Monday, 13 February 2012

Make blogs, read blogs

For two years now I have been asked continuously by friends and tutors if I blog. Back then I don't think I could have imagined anything worse. No one would be interested in my random thoughts I thought, and besides, writing anything at all is an ordeal for me as I constantly rewrite and restructure anything I have just typed. (I'm doing it now). Even texting a friend takes me far longer than it needs to.

At this point last year I was just beginning the major project phase of my MA in Graphic Communication and was rapidly collecting data on myself that I could turn into data visualisations. I've always been a private person, and then all of a sudden through my work I was revealing all kinds of habits and interests. Others on the course were enthusiastic about my work and so I decided to share them online. 

In July 2011 things went a bit crazy, views of my work on Flickr jumped overnight and I was receiving messages of support and questions about my methods from all over the world. (If you were one that got in contact then thank you very much). I later discovered that one of the most well known information designers Nicholas Felton had blogged my work. 

Since then I began to use Twitter and through here I discovered the Information is Beautiful competitions. In fact my entry won first prize and earned me $2,000. The publicity generated yet more interest in my work which lead to me producing a visualisation for Qatar based news group Al Jazeera. In short I believe the internet is a truly amazing thing and I intend to make the most of it.

I am currently looking at improving my website to include my more recent work and I'm also looking at adding a section that explains my general design process and tools since I have had so many people asking about this through email. This blog will provide further reading as new projects and challenges come my way, and I also hope to share and discuss some of the work from others which I find most interesting or relevant.

I have already revealed a lot about myself, but there will be much more to come. Attached is an image of my favorite place to work.

Thanks for reading and I hope this proves interesting.

Welcome.


Ben

Posted by at 17:43

4 comments:

  1. Charlotte17 February 2012 at 08:58

    This room is far too tidy for a creative! It's immaculate!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown17 February 2012 at 09:06

      Its in either one of two states, as it is in the picture or a complete pigsty. There is no in-between. I wish I has a photo of the mess and piles of book from when I was writing my dissertation.

      Delete
    2. Charlotte17 February 2012 at 13:48

      Good to hear!
      But my creative spaces never look like this at the best of times.
      At the worst of times, for two weeks during final degree show prep, my room resembled a rabbit hutch: newspaper lining the floor and paper shavings all over the place. No poop though luckily.

      Delete
  2. Charlotte17 February 2012 at 13:47

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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