That Was The Week That Was — 6th October 2019

I iterated from the Voronoi fracture stuff I was doing the week before and decided to try it out with some typography, using the Crayonette typeface which came with my Font of the Month subscription. By creating a filtered group of primitives I was able to create a stained glass like effect — though in actuality I used an aluminium texture with a little opacity. Adding a UV attribute allowed me to use that to control the width of the wires in relation to the height, adding more visual interest, more texture.

Work wise it was a disappointing week on some fronts, having heard that no less than three projects I had pencilled in have pretty much been canned, which is a shame, but can happen.

Meanwhile with Produced for Use, I'm crafting the last parts of the next product — PFU-006 — which will be released mid-October. It's something I've had in mind for about a year now, but have finally decided to put it out there. Sign-up at Produced for Use to be first to hear about this new release.

Thursday saw me head across the Pennines to speak at Frontend NE in Newcastle. The night went very well with a packed audience being very generous with their feedback. I even met a few people who had been at the graduation speech I'd done many years before. Then it was off to the pub to spend some time with my good friends Naomi and James, before ending the night with a tray of chips in my hotel room, from the chippy across the road from the hotel.

The next day I found a delightful coffee place just oppsoite the train station called Pink Lane Coffee. The Danish I had there — made locally in Byker — was amazing. I ended up buying some of their coffee to take back.

One of the attendees — Lisa Matthews — approached me after the talk and gave me a copy of Callisto, a book of her prose poetry. I read the whole thing as I sat in Pink Lane and was really taken how Lisa managed to capture seemingly mundane moments and turn them into something quite beautiful.

Always saddens me to see just round the corner were people in Starbucks. Then again, this place was busy enough so actually those people can keep to their giant coffee chain thanks.