A few weeks ago, I had to rename the sketchbooks that I’ve been producing and selling for the last year. They were called ‘Copybooks’ but that doesn’t translate well overseas (ie copybooks in Ireland are blank/lined/graph books, similar to my sketchbooks- this is not necessarily the case elsewhere).

After much going back and forward with lots of different ideas, I just couldn’t come up with something that worked. I wanted something that described what it was, a sketchbook, and something that I could use as a name, ie register a domain with it.

Finally, as I was getting close to reverting back to ‘copybooks’, as I was doodling different names and variations, I noticed that if I removed the ‘e’ in sketch, it still read as ‘sketch’.
I started emailing around the name ‘sktchbooks’ and full credit to @burkie for suggesting I removed the double-o in ‘books’. As soon as I saw that, I knew that this was what I was looking for: Sktchbks.

My attitude towards the sketchbooks was always simplicity, strip them back to the bare essentials. Stripping vowels out of the name tied in nicely with this. I registered the domain and stuck up a holding page until I could do a major branding and design exercise in the new year.

Sidenote- I registered a .com but what made me really laugh, was the possibility of registering a .cm, completely stripping vowels out of the name, so sktchbks.cm. I checked out my local domain and hosting peeps, Blacknight, and unfortunately a .cm domain is eighty euros per year, too expensive for a confusing joke, purely for my amusement. Maybe some other time.

Last Wednesday, November 30th (aka Blue Beanie Day) myself and Jeffrey Zeldman launched a new incarnation of Support Web Standards, a website that houses both a growing list of web standards resources and a shop to buy some products 'to show your love and support for web standards'.

I have lots to say on the matter, but due to the approaching Christmas shipping deadlines, I am spending all my time packing and shipping envelopes of products around the world. It's hard work, but I actually enjoy doing it.

I'll go into more detail with the new product design as soon as I get a free minute, but I'd like to share with you our new promo video. It has been something I wanted to do since last year's launch and I finally got around to doing it. Check it out below.

I filmed the footage on my iPhone 4S, but it still came out at a decent quality. There are lots of little things I'd love to change but I just filmed and cut it really fast, ignoring all spots and quirks with the footage (I'll share my 'unique' iPhone/Tripod setup at some other time).

The soundtrack is courtesy of my younger brother, the inimitable, YouTube drumming sensation, Jimmy Rainsford. I filmed the footage Sunday night, cut it together Sunday and Monday, sent the rough cut to Jimmy after lunch on Monday and he had drums, guitar and bass back to me by late Monday night. I only asked for a drum track! That kid has mad skillz and I'm so appreciative of his work.

I have another post, lined up for when I get a moment to finish and publish it. Thanks again to Jimmy, and also to Jeffrey and finally, thanks to Blacknight who have sponsored the hosting for the site again.

I've finally gotten some free time (on a Friday evening, no less) to blog some bits and pieces before too much time passes and then, what I want to write about, loses relevance.

I visited Belfast, for the first time, at the beginning of November, to attend the Build Conference. I had contemplated arriving the Wednesday before the main conference, which was on the Thursday, but then I would've missed Erik Spiekermann's talk on Tuesday evening, so I arrived on the Tuesday.

I have been a big fan of Spiekermann for a long time, probably from the 1990's when I was a FontFont fanboy- I even submitted typefaces to FontFont for approval. Sadly, I never heard back from them. Anyway, Spiekermann is a prolific designer, both in graphic design and in typographic design. I enjoy his work and his attitude to work, so I was really looking forward to his talk.

Spiekermann is a brilliant presenter, incredibly passionate about his work. I loved the fact that his talk was about both his creative work but also about the business side to his work- running a company, staff, premises, clients, budgets.

He made a few points that really resonated with me-

• Projects should be costed on the basis of what the project is worth, not on a per-hour basis.
• Never work with bad clients, it'll end up costing you, rather than making you money.
• An espresso machine is always a good present if you're opening a new office.

His talk was videoed for later publishing by the Build crew (or so I hope), and I really can't wait to see it again. In the meantime, check out this interview with Erik Spiekermann, by Elliot Jay Stocks:

I'm taking part in the annual charity-web design-marathon 24theweb and I couldn't be more excited. I do enjoy working on group projects and cramming 3 months into 24 hours should be a challenge.

I've resigned myself to the fact that I probably won't get much work done this afternoon, so I might as well start getting stuff ready. I'm following the excellent pro tips of Stephanie Francis and stockpiling all my gear together. I have made a list.

If you'd like to follow along, I guess you could look at:

• #24theweb on Twitter
• #24theweb on Dribbble
• 24theweb blog

I have to get a train at 7.22am tomorrow morning, it'll be like old times commuting at unholy hours. I'm hoping my honed skill of sleeping at every opportunity, under any circumstances, will keep me functioning.

I'll try post here as well tomorrow, depending on workload. I'll hopefully take some photos with my trusty Samsung- my lovely iPhone 4s isn't arriving until Tuesday (boo!).
 

I posted on Friday about my suspicions that Fine Gael tried profiling the electors, when sending out their Presidential Election material. If you didn't read it, you can read the blog post here, and you'll understand what I mean, going forward.

I got an email Friday evening from someone who very kindly let me know what pamphlets were received in his household and by whom, which made it highly improbable that the pamphlets were targeted via profiling.

Alternative theory

However, he also pointed out that the pamphlets were distributed in order (check out the serial numbers above the name and address of each elector) green, yellow and blue. My emailer postulated that it was done to ensure that there was a number of different Gay Mitchell pamphlets entering each household.

At first I thought this was a risky approach to take- aside from the possibility that someone (like me) assumes something more sinister is happening (like profiling), what if one person in a household received a version that didn't agree with them, surely this would have a negative impact on their perception of Mr. Mitchell?

I was stuck on this line of thinking until David Norris's election material popped through our letterbox this morning and, aside from cynically appraising his boast of 'a track record of always doing the right thing', I realised that it didn't matter who's name was on the pamphlet, it would be read anyway.

I think that this was the strategy of Fine Gael; to ensure several different 'versions' of the pamphlet entered each household, each with the aim of appealing to different members of a household.

Not that much of a stretch

You could say it was a bit of a stretch to say Fine Gael were trying to target specific stereotypes within a household. But, what I learned over the weekend was that they actually did produce two different election posters- one for the city and one for the 'rural' countryside. Targeting specific stereotypes within a household isn't that much of a stretch from there.

Fine Gael's methods of targeted messages is not good, not in our society, not in our small communities. Personally I don't want to be treated differently to anyone else. I may not live in one of the larger cities, but that doesn't mean that Rural Gay is going to appeal more to me than City Gay, and I hate the thought that someone decided that it would. Just give me the same information that everyone else is given and let me make up my own mind.

I don't think Mr. Mitchell is a realistic runner in the race and I'd love to know if his dodgy election practices had a part to play. I'm sure though, if that was quantifiable, it would be kept like a state secret.