Nur Ahmad Furlong

Blog

  • Design Indaba 2008 ends off SA design Week

    design_indaba(2)Gone are the good ol days when the big ad agency I’m working for sends me on an all expenses paid Design Indaba Conference. Sniff, being an Independent at the early stages of starting a business means I just can’t afford to attend a conference of this nature, in fact it almost went by without me noticing.

    I did a bit of browsing on the Design Indaba portal and was shocked to find out they’re using blogger to power their blog, can you imagine that. I’m not a big fan of blogger based blogs, they all just look a certain way and don’t interest me at all, in fact none of the blogs I subscribe to are blogger blogs. Come on Design Indaba, haven’t you heard of WordPress?

    I’m not anti DI at all, far from it, I would have loved to have been there as there seems to be more activity than all the previous years. One interesting aspect is the “Most Beautiful Object in South Africa” awards.

    Of course the Conference is booked out already, but there’s still a chance to book for the Simulcast screening which will play the presentations on a large Screen and will be hosted in a different Auditorium. If you’re under 25 you’ll pay R950 and over 25’s pay R1500, still a bit steep for my liking but gives anyone who’s really keen but can’t foot the higher main conference bill or those who missed out on the bookings a chance to see the conference. If you have the cash and are into design it’s worth a visit.

    design-indaba-magazine lastly if you miss it all there’s still the quarterly Design Indaba Magazine which is packed with juicy local & international design bits. I have my own collection of mags from the last few years though they usually go walking after I’ve had them for a year or 2 so keep yours safe.

    Design Indaba's primary aim is to advance the cause of design as a communication fundamental, a business imperative and a powerful tool in industry and commerce.

  • Finding Good Free Imagery Online

    Searching for images for design projects is one of the daily frustrations of any designer, especially when clients are not willing to pay for imagery but still want the highest quality. I love browsing Getty Images’ Vast collection of exquisite images, but they’re way out of the league of most companies in terms of budget.

    In the past I’ve used websites such as www.sxc.hu (Stock.XCHNG) which has a large database of free to use images with various degrees of usage rights.

    stock-exchange

    Flickr.com is another great source of images and it has a surprising amount of great looking high quality images, though it’s a bit of a chore sifting through the images and finding those with appropriate licenses.

    flashbased-flickr-tag-search

    I liked searching through this flash based related tag flickr search tool. It brings up some options much quicker and allows you to randomly browse tags which are related.

    cc-search

    I just found the creative commons search page, which allows one to search Flickr, Google, BlipTV and a few other sites for creative commons media to use in your projects. http://search.creativecommons.org/

    What’s your favourite place online to find imagery, free, paid for, whatever.

  • Great Flickr Photography – Check out Daniel Lurie’s pics

    When I came across Daniel Luries’ Flickr account I just had to contact him and give him a compliment on a great collection of imagery. It’s amazing how technology & web 2.0 has levelled the playing fields in many disciplines to allow those who, like Daniel are looking to make a name for themselves. Many times Flickr Photographers are either willing to allow you to use their images with links back or they’re selling great pics at affordable prices.

    See a few of Daniel’s shots below:

    Daniel Lurie Flickr - Darth Vader Daniel Lurie Flickr - Photographer waiting

    Daniel Lurie Flickr - View from Lion's Head

    A quick Flickr search could yield exactly what you were looking for an you might be able to get away with paying flickr photographers much less than you’d be spending at stock photography sites.

    Using Creative Commons images on your blog

    I’ve also installed a cool wordpress plugin called Photo Dropper which allows you to search appropriate creative commons flickr images and drop them from flickr into your posts via your wordpress admin panel. I think this is a great way for both amateur photographers and bloggers to share the value. The plugin also drops in this nice little credit automatically. Creative Commons License photo credit: Millzero Photography ( 99% low fat photography)

  • Introduction to typography, nice video

    1500547340_66564a86a4_bWith the re-design of my identity, my blog’s theme and a few logo design projects I’ve started paying a little more attention to typography than I am used to. This is of course a positive thing as typography plays an enormous role in Graphic design & visual communication. I’ve also recently watched the Helvetica Film, an inspiring documentary about the history of one of the world’s most popular and influential typefaces.

    Creative Commons License credit: Aeioux

    Typography is an area of design I plan to spend a little extra time focusing on and hunting around online for some inspiration I came across this cool little introductory video which gives us an in-a-nutshell explanation of what typography is. Enjoy

    [youtube 2o1U4o1bc2k Typography Intro]

  • Who have you nominated for the SA Blog Awards 2008?

    You must be aware of the SA Blog awards by now, and that nominations have opened with a whole host of new categories being added to the 2008 edition.

    I wanted to be open and say I’ve placed some votes for 3 blog already. Firstly in the Best SA Blog about Technology / Computers / Web Development category I voted for Adii, our very own SA WordPress Rockstar and one of those bloggers who I learn quite alot from on a number of levels. Adii manages to keep a steady flow of writing going even though he seems to have a huge amount of work on WordPress development on his plate as well as a full time position. He does a fair amount of research when writing and his posts are always useful.

    In the Best Website Promoting Blogging category I’ve voted for Amatomu, who for me are the best aggregators of blog content out there. They’ve seen a fair amount of development and changes taking place on their site recently. I love the way they have created a competitive yet mature space for bloggers to have their writing blogs ranked. They provide some cool widgets as well like the rank widget which regularly gives me a sense of whether I’m keeping up or slipping up. When I haven’t blogged for a while I can tell by my site;’s traffic and my Amatomu ranking.

    My 3rd Vote went to SA Climate Crisis by Andre Bothma for the Best Green blog category. It’s a topic close to my heart and a subject I focus on regularly on nomad-one.com. I think Andre’s heading in a great direction. I’ve learnt a thing or 2 from his blog with regard to climate issues and think it’s a cause very much worth promoting. I haven’t seen many blogs of this nature locally and think it’s a space which needs much more conversation.

    if you haven’t voted yet I suggested you head on over and make yourself heard in support of SA Blogging. maybe sneak one in for nomad-one.com by clicking on my vote for me badge at the top of this page!

  • Earn 10% on Design & Web Projects you refer to me

    Eran 10% of project fees when referring them to nomad-one I’m running a special where you could earn 10% of projects you refer to me. This is a finders fee so if you find Design & Web projects for me, you’ll get paid 10% of anything I earn. Bear in mind client’s who do not pay, will not earn you a finders fee!

    Visit my Standard Packages & Rates and my Services pages for an idea of what I offer.

    This is a trial offer valid until the 10 March to see what kind of response I get.