Date
Event
Overview
2020
ReHub ~ Founder & Head Gardener

Rural Retreat for nomads, creatives, nature-lovers and adventurous travellers ~ based in an historic off-grid farm, in Central Portugal.

2020
Willow ~ Founder & Lead Developer

A logic-less template engine, built for WordPress developers.

2019
El Mirador ~ Walker

Trekking to the lost Maya city of El Mirador, deep in the jungles of the Petén region of Guatemala, close to the southern border with México.

2019
Greenheart International ~ Lead Developer

Greenheart is a leader in cultural exchange and fair trade ~ connecting thousands of people around the world through travel and ethical shopping.

2018
Sri Lanka ~ Explorer

Sri Lanka sits like a drop at the base of India, from where all the cultural riches have filtered down into this small, yet vibrant island nation.

2018
Greenheart Travel ~ Lead Developer

Greenheart Travel provide programs that allow travellers to experience a new culture and share with others about their own

2017
Greenheart Exchange ~ Lead Developer

Since 1985, Greenheart Exchange has offered cultural exchange programs in the U.S. that connect Americans with international students.

2017
Iberian Wildfires ~ Firefighter

On 15 October 2017 strong winds powered by Hurricane Ophelia passing between the Azores and the peninsula, fanned wildfires in both Portugal and Spain.

2017
Nomad Cruise ~ Passenger

Hosted a mastermind session on Rural Start-ups, while sailing past Antigua on the Nomad Cruise from Colombia to Portugal.

2016
Paris Agreement ~ Observer

The Paris Agreement's goal is to keep the increase in global temperature to well below 2 °C (3.6 °F) above pre-industrial levels.

2016
Celeiro Pronto ~ Architect and Laborour

Completion of the renovation of the large 19th Century granite dry-stone barn.

2016
Brexit ~ Voter

The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016…

2016
Export User Data ~ Lead Developer

A WordPress plugin that exports all standard user data and usermeta data which is active on over 10,000 WordPress installs.

2015
Life on Mars ~ Stargazer

NASA announces that liquid water has been found on Mars.

2015
Ibiza Differente ~ Project Manager + Lead Developer

Ibizadiferente SL. is a Dutch Real Estate agent with offices in Spain and Holland who have worked with Q Studio for almost 10 years.

2014
Quinta de Sant’Ana ~ Project Manager + Lead Developer

Quinta de Sant'Ana overlooks the picturesque village of Gradil with its cobbled streets, white washed houses and hospitable inhabitants.

2013
Number Slider ~ Lead Developer

Simple plugin for Advanced Custom Fields which adds a visual UI Number Slider field type with format, step and limitation options.

2012
Mayan Calendar Ends ~ Viewer

The end of the world, or at least the end of one system to measure time...

2012
LightTribe ~ Creative Consultant

LightTribe is a meeting point to explore your talents with purpose and joy to become authentic human Beings living their life in full potential.

2010
Q Studio ~ Founder & CEO

Q Studio is an offbeat outfit. We produce bulletproof WordPress applications for clients around the World.

2009
Farm Life ~ Buyer

To my own surprise, in 2009 I ended up living in Portugal on a remote, abandoned farm I had just purchased

2009
Ecoder ~ Lead Developer

Winner of the prestigious Dreamhost Site of the Month contest :) Ecoder was one of the first cloud-based code editors.

2007
GreenMedia ~ Founder & Lead Developer

GreenMedia was established - Ecological & community focused website builder.

2007
Casita Verde ~ Volunteer

Casita Verde is a small ecology centre located in the green heart of Ibiza's beautiful countryside and the official headquarters of the NGO Ibiza Ecologic.

2005
IbzCreative ~ Co-Founder + Lead Developer

IbzCreative was a digital promotions agency, which produced interactive media to promote clients such as Space, Hotel Es Vive, Es Paradise & Manumission.

2004
We’re Going to Ibiza! ~ Traveller

Having visited Spain on several occasions, I was drawn to its warm culture and rich history, it was time for a new adventure, to Ibiza.

2003
Human Genome Project ~ Observer

The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA.

2002
BaseSpace ~ Co-Founder & Lead Developer

BaseSpace was a CMS designed to meet the needs of SMEs and to be franchised and sold by local community-based sellers.

2001
9/11 ~ Observer

An unexpected, emotionally and visually overwhelming attack on the World Trade Centre in New York rocks the world into military re-action.

2001
Around the World ~ Traveller

Few employment options, some available cash and a desire to see more of the world took me off on an 18 month round the world trip.

2001
WireUnit ~ Co-founder / UI developer

A short lived digital promotions start-up with clients including Tesco.

2000
First DotCom Bust ~ Shareholder

My first taste of the corporate world came to a short, sharp end.

1999
WorldOnline ~ Junior Designer to Studio Manager

A warm welcome to the topsy-turvy world of the internet, working for a large Dutch ISP.

1999
Euro ’99 ~ Spender

Adios Peseta. Hello Euro.

1997
TempoSkill ~ Selector

DJ TempoSkill might not go down in the history as a well known selector, but at least I turned up to all my gigs :)

1996
Time-Based Media ~ Student

Kent Institute of Art and Design was situated on the edge of a small fir pine forest, on the outskirts of Maidstone, Kent.

1995
MiniDisc ~ Listener

Thanks to a generous scholarship, I was given a Sony MiniDisc MZR-30 and music never sounded so good.

1994
Repetitive Beats ~ Protestor

My first taste of civil disobedience and the whims of government trying to impose their cultural norms on a changing society.

1994
A Level ~ Student

Extended optional education.

1993
L Plates ~ Driver

At the ripe old age of 17 years and 2 weeks, I passed my driving test, but only just.

1992
Selected Ambient Works ~ Listener

Richard D James released the album Selected Ambient Works 85–92, which captured the musical zeitgeist of a misunderstood generation.

1991
Berlin United ~ Observer

When I used to look at the map or Europe, Berlin always appeared to be smack-bang in the centre, half way from London to Moscow.

1990
Hubble Telescope ~ Observer

Before Hubble launched, few people on Earth could grasp its value. Only once the visuals began to arrive was the true beauty revealed.

1989
Quai d’Orsay ~ Adventurer

This mysterious street name triggered an incurable desire to learn about other cultures and to eventually travel the world.

1988
Basic Basic ~ Typer

First experience of BASIC computer language, via a type-in program in Creative Computing magazine.

1988
A Brief History of Time ~ Reader

Oddly, this books lies next to my hand-made wooden bed today, but features as the last entry in my own brief history, when listed in reverse order.

2020

ReHub

Role: Founder & Head Gardener

Rural Retreat for nomads, creatives, nature-lovers and adventurous travellers ~ based in an historic off-grid farm, in Central Portugal.

The idea is simple enough – as all good ideas are – to create a warm, traditional and sustainable environment in an historic, culturally-rich and remote location where creatives, nature-lovers and adventurous travellers can re-connect to their passions.

ReHub is not a large centre, there are 4 main buildings and two hectares or well-maintained terraced lands – located on the south-facing slopes of the Serra do Caramulo, 45km from the Atlantic coast, in Central Portugal.

The centre is designed to accommodate small numbers at one-time, naturally limited by the resources that are available on the property – water from a natural spring, energy from a mixture of solar and micro-hydro generation – also all organic material is carefully composted and we grow large quantities of our own food and make wine from the vineyard.

Groups for dedicated retreats, families, couples or single adventurous travellers, creatives looking for a hide-away to complete a project, walkers looking for a base to explore the near-by Caminho Português de Santiago or amateur archaeologists wanting to the discover the megalithic dolmens and burial chambers which dot the mountain range.

From the farm, you can head out on foot for the day to explore the some of the near-by mountain hamlets, many in a similar state to 300 years ago, hand-built granite stone houses, corn drying racks, mysterious water mines tunnelled into the steep cliffs, terraces and lost cart tracks as far as the eye can see – and space, an abundance of fresh air, clean water and peace.

There are also many marked and maintained walking routes, themed around water and stone – passing historic watermills and oak forests – connecting the important Roman towns of Viseu, Vouzela and the still popular hot thermal town or Sao Pedro do Sul – via Roman bridges and river paths along the Zela, Vouga, Mondego or Dao – countless other tributaries and streams.

ReHub has a small co-working office, always available to guests ( internet speed is limited due to the rural location, but reliable ), a 6 person Dormitory, a self-contained apartment for up to 4 people and a large open space, used for Yoga, meditation or to hold meetings – there is also a small dip pool for the hot summer months.

To ensure that we maintain and healthy balance and do not overstretch the limited resources nature provides, we do not accept groups larger that 6 at a single time and all bookings should be made well in advance and will an agreed upon aim – we are largely agnostic but have guiding ethical rules which dictate which type of events we wish to host.

There is reasonable access to the land, but the road is unpaved – which has the pro of ensuring there is virtually zero passing traffic, but some vehicles might prefer to park 500 meters away – in a safe but more accessible location.

As the farm is totally off-grid, it should be noted that we use composting toilets and have limited water and power resources – this is not seen as a negative aspect of the location, but rather a realistic one which, for many, is part of the reason to visit – to learn more about how to more carefully balance our consumption and reuse of organic material.

The mountainous location also can lead to unpredictable environmental conditions such as heavy rain and strong winds – forest fires is also a continual threat over the dry summer months in most of Portugal.

This launch of this project is currently delayed until Winter 2020, due to the ongoing pandemic…

2020

Willow

Role: Founder & Lead Developer

A logic-less template engine, built for WordPress developers.

Willow is a Logic-less Template Engine, shaped from the ground-up to work with WordPress, taking full advantage of Advanced Custom Fields at its core.

Hello Willow

All Willow tags include a matching opening and closing pair, starting and ending with a curly bracket and one other internal character.

Here is a timeless classical example of how to get started with Willow:

{~ ui~hello {+ <div>Willow says {{ hello }}</div> +} ~}

This tag calls the PHP public method ui::hello() and Willow wraps the returned data in the passed markup HTML:

class ui {

	public static function hello( $args = null ) {

		// define key + value to render ##
		return [
			'hello' => 'Hello'
		];

	}

}

Which returns the following output from the template:

<div>Willow says Hello</div>
2019

El Mirador

Role: Walker

Trekking to the lost Maya city of El Mirador, deep in the jungles of the Petén region of Guatemala, close to the southern border with México.

It’s the last night of the year and also, by chance of the decade, we’ve found our vantage point and have settled in ready for the spectacle – but there will be no music or fireworks and the nearest cold beer is 2 days walk away in the station town of Carmelita – this might seem like a bad choice of location to welcome in the new year, if we were not standing on top of the tallest pyramid of the ancient Mayan world – La Danta in Guatemala – staring up at the constellations in the clear nights sky which guided so much of the daily life of these unworldly architects.

The Mayans left almost as many clues and they did mysteries about their lives – from their day to day habits to the techniques they used to build their incredible structures – and perhaps the greatest unanswered question about this race of master builders is how their multi-millennial reigns ended.

The Spanish arriving in the mid 16th century would have seen a sight familiar to the those trekking slightly deeper off the beaten path today – piles of cut stones and oddly shaped green hills – often set in deep semi-tropical jungle, to the untrained eyes they are easy to simply pass by.

The main contribution the Spanish made to the Mayan mystery appears to be in their industrial scale destruction of Mayan written records – burning anything which did not fit the puritanical tastes of the radical Catholic priests who arrived intend of purging every pagan notion from the natives they encountered.

By laying waste to the keys required by future generations to decrypt the complex hieroglyphic writing system which could reveal the Mayan story to the tomb raiders and archaeologists who would one day come to rediscover these lost cities in the jungle – the Spanish added one more twist of mystery to this saga – some parts of which to this say remain a mystery.

Let’s take a few steps back in time to the present moment and begin with a whirlwind tour of the Maya world as we find it today – stretched across the modern land masses known as Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras – there are thousands of sites ranging in size from hamlets of 2 buildings to expansive cities like El Mirador which occupied a space 3 times the size of downtown LA.

Some sites have been meticulously restored, made easily accessible and are patrolled and protected, while others remain totally covered and hardly known, but to local chicleros who wandered deep into the semi-tropical forests looking for new trees to sap.

2019

Greenheart International

Role: Lead Developer

Greenheart is a leader in cultural exchange and fair trade ~ connecting thousands of people around the world through travel and ethical shopping.

Greenheart is a leader in cultural exchange and fair trade, connecting thousands of people around the world through travel and ethical shopping.

Greenheart International, is also a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization committed to connecting people and planet to create a more peaceful and sustainable global community.

Greenheart trusts Q Studio and we trust them – and that mutual trust builds confidence which is very liberating both in a creative sense and also in a getting-stuff-done sense.

Once the ground-rules had been defined, thru careful discovery and conceptualization phases, we were free to glide into the creative process, knowing we would be met by a receptive and open-minded client, when it’s time to present our ideas.

If you have looked at more of , you will see that Greenheart is a major client, we have completed more than 10 large projects for them over the years.

2018

Sri Lanka

Role: Explorer

Sri Lanka sits like a drop at the base of India, from where all the cultural riches have filtered down into this small, yet vibrant island nation.

With 3,000 years of documented history to the recent heartbreak of civil war and natural catastrophes, modern Ski Lanka is emerging as a vibrant and culturally diverse island, which maintains connections with its long history – both the more recent colonial one and also its longer connection with India and Buddhism.

The list of things to see and do are endless, but if you are lucky enough you might get to:

  • Surf the warm Indian Ocean with turtles in the horse-show bay of Hiriketiya
  • Ride a bicycle around the epic ruins of Anuradhapura, a huge 5th century city in the central plains.
  • Eat the most delicious – and spicy! – rice and curry twice a day, followed by some cooling vanilla ice-cream.
  • Visit Yala National Park and see a myriad of large flora and fauna, including elephants, sloth-bears and even leopards.
  • Travel the old – and very crowded – imperial railway line up into the mountains, towards Kandy or Ella.
  • Visit coffee plantations in the lush sub-tropical low mountains.
  • The list goes on…

Sri Lanka has a heavy past – the generations that lived through the recent civil war hide their emotional scars behind bright white smiles and generous welcomes – they are proud of their country and keen to share stories, and once you are in their confidence they might also open up about the darker side of life – because it is importance to take a pinch of reality to balance out all this natural beauty.

2018

Greenheart Travel

Role: Lead Developer

Greenheart Travel provide programs that allow travellers to experience a new culture and share with others about their own

Creating Global Citizens Through Cultural Exchange – Greenheart Travel provide programs that allow travelers to experience a new culture and share with others about their own, bringing more understanding and compassion to the world we live in.

Greenheart Travel is a branch of Greenheart International, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization committed to connecting people and planet to create a more peaceful and sustainable global community.

Greenheart trusts Q Studio and we trust them back – and this mutual trust helper to builds confidence, which liberates us to do what we are good at, building bulletproof applications in WordPress.

Of all the Greenheart sites we had rebuilt, over a multi-year process, Travel was perhaps the simplest in terms of technology, but the most intensive in terms of content – we knew the audit process would be extensive, once we found out they had over 4000 blog posts to review.

2017

Greenheart Exchange

Role: Lead Developer

Since 1985, Greenheart Exchange has offered cultural exchange programs in the U.S. that connect Americans with international students.

Greenheart Exchange had a problem, a sizeable problem, to say the least – they had outgrown their current website, not just by a bit, but to the point where things were straining at the seams.

Built by committee, extended re-actively to meet new requirements, patched together technically and lacking a clear visual direction, their current website worked in very specific use-cases, but fell badly short of requirements in most others.

It was time to strip things back to basics and take on the enormous task of auditing, re-organising and pruning back the expansive content gathered over the years, rather like cobwebs in an empty home, a serious data-spring-clean was required.

We needed to provide the Exchange Team with a save-space to step back from meeting their day-to-day requirements of their participants and stakeholders and to encourage them to make an honest appraisal, to note down the good and bad of their current system and then to dare to dream about a totally re-envisioned version, designed from scratch, to meet both their current and also future requirements.

Luckily Greenheart bought in from the start, and dedicated one staff member full-time from the get-go, allowing us to plan a robust and complete conceptualization process to get the ball rolling on this sizeable project.

2017

Iberian Wildfires

Role: Firefighter

On 15 October 2017 strong winds powered by Hurricane Ophelia passing between the Azores and the peninsula, fanned wildfires in both Portugal and Spain.

Wide spread, large-scale forest fires are a part of the new reality for many of inhabitants of this planet – they are a direct result of human impact – be it from carbon emissions, over usage of groundwater supplies, bio-diversity loss or poor management of natural resources.

Whatever the direct cause, the end result is a change in the climate and with this comes new environmental challenges – hotter, drier summers and wetter winters – shifts in long-established seasonal patterns – a planet teetering on edge of a finely-balanced system established over millions of years of slow, natural evolutionary experimentation.

In the south-western part of Europe, the currently most notable effect of this climate shift is the increase in forest fire across the hot and dry summer seasons – and at times longer.

On October 15th 2017 – a perfect storm of hot, low-humidity weather, dry pine forests ( mixed with large quantities of non-native plantations, most notably of Eucalyptus ) and the Atlantic storm Ophelia ripped into the Central area of Portugal and Galicia in Spain causing incalculable natural, cultural and emotional damage in a matter of a few short hours.

The losses are hard to rationalise, in our small rural community all members were directly affected – and the wounds went deeper than flesh, as there are few bonds stronger than traditional farmers to their animals and lands.

2017

Nomad Cruise

Role: Passenger

Hosted a mastermind session on Rural Start-ups, while sailing past Antigua on the Nomad Cruise from Colombia to Portugal.

Firstly, a disclaimer – I like boats, slow travel and elegant forms of travel – old-world travel might be a better way to describe it.

Nomad Cruise does not exactly fit the description, but it sits in an interesting niche in the modern digital ~ innovative ~ economy – where people who have decided they do not want to sit in someone else’s office try to merge their interests and skills to generate new activities which others can not only enjoy, but also learn from.

Nomad Cruise offered an interesting mix which appealed to me in the following order:

  • A boat ride at around the same cost as a one-way flight from Colombia ( I was overlanding down from Canada at the time ) to Portugal ( where I am currently based ).
  • Stops in Madeira ( which is oddly inaccessible by commercial ferry from mainland Portugal ), Antigua and Sint Maarten.
  • An opportunity to “network” with Digital Nomads, attend conferences while at sea and also to share back some of my own experiences and skills – being one of the more mature attendees.
  • All you can eat and drink – including pizza at midnight – if that’s your cup of tea.
  • And very much last ( we learn from experience ) …getting drunk in the disco on cheap Margaritas..

The overall trip was a success, the boat was enormous and provided lots of space to relax, network, feast and even to play sports — and oddly, hardly a drop of Wi-Fi for 15 days, which was a cold-shock for many of the young net-addicts onboard 🙂

2016

Paris Agreement

Role: Observer

The Paris Agreement's goal is to keep the increase in global temperature to well below 2 °C (3.6 °F) above pre-industrial levels.

A significant global event, the  United Nations ‘united’ to reach a global agreement to implement steps to reduce and one day halt or even revert the destructive effects of pollution from industrialised nations around the world – a glimmer of hope.

2016

Celeiro Pronto

Role: Architect and Laborour

Completion of the renovation of the large 19th Century granite dry-stone barn.

I grew up in the smallest city in the UK, which had been an important Mediaeval settlement with a history dating back to at least the 7th century, and along with it’s diminutive size, also held the record as the highest point of the Fens, at a staggering 26 meters above sea-level.

Despite the clay foundations, many of the Gothic and Romanesque buildings remained, not only in good condition but in daily usage – most notably the huge 11th century cathedral but also the extensive grounds of the large private school which occupied much of the old monastic buildings.

We lived in a Victorian era terraced house – built form brick with small sandstone detailing and an extensive Parthenocissus quinquefolia which turned a deep red in the autumn, covering the small internal yard.

The schooling system and curriculum did not sit will with me, we spent most of our days in a drab 4 story mini-tower block, built in the pure 60’s style, tired from years of neglect and teenage abuse – it was a sad, unloved environment and it failed to inspire in me much joy for the topics I was being taught.

Next to the Music block sat the single level, open-plan Art department – and it was here that I first felt truly inspired by both a subject and the people teaching it – their passion was tangible, they believed in what they were sharing and in most cases they were also practising artists – successful or not, they were not just people retelling a story told to them – they were sharing something they felt intimately connected to.

It was here that I was first introduced to the History of Art – the story that maps humanity’s development from naïve to narcissistic – the story of how simple expression turns into obsession – and how we learnt from the errors or others to move from mud buildings to grand stone cathedrals.

One of many significant events that came to mind was an adventure up the tiny, twisting Mediaeval stone staircase to the roof of the cathedral, during the enormous renovation project – we were greeted at the top by unparalleled views of the oak and stained glass octagonal tower which streamed coloured sunlight down onto the central alter below.

To see the inner working of these innovative – and risk-taking architects – from the middle ages was about as awe-inspiring as any lesson I ever received and it left me with a profound passion for stone architecture which has propelled me around the world, from Cairo to Cartagena to Angkor Wat, in pursuit of first-hand knowledge of how these buildings were actually made and by whom.

This journey took another step when I came into possession of an abandoned farm in the mountains of Central Portugal in 2009, which included 3 hand-built dry-stone granite buildings and a large area of land.

In 2016 – thanks to the help of many willing hands and many years of hard work – the major building work was completed on the central ‘celeiro’ or barn in 2016.

2016

Brexit

Role: Voter

The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016…

The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country should remain a member of, or leave, the European Union (EU).

On a personal note, I was born in the UK, but have lived more than half of my life outside of it – with large parts spent inside an open Europe – I speak or understand many European languages and feel a deep connection to the rich cultures – the idea of closing the door to our own cultural roots and closest neighbours seems beyond logic – a reactionary act of quasi-political madness – but, that’s just my opinion 😉

Welcome to the new polemic – the radicalised, partisan world we now all live in.

2016

Export User Data

Role: Lead Developer

A WordPress plugin that exports all standard user data and usermeta data which is active on over 10,000 WordPress installs.

The Export User Data plugin includes an option to export the users by role, registration date range, usermeta option and two export formats ( CSV and Excel 2007 ).

Here are the main features
  • Exports all users fields – with filter to exclude certain fields via q/eud/export/exclude_fields
  • Exports users meta fields – with an option to select each field individually
  • Exports users by role
  • Exports users by registration date range
  • Export can be in csv or Excel format.
  • Filters to include custom data controllers, output format and pre-selection of usermeta fields

There are also a number of additional options which have been added since this plugin was first launched, mostly based on user feedback and contributions – these include:

  • An option to save, delete and load stored export options – making it quicker to re-run common exports.
  • Lots of additional options such as meta field last update dates.

In version 2 + the plugin has been moved to namespaces, as per all our other commercial plugins, which bumps up the PHP version requirement to at least 5.6 – but, realistically, most modern sites should be running on 7.3 + by now.

2015

Life on Mars

Role: Stargazer

NASA announces that liquid water has been found on Mars.

Water is key to all life on this planet and perhaps any other.

Humanity’s current lifestyle draws more resources than the planet can provide, so some, like Elon Musk, dream of escaping this planet once it is devoid of serviceable material and making haste to the next nearest inhabitable planet – which might just be Mars!

2015

Ibiza Differente

Role: Project Manager + Lead Developer

Ibizadiferente SL. is a Dutch Real Estate agent with offices in Spain and Holland who have worked with Q Studio for almost 10 years.

Ibizadiferente SL. is a Dutch Real Estate agent with offices in Spain and Holland who have worked with Q Studio for almost 10 years.

They are a small business, who have grown from managing a few properties to a large and exclusive portfolio including some of the most luxurious and sought-after villas in Ibiza.

Ibiza is a global island, bustling with millions of tourists every year from every corner of the globe, in order to cater both for the Dutch market and also appeal to international visitors, it was decided to present the entire website content in both English and Dutch – adding to the audience at the cost of extra complexity for the content management.

They needed a glossy tool to showcase their exceptional properties, which was slick and attractive, while at the same time easy for them to manage, as they are not our most technically-minded clients.

2014

Quinta de Sant’Ana

Role: Project Manager + Lead Developer

Quinta de Sant'Ana overlooks the picturesque village of Gradil with its cobbled streets, white washed houses and hospitable inhabitants.

Quinta de Sant’Ana overlooks the picturesque village of Gradil with its cobbled streets, white washed houses and hospitable inhabitants on one side and a stunning coulisse of vineyards, lined with ancient olive trees and cypresses on the south side. Twelve hectares are vineyards – it’s an ambitious and quality driven project.

The oldest part of the estate is the chapel, which dates back to 1633 and has a beautiful statue of Saint Anne and typical hand-painted ‘Azulejos’ (ceramic tiles).

The varied scope of this project presented some excellent learning opportunities and gave us the following insights into our own working processes:

  • The value of long-term client relationships is immeasurable, there are no shortcuts to the insights gained and the advantages of knowing how people are, what they want and how they work best.
  • Managing expectation is not quelling enthusiasm, it’s about putting it in context of the overall vision, converting it into a driving force and defining goals based on empirical data.
  • Sizing requirements to the available resources is critical to the sustainability of any project.
2013

Number Slider

Role: Lead Developer

Simple plugin for Advanced Custom Fields which adds a visual UI Number Slider field type with format, step and limitation options.

We love Advanced Custom Fields, to the point that we don’t really consider it as a plugin, it is as essential as WordPress to the way we develop applications – it is robust, updated regularly, provides excellent UX both to developers and clients and the Pro version is loaded with quality add-on features, none more important than Local JSON configuration, which is a game-changer.

This small add-one was written and released many years ago, but we recently had a specific use-case which enabled us to dust down the vaults and see if it still worked as expected – happily it did, so we oiled up the parts and tested on the latest WordPress version and issued a new official release to the Plugin Repo.

The requirement was simple enough, we needed to define and update a numeric value saved as post meta in the WordPress admin, within defined ranges and allow for different steps and value formats – ACF did not provide any specific UX tools for dealing with number values, so we decided to add one 🙂

2012

Mayan Calendar Ends

Role: Viewer

The end of the world, or at least the end of one system to measure time...

The predications were heavy, but taken in a joyful, light way – the Maya – masters of reading the cosmos and building mysterious pyramids – had also created one of the most complex systems for tracking past and future dates based on a non-repeating, vigesimal (base 20) and octodecimal (base 18) calendar.

But, luckily, we clearly did not read the hieroglyphs correctly, as while the Maya might have noted the date 12.19.19.17.19 ( December 20, 2012 once transcribed to the  Gregorian Calendar ) as an important date – it signified the end of the 13th bʼakʼtun – not the World, as many westerner interpreted it.

We can read many things into this episode, but perhaps the most obvious is the fascination with our own end or destruction – and the idea that we have some sort of control over this or way to calculate when it might happen – humanity has thrived due to our near total control over the planet we live on – let’s hope that we now manage to come together to help to protect it.

2012

LightTribe

Role: Creative Consultant

LightTribe is a meeting point to explore your talents with purpose and joy to become authentic human Beings living their life in full potential.

An interesting meeting, in a place which practically manufactured unusual events – Ibiza.

I met Corame at Casita Verde where I was volunteering making Aloe Vera juices and playing some obscure electronic beats to the revel of hungry hoards, who had turned out, as ever, on Sunday to enjoy the vegetarian buffet.

He had “it” – which is the indescribable x-factor which Talent shows and pop music machines spend fortunes scouring the teenagers of the world to discover, but which is actually to be found in abundance on this small Mediterranean island.

Corame was charming, funny, inquisitive and open – he had come to share his ideas and to look for people who could support him to realise his dream of building an online “creative community” to help bring together more x-factors, and, in short, make the World a better, more colourful and more creative place – I was drawn into his influence.

Many of Corame’s friends would describe him as a free-thinker – he is – he is also someone driven by change, creation and revolution – he is like a giant idea magnet who brings an entire cosmos of toys with him, sets them on the table and then watches how everyone plays with them – while at the same time bridging new ideas to and from his existing ones – in short, a fountain of creativity.

Having worked for a variety of different organisations and people – Corame presented an entirely new challenge.

He was a continually open tap of ideas – and was not constrained by the rigmaroles of professional process nor the limitations of cost and, due to his personal charisma, was inundated with willing helpers – be they designers, developers or funders – a perfect creative storm 🙂

I was presented with new concepts, visual designs, technical requirements and project directions on an almost daily basis and tasked with organising them into something coherent – a product which might actually be realisable – the creative “conceptualisation” process was at the heart of everything Corame did and was driving this project and in turn feeding back energy to its founder.

This process continued for a number of weeks – it was like watching Jackson Pollock paint – generous dabs of paint were freely applied on top of the fresh layers below, nothing had time to dry or get old – it was more Jazz than measured judgement – and I slowly came to realise that this near-pure creativity was not just the source but also the aim of what Corame was looking for.

Beautiful holding pages replaced previous beautiful holding pages – elegant countdown timers ticked towards improbable launch dates and behind the scenes the Jazz continued – new ideas flowed in, new energies drove the project in new directions and the conductor stood gleefully at the centre of his ensemble – soaking up the creative juices and stoking them in equal measures.

I soon came to realise the impossibility of my assigned role – Jazz Controller – but the ride was amazing and Corame taught me invaluable lessons about generosity and the power of creativity which I will be forever indebted to him for.

8 Years later and the project remains at the holding page stage, but sadly this time due to ill-health of the grand master – let’s hope he can find the right LighTribe to rejuvenate his forces and return him to his former creative glories.

2010

Q Studio

Role: Founder & CEO

Q Studio is an offbeat outfit. We produce bulletproof WordPress applications for clients around the World.

Q Studio was not an entirely new business, it would be better seen as an evolution of previous businesses, with a new focus on WordPress development and a shift to a fully remote team.

We are niche by-design, we might not be a good fit for every client or project, but are processes are clearly defined and the results should speak for themselves.

The ethos of the open-source development community are ingrained in how we work – we embrace sharing and continually feel the benefits of committing our code – errors and all – to public repositories.

WordPress is also central to the work that Q Studio produce, we participate fully in it’s ecosphere and contribute code and feedback to ensure it’s continual development.

The services we offer are clearly defined and presented below in the order they should be followed during a typical complete product development cycle – however, it is also possible to mix and match to a degree or to engage us to work on specific parts of a larger project.

2009

Farm Life

Role: Buyer

To my own surprise, in 2009 I ended up living in Portugal on a remote, abandoned farm I had just purchased

In truth, I had been exploring abandoned properties for years, even the small island of Ibiza offer rich-pickings on this front, with some amazing old fincas to be found, lost deep in the valleys and hills.

However, by comparison, Portugal is a ruin-hunters dream with entire abandoned villages to roam and discover, many in rural areas which have seen mass emigration to wealthier countries like France and Switzerland, offer few employment opportunities and have little to entice the younger generation to stay, compared to modern cities.

Many such town are now being re-populated by foreign – ex-patriot – groups who come looking for the “Good Life”, and in many cases find it – all be it behind a thick bush of hands-on hard work and cultural adaption.. not to mention some advanced tongue-yoga to master the local language.

This farm lies in a very traditional area of the mountains of Central Portugal, there are no other foreign owners around and the nearest neighbour is about 1 km away – not to mention the nearest shop!

However, the land and the buildings were such a close fit to what I had in mind that it was really love at first sight – so logic flew straight out of the broken window 🙂

2009

Ecoder

Role: Lead Developer

Winner of the prestigious Dreamhost Site of the Month contest :) Ecoder was one of the first cloud-based code editors.

This project started out from a simple need – to allow developers to view and edit code when they do not have access to their dedicated devices – so I decided to create a cloud-based IDE.

The application is actually still available at the link provided, but clearly shows it’s age – the UI could be more slick, but the core code is unchanged in more than 8 years, but still continues to run without errors.

The application – written in html and Vanilla JavaScript – won the Dreamhost Site of the Month contest and was added as a one-click install to all hosting packages, alongside WordPress and Joomla!

 

2007

GreenMedia

Role: Founder & Lead Developer

GreenMedia was established - Ecological & community focused website builder.

The now defunct GreenMedia came about as part of a collaboration with the Ecological Charity Greenheart Ibiza to assist them with the production of the Greenheart Guide to Ibiza and Formentera and spawned out into a community website building platform, tailoring to the needs of ethical micro businesses.

We provided low-cost to no-cost web services to get help promote ecological businesses in Ibiza and Formentera, mostly in the holistic health, organic food, wellness and ethical clothing sectors.

The business ran – intentionally – at a loss and was never aimed at profit, and was backed by Greenheart and my own other business interests in order to provide continued support and web hosting to projects which would otherwise of not been able to get online so easily, at the time.

2007

Casita Verde

Role: Volunteer

Casita Verde is a small ecology centre located in the green heart of Ibiza's beautiful countryside and the official headquarters of the NGO Ibiza Ecologic.

Casita Verde is a kind act of rebellion and hamlet of peace on an island more famous for hedonism and VIPs.

Yet, it does not stand apart of opposed to those values, instead it has come into being to embrace people from all walks of live, agnostic to their vices or values, to present an alternative model of how people can live, more in harmony in nature, leveraging techniques and values from the rural past, but without fear of new technology and techniques.

The back-story goes way back – and in typical Ibiza style, starts with a group of lads – colloquially referred to as the “Bad Boys”, lead by “captain” Chris Dews, who dropped anchor on the Isle of Ibiza having navigated the globe more than a dozen times with the merchant Navy.

Having seen the degradation of the worlds oceans and the pollution caused by marine industries first-hand, he decided it was time to put his considerable energies and courageous voice into service, for the planet – and why not on the once-beatnik, but increasingly tourist-beaten island of Ibiza, a short 4 hours sail from the Catalonian city of Barcelona.

Ibiza has a long and rich history, once it was the favourite burial place of the Carthaginians, and since then the Romans created large salt-flats “Salinas”, giving the Island it’s common moniker the “White Island” – in recent decades, it has become a clubland joke that this referrers to the endless flow of Cocaine, rather than salt..

In the 1940’s U.S soldiers fled the draft, they were joined in the 50’s by the beatniks and more drop-outs joined in the 60’s counter-culture movements – all while mainland Spain remained under the tight grip of Franco’s dictatorship – land was cheap, the sun shone more than 300 days a year and local Ibicencos were accustomed to invasion, since time immemorial.

The next major wave of invaders came in the form of package tourists, shepherded in on the first cheap commercial flights from Northern Europe, to enjoy the legendary turquoise waters, balmy nights and eventually the world famous party scene.

Over the previous decade, summer visitors number swell the population of this small island from around 100, 000, to over 2 million, hungry, thirsty and expectant visitors, enjoying their 2 weeks of yearly freedom to the all-you-can max.

On a small, parched island with, with low winter rainfall and long, hot dry summers – only small numbers of local farmers, living a subsistence lifestyle and property prices exaggerated beyond even the wildest realtors dreams – the classic recipes of greed and corruption defined the battlefield for yet another cultural and environmental battle.

Any yet, the government, with coffers ( personal or not ) filling nicely year on year, did not want to upset the apple cart – so the responsibility of pointing out the obvious was taken up by small citizen groups and passionate individual – native or not ( in Ibiza, the lines on most things blur beautifully, the same can be said for being from the island ).

Chris was one of these brave people who – while not adverse to the many of the pleasures and freedoms of the island – also saw the environmental imbalance of the tourist model and the obvious damages being caused to his new homeland – from pollution on the beaches and coast, to the loss of traditional lifestyles and the corruption of the rich and privileged.

So, in an act of pure rebellion – Chris Dews rented a small tumble-down limestone cottage on 5 hectares of degraded farmland, and set-about creating a living and breathing ecological centre, designed to not only house a community of permanent residents, but also as an alternative show-home for the hoards of weekly visitors who came to eat the vegetarian buffer or sample Aloe Vera drinks in the weekly illegal restaurant / fund-raiser.

I joined the lunch one week and then followed Chris on the 2 hour bi-lingual tour, before returning to the bar for a late Aloe, as we all sat and watch the sun lazily sink into the pink Mediterranean between the low hills, and I knew already I had found somethings that were missing in my life – purpose and connection.

I offer to help and returned each week to prepare vegetable for the kitchen, harvest almonds or carob from the trees, we cleaned the roads around the centre and more than 50 beaches – always with some homemade pizza and a sunset swim and surrounded by travellers from the entire globe, all draw to Ibiza, to Casita Verde, to Chris – looking for something that was missing and finding more than we could possibly soak up in one sitting.

Eventually my professional skills were put to use on revamping the decrepit websites of the organisation and over the years me and my teams have created more than 20 projects for Casita Verde and its parent organisation Greenheart, based in Chicago USA.

I also gained untold exposure and first-hand experience to many principles and techniques which I would finally be able to put to practical use many years later, when I settled down again in Portugal.

2005

IbzCreative

Role: Co-Founder + Lead Developer

IbzCreative was a digital promotions agency, which produced interactive media to promote clients such as Space, Hotel Es Vive, Es Paradise & Manumission.

Together with a fellow graduate from KIAD who was well connected in the Ibiza entertainment industry, we formed a successful, but short-lived agency, which provided video, website and digital interactive media to promote some of the largest and most established venues in Ibiza, including Space, Hotel Es Vive, Es Paradise & Manumission.

My role was photographer, graphic designer and lead developer and over an intense 24 months we worked (all) night and day in one of the most chaotic, exciting and spontaneous industries imaginable.

But the work was also rewarding in many aspects, firstly as a music fan, we were given access to artists and stages and got to see the inner workings of this complex machine, we interviewed some of my musical heroes and were allowed a lot of artistic freedom to produce work that we felt best reflected this very dynamic and youth-driven market.

Ibiza is the picture-perfect backdrop for almost any photoshoot – mixed with hoards of the most effervescent, creative and free-spirited people imaginable in the world – who are literally exploding with desire to party – it would be hard to invent a more likeable and enthusiastic client-base.

Add on top of this balmy sunsets, laced with endless cocktails and the hottest tunes spun by the hippest DJ and you might start to wonder why this venture did not last longer – but in truth, once you peek inside, you discover that this is all a hollow, cosmetic industry – built on top of what was once a personal, creative explosion – that is rave and the electronic dance movement.

And, once you’ve seen the truth, it’s hard to look away – so instead, I remain grateful for the amazing experiences, but also saddened by the realisation of how even the most pure forms of arts can be commercialised.

I did not leave Ibiza, as I was already locked into it’s magnetic charm, but I knew I wanted to find a more holistic, more connected way of living – and I was soon exposed to one such model at the Casita Verde…

2004

We’re Going to Ibiza!

Role: Traveller

Having visited Spain on several occasions, I was drawn to its warm culture and rich history, it was time for a new adventure, to Ibiza.

It is a cliché and a brand in itself, whenever I mentioned that I lived in Ibiza to anyone – depending on their age – there was an almost always predictable response.

Younger people’s eyes would sparkle as they were momentarily transported back ( or forwards ) to hedonistic nights of freedom, new friends and fine tunes in one of the many famous venues of Clubland.

Middle-aged people or families might have a slightly different experience – one of being crammed into cheaply built, sprawling apartment blocks, perilously built into crumbling cliff edges, along once unspoilt bays, mostly in the farm north and east coast of the Island – the now-famous package holidays, which seem to be designed to discourage any cultural integration or local investment, by providing all you can eat or drink and mind-numbing “entertainment” shows from 8 am each morning.

And even the older generations have their own dedicated timeslot, they were the trend-setters in terms of off-season travel, and I would say were perhaps the luckiest, as they often visited Ibiza over the autumn or winter months, when it had its short respite from the touristic invasions over the summer months, and returned to something like the peaceful haven that the natives and long-term adoptees come to love and cherish.

And, it’s true – Ibiza does have something to offer for everyone – thankfully.

So, once you have visited a few clubs ( and paid generously for the experience ), swam in the turquoise waters and perhaps adventurously taken a trip out for a sunset selfie at the mystic Es Vedra – you have a choice, you can ask yourself, did I look deeply enough, or am I satisfied with this Ibiza experience.

Hopefully, you’ll choose to dig deeper, because, around nearly every corner of this culturally diverse island, you will find rich rewards, be it a Phoenician necropolis or a Moorish irrigation system, or perhaps you will be lucky enough to discover one of the Mediaeval round pirate tower with the door ajar, allowing you to step inside and wonder at the curved single-barrel vault ceiling which gave them their enduring strength to weather the centuries, abandoned and unmaintained.

The central and north-west areas of the island are less-touched by tourism, due to a lack of sandy beaches, and thus also retain more authentic culture and local ibicencan families still herd flocks of goats on centuries old Fincas – often their imposing, castle-like farm houses are in a sorry state of disrepair, but look closer and you might find one with a walled-garden and delicate round arches exposing a sun-filled second floor terrace.

Along the coast, it is also still possible to find local fishermen sailing out shortly before sunset in their brightly coloured, hand-built wooden crafts, ready for another long-night at sea – during the days these boats are safely locked up in caverns, carved by hand into the soft, pink limestone cliffs that offer some protection against the rough winter storms.

Before moving to Ibiza, I took the plunge and bought myself a new digital camera ( the legendary Sony DSC-F828, with a Karl Zeiss lens and swivel body design ) in hope of finding some interested subjects to capture – in the end I was spoilt for choice and the camera did its best, but somethings are best lived in person, to truly understand.

2003

Human Genome Project

Role: Observer

The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA.

Science – at least the stale, test-tube and Bunsen burner focused version prescribed to me as a child, was a boring, decerped subject, which seemed to be done and dusted and also consigned to the vaults of history – we were not taught about new technologies or the latest innovations, perhaps because these were beyond the scope of the prescribed curriculum or interests of our teachers.

But, it turns out that science is cool, way cool – and that it is actually science which drives technological breakthroughs and discoveries, science built this laptop, my shoes, science designed the internet used to post this message, science touches almost every aspect of modern life -why didn’t they tell me this before!

Science also crosses moral lines, science dares to venture into areas that some cultures are not ready to discuss, science tries to understand the building blocks of life and to explain, in simple terms, what that means for us, what it means to be human and what we can improve by knowing ourselves better – that means that science is very important.

So, whatever you views on a particular discovery or breakthrough, it’s important to value the work done by scientists and to see how important this work can be in advancing us as a species, in our ongoing tug-of-war with the planet we all inhabit.

2002

BaseSpace

Role: Co-Founder & Lead Developer

BaseSpace was a CMS designed to meet the needs of SMEs and to be franchised and sold by local community-based sellers.

One short-lived start-up I had created, called WorkFlows, which developed a custom built CMS with a template driven model designed to support multiple divergent applications from a single shared CMS – soon became BaseSpace, when I went into business with a South African man who had recently moved to the area.

The deal with pretty clear – I would provide all design and development work – and Dino, my partner would  firstly find local buyers and later build a larger network or other sellers in order to franchise the business model.

Over the next 18 months I created a robust and flexible CMS, which provided simple B2B and B2C services to over 40 local businesses, all via a friendly web-based interface and we also worked on a few larger off-shoot applications and design jobs.

Once the business was established and the development requirements more stable, I took the decision to sell my 50% shares in the company to the other major shareholder and set off on some travels- next stop Ibiza.

2001

9/11

Role: Observer

An unexpected, emotionally and visually overwhelming attack on the World Trade Centre in New York rocks the world into military re-action.

It might not even be possible to calculate the global pain and trauma caused by the outlandish attack on the World Trade Centre in New York on the 11th of September 2001.

One visual icon had suddenly been replace by a new, more violent and striking one.

Personally, for years after, each time I see a plane travelling on the sky towards anything that entered the same eye-line, I could imagine an explosion, such was the power of the visual imagery pumped out on all channels to the disbelieving viewers at home.

And the sight of such a solid symbol of western power collapsing like a giant tree, cut rudely at the base, not allowed the dignify of choosing its own time to fall, sent out a shockwave which took years to fully rationalize.

As a young man, finally free from years of education and fulfilling the requirements of piers, parents and power – I was suddenly unsure about the shape of the world I was about to enter.

It seemed to me, we had two choices: retreat or explore – and I choose to jump into the world and to try to understand more about different cultures, believes, ways of living and challenges – all the things that years of text books and biased news reporting had never managed to impart.

2001

Around the World

Role: Traveller

Few employment options, some available cash and a desire to see more of the world took me off on an 18 month round the world trip.

Following the attack on World Trade Centre and the global downturn caused by the DotCom bubble bursting, employment opportunities in my new niche were more limited, but I had saved diligently since my first pay cheque and the last 2 years in London had not only been an eye-opener, they had also provided me with some disposable cash.

A perfect algorithm: Cash + Free time = Travel 🙂

Through a good friend working at STA, I soon had return tickets to Sydney, Australia with stops in Thailand on both legs of the journeys, which I used to venture through Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam as well as much of Thailand – and I also spent around 3 months travelling both islands of New Zealand in a trusty old Nissan campervan.

The highlight of the trip was getting lost for several days in the expansive Buddhist city of Angkor wat, but the most obvious take-away to me, was the absolute importance of freedom and continual exposure to cultural diversity.

2001

WireUnit

Role: Co-founder / UI developer

A short lived digital promotions start-up with clients including Tesco.

This venture brought back me back together with two other team members from WorldOnline – Richard and Darren – to try to realise some of the projects we had discussed, but been unable to work on previously – mostly revolving around new forms of digital promotions in public spaces, such as airports or train stations.

The company had some small, early scuccesses, but failed to get enough momentum to continue, with financial strains forcing most team members to take on other full-time commitments, which eventually lead to the folding of WireUnit before it really had time to become established.

2000

First DotCom Bust

Role: Shareholder

My first taste of the corporate world came to a short, sharp end.

Sitting pretty on the top-floor of the lush office suite in Mayfair, overlooking Green park, I felt part of a new, powerful movement, something that would change the shape of the entire World.

With £15,000 in company shares in my pocket – a generous gift from the company I had recently joined, I sat with the rest of the geek-team, who occupied a small corner office on the journalist floor of WorldOnline.

The top marketing guy had just pulled up in his swanky black Porsche and was barking orders at one of the interns who was responsible for projecting this glorious affair onto the entire width of his ample office space – currently sitting about 80 of my co-workers comfortably with chilled Champaign in hand.

And, with some significance which I am sure I did not get, a bell was clung ( probably played back from some cheap sound library on reflection ) and the IPO was underway – I had been informed of the “base-price” for each share and my naivety expected to happily watch this red line on the super-sized projected graph to ebb its way happily along and steadily upwards.

Instead, what we all witnessed, was a ready speedy and rapid decline downwards, at one point I had to peek under the chair in front of me to place the current share value – to say the least I was bemused.

Then started the whispers and soon some sneers and the occasional jaded catcall – it appeared some of my more weathered colleagues, including the former Reuters reporters who ran the international desk, had wind of an inside trade by out glorious leaders – who in turn already knew much more about this that me, and it seems many others in the room – and had figured things out ahead of todays grand event.

Within three hours my windfall was worthless.

It turns out that most start-ups can’t really afford to run their businesses from the most expensive rental office space in London, poor endless resources into corporate sponsorship events ( which no-one yet had the requisite technology to view ) and on a more fundamental level, that the World simple was not yet ready to make all their daily transactions on the internet.. that would take about 15 years longer as it turned out.

Two weeks later, the company was bought out by one of its few surviving competitors, the plush office in Mayfair shut down and the phenomenon had a name – we had all just witnessed the first DotCom bubble popping – thankfully lots of less wasteful companies survived and there were plenty of ruthless head-hunters ( another new concept to me, at the time ) clambering over each other to win their commissions to “match my skill base with an available position”.

1999

WorldOnline

Role: Junior Designer to Studio Manager

A warm welcome to the topsy-turvy world of the internet, working for a large Dutch ISP.

I often tell this story, as I feel it offers a lot of insights into the psychological side of hiring and being hired.

My studies were focused around digital, interactive presentations and I was the only student in my course who had any experience with HTML, to the point that the university actually asked me to make the online presentation for the graduation show – I also had years of experience with digital video editing and photoshop – these were the two strengths that got me my first job interview in London.

The company can called NTL – one of the large ISPs battling to signup users for new ADSL-type internet connections across the country in the late 1990’s.

I’ll admit, I was a bit nervous – the job on offer was the generically titled “Junior Web Designer” – and that already felt a little bit fraudulent, as I had just completed 6 years of Arts studies, but not second of my education had been web based or about internet technologies, but my good friend Steff pepped me up with the now well-known phase – Fake it until you make it – and I really needed a job!

So, I borrow a ill-fitting suit and a policeman-like pair of shoes, at least 2 sizes two big from Steff, and screen grabbed my 3 html projects, before trudging off to teh offices of NTL, near Waterloo Bridge – sweating, uncomfortable and unconvinced and will no idea what I could or even should talk about – the interview was over quickly and the rejection followed soon after – I felt relieved, to tell the truth.

I had another job interview a few days later – another “Junior Web Designer” at WorldOnline – but this time, I decided I would at least wear something I felt comfortable in, so I went to the nearest charity shop and bought a beige and avocado chequered shirt and a pair of slightly flared 70’s flannel trousers, match with some trainers and I was feeling light on my feet and ready to blag!

The interview went well, the questions asked landed nicely in my court of comfort, and I returned all tricky serves back into play – I even managed a few semi-confident jokey retorts and I felt a nice connection with the boss, a smooth talking American whose name I can’t remember.

The next day, the good news arrived, I had bene offered the place and would start in a few days – I had learned an important lesson on the corporate windmill, be yourself, don’t try to fool people – truth is king.

The same day as I went to the interview at WorldOnline, Steff also had an interview – Junior Web Designer at NTL, only Steff had never written a line of HTML in his life, in fact I’m not even sure he had spend more than a few minutes sitting at a computer – but a job is a job and he wanted to go to the interview prepared – so he asked if he could “borrow” my web projects to show – I reminded him that I had already shown them my work, he seems undeterred, so I agreed.

The next day, more god news arrived, Steff had got the job at NTL – but where did this leave my new found understanding of the value of truth and the hiring process – a perfect paradox for sure 🙂

WorldOnline was essentially an online newspaper which also provided internet access and email to its clients – at the time I joined it was still very much in the Dutch model, and about 20% of the website was still given over to topless models, something we were all happy to see phased out in the coming months.

There were 4 floors to our plush offices in Mayfair, central London – I could sit and eat my Pret-a-Manger sandwiches in Green Park, a mere 1 minutes stroll away each day.

The top floor was for management and top dogs, the 3rd floor was marketing and sales – we were in the design studio along with a large open room full of 40 odd journalists on the 2nd floor – and I presume the ground floor was full of geeks sweating over hot servers below us, but I’m not too clear on that point either.

It was great – if a little daunting to start with – to be involved in the weekly journalistic meetings and to feel how directly involved we – in the design studio – were in converting the articles and photos provided into the online content we hoped would be read by our subscribers.

There were some great perks also, most notably from James, the music editor – who it seemed could arrange tickets for any gig in town, so sweet where the words that rolled from his lips.

The learning opportunities were huge – working with experienced designers and programmers, and being giving responsibility and freedom to experiment with new and emerging technologies – the web was one giant experiment in 1999 at any rate.

The turnover was also fast-paced, and promotions seemed to come in a steady flow, I moved swiftly up to a position of some authority, too fast for my own liking as I did not feel I had either the skills or experience to manage other correctly, yet – and this was one part of the reason that I decided the move on after one year – the other is explained better in the entry about the DotCom Boom.

Working at WorldOnline, I took my PhotoShop skills to the next level, as well as mastering HTML, SWF ActionScript ( which came pretty easy as I had worked with Macromedia Director ), CSS and JavaScript.

I had often dreamed of being a journalist, so for me, this experience was very rewarding, as were the bonds created, the fast-paced learning and the fact that this was the first job in an industry I continue to work in over 20 years later, show me today, just how important of a step this was.

1999

Euro ’99

Role: Spender

Adios Peseta. Hello Euro.

In 1999, 15 Europe took a huge step towards each other in overcoming nationalist nervousness to create a single, shared economy, called the Euro – the UK dipped in it’s big toe, by joining the economic zone, but resisted the temptation of a full swam dive, choosing instead to retain the British Pound as its national currency.

Most importantly, the kept the traditions of centuries past, and ensured that the face of the head of the monarchy featured on the national currency, short change to those heretic progressives who dared to dream of a United Kingdom, truly uniting with their European neighbours.

1997

TempoSkill

Role: Selector

DJ TempoSkill might not go down in the history as a well known selector, but at least I turned up to all my gigs :)

An out of character move, driven by a desire to share my eclectic record collection and get free entry to all the clubs, I decided to musical share my taste with the world as DJ TempoSkill.

My music taste, fortunately, did not fit well with many and was never going to be headline material, I found a happy niche as a warm up act, or placed in small, obscure chillout zones – blending a heady mix of ambient, rave, disco and, well – to be frank, just anything that I felt like hearing 🙂

1996

Time-Based Media

Role: Student

Kent Institute of Art and Design was situated on the edge of a small fir pine forest, on the outskirts of Maidstone, Kent.

Maidstone itself was drab, the town’s most notable feature was probably the nearby military barracks.

However, the campus was a safe-haven for an interesting mix of high-brow “conceptual” artists and more business-minded graphic designers – and a big dollop of every other oddball creative in-between.

I sat firmly in the middle of the dollop – I had earned my place at KIAD as a photographer and 3d sculpture with little world experience and shockingly inadequate level of basic education, which was quickly exposed to high level metaphysical discussions and high-art theory which kick started both a level of dedicated learning and a reactionary rejection of artistic intellectualism, in the same broad stroke.

with hindsight, I imagine I was not the first Art rebel, the history of Art liberally documents one rebel after the next, but KIAD was well prepared and had hired eclectically, from both ends of the scale, so suitable subjects and tutors were always on hand to guide niche interest and pique the interests of even the most wayward student -in fact, to some degree, I was pleasantly surprised to find my rebellion not only tolerated, but in many cased supported.

What a contradictory experience, my rebellion against the institution by supported by its own – and they continues to supply an endless stream of radical information to fuel the fires of creative learning.

Musique concrète, Baudelaire, deconstructionism, the Futurists, finally, I understood – the people teaching me had the same drive as I did, the same fire – they were also rebels in their way, and my own rebellion was nothing unique – it was just raw, unbroken angst, creativity which needed channelling through exposure to relevant knowledge and guidance towards a purposeful outcome.

I arrived at KIAD in ’97 as a poor artist, rich only in raw ideas, and I left three years later with a BA ( Hons ) in Visual Communication, and more importantly as a digital story-teller, with exposure to the right tools and training to guide me confidently toward whatever happened to flow my way.

1995

MiniDisc

Role: Listener

Thanks to a generous scholarship, I was given a Sony MiniDisc MZR-30 and music never sounded so good.

My parents had Vinyl, my generation had cassette tapes – how unfair is that – but at least we could record stuff.

But it was not long until some new mediums came along to revolutionize the scene, CD’s at least offered great quality, but the UX was poor – all that glistens is not gold…

But the Japanese had plenty more formats to provide, and from a quality, usability and flexibility point of view, there was nothing that topped MiniDisc.

I felt like a secret agent each time I popped one of those slick little square disks snuggly into the loading deck and heard it’s smooth mechanics position in correctly to the optical reader – and if you afford to splash out on high quality headphones and cabling you could both record and listen back in a previously unattainable fidelity – and it looks cool and it did not jump when you did.

In the end, Vinyl came back in a big way – and while some might say that it’s about the quality of the sound, I always felt that it was more about the UX, the feeling of slipping the disc out of the inner casing, or opening a double fold is really hard to match.

1994

Repetitive Beats

Role: Protestor

My first taste of civil disobedience and the whims of government trying to impose their cultural norms on a changing society.

If you were involved with the Rave music scene in the early 1990’s, then this was perhaps also your first introduction to politics and how governments react to changes in society which do not fit their own worldviews.

Article 63(1)(b) of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 was specifically target at:

‘any gathering of 20 or more people where “music” includes sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats.’

How ignorant! Should we all go back and listen to Beethoven? Just because you don’t like the colour of your neighbours house, you can’t create a law to force them to change it.

This was a clear case of a cultural challenge to establishment, wrapped up in the pretence of parental concern about unlicensed venues and access to illegal drugs – some valid points for concern – but using militaristic force was an inappropriate reaction, this was not a civilian coup d’etat.

Of course, there were existing laws being broken by the unlicensed party scene, but the Police demanded extended powers to clamp down and stamp out this cultural insult to the established way of things – and therein lies the problem, because some people also happened to enjoy raving, for some it was an essential release from the strains and stresses of living in a dark and depressing era.

Street protests followed, as did some violence, further reactionary oppression and a classical right versus wrong struggle was played out on the TV each night and around dinner tables, as ill-informed parents tried to micr0-manage their children on a subject they had little to zero knowledge about.

Why were they so scared by this change – had they not lived through the swinging 60’s 🙂

1994

A Level

Role: Student

Extended optional education.

Top grades in Art and Art History.. not so great in Sociology.

1993

L Plates

Role: Driver

At the ripe old age of 17 years and 2 weeks, I passed my driving test, but only just.

On reflection, this was the hard way to do things.

My mother had taken me out to learn how to drive on an old abandoned airstrip near our home when I was still 16 – and after a few goes, I basically had it.

I took 1 official driving lesson, my instructor was sufficiently impressed to book a test for the next week, but insisted on one last lesson to refine my somewhat rough style.

Sadly, this second lesson ended abruptly on a wet and cold night, when the truck behind ploughed into my car, destroying it and nearly taken me and my extremely calm driving instructor with it – rarely have I seen a person so calm in such a stressful situation – he did not even swear!

Unperturbed, I decided to go for the test a few days later, and managed to pass, with the maximum allowed faults, but not too bad, considering the circumstance.

1992

Selected Ambient Works

Role: Listener

Richard D James released the album Selected Ambient Works 85–92, which captured the musical zeitgeist of a misunderstood generation.

Aphex Twin’s seminal album released in ’92 managed to capture the essence of everything Rave, while also being years ahead of its time and still sounds fresh and relevant, nearly 30 years later.

1991

Berlin United

Role: Observer

When I used to look at the map or Europe, Berlin always appeared to be smack-bang in the centre, half way from London to Moscow.

I was not born, nor grew up during a war, at least not one next to my house – instead I grew up in the TV war generation, with such block busters as the Iraq war providing endless TV-titbits to feed our thirst for live-action precious destruction of unknown buildings, in distance lands.

One war which was less visually digestible was the Cold War, which was still smouldering along and never far from the news, but it was a slow chess game played out by distant figures, which was hard to follow,  least of all understand, when or how it was going to end.

And then one day, we woke up to images of peaceful celebrations on the most tangible of cold-war symbols, the hard-line that divided Europe into two – the Berlin wall was no longer a painful scar, it was the scene of joyous parties as East and West reunited.

The cold war promised to thaw as political relationships improved, other countries followed suit in opening up and before long even the massive land mass of the former USSR crumbled under people power and popular revolutions – the future looked bright, at least for a while.

1990

Hubble Telescope

Role: Observer

Before Hubble launched, few people on Earth could grasp its value. Only once the visuals began to arrive was the true beauty revealed.

There surely can be few more effective ways to impart the scale, significance and importance of understanding the make-up of the Universe to otherwise disinterested scientific students than to show them the unworldly images returned from the Hubble Telescope.

This was sci-fact at its more powerful – and I was gripped.

1989

Quai d’Orsay

Role: Adventurer

This mysterious street name triggered an incurable desire to learn about other cultures and to eventually travel the world.

As a young child, I was afforded a generous amount of freedom, to roam the rivers, lakes and forests of the area I grew up in – fishing, playing and from a young age, working as a paperboy – with my own personal pedal-powered travelling machine, which allowed me to discover ever nook and cranny and to also know the name and the quickest route to every single street in town.

The one street name which always fascinated me, was the ostentatiously title “Quai d’Orsay”, next to the 19th century Malting house, which sits beside the river Ouse.

My French was very poor, I had no idea how to pronounce the name, yet before I could train my tongue enough to enunciate the words correctly, I found myself on a 2 weeks foreign exchange trip in Orsay, on the outskirts of Paris.

The trips was an eye-opener, my two strongest memories are of eating lots of pancakes reheated in column-like stacks in the microwave and of visiting my exchange students mother’s workplace, to witness a strange experiment which involved pouring dry-ice on the floor – sadly my French did not improve greatly, but my first solo-travel left a longer-lasting impression.

1988

Basic Basic

Role: Typer

First experience of BASIC computer language, via a type-in program in Creative Computing magazine.

My father had worked as an electrician, repairing fruit machines and duke boxes in local pubs and restaurants – the biggest perk of this was that we always had an upright arcade machine in the garage to play with.

In the 80’s, he went to university to train as a Computer Scientist and the mixture of his practical electrical engineering skills and the high cost of pre-made computer units, led to his small study becoming a living, breathing DIY PC assembly line, with large plastic keys, printed circuit boards, multi-coloured wires and tactile floppy disks squeezed into every available space.

Eventually, out of this maelstrom of pieces, several working PC units appeared and along with that, lots of obscure technology magazines, with pages lined with alphanumeric codes, which looked like readable patterns to my young, but obviously decryptional brain.

Before I knew it, I was writing these lines into the PC, via the oversized blue plastic keys and reaping the rewards, as the code instructed a few large square pixels to move rhythmically back and forth on the screen – I had taken my first steps into a the brave new world of computer programming.

My father went on to teach Computer Sciences at Cambridge Technical College, before founding his own start-up “Interface” – teaching core PC skills and advanced software usage.

1988

A Brief History of Time

Role: Reader

Oddly, this books lies next to my hand-made wooden bed today, but features as the last entry in my own brief history, when listed in reverse order.

This book does not require any introduction, nor should its author – a charming, challenging and uniquely gifted human who challenged not only his readers, but also society as a whole, to reappraise its views on intelligence, the university and perhaps most importantly, disability.

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