Portfolio

Orange Rockcorps 2010

Given the success of last year’s event I was this year again asked by Euro RSCG KLP to create the interface for the Orange Rockcorps concerts, starting with the gig at Manchester Apollo.

The application is given away free to Orange Rockcorps attendees on a novel USB key and contains both preloaded footage and footage filmed live at the concert just watched.

This year we decided to go with full-screen video and a neat translucent menu. Items on the menu needed to be entirely dynamic from XML as we didn’t know until the last minute (live) which tracks would be performed – and only a certain amount of data can be burned to the keys in the limited time available.

This isn’t only a video application (though I took considerable care over that side of it) – there is also a dynamic gallery inside the Blackberry section. Images for this are loaded sequentially, it centres itself and is geared to the mouse.

I’m very pleased with my part in creating this application – hopefully it’ll serve as a great memento of the gig for all who attended.

The Rockcorps 2010 Manchester gig took place on 8th July 2010 and was a tremendous success. 3,300 USB keys were given away with the application on them.

Blinder.tv

Blinder.tv is an example of a unique, new kind of Flash website I am offering to clients.

It’s a full-blown video intensive Flash website designed by New Graphic and entirely developed by me using several thousand lines of ActionScript 3, but virtually all of its content comes from a Drupal Content Management System installation which I have specially tailored to the client’s needs.

The site is deep-linked using SWFAddress to a very deep level (not a simple thing to accomplish), meaning any state of the site can be bookmarked by the user. It also uses a custom made video player which elegantly goes to fullscreen, and the data transfer is all done using Flash Remoting, which is much faster than XML.

The most revolutionary aspect of this site, perhaps, is the fact that it uses a special system to ensure that all of the Flash content is potentially indexable by search engines.

The bespoke Content Management System encourages search engines to crawl and index its pages, by regularly and automatically submitting XML sitemaps – but it only allows search engines to do this. When any other user attempts to visit an indexed page, they are transparently redirected to the equivalent deep link in the Flash site.

With this system, I believe I have solved the problem of Flash content being difficult for search engines to index.

To top off this extremely flexible system, the site also detects for all mobile devices and automatically forwards more limited devices, like Apple’s iPad, to Blinder’s YouTube channel. Blinder said of the site:

“We are delighted with the end result and I appreciate the huge amount of work you put into it. It really is a great site.”

BBC Love Calculator

I was asked by the BBC to design and program a game for their teenage site Slink. The brief was to recreate a children’s playground game in code, and give it a playful interface.

The result was the Love Calculator! It accepts two names and calculates, by sorting through the letters, the likely degree of love between the two parties. This is done with scientific accuracy, of course!

See pop star Taylor Swift playing the game here and “Jedward” playing it here…

The Love Calculator was a big hit and remains highly popular on the BBC’s site. It’s easily updated to use celebrity names too, so always remains topical.

Euro RSCG KLP

During the Spring of 2009 I worked on a major redevelopment of the corporate website of Euro RSCG KLP, the Soho media agency. While the design phase was carried out largely by the agency itself, I was responsible for all of the Flash development.

The site is entirely configured from XML files, to the degree that editors can even decide which fonts they wish menu items to use. It is also extremely dynamic in that it resizes itself to any desktop screen resolution, centring and aligning elements on the fly.

Also capable of this dynamic scaling and aligning is the custom-built media player in the “Work” section, which seamlessly displays both images and videos.

I met and overcame many technical challenges in making this site, as is almost always the case in programming. I also became familiar with numerous APIs along the way, including Box 2D, which you can see being used in the “Bounce” section, and the Google Maps API for Flash, used in the “Contact” section.

The KLP website was a demanding but satisfying job – one we might enter for an Favourite Website Award once I have polished it up some more!

Orange Rockcorps 2009

In September 2009 I was commissioned to develop an interface, or “dashboard”, for over 5,000 USB keys which were to be distributed straight after the Orange Rockcorps event at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

I used Papervision 3D extensively on the project, and ensured that the entire interface was fed from XML so that the right video files could be loaded. The system had to be simple to configure, as it needed to be deployed within a matter of minutes after the concert ended.

On the night, the deployment of the interface was a complete success and I was highly commended by Aderra and by KLP Euro RSCG, with whom I worked on the project, Aderra saying this was by far the best dashboard for their product that they had so far seen.

Please note that if you click on this project it will take some time to load as it was built for offline use. Also it may be large for your screen – but you’ll see some nice 3D effects.

My work on this project resulted in the interface being re-used for the Paris Rockcorps event and also in me being recommissioned to work on another interface this year!

Joanne Hynes Fashion

In February 2009 I was employed by New Graphic agency, Dublin, contributing to their site for fashion designer Joanne Hynes. I took care of the preloading architecture and also built the image viewer you can see in the “Collection” section. This zooms the given image and gears its motion to the mouse.

My contributions to this site were minor, but effective. It’s always nice to work on such aesthetically attractive projects!

New Graphic

In 2007 I rebuilt the website of Irish design agency New Graphic. While the site is minimal in appearance, there’s a lot of code behind it – all of the content can be configured by the agency themselves, via XML. This project required me to use techniques such as bitmap smoothing along with tweening libraries and E4X.

New Graphic tell me they received overwhelmingly positive feedback for this site. I have continued an excellent working relationship with them.

The Hill That Breathes

The Hill That Breathes is a holistic holiday company based in Urbino, Italy. In 2007 I single-handedly designed and built their first website completely in Flash. It was quite a major development, especially for the time, as it was completely fed from XML and featured numerous sound and animation effects.

With this development I used various Flash components and took care to strike exactly the right tone for the company – one of elegance and calm.

Sleb Snowfight Game

I’ve produced a number of projects for the BBC, this one being a game for their teenage site Switch.

Game programming requires the programmer to keep track of many things that may be happening at once, so it’s a good test of skill.

This game was designed to be highly playable and also skinnable (there’s a “bar brawl” version too, and characters can be updated to whoever is popular at the time).

I made this game in 2003, so the fact it still has a prominent place on the BBC’s site now is testament to its longevity!

Shaun Power Associates

In 2005 I created a full Flash site for design studio Shaun Power Associates.

This site showcases all of Shaun Power’s corporate design work and uses elegant loading routines and numerous effects to convey quiet confidence and capability.

Using little ActionScript, this site is evidence that sometimes “old school” Flash effects are suitable for the job.

Earth Sea Spirit

My work for The Hill That Breathes was quickly noticed and I was asked to create the site for another holiday company.

I both designed the site and created the brand identity for this company. I arranged the site, again, so that the client could update it themselves via XML.

Though simple and quick to make, this site conveyed just the right look and feel and mixed stock photography with actual shots from the location.

Climate

Climate is a creative design & communications company based in Dublin, helping the likes of Hewlett Packard, EMI and Wrangler.

I was called on to create a particular element of this site (in ActionScript 2.0): the dynamic image gallery for their Selected Work section.

I am often called on to work on sub-elements of a site like this. I’m happy to do so.

Disney Cheetah Girls Game

In 2009 I was employed by major London agency Ogilvy Action to assist in the creation of a game for Disney’s Cheetah Girls site.

Working at the beginning of the project, I defined the over-all structure of the Dance Me if You Can game and created a countdown timer which adhered strictly to the MVC design pattern. We then had a live dancer come in and the dance moves were recorded on a blue screen, then I handed the project over to another developer who finished the game.

It was great to work on a big brand like Disney and the finished game remains online now.

Earlier work

Some years ago now I carried out all Flash development and JavaScript coding for two prestigious London property development websites: 60 Whitfield Street and 27 Charlotte Road.

There are some novel effects in these two full Flash sites including an early version of 3D, pixel fonts and a fair bit of browser/Flash communication.

With these sites it was nice to give some potentially dry subjects a more interesting and interactive treatment.