Latest web project

You know what its like, you're so busy doing the work, you never take care of the housing keeping! Builders' homes are always in a state of remodelling, and web folk are always working on the next company site. Well, we've been working on our new corporate site here at element78 for, pretty much years. I even mentioned it in a post here before I left on my maternity leave two years ago! Which I guess makes us very busy folk.
Well, since coming back from maternity leave a year ago, I've been working on an all new concept which looks very much like it will actually launch at the end of the month.


I'm also hoping to find the time to revisit my own site (janegallagher.co.uk) which has been sat stagnent for a few years now.

I'm thinking Wordpress.

Latest web project

Well, since my maternity leave ended in April I've been back in my web designers seat 3 days a week - which I reckon gives me the best of both worlds. Time for parenting Oli, our funny little toddler as well as having time for me. It allows Ben and I to keep the mortgage payments up AND (somewhat more importantly?) keeps me sane, which is probably in Oli's best interests too.

These design concepts are for the latest project I've been working on.

The next phase

Life has now officially moved on to the next phase.
I started this blog a year ago knowing that the imminant arrival of our baby meant life as I knew it was coming to a close. I made the decision to make a real effort towards my silversmithing, knowing that if it was more established, I was more likely to pick it back up when I had the time in the future.
I created my Etsy shop, started this blog and emersed myself in the highly inspirational world of online designers, crafters & makers. I definately saw the benefits of the extra time I put in too and sold a number of items purely becuase of it. I even got some stock into a lovely shop which was something I'd been just talking about for years.

Once Oliver arrived the whirlwind hasn't stopped and I'm pretty sure that's just what life is going to be like now. The whirl wind has MOST DEFINATELY been turned down from the initial category 6 storm to a more moderate 1 (or 2 on occasions), but I guess that's just what life is going to be like with another person to think about and care for. Does your mind ever stop?

Consequently, I've found it hard to find even the thinking time for my silversmithing, let alone the practical side. In the last 10 months I think I've only made this one item for a friend.
I really really am hoping to have the head space again soon to be able to pick my tools back up and get creating.

In the mean time though, I'm enjoying watching my gorgeous boy grow and am enjoying being back at work 3 days a week.
I've tried to keep this from being a mommy blog so haven't really waxed lyrical about Oli too much, but here's just one picture of our amazing chap...

'geek mums'

There's an interesting article on the BBC site about some of the discussions at this years SXSW...

A growing number of mothers are forming social communities online. What is behind their drive to the internet?
At the recent SXSW Festival in the American city of Austin, Texas, one of the discussions centred on the surge in growth in "geek moms" - mothers who spend a large amount of time online.

The one thing that sticks out about this to me is the word 'geek'! I'm finding it a bit misplaced. I can imagine that a few years ago it might have been considered geeky to be using computers - having completed a computer arts degree 10 years ago I can tell you there were very few of us ladies doing it then - but surely these days it's just common place?

I used to build websites which I guess could be considered very slightly geeky, but coding and programming? now THAT would be geeky. These days I just design for the web. And blog. And have a flickr account. And an Etsy account. And have a static website. Surely that's not geeky is it?

Whilst I'm on the matter, my maternity leave actually comes to a close in 4 weeks and I'll be back at my web design job. I can't believe life is actually moving on! I'm so enjoying hanging out with our little guy who is now 8 months old. I'm lucky to be able to say that I'm also looking forward to going back to work though. A 3 day working week should hopefully make us all happy and if I ever get a free slither of time I WILL DO SOME SILVERSMITHING and post the pictures here.

What to do

This morning I went to look at a possible nursery for Oli to join when I go back to work.

I can't actually believe how quickly that's come around.
When I was pregnant and looking towards my maternity leave, it felt like I was going to be away from work for ever. But now the months are starting to speed by and I need to make some decisions.

I'd initially planned to be away from work until Oli was at least 6 months old and then it would be down to how poor we were as to when I would return. Now the little chap is here though, I understand why people find it so hard to leave such a small person in the care of strangers (essentially).
I'll only really be happy leaving Oli when he's more of his own person and not so dependent. I hate picturing him just lying there with no stimulation or being ignored. I know that that's a worse case scenario and not likely to happen but still.

There are so many things to consider right now. Like whether to even return to my job or to take the opportunity to build up my personal creative empire. To be honest though, a potential £600 monthly childcare bill kind of dictates that I go back to a paying job!

I do still enjoy my job. And love that the first thing I do in the morning is open Photoshop. And I get paid for being creative.
And as much as I love to romatically picture myself in a studio space (oh to live like Camilla Engman), and spending my days with similar beings, I just don't think it's feasible. I'm not convinced it's the best time to become a starving artist. Then again you only live once! Oh I don't know.

hmmm.

Last day at work

Today is my last here at work with tomorrow marking only 2 weeks left until our official due day.

I'm sure in a few weeks time I won't even be thinking of this place and will be so in love with our brand new first born that I'll wonder what I was thinking of, but I do love to work and to create and would like to think that I'll be back (mentally as well as physically) in the creative working world - as well as back to making my jewellery of course!

I said a lot in this previous post so I just wanted to show some of the work I've done in the last year that I'm most proud of, starting off with some internal work.

These characters are part of a family used to illustrate our off-the-shelf 360 degree appraisal software called Carbon360.

I designed all of the branding related to this product including the logo, software interface, website, flash animations, brochures, all related printed items, exhibition panels - everything basically! The concept of these little guys started from someone else who worked here before me, but since then I've had to re-create them as well create this entire new team...


We also thought it would be cool to have some personal ones that we could use on our business cards and office mugs (can you tell which one is me?).



This is the new design concept I've done for our own internal site (you'll notice we've gone all web 2.0) which is unfortunately only finally going to get built during my absence so I won't be here to keep a tight grip on it!


And here are some other design concepts that I did for a few pitches over the year...

Countdown

Our first baby is due 11 weeks from today.
It's now starting to feel like it's no time away and there are obviously 101 million thoughts flying around my head regarding this fact, ranging from 'Where can we get a seatbelt extension for the car seat?' to 'How the hell will I cope with childbirth?' to 'Never mind all that - how do you change a nappy?'.

I'm having to work through the questions one at a time though starting with the here and now, beginning with 'When will I leave work?'. OK, baby aside for a moment, this is a really wierd thought in itself. Having left university in 1999, I've pretty much been following the same routine for the last nine years of getting up every morning and going to work. And now it's time to stop.

In the culture and society that I live in, the way the story goes is that you go to school, go to university, get a career, get a house, do up that house (you could only afford to buy a knackered looking one), then STOP! Now start a family - GO GO GO! Although it doesn't seem that contrived until you've actually gone through the system and looked behind you.

It's no wonder that woman are generally in their 30s by the time they start a family these days. But does that make it even harder to say goodbye to your previous life - the fact that you lived it for so long and had time to get attached to it? Myself? I like to think that I'm 'ready' (as I could ever be).

It might seem trivial to be thinking about relatively small points like this in comparison to the life changing event that parenthood will inevitably be, but I do think it's important to stop and appreciate what my life HAS been, in order to move on to the next chapter - which I am genuinely excited about.

I guess I'm just looking around me, taking in a deep breath and smelling it all in!