding a food store selling the biggest yorkshire puddings, filled with pork, mash and vegetables. Mmmm… festival food.
• The Marley brothers performing their old man’s “One Love” on the Pyramid Stage. One of their kids, not sure which one, who couldn’t have been older than 5, was jiving on the stage with a Jamaican flag and a smile from ear to ear. Bob must have been well proud upstairs watching his family share the love.
• The Killers performing “Mr Brightside”. (Click on the link to watch it)

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It’s a great time to be in London if you are a music lover. It’s summer time which means music festival time.

This last weekend I managed to get a free day ticket to the O2 Wireless Festival. My ticket was valid for the Sunday which was the “Indie Rock” day. This meant I got to see a whole bunch of bands I had never heard of before, plus of course the amazing Kaiser Chiefs.

One band which I thoroughly enjoyed was “The Editors”. Below is the single they released this week. I tried finding the O2 Wireless Festival video of it on YouTube, but I had no luck. Just imagine a packed sea of Indie fans jumping up and down.

Don’t like it? Play it again. A couple more times. I’m sure it will grow on you.

The other band I enjoyed was “The Twang”, especially this song, “Either Way”.

2 more sleeps and I’m off to Glastonbury. Which I am sure will be the best and worst experience of my life.

The best music experience. And the worst hygiene experience.

I’m finally getting around to designing a new business card with my UK contact details on it. Up until now I have been handing out business cards with my South African contact information, not very professional, but it does open up a bit of chit chat. Honestly I just haven’t found the time to invest into my own company’s brand image, I am too busy designing for clients. Not a very good excuse, but I am sure most designers will understand my predicament.

I’ve played with a few designs in Adobe Illustrator, but i’m lacking in the creativity department. After a Google search I stumbled on some great links to get the creative juices flowing again.

I even found this brilliant clip from the movie American Psycho. It’s a must watch.

“Something wrong Patrick? You’re sweating.”

Haha I love it.

Anyways, here is a link to some business card designs that are a little more interesting. And here is a link to a Flickr photoset of hundreds of business card designs.

Having second thoughts about your card design?

The last couple days I have spent every spare moment playing around with Adobe Illustrator and InDesign. I have found a new motivation to learn these programs after visting the Adobe Live conference in North London on Wednesday. Adobe Live was showcasing the latest Adobe Creative Suite 3. (more…)