Date created: February 2010

Web Address: www.oxfamireland.org/schools

About the Project: The Oxfam schools website is a resource aimed at providing teachers and students with more information about the work that Oxfam does.  It shows the variety of ways that schools can get involved: by fundraising, participating in Oxjam, campaigning, insisting on Fairtrade products in the staffroom and much, much more.

Date created: January 2010

Web Address: www.maevehiggins.com

About the Project: A WordPress blog and site for the comedian Maeve Higgins. The brief was to make the site very clean and minimalist, with a few small feminine touches. Maeve is one of my favourite comedians of all time, if you haven’t seen her, go check her out.

Date created: Winter 2009

Web Address: www.sammcmahontrust.ie

About the Project: I built this website on a volunteer basis for the Sam McMahon Trust. Sam McMahon is an 8 year old boy from Dublin who suffers from Friedreich’s Ataxia, a degenerative neuro-muscular disorder.  Sam’s family set up the Sam McMahon Trust to raise awareness of the condition and raise funds for the Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance (FARA).  Sam’s family are doing great work: it’s very inspiring to see how they are becoming advocates and reaching out to others with the condition.  The Trust runs frequent fundraising events, such as a cookery demonstration with Neven Maguire which is coming up in March.

The site is a simple WordPress customisation, which I based on the free theme by Dimox.  The background pattern, illustration of Sam and Sam McMahon logo were designed by Elizabeth Davis.

[Oops...I wrote this post back in November about the Offset creative festival, and somehow forgot to post it. Here it is now, so it is.]

Some of my high points from Offset 2009:

• Scott from AAD, who did a great job of balancing a presentation of their work with a wider discussion about design and creativity.
• Design legend Massimo Vignelli, who was extremely engaging and funny as he showed us decades worth of his elegant work. He had an interesting insight for me about why perpetual calendars (which I am constantly tempted by but never buy) don’t work: you have to tell them the date, which defeats the entire purpose of a calendar.
  
  House Industries: I’ve been a big fan of House Industries for a long time and it was great to see their presentation. The attention to detail that they devote to their study of type is mind-blowing. Their Photo Lettering project – the preservation of a huge archive of lettering – is fascinating, and their Photo Lettering online tool will be a great resource when it’s ready. Also, their Alexander Girard collection made me whimper with longing.  I bought this print the same day that I saw their presentation.
• Chip Kidd showed us some of his famous work and explained his creative process, and on top of that was just completely hilarious.  He’s quite similar to David Sedaris, an author that he has worked with many times.
• I probably took more pictures of Oliver Jeffers‘ work than anyones, and he did a lovely little doodle and autograph for my small girl.

Dave McKean, David Shrigley, Linda Brownlee and Anthony Burrill were also notably wonderful. And my pals Johnny Kelly, Chris Judge and Gisele Scanlon were all fantastic too.

I was really, really impressed with the polish and professionalism of many of the speakers, and how funny and charming they were.  I’ve been at a couple of presentations and conferences since Offset, and they’ve really emphasised how good the Offset speakers were.  These are clearly some people who are extremely skilled communicators, not just visually but verbally as well.

I can’t recommend Offset enough:  I’m still racking my brains as to how they managed to present such an amazing line-up and only charge €150 per ticket.  It inspired me in more ways than I could have predicted, and I’ll be there again for sure next year.

My lovely employer Oxfam Ireland is, in its own words, a campaigner for a fairer world.  Our major campaign this year is on Climate Change, which ties in perfectly with the theme of this year’s Blog Action Day.  There are many things you can do to take action on Climate Change, from the easy to the extremely easy.

• Sign Oxfam Ireland’s petition calling on the Irish government to ensure a fair deal at the UN global climate change negotiations at Copenhagen this December.
• Donate. The world’s poorest people are the ones most directly affected by climate change.
• If you have a blog, you can write about Climate Change for Blog Action Day too.  Full details at www.blogactionday.org
• This is a design site, and I’ll repeat the call I made to designers on Blog Action Day 08: think about volunteering some of your talents and time to a charity or campaigning organisation.   A strong image may only take you a few hours to produce, but a non-profit can get years of value from it.