I’ve never understood website “maintenance” plans. Websites don’t need oiling. They do need attention, though.

If you thought you’d missed my practical layout workshop for designers, well—thanks to COVID—you didn’t.

In September, I launched my range of Premium Squarespace templates inspired by the work of past masters of design. Now, I’m giving them a huge update.

Envato asked “What’s the state of web design in 2024? What comes next?” They sat down with four designers (and me) to learn what”s inspiring us, what drives us crazy, and how web designers can prepare for a future influenced by AI and rapidly evolving tools.

For most of my career, I’ve encouraged designers and developers to learn from past masters of design and make inspiring web work. Now, I’m launching Stuff & Nonsense Premium Squarespace templates that help them do just that.

Today, I’m launching Quick Takes and Fresh Perspective design reviews. Quick Takes are 30-minute video reviews for website owners, while Fresh Perspective is a one-hour private video consultation for designers and developers.

When I wrote recently about the design work I’d like to do in the year ahead, I neglected to mention one important area that I’d like to concentrate on. That’s mentoring designers and helping them improve their skills and develop their careers in design.

Since I launched Contract Killer, I’ve lost track of the number of times people have asked me to make a proposal template for web designers and developers. I’m not sure why it took me so damn long, but today I’m launching “ Killer Proposals.”

When I first shared my Contract Killer in 2008, I had no idea so many people would use it. It became the most visited page on my website. After being free for thirteen years, in 2021 Contract Killer became a paid-for template. Now, there’s an update, the biggest since 2008.

This time last year, I wrapped up my Director of Product Design contract at Nozomi Networks. That was a big change but also an opportunity to evaluate what I’d enjoyed about the role and what I missed from more varied design projects.

Another front cover from the Daily Star newspaper: “Our favourite sane politician just 4 POINTS behind Rishi Sunak who may lose his seat.”

A few weeks ago, BBC Question Time’s Fiona Bruce announced the programme was coming to nearby Chester, so I filled in the online form and applied to be in the audience. I completely forgot about applying until a researcher phoned me the day before the show and asked if I were still available. I was.

I missed the exact date, but a few days ago, my blog turned 20. I’m not up there with Jeffrey or Jeremy, who’ve blogged consistently for even longer—I neglected my blog for periods of time, and posting was often irregular—but still, here we are. It’s twenty years since my first post.

I’m tending and posting to my blog a little more since the recent redesign and as part of that effort, I’ve brought back two very old-fashioned things: A blog roll and an RSS feed.

It’s been almost a year since I left Nozomi Networks, and between now and then, I’ve had plenty of time to think about the types of projects I would like to work on. I learned a lot from working alongside developers building products, but my passion has always been for using design to communicate ideas and messages, not simply problem-solving.

Although there have been periods over the past few years where I’ve worked as part of a team, I’ve mainly worked by myself, at home. My wife has a keen eye for detail and often has off-the-wall ideas. My clients are also wonderful, and they seem to appreciate my process, which involves talking every day and sharing work as it develops. But there have often been times when I’ve felt working mostly alone was isolating.

For 35 weeks every year—three weeks per month—I work with Nozomi Networks guiding the creative direction and experience design of their cyber security products. The team is growing, so we’re looking for a product designer to join us.

Although I don’t get to do it as often as I’d like, I enjoy working with startups. So, I was thrilled to be asked to work on a website design for Worrysome, a new business which aims to take the worry out of worrying.

Late last year, I sat down for an hour with Steve Folland to talk about “blagging and learning” on the Being Freelance podcast. The episode’s now available and, to be honest, it’s the best podcast interview I’ve done for a long while.

Dave Letorey has an Isolation Station project where he’s interviewing industry people about their favourite music in a Desert Island Discs style. Last Friday he asked me to join him to talk about some music which is important to me. It was a fun forty minutes.

While articles about how to use CSS Grid and Flexbox are common, when and why to use them is hardly ever discussed. Very few people are taught design fundamentals or see inspiring examples to learn from. Through my series of “ Inspired design decisions “ magazines, I plan to change that.

It always baffled me that with a name like Smashing Magazine, my friends at Smashing hadn’t published a, errr, magazine. Well, now they have.

I’ve just finished my third (in my series of 12) Inspired Design Decisions webinars for Smashing Magazine. This month, I spoke about how to combine consistency with variety to create a consistent experience of a design across an entire product, publication, or website.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow afternoon (May 21st,) and sitting down with Smashing Magazine’s Vitaly Friedman for the second of my Inspired Design Decisions webinars, exclusive for Smashing members. This webinar is my deepest dive so far into the concept of compound grids and how to use them.

I’ve written plenty of times before about how important it can be to look offline for inspiration to improve the things we make online. Last year, a few friends and I met in London for an inspiring visit to the Photographers Gallery.

As I mentioned on Friday, it’s taken much, much longer to produce, and is itself much, much longer than I’d planned, but my fourth book, Art Direction for the Web, will be published tomorrow. Here’s a little more about what you’ll find in the book’s almost 350 pages.

Everyone loved stickers, right? And t-shirts? Right again. And gorillas? Of course you do, especially Errol. Now you can stick Errol stickers on the things you stick stickers on and proudly wear Errol on your chest. (Chest beating optional.)

This week, I’m back on the Boagworld podcast to talk about the ‘ Exciting Future of Grid Layout’and the design possibilities supported by CSS Grid. I enjoyed recording it with Paul and Marcus enormously and I think that it’s one of the best shows I’ve recorded in a while.

One of the reasons for my redesigning this website was to make it more appropriate for the work I’ve been making most recently, but also as an opportunity for it to better reflect me as a person. A big part of that was the writing that I did in what I think of as my blogging ‘heyday.’

Starting today, Geek Mental Help Week is a week-long series of articles, blog posts, conversations, podcasts and events across the web about mental health issues, how to help people who suffer, and those who care for us.

It’s been a question that I’ve been asked a lot over the past couple of weeks in the run up to this year’s Geek Mental Help Week, so I thought that I’d explain in more than Twitter’s 140 characters.

Geek Mental Help Week starts next Monday and I’m very happy to say that there are several events happening during the week.

Here’s the skinny. Geek Mental Help Week is happening again during the week of October 3 rd 2016 and I think that it’s going to be the best one yet.

Okay, okay. I know. No episodes of my Unfinished Business podcast for a few months. I’m really sorry about that.

It looks like Geek Mental Help Week 2015 is getting off to a good start with two mental health related events, both happening on Thursday evening.

Last year’s Geek Mental Help Week was, by all accounts, well received and a terrific success. Despite the fact that we pulled it together with sticky tape and string, people told their stories about how mental health issues had affected them and the people who care for them. Those stories were honest and humbling to everyone who read them. I hope that next week, Geek Mental Help Week 2015 can do something similar.

I have some very special news to announce about my book. It’s a brand new Fifth Anniversary Edition of Hardboiled’Web Design that’s published by Smashing Magazine.

Hot on the heels of announcing the new Hardboiled Web Design Fifth Anniversary Edition, I’m also incredibly excited and nervous to let you know about three new Hardboiled Web Design books that will be published throughout the course of next year. We’re calling them ‘ Hardboiled Web Design Shots.’

I can’t quite believe that it’s been almost two years since we launched the previous, Go, go, go, rillas! design of the Stuff & Nonsense website. Today, I’m very pleased to present our next design, ‘It’s the taste.’

I have more than a soft spot for Australia. It’s where I’d live if that were possible and where I can see myself retiring to in, you know, twenty or so years. Luckily, I’m going back to Australia long before that, this March in fact, to speak at the fabulous Respond conference and to take my CSS For Responsive Web Design workshop on the road to Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth, as well as Sydney itself.

I’ve been very pleased with reactions to my latest ‘CSS3 For Responsive Web Design’ full-day workshop. Attendees at ‘The Web Is…’ in Cardiff and ‘Beyond Tellerrand’ in Berlin really seemed to like its mixture of design and technical content. I’ll be hosting this workshop again in several cities in various countries throughout 2015 and there’s still one more opportunity to join me in Oslo next week.

2014 has been a year of web design anniversaries. In May 2004 I wrote the first entry on this blog. This coming December my CSS Zen Garden submission was accepted and exactly ten years ago today my Invasion of the Body Switchers was published on A List Apart. Ten years is a very long time in technology and so much has changed for me and for the web since then.

I really like Norway and the Norwegian people are among the friendliest I’ve met, so I never need convincing to visit them. While I was in Oslo in October, speaking at the Making Web conference I met the wonderful people at IGM and when they asked me to take my CSS3 For Responsive Web Design workshop back to Oslo on December 3rd, I jumped at the chance.

Next week, starting October 27th, is Geek Mental Help Week: A week-long series of articles, blog posts, conversations, podcasts and events across the web about mental health issues, how to help people who suffer, and those who care for us.

What the hell. We still have plenty of places available for mine and Brads workshops at The Web Is… next week. Come and join me for ‘CSS3 for Responsive Web Design’ and you’ll get a free copy of my Hardboiled Web Design paperback.

A few days ago was the fourth anniversary of our publishing Hardboiled Web Design. Four years since some friends and I wrote, illustrated and published a book.

I couldn’t be happier that the brilliant Richard Wiggins and David Hughes, the pair behind Milton Keynes Geek Night, are hosting a special Mental Health evening event as part of Geek Mental Help Week.

After talking with Laura on Unfinished Business this week, about burgers in donuts, we moved on to discuss the Geek Mental Help Week that I’ve been thinking about and planning for the last few months. Something that I sincerely hope will help those of us who suffer from mental health issues and the others who support us.

Last years’ Handheld Conference in Cardiff was an incredible event. A bearded me even got to push a dalek with my friend Jon, as well as deliver a talk and host a sell-out workshop. This November I’ll be back in Cardiff for Handheld’s successor, The Web Is… I’m a last minute addition to the speaker line-up (again) and back workshopping with a new ‘CSS3 For Responsive Web Design’ workshop.

I knew from the moment I heard the news that Craig and Amie Lockwood taking over at the helm of Five Simple Steps was a good idea. They have exciting plans for the brand, the first of which is a physical book store at their Foundershub in Cardiff City Centre. Next time you’re in Cardiff, pop in. The book to buy is second from the right on the bottom row. And as of now, you can get the fabulous paperback and ebook for only £12.80.

In all my travels I’ve not yet been to Berlin. That’s changing in November when I’ll be appearing at the fabulous beyond tellerrand.

I couldn’t be happier than my friends Craig Lockwood and Amie Duggan, those wonderful people behind events like Handheld Conf, Besquare, FoundersHub and, later this year, The Web Is… have taken over at Five Simple Steps.

The sudden closure of Five Simple Steps came as a shock to a lot of people, not least authors like me who are forced to decide on new homes for their books with no notice.

Stuff and Nonsense has been shortlisted for Agency Of The Year at the Net Awards 2014 and so Creative Bloq wanted to know a little more about us, what we do and what sets us apart from other agencies. Here’s what I told them.

I’m not sure how I forgot to link to this last week, but our phone rang and I spoke to BBC technology reporter Dave Lee about Easter Eggs. Not the chocolate kind, but the much less tasty and much less interesting hidden delights in websites.

If you’re reading this in RSS, switch over to a browser, as we just launched ‘Go, go, go, rillas!’ It’s our late 2013 version of Stuff and Nonsense.

Yep. Number forty-one of one-hundred. To be honest, when I was told about being part of the Drum Digerati list I wasn’t at all happy about it.

Smashing Magazine are hosting a series of one day workshops across Europe throughout November and December.

2012’s Smashing Conference in Freiburg had the best atmosphere of any European conference I’ve been to and, while I wasn’t there, I hear this year’s was pretty special too.

I’ve just come back from a trip to beautiful Freiburg in southern Germany where I hosted my new CSS3 For Responsive Web Design workshop at Smashing Magazine. I went to Freiburg last September when Alex and I attended Smashing Conference and we had a brilliant time. The folks at Smashing Magazine were genuinely welcoming and I jumped at the first opportunity to work with them again.

People seem to like Rock Hammer, our little “curated project library for Hammer For Mac ” We designed Rock Hammer to help us here at Stuff and Nonsense design faster using HTML and CSS and we use it every day to do just that. Talking about Rock Hammer, some news:

I’ve always had a soft spot for the people at Smashing Magazine and I loved being at their Smashing Conference last September, so when they asked me if I’d like to be a part of their workshop programme, I didn’t hesitate to say “yes.” This coming June my wife and I will be heading back to beautiful Freiburg where I’ll host a ‘ CSS3 for Responsive Web Design’workshop.

Back in 2009, I took what I thought would be a trip of a lifetime to Japan to speak and host a workshop at Web Directions East. I spent a hectic few days in Tokyo then set off for a place I never thought I visit, Hiroshima. I’ll never forget standing, in tears in front of the A-Bomb dome, or visiting the shrines on Miyajima Island. I met new friends and went home with stories to tell.

If you listen to Unfinished Business, you’ll know that I’m a big, big fan of Hammer For Mac, the app its developers say lets you create HTML builds & templates quicker, more efficiently & more conveniently. Hammer works for us because these days we mostly deliver static HTML and CSS templates, instead of static visuals, and we rarely develop complete sites.

I’d always admired the work of, and the people behind the Web Standards Project. What they had achieved in only a few short years in bringing browser vendors and tool authors together behind open standards was nothing short of magnificent, so when I was asked to join the project on March 31st 2005 it was an ambition fulfilled.

Handheld is “the conference for all things mobile” that’s happening in Cardiff, Wales on 27th – 28th November 2013 at the Wales Millennium Centre. Handheld has a fabulous line-up of speakers and tickets go on sale on March 1st, St. David’s Day. (You can get get 10% off your ticket with the offer code unfinishedbz.) If you needed another reason to head to beautiful Cardiff Bay, I’m hosting a new workshop, “CSS3 for Responsive Web Design.”

I decided that this year I would spend more time in universities and with students than I would at conferences. Maybe that’s because my son’s a student and I’d like to think that he’d appreciate a visiting lecturer. Maybe it’s because I’m not ready for the pressure of larger events yet. Whatever the reason, this week was all about students and my visits to Winchester School Of Art and Manchester Metropolitan University.

With the help of Tapbots’Netbot client, it looks like App.net might be gathering steam. If App.net’s your thing, you’ll now find me there too although I guess I’m not alone in being unsure when I’ll use App.net instead of Twitter. Follow me on App.net. (Damn that name isn’t getting any easier to say.)

I know RSS isn’t perhaps what it was for a lot of people, but it’s still as important to me as Twitter as a source of good content, and well, you know what they say about eggs and baskets. Today I’m making some changes to Stuff and Nonsense’s RSS.

It was January, 2011 and an email arrived from a name I recognised. Would you be available for me to phone you to discuss a potential project? I’ve attached an NDA. Could you sign a printed copy, scan and send it back to me? John Jones Jones Olson

Some conferences just have ‘that’ special feeling. @media was the first for me in 2005. The An Event Apart in Seattle in 2010 where Ethan Marcotte first talked about responsive design, another. Most recently, the first New Adventures also in 2010.

Sorry to break into your Diamond Jubilee celebrations, but my Flexible Responsive Web Design workshop on the 19th September in Freiburg in Germany sold out so fast that Smashing Conference and I are hosting a second day. That’s right. We didn’t want disappointed Germans. Especially after Engerlaaand will be beating them in Euro 2012. This one’s the day before the conference, on the 16th September. You know the drill. Places are limited. Found out more. Register. Now.

I’ve given Vitaly and his Smashing Magazine team some (good natured) stick over the years, but (to their credit) they ignored me completely and have built a fabulous business that publishes the website and books including Smashing Book #3 that I was proud to write the closing chapter for. Now they’re organising what I predict with be one of the best web conferences anywhere this year. The Smashing Conference will be held in beautiful, historic Freiberg Freiburg in Germany on 17 th and 18 th September and the speaker line up is tremendous. Heck. It has three of my CSS heroes, two of my favourite people in the whole world, AND more. What a show it’s going to be! As you probably heard, I’m taking a break from speaking this year (apart from Austin (see what I did there?)), but I will be hosting a Fashionably Flexible Responsive Web Design workshop on the 19 th. It’s an updated version of the workshop that was so well received in Australia earlier in the year. (You can grab the slide deck from that from Speaker Deck to give you a taste. You know the drill. Places are limited. Found out more. Register. Now. I’m looking forward to the Smashing Conference so much. So much! It’s going to be super, smashing, great.

It’s only three weeks until I’ll be flying down under to Australia to escape the British winter. While I’m there I’m hosting four Fashionably Flexible Responsive Web Design workshops — one in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Perth: February 14th Melbourne: February 17th Sydney: February 24th Brisbane: February 28th This Fashionably Flexible Responsive Web Design workshop’s completely new and I’m excited because as well as talking about hot responsive topics, I’m putting the focus of this workshop onto design. In particular we’ll cover how to make the design decisions that designers (and developers) need to make everyday in the responsive workflow: Designing from the content out Responsive typography Content or navigation first Adapting navigation When to apply layout Content inspired breakpoints Slide deck. (Work in progress) I’ve been evolving the format over the last few months at private events for NRK and Finn.no, both in Oslo, and if the reaction of those folks is anything to go by, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane will be a blast. “Thank you for a great day. It really inspired our developers and we’ve just rolled out the first of our responsive pages already. If our developers get this excited every time you’re, here I think we’ll need to have you come over every other month.” Espen Dalløkken — Finn, Oslo, Norway. For the next few weeks, I’ll be refining the workshop’s content some more and building some brand new boilerplates for attendees to take away. I hope I’ll see you there.

I can’t quite believe that it’s been six years since Drew MacLellan first published 24 ways. Now ably assisted by a talented team of volunteers, Drew’s made his magazine a web designer’s stable read. I’ve had the honour of writing a little something for it every year. My contribution, There’s No Formula for Great Designs is out today. Andy Clarke re-examines the formula used to convert static to fluid grids, and describes how he adapts it within his own custom grids to maintain connectedness in designs across devices. Like great design, there’s a perfect Christmas out there somewhere, but there’s no formula for it. Every year, I agonise over what I write for 24 ways, because the overall quality of articles just keeps on getting better. My top pick of this year has to be Front-end Style Guides by Anna Debenham. 24 ways is a shining example of people volunteering their knowledge and time, giving back to our industry to help others. I’m proud to have contributed again. (I’ve gathered links to all my articles, including past writing for 24 ways, onto one new page.)

I’ve just come off stage at An Event Apart San Francisco where I delivered ‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes’, my talk about CSS3 animations, for the last time. The talk uses a a mad, mad, mad, mad manimation as vehicle to explain CSS3 animations and encourage people to use them (and other emerging CSS properties) for more than for cool, edge case demonstrations. For everyone not at An Event Apart this year, I’ve uploaded my slides on Speaker Deck.

Five Simple Steps are holding a Christmas sale, with 30% of all their books in all formats. There’s plenty of gifts for all the family, but you know what everyone wants, don’t you? That’s right. Hardboiled Web Design. The Hardboiled Web Design Digital Edition (PDF, ePub & mobi) is only £12:00, but there’s nothing quite like the smell of print on Christmas morning. So get the one you love the Paperback & Digital Edition for only £29:00. Ho, ho, ho.

There’s been much written about responsive design, but so much of it has focussed on aspects of technical implementation rather than about the design decisions that responsive design demands. So next February (2012), I’ll be travelling down-under to Australia to host four, yes four, ‘Fashionably flexible responsive web design’ workshops.

I gave my first talk of the year at An Event Apart in Seattle. I’m speaking at all six of the events this year (and hosting two workshops ). I called the talk Smoke Gets In Your Eyes after the first episode of Mad Men because I was showing, for the very first time Madmanimation, the Mad Men opening titles recreated using CSS.

When we created our Hardboiled Web Design workshops, we wanted to work with partners who give our customers something extra. So we can’t be more pleased to have three amazing partners for our workshops in the UK — Microsoft, VPS.NET and Campaign Monitor.

It’s been two months since my new book, Hardboiled Web Design, was published by Five Simple Steps and a few weeks since the paperback started arriving on desks and shelves around the world. It’s been incredibly exciting to read how much people love it. Now preparations are in full swing for what comes next, Hardboiled Web Design workshops across the UK.

No it wasn’t a revolutionary new device. It wasn’t even the release of The Beatles music in a lower quality, more expensive format. Oh no, it was much more exciting. Hardboiled Web Design workshop dates in 2011. Yeah! No kidding!

After a year in the planning and six months in the making, my new book, Hardboiled Web Design is available to buy from Five Simple Steps

Although writing a book might appear to be a lonely occupation, in reality it’s a team effort. For Hardboiled Web Design I’ve been lucky to work some incredible talent, including cover artist, the one and only Kevin Cornell.

A large part of writing a book about website design, markup and CSS is designing and producing the example files that accompany the book. For Hardboiled Web Design, this meant several months of designing, coding, redesigning, recoding and testing.

Writing and producing a book like Hardboiled Web Design provides a fantastic opportunity to work with other, amazing designers, illustrators or a mixture of the two like Elliot Jay Stocks.

One of the nicest parts about writing and producing a book like Hardboiled Web Design in partnership with a boutique publisher like Five Simple Steps is having the opportunity to work with other, amazing designers, illustrators and photographers.

Want to learn from the best about jQuery and Designing for Mobile with CSS3? Places are still available on For A Beautiful Web workshops: Designing for Mobile with CSS3 with Dan Rubin and jQuery for Designers with Remy Sharp.

I would like to share some very exciting news about Hardboiled Web Design.

In other conference news, this time of the online kind, I will be broadcasting from my orbiting space-station for The CSS3 Online Conference, organised by Carsonified on March 22nd.

The conference that got it all started for me as a speaker comes back to London on June 10th and 11th for a sixth year, this time with a new face — Web Directions @media.

A month ago I tweeted about my own frustrations with learning jQuery. If you’re a designer or developer and you feel the same way, I’m over the moon to announce a new For A Beautiful Web workshop: jQuery for Designers with Remy Sharp.

After traveling from the USA for An Event Apart to Australia and Japan for Web Directions in 2009, I had expected 2010 to be quieter. I was wrong. 2010 is going to be busier and more hardboiled than ever.

Just out, issue 132 of Computer Arts Projects, including a section on a Decade Of Web Design featuring interviews with Brendan Dawes, Elliot Jay Stocks and me. If you can’t get out today to pick up a copy, here is my interview.

For A Beautiful Web is starting 2010 with a bang, by bringing Dan Rubin, one of world’s best designers and mobile specialists, to the UK for a full day workshop teaching the key steps to help you transform your site for mobile users.

Tomorrow I leave for Japan, taking For A Beautiful Web ‘s Advanced CSS Styling workshop to Tokyo and then presenting an edited version of Walls Come Tumbling Down at Web Directions East 2009.

If you’ve been looking to buy any (or all) of my three new For A Beautiful Web DVDs (Designing With CSS, Designing Web Accessibility and Designing With Microformats) from Amazon.co.uk, you’ll have noticed that they are not listed. Here’s why.

Last Friday I recorded a video interview with Ryan Taylor. In it I talk about my first job (making My Little Ponies), web design and conference speaking.

Today I’m reviewing the final edit of my Designing With CSS DVD. I couldn’t resist sharing the end credits and gag reel.

What can I say? How chuffed am I? Chuffed to little mint balls, that’s how much. Why? Because I am excited to announce that everyone who registers for a For A Beautiful Web master-class will receive a one-year Typekit Portfolio subscription, courtesy of our friends at Small Batch.

I’m back from two-weeks hard-earned holiday in the south of France. What have I missed? Over five-hundred unread RSS posts for starters. I’m not usually one for best of entries, but here, in no particular order, are some things that have caught my attention — too many for a deluge of elsewhere entries.

It’s a secret I need keep no longer — we’re taking For A Beautiful Web to Japan in partnership with our friends at Web Directions.

If you’re planning to attend, or thinking about attending, one of our Advanced CSS Styling workshops in either Birmingham on September 25th 2009 or Newcastle Upon Tyne on October 30th 2009, here is the schedule for the event workshop to whet your appetite.

We had such a great time presenting our master-classes in London last year and in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney, we decided to host more. ‘Advanced CSS Styling’ will be a one-day workshop in Birmingham on September 25th 2009 and Newcastle Upon Tyne on October 30th 2009. Ten early-bird tickets are available per event at only £275.00+VAT per person, but get in quick, these are sure to be snapped up quickly.

You might have noticed already, things are looking a little different around here. Over the Easter weekend, I took some time away from the pressing matter of eating chocolate to work on a redesign, specifically to address (justifiable) concerns over the previous design’s readability but also to prepare bringing For A Beautiful Web visually in line with a coming redesign of the Transcending CSS book site.

In just a few short weeks, in the middle of April, I’ll be squeezing myself into an airline seat and flying the 9500 miles from home to Australia. This will be the third time that I’ve made the trip in four years, the last two times to speak in Sydney at Web Directions.

I’m sorry for posting twice on the same day about tweetCC, but it’s not everyday that something that I have worked on and feel super passionate about is picked up by, and hits the homepage of Wired.

As the title suggests, we’re spreading our wings and taking our For A Beautiful Web Visual Web Design Masterclass to Australia this April, with dates in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney.

I’m really pleased that I can announce that, along with a formidable cast of old pros, I’ll be speaking at @media2009 in London on 25th and 26th of June. This will, incredibly, be the sixth time that I’ve spoken at @media (2005, 2006, 2007 (twice), 2008 and now 2009) and this year I’ll be talking about something a little different.

Last year, Leslie Jensen-Inman was working on her graduate thesis and interviewed a cast of shady characters including Andy Budd, (Gentleman) Jon Hicks, Jeremy Keith and yours truly on the subject of web design and development education.

Important: Contract Killer has been updated. 24ways goes from strength to strength each year and I was so pleased when Drew McLellan asked me back to contribute again.

Stuff and Nonsense is ten years old today.

What would you do if with only minutes until your guests arrive for your first workshop event, your venue suddenly becomes unavailable? Would you panic?

As I check off the days on my calendar, there are only two full weeks until our Visual Web Design Master Class in London on December 1st and only a handful of places still available.

Well not exactly. Herr Marx has been dead for 125 years, and anyway, I hear that he was often too poor to buy a round. Still, we think that we're showing solidarity to hold our Visual Web Design Master Class evening social in the beardy geezer's local boozer.

If you attended An Event Apart in either Chicago or New Orleans, or @media in London this year, you might have seen Underpants Over My Trousers, my talk about how comic book design conventions and principles can influence web page design.

I am really, really pleased that places on our Visual Web Design Master Class are selling fast. Book your place before 10th October 2008 and you could win a copy of Inspired Design (DVD) and Transcending CSS (book), together worth £68.00*.

Having spoken at almost twenty major conferences in the last few years, I've picked up a fair selection of schwag items and giveaways. Now that we are busy organizing our first For A Beautiful Web events, I'd love to know what the best shwag items you've received are.

It's been on my mind for a while. In the last few years I've been one of the luckiest web designers on this planet (and probably others) because I've been asked to travel all over the world to talk about web design, CSS and even comic books. I love every minute of it.

Tomorrow will see me making the long journey south to Sydney, Australia to speak at what will be my third Web Directions conference. Although the prospect of so many hours confined to an aircraft seat is again a little daunting, I’m looking forward to what (if previous years are anything to go by) will be an amazing event.

This is the all new Stuff and Nonsense web site. Things have changed a great deal around here since the last time you may have stopped by. This site is a merger of two domains, the Stuff and Nonsense company portfolio plus the archives from And All That Malarkey.

I had looked forward to it for a year and it certainly didn’t disappoint. For me, this year’s SXSW Interactive was the best so far. Every year seems to be a little different.

The end of this week sees web design masterminds, mobsters and even petty criminals heading to Austin for SXSW. It’s like Parkhurst for design geeks.

So Web Directions North has wrapped and tomorrow we head to the mountains for a spot of cold weather sports activity (or probably in my case, my lips around a nice hot chocolate). But first, other news.

Coming back to a site made a while ago, it can be common to scratch your head and wonder how (and why) you made certain decisions. Coming back to a site that you made six years ago can be enough to make you break down and sob like a little girl.

The end of this next month should see me taking the longest flight of my life; from London to Sydney for Web Directions, then on to Spain for Fundamentos Web. Two conferences, a world apart.

As I’ve just been invited to speak at a web conference in Canada next year, I thought that it was about time that I updated my biography. Looking back at what I have written before, it all seemed a little bland; designer this, accessibility that.

the CSS Working Group is finally aware that it must include at least one classically trained artist and graphic designer on the team.

Even after only the briefest of spells travelling in the USA this year, I became accustomed to those creature comforts that make a travelling designer’s life so much easier.

These last few days I’ve been looking back on @media2006; 800 people, two amazing days and one designer left feeling very humbled by the whole experience.

I’m not a user of many web 2.0 applications, although the few that I have bonded with, including Basecamp, Blinksale, Flickr and Ma.gnolia, I use pretty extensively.

In today’s Arno Zimmerman episode, Paul Scrivens hones in on the money in’The Nine Rules’. Of all Arno’s contacts, Paul was the only person to name a figure. Arno would have been pleased to pay it too, if only life were so simple.

April 27th and 28th will see me wrapping up warm, as I’m heading to Iceland for IceWeb 2006; billed as Iceland’s premier web oriented conference.

Recent conversations over at 456 Berea Street on the subject of whether a new solution for clearing floats without structural markup is needed, required an answer. So at MIX06 I sat down with s e ven’s developers to find a recommended answer to the question.

A busy few months of travel are ahead in Malarkey world. I’m very much looking forward to what’s coming up, to meeting old friends and making new ones.

In the news this week, three times winner of the Tour De France and occassional web designer Jeffrey Veen announced that MeasureMap has been acquired by Yahoo, AltaVista, Starbucks, Google.

In the news this week, three times winner of the Tour De France and occassional web designer Jeffrey Veen announced that MeasureMap has been aquired by Yahoo, AltaVista, Starbucks, Google.

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, a young man’s thoughts turn to love and as with any matter of the heart, there is often a dilemma involved. What should be my next purchase from Apple?

Explaining about the difference in northern British accents, a conversation metaphorically headed up the M6 motorway, through the inevitable roadworks to Manchester.

Although it comes as no surprise following his string of alcohol related illnesses, the news that British footballing legend George Best has died is no less very sad.

As I head for London, I thought that you might like a sneaky peek at the presentation slides which I have prepared for next week’s Carson Workshop’s CSS For Designers events.

Released today, Paul Weller’s new album As Is Now isn’t the return to form which I expected. It’s better. A tour-de-force! Weller at his most spectacular for almost ten years.

It was announced yesterday that one of the most influential artists of the British 1960’s art movement, Patrick Caulfied, died on Thursday.

I love my Nano, I want to keep it close, keep it safe. My Nano is so precious, I can’t bear to think of it getting scratched.

With the launch of the Dutch after school club standards group Happy Clog and the proliferation of WaSP working groups, it seems that (maybe for warmth) standards geeks and designers are cuddling up.

I’m back. Tanned, rested, fired-up and ready with news of a special design and CSS workshop event happening in November in old London town.

You might imagine that accessibility specialists are slightly odd folk. Close your eyes and imagine them sitting quietly in the corner of a pub, sipping mild and wearing Hush Puppies.

In 1649 to St. George’s Hill A ragged band they called the Diggers came to show the people’s will They defied the landlords, they defied the laws They were the dispossessed reclaiming what was theirs.

Lights going out and a kick in the balls. That’s Entertainment. A police car and a screaming siren A pneumatic drill and ripped up concrete A baby wailing and stray dog howling The screech of brakes and lamp light blinking That’s Entertainment.

Accessibility is a hot topic again with many mature and interesting discussions taking place. Now the Web Standards Project (WaSP) announces the WaSP Accessibility Task Force.

Well, it’s a wrap. @media2005 has drawn to a close tonight and a four hour train journey back to Wales has given me not only the chance for a bit of a snooze, watch Mona Lisa on my iBook but gather my thoughts about the last couple of days of what I hope…

Don MacLean may have sung it before in American Pie, but today surely must be the day the music died. Well perhaps died is too severe, but today for me must be the day that popular music reached an all time low.

It’s now only two weeks until @media2005 in London, and the (now sold out) event looks set to be one of the biggest web occassions the UK has seen so far. It will be interesting to see how @media’s style differs in comparison to SXSW.

This is neither a permanent redesign, nor to be a regular event, I just fancied a bit of fun as it’s the day for it. Go on, hit’refresh’, I dare yer! (No markup was injured during the making of this site.)

SXSW was the venue for Ethan Marcotte to announce the up-and-coming publication of Professional CSS, a new book by Christopher Schmitt, Dan Cederholm, Porter Glendinning, Mark Trammell, Dunstan Orchard and Ethan himself.

Reading Andy Budd’s SXSW Day 0 post this morning, I thought (cue Monty Python voice) You lucky, lucky bastard!;) While Andy and the other Brit Packers were sipping Frozen Margaritas and munching Tex Mex food, Hicks and I were still struggling with getting to…

I’ve written in previous columns about how working with wire-frames and grey-box page layouts during a site’s planning and early design stages can improve efficiency and enable client sign-off points.

OK, I can’t resist it. If you enjoyed Dealing with telephone salesmen, Dealing with window salesmen or Dealing with kitchen salesmen (and I hope you did) here is one last bash at cold callers.

London is most definately the place to be in June this year. Why? Well @media2005, that’s why! With speakers including Jeffrey Zeldman, Joe Clark, Douglas Bowman, Patrick Griffiths, Andy Budd, Jeremy Keith and, err, me … this looks like the web event of the…

When I was working (on my own) in the studio between Christmas and New Year, I played the Live Aid DVD which the guys bought me for my birthday.

IOTBS: The Director’s Cut has been improved in the latest release resulting in a far more sophisticated tool, with better accessibility, and a greater range of possible uses. For links to the latest files, see the IOTBS resources page.

Most recently, Paul Chadwick has recieved much critical acclaim for his work on comic-book movie tie-ins such as Star Wars and the Matrix.

Two of my favourite comic books artists excel in black and white illustration, the first, Frank Miller is better known for his work on Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and more recently, Sin City.

When I didn’t know what colour to put down, I put down black. Black is a force: I depend on black to simplify the construction.

Invasion of the Body Switchers by me and Brothercake is now published over at A List Apart.

We’ve been wanting a chocolate labrador puppy for a while now and got the good news today that a litter that we have been waiting for has just been born in a nearby village.

It’s been a very busy few months in Malarkey world. (I’ve got a big announcement to make tomorrow.) Anyway, as our American cousins have been splashing blood around their sites in the run up to Halloween, I thought that I would splash a little colour around…

Following on from the recent discussion about accessible alternatives for complex graphics and images, Bob Easton made an interesting point which compounds browsers’ lousy support for the longdesc attribute, Yet another reason to avoid LONGDESC … There is…

I need your advice on something please guys, if you can spare the time. I started this site for a number of reasons, most of them pretty half-baked.

We’re back from the south of France, two weeks without the phone, email or MSN. At home, my usual morning routine runs something like this, In France it’s a little bit different; two weeks of,

Web forms often ask users for both essential and non-essential (marketing purposes and research) information. Long and complicated forms can often slow down the progress through a web site and in the case of e-commerce, can seriously hinder the sales process.

An eagerness to please should always push a designer to do the best for a client. But there are times where just when you thought the job was finished, a client will say, Can we just add… The four stage sign-off sheet can be our best friend.

Carson Workshops have announced a second day and limited availability for the CSS for Designers Workshop in London. I am very pleased that demand for seats at the workshop has been so high as to require a second day.

About thirty years ago, my Mum had a friend called Reg, an ex-army chappy with a gruff manner and a rhodesian ridgeback dog called Simba. It was a huge creature. But this is not about Reg, or his dog.

Transcending CSS seems to be doing rather well so far, largely I’m sure down to those kind people who places cover buttons on their sites to help promote it.

While conferences are still at the front of my thoughts, I thought it about time to announce the WOW Web Design and Project Management Conference in Silicon Valley in September.