It’s my favourite time of year when I thank god that I have my own business and don’t have to face crazy people the people in The Apprentice last night. After working in recruitment, you meet some real fruits. Fact. And sadly, The Apprentice is quite an accurate representation of the type of people you meet on a day-to-day basis working in a target-driven environment. So today I feel incredibly lucky that I no longer have to work with them!

Some of the gems from the candidates last night included…

“I can be like an animal. I will literally roar my way to the top…”
“They call me the master puppeteer…”
“I let people underestimate me…”
“When it comes to business I am a shark…”
“I truly am the reflection of perfection…”

What followed was a typical day in a sales office (from my experience, of course) – bad management, shoddy products, no team ethic, greasy sales-patter, closed questioning and the relentless pursuit from one sales person to the next to try and show that they are better than the other members of their ‘team’. Of course it is all subject to the viewer’s perception and the careful (and I imagine time-consuming) editing process which ensues following each show.

Either way, it’s a gem of a TV show; not somewhere you’d actually like to work for more than an hour.

So today in appreciation, I’m sitting back, printing flyers, finishing websites, updating our social networking sites and enjoying the fact that I can do so at my own pace without the creepy employees that frequent and dwell in so many of our offices. You know you’ve got one lurking around you somewhere…

x

So I’ve been here, I’ve been there, I’ve been everywhere…(mainly launching new websites and blogging for other people!). This month we launched a new site for Soundflow Festival which is a Hip-Hop, Dance and Reggae festival taking place in the UK in July. The site is templated and has a whole load of really useful functionality, using jQuery for a great homepage slideshow and a custom font. There are still a few areas to finish, but with more and more tickets being sold everyday we had to launch the site to keep up with demand!

If you’re looking at using custom fonts on your own site, first of all you need to make sure that they aren’t copyrighted and are free for web-use. The last thing you want is to get in trouble - no matter how great your site looks! Secondly, to find a font which is going to make your site stand out, I would suggest www.cufonfonts.com. It’s easy to navigate, has full preview panes and most importantly has a massive selection of fonts available royalty and copyright free.

We’ve also been going mad on the printing front with flyers, posters, stickers, business cards and brochures coming out of our ears! More photos to follow… Coming up soon we have a new design for the Inwood Ink site featuring new artist work, a site for Ipex Consulting who are a specialist transport and rail consultancy plus our own site…which is currently only 8 months behind schedule! x

Everytime I think it’s going to be a quiet month – it turns out to be manic!

Lots of news on websites and other design work, starting with the launch of the Urban Events website - www.urbaneventorganisers.co.uk

Urban Events organise raves and festivals across the UK and are organising the Soundflow festival taking place later this year. The site is CSS based with a jQuery gallery section and shop hosted by Yokaboo which will be live in a few days selling tickets, merchandise and MP3s from the events. We’ve also been working on promotional tools for the event including business cards, flyers, tickets for the shows and wristbands for the festival with the Urban Events branding, co-branded with the Soundflow festival.

Alongside this, we’ve also just launched a website for Roseanna Johnson – a corporate event host and PA who was looking for a site to showcase her (many!) talents and provide a simple, online CV format which she could direct agencies and potential employers to. www.roseanna-johnson.co.uk features another CSS based site with jQuery testimonials and quotes, plus a Tumblr blog and Soundcloud player – perfect for showcasing Roseanna’s current tracks on the site. We’ve also helped Roseanna with corporate and personal business cards and HTML email mailshots which she can use to create a consistent on and offline brand for herself.

Alongside that, January is always a busy month for exhibitions so I’ve been working at BETT 2012, Top Drawer and ICE Gaming – which has meant loads of days out of the office, and loads of evenings spent catching up on work! But it’s been a great month for Can.did and we have a whole host of exciting projects in the pipeline and on their way! x

What is it about this time of year that just feels so good? Maybe it’s having the excuse to spend extortionate amounts of money online buying presents, maybe it’s seeing family, maybe it’s just all the pretty lights calling you in…Whatever it is, I love Christmas.

This year we’re just doing it at home, my boyfriend and I – no running around to see family with last minute dashes to find food and bottles of champagne to take to each house – this year it’s just relaxed, casual and we get to do whatever we want, all day long. Result.

It’s been a busy week with finishing web projects and design work – but as I sit here in my hallway with my cats and Cash in the Attic on BBC iPlayer, I really can’t complain.

There have been some great social networking and website Christmas-themed ideas going around this year – my personal favourite still being typing ‘let it snow’ into Google. You’ve got to love the wonder of CSS3! We’ve jazzed up a couple of our sites too, from the subtle and sleek Christmas trees on the Fashion-Recruit hero image, to the (not quite so subtle) presents and Santa’s little helper on the iGrowponics e-commerce site. Overall though, I love the fact that everyone makes a little more effort with their websites and design work this time of year and it’s great to see some new redevelopments of tried-and-tested concepts.

Looking forward to the weekend (our tree is fabulous right now – and none of my presents are even under it yet!) although we haven’t bought any of the food for the day and need to try and find a couple of juicy lobsters from somewhere. Looks like the last minute panic and dash to the shops may well be a tradition we can’t quite shake yet…

Happy Christmas from Can.Did Design and we hope you have an amazing break and New Year xxx

So, with my six weeks off (well, it doesn’t technically start till Tuesday but i’m already way too excited!) I’ve finally managed to dig out some of the work we have been doing. After the website for Inwood Ink in Harlow which is a showcase for the artists, we designed the branding used for all of the signage in the shop - which makes me really proud! x