You may (or may have not) noticed that things have been pretty quiet in the world of the ‘kode lately. I’ve kinda stepped a bit back from my online activities in the last couple of months as I decided to concentrate on other things in the lead up to Christmas, plus I’ve been out enjoying all the various Christmas parties and social events of the last couple of weeks as well.

The good thing about all of this is that it’s given me a great deal of time to reflect on things I want in my life; the year that’s past; what I hope the coming year will bring; what I’d like to change in the coming year and where I eventually want to be. I always write a massive end of year and this year will be no different, but I want to make sure this one goes out with a bit of a bang.

BKV7

However the first call of duty for 2008 is the launch of version 7 of the Broken Kode. It's actually been a pretty weak year for the design of this site. I've kind of let it to it's own devices changing backwards and forwards between designs, never truly finishing any of them. The reasons where that I wasn't inspired enough. My brain was soo completely and utterly preoccupied with a bunch of other things that I wasn't feeling that same level of creativity that I felt in years past. Thankfully my trip to Japan really solved a bunch of 'artistic blocks' for me and I've been slowly crafting version 7 quietly in the background. I don't say this sort of thing, but the final product is probably the best thing I've ever designed. Thankfully it'll also be the last time I redesign Broken Kode for many many years to come. I'm sure I'll play around with the colour schemes and the images, but I've really allowed myself that maneuverability in the design. The thing about the whole process was the fact that I really did surprise myself in the outcome, as it looks NOTHING like what I had originally intended it to be when I started this process nearly a year ago. Yes, it's taken a year to come up with something that I'm actually happy with. Thankfully the intro page, no longer looks like a straight blog and yet it probably drives more people to the content itself. The site will also have a new logo, which is actually somewhere on the net if you've got a keen eye you might have noticed it.

One of the areas of the design that I definitely didn’t expect was the fact that the design fits snugly into 800x600 screen resolution. That I think was just a happy accident rather than by decision, but based on my previous post about the EEEPC, I am glad that it worked out that way.

Publishing

Well, I've been looking at various print on demand outlets in recent times again. I've already tried Lulu, but now I've ventured to Blub as well. Blurb sports and extremely pleasant design and their software is extremely capable if you've got a PC that can handle the strain on CPU power. I'm going to write a full review of this service once I get my first copy from them, but creating a book from them took no more than a weekend. That included creating a cover and pulling all the images together.

Artwork

This has been my main occupation these last couple of weeks. It's been a relief to get back into it all to be honest. The main thrust of this was the fact that I've got some of the best supplies for drawing from my trip to Japan. The paper and the pens I got from there were amazing. I'm sure I can find this stuff in London, however NOT at that price I'm sure and not as easily and readily as over there. In any case these tools have really helped me enhance my work and allow me to put detail into my work that I could never achieve before. I'm currently inking my work with a 0.05 nib Copic Multiliner which is one of the best pens I've ever used for inking work. Cheaper than the other crap I've bought and paid extremely high prices for and don't give me the level that I'm looking for.

Work

It's been one of the hardest and most fulfilling years of my life when it comes to work. I've been involved in some awesome projects and I've been hit hard by some very tough projects. Ultimately however life moves on and you learn for everything and the method of how things go and you enhance your knowledge and you pass it down as best you can to the next person in line. I've began thinking about things in a very different way right now. How to approach filing, how to approach teaching people, how to approach going about getting things done. I love throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks. Always challenge, never conform if you're not happy.