Last night of the Proms

Early start today off up to Blean Woods with Nina and our brown lab Roxy. 22nd consecutive day that we have done this and you know, I would really miss this now.

Took the camera along in case I could get some nice shots of unusual fungi (geeky or what!) and although it is a bit early in the month yet found a few. Roxy is getting so much better out walking now after such a dreadful start in life. A way to go but she is unrecognisable from the poor little pup who arrived in February and would not come out from under our coffee table. Yes, she was a a rescue case and at only 4 years old was due to be put down. There is such a difference now and she is curled up on her own arm chair fast asleep as Nina and I listen to the last night at the Proms. A must every year.

So, after the walk in the woods it was back to the appleMAC for another day at the “coal face” so to speak. I have got some cracking good work on the go and it is urgent, so I need to keep ahead of the game. I had a contact from yet another Royal Mail centre on Friday with a request for more signage to help them implement their World Class production schedule and also a batch of my Karrikard pocket sized health and safety Visitor cards. Must be about 8 or 9 Mail Centres that I deal with now I’m proud to say. Also working on corporate identity project for global sized print client and tomorrow is going to be about the same sort of pressure I think. Ah! just remembered I have a Vitamin product pack to design for one of my Nigerian Clients who I am also supplying corporate ties and scarves to. I have asked the next door neighbour to model the scarf for me tomorrow so that I can photograph it and send on to client so they know what they will be receiving.

Well, time for a well earned glass of wine before the Proms finale I think!

Variety is the spice of life

So today was the 15th consecutive day that Nina and Roxy the pooch and I have walked round a beautiful and quiet part of Clowes Wood near Canterbury. God, it must be doing all of us some good musn’t it? Well I am feeling pretty pleased with myself (well probably smug really) but already I would really miss this excursion out into the peace and quiet of the forest walk. It is so relaxing and I have never seen so many dragon flies before. Amazing.
So lets see if I am so keen when the weather starts to get bad! Seriously though I am determined to get this fitness thing going. I honestly haven’t done so much walking since I had tendon grafts in both ankles which was not a happy time. Couldn’t walk so didn’t exercise. Just sat working in front of the computer. Oh dear, how could I have been so stupid and not done something about it? On goes the weight just making everything worse.
NO MORE! I have even been out cycling as well. We are not talking Tour de France here but it is enjoyable just cruising into Herne Bay along the seafront. Well, the outcome of all this is that I do feel better for it and certainly have more energy already. Today then: Walked the pup, cleaned the inside of the car out which was covered in dog hair, started repairing some rotten woodwork on our front porch, cleaned the pond and tried to get rid of as much duckweed as possible, fixed the door handle on the spare bedroom door which has needed doing since the last century, and finally had a session on the MAC teaching myself how to use some cool new E-Book cover creating software which is unbelievably fantastic. So if you need an E-book cover I’m your man!
Finally sat down on the comfy sofa to write this and with classic Little Feat DVD playing am thoroughly enjoying myself. Who remembers Little Feat? Waiting for Columbus, one of the greatest ever live rock recordings I think but showing my age now. Lowell George on slide guitar is still the best ever I think. Just how did he get those high notes?
So that was Saturday. Up early tomorrow for walk in the woods and get cracking on those little jobs again. Ah! just thought. Must tidy my office as it is a disgrace again. Never a dull moment.

I’ve seen the future, and it is variable data!

I had a trip to Dagenham today. You don’t go there for a day out, but I had a design briefing meeting at the countries biggest and most experienced variable data media and printing specialists.
To walk into the production hall is a jaw dropping experience. It is so big that it must have its own weather sometimes. Everything is database fed so that every single leaflet brochure or whatever is different from the next with personalised content. For now the project is confidential but I know it is a privilege to be involved in this exiting project. More to follow in due course….

Karisma – past, present and future?

To be honest it seems like not a lot is new and like a lot of us folk running our own businesses we just have to keep running faster to stay in the same place.
The one major thing that keeps me sane is that I still love working in design and print. The fact that I did not start off as a designer and knew little about print just goes to prove that we have to keep reinventing ourselves.
I am lucky. Why? because I am ancient enough to have spent many years working in advertising and graphics when scalpels, cow gum, Rapidographs and magic markers were the tools of the trade. When apple was a fruit and the Mac was only a new type of burger.
Nothing wrong with that at all I have to say, in fact a lot right to be honest. You certainly got to understand type when it was necessary to cut it up from a galley of repro and stick it down on a sheet of CS10 (anyone remember that by the way?) to make a piece of artwork. Don’t misunderstand me, I don’t miss the studio environment where everything including us artists was covered in a film of spray adhesive. It was truly horrible and the MAC changed everything thank goodness. I really don’t want to work out how many hours I have saved in travelling backwards and forwards to London for the past 17 years!
Yes, lots to look forward to I think but I have just got to try and keep up to date with the technology and that is the big challenge all the time.

About time!

Yes! I guess if I am going to have a blog, then I need to keep putting something in it! I am all to aware that other things have been taking over lately and tomorrow is always a good time to write something…then tomorrow again and again.
So, I have put a link to these jottings on my website front page (wwwkarismadesign.com) to try and coax myself into being a bit more regular with my updates.
My last blog had left me rather in astate of shock and sadness at the sudden illness of good friend John Stuart. For those of you who follow Emily Turner on Twitter he is her stepdad. Things were very bad and in fact not good now but he has held on and despite having a severe heart infection, a stroke and now C diff is miraculously gradually coming out of it. He has a long journey of recovery ahead of him but thanks to the love and support of Emily, Sally his daughter, Freda his wife and a whole host of family and friends, he will continue to recover. Nobody knows how tough it has been for them but they have all been there and that is what family is all about I think. puts other worries and problems into perspective well an truly

For an old friend

Bad news knocks you down in an utterly physical way. It is like someone throwing a medicine ball at you, hard and fast when you are not expecting it.
John Stuart is the last person that I would have expected to be pole axed by a stroke, but he has. We have been such good friends for over 30 years now. Got drunk together, laughed like drains together, cried together and now all I can do is pray that we can do any of those things once again. It will be along painful haul for him but I know he will not want for friends or support. The next few days are horribly critical.

On your bike!

So, I really don’t seem to know if I am coming or going at the moment. I guess this is not an unusual state for me to be in but I really don’t like it.
I suppose time management must be the answer but have you ever tried it? the time you take making lists and analysing the contents could seemingly be better spent, but I know I have to bite the bullet and just get organised. We all know of things that we would really like to do but never get around to. Just haven’t got the time! Every now and then I really do get to grips with time management. You really want to go for a short bike ride. Ok, make a list and add bike ride say from 5.30-6.15. Stop what you are doing at 5.25 and just go and do it. Every day, just take one simple thing that you really want to achieve, set a time down allocated to it and just do it. Achievable goals is the crux of the matter I think. OK, now I have just got to do it! Good luck!

Whitstable Business Tweetup – networking by the sea!

First Whitstable Business Tweetup

Since the first meeting last month of the Whitstable Business Tweetup at the Continental Hotel, Whitstable, time has flown by but Maggie Langley, Jules Serkin and yours truly have been so pleased with the reaction from visitors and people wanting to come along and join us. 3rd Thursday of every month is the date and 10.00am – 11.30am is the time. No rules or red tape and definitely no cost! Just turn up, buy a coffee and network. It is not all about business and definitely not a showcase. Our Tweetup just provides a really nice venue for like minded people in business to get to know each other and then who knows?
For more information email me at ken.lloyd@karismadesign.com
I would love to hear from you.

See you there? – Ken Lloyd

Bootleg Blues?

I know I can get pretty boring when I get going on the subject of Steely Dan. Since hearing the first few bars of “Do it again” back in the late 60s I have honestly loved everything that Donald Fagen and Walter Becker have released. I hesitate to call Steely Dan a band as they have so many classy session musicians over the years, but one thing you can always be certain of is the superb musicianship.
So, leading on to their latest released DVD “Perfection in Performance”. Originally some sort of bootleg it seems, the DVD begins with terrible film quality and wacky camera work, but that I guess is the nature of the bootleg. The music is there however with all the great songs and Michael McDonald thrown in to cap it.

Cool, Jazzy, complex, it has it all, with great backing vocals as well. The DVD comes with little background information, so we don’t get to know who the musicians are or where it was recorded.

To sum up then “Perfection in Performance” is one for the fans, but I know it will spend a lot of time in my DVD player.

Steely Dan rock!

Whitstable Business Tweetup Rocks!

What a great first meeting for the Whitstable Business Tweetup today. Conceived over coffee sitting outside the Seaview Café in Whitstable, friends, Jules Serkin, Maggie Langley and yours truly decided that it would be a great idea to firm up a get together once a month and so many friends agreed that we chose the excellent Continental Hotel on the seafront for the venue.
What a good choice as well for really good coffee and surroundings. Thanks folks.
Future meetings will be on the third Thursday in every month at the Continental from 10.00am. Check us out on Twitter at http://twitter.com/whitstabletweet
The key to our hoped for success is the informal and friendly atmosphere. No rules, no red tape and no cost. Just turn up network and enjoy good conversation and networking. “Seemples!”
So if you are in the Whitstable area be sure of a friendly welcome at our monthly “Tweetup”