@lurkmoophy http://www.lurkmoophy.com Misadventures on a Small Island posterous.com Sun, 22 Jan 2012 09:21:20 -0800 Reasons to love Sydney: Thunderstorms http://www.lurkmoophy.com/reasons-to-love-sydney-thunderstorms http://www.lurkmoophy.com/reasons-to-love-sydney-thunderstorms

Did you know that in Finland there are 40 different words for snow. There's words to describe slushy snow, snow downpours, sleety snow, light fluffy snow... To be honest I kind of love it. It has a kind of romantic quality to it. In the UK, the same seems to stand for rain. I didn't understand how many types of water falling to the ground there could be until I embarked on the adventure of marrying a foreigner (apparently I'm the foreigner here... go figure). On the first mention of wet air, I was both amused and depressed. On moving here, I realised the necessity of so many descriptions of rain. My personal favourite is the aforementioned wet air, that seems to not be visible to the naked eye when glancing out the window but sneaks through every slightly loose weave in your clothes and permeates your very essence with WETNESS. Pleasant.

In Australia there seems to be two types of rain: rain and THUNDERSTORM. Rain is rain, but thunderstorms? They are the epitome of awesome. First, there's the dramatic entrance of a thunderstorm. What usually starts as a rather lovely, sunny day is marred by a big, rolling black mass of cloud, occasionally showing off like a 4 year old toddler with barely concealed flashes of lightning. It darkens the sky and bodes doom. DOOOOOM.

Yes, thunderstorms are drama queens.

Next comes the electricity in the air. The kind that makes you think that every hair on your body is standing on end, when in fact, it's doing no such thing. But hey, it feels exciting. Then comes the smell... The smell of a thunderstorm is what I miss the most. You can keep your poxy roses. I pah at your fields of flowers. The smell of a freshly mown lawn? PAH I SAY! The smell of heavy rain on hot ground is one of the best smells in the world. Period. It fills your nostrils with awesomeness. Yes, awesomeness. It's that good.

Then the sky falls down on you in the form of sheets of heavy, heavy droplets of water.

In short, thunderstorms are awesome. I know I've used awesome a lot in this post, but there are no other words to describe it.

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Awesome.

Image lovingly stolen from here

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1591489/lukephotobooth.png http://posterous.com/users/4SnKmkWmAXOp Luke Murphy lurkmoophy Luke Murphy Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:50:27 -0800 52 posts http://www.lurkmoophy.com/52-posts http://www.lurkmoophy.com/52-posts Let's start with the cliched new year's resolution posts...

Last year I seemed to massively drop off social media and blogging. This is mostly due to the fact that I was kicking arse in my job (or just spending a lot of time there), making Twespians bigger with Laura, running a few more ghost crawls and going on a couple of holidays. Oh, and getting married. That took a little bit of time...

I've been quite happy with the stuff I've done in the past year, including two speaking gigs, running a bunch of pub quizes and pub crawls around the country, attending a bucketload of events and dipping my foot back into the design and build work. 2011 was the year of pretty darn good. 2012 is going to be the year of awesome.

To begin with, I've already got some speaking gigs set up, a new year of Twespians and now for the content business... This year I'm going to post 52 posts over the year. Hopefully I'll post more, but at the moment I'm focussing on at least one per week. This marks the first one for last week. I blame Australian time zones for the delay in posting. The next one will be posted in the next two days.

Ok 2012...

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1591489/lukephotobooth.png http://posterous.com/users/4SnKmkWmAXOp Luke Murphy lurkmoophy Luke Murphy Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:55:20 -0800 #nye11 celebration http://www.lurkmoophy.com/nye11-celebration http://www.lurkmoophy.com/nye11-celebration

Media_httpdistilleryi_saqgj

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1591489/lukephotobooth.png http://posterous.com/users/4SnKmkWmAXOp Luke Murphy lurkmoophy Luke Murphy Fri, 16 Dec 2011 01:47:04 -0800 old school nerds do it with protection http://www.lurkmoophy.com/old-school-nerds-do-it-with-protection http://www.lurkmoophy.com/old-school-nerds-do-it-with-protection Put this together for a client yesterday for a conference newspaper ad. Having fun at work is awesome.

Pocketprotector

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1591489/lukephotobooth.png http://posterous.com/users/4SnKmkWmAXOp Luke Murphy lurkmoophy Luke Murphy Thu, 15 Dec 2011 06:24:48 -0800 Ghost hunting at the Fortune Theatre http://www.lurkmoophy.com/ghost-hunting-at-the-fortune-theatre http://www.lurkmoophy.com/ghost-hunting-at-the-fortune-theatre

I had something forwarded to me today that piqued my interest. As you probably know, I do my theatre stuff, as well as occasionally hosting ghost crawls (pub crawls with ghost stories). Therefore, having something sent to me by a theatre marketing bod about ghosts in a west end theatre = brilliant. However, I did notice that the Fortune is also home to the Woman in Black, the original west end horror play.

Do I smell a clever marketing ploy?

Ok, I'll drop the façade. I know this is a bit of a viral for Woman in Black, but at the same time it's quite well done. Looking back through the blog, they've done their homework creating Dr Simon Hill (unless he is a real person?), with posts dating back almost a year all around orbs, photographing ghosts and haunted parts of London. However, I'm hoping they don't just stop there. Why not go the whole hog and make Dr Simon real? Organise some ghost walks around Covent Garden with a real live doctor in parapsychology (who's going to check the credentials) that ends up at the Fortune where something real happens!? Then give them some passes to cheap tickets for the show for some more spooky theatrical goodness.

However, in saying that, I love the fact that they've already gone to this kind of effort and it's something more marketing departments should be looking at. What do you guys think?

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1591489/lukephotobooth.png http://posterous.com/users/4SnKmkWmAXOp Luke Murphy lurkmoophy Luke Murphy Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:15:13 -0800 An article I wrote on UX and Theatre http://www.lurkmoophy.com/an-article-i-wrote-on-ux-and-theatre http://www.lurkmoophy.com/an-article-i-wrote-on-ux-and-theatre It's now almost a month old, but I realised I didn't post about a blog post I wrote recently on UX and Theatre. I mulled over this post for a while, getting some great feedback from cohorts like Laura, Peter (who inspired the article) and James (who I have a slight mancrush on). In fact, James' feedback has made me start working on another UX and Theatre article that's a little more indepth and thought out, so watch this space. Also, make sure you watch Peter's talk from TEDxYork, because a) he's an awesome speaker and b) he talks a lot of sense.

User Experience and the Theatre

Posted on November 20, 2011 by lurkmoophy

What do you remember from your last experience at the theatre? an opera? a dance piece? Have a think about it. Jot down five things that come to mind. I can categorically say that for the majority of you all five of those points would have something to do with the performance itself. User Experience is a field that has been getting mass exposure from the design and web development crowds, but why aren’t we looking at it for the arts as well? Arts companies can look at other areas and industries, like restaurants and immersive arts organisations, to see where they can push their user experience up to the level they should be aiming for.

(read the full article here)

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1591489/lukephotobooth.png http://posterous.com/users/4SnKmkWmAXOp Luke Murphy lurkmoophy Luke Murphy Mon, 05 Dec 2011 22:43:26 -0800 For today I'm a robot http://www.lurkmoophy.com/for-today-im-a-robot http://www.lurkmoophy.com/for-today-im-a-robot Feeling this one today...

from meagainstthem

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1591489/lukephotobooth.png http://posterous.com/users/4SnKmkWmAXOp Luke Murphy lurkmoophy Luke Murphy Mon, 05 Dec 2011 05:47:13 -0800 PR all the things!! http://www.lurkmoophy.com/pr-all-the-things http://www.lurkmoophy.com/pr-all-the-things

Media_httpdistilleryi_hagja

Taken at 33 Digital (www.33-digital.com)

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1591489/lukephotobooth.png http://posterous.com/users/4SnKmkWmAXOp Luke Murphy lurkmoophy Luke Murphy Sun, 27 Nov 2011 11:17:00 -0800 Raspberry Bakewell Cocktail http://www.lurkmoophy.com/raspberry-bakewell-cocktail http://www.lurkmoophy.com/raspberry-bakewell-cocktail

Raspberrybakewell

I decided to take a pretentious turn today, and sample all of the various spirits I have in order to attempt at putting some together for cocktails. I thought I'd start with an easy one, that is actually a twist on the Bakewell Tartini I got from Domestic Sluttery.

Raspberry Bakewell

1 measure amaretto

0.5 measure chambord (black raspberry liqueur)

1 measure cranberry juice

Pour amaretto, followed by the cranberry juice and the chambord into a shaker with ice. Shake and pour into a martini glass. Garnish with a raspberry.

The result is a rather lovely, heady, warming drink.

Enjoy!

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1591489/lukephotobooth.png http://posterous.com/users/4SnKmkWmAXOp Luke Murphy lurkmoophy Luke Murphy Mon, 21 Nov 2011 07:31:55 -0800 Another infographic, this time for the FT http://www.lurkmoophy.com/another-infographic-this-time-for-the-ft http://www.lurkmoophy.com/another-infographic-this-time-for-the-ft Just finished a collaborative design job with the lovely Sam (he deserves most of the credit for coming up with it all) for the FT, showing the use of their mobile HTML5 web app. There were some interesting stats that were missed out of this one too, such as they've seen 50% of native app users switch to the web app (a great case study for HTML5 web apps!). Anyway, here's the graphic, and here's the original blog post.

No points if you can spot my minor screw up...

FT Mobile Infographic

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1591489/lukephotobooth.png http://posterous.com/users/4SnKmkWmAXOp Luke Murphy lurkmoophy Luke Murphy Sat, 19 Nov 2011 04:07:53 -0800 Sand is overrated. It's just lots of tiny rocks. http://www.lurkmoophy.com/sand-is-overrated-its-just-lots-of-tiny-rocks http://www.lurkmoophy.com/sand-is-overrated-its-just-lots-of-tiny-rocks

Media_httpdistilleryi_pagvl

Taken at Durdle Door

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1591489/lukephotobooth.png http://posterous.com/users/4SnKmkWmAXOp Luke Murphy lurkmoophy Luke Murphy Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:20:44 -0800 Playing with watercolour and sketch again... http://www.lurkmoophy.com/playing-with-watercolour-and-sketch-again http://www.lurkmoophy.com/playing-with-watercolour-and-sketch-again I've never been good at drawing people. I can never seem to capture shadow correctly, or get the right colours. I've been playing with my tablet and tracing over photos, and now having a play with colour. I've thrown more colour on this one, but then stripped it back because it didn't look great.

Anyway, more playing needs to happen...

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1591489/lukephotobooth.png http://posterous.com/users/4SnKmkWmAXOp Luke Murphy lurkmoophy Luke Murphy Wed, 09 Nov 2011 09:41:32 -0800 Experiments in watercolour 2 - The Critter http://www.lurkmoophy.com/experiments-in-watercolour-2-the-critter http://www.lurkmoophy.com/experiments-in-watercolour-2-the-critter I've been playing around with watercolour style painting again, but this time moving across into photoshop. The only thing I don't like about drawing in photoshop using the tablet is that I haven't yet found a way to smooth lines, so my unsteady hand shows more (anybody know a way to do smoother lines in photoshop?). This is part of a potential design for a project I'm working on for a client, Ubelly. I'm quite happy with the overall effect...

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1591489/lukephotobooth.png http://posterous.com/users/4SnKmkWmAXOp Luke Murphy lurkmoophy Luke Murphy Thu, 03 Nov 2011 13:34:48 -0700 Submarine style typography http://www.lurkmoophy.com/submarine-style-typography http://www.lurkmoophy.com/submarine-style-typography

Today I mostly laid on the couch, struck down with illness. I threw on the Richard Ayoade film Submarine in the afternoon and I absolutely love the titles. The 60s (I think?) style typography, with massive kerning/tracking to fit it in lines and bold colour is gorgeous.

I did some research and it looks like it was a custom font that was made for the film, so I tried to do my own riff on the style. This is what one does when one is bored.

Submarineinspired

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1591489/lukephotobooth.png http://posterous.com/users/4SnKmkWmAXOp Luke Murphy lurkmoophy Luke Murphy Thu, 03 Nov 2011 08:18:44 -0700 A great guide to CSS Typography http://www.lurkmoophy.com/a-great-guide-to-css-typography http://www.lurkmoophy.com/a-great-guide-to-css-typography

The_ultimate_guide_to_css_typo

Playing with websites and content for most of the day, I've come to appreciate the subtleties of a beautifully crafted paragraph. However, something that a lot of people don't understand is that the aesthetic elements of the paragraph are just as important in achieving a readable, balanced paragraph. There are some rules when it comes to line heights, paragraph widths and letter spacing, and I can never remember what they are, which is why I love this article.

three styles have done a handy guide on everything typography when it comes to web design. Check it out here.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1591489/lukephotobooth.png http://posterous.com/users/4SnKmkWmAXOp Luke Murphy lurkmoophy Luke Murphy Sun, 30 Oct 2011 13:43:16 -0700 Experiments with Watercolour in Illustrator http://www.lurkmoophy.com/experiments-with-watercolour-in-illustrator http://www.lurkmoophy.com/experiments-with-watercolour-in-illustrator I'm having a play with layering in illustrator. I'm not sure I've got it down yet, but considering I never had great success with real paints, it's far better than anything I could've done without a computer.

Here's a work in progress:

Lukewatercolor_wip

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1591489/lukephotobooth.png http://posterous.com/users/4SnKmkWmAXOp Luke Murphy lurkmoophy Luke Murphy Wed, 26 Oct 2011 06:41:37 -0700 Shiny infographic I designed - A New School of Data Management http://www.lurkmoophy.com/shiny-infographic-i-designed-a-new-school-of http://www.lurkmoophy.com/shiny-infographic-i-designed-a-new-school-of

Part of the work I do at 33 Digital includes random design and build jobs (most of what I do is social media PR work). This one landed on my desk with a relatively short time-frame attached and I'm quite happy with the way it turned out. There are a few bits and pieces that I would change if I had extra time, and a few concepts that didn't make the editorial cut, but overall it's not too shabby.

If you're a business type person you might be interested in the press release this came out of. You can find it here.

Data-management-big

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1591489/lukephotobooth.png http://posterous.com/users/4SnKmkWmAXOp Luke Murphy lurkmoophy Luke Murphy Tue, 25 Oct 2011 01:56:32 -0700 It's never too late. just do it better. http://www.lurkmoophy.com/its-never-too-late-just-do-it-better http://www.lurkmoophy.com/its-never-too-late-just-do-it-better

courtesy of @davidjmclare and The Next Web

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1591489/lukephotobooth.png http://posterous.com/users/4SnKmkWmAXOp Luke Murphy lurkmoophy Luke Murphy Wed, 12 Oct 2011 01:23:53 -0700 Bok. One for @emvicw http://www.lurkmoophy.com/bok-one-for-emvicw http://www.lurkmoophy.com/bok-one-for-emvicw

Media_httpimagesinsta_rpjbd

Taken at 33 Digital (www.33-digital.com)

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1591489/lukephotobooth.png http://posterous.com/users/4SnKmkWmAXOp Luke Murphy lurkmoophy Luke Murphy Wed, 03 Aug 2011 05:56:39 -0700 Remove hands when no longer strangers http://www.lurkmoophy.com/remove-hands-when-no-longer-strangers http://www.lurkmoophy.com/remove-hands-when-no-longer-strangers I know this is now a somewhat old, shared image, but it makes me happy and excited about life...

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1591489/lukephotobooth.png http://posterous.com/users/4SnKmkWmAXOp Luke Murphy lurkmoophy Luke Murphy