Unfinished Business: Recent Episodes
Andy Clarke
I’m your host, Andy Clarke, and I’m writing a Hardboiled Web Design book about Art Directing for the Web. You can find out more about that at stuffandnonsense.co.uk/books. Over the next few weeks and months, I’ll be discussing art directing for web with my guests, some of the most experienced art directors and designers working on the web today.
In this episode, Rob Weychert and I discuss Art Directing the Web.
Sponsor: This season of Unfinished Business is proudly sponsored by CoffeeCup Software, and in particular their new CSS Grid Builder. CSS Grid Builder is currently free while CoffeeCup develops it and if you like what they’re doing, you can throw a few dollars their way to help fund its development. Find out more and download CSS Grid Builder at https://cssgrid.cc
I’m your host, Andy Clarke, and I’m writing a Hardboiled Web Design book about Art Directing for the Web. You can find out more about that at stuffandnonsense.co.uk/books. Over the next few weeks and months, I’ll be discussing art directing for web with my guests, some of the most experienced art directors and designers working on the web today.
In this episode, Stephen Hay and I discuss Art Directing the Web.
Sponsor: This season of Unfinished Business is proudly sponsored by CoffeeCup Software, and in particular their new CSS Grid Builder. CSS Grid Builder is currently free while CoffeeCup develops it and if you like what they’re doing, you can throw a few dollars their way to help fund its development. Find out more and download CSS Grid Builder at https://cssgrid.cc
I’m your host, Andy Clarke, and I’m writing a Hardboiled Web Design book about Art Directing for the Web. You can find out more about that at stuffandnonsense.co.uk/books. Over the next few weeks and months, I’ll be discussing art directing for web with my guests, some of the most experienced art directors and designers working on the web today.
In this episode, David Sleight and I discuss Art Directing the Web.
Sponsor: This season of Unfinished Business is proudly sponsored by CoffeeCup Software, and in particular their new CSS Grid Builder. CSS Grid Builder is currently free while CoffeeCup develops it and if you like what they’re doing, you can throw a few dollars their way to help fund its development. Find out more and download CSS Grid Builder at https://cssgrid.cc
I’m your host, Andy Clarke, and I’m writing a Hardboiled Web Design book about Art Directing for the Web. You can find out more about that at stuffandnonsense.co.uk/books. Over the next few weeks and months, I’ll be discussing art directing for web with my guests, some of the most experienced art directors and designers working on the web today.
In this episode, Rachel Andrew and I discuss Art Directing the Web and CSS Grid.
Sponsor: This season of Unfinished Business is proudly sponsored by CoffeeCup Software, and in particular their new CSS Grid Builder. CSS Grid Builder is currently free while CoffeeCup develops it and if you like what they’re doing, you can throw a few dollars their way to help fund its development. Find out more and download CSS Grid Builder at https://cssgrid.cc
I’m your host, Andy Clarke, and I’m writing a Hardboiled Web Design book about Art Directing for the Web. You can find out more about that at stuffandnonsense.co.uk/books. Over the next few weeks and months, I’ll be discussing art directing for web with my guests, some of the most experienced art directors and designers working on the web today.
In this episode, Dan Mall and I discuss Art Directing the Web.
Sponsor: This season of Unfinished Business is proudly sponsored by CoffeeCup Software, and in particular their new CSS Grid Builder. CSS Grid Builder is currently free while CoffeeCup develops it and if you like what they’re doing, you can throw a few dollars their way to help fund its development. Find out more and download CSS Grid Builder at https://cssgrid.cc
I’m your host, Andy Clarke, and I’m writing a Hardboiled Web Design book about Art Directing for the Web. You can find out more about that at stuffandnonsense.co.uk/books. Over the next few weeks and months, I’ll be discussing art directing for web with my guests, some of the most experienced art directors and designers working on the web today.
In this episode, Mark Porter and I discuss Art Directing the Web.
Sponsor: This season of Unfinished Business is proudly sponsored by CoffeeCup Software, and in particular their new CSS Grid Builder. CSS Grid Builder is currently free while CoffeeCup develops it and if you like what they’re doing, you can throw a few dollars their way to help fund its development. Find out more and download CSS Grid Builder at https://cssgrid.cc
Welcome to this new season of the Unfinished Business podcast. Over the next few weeks and months, I’ll be discussing art directing for web with my guests, some of the most experienced art directors and designers working on the web today.
I’m your host, Andy Clarke, and I’m writing a Hardboiled Web Design book about Art Directing for the Web. You can find out more about that at stuffandnonsense.co.uk/books.
To warm things up, and get the some silliness out of the way first, this season starts with a special, one-off episode where Paul Boag, Jon Hicks, and I talk about Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi’s final series and legacy, the show’s new logo, and of course, the new Doctor.
I’m warning you now, it’s a very different kind of episode of Unfinished Business this week as Rachel Andrew and I talk about our feelings on the referendum result for the UK to leave the EU. We talk about the issues that will affect us, you and our businesses in the coming months and years and what we’re already doing to help mitigate them.
Look, if you’re outside the UK, you might find our points of view interesting and different from what you’ve heard before. If you’re as angry and saddened by the result as we are, you might find some solace and if you voted Leave, I hope you’ll learn something about the effect the vote you cast will have.
In this, the first part of the Unfinished Business Bank Holiday double, I’m joined by Espen Brunborg, designer and co-founder of Primate, plus Strategic Commander of User Experience and author of ‘Psychology for Designers’ Joe Leech. It’s more of a work related episode and we talk about; developing content for clients, why you should do your own research and not believe that everything you read on the internet, and whether you should get involved in competitive pitching and tendering?
Some links from this episode * Espen on Twitter * Joe on Twitter
I love Concrete You might remember that I’m not taking paid sponsor spots on the show anymore. I’m going to briefly talk about something that I use and really like instead. And this week, it’s Concrete, the comic book character by Paul Chadwick. Concrete is amazing with beautiful, subtle, touching stories and the most incredible artwork by Paul Chadwick. I love it. It’s probably my favourite comic character and stories. I think that you’d love it too. Start with these two collections: * Concrete Volume 1: Depths * Concrete Volume 2: Heights: Vol. 2
In the second part of this Unfinished Business Bank Holiday double, I’m joined by owner of UX studio Simple As Milk and lead UX engineer at UnrollMe, James Seymore-Lock to ask and answer the important question. “Am I the country’s biggest Homes Under The Hammer super-fan?” (Spoiler: He has no clue, not one.)
Then things get more serious as I find out about how James has run his business while living in a different country every month for the past couple of years. We talk about why there’s a distinct lack of design talks at web conferences and whether Dribbble is a negative influence on current design trends.
Something I ~~like~~love This week isn’t just something that I like, I absolutely love it. It’a a brand new book called “Pretty Much Everything” by my absolute favourite graphic designer Aaron Draplin. Aaron’s been on the show before and last time he talked about how much making this book was stressing him out. But by God this book is worth it. It’s not just a great book, it’s an absolute friggin’ masterpiece. Aaron’s poured literally everything into this book. It’s not just about design, it’s his whole career, his life story.
Buy Pretty Much Everything on Amazon
I know. I know! It’s been far too long since episode 117. But fret no more, Unfinished Business fans, we’re back and back for good, every two weeks with some brilliant guests and some good old fashioned conversations. This week, I’m joined by Sean Johnson and Drew McLellan to talk fat and fitness, cruises and coach trips.
Some links from this episode * Sean on Twitter * Drew on Twitter * Perch
I love my Rotring 800 .5mm mechanical pencil You might remember that I’m not taking paid sponsor spots on the show anymore. I’m going to briefly talk about something that I use and really like instead. And this week, it’s my Rotring 800 .5mm mechanical pencil.
The Unfinished Business schedule’s been a little, shall we say, up in the air, for the past few episodes. while I’ve been busy writing something. I do aim to get back to our routine and I’m sorry for the disruption.
A few weeks ago I recorded a hilarious episode with artist, illustrator and rapper Mr. Bingo. We talk about artist—and former Spitting Image puppet maker—Wilfrid Wood, Banksy’s Dismaland and why IKEA in Croydon is like a real-life bemusement park.
We discuss Mr. Bingo’s Hate Mail series, his boundaries and how Hate Mail in real life would just be people paying to be shouted at. We also talk about his highly successful Kickstarter for his new Hate Mail book and the hilarious incentives he devised.
Content warning: As you might imagine when the two of us get together, it’s a very funny conversation. But we do swear. A lot. If you’re easily offended by four letter words, this may not be the episode for you.
Some links from this episode * Mr Bingo on Twitter * Mr Bingo’s kickstarter rap * Wilfrid Wood * Wilfrid Wood on Twitter * Wilfrid Wood’s ‘Portraits Of Hackney Wick’ * Gin Festival * Dismaland Bemusement Park
I love my Jolie Originals iPhone and laptop sleeves You might remember that I’m not taking paid sponsor spots on the show anymore. I’m going to briefly talk about something that I use and really like instead. And this week, it’s Jolie Originals’ iPhone and laptop sleeves.
Jolie Originals are a two-person team based in Amsterdam and they make Macbook sleeves, iPad sleeves, iPhone sleeves and even a nice little wallet thing for notes and credit cards. And other nice things. I like their products a lot and I think you should buy something from them.
On Unfinished Business this week there’s no talk about mugs but Rachel Andrew is back. We’re joined by first timer Richard Rutter to discuss his upcoming book on Web Typography, why he chose to self-publish and fund the project on Kickstarter and the role of a publisher in today’s market. Of course Rachel loves to talk about VAT (irony) so we do that and she explains why she doesn’t actually owe a million Euros to Ireland.
Some links from this episode * Rachel Andrew on Twitter * Richard Rutter on Twitter * Richard’s Web Typography book on Kickstarter * Mr. Bingo’s book, also on Kickstarter
This week on episode 115 of Unfinished Business, I’m joined by returning guests Brad Frost and Stephen Hay. After talking about the best coffee mug in the world, we get right down it and discuss why it’s dangerous to bring computer science principles and heavy development tools into web design.
Some links from this episode * Brad Frost * Brad on Twitter * Stephen Hay * Stephen on Twitter * designday conference * Missing the bloody point * It’s a mugs game. Bodum vacuum travel mug review * Bodum travel press set coffee mug on Amazon.co.uk
I like my Bodum travel press set coffee mug You might remember that in the last episode I mentioned that I’m not taking paid sponsor spots on the show anymore. I’m going to briefly talk about something that I use and really like instead. And this week, it’s a Bodum travel press set coffee mug (Amazon UK affiliate link.) You can read my full review of the mug here.
A week later than planned (sorry,) on this week’s Unfinished Business, I’m joined by returning special guest, designer Dan Edwards. And because you wait all day and then two Dans come along at once, joining us is creative director, founder and director of the SuperFriendly agency in Philadelphia, Daniel (the Dan) Mall.
We talk about plans for the next Geek Mental Help week in October first. Then, because I’m currently deep into a redesign of Stuff & Nonsense, why working on your own site always feel harder than working on a client sites. We discuss using our portfolios to attract the ‘right’ type of projects and if case studies are the best way to demonstrate what we do.
Due to technical problems, this episode very nearly didn’t get published, so I want to thank my good friend Ryan Taylor for his help making it happen.)
Some links from this episode * Dan Edwards on Twitter * No Divide * Let’s Talk Design on YouTube * Daniel Mall on Twitter * Daniel Mall * Superfriendly * Businessology podcast * Web In The Woods * It’s a mugs game. Bodum vacuum travel mug review * Bodum travel press set coffee maker on Amazon.co.uk
I like Cornerstone You might remember that in the last episode I mentioned that I’m not taking paid sponsor spots on the show anymore. I’m going to briefly talk about something that I use and really like instead. And this week, it’s Cornerstone, the shaving supplies people.
When you sign up to Cornerstone you’ll receive german-engineered razor blades and British-blended skincare products delivered as often as you want them. Choose how often you shave—I shave two or three times a week—which means I get a box every twelve weeks. That box contains Pre-Shave Face Scrub, Shave Gel, 6 Razor Blades and Post-Shave Balm. You’ll get a free aluminium razor handle engraved with your initials included with your first delivery. With Cornerstone you can change your plan any time you like and there’s no ongoing commitment.
If you sign up with Cornerstone via this website I’ll get £10 credit and you’ll get £10 off your first order. So if you shave, buy your supplies from Cornerstone and you’ll be supporting me for making this show.
I’ve been looking forward to speaking with Cennydd Bowles for months and for Unfinished Business 113, Cennydd joins me and my other special guest, product designer Noah Stokes. We kick off by talking about Richard Rutter’s web typography book, but soon the conversation switches to whether, and why, current web designs are lacking ‘soul.’ This is something Noah and I have been speaking and writing over recent months and something that I partly blame on our fixation with user-experience and product design. Does Cennydd agree? You‘ll have to listen to the show to find out.
Podcast sponsorship From now on, I’m going to mention products or services because I really like them, not because they are paying for sponsorship. These may be from our industry or from outside, for example the people I buy my shaving supplies from. If you have a product or a service or something that you think I might like enough to talk about, let me know. Email me, send me something and if I like it, and I think that listeners would like it too, I’ll talk about on the show.
Some links from this episode * Cennydd Bowles and on Twitter * Noah Stokes and on Twitter * The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web * Visual Essentials for Product Design workshop * A tweet from Mat Hill @matthillco * Why web design is losing its soul * Creativity over predictability:’ Video from my talk about why web design has lost its creative soul * Why have today's designers stopped dreaming? * Letter To A Junior Designer * A Different Letter to a Junior Designer
I really like Shopify and they have just released a book about how to grow your design or development business. The book’s called ‘Grow’ and it has eleven chapters by industry experts about how to attract clients, draft contracts, close deals and more. Even my Contract Killer contract gets a mention. Download your free copy of Grow.
Ellie and I talk about her Fringe and what it’s like to get a big break on a show like ‘House Of Fools.’ We discuss improv, stand-up performances and comedy clubs and whether she should watch ‘Carry On’ films. Ellie’s charming and funny and I really enjoyed talking with her. Even if you’ve not seen ‘House Of Fools,’ you’ll really like this episode.
Some links from this episode * Ellie White on Twitter * Ellie on IMDB * Children of Herne * House of Fools * House of Fools on BBC * Onion Talking: Dan Skinner, Daniel Simonsen and Ellie White on House of Fools * Ellie White, Fresh From The Fringe * Carry On Screaming!
I really like Shopify and they have just released a book about how to grow your design or development business. The book’s called ‘Grow’ and it has eleven chapters by industry experts about how to attract clients, draft contracts, close deals and more. Even my Contract Killer contract gets a mention. Download your free copy of Grow.
Apologies in advance if you’re German or a Turk, as this week on episode 111 of Unfinished Business, I’m joined by artist Brendan Dawes and designer Aaron Draplin.
We start by talking about spice jars and car boot (garage) sales, but unsurprisingly our conversation soon veers wildly off topic as we discuss how Aaron’s struggling to keep up with demands on his time, how designers can make money selling merchandise and more, much, much more. If you know either Aaron or Brendan, you’ll also know that you’re in for a fast-paced, fun-filled sixty minutes.
I’d like to say “thank you” to Shopify for supporting Unfinished Business. Shopify have just released a book about how to grow your design or development business. The book’s called ‘Grow’ and it has eleven chapters by industry experts about how to attract clients, draft contracts, close deals and more. Even my Contract Killer contract gets a mention. Download your free copy of Grow.
Last week was Jeffrey Zeldman’s website’s 20th birthday, so this week he joins me and Jeremy Keith on Unfinished Business 110 to talk about the anniversary. We start by discussing Jeremy’s 100 words for 100 days writing project and how it’s inspired me to change the way that I think about writing on our blog and posting to our portfolio. We talk about the importance of writing for yourself as well as for others and why writing on your own website is important. With it being the twentieth anniversary of Jeffrey’s own site, we also talk about whether it’s important to archive older designs for posterity.
Oh, and please don’t skip this week’s after show segment as boy-oh-boy (girl-oh-girl, man-oh-man, woman-oh-woman) do the sparks fly! We discuss Mad Men, Mad Max and whether advertising can ever be considered as important as a book or a film and, let’s just say, things get very heated.
This week is a special Mad Men episode of Unfinished Business and I’m joined live from New York by Jen Simmons–the incredible host of The Web Ahead podcast–and our very special guest, the actor and comedian who plays Lou Avery on TV’s Mad Men, Allan Havey.
We talk, of course, about Mad Men, its final season and the recent show finale. So if you haven’t seen Don Draper fall out of a McCann Erickson window yet, there are spoilers galore.
We discuss Lou, his character and how the show’s audience reacted to him. Of course no conversation about Lou should leave out Scout’s Honor. We run through the final season and where it left the show’s characters, including Lou. Then we move onto the finale itself, Dick/Don and oh, ‘that’ commercial.
I’ve always wanted Unfinished Business to be about more than the business of web design and I’ve often talked with guests about film and television, but always from the outside. I loved researching and recording this episode and especially speaking with Allan. I hope that you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed making it.
Here are some URLs from this episode * Tatsunoko Productions in 1970s * Dancer Fitzgerald Sample * The Runaways (Mad Men wiki) * Why We Should Have Seen Betty Draper’s Mad Men Fate From a Mile Away * ‘I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke’ commercial from 1971 * The one tweet that may hold the meaning to “Mad Men’s” final scene * The Making of ‘I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke’ * An interview with Hilltop co-creator Bill Backer * Mad Men: what does the final scene mean?
I imagine if I told people in advance that I was talking to director of UX at MailChimp Aarron Walter and Founder of User Interface Engineering Jared Spool on Unfinished Business this week, they’d imagine we’d talk about user experience design and possibly education. Instead, they and I talk about action figures and Action Man and whether fighting Nazis is cooler than fighting aliens.
It’s not all Smurfs and Stretch Armstrong though, because we also discuss the art of public speaking, how to prepare for a talk and tips for a successful presentation, whether you’re speaking at a conference or pitching an idea to a manager or a concept to a client.
Here are some URLs from this episode
- Wilson Miner “When we build”
- Owen Gregory, editor
- Mandy Brown “Hypertext as an Agent of Change”
- Cennydd Bowles “Tips for speakers”
- Centre Centre, user experience design school
Fresh from our adventures at Smashing Conference in Santa Monica, on this week’s Unfinished Business I’m joined by user-experience professional, author (of some CSS book or another) and director at ClearLeft, Andy Budd. Joining us was one of my favourite people; designer, author and founder of Authentic Jobs, Cameron Moll.
On this week’s Unfinished Business, I’m joined by designers’ designer Dan Edwards and, one of my favourite people, designer Veerle Pieters. We start by talking about magazines, including 8faces and the new edition of Lagom.
Then we discuss how the perceptions that people can have about us, our companies or even how busy we are can be really different from the reality, plus an event that we’re planning for designers and developers to get together to share business experiences. Finally we talk about whether our contracts should prevent clients from making changes to our work after we’ve delivered it to them.
(I’m sorry for the drop in audio quality (on my channel) this week. Annoyingly, my recording stopped unexpectedly and I had to rely on the Skype back-up. Thanks GarageBand. Thanks for nothing.)
Here are some URLs from this episode * Lagom magazine * 8Faces magazine * Frankie magazine * Dan’s “Treading Through Treacle” * Contract Killer
Cornerstone razor blades and men’s shaving supplies. Use the code CS5 at checkout.
I‘ve been looking forward to publishing this episode of Unfinished Business for over a month and I looked forward to recording it for even longer, because I got to talk about art direction and creativity on the web with two of the creative people that I respect most, Dan Mall and Jeffrey Zeldman.
- Video of my ‘Counting stars: Creativity over predictability’ talk from Beyond Tellerrand in Berlin
- Your CSS bores me
- Cinderella Past Midnight
- Stephen Hay’s Art Direction and the Web
- Dan Mall’s Art Direction and Design
- Dan Mall On Creative Direction
- Jeffrey Zeldman’s Art direction vs. design
The best podcasts listen to interesting people having interesting conversations about work, and life and for episode 104 of Unfinished Business I’m joined by two fascinating folk. Trent Walton and Stephen Hay.
In a lively and wide-ranging conversation, we talk about ‘designing in a browser’ and whether or not today it’s a given (to some degree or another.) We discuss not showing clients static design visuals and why ‘comps’ in a browser and prototypes should be the first thing that we show our clients. We talk about where graphic design tools now fit into our respective workflows and why static visuals can still be an important part of the design process. Finally we discuss tools for designing (in a browser) and whether the technical barrier to entry is sometimes too high.
- Responsive Design Workflow (book)
- Walls Come Tumbling Down
- Time to stop showing clients static design visuals
- Ignorance Is Bliss
- Make Your Mockup in Markup
- Harry Roberts’ conference email gist
- Make Your Mockup in Markup
- Lets Get Social (YouTube)
Back for episode 103 of Unfinished Business is my favourite comedy duo, ‘Pipe and Pyjamas,’ Paul Boag and Jon Hicks.
We had a list of things that we weren’t allowed to talk about, a list that was surprisingly topped by Dr. Who, food and bicycles. Instead we discuss about Paul’s green screen, his motorhome and why he left Headscape, the company he founded thirteen years ago. We end up talking about how we’re redefining our places in the web industry as the three of us get older.
In the after-show segment (for non-boring people,) we talk about Vic and Bob’s ‘House of Fools’ and as we weren’t allowed to talk about Dr. Who, we discuss Dr. Who Lego instead. No one should complain about that.
- Jon pops for a wee
- House of Fools
- House of Fools (episode 1) on YouTube
- Shooting Stars
- Vic and Bob Masterchef sketch
- Doctor Who Locations Guide
- LEGO Doctor Who
A little later than advertised (and by “a little” I actually mean a week) I’m joined on Unfinished Business. Episode 102 by Rachel Andrew and Zoe Mickley Gillenwater.
Despite being two experts on bleeding edge CSS layout modules, they don’t talk about CSS (much.) Instead we talk about how to keep doing when keeping going is hard and what gives us that motivation. We also discuss making big decisions including when we might want to take, or leave, a job.
We’re back. Back in business. Unfinished Business. Episode 101. For this, the first episode of 2015, I’m joined by two of the best well-known writers about how to implement CSS on a large scale Harry Roberts and Jonathan Snook.
We talk about if the ways we talk about CSS today have made learning it less accessible for beginners. I worry that people are being encouraged to jump straight into Sass without learning the basics of CSS first and ask why people don’t write long books about it anymore?
A new format for 2015 This year, Unfinished Business will be on a bi-weekly schedule, every two weeks, to give me more time prepare better content for each episode. Most episodes will also have two guests. I’ve lined up some fabulous pairings including Dan Mall and Jeffrey Zeldman, Stephen Hay and Trent Walton, Rachel Andrew and Zoe Gillenwater, Andy Budd and Cameron Moll, Brad Frost and Tim Kadlec and Paul Boag and Jon Hicks. These should all be lively discussions and I really hope that listeners will enjoy the new format.
‘CSS For Responsive Web Design’ workshops On the show I mention my up-coming ‘CSS For Responsive Web Design’ workshops in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth in March. Listeners to Unfinished Business can get $50AUS off the ticket price with the offer code unfinishedbusiness.
Find out more about the workshop.
Get yourself a ticket.
This week is the one-hundredth episode of Unfinished Business and who better to join me than the person who helped me start it all, almost two years ago, Anna Debenham. We celebrate by talking about what went right and wrong in 2014 and our resolutions for 2015. Then we talk about meetings and how we can improve them.
This being the final episode of the year, I’d like to say an enormous thank-you to everyone I’ve spoken to on Unfinished Business, this year: Ashley Baxter, Benjamin Hollway, Brendan Dawes, Christopher Murphy, Cole Henley, Clare Symons, Harry Roberts, Jeremy Keith, John Davey, Jon Hicks, Jory Raphael, Laura Kalbag, Liz Elcoate, Paul Boag, Rachel Andrew, Relly Annett-Baker, Sara Souidan, Sean Johnson and Trent Walton.
I’d also like to say thank-you to all the companies who’ve helped make Unfinished Business possible through their sponsorship. Antetype, BigBoard, dConstruct, DeviceLab, DotYork, Espresso, GatherContent, Ghostlab, Forge, Hover, Logical Elements, Native Summit, ShropGeek, Simply FixIt and Shopify. I want to say a special thanks to Perch and Perch Runway for supporting the show from our very first episode. Please continue to support Unfinished Business by supporting them.
Unfinished Business will be back in February 2015 and I hope you’ll all join me then. Until then, thanks for listening and I’d like to wish everyone a happy Christmas holiday and a prosperous new year.
- Anna Debenham
- Anna on Twitter
- Invitation to a Blame Party
On the penultimate episode of Unfinished Business of 2014, I’m joined by my design hero Trent Walton to talk about if an integrated responsive design and development workflow makes working out what and how to charge more difficult. We discuss Paravel, the three person studio that he helps run, how their business works, how they charge and if they negotiate on price. Of course, this being Unfinished Business, I couldn’t help talking about burgers and this week’s stupid cheeseburger stuffed crust pizza.
This week’s episode is sponsored by Espresso and Perch.
Conference impresario John Davey joins me again on Unfinished Business this week. We talk about anticipation and scarceness, how some cinemas create an experience around watching a film, how looking at album artwork in a record shop enhanced the experience of buying music and whether the experiences we’ve lost were valuable enough to revive in new and different ways.
It’s a special week this week on Unfinished Business as I’m joined by not one, but two regular co-hosts, Ashley Baxter and Laura Kalbag. In a bumper episode, we talk about cakes, brightly coloured fizzy drinks and Yorkshire pudding burgers. We discuss podcasting, sounding good as a podcast guest, then whether we allow Christmas decorations in our offices. Finally we talk about what we’ve achieved this year and what our goals are for 2015. It’s a fast and fun episode. I think you’ll really enjoy it.
We’re sponsored this week by MacRabbit’s Espresso and by the DotYork conference 2015. Get 10% off both by using the code unfinished at checkout.
Artist and designer Brendan Dawes is back on Unfinished Business this week. We get started by talking about past popular pop princes and princesses S Club 7, The Handsome Family and Bren’s one day trip to Argentina. For the remainder of the show, we talk about when it’s acceptable to give our time for free and when we should say no. Why every project should include a ‘goodwill’ budget and what the heck are those party paper and whistle things that come out of Christmas crackers called?
We’re sponsored by MacRabbit’s Espresso. Get 10% off by using the code unfinished at checkout. And by the DotYork conference 2015.
A complete change of subject for this week’s Unfinished Business, Relly Annett-Baker and I talk about parenting and education and specifically how she’s homeschooling her two young children.
This week we’re sponsored by the fabulous new Perch Runway and by DeviceLab. Please support our show by supporting them.
This week on Unfinished Business, Paul Boag, Jon Hicks and I dispense with any pretence that this is a show about business and spend 90 minutes talking about something much more interesting. Peter Capaldi’s first series as Doctor Who. We talk about our thoughts on Peter Capaldi’s Doctor and the best (and worst) episodes of the season. Then we finish up by discussing the series finale, Clara and Danny Pink and of course Missy. If you haven’t seen the final episode of this season, there are spoilers galore.
This week’s episode is sponsored by GatherContent and by the DotYork conference 2015.
The week’s Unfinished Business was recorded live at The Web Is… conference in Cardiff, as part of Geek Mental Help week. I was joined on-stage by Christopher Murphy, Cole Henley, Relly Annett-Baker and Dr. Clare Symons to talk about a wide range of mental heath and mental illness issues.
I put the lower audio quality this week down to everyone wearing lapel, not using condenser microphones, (sorry about that,) but recording live in front of an audience was fun, and I’ll definitely do it again.
There are no sponsors this week, as it didn’t seem appropriate.
This week is Geek Mental Help week and on Unfinished Business I’m joined by Liz Elcoate, one of the people who helped to spark the idea. We ask if our industry attracts people with issues or cause them, does our working environment add to our problems and what we hope the outcomes from this week will be? But not before we talk sport, Liz’s obsession with wrestling and my Uncle Haystacks.
This week’s episode is sponsored by Perch Runway, a new version of Perch that’s been designed for bigger, more complex projects.
We’re also sponsored by Hover, the best place to buy and manage your domain names. You should give them a try.
Brighton-based developer Benjamin Hollway loves a burger in a brioche bun and joins me on Unfinished Business this week to talk about how young people feel excluded from some industry events and how conferences and meet-ups should cater for people who don’t want to or are too young to drink. Benjamin was shortlisted for ‘emerging talent of the year’ at the Net Awards and oh, did I mention that he’s only sixteen?
This week’s episode is sponsored by Perch Runway, a new version of Perch that’s been designed for bigger, more complex projects. If you’d like to be the first to know and to hear about their special launch discount price, sign up to the Perch Runway notification list.
We’re also sponsored by Hover, the best place to buy and manage your domain names. You should give them a try.
Designer and artist Brendan Dawes is back on episode 90 of Unfinished Business this week to talk about his recent commission by Mailchimp, Six Monkeys, which explores interactions with email through physical objects named after six famous chimpanzees. Before that though, we talk more about what’s happening with Geek Mental Help Week, including whether the word ‘geek’ takes something away from the project and is somehow derogatory.
This week’s an emotional episode of Unfinished Business. After talking about why a burger in a donut should never, ever have become a thing, Laura Kalbag and I discuss mental health issues in our industry. We talk about my own struggles with depression and depersonalisation disorder, issues that stem from my father’s own mental health issues and suicide.
This week on Unfinished Business, Harry Roberts and I have some pretty big, Boag-shaped, boots to fill after last week’s episode. Harry takes the opposite view to Paul about sharing personal struggles in a work context and worries about the impression that sharing give to prospective clients. Then we talk about how clients’ commissioning process for creative services is largely broken, the differences between an open conversation starter, an RFP and a brief and how we, as designers and developers, can help clients to commission what we do better.
This week on Unfinished Business, I had planned to talk with Paul Boag about client briefs and managing expectations. But when we sat down to talk, we were both in the mood to talk about something much, more personal. We discussed how we feel about how Twitter has changed, Erin Kissane’s ‘Ditching Twitter,’ Dan Edwards’ ‘Treading through treacle’ and our general sense of melancholy about our industry. Then we talk about how, contrary to what we often hear, our industry is filled with acts of kindness.
We discuss how we maintain our optimism and the steps we take to protect ourselves emotionally. If you think you know Paul and I from our public personas, I think that you’ll be very surprised by this episode. If you haven’t listened to Unfinished Business for a while (or at all) I urge you to listen this week.
In the second part of our icon designer double bill, this week on Unfinished Business, I’m joined by designer, illustrator the and iconographer behind Symbolicons, Jory Raphael. We talk about how we feel about the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus announcement, the design of the Apple Watch software and whether it looks at home on the watch’s hardware. We discuss Jory’s illustration work including his artwork for the 5by5 podcast network and of course, those long shadows. Finally we talk about making a business from making and selling icons
Icon designer Jon Hicks joins me this week on Unfinished Business to discuss our experiences of recent conferences including dConstruct (me) and An Event Apart (him.) We narrowly avoid talking about our predictions for the upcoming Apple event and instead discuss how to keep work and home life separate, whether it‘s right to be connected to work outside work hours and how having an office can help with work/life balance.
Of course, all of this is just a thinly disguised ruse for what we really want to talk about, Doctor Who. In the after-show section, we look back at Matt Smith’s final episode, talk about Peter Capaldi’s new Doctor so far and if Doctor Who needs longer than one hour per episode to tell a good story. Oh. And Clara bloody Oswald.
This week on Unfinished Business, I’m joined by Cole Henley, technical director at Mud. We discuss his latest Freelance rates survey, how the results have changed over the last three years and what he’s learned from making the survey. I admire Cole’s Mud very much, so we talk about how to grow a business, when to hire new people and the importance of regular advice from someone on the outside. If you like the business side of Unfinished Business, you’ll love this episode.
What’s an episode of Unfinished Business without some talk of comics or films? In an after-show special, starting at 1:11:30, Cole and I talk about vintage 2000AD comics, Harlem Heroes, Flesh and of course, Judge Dredd. I want to know if Stallone’s Judge Dredd film a guilty pleasure and why, oh why, doesn’t Hollywood make films from classic 2000AD stories?
Laura Kalbag and Ashley Baxter did a wonderful job hosting Unfinished Business for the last three weeks and this week Laura hands it back to me.
We talk about how we interpret the ‘business’ theme of Unfinished Business differently and how that changes the focus of the podcast. As we’re both small business owners and we’ve both been on holiday recently, we discuss how we handle keeping on top of business while we’re away from it. How we handle email and client enquiries and even work that going on while we’re away. Finally we talk about “Smartphone stress: Are you a victim of ‘always on’ culture?” If smartphones have become “tyrants in our pockets” and how being connected affects how we relax when we’re not supposed to be working.
Ashley Baxter and Laura Kalbag are back for their final takeover episode of Unfinished Business. We talk about using social media for your business and whether writing and speaking are a scalable part of your business model. We had a couple of questions from Shane Hudson and Simon MacFadyen on forcing yourself out of your comfort zone and advice to a designer just starting out.
This episode is sponsored by Espresso and Native Summit. You can get a 10% discount on Espresso with the offer code unfinished. Native Summit are giving away 20 free tickers to the first 20 listeners who visit their site and use the offer code unfinished.
Ashley Baxter and Laura Kalbag are back again for this week’s episode of Unfinished Business. We talk about the common myths around working for yourself, particularly as a solo entity working from home. We have some great questions from Elliot Davis, Simon Cox, and Shane Prendergast, resulting in us talking about photo manipulation and what do we both want to achieve before we retire?
This episode is sponsored by GatherContent and SimplyFixIt. You can get 20% off your subscription to GatherContent forever with the offer code unfinished. You can get 10% off any iPhone or iPad repair with SimplyFixIt plus a free upgrade from the standard warranty to three-month’s accidental cover with the offer code unfinished.
While Andy’s on holiday, Ashley Baxter and Laura Kalbag take over this week’s episode of Unfinished Business. We talk about all things business insurance, including public liability, professional indemnity, business contents and copyright infringement. And it’s not boring, honest!
This episode is sponsored by Devicelab, Perch and dConstruct. Get your ticket to dConstruct for only £125+VAT (£150) when you use the offer code unfinished.
Before we go any further, I need to let people know that there is absolutely zero business content in the show this week. (Thousands of people are thinking now, “when is there ever?”) That‘s because this is a spoiler filled ‘Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes’ cinema special episode with my guests and film buff friends Brendan Dawes and Jeremy Keith.
It’s a wild show. We ask whether there should be a new Oscar category for performance capture and if Andy Serkis should win everything? We talk about the other seven Planet Of The Apes films, starting with the original five and if Tim Burton’s 2001 reimagining is a guilty pleasure. Then we get in deep with the new ‘Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes’ before asking ourselves the important questions; When will apes wear clothes? When and how will humans become mute, and why should you avoid watching an apes film in Rhyl?
Even if you’re not an Apes aficionado, I think you’ll enjoy listening to this episode of Unfinished Business as much as we enjoyed making it, which was a lot.
This special episode was made possible by two special sponsors, the ShropGeek Revolution Conference and BigBoard. Get 15% off your ticket to ShropGeek Revolution when you use the offer code unfinished.
I’ve been looking forward to speaking with Sara Soueidan on this week’s episode of Unfinished Business for a long while, not least because I’m a huge, huge, fan of her work. She’s been writing what I consider to be the best articles about CSS and SVG. We talk about those, yes, but we also talk about what it’s like for her, living and working as a web developer in her home country of Lebanon. We discuss the preconceptions and misconceptions that people in the West have about Lebanon, its people and its customs. I think you’ll find what she has to say fascinating. I know I did.
This episode is kindly sponsored by two UK conferences, Native Summit and dConstruct. Get your ticket to dConstruct for only £125+VAT (£150) when you use the offer code unfinished.
Ashley Baxter’s back on Unfinished Business this week. We talk about the reasons why she’s speaking in public more and how it may help her to promote her new business. Speaking of promotion, we discuss her $99 tweet sponsoring experiment, how buying tweets works and whether it worked for her. We also talk about how to move on when you feel like you’ve reached a plateau, in business as well as in the gym.
This week we’re sponsored by two very different, but both excellent companies, GatherContent and SimplyFixIt. Get 20% off your subscription to GatherContent forever when you use the offer code unfinished , then get 10% off a SimplyFixIt iPhone or iPad repair with the offer code unfinished.
This week on Unfinished Business, impresario, organiser of Flash On The Beach and more recently Reasons To Be Creative, John Davey offers me some fatherly advice on how to handle a personal dilemma and what not to wear at Alex’s upcoming graduation. We talk about the Reasons To Be Creative conference, how he finds and why he chooses so many new speakers and his unusual elevator pitch approach.
Swearing: I mostly bleep out swearing on Unfinished Business, but I think that this week’s episode is funnier with our cussing intact. I hope you won’t be offended by a couple of ‘f’ words, one ‘b’ word and a dozen jokes about Brighton.
I want to thank again our two terrific sponsors this week, Ghostlab and Perch. I also hope that you’ll support Aimie Lockwood’s Kickstarter project, Adventures of Alex, beautifully illustrated childrens’ books which break social norms.
Designer and artist Brendan Dawes joins me again for the 75th episode of my “one-sided, biased, poor quality personal soapbox.” We talk about the people who have inspired us the most in our working lives and Bren tells me all about how the famous designer and filmmaker Hillman Curtis helped him to get started. It’s an inspiring story.
I’ve also reinstated the after hours film talk spot that Anna and I started in the early episodes of Unfinished Business. This week Bren and I talk about briefly about Her, the fabulous Stalingrad (2013) and Luc Besson’s totally terrible 3 Days to Kill starring Kevin Costner. It’s a funny segment although I’m clearly no Mark Kermode and this show is obviously nowhere near as good as something on the BBC.
Thanks to our sponsors this week, they were Big Board and the Shropgeek Revolution Conference 2014. As always, you can support Unfinished Business by supporting them.
This week on Unfinished Business, Sean Johnson and I talk not only about Laura Nevo’s “Dear Visual Design” open letter but also how wrong the people who thought I’d criticise Laura are. While I disagree completely with Laura’s message, I appreciate her writing it, not least because it helps sum up everything that I think is wrong about how we talk about web design today. Sean’s not just along for the ride, he has plenty to say about user experience, the Net Awards and why he hates football. The berk.
As always, we have two fabulous sponsors, Hover and Macrabbit’s Espresso. Get 10% off both when you use the offer code unfinished at the checkout.
Jeremy Keith joins me on this, episode 73 of Unfinished Business. Although I try to steer clean of provoking him by not talking about moon landings, we disagree about just about everything else. Fish tacos, things that scientists haven’t done yet and I think they should’ve and what makes advertising fascinating to me and hateful to him. It’s a lively show. There are sparks. I think you’ll like it.
We have two excellent sponsors this week, Shopify and Logical Elements’ ‘PHP for Web Designers’ training course. Tickets cost just £295, but listeners to this show can get one-hundred, yes one-hundred pounds off by using the offer code unfinished at the checkout.
A slight change of format for this week’s Unfinished Business. Laura Kalbag wanted to know our experiences of working with our partners—she’s just started working with hers—so she emailed Sue some questions. I hadn’t heard her answers until Laura read them on the show, but I think that makes for interesting listening. I’ll publish Sue’s full answers on Stuff and Nonsense later on in the week.
Thanks to our sponsors this week, they were Gather Contentand Forge. As always, you can support Unfinished Business by supporting them.
Ashley Baxter is back on Unfinished Business this week and we start the show by talking about why she started a podcast with some other fella. We discuss how businesses should be authentic on Twitter and if a brand can justifiably spend 45 days planning a tweet about cheese. (Mmmm, cheese.) We round off this week by talking about how working with other people can affect your fitness and diet and why working from from home might be the best thing for some people. And let’s not forget Ashley Baxter’s Scottish Slang Word of the Week. “Heffer.”
Thanks to our sponsors this week, they were Vanamco’s DeviceLab, Big Board and Perch. As always, you can support Unfinished Business by supporting them.
Illustrator Josh Cleland joins me for episode 70 of Unfinished Business this week. We discuss about how I’m struggling with an idea for the next version of the Stuff and Nonsense header and I baffle Josh by talking about vintage British adverts, including the PG Tips chimps and Cadbury Smash’s famous Martians.
On Unfinished Business this week, I’m joined by designer and artist, the one and only Brendan Dawes. Bren and I talk about data inspired art and his Cinema Redux pieces. As we can never get together and not discuss films, so we talk about the greatest westerns of all time, the True Grit remake and Django Unchained. Plus, being ‘men of a certain age’ we reminisce about childrens TV from the seventies and why the writers of The Banana Splits must have taken a lot of drugs.
We have two excellent sponsors this week, Shopify and Logical Elements’ ‘PHP for Web Designers’ training course. Tickets cost just £295, but listeners to this show can get one-hundred, yes one-hundred pounds off by using the offer code unfinfished at the checkout. Plus, you’ll get a 20% discount on any other course if you book them before the end of May.
On Unfinished Business this week, and with us both fresh from the Net Awards, Laura Kalbag and I talk about our experiences there. I explain why I don’t feel at home in the web design industry as it is today and how its conversations no longer reflect my interests in design.
After last week’s ‘giant’ misunderstanding about speaker fees, we also talk about the responsibilities that speakers have to themselves, to an audience and to an event and the people who’ve organised it. It’s a lively discussion. We talk about swearing, why private agreements between speakers and conferences should remain confidential and why speakers should play their part in supporting an event, before, during and after it.
Laura, I and everyone who makes Unfinished Business, wants to say an enormous “thank you” to everyone who voted for our show and put it in the final five top podcasts of 2014 at the Net Awards.
I also want to thank our sponsors this week. They are GatherContent and Hammer For Mac. As we always say, please support Unfinished Business by supporting them.
On this week’s (early) episode of Unfinished Business, Ashley Baxter’s back to talk about her brand new business, Insurance By Jack. We talk about why she started the business and some of the challenges she’s already faced. No ‘Ashley’ episode would be complete without her “Baxter’s Scottish Slang Word of the Week.” What is it? You’ll just have to listen to the show to find oot.
Oor sponsors this week are the fantastic Ghostlab and Logical Elements’ PHP For Web Designers course. Get £100 off when you book using the offer code unfinished
Dan Davies is back on Unfinished Business this week to talk about what he’s learned in the five months since he switched from front-end development to user-experience design. We discuss how his agency is improving communication between designers and developers, his interview series about workflow and more and how he was once replaced by a fibreglass rhino.
We have two excellent sponsors this week, Perch and a new sponsor Hover, the best place to buy and manage your domain names. Get 10% off your first purchase at Hover with the offer code unfinished.
This week on Unfinished Business I’m joined again by Elliott Kember to talk about Speedos, fitness tackers and—one day before Nike announced they’ve stopped making hardware— my Nike Fuelband. We discuss Cennydd Bowles’ Letter to a Junior Designer and if there are differences between designing a website and designing a digital product. I ask if designing with data is just an excuse for not having enough confidence in an idea and suggest that banging on about ‘empathy’ deserves a punch in the face.
This week our sponsors are Macrabbit’s Espresso—get 10% off with the offer code unfinished —and Shopify. Join their free partner programme today.
On this week’s Unfinished Business I’m joined by not one, but two guests to keep me out of trouble, Laura Kalbag and marathon runner Rachel Andrew. We talk about the fallout from last week’s news that publisher Five Simple Steps has closed, what this means for other niche publishers and for the authors who write for them.
We talk about how the abrupt announcement of the closure could’ve been handled better and the lessons we might learn to help us in the future. Finally, we break down how advances and royalties work differently between small and large publishers and the reasons why authors might choose a publisher over self-publishing their books.
Finally, everyone involved in making Unfinished Business wants to say an enormous thank-you to all of you out there in podcast land who voted for us for Podcast Of The Year at The Net Awards. You helped us make the shortlist of the final five that’s full of brilliant podcasts and put a very broad smile on all our faces.
Thank-you to our sponsors this week. Get 20% off your subscription to GatherContent, forever using the offer code unfinished and 50% off for your first two months using Forge with their offer code unfinished.
Special guest Jeffrey Zeldman joins me on Unfinished Business this week to talk about how important is it today for designers to be able to tell stories and sell ideas to clients. We talk about whether designers need ‘empathy’ or strength of character and conviction in their ideas, whether the web needs ‘account menpeople and what it feels like when people you’ve mentored go their own way.
It’s a packed show and as we both love advertising and Mad Men, we end by talking about my Don Draper depersonalisation disorder theory and what we expect and hope from the final season which starts next week. Even if you’ve not seen Mad Men, I think you’re going to like this episode.
Thanks to our sponsors this week. They are the Business Of Web Design conference (get 10% off your ticket with the offer code unfinished ) and Perch (get 10% until April 11th with the offer code unfinished.)
New regular Ashley Baxter joins me on this week’s packed Unfinished Business to talk about eating well and staying fit, my goal to lose 14lbs and why my competition with Paul Boag is spurring me on.
We also talk about how happy I am that Stuff and Nonsense has been shortlisted for Agency Of The Year at the Net Awards. Last, but not least, there’s Ashley’s Scottish slang word of the week.
I’m also over the moon to learn that Unfinished Business has been shortlisted for Podcast Of The Year. When you listen to the show, you’ll hear I obviously wasn’t expecting that.
This week’s sponsors are the Business Of Web Design conference. Use the offer code unfinished to get 10% your ticket. (And here’s a secret code. If you use the offer code dirtyape , you’ll get 20% off until the end of Wednesday April 2nd. Don’t tell everyone. Actually do.) And Device Lab.
On this week’s Unfinished Business, Laura Kalbag and I talk about the business of speaking at conferences, why it’s essential to be paid to speak and the importance of contracts that cover the paying of expenses, who owns the content of a talk and what conferences can do with that content after the event.
This week’s amazing sponsors are the Scotch On The Rocks conference and Macrabbit’s Espresso. Get 10% off your copy of my favourite code editor using the offer code unfinished.
Illustrator Josh Cleland is back for this, the sixtieth episode of Unfinished Business. We talk about Milton Keynes Geek Night, losing my voice and what can go wrong if you suck too many Strepsils. (Spoiler: diarrhea.) We discuss how we’re both trying to achieve a better work/life balance and what’s been driving us to work all the time.
I’d like to thank this week’s sponsors, Shopify and Logical Elements. Get 50% off their April PHP For Web Designers online course when you use the offer code unfinished.
Despite possibly the worst Skype connection in history, I chatted with Ashley Baxter on Unfinished Business this week about her semi-professional photography business. We talked about the photo walk and workshop that she recently organised in her home city of Glasgow and why conference organisers should host more photography workshops at their events. Aye. And let’s not forget Oor Wullie.
This week’s sponsors are the The Web Is conference that’s happening in Cardiff on 30/31st October 2014. Use the offer-code unfinished for 10% off your ticket.
Also thanks to Hammer For Mac and GatherContent. Use the offer-code unfinished for 20% off your subscription forever.
Laura Kalback, Kalbang, Kalbung, Cowabunga! Kalbag is back on Unfinished Business this week and we talk about her troubles at her bank and how changing your name once you’ve built an online persona might be a challenge. We follow up on our previous conversation about business ethics, then discuss how much time is reasonable to spend on researching requirements to provide a client estimate.
This week’s sponsors are the Scotch On The Rocks conference that’s happening in the beautiful Scottish capital Edinburgh on June 5th and 6th, and Espresso. Listeners of this show can get a fantastic 10% discount by using the coupon code UNFINISHED at checkout.
This week on Unfinished Business, Elliott Kember and I talk about how Director Lottie Dexter introduced the Year Of Code initiative and most importantly the message we think it sends about our industry and what we do.
Thanks to our sponsors Logical Elements—get 50% off ‘PHP for Web Designers’ when you use the offercode unfinished when you book your place—and Shopify.
This week, Josh Cleland is back on Unfinished Business. We talk about updates on our various piracy issues and whether it’s necessary to add copyright notices or watermarks to our work. We also discuss why people at large put a low value on creative work.
Thanks to our sponsors this week, GatherContent, Forge and the Dot York conference. Get 20% off your GatherContent subscription for life, and 50% off Forge for two months when you use the offer code unfinished.
This week on ‘Net Awards Podcast Of The Year’ nominated Unfinished Business, Liz Elcoate, from some other podcast, joins me to talk about why it’s acceptable to admit when we’ve availability and to ask people for work. We talk more about having flexibility in our rates and why it’s reasonable to quote different rates to different people. We also touch on whether web designers should charge ‘rush rates’ and why working for free can be good for the soul.
Speaking of the Net Awards, did I mention that Unfinished Business has been nominated for Podcast Of The Year at the Net Awards? No? If you’ve liked what you’ve heard over the last 55 episodes, please vote for us. After-all, this is the only podcast where you hear about the things that are really important. Apes (obviously,) soap, weeing in kettles and of course Purple Rain.
This episode is sponsored by Perch and by Logical Elements. Get 20% your place on their ‘PHP for Web Designers’ course when you use the offer code unfinished at checkout.
Laura Kalbag is back on Unfinished Business this week to talk about how far in advance we book client projects and what we you do if a client wants more work done, but we’ve other work booked for the next few months? We discuss upping our day rates and how Laura’s client suggested she charge more.
No Unfinished Business would be complete without talk of pirates and smugglers and the Milton Keynes Geek Night All Dayer conference which took place last week.
Thanks to our sponsors for this episode, they are Hammer For Mac and Ghostlab. You can support our show by supporting them.
It’s a good one this week. I’m joined again by Elliott Kember to talk about whether being acquired is just a poncy way of saying that you’re taking a job at a big company. We discuss Google buying a nest thermostatNest Labs for $3.2billion when they could’ve got one for a hundred quid at B&Q and why some people have reacted very negatively to the deal.
Best of all, we start and end this episode with a song that sounds absolutely nothing at all like Purple Rain. You don’t get singing like that on The Freelance Web or The Big Web Show, I can tell you.
Thanks to our sponsors this week, they were Espresso and Shopify. Please support our show by visiting them.
This week on Unfinished Business, I’m in a relaxed mood as I’m joined by Josh Cleland to talk about how we filter enquires from potential clients through our websites and emails. We also try really, really hard not to talk about moviesfilms.
Thanks to our sponsors this week, Hammer For Mac and GatherContent. Listen to this episode for a very, very special offer from GatherContent.
For the first Unfinished Business of 2014 I’m joined by my really good friend Dan Davies to talk about film marathons, what we’d hoard for the apocalypse and Dan’s totally unrelated career change from front-end developer to UX designer.
This episode is sponsored by Ghostlab and Perch. We love them both. Please support the show by visiting them.
For this, the fiftieth episode of Unfinished Business, I’m joined by regular guest Laura Kalbag. We talk about ethical statements and whether we, and the companies that people work for, should set out what they will and won’t work on our websites.
I would like to say an enormous thank-you to Anna Debenham for helping me get started with this podcast. To all our guests and sponsors for making the show possible and to you, our listeners for being lovely people. I’d like to wish you all a very happy Christmas holiday.
Special thanks to Forge, static hosting made simple, for sponsoring this week’s episode.
The wonderfully generous Sean Johnson joins me twice on Unfinished Business this week to first answer a listener’s question about competitive payment terms, then to talk about our downs and ups of 2013.
This episode is part of a whole week of Christmas crossover podcasts including The Freelance Web, Beyond Ink, The Back To Front Show and Boagworld.
I want to say a huge thank-you to Perch who’ve not only sponsored the show this week but have made it possible for us to record Unfinished Business all this year, from Anna and mine very first episode. We use their little CMS ourselves almost every day and can’t recommend it highly enough. Please support this show by supporting them.
Illustrator Josh Cleland is back on Unfinished Business this week to talk about his work on the new Stuff and Nonsense go, go, go, rillas header, the difficulties of designing our own branding and how we can make visits to our sites more memorable by improving the design of pages we often forget.
Nominate Unfinished Business for the Net Awards 2014 One way you can say thanks for the time we take making our podcast every week is to nominate Unfinished Business for Podcast Of The Year at the Net Awards 2014. We’d love, love, love you if you did that.
This episode is sponsored by the Device Lab from Vanamco.
This week on Unfinished Business, I’m joined by Elliott Kember. We talk about listening to feedback and the differences between client feedback on design projects and customer feedback about apps. Then I amuse Elliott with my new found adoration for LINGs CARS and that I think Ling is a marketing genius.
Thanks to our sponsor this week WebCode—Spend your time drawing, not writing code.
In this week’s extra length special episode of Unfinished Business, Jon Hicks and I talk exclusively about Doctor Who, so there isn’t a single piece of business advice anywhere in the show — not that there’s usually much.
In particular we talk about the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary episode, so if you haven’t seen that yet — spoilers! Before that we talk about ‘An Adventure In Space And Time’, the story of the First Doctor William Hartnell and ‘The Night Of The Doctor’ mini episode that set the scene for the 50th Anniversary last week.
Thanks to our companionssponsors this week Perch and Riot’s new Forge. Please support our show by supporting them.
This week on Unfinished Business, I’m joined by James Young to talk about his recent, first conference presensations and why confidence in front of people is as important as a designer’s skills with Photoshop. We discuss his knives business and how a side business can improve the work we do on the web and give us more varied content to talk and write about.
Thanks to our sponsor this week GatherContent—helping people who build websites work with their clients to plan, organise and collaborate on web content.
On this week’s Unfinished Business, regular co-host Laura Kalbag and I talked candidly about hosting workshops and whether they make commercial sense and how we make money from them. Laura asked me about choosing Stuff and Nonsense for our business name and we talked about how people can make the best, first impression when you write to us. (Sorry for Laura’s audio quality. We’ll try to do better next time.)
Thanks to our sponsor, Blush, beautiful letterpress printing of cards, stationery and more for designers and artists. Support Unfinished Business by supporting them.
This week on Unfinished Business, I’m joined by CSS hero Harry Roberts to talk about being typecast (literally,) going Keynote commando and Harry’s first week on the dole. We talk about how people can improve the way they think about sending and dealing with email and why we’re both obsessed with the backends of vans.
This episode is sponsored by the new Device Lab from Vanamco and by Smashing Magazine’s workshops including my CSS3 For Responsive Web Design workshop and Harry Roberts’ Planning And Building A Big Front-End. They’re happening in Zurich, Switzerland on December 10th, 2013.
This week, I’m joined by fabulous designer Veerle Pieters to talk about whether cycling or eating toasties is the best exercise, when working on retainer for long-term projects makes sense and the right questions to ask in our customer enquiry questionnaires.
This episode is sponsored by our friends at Perch, the little content management system for projects where you don’t want a big, complex CMS, and Hammer for Mac, the nifty development tool for designers and developers. Please support the show by supporting them.
Designer and author of A Pocket Guide to CSS Animations Val Head joins me this week to talk about practical uses for CSS animations, how small publishers have made publishing books more accessible to first time authors and, of course, The Sooty Show.
Thanks to our sponsor this week GatherContent — helping people who build websites work with their clients to plan, organise and collaborate on web content.
This week, illustrator Josh Cleland joins me to talk about how far we can go using a movie or TV character’s likeness, the differences between an illustrator’s and a web designer’s contract and Josh’s 100% satisfaction guarantee.
Thanks to our sponsor, Blush — beautiful letterpress printing of cards, stationery and more for designers and artists.
In this week’s show, Alex’s friend Brad Frost, who having survived his trip to Brighton, returns to talk to Andrew about designing ‘in the open’ and what the benefits for you and the people and organisations you’re working for can be.
Thanks to our sponsor, Ghostlab — Synchronized cross-browser and mobile testing taken to the next level. Get 30% off at checkout with the offer code UNFINISHEDBUSINESS.
In this week’s episode, designer and co-host of ‘ that other podcast’ Liz Elcoate joins Andrew to talk about the difficulties of working alone for long periods, the difficulties of keeping your portfolio full of new work when you work under non-disclosure agreements and why we should never apologise for working with small businesses with smaller budgets.
This episode’s sponsored by our friends Perch, the little content management system for projects where you don’t want a big, complex CMS, and Hammer for Mac, the nifty development tool for designers and developers.
Special guest Dan Cederholm joins Andrew Clarke this week to talk about making money by making things, how making great schwag makes a great impression and what happened to Foamee. They discuss why on Dribbble it’s important for business to not get in the way of a great service and with Dan’s new book coming up, they talk about the process of writing and whether second editions are worth it.
Thanks to our sponsor this week GatherContent — helping people who build websites work with their clients to plan, organise and collaborate on web content. Sign up through that page and get your first month free, on top of the 30 day trial period. That’s a great offer.
Designer, icon artist , author and possibly Doctor Who’s next companion Jon Hicks joins host Andrew Clarke this week. They discuss differences in the ways that Jon approaches different types of clients, how publishing his day rate and availability on his web site has improved the ‘quality’ of his enquiries and who ultimately owns the work that they do. As you might expect they couldn’t spend an hour together without talking about Doctor Who. Quite a lot.
Thanks to our sponsor, Blush — beautiful letterpress printing of cards, stationery and more for designers and artists. Get 20% off custom business card printing during September when you use the promo code: UNFINISHEDBUSINESSCARDS.
In the latest episode of your favourite soap ‘apera,’ Anna and Andy go off on a tangent (no really) about the winner of their ‘Daft Proposal Of The Week Award.’ They talk about how to respond to proposals and whether it’s ever appropriate to not respond at all.
Back from his holidays, all tanned and gorgeous (obviously,) Andy rejoins Anna to talk about Laura Kalbag’s ‘Good Designers, Good Clients’ article on A List Apart. They discuss how Andy was inspired by Seth Godin to start speaking again and the best bits from the last three episodes including our ‘double our day rate Fridays,’ Sarah’s approach to handling low budget enquiries and the problem of doing work under NDA and having little to show for it in your portfolio.
Thanks to our sponsor, Ghostlab — Synchronized cross-browser and mobile testing taken to the next level. Get 30% off at checkout with the offer code UNFINISHEDBUSINESS.
Sarah Parmenter co-hosts the show in place of Andrew. This week's topic is money related – Sarah and Anna talk about fair pricing, taking payment before site launch, and educating clients with unreasonably low budgets.
Anna also asks Sarah about her exciting new venture and what drove her to start a completely different business. They discuss the importance of honesty, and how working on side projects can help with motivation.
This show is sponsored by Perch, the little content management system for projects where you don’t want a big, complex CMS, and Hammer for Mac, the nifty development tool for designers and developers.
Anna is joined by guest co-host and rockstar, Marcus Lillington, and they talk about estimations, project scheduling and spinning plates. Marcus shares his tips on keeping projects on track while managing maintenance for existing clients.
This episode wouldn’t be possible without our sponsor: GatherContent, which helps people who build websites work with their clients to plan, organise and collaborate on web content. Go to gathercontent.com/unfinished to sign up for a free 30 day trial and get 20% of your subscription.
Harry Roberts steps in as guest co-host while Andy's on holiday. Anna asks him about his sudden decision to leave his full-time job, the events that led up to it, and what he plans to do next. Harry shares his advice for people struggling to balance work and personal projects.
They also have a sneaky chat about object oriented CSS at the end even though it's not really business related but something had to replace the usual 10 minutes of banter about soap and apes.
Thanks to Blush who are sponsoring this week's show, — Blush does beautiful letterpress printing of cards, stationery and more for designers and artists. Support the show by supporting them.
In the final chapter of the contract episode trilogy, Anna asks Andy about writing a contract for working with agencies, they discuss which browsers and devices they should mention, termination and late payment fees, and who owns the content at the end of the project.
Thanks to our sponsor, Ghostlab — Synchronized cross-browser and mobile testing taken to the next level. Get 30% off at checkout with the offer code UNFINISHEDBUSINESS.
It’s episode 29 and part two in a series about contracts and the Contract Killer. Anna and Andy talk about how a good contract sets the tone and lays the foundations for a mutually good business relationship. They get down to the nitty gritty of the first few Contract Killer clauses including specifying deliverables, price and payment terms.
Oh. And Andy mentioned ze Chermans but he thinks he got avay viz it.
Thanks again to our sponsor this week Perch, the little content management system for projects where you don’t want a big, complex CMS You can support the show by supporting them.
Finally, yes finally , Anna and Andy get around to the first of two, maybe three, episodes about contacts. They talk about the ‘ Contract Killer,’ why they think it’s important to always use a contract and why some people think otherwise. They discuss the essential elements that should go into every contract and why, on top of any legal benefits, how a good contract says a lot about how you do business and why writing yours should be a creative challenge you relish.
(Don’t miss the gag reel and ice-cream banter after the show. It’s a scorcher.)
This episode wouldn’t be possible without our sponsor: GatherContent — GatherContent helps people who build websites work with their clients to plan, organise and collaborate on web content. If you sign up through that page, you’ll get 20% of your subscription.
In this week’s episode, Anna and Andy discuss Motorhead and motorcycles and how Andy’s too much of a ‘wendy’ to lift one. Really. They talk about how Stuff and Nonsense’s pattern of weekly working sometimes doesn’t work and how to deal with competing client demands when you have limited time available.
Thanks to our sponsor this week Blush — Blush does beautiful letterpress printing of cards, stationery and more for designers and artists. Support the show by supporting them.
In this week’s episode, lycra wearing, tightrope walker* Anna Debenham and moustache twiddling strong man Andy Clarke ask “who would win in a fight? Boba Fett or Batman?” “If the world was ending tomorrow, which endangered species would you eat?” and other important business questions? More importantly they talk about reviews and how they can help improve your business.
Thanks to our sponsor, Ghostlab — Synchronized cross-browser and mobile testing taken to the next level. Get 30% off at checkout with the offer code UNFINISHEDBUSINESS.
- We lied about the lycra.
In this, the 25th anniversary episode of Unfinished Business, Anna and Andrew talk about working in a supermarket (a while ago, obviously) and how Andy’s professional level skiving almost lead him to a career in supermarket management. They talk about selling an experience as well as selling design or code and how creative services are as much about putting on a show as they are about doing work.
This episode is sponsored by Perch, the little content management system for projects where you don’t want a big, complex CMS.
While Anna’s away, Andy talks to (Alex’s friend) Brad Frost about iOS7, dropping pretzels and chocolate Hobnobs. (Spoiler: Brad had no idea what they are.) In between they talk about speaking and contributing and what you gain by giving away information freely.
Thanks to our sponsor, GatherContent. GatherContent helps people who build websites work with their clients to plan, organise and collaborate on web content. Even better, if you sign up through that page, you’ll get 20% of your subscription. That’s a great offer.
In this week’s episode of Unfinished Business, Anna and Andy talk about Andy being robbed in Geneva and the implications, both personal and business of what happened to him. They talk about the importance of ensuring that insurance is up-to-date (spoiler: Andy’s wasn’t) and how to secure your iOS devices and Mac in case of theft.
Thanks to our sponsors, Ghostlab — Synchronized cross-browser and mobile testing taken to the next level. Get 30% off at checkout with the offer code UNFINISHEDBUSINESS , and Blush.
Blush does beautiful letterpress printing of cards, stationery and more for designers and artists. Get 25% off their classic ampersands and ligatures prints with the offer code UNFINISHEDPRINTS.
If you’re an ‘everyday’ web designer or developer — instead of one who’s perhaps made of plastic or maybe carved out of soap — we think you’ll love this week’s episode of Unfinished Business.
Anna and Andy talk about being nominated for awards and being made into action figures and how that’s made them feel. They discuss whether it’s acceptable to make you or your company look bigger than you really are and whether sites such as Agencies Rated can really help freelancers.
Anna and Andy talk about their worst business mistakes and disasters, what went wrong on the worst client projects and what they learned from them. Andy also wants to know why his hotel’s housekeeping steals his soap, plus there are confessions galore about shampoo, Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber.
This week the show’s sponsored by Smashing Magazine’s CSS3 For Responsive Design workshop with Andy Clarke. It’s happening in Freiburg in Germany on June 25th. Save 15% off the ticket price with the offer code unfinished6.
And Revolution. Revolution is a conference being held in Shrewsbury, Shropshire in the UK on Friday 27th September. Speakers include Elliot Jay Stocks, Jonathon Snook, our good friend and stand-in co-host Laura Kalbag and more. Thanks to our sponsors for making this show possible.
In this week’s episode, Anna and Andy talk about secrecy, about what they can say about the business they do and what they can’t They talk about non-disclosure agreements and why it’s important for everyone to sign one, plus why Andy wrote and published his plain speaking Three Wise Monkeys NDA. Andy gets all emotional about Alex’s twenty-first birthday and can’t quite believe that Anna’s never heard of Blackpool illuminations.
This episode is sponsored by Perch, the little content management system for projects where you don’t want a big, complex CMS and by Sketch, the professional vector application for web designers, icon designers and illustrators.
While Anna’s away in Amsterdam, Andy talks with designer Laura Kalbag about Star Trek Into Darkness, how they name wifi networks and whether location really affects their businesses. They discuss about how to find good sub-contractors and the differences between working for clients direct or via third-parties.
This episode is sponsored by Slide + Stage — become a better presenter with this full-day, intensive masterclass with Aral Balkan. If you’re one of the first twenty people to use our special URL, you’ll get £20 off your ticket price. And by Ghostlab — ‘Synchronized cross-browser and mobile testing taken to the next level.’ If you use the offer code UNFINISHEDBUSINESS , you’ll get 30% off Ghostlab until June 15th.
In this week’s episode, Andy tells bad Dad jokes and Anna doesn’t laugh. They answer listeners’ questions about charging expenses and project assets to clients and when it’s appropriate to charge for ‘learning’ time. They talk about making the transition from a steady job to running a new business and why it’s important never to burn bridges, and how to compete with bargain basement website designers.
This episode is sponsored by Perch, the little content management system for projects where you don't want a big, complex CMS and Ben Frain’s fabulous new book, Sass and Compass for Designers.
Anna and Andy talk about biscuits and business software. Anna explains how she uses FreeAgent to keep track of her finances and berates Andy for not trying it. They talk about back-up software and how Stuff and Nonsense use Dropbox to collaborate with clients during projects. Andy runs through his favourite design tools including Gridset and Typecast and no discussion about software would be complete without bemoaning how Adobe are abandoning Fireworks.
This episode is sponsored by 8faces, a limited edition typography magazine, and Handheld, the conference for all things mobile that’s happening in Cardiff, Wales in November 2013. Get 10% off your ticket with the offer code unfinishedbz.
Anna and Andy exchange notes on their workplace setups and some of the tools they use, from hardware to software, and Andy gets distracted by Mutton Bustin'.
This episode is sponsored by Hammer for Mac, the nifty development tool for designers and developers, and Handheld, the conference for all things mobile that’s happening in Cardiff, Wales in November 2013. Get 10% off your ticket with the offer code unfinishedbz.
This week, Andy’s back from two weeks in Japan and he and Anna talk about his trip Tokyo and Hiroshima. Andy explains why he thinks everyone should visit Hiroshima at least once and Anna opens her presents with loud rustling. They answer listener questions about weekly working, pricing and invoicing and then discuss whether it's a good idea to work while on holiday.
This episode is sponsored by Hammer for Mac, the nifty development tool for designers and developers, and Five Simple Steps and Collection Two of their Pocket Guide series. Tweet your favourite short business tip with the hash tag #pockettip before Friday 26th April for a chance to be one of two people to win Collection Two of the Pocket Guides, or the very lucky person to win an entire set of Pocket Guides.
While waiting for Andy's return, Anna chats with her "big brother", the righteous Ryan Taylor. They discuss working from home, apprenticeships, front-end portfolios, and working with a hybrid designer/developer.
This episode is sponsored by Hammer for Mac, the nifty development tool for designers and developers, and Beyond Tellerrand, a conference and workshop event for the web community. Beyond Tellerrand is happening May 27th to the 29th in Düsseldorf in Germany. Use the offer code unfinished4 for 10% off the standard price.
While Andy is in Japan, Anna is joined by the amazing Ashley Baxter, who took over her dad's insurance business at 18. They talk about starting out young, learning new skills, determination, vision and overcoming fear.
This episode is sponsored by Hammer for Mac, the nifty development tool for designers and developers, and Five Simple Steps and their Pocket Guide series. Get 10% off Collection One by using the code UNFINISHEDPGC10 at checkout between the 8th and 15th of April.
While Anna is en vacance en France, Andrew’s joined by guest co-host, designer Laura Kalbag to talk about mentoring students and how to give them, and other newcomers, valuable commercial project experience. Laura also talks about how best to ask for, and deal with, client feedback while Andrew remembers Mickey, the world’s cleverest chimpanzee. This episode is sponsored by Blush, beautiful letterpress printing of cards, stationery and more for designers and artists and Beyond Tellerrand a conference and workshop event for the web community. Beyond Tellerrand is happening May 27th to the 29th in Düsseldorf in Germany. Use the offer code unfinished3 for 10% off the standard price.
Following his visit to the University of Ulster in Belfast this week, Anna and Andrew talk about how hard it is to keep up with new technologies and techniques and how to decide what aspects of web design and development to learn next.
This episode is sponsored by Jon Hicks’ The Icon Handbook from at Five Simple Steps. Between now and the 1st April you’ll get 10% off all formats using the offer code UNFINISHEDICON10.
Industry Conference is an event for web professionals that’s happening in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK on April 24th. Use the code unfinished to get 40% off conference and workshop tickets.
Anna and Andy talk about Anna's new limited company, why she needed to set up a company and how she went about doing it. Andy moans about not understanding GitHub (again) and why developer tools often make him feel stupid. After hours, they talk about an episode of Anna's favourite cartoon, Adventure Time. (Andy would like to apologise for the scratchy audio in this week's episode. His beard was itchy but he promises it won't happen again.) This episode is sponsored by Typecast; quickly style type in the browser and check for readability, rendering and beauty as you work, and Beyond Tellerrand a conference and workshop event for the web community. Beyond Tellerrand is happening May 27th to the 29th in Düsseldorf in Germany. Use the offer code unfinished2 for 10% off the standard price.
Anna and Andy talk about the benefits Stuff and Nonsense gained when they ditched daily rates and fixed project pricing and switched to estimating, working and billing in weekly patterns. Andy explains how agile methods can benefit designers and clients, even though he doesn't really know the difference between agile and scrum. After hours, they talk about their movie of the week, Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol 2. This episode is sponsored by Typecast; quickly style type in the browser and check for readability, rendering and beauty as you work, and two Five Simple Steps’ business related books: Web App Success and Managing Web Projects.
This week, Andy and Anna discuss their experience of working from home (or living at work), and some of the techniques that help them block out distractions. They also debate the very important issue of how to make the perfect cup of tea. At the end of the show, they talk about Kill Bill Volume 1 in what will be a regular section about Tarantino movies. This episode is sponsored by Typecast; quickly style type in the browser and check for readability, rendering and beauty as you work, and Beyond Tellerrand a conference and workshop event for the web community. Beyond Tellerrand is happening May 27th to the 29th in Düsseldorf in Germany. Use the offer code unfinished1 for 10% off the standard price.
Anna and Andy follow up last week’s episode with listener questions about the professional (and unprofessional) ways to handle business disputes. They also discuss how best to say goodbye to a client and cue up a few movies to watch and talk about ‘after hours’ in the coming weeks.
Anna and Andy talk about how to get work and how they both found their first clients. Anna gets annoyed about revenge sites and Andy tells, for the first time, how he lost everything and restarted Stuff and Nonsense in 2006.
Anna and special guest co-host Rachel Andrew, — web developer and Director of edgeofmyseat.com, the company that makes Perch CMS. They answer listener questions about working with clients, customers, insurance, work/life balance and subcontracting.
Andy and Anna talk about their experiences when they have lost out on business and not got a dream job, doing a bad pitch (Andy has done plenty of those), learning from those mistakes and how not to take it personally when a client moves on.
In this episode, getting paid. Andy and Anna talk about deposits and down-payments, getting paid regularly and what you can do if the unthinkable happens and you have to fight for your money.
In this episode, the often taboo subject of how to decide what to charge for what you do. Getting the balance between too cheap and too pricey can be tricky, so Andy and Anna share their experiences — including Andy’s infamous ‘double your rate Fridays’ — and how to handle uncomfortable conversations about money.
Andy Clarke and Anna Debenham discuss about why a show about business is important and why one needn’t be boring. They talk about this week’s CES and whether designers and developers might need to buy these new devices. And of course, Andy talks about Planet Of The Apes while Anna nods politely.