2010 has been one of those roller-coaster years of sadness and great opportunity. This time a year ago I was working hard for my former employer, Champs-Elysées Inc., who unexpectedly declared themselves bankrupt in March 2010 after relentless lawsuits that resulted in the court room death of Mark Green, one of the company's directors. The woeful tale was like a Hollywood saga reminiscent of the TV shows Dallas or Dynasty, for background info check out this link: http://www.nashvillepost.com/news/2005/12/22/when_family_business_becomes_family_feud.
The day before the Easter weekend I turned up for work only to find that I no longer had a job. After 4 years hard graft of boosting profits and creating some great interactive media it certainly wasn't the end I had been expecting. During the Easter weekend I had a frenzied text, email and phone call blast to all my contacts and former colleagues in an attempt to get some work. Luckily my effort paid off with a short job for Aardman and that bought me time to finish my website (well almost!) and start the ball rolling with other clients. Luckily I was able to secure some decent work for nice people and haven't looked back since.
During the past 12 months I have produced some interesting work, but mostly 2010 has been a year reconciling the loss of full-time employment and various members of my family, most notably my grandfather Jack Baker and great aunt, Olive May Thomas. They were immense characters in my life and I am sad they are no longer here but I have a feeling that 2011 is going to be a lot more positive as my first child in due to be born in early April, so hopefully this will lift my family once more.
Notable work during 2010:
- Various Flash games for BAC2010: http://www.bac2010.co.uk/puzzles_and_games.htm
- The launch of multiple digital download sites using Magento Commerce for Ebooks LLC using the first version of my new Magento base theme (on sale soon!).
- Various social media and search engine marketing campaigns for digital marketing agencies in the South West
- Extensive reworking of 13 Future Publishing websites (front-end and back-end) to boost the user experience and optimize server delivery, sites include: 3dworldmag.co.uk and sfx.co.uk
- And a whole host of other work I haven't got time to list or put on my website.
Upcoming events of 2011:
During the next 12 months I intend to focus my efforts on my new family and my own digital products. I have several digital products and services in the pipeline, with the first due to be released in the next 2 months. I have some great ideas and there will be some very exciting, productive and useful tools going on sale soon, so please check back for the latest news.
As for my vocational work, I am looking forward to meeting new clients and helping my current ones reach and exceed their goals, so please get in touch if you want to work with me and Happy New Year!
I wish you all a great 2011!