When Apple held its public ‘Celebrating Steve’ memorial, the eulogy was delivered by Jonathan Ive. Promoted to Senior Vice President of Industrial Design in 1997 by Jobs, Ive oversaw the product design of Apple’s incredibly successful return to power. Trained at Northumbria University and now 44, he has become one of the most celebrated industrial designers in the world.  What has always interested me about his work is the extraordinary level of research and detail he goes into long before the prototypes are built.  He once spent months working solely on the stand for Apple’s desktop iMac; searching for the sort of organic perfection to be found in sunflower stalks.  When Jobs asked him in the late 90s to create colourful, cheap cathode-ray-tube computers he spent hours in a sweet factory to draw inspiration for the first iMac shell colours.  Job’s awareness of design began early in his life as a student:

‘I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example: Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.” (from his speech to Stanford University students in 2005).

Design is in Apple’s very DNA.

Pebbles at Cape Cornwall

It’s taken me several months to realise that my camera phone is almost as good a capture device as my Canon SLR (perhaps not if I want to publish poster sized images, but the detail is amazing for such a tiny f2.8 lens). And of course the best camera is the one you have on you when you want to take the picture. A recent short break in West Cornwall gave me the chance to use it and create a Christmas book for a textile artist I am fond of. This is also a plug for Bobbooks who offer a fantastic design and print service. In the wild landscape that nurtured the artistic talents of Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Bernard Leach you could almost feel their spirits along the shoreline.

Shepton-Digital-Arts Festival

A combination of Challenge Anneka and Location, Location, Location. We had two days to transform a disused warehouse into a 180 seat digital cinema complete with bar, cafe, sofas and illuminated cubes for sitting on. The first task we had to undertake was to sweep away the armies of dead flies that had accumulated over the summer and then all the lighting, sound, stage flats and projection equipment had to be carried up three flights of stairs.

With some amazing help (thanks Jenn, Zena, Rob, Cliff, Andy and all the other tireless volunteers) we made it happen. To see 120+ adults and children all busy making plasticine Gromits under the expert eye of Jim Parkyn on the Saturday (we almost broke the world record) was a sight to behold. Huge praise to the indefatigable Claire Sully for never ever letting go of the original vision and for attracting some world class talent. Sheptonians can be be really proud of such a fantastic Festival!

Wednesday 2nd February 4.30pm. I am sitting in the window of a cafe on the Euston Road with Garfield and Ken watching the rush hour traffic gradually build whilst drinking mugs of coffee. We notice that there are a lot of police cars around, but thankfully they are all on the other side of the dual carriageway. Our rucksacks are full of video and stills cameras, a megaphone, gaffer tape, spare batteries, torches, warm clothing, and our precious ‘Save our Libraries’ banner.

I put a call through to John Bird of the Big Issue, but alas he is stuck in Cambridge. Garfield makes a final call to the media. We carefully go through the timetable again. 10 minutes before sunset we need to call the SFX team, who have parked round the corner and are ready to race in and set up their projection equipment. Ken is tweeting his growing following. At present no one knows where we are in Central London, except the press – the BBC and the Evening Standard.

Traffic builds. The pavements start to fill with commuters. Dusk settles. Still not quite dark enough. It’s now 4.50. We instruct the SFX guys to go for it. Things happen very quickly. Garfield and I wait for a gap in the traffic and then run across the dual carriageway to gaffer tape our banner onto the railings. The SFX guys race in with their scaffolding and trolleys.

Within fifteen minutes the equipment is set up and rapidly covered with a huge black cloth, so that it disappears as an anonymous piece of street furniture. Some of my Quaker friends arrive from Friends House and kindly help out with the photography.  Thank you Karl and Ian!

The diesel generator is started (it can hardly be heard above the noise of the traffic) and the 20,000 Barco projector is switched on under the cloth. When it has fully powered up the cloth is removed and the astonishingly bright light bursts across the Euston Road and onto the wall of the British Library

The projector is focussed and aligned by Alex of SFX and he loads the laptop with our ‘We Love Libraries’ film. The holding slide goes up on the wall whilst we set up the DVD and test the powerful sound system.

How wonderful to see a sign saying ‘Please do not be quiet’ on the wall of the British Library!

Kate Mosse arrives to watch the screening and meets a couple of her readers who have been following our flash-mob tweets. She has been so supportive of our film and the whole library campaign in general.

Ken works the megaphone in a way only an American can and commuters stop to watch. We all keep a wary eye out for police cars, Heath and Safety Executives, Camden Council officials, Community Support Officers, Pavement Obstruction Managers, Conservative Politicians and any other potential killjoys. Ken instructs the SFX team to run the tape.

The voices of Glastonbury and Shepton Mallet residents ring out along the Euston Road. The wonderful music of Sly and Reggie of the Suburban Pirates adds to the party atmosphere.

How great to see our Lib Dem MP Tessa Munt speaking out over the roar of the traffic. We film and record the screening and repeat the film five times, before thinking we had better leave before our luck runs out.

We grab a quick picture with Jonny and Reggie, of the Surburban Pirates, pack our rucksacks and head back to the tube at Kings Cross. We drive back to Somerset exhausted but happy and get home at 1.30am. Garfield is due to start production work on a film in Italy, Ken has gone away on a retreat and the following day I am back filming on the banks of the River Parrett for an environmental film on coastal change. In the evening I send a slightly tongue-in-cheek thank you email and picture of our flash mob screening to the head of Press and PR team at the British Library.

A month earlier I joined fellow protesters outside Glastonbury Library in the snow and ice and thought how can I help this campaign? The website zocial.tv which tracks how films are shared across the web reports that within six days of being uploaded to YouTube, ‘We Love Libraries’ has become the ninth most shared non-profit film on the web. It is now playing on websites in Germany, Spain, Switzerland, New York, Baltimore, Argentina and Korea. The TUC has requested a high definition copy to screen at their outdoor rally ‘March for the Alternative’ in Hyde Park on the 26th March. I think the communities of Glastonbury and Shepton Mallet can be very proud of their impact on the libraries debate. Whilst Somerset County Council has taken our libraries off the closure list, there is still a lot to be done. If there is one thing I have learnt from working on the ‘We Love Libraries’ film it is this; I will never take my local library for granted again.

With fellow film-makers Garfield Kennedy and Kenneth Kutsch at the Royal Court Theatre in London

Just completed a very long three day shoot with fellow film-makers Garfield Kennedy and Ken Kutsch to produce a campaign film challenging the proposed library closures. Seventy members of the public in Glastonbury and Shepton Mallet turned up at our temporary studio to speak passionately and eloquently about their love of libraries.

A chartered Librarian, a homeless traveller, a single Mum in tears with her three young book-loving children, a Polish refugee, a local historian, town and county councillors and book lovers of all ages. A day in London in between our local shoots. Interviewing Kate Mosse, Jon Snow, Julian Fellowes, John Bird and our local MP Tessa Munt. In and out of cabs and tubes all day. ITV filming us making the film at the Royal Court Theatre (which was a bit surreal), Jon Snow at Channel 4 taking time out of his editorial meetings to share his passion for libraries with us. Over to the Royal Society of Literature and squeezing into a very crowded meeting room. A young aide rushing in with cups of tea for everyone whispering to us ‘Oh my God, I have never seen so many famous authors in the same room before’. We interviewed Colin Thubron, Maggie Gee, David Harsent, Maureen Duffy, Maggie Fergusson and the wonderful Anne Chisholm.

John Bird (founder of The Big Issue) spoke movingly about learning to read in prison and how important public libraries were to him when he was homeless and wanted to study. We received a personal letter of support from Sir David Attenborough ‘I owe my career to the books I borrowed from my local library in Leicester as much as I do to the animals, plants and fossils of the Leicestershire countryside’ and last night Alan Bennett rang us at home with a brilliant quote for the film. ‘I’m afraid my quote is a bit short’ he said in his lovely soft Yorkshire voice ‘but I do hope you can use it: Closing Libraries is Child Abuse’. Watch this space……we are planning something special for the launch. The four of us (including our brilliant BBC editor Martin Wells) are making this film for free because we love and use our local libraries and we will do everything in our creative power to protect the vulnerable in our communities and prevent a bunch of here today, gone tomorrow, county councillors from conducting such an appalling act of cultural vandalism.

Apologies to Brenda Lee …. Have been working on a rough cut for the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druid’s website What astonished me when filming their Eisteddfod was their extraordinary creativity and bardic talents – in poetry, song and prose. Lovely people with a deep sense of the sacred who also really enjoy a good knees-up. Slightly misleading title to this blog – this film contains no Christmas Trees.

Big tobacco – taking you for a fool! from Kick Butt on Vimeo.

Launch of the three films for the Kick-Butt project at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith. Sitting at the back of the cinema, crowded with students and school children, watching our production and editing work appear on the 70 foot screen was nerve-wracking. But the big Christie projector, all 20,000 lumens of it, took our DVD and illuminated every single pixel. At times you could have heard a pin drop. Alex and I sat there grinning like Cheshire cats. The response was great – some very generous applause and a happy client. Digital video has taken huge strides forward and technology can now transform it into a theatrical experience. A big thank you to the team at The Riverside.

The great enlightener

Just had the privilege of working with Adam Hart-Davis who recorded the narration for our film on Coastal Change in Somerset. My minor claim to fame is that a few years ago we shared a stage in Taunton. I was one of the warm-up guys and was asked to give a presentation on sustainable tourism. He walked on as the keynote guest speaker, wearing the most fantastic Hawaiian shirt, and gave a spellbinding talk on green technology.

A true polymath, in my book he’s up there with the Jonathan Millers of this world. With 12 honorary PhDs to his name he could afford to pull up the drawbridge and remain in his ivory tower, and yet he remains one of those delightfully modest British eccentrics. The David Bellamy of popular science without the excessive facial hair.

Sometimes you watch a clip on You Tube that stops you in your tracks.  The Ukrainian sand artist, Kseniya Simonova, tells the extraordinary story of her homeland in a way that took my breath away.  My mother-in-law survived eighteen months of starvation rations and permafrost to escape from one of Stalin’s Siberian gulags in 1941 so this a story I am familiar with, but I was still spellbound by her storytelling artistry.  What a beautiful medium to work in, a light-box and some sand.  This is the Ukrainian version of the X-factor. Eat your heart out Simon Cowell.

4pm on a cold grey afternoon at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, London. Test screening three short films we have just produced for Kick-It, a NHS funded health project to encourage young people in Hammersmith and Fulham to kick the smoking habit. Their new 20,000 lumen digital projector, the size of a Smart car, is powered up and I sit nervously at the back of the empty cinema with Richard, their incredibly helpful projectionist. My fingers are firmly crossed.

A lot of work has gone into making the films but I have only seen them on a laptop screen, not in a state of the art 200 seater cinema with surround sound speakers. The lights fade, the DVD runs and suddenly there are the films, we made back in July, up on this huge screen. Richard adjusts the cinema amplification system to fine-tune the sound balance and I start to relax. The projector’s image and sound qualities surpass my wildest expectations. And this is just a DVD. What would it be like if we ran the films directly from the hard drive? This is no longer video, it’s a theatrical experience. Roll on the 22nd November when the cinema will be full of feisty young people at the launch. I’ll still be nervous on the day……