Snow way!!!!

Ok, back to back snow posts aint that great really, surely I've done something more exciting in between than watch snow. Well, other than have a rocky couple of months with the business and stress myself over Christmas, the simple answer is no.

Actually I tell a lie there, I started a new job this week as Creative Director of Manchester based design studio Pixel8, which will be a brilliant move for me. As much as I've enjoyed working for myself I soon realized that I needed more people around me, so I'm taking my clients with me and gonna kick some ass in 2010. Keep your eyes out for pixel8 this year, got a lot of great plans and some superb projects lined up over the next few months.

Anyway, back to the snow. So day 2 of new job and what happens? Total whiteout in Bolton!! Game over, road chaos, train fails, buses cancelled, schools shut, it was like something from a disaster movie round our way.

Picture the scene. I get up nice and earlier, get up and go to the car. I notice through the windows that there's been some kick ass snow but I'm ok with it. Until I see this.




But I soldier on, taking it easy to get to the train station just over a mile away. But there roads are like this.



But it's ok, once I get to the station carpark I can find out what the trains are like. Until I get stuck trying to get on the carpark, which then turns into me getting stuck trying to get out of the entrance too. Stuck. But luckily a nice bloke saw my plight and ran over with a shovel and dug me out. Amazing!

So I drove home with the idea of trying to just drive into Manchester instead, which failed also, after over an hour I managed to get near home but was stuck again, this time 4 guys ran over and pushed me round the corner and on my way. Good times. So I decided to dump my car near home, hoping the council don't do me for parking on single yellows (like you can see em). After some checking it was looking bleak. M61, chaos. M60 carnage. M6, M62, M58 you name it they were all hammered and causing serious injuries and misery.

So I decided to work from home (the power of emails and Macs eh) and take some more pics of the snow. If you compare the pics here to those below there's an unreal difference in depth which I've never seen before in my life.

Hopefully, tonight will be mild but from what I've heard we're in for more of the same.

Oh dear.

Let it snow, let it snow...

Well, well, well, I've been wishing for snow for years and I think all of my previous wishes have all been rolled into one great BIG wish and dropped all at once. INSANE snowfall round our way.

Thing is, I can't really get mad about it like others seem to be, I just love the snow too much. Maybe I need to speak to someone about this, I think I'm holding on to too many childhood memories of making snowmen at my Nan's house in the 80's. Ok, so a couple of neighbours had to help me dig the car out and push me out of the backstreet this morning when I was taking my girl to work and that most of our great little plans of visiting farmer's markets and picking up bits and bobs have really gone belly up, but, all that aside just look at it. Amazing!!

I also managed a sneaky snowball fight with the neighbour's kids the other day, 7 year olds are really aggressive aren't they?

Here are a few snaps from our house this morning...before more snow came.

The mighty Tim Burton.

Well I wish I was either living in New York or had a bunch of money to go there because MOMA is showing a retrospective of Tim Burton's work, from November 22nd right through to April 26th, which if we're honest about it should be pretty fantastic.

I'm a huge fan of Burton's work, not only in film but I love his doodling style of drawing and his dark but not nasty humour, it cracks me up. If you're not familiar with any of his printed work then you MUST get a copy of The Melancholy Death Of Oyster Boy book, it is absolutely superb. The book is full of cute but grim short stories, poems, dittos...etc of some real oddball characters such as the boy with nails in his eyes, stain boy, the girl with many eyes and of course, oyster boy.

Anyway, back on track, this short has been directed by Tim Burton to promote/tease the launch of the MOMA exhibition. I love it.

Wish I was in NY. Enjoy.

Football Hero.

If you haven't already seen it, check this peachy slice of creative genius out. I'm a big fan of Kasabian's new Underdog track which this is promoting and the guys responsible, Phil Clandilon and Steve Milbourne have made something truly brilliant in my eyes. Nike/Umbro have had a masterstroke with this one, becoming involved with this kind of project is a great move forward in getting Umbro back up to where it should be as a football brand.

The idea is such a simple one, blending the fame and love of Guitar Hero with football is too good and the way it has been presented is perfect if you ask me. Maybe a huge living room set would have been cool to toy with the whole playing scenario of the original Hero games, but it's easy to try to add more to someone else's genius aint it?

I absolutely LOVE this kind of creative, the kind that actually makes you smile and enjoy every second, rather than just looking pretty or being lost in a sea of complex narrative.

Check out the vid below, plus the making of below that.

Brilliant!

Braaaaiiiiiiiiiinzzzzzz!!

Well what a great end to the weekend!! Zombie Aid had its second outing in Manchester on Sunday (1st November) and what a blast! A bunch of us dressed up for the occasion, as you do, bit of clothing, some fake blood, latex, face paints, mud, more fake blood and plenty of moans and groans and off we went. Everyone met up at the Printworks and by everyone, I mean EVERYONE, around 3000 I think all dressed in all kinds of insane Zombie get ups, from simple crash bloody messes, to nurses, to businessmen, to lollypop ladies...it was a superb sight. We were going as an active Zombie Marine Unit and I ended up as a kind of Zombie marine cum Highway Patrol guy, which worked.

If you haven't heard about it, Zombie Aid is a charity run event organized by Carl Whitely with all proceeds going to Christie's Cancer Hospital. There is a large Facebook presence and a group too so search it out.

The night consisted of a couple of slices of Zombie action, the first was an attempt to break the British record for the largest mass Thriller dance that was held at the Pure nightclub...apparently we smashed the record, which was cool as I found the dancing super hard. The second part was a huge Zombie walk around the city centre then through a closed Arnedale Centre, which was amazing, just like being in a film.

Enough waffling, do some searching online to find out more about it, but for now check out some pics of us lot having a bit of a laugh, my brother and sister-in-law rocked some awesome make-up so next year is gonna be HUGE!!

New blog! (ish)

Well I decided rather than wait until my site is up, then mess around installing WordPress and getting my head round that, it would be a good idea to at least update things so they look better. My Twitter has been tweaked to my styling upgrade so thought I'd sort my blog out too. I think it's looking a bit nicer than the harsh colours from before and there's more scope in the new vibe with all the links from the different woods (my name's Woods...see what I did there?)and how all that can tie in as a theme.

I'll do a nice big branding post when I'm done, bit of insight into how I think which is something I think more designers should do to be honest.

Let me know what you think, it won't be for everyone but that's kind of the point I suppose.

Exciting times.

Well things are coming together now. My proper website is more or less designed, in the process of being built and looking good. I got my domains and email stuff sorted out finally and a cool email signature (always a necessity if you ask me) and got my promo design style kinda sorted too. Onwards and upwards and a big push for new business begins in December.

One problem though, this blog may have to be canned and a new one started from fresh. Blogger has been great and has helped me learn loads, plus I'll be keeping my DubMissile blogger site as there's too much stuff on there I'd rather not bin, but I'll be leaning towards the WordPress darkside very soon and starting a nice fresh spanking blog to go along with my tweaked identity and the rest of it. Gotta be done I'm afraid unless I change my mind.

I've had quite a lot of recent events workwise that have kicked my ass but also helped me understand my market position so all this will help me promote myself a lot better I reckon.

Looking forward to it.