I designed this voucher for Oxfam which was handed out at the Festival of World Cultures. It’s perforated; one half promotes a competition and the other has a ‘€10 off’ voucher for our Fair Trade Shops. The reverse (photo below) has the competition entry form and a map showing the location of our Dublin Fair Trade Shop.

Date created: Summer 2007

About the Project: I created a shed-load of large print materials for Oxfam last summer, for use at outdoor events. The above are large vinyl banners showing our logo and a welcome message, and our logo and the url of our website. The photos were taken at this year’s Electric Picnic; see our Flickr stream for more.

Date created: Summer 2008

Web Address: www.oxfamireland.org/oxjam

About the Project: I’ve just been working on a major redesign of our Oxjam site. I needed something a bit more dynamic than the flat html we used last year - our Oxjam Officer will be blogging and I also wanted to add some content-rich features like a gig calendar and a google map. So I set it up through lovely old trusty old Wordpress. Having said that, Wordpress did give me some rare trouble this time, but we won’t be falling out over such a small snafu.

I went plugin loopy for this installation, and found some really great addons out there. Big thanks to the geniuses who created the Event Calendar, the Contact Form 7 and MyPageOrder in particular; you’ve made my life a lot easier.

Date created: August 2008

About the Project: I’m feeling very inspired by and drawn to hand-drawn type at the moment - partly because it can look unique, personal and full of a charm that computer fonts rarely have. I also am trying to make more stuff by hand and spend less time at the computer.  So I drew this card for a friend’s wedding, and found it really enjoyable to do.  I forgot something that I would have known when I was eleven, however - markers make your pen lines bleed and it’s difficult to get smooth areas of colour.  I’ll try crayons or pencils next time.

I found this illustration on the brand new blog So Much Pileup - run by a designer who wants to share the piles of interesting paper from his studio. As opposed to hoarding them, crazy-hermit style, like myself. See the full post for more in the same series.

I was sent a link today to the site of ‘writer who draws’ Austin Kleon today. I really love his ‘Mind Maps‘; maps of impressions and memories.

Via the Ernie Pook mailing list.

A recent episode of This American Life really struck a chord with me. I’ll just copy the relevant bit:

A couple of years ago some friends were travelling through Europe, walking through these old buildings. And these people do not know anything special about architecture, but, you know how it is when you’re a tourist. So they’re walking through these buildings and they’re looking at these doorways and pillars and they decide that this one building has a very Moorish influence. They’re pointing out details, saying ‘the Moors this’ and ‘the Moors that’. And finally one of them turns to the other and says, “You know, we sound like we’re in a magazine. A magazine called ‘Modern Jackass‘.”

The person who originated the concept, Nancy Updike, disarmingly compares it to Post-It Notes - we didn’t know we needed them, but once they were introduced we used them all the time. Modern Jackass is exactly the same. I am a contributing editor to Modern Jackass, as are many of my peers; I blame it mainly on the Sunday papers, from which we half-digest bite-sized nuggets of unreliable information. I love the concept so much that last night I designed a cover for a mock edition. Maybe someday we’ll see Modern Jackass on our newsagent shelves? Until that happy day arrives, we’ll just have to make do with all the other ‘by jackasses, for jackasses’ magazines out there.

There are many other Modern Jackasses across the web, who have shared their thoughts on and moments of Modern Jackassery in these blogs:

• The Anchored Nomad
• Murfins & Burglars
• Wandermama
• f-words
• Nick Hornby

You can get a printable PDF of the cover if you click the image above. And if anyone has any suggestions for cover stories for Issue 2, please send them to me at Modern Jackass Towers (hello {at} jeanobrien.com).

So cute and lovely.  I want some.

One of the many great things about having a tiny sidekick is the pleasure of putting together a library for her. I’ve found some excellent vintage children’s books recently, and this is one of my favourites. I got it in a bookshop in Hay-on-Wye, which is like a town from a fairy tale (twenty-seven bookshops!).

It’s a lovely annual from the year I was born, showcasing the work of various Puffin writers and illustrators. There’s stuff from Quentin Blake, Roald Dahl, Raymond Briggs and Tove Jansson; a Professor Branestawm story (I used to love Professor Branestawm); and the obligatory story on a member of the Royal Family - this time the hunky dreamboat Prince Charles. I wonder if kids annuals still do this? When I was growing up, we had a box of annuals from the Fifties and Sixties that belonged to my mother, and at one stage there was a Princess Margaret Annual in the collection. I would love to get my hands on that now.

My moo.com minicards arrived this week - they’re very cute and dinky, and the print quality is lovely. An informal poll carried out outside the Royal Oak in Kilmainham on Thursday night confirmed that they’re a good size for catching people’s attention. Also, regrettably, the perfect size and texture for picking the teeth.

I’m currently subscribed to dozens of design blogs which provide me with untold inspiration. I thought I’d start posting some choice selections here. It doesn’t always have to be about me, honest.

I’m particularly fond of cartoony and kawaii graphics and illustrations, vintage and retro type, and crafts and craft-inspired design.

The picture above shows a gorgeous Flickr set - Typewriter Ribbon Tin Collection. Via the Creative Ireland forums.

Date created: March - September 2003

About the Project: Another one from my archives. I was employed by Riverdeep as Project Coordinator and Lead Artist on ‘Princess Snorebucks‘. This was a large project that involved a great deal of project management as well as the creation of original artwork and the animation of characters within the brand guidelines. I became very attached to the Powerpuff Girls while working on this project, particularly Bubbles, the little scamp.

The Powerpuff Girls are a trademark of The Cartoon Network, all rights reserved.

I learned two nifty new things this week- how to set up a Google Map, and how to install and customise a PHP calendar. I feel chuffed that I’ve crammed something useful into my poor tired brain, and both of these tools will come in very handy for lots of future projects.

Custom Google Maps are reasonably complicated, as they require a lot of javascript and the plotting of latitudes and longitudes. I created one on oxfamireland.org for our very popular Oxfambridal shop. But Google also have MyMap, a handy tool for more complex maps - and I used it for setting up a map showing the locations of all the Oxfam Ireland shops.

The first customised, editable calendar, also for Oxfambridal, was set up using Easy PHP Calendar. This is a nice little application that only costs $20 per domain, and which creates flexible and customisable calendars.

Date created: April 2007

Web Address: eoxfam.ning.com (however, this is a private network and is only open to Oxfam staff)

About the Project: I set up this custom social network with two of my international Oxfam colleagues to create an online meeting and discussion space for Oxfam staff who work in multimedia and ecampaigning. Ning.com allows you to set up and customise your social network for free, and is one of the most user-friendly web apps I’ve ever used; it takes about five minutes to get set up.

Date created: Summer 2007

About the Project: This was a postcard for an Oxfam Ireland competition at the Festival of World Cultures in 2007.

I am back, back, back! from holidays and ready to post a few updates on this poor neglected site.

I attended a symposium this morning on Privacy vs Publicity in the Virtual World, which was put on by the Darklight Festival. The keynote address was given by Daniel J. Solove, of the George Washington University Law School, and the panel (chaired by digital rights expert Caroline Campbell) featured journalist Jim Carroll, Hotline.ie director Cormac Callanan, Relevant Media owner Niall Larkin and Irish blogger Damien Mulley.

The symposium was generally pretty good; although I find a common problem with these kind of events is that the information within is often pitched at quite an introductory or basic level. It has to be done that way for obvious reasons, but it can be a little disappointing when no new ground is covered. The main address was interesting and engagingly presented, but covered mostly familiar concepts and examples.

The panel discussion and Q&A threw up some newer issues for me. I have always been aware of the privacy issues that surround social networking, particularly Facebook, but was surprised to hear from one panel member that Facebook have a practice of providing personal info without subpoenas to US law enforcement.

Some other points were raised that may give you food for thought:

• Consider what goes on behind the scenes at a social network – you may have set your profile to private, but the social network still has all your data in their database. Are they sharing that data?
• The focus in the West tends to be on the use of personal data in marketing, but in repressive regimes breaches of online privacy have much more serious implications – see the Yahoo! China scandal.
• As one audience member pointed out – there is much more damage done to individual personal reputations by bloggers than by governments or corporations.

Date created: May 2008

Web Address: Download a pdf of the newsletter here.

About the Project: Issue 4 of Oxfam Ireland’s newsletter for volunteers.

Date created: August 2007

About the Project: A3 size full-colour posters created for a Stop EPAs coalition. The same poster was used by various different organisations such as Trocaire and Comhlamh.

Date created: Jan - Mar 2008

Web Address: www.oxfamireland.org/passthepresent

About the Project: Children who participate in Pass the Present receive a birthday pack from Oxfam, including a Puzzle Pack with activities and games. I laid out and designed all 8 Puzzle Packs (from ages 4-11 inclusive), which amounted to a hefty 32 pages of activities. It was such an enjoyable project though, I had so much fun with bright colours, patterns and cute animals. The image above links to a pdf with some sample pages from the packs. The birthday pack also contains a certificate and other goodies.

Date created: April 2008

About the Project: A simple poster for the Oxfam shops, featuring a beautiful image taken by Michael Kelly.

Date created: April 2007

Web Address: www.oxfamireland.org/clearurmusic

About the Project: Here’s our ClearURMusic Month poster - big thanks to Sleeveface.com for their help with this project. I’m currently very keen on posters that feature a big striking photo and just a simple black footer, there’ll probably be a few more produced in this style.

Date created: March 2008

Web Address: www.oxfamireland.org/sleeveface

About the Project: For a brief few shining weeks in March, I was the official Sleeveface™ photographer of Oxfam Ireland, and yea verily, I was quite good at it. Some of these pictures are photos that I took to illustrate the concept of Sleeveface™ for our ClearURMusic Month competition, and some are photos that I took at a booth we set up at a DJ Shadow gig in the Amabassador. All the records pictured are from Oxfam shops, which are the best ever source of eclectic vinyl, believe me. Big thanks to Sleeveface.com for their help with the project.

These images are used in a not-for-profit capacity, but if any copyright holders are unhappy with them appearing here, please email me and I’ll remove them immediately: hello [at] jeanobrien.com.

Date created: February 2008

Web Address: www.oxfamireland.org/passthepresent

About the Project: This leaflet was created to promote the Pass the Present project. It’s a full-colour 4DL leaflet with a detachable slip, and the artwork was created in InDesign.  Click the image to open the full PDF.

Fairsay site - lots of updates appearing here

ECF08 tagged links on Del.icio.us

Blogs:

Brian Fitzgerald of Greenpeace International

James Stewart of jystewart.net

So it was a late night and an early start, but there was still plenty of enthusiasm for the day’s sessions. We started off with a presentation by Xin from Greenpeace China, about the challenges of campaigning in China. Despite the multiple hurdles put in their way by the Chinese government, they’ve managed to already run a a really successful campaign to encourage people to stop using disposable chopsticks. After this the Open Space sessions began again. I first attended a really useful session on composing campaign emails - it’s a constant challenge for all NGOs to keep the emails relevant and inspiring for our campaigners. Once again, this session was full of practical tips from Ben of MoveOn.org. I spent the afternoon visiting a few different shorter sessions - the one on practical tools for online campaigning generated a list of about a hundred handy urls, as well as inspiring a useful discussion about the importance of meaningful, compelling content. It’s easy to get so involved in the medium that we obscure or don’t fairly represent the message. It was good to see that the people I spoke to at the forum were very mindful of that pitfall - everything always came back to the message and the people, and there was no feeling of getting lost in technological discussions. I also spent time in a couple of groups discussing campaigning on a shoestring, and working with external agencies - having listened to useful advice in most of the other sessions, I thought it would be good to go to a few where I could contribute some of my own experience. As the sessions concluded, we all met in the lecture hall to run through the outlines of the various group meetings - they will all be compiled and put on the Fairsay website soon, and I know they’ll be an invaluable resource for me. The day closed off with a few presentations on some ecampaigning projects that various attendees were running, a nice pint and sandwich in the lovely Royal Oak around the corner, and a mad panicked dash for the train to London.

Other stuff:

The Forum was a really valuable and interesting couple of days, and we’re all very grateful to Duane Raymond for the tremendous organising that he did.

I made a quick but extremely fruitful trip to Oxfambooks at lunchtime, where I got a first edition of Lolita for only £20! I can still hardly believe it. And also a HM Bateman collection, which is an excellent find - I love his work and I think it’s nearly all out of print now. And two lovely colourful kids books for Lily; one by Richard Scarry that gave me powerful nostalgia (I think I must have read it hundreds of times when I was small, as every page is hugely familiar) and a Helen Oxenbury counting book with beautiful 70s style artwork. One of the loveliest bookshop hauls I’ve had in ages.

I’m writing from the Fairsay 2008 Ecampaigning Forum in beautiful Oxford. I’m very grateful to Oxfam Ireland for sending me here - I’m the only web specialist in our organisation, so its really great to be able to meet with and talk to people who work in similar roles, and discuss ideas. And here’s hoping it delays my transformation into a cranky hermit.

This is my first year attending the Forum, although it’s been running for five years. This year, there are over 100 people attending from over 60 different non-profit organisations. The biggest presences here are probably Oxfam, Amnesty and Greenpeace, but there are also lots of small NGOs with really interesting projects, such as Walk to School. I’m here with our lovely Campaigns Coordinator Rebecca Emery, many of my international Oxfam colleagues, and my old and dear friend Alice-Mary, who works with Trocaire. We sat together today in a lecture hall and sneaked looks at each others notes; it was like being back in college, except with less drama and alcopops. Although the night is still young.

The day kicked off with a speech from Ben Brandzel, who has worked with MoveOn.org and the John Edwards presidential campaign among others, and there couldn’t have been a better start to the day. As well as being a really engaging and articulate speaker, Ben gave us absolutely nothing but useful information - it was memorable and stimulating and set us up beautifully for the discussions that followed.

After Ben spoke, my colleague Karina Brisby from Oxfam Great Britain spoke really well about ecampaigning; showing examples of Oxfam’s work in the area, talking through tips and common pitfalls, and giving examples of successful and innovative ecampaigns, such as ushahidi.com, My ActionAid and the Burma Facebook group.

The afternoon discussion groups were set up using a technique called Open Space, something that was completely new to me. I am generally a bit too curmudgeonly to participate in activities that ask me to visualise myself as a bumble bee, unless toddlers are involved or I’ve been at the gin - or both, which I can recommend. But I have to say that this worked very well.

I attended four sessions in total, all of which were packed full of interesting questions, new issues to consider, helpful examples, tips and brand new technological concepts. I can’t overstate the value of this kind of face to face discussion, particularly for someone like me who is so busy that I rarely get time to do any research. In fact somebody in one of the sessions mentioned that they feel we should all be spending 20% of our time on research. So anyway, I attended sessions on 1) The Swarm, 2) Campaigning to a young audience, 3) The trends that are likely to affect ecampaigning over the next 3-5 years and 4) blogging. After this, there was a panel discussion on elections, and how to best use ecampaigning around them. I took copious scribbly notes in all sessions and will beat them into some kind of useful shape over the next few days. A useful aspect of Open Space is that notes from all sessions are posted on the wall, so I got some concise n handy tips from sessions that clashed with the ones I attended. I’m now all over stimulated and fired up, and will go to dinner and babble at whatever unfortunate is sitting beside me, and probably drink wine too quickly. Hurray!

Other thoughts:

• Happy Birthday Alice!
• I also attended an excellent pre-meeting for Oxfam Ecampaigners the day before the forum - it was my first meeting with this group, and it was really inspiring to hear about some of the great work that’s going on in the affiliates. Links to follow.
• If there is a box of Krispy Kreme donuts at an ecampaigning meeting and you eat 2.5 of them, you will feel like you need a shower for the next 24 hours (and counting)…even just after you’ve had an actual shower.
• Oxford is incredibly beautiful, the college where we’re staying is gorgeous, the anglepoise lamps in my little room make me feel all studious. I’m hoping to do more exploring this evening, and see more floppy-haired boys riding bicycles.
• It would appear that saying that the chef is ‘the best chef out of all the college dining halls’ is roughly equivalent to saying ‘he’s the best chef out of all the local prisons’.

Date created: April 2008

Web Address: www.oxfamireland.org/oxfambridal

About the Project: I designed and built this new minisite for the Oxfambridal range. The Oxfambridal shop is located in the Oxfam shop in Georges St, Dublin 2, and sells donated wedding dresses, many of which are brand new and have been donated by designers.

Date created: February 2008

Web Address: www.oxfamireland.org/whatyoucando/volunteer

Click the image above for the pdf

About the Project: Designing a form doesn’t allow for much in the way of creativity, but I’m fairly pleased with how this one turned out - it’s legible and ordered while having a few nice design elements. Also photocopies well, which is important for the Oxfam shops.

Date created: February 2008

Web Address: www.oxfamireland.org/passthepresent

About the Project: Children who participate in Oxfam’s Pass the Present project receive a pack from Oxfam, including this certificate of thanks.

I’d love to hear your feedback, please feel free to leave comments and questions below.

Date created: March 2008

About the Project: I laid out and drew the illustrations for this invitation in Illustrator (with some drawing done in Flash).

Date created: January/February 2008

Web Address: www.oxfamireland.org/passthepresent

About the Project: An a3 poster for the Pass the Present project. The poster will be displayed in Oxfam’s shops.

Date created: February 2008

About the Project: Giant cardboard and wrapping-paper letters for my tiny sidekick’s bedroom.

Date created: February 2008

Web Address: www.oxfamireland.org/passthepresent

About the Project: I created this mini-site for the Pass the Present project - an extremely nifty initiative dreamed up by an Oxfam volunteer. See the site for full details on how the project works - it’s of particular interest if you’re a parent, or have friends and family with kids. I’ve also created a large number of print materials for this project.

Date created: February 2008

About the Project: A2 poster created to promote Fair Trade in Oxfam’s shops.

Date created: February 2008

About the Project: Banner identity for Oxfam’s 2008 Fairtrade Woman - see also the Fairtrade Woman blog.  The lovely Eilis will be living off Fairtrade Food for the duration of Fairtrade Fortnight, and blogging about her adventures - including tips on where to find Fairtrade goods and how to incorporate more Fair Trade into your life.

Date created: March 2002

About the Project: I created this poster for Dave’s ‘Small Things’ show in collaboration with the man himself - he wanted it to be reminiscent of the old Blue Note album covers. I’m searching my (untidy) archive for a larger version of this picture and will upload it when found.

Date created: Designed Summer 2007, produced quarterly.

Web Address: Downloand and read Issue 3 here, or visit the Oxfam site to read the older issues.

About the Project: The Engine Room is the newsletter for Oxfam Ireland staff and volunteers. I designed the layout for the magazine in Adobe InDesign, and am responsible for laying out each issue.

Date created: March 2006

About the Project: This slideshow was set up to display photos that were taken for fashion spreads, promoting the Oxfam Vintage range.  Photographs by Michael Kelly and Danielle Madsen.

Date created: October 2003

Web Address: Currently hosted at Critical Studies in Television

About the Project: This site is the official site for ‘Reading Sex and the City’, the first academic study of the HBO show, edited by Janet McCabe and Kim Akass.