Busy old week

This week has been a busy one for me. I have been darting round the Shoreditch area like mad in a mix of client meetings, shopping trips, lunches and the odd pint here and there. I took some snaps on along the way.

Early in the week I saw this and had to snap it. It's not really a master piece but I thought it was quite funny. The old Vinnie Jones / Gazza pic was a blast back in the day.

The other day I took a wonder in a random shop while I was coming back from a client meeting. Give this VM person a rise!

I did a bit of shopping about for some new clothes. I bagged myself some dirty denims by Jeff Banks and some vintage chinos.

On Friday I nipped into Atlantis to pick up some material I needed for a small branding project I am working on. They didn't have what I needed even though it was advertised on their website. I wasn't happy grrr.

Blanka

Love this image of Blanka.

Blanka is one of the original eight characters featured in the first version of Street Fighter II. He has green skin and long orange hair, resembling a monster more than a human.

Engage

Being so deeply involved in the vigorous world of digital advertising, means I am lucky enough to engage and interact with some inspiring personalities. Only the other day, I was sent a tweet by @heatherDUNHILL. 

Heather is a US based, self-proclaimed, style blogger and fashion spectator, whose work is regularly featured in www.sarasotamagazine.com. The tweet was a simple request to check out her ‘Fashion IQ’ blog, which I duly did. And I was glad of it, because this was no conventional blog, filled with the mundane ramblings of a bored or verbose blogger. The blog was exciting, engaging and full of verve. I would even go so far as to say, it was the best fashion blog I’ve come across.

You can check out more of Heather Dunhill’s work at http://heatherdunhill.com. Let me know what you think of it.

en•gage:

To occupy the attention or efforts of (a person or persons): He engaged her in conversation.

Dad shoes

If you are like me and just hit the 30 year old mark then you might not be still buying Nike Air Max 5s as regularly as before and moving on to a more conventional work / pick up the kids from school shoe?

I picked up these ‘dad shoes’ (the first of my collection) from www.leecooper.com They are going for £25.00 and are reduced from £59.99. They come in tan and brown and are comfortable enough to make the journey to and from the tube station. They also go quite well with jeans so do actually have a contemporary look if you get the right denim. Bag them at: www.sportsdirect.com

Worth checking out but there is no substitute for these bad boys!

The joys of working offsite.

Many freelancers are starting to invest substantial amounts of money in setting up remote offices at home. This involves buying and installing the necessary equipment and allocating the space, in order to facilitate comfortable, yet productive working conditions. This is proving to be a popular working environment, as freelancers are saving time on the commute, costs on travel—but more importantly—the alleviated grind in hustle and bustle of the unforgiving underground, being ever attractive.

The down side to this is always going to be lack of face-2-face contact, the experience of a new environment and culture, and in-situ learning (some of which cannot be recreated in an isolated environment from ones home).

Many people work remotely for years without any issues or problems, but I have noticed working offsite can lead to a back log of multiple jobs and client requests, occasionally leading to one job being compromised over another (never a good thing). If you have too much on your plate, you should get into the good habit of saying ‘no’ to more jobs.

Here are my key findings to working offsite:

• Set your station up on a table or desk, rather than be slumped on the sofa with your laptop in hand.
• Turn the TV off. The drone of humdrum daytime TV in the background can be distracting (or if you’re like me, it will drive you mad).
• Remember to allocate time away from your desk as you would in an office i.e. an hour for lunch for and two 15 min breaks (this can be especially valuable when looking after children at home).
• Get some clothes on – the dressing gown just won’t get you in the right frame of mind.
• Make sure you are in a location where you can make and receive calls or Skype.
• If working on more than one job, be fair and allocate 100% of your time to each job – it’s never going to be right for you to give anything less than 100% to your any of your clients / projects.
• Don’t risk the internet café. It’s a fast connection, but you don’t want to be making conference calls with a group of teenagers playing Quake team death match next to you. Also, if any of your work is of a sensitive nature, don’t run the risk of hackers catching sight of it.

Ultimately it is up to you – good luck!