Mark Forrester - Independent digital designer and online entrepreneur

I recently found a link to an interesting blog, it’s called “On My Desk” . The concept of the site is pretty simple, creative people taking photos of the stuff on their desks. Whether they be illustrators, artists, or designers, these guys all bring an element of fun into their “offices”.

Inspired by people like these, I look around my desk, a black table top on wooden trestles, surrounded by white walls, and mountains of paper. I think it may be time for a spring clean. And a little splash of colour.

Are their others out there, besides the Jobloggers, and their “Missing Link” headquarters, that defy conventions and have had a little fun designing their offices?

Cameron Moll, the Yanky freelance new media designer, author, and speaker, who’s feed I subscribe to, has come up with a beaut of a post for all of you wishing to do a little experimenting with creating some great worn, “been through the washing machine” effects.

If you are too lazy to visit his site, which I strongly recommend you get off your ass and do, I have copied the great links he refers to and pasted them below:

• Jason Gaylor’s Photoshop brushes: Worn I, Worn II, Worn III, Fresh Foliage I, Fresh Foliage II, Grafitti I, Tasty Tattoo
• Misprinted Type: Photoshop brushes
• Veer: Worn typefaces
• MyFonts: Distressed typefaces
• Type Embellishments One
• How-to: Worn + “bulletproof” liquid layout
• How-to: Worn type using CSS
• How-to: Worn/weathered/stamped look
• iStockphoto: “grunge” vector and raster artwork

As you may have noticed I have used a couple of these techniques before :)

Have a look through these links, get inspired, and unleash your creative juices (hmmmm….. ok maybe don’t get that inspired ;)).

I often visit Zefrank’s video show during my lunch break for a little light entertainment. Today’s video was quite amusing, yet at the same time also quite thought provoking. It was all about “busting the cycle“.

What does busting the cycle mean? Basically it is when you “take one aspect of your life that is more or less constant and you purposely burst it. By temporarily breaking your routine you can often experience the world in a very different way. If you burst the right cycle this shift in perspective can often lead to elation and even a sense of possiblitity.”

So I’ve decided I’m going to follow Zefrank’s advice and bust a cycle. I’m not sure which cycle yet, but I’ll have a good long think about it. Maybe I’ll take my laptop to London Bridge and work above the Thames for a couple of hours, or until my battery dies, or maybe I’ll hop on a bus and go to some dodgy London ghetto I haven’t been to before, I haven’t quite decided, but the challenge sounds exciting.

How are you going to bust your cycle?

Zefrank breaking his peanut butter and jelly sandwich cycle

At Barcamp London last weekend there was an interesting presentation on a new online digital world called Second Life.

Sounds like some sci-fi geek website? That’s what I thought.

“Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by 289,256 people from around the globe.

• From the moment you enter the World you’ll discover a vast digital continent, teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity. Once you’ve explored a bit, perhaps you’ll find a perfect parcel of land to build your house or business.

• You’ll also be surrounded by the Creations of your fellow residents. Because residents retain the rights to their digital creations, they can buy, sell and trade with other residents.

• The Marketplace currently supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions. This commerce is handled with the in-world currency, the Linden dollar, which can be converted to US dollars at several thriving online currency exchanges.“

Our presenter at Barcamp told us Second Life was going to be the next big thing to hit the internet. I was quite sceptical, and still am. Are people really going want to spend more time behind a computer, creating a fantasy environment for their cyber-self to live in? Sounds rather far-fetched.

But then what was on BBC News this morning? Second Life. A BBC news correspondent interviewed one of the Second Life web designers in Second Life. The news correspondent and web designer had 3D models created of themselves and they walked and talked around one of the Second Life “islands”, they were then teleported to another “island” where “people” were dancing to Duran Duran music in a large concert stadium.The news is that Duran Duran, the real McCoy, will soon be performing to a universal crowd in the digital world of Second Life.

Me, the cool, slick, Mark Cruddas, just styling my hair!

So don’t waste any more time, go register, download and install the 25mb program file, and take a walk around cyberspace. Judge it for yourself.

That’s what I plan to do.