Death of a website
And learning about accessibility
Guy with Red Beard is officially over.
While I’ve been slowly transitioning over to Feesh as the name that I work under, it wasn’t until guywithredbeard.com went offline that I really felt that was the end of it.
I’m happy with everything I achieved with GWRB. I went from a clueless motion designer in 2016, who decided to give freelancing a proper go after a “dream job” turned out to not be the case. Looking back now, I think those first few years were my best for hunting for work and being proactive. I had a hunger that I seem to have lost now. It wasn’t all good, and I specifically remember a month when I was down to my last few Euro and if I didn’t get work then, I would have to pack it in*
Luckily it did work out. One job led to another, and soon I was known in Dublin as a motion designer. Honestly, that’s the biggest challenge you’ll face; being known. Starting to get emails asking if you’re free for work was such a buzz. And still is!
The decision to change to Feesh was rooted in wanting a name that reflected the work I was now doing. Feesh is the phonetic spelling of Fís, the Irish (or Gaeilge) word for vision.
GWRB felt needlessly gendered, and frequently gotten wrong anyway. While I expect people to mishear Feesh when I tell them, at least it’s a short word that is a lot easier to spell than my name!
So from now on, all work is done under Feesh. If you have an old email for me, don’t worry. These will still work and I do check them often. Anyone finding me through social or the currently underway website will see the new one; daire@feeshon.com
*I do want to acknowledge that I was living at home at the time, so the narrative of “rag to riches” isn’t 100% accurate here.
Feeshon.com
The new name of course means a new website! I’m pretty excited to be building it. I’ve made the switch from Squarespace to Framer. There were a few reasons but it came down to cost, and Rive integration. Framer offered way more Rive functionality so it was a no brainer. I’ve only scratched the surface of Framer but really enjoying it. It’s so, so easy to use, and has a tonne of features that were missing from Squarespace. The plan for the website is to keep it all on one page, and have sections broken up by scrolling. I do want to include a few interactive animations, but I think for accessibility reasons they will be decorative rather than core features like navigation/buttons. I’ll talk more about accessibility and Rive in another blog. But not a Beard Trimmings blog… [suspence intensifies]
Access: Given.
On the 10th September, Access: Given finally came into existence. It was such a great day down in Newcastle, full of great speakers talking about accessibility. For me, as someone who’s knowledge of accessibility is surface level at best, I found it all very interesting and really made me question my own work and if I was doing all I could to make it accessible. The honest answer is no, I wasn’t. But after hearing everyone at Access: Given talk about their needs and how to include them, I really want to make an effort with the work I create. And the changes I need to make are so achievable as well. As mentioned above, I’m hoping to write more about this very soon.
And I want to give a big congratulations to Michelle O’Connor and Ellen Kat Boyle on what they’ve achieved with Access: Given. It’s astounding that in less than a year, they have pulled a full conference together. Branding, speakers, brochures, a great venue that included a sensory room, tote bags, and even a lunch option were included. And everyone was paid. It may seem odd to point out, but conferences are notorious for maybe not being the best at paying everyone.
[Video description. An animated logo for Access: Given. A yellow circle morphs into a purple triangle which then morphs into a light purple hexagon and finally morphs into a white square. After each morph, the shape remains static, with the circle and triangle on top in a grid, and the square and hexagon below. The words Access and Given are in white text, and they animate on while the shapes are moving. The background is a solid dark purple.]
I’m glad I got to play a small part in the day by creating some animations for the big screen, based on Keith Farrell’s great branding work. I’ll have a write up about those animations soon, as it wasn’t the usual method of working.
This weekend, I’m off to run 10km around Edinburgh city. Hoping to have a fun run, rather than setting any sort of PBs.
Few small jobs on but it’s mostly been the new Feesh website and any Rive animations that are needed for that. Very much a “getting the house in order” time at the moment.
Read
Frankly by Nicola Sturgeon
The Land of the Living and the Dead by Shauna Lawless
Masquerade by Terry Pratchett (currently)
Seen
Detectorists S1-3 - What a warm hug of a show
Hacks S1
Point Break
Sorry, Baby
Dead Lover
A Real Pain
The Naked Gun
Heard
Chappell Roan live in Edinburgh
Aoife Ní Bhroin at Edinburgh Internation Festival
CLT DRP - Nothing Clever, Just Feelings
CMAT - Euro-country
Wolf Alice - The Clearing
What’s Bran up to?
See you all next month!