I’m not usually a year in review kind of person, but I’ve had a little change of heart for this year. Looking back, 2010 was a pretty good year. I was super busy and it was really a blast. Like any good year-in-reivew post there’s plenty of self-indulgent content below. I’ve tried to keep it short and sweet, but you’ve been warned! So now, my highlights from 2010:
I Did Some Speaking
This year I was lucky enough to be a speaker at two of my favourite conferences: FITC Toronto and Flashbelt. Both were a great time as always. I was psyched to get such amazing feedback from my sessions and to present to such full rooms! I completely forgot to get any pictures at all from either of these sessions. If you have some, please let me know!
At both conferences, I talked about working between Flash and After Effects to make your motion-based projects just a little more awesome. There’s a little collection of slides and content from both if you’re curious. It’s fun stuff:
Flashbelt Slides & Notes
FITC TO Slides and Notes
I Ran Some Events
Web Design Day 2010 completely exceeded our expectations. Once again, we sold out in just a handful of days, and once again all our speakers were absolutely amazing. Of course, it couldn’t have happened without our attendees and sponsors also being the best. Seriously, Jason and I couldn’t have been happier with how this year’s WDD went.
One event is never enough, right? We also held our first Pittsburgh workshop: No Flash No Problem. It was a definite success and we’ve got more in the works for this year too!
I Made a Few Things
Well, actually, I made a lot of things. As a designer, that’s pretty much my job! I tend to keep pretty busy outside of the office, so here’s a couple of my favourite side projects of 2010.
Light-up Dog Hoodie
Like most dog owners, I think my dog is the awesomest, so I made her a cool little hoodie that lights up when it gets dark out. Cute, geeky, and kind of even functional. The project was picked up by the Make Blog which was really cool. It was especially fun to work on because it combined things I’ve known how to do forever (sewing), and things I had to figure out as I went along (circuits and stuff!). A big thanks the awesome folks at hackPGH and Tom for helping me with this one.
Lots of Printing
My day job is all about designing digital things, so screen printing at night feels just about the opposite of that. Most of my prints this year were very short runs done for friends or just for fun. (The photo above is of all the prints I kept copies of.) I was surprised when I realised just how many projects I managed to print this year. Even more surprised when I could see that I’ve gotten better at it.
A Secret Project!
I know, I know, it’s all sorts of rude to talk about secrets that you can’t share. I had this one all written up to include here and then realized that I can’t talk about it yet. Frustrating! If you follow me on twitter you probably got some hints a few months back. I can’t wait to share the whole story and stop being all mysterious about it.
So, 2011?
I have lots in the works this year. Even just for this month! Expect some fun stuff for events and workshops locally this year, of course. Plans are being made!
I’m not much for resolutions, but one of my goals for this year is to do more collaborative projects. Also, more travel and more visiting friends. I managed to make it to three places I’d never been to before in 2010 and I think I can do better than that this year.
If nothing else happens, this site is in desperate need of a redesign! It’s embarrassing to admit that it’s been almost 4 years of looking exactly like this. Yikes. (I think there’s some saying about shoemakers and not having shoes that would probably fit well here.)
