It’s time to start blogging again. Something I’ve consistently failed at since the concept first raised it’s head. I’ve failed for several reasons in the past, mostly through viewing blogging as an incredibly low priority activity, there’s always been something more important to do. While this is still technically true, I do have slightly more time at the moment but I also have several other reasons for intending to maintain a regular blog (outlined below). Previous attempts have also failed for a variety of other reasons, sometimes I’ve ended up trying to be too professional and it’s become a horrible chore to try and edit a post into something I’d be happy for my clients to read. Sometimes I’ve ended up just meandering into general wittering about my personal life or really just using it to chat to friends (LiveJournal).

Although this is still a ‘personal’ blog, the intention is to make it more of a ‘personal creative blog’, so I’ll include stuff about work projects, record label stuff, personal design work and anything to do with the running of assorted projects but will avoid the personal life crap that tends to creep in. So mostly making stuff and as little whining as possible.

I’ve some specific reasons for starting blogging again, and in the spirit of blogging, here they are:

• I’ve never used Wordpress (or any out of the box blog solution) before, and increasingly clients, and friends want quick blogging solutions for their websites. I used to write my own blogging systems, which did the job nicely, but in reality it’s a lot less costly for clients and easier on my time when working for friends** to just install and configure a Wordpress blog. This way I get to learn to use one properly and can assist others without resorting to a manual every time they need help.
• I don’t have a portfolio. Of any sort. This is frankly a shoddy situation for someone who has been designing websites for 10 years and working on assorted other creative endeavours for just as long. For about 5 years I’ve been intending to sit down and set up a portfolio site but have never quite found the time. This is still something I intend to do but for now this at least gives me somewhere to post about works in progress that I can point people at. I am setting up a limited portfolio for my more corporate clients as there’s likely to be some fairly NWS and Not Brain Safe stuff on here.
• Following on from the porfolio point, it should keep a nice log of the work I’ve done recently for those days when I absolutely cannot remember who I did that logo for.
• I need to lean to write. Really. Not in a serious, write a book manner, but I need to learn to edit copy better and I really need to learn to write press releases. This gives me a semi-serious place to practice. If you are reading this, you are really just my guinea pig.

So, yeah! Let’s see if I last longer than a month, and let’s see if I bore the shit out of you sooner.

* There is no picture of my cat. There will never be a picture of my cat. I don’t own a cat.
** No, you can’t have a free website, extra special situations only!