Category: Recommended

The 1975 and Greta Thunberg

This morning I was shocked out of my contemplation of Boris and his new cabinet by The 1975’s new single featuring Greta Thunberg, the world’s most famous climate change activist. That shock was precisely the point. Greta lambasts older generations, she rounds on the present polite political dialogue and makes the case that we should all act now – we should rebel!

Here’s the track: https://open.spotify.com/track/6sQeHBkvilt6ycKfnJMki4?si=HgxgRt_nTI6KzLshO9f6wA

… I particularly love the video cover

And here’s a more direct admonition: https://open.spotify.com/track/2N2u7QF2uJHbEEUEDS7UQK?si=lR4CulkeR4iZ9ezE2C920g

 

TWTC’s Tipsy Towers travels to Pitlochry this Summer! Here’s the poster and the video!

One of TWTC‘s perennial favourites travels to Pitlochry this summer. A night not to be missed. I designed the poster, and also produced the video below – which will give you the idea!

Print

Sign of the Times: Signage at Dunans goes purple, though not in homage to #thepurpleone …

We wanted to do something different with our signage, refresh it yes, but more than that. Reflect our ambition, create something familiar yet original. I think we’ve done it. (Please ignore the calibration and cropmarks!)

MusicMakesMe: Album design finalised & at the printer’s!

For the last couple of months it has been my privilege to work on the album artwork for this superb set of 10 songs, not least because I have been listening to the album as I designed it. And the songs are now truly part of my soul! Man, they are good, and all written and performed by Argyllachs – or at least adopted Argyllachs. Produced by Joe McAlindan (AKA _linden) and mixed and recorded by David Donaldson, the album is called, In The Wild Country and will be released in the next 6 weeks or so, with previews available as EPs on various digital outlets.

I love love love this!

disc

 

tee.uno: t-shirts as blog on a daily basis

You may have wondered why I have been quiet of late, well, for the last month I have been adding a t-shirt a day to tee.uno inspired by something that’s happened during the day, it’s become a sort of blog. A tee-blog if you will. One of the first posts was that tee about BoJo for president …

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Why? Well, obviously in the hope that some of the t-shirts sell, but more because I enjoy designing visuals to be seen. At the moment these designs feel as if they are scratching the surface of the type of tee I wish to create and that after a while I’ll start to develop a typographical / editorial modus operandi that will distill visual and meaning into really pithy, well-wrought slogans.

My favourite is either the previously mentioned Boris for President (US) or Boris for President (EU)… then again maybe it is ‘Brexit entirely Fuxit‘ or even ‘I didn’t come this far, to come this far‘.

I am also working on commissions for a certain theatre company I design for. The Ninja tee (pictured above) is a line from one of their shows… there’ll be a series of these over time!

Boris for President @ tee.uno: If its going to get even hairier over the pond, then he’s the man for the job!

boris_for_president_tee

@Shopify et @Langify = brilliant e-commerce in translation on http://scottishlaird.co.uk

If this sounds like an advert, it is not – well, unless you call it promotion for my business.

I have been working with Shopify for a while now to deliver the ScottishLaird.co.uk website. It has been a wholly fantastic experience answering all of my needs as an ecommerce vendor without let or pause. We’ve seen 40% growth this year simply by transferring platforms. Things like cart recovery and customers signing up for notifications on when new stock comes in have really helped. 100% uptime, rock solid servers and well-thought out user experience have also done their bit. But what has been really impressive is how, when we ask a particularly difficult question of the system, it rises to the challenge.

Languages represent a barrier to entry for any website wishing to break into new territories. English is the Lingua Franca of the internet, but frankly, there are limits. We found them in Finland, Sweden and elsewhere. But for us France has been one of the most difficult countries and languages to break into. French is a lovely language, and having a very little, I appreciate how different and distinctive it is. We were recently very lucky to be approached by the folks at franceagora.fr who wished to promote ScottishLaird.co.uk in France (See ‘Figaro! Figaro! Figaro!…’).

To cut a long story short, after wondering exactly how we were going to create a fully translated website to service this new and exciting market which Anne and her team have been busily working on, we finally found Langify, an app within Shopify, and its been a revelation!

With translations from Agora and some on-the-fly work from google translate, which we’re updating for accuracy, the system now recognises our French customers and serves the French version, including our wonderful slideshow en Français!

As my girls would say, Ooh La La!

And you can see the (admittedly work-in-progress) French version by visiting our website, scrolling to the bottom and selecting the language in the pop-up.

Now, I’ve got the bug. First php, then mysql, now French … Anyone for German?

Figaro, Figaro, Figaro! Features Dunans Castle & ScottishLaird in ‘Le Figaro et Vous’

Delighted to report coverage in the National French newspaper, along with exposure on French Radio and Online News outlets here and here!

Here’s the cover of the supplement, with a photo by our very own Jean Donaldson at Powan, gracing the cover:

Coupure-du-figaro

Thanks to Anne des Froux for the coverage! and to find out more go to ScottishLaird.co.uk

Skijoring: The Snowsport I’ve been looking for all my life …

Combining the two elements of sport I love: skis and horses! Fabulous.

#EarWorms: 4 tracks that have “for posterity” written all over them – @Spector, @TWBS, @DanielRateliff, @OVSC

These five are in my forever hundred. Thoroughly recommended, along with the albums and other tracks associated with. Well, maybe not all of OVSC’s oeuvre (particularly MILF … you have been warned).

  • The Wood Burning Savages, America – Why is this not a global hit? Northern Ireland’s next big export.
  • Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Howling at Nothing, only slightly better than S. O. B. – an album of genius.
  • The Ouse Valley Singles Club, Girl from the Fens. Still listening to this, and still laughing! Who’d have thought … the video is priceless.
  • Spector, Bad Boyfriend. Keep coming back for more.
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