Well 2009 has come and gone, so it’s time for a little bit of reflection. This time last year we posted about our New Years resolutions, some of which we adopted and some fell by the wayside before we’d even hit February! We managed to stop naming files ‘this-one’ or ‘final-this-one’, although our desktop’s are still as full as ever. We did, however, launch our new website back in March, so overall we are pretty proud. One New Years resolution we would like to expand upon was our pledge to create more personal projects. I have thoroughly enjoyed indulging in photography this year with my DSLR, but that’s as far as the personal projects went, so in 2010 we will try our best to develop more personal projects.
Eightyone Design Blog Posts
The views on the Eightyone Design blog have shown a good increase in 2009 and we are really chuffed! By far the most popular post was ‘How would you improve your graphic design studio or office?’ which has received over 165,000 views and 70 comments. Another popular article was ’14 Items All Design Geeks Must Have!’ which recieved 39 comments. So thanks to everyone who has taken the time to have a look at the articles and left their thoughts.
We’ve also had some great discussions on the Eightyone Design blog this year with some thoughtful comments, our favourites are:
– Why is a Graphic Designer Never Satisfied?
– Oh No… not another graphic design spec work article!!
– How do you design something you don’t like?
– Why does everyone think they are a social media expert?
Other Favourite Blog Posts
As always, there has been a great deal of excellent articles on other graphic design blogs throughout 2009. Some of our favourite have been:
– How a web design goes straight to hell
– Do you use previous logo design concepts for new clients?
– Smashing Magazine Killed the Community (Or Maybe It Was Me?)
– In defense of the Jack of All trades
Eightyone Design Projects
We have had the opportunity to work on some great projects in 2009. One of our favourites has to be the AIS website design, as they were our first international client (they are based in Sydney, Australia) and we managed to communicate with them as if they were just down the road!
At then end of 2009 we developed some new and unusual rugby shirt designs for World Beach Rugby which we will blog about soon. We also had the opportunity to create lots of new logo designs, one of our favourites being Prioritise.
2009 Eightyone Design Mile Stones
Social Media
We have tried our best to embrace social media in 2009! We cannot believe that we only started Tweeting back in May! Twitter in particular has grown to be a massive part of online networking and we have even introduced the concept to several clients as well. We have also created Facebook and LinkedIn profiles and of course embraced Flickr with open arms. These sites have enabled us to communicate easily with other like minded individuals, absorb some great inspiration and watch the world of online marketing develop dramatically before our very eyes!
Eightyone Design Website
The completion of the Eightyone Design website is one of the projects we are most proud of in 2009. We have received many great compliments about the site and although we have a minor list of tweeks and amends to complete we are still pleased with it to this day.
Looking forward to 2010
We have already secured several new exciting projects that we are looking forward to starting early in 2010. We are also looking forward to putting the finishing touches on our new brochure, which we hope to share with you very soon.
As I said, our main New Years resolution this year is to make more time for personal work and ensure we get those creative juices well and truly flowing throughout 2010! So let’s hope you’ll soon be seeing plenty of posts on personal projects!
What has your highlight been for 2009? Have you been tweeting and poking? Are there any projects / blog posts you have completed in 2009 that you are particularly proud of? We’d love to know.