My First Post!

Well it's a brand new year, and I've decided to join the blogging craze!

I plan to use this blog as a journal of my work life for my own record, but hopefully it will also be of interest to others!

I've never been very good at keeping a diary/journal in the past, so we shall see how I get on!

Here's a potted history up to where I'm at right now:

I'm a freelance Motion Graphics designer based in Manchester, UK. I specialise in producing visuals for the nightclub and entertainment industries. I started doing this in 2004, and prior to that I had worked as a lighting designer since 2000. Add to this my 'amateur'/part time years whilst I was at college and I've clocked up 10 years working in entertainment technology.

I now supply over 500 nightclubs and bars around the UK and Ireland, and work for some of the UK's leading event management companies.

Other related skills/interests include web development (I don't offer this as a service anymore, but designed and maintain my own company websites, and continue to provide support for a handful of companies who I have developed sites for in the past). I am experienced in PHP, MySQL and JavaScript (which I also use in my Motion Graphics work).

From my lighting design days I'm knowledgeable about lighting technology and although I never got a chance to use some of the more exotic lighting desks, I do know the Pulsar Masterpiece inside out!

I've got 3 A Levels (Computing, Design and Maths) but can honestly say I haven't used any of what I learned during college in my career to date! (Although I'm pleased to say that trigonometry from GCSE maths has come in very useful!). I didn't go to university, and apart from perhaps missing out on the social side of it, I have no regrets about that!

Outside of work, I'm passionate about food - I love both cooking and eating! After a day stuck in front of a computer screen, there's nothing I love more than getting busy in the kitchen (I think about what I'm going to have for dinner the moment I wake up in the morning!).

I co-promoted a successful club night for 6 years, and DJ'd at this too, so can beat mix and my musical knowledge regularly comes in handy in my Motion Graphics work.

That'll do for today... check back soon!