And I’m so, so, SO excited that I’ll be one of them.

We’ll be working together to develop a simple but addictive game that could unlock research bottlenecks, tackle meaningful research challenges and enable hundreds of thousands of supporters in the UK to help beat cancer.

Our challenge is to spend 48 hours creating an amazing app that will ‘analyse real data, from real cancer patients, leading to real results and real breakthroughs in the development of personalised medicine.’ Organised by the clever people at Good for Nothing, Cancer Research UK and the Citizen Science Alliance, the idea is that ‘By analysing data faster, we can get knowledge to doctors faster, and they in turn can treat people more successfully. Put simply, playing this game really could save lives.’

For more details, check out Good for Nothing, the social mission that ‘brings smart folk together to do some good for nothing’.

This is digital at its very best. I’ll be there for Caitlyn.

Sarah wanted a site that was simple but special, with a collection of galleries showcasing her diverse projects. I’ve shared a few snapshots below, but do check out her website at http://sarahmarkopoulos.co.uk to see the full extent of her creative wonderfulness.

*It’s with a little sheepishness that I link to my post about Concetta’s website from October last year, when I promised to finish the Liberty Avenues site ‘soon’. In the last few months, I’ve worked on websites with some very lovely artists and creative businesses. I’ve also done exciting things with a few fun charities, I’ve joined the Eggmag team as arts and culture writer, and I’ve steadily been working my way through a stack of manuscripts following the London Book Fair. All manner of fun things, it seems, but spending time here. There’s so much I’d like to do with this site, and I will get to it, but thanks to all our lovely friends and followers for sticking around until then. You’re super.

‘Have nothing in your website that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.’
William Morris, 19th century writer, artist and socialist

Ok, so we’ve appropriated William’s words a little, but if he were still alive today we’re sure he’d hold the same principles for websites as he did for homes, art and books: they should be beautiful, functional and accessible to everyone. Simple.

Your website is where you work, play and converse. It’s where you display your artistic side and invite your friends – old and social-network-new – to come and have a look. It expresses your personality and creative style, with your influences decorating the walls. It has everything you need and, importantly, enough space for you to grow. Just like home.

We love building unique and soulful websites that really work. Whether it’s your first website or you’re expanding into a new space, we can help to plan what you need and design it just how you want, with an understanding that every detail matters. We can also help with writing and editing content, and building up your social media networks, if you’d like us to.

We’ll add our portfolio here very soon.

Lovely Client: But I don’t know how to write a blog.

Me: No problem, it’s easy, I’ll help you.

LC: But what would I write about?

Me: Things you do, things you make, things you love, things you’re inspired by…

LC: Ohhhh, but do I really need to?

Me: Well, how else do you expect people to find you?

LC: I don’t know, isn’t that what Google is for?

But, but but! You see, a lot of my work involves helping the lovely artists and not-for-profits I work with to strengthen their online communications – and it almost always starts with a blog. There are plenty of ‘top 10 tips for bloggers’ floating around, with handy advice like ‘use H1 tags’ or ‘include pictures’, but occasionally I think that sort of thing misses the point, especially for us creative types who would rather spend our time drawing/making/photographing/insert passion here. So, for any creatives out there, here’s my advice for how (and why!) to launch right into meaningful, enjoyable blogging.

The truth is the truth.

First of all, yes – a blog can be a fantabulous marketing tool, but if your readers feel like they’re just being marketed to, they’ll quickly leave (who flicks channels or flips pages looking for ads?). So if you’re using your blog to promote your business, you need to do it creatively. Your readers need to feel a personal connection to you and your attempt to make your creative business soar. They need to like you, feel affection for you. And they need to feel respected. Your readers are savvy and will quickly spot the difference between genuine vs fabricated content, so don’t bother trying to fool them. This is GREAT news for you, because blogging becomes so much easier when you stop worrying about what you ‘should’ write, and start posting about what you really think and really love.

Work out what’s in it for you.

Writing a blog is not only about marketing yourself online or boosting your search engine rankings. For a lot of artists, blogging can be a really helpful way to focus your time, as it encourages you to reflect on what you’re creating, what’s inspiring you and where your work/life priorities lie. For some, it provides a small, attainable goal each week, when you otherwise mightn’t complete a single work for weeks or months. Too often we forget to step back and look at the bigger picture of our creative lives – and that’s when we risk losing sight of our artistic worth, feeling isolated in our work, or feeling guilty for creating rather than cleaning the house. So stop stressing about all the marketing, SEO and networking ‘shoulds’, and work out what’s in it for you at a personal level.

Trust yourself.

Write posts about what you know. Give tips, advice, tutorials. Share secrets. Many bloggers are afraid of giving away their art, when in fact they’re simply gathering people’s interest and offering themselves up as experts.

Talk to the big kids.

Share your favourite posts as far and wide as possible. Yes, Twitter and Facebook are important, but it goes a lot further. Anyone who has ever been featured on another website will tell you just how much more new traffic it sends them than the standard social media flow. Send an adaptation of your post to other blogs, slightly bigger blogs, and offer that they can publish your words and photos if they link back to your site. For your own blog, it might be enough to simply post once a week, but the big guys will want to update several times each day. And good content doesn’t create itself – so if what you’re offering is interesting to their audience, they’d be mad to say no.

Analyse, optimise.

Learn to love Google Analytics. Which is to say, learn to use it to its full potential. Track where your visitors are finding you, how long they spend on each post, what posts result in clicks towards your gallery page or Etsy shop, what sort of posts are being shared on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, and so on. Do your tutorial posts get the most viewers? Do your beautiful photos earn visitors? Do you get a flood of traffic when you offer a giveaway? Excellent – more of these posts, please!

Karma: spread the love…

Blogging is a community affair. Find the blogs you like and link to them, comment on them, promote them. Any love you share will come back exponentially. You might even make friends… Most of us are writing our blogs from our homes or studios. Think about how much an encouraging comment can brighten your day, and give that feeling to someone else whose blog inspires you.

Plan, plan, plan.

Every blog is a work in progress and will adapt throughout your creative journey, but it really helps to have a clear idea of where you’re starting from and an inkling of where you’re headed. So make sure you spend some time thinking about your identity, writing down your key interests or ‘selling points’, fleshing out who you think your audience might be, and then planning your posts accordingly. A very simple way to find your balance is to first identify your blog categories, and then make sure that a) every post fits into one of those categories, and b) you’re posting into each of these categories regularly. If you want a little more advice on planning your content and identity, pop back here in the next few weeks and I’ll share a simple exercise that I use with a lot of clients to help them focus their ideas and start creating meaningful content.

But I can’t write! But I don’t have anything interesting to say! But I don’t have time! But no one reads it! But a blog isn’t really necessary for me! But, but, but…

You can! You do! You must! They will! And yes it absolutely is! The key is to start somewhere. Your blog can be whatever you want it to be, and indeed it should just be an extension of yourself and the things that light you up. If you’re worried that you can’t write well enough, post a handful of photos instead, with just a few brief captions. If you don’t think anyone will be interested in what you have to say, start by writing lovely posts about other people who you find interesting and inspiring. Any time you invest will come back to you in site visits, new customers, testimonials in the form of comments. Not every post will interest every person, but if you find it interesting, chances are someone else will too. It will take time to build a following, but with a little courage you will get there.

He gave this talk for the RSA, (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce), a very inspiring charity that uses debate and research to promote the arts and encourage social progress. Big stuff…

Credit for the wise words goes to none other than Ira Glass. The kinetic typography was created by David Shiyang Liu as part of last year’s 30 Days of Creativity, a super little campaign that fits very nicely with my resolution to create more in 2012. I’m writing, stitching, animating, origami-ing, illustrating and writing some more, and two weeks into the year I’m already feeling bright, filled with creative thoughts and stories. As Ira says, ‘The most important possible thing you can do is a lot of work.’ Who’s with me?

Paper cranes are a little obsession of mine. Fold 1000 of them and you’ll be granted a wish by a crane, a creature as mystical and magical as the dragon, according to Japanese legend. But the idea takes on real wonder with the story of little Sadako Sasaki.

Sadako was only two when Hiroshima was bombed; by the age of twelve she, like many other children of the fallout, had developed terminal leukaemia. Her best friend came to visit her in hospital one day and folded a single golden crane, inspiring Sadako’s mission for the last ten weeks of her life: to fold 1000 paper cranes and fulfil her wish, to live. Her story resurrected the fable of the cranes and gave it all new significance: the origami crane remains an international symbol not only of hope, but also now of peace.

Sadako’s wish to live may not have come true, but her story lives on. And in the mystical and magical world of cranes and dragons, perhaps that’s the same thing.

‘I will write peace on your wings and you will fly all over the world.’ Sadako Sasaki, age 12

Sadako didn’t have reams of origami paper to work with – she used whatever scraps she could find around the hospital. Most striking to me is the image of the twelve year old turning medicine wrappers into artful symbols of hope and peace – a touch of creative recycling we can all be inspired by.

All these years later, thousands of bundles of 1000 paper cranes still pile up around the statue of Sadako in the Hiroshima Peace Park. Many are left out in the elements, and much like Tibetan prayer flags, the idea is that the maker’s wish for peace is released as the cranes degrade.

I fold cranes not for a wish come true, but for the meditation, as some people might sketch or crochet. I’ve been working my way through a huge stack of old publishers’ catalogues from past book fairs. Sometimes they become necklaces (but not on rainy days!). Other times they’ll hang from the ceiling or gather on the table around my teacup. They make gorgeous gift tags, and even teeny-tiny gifts in themselves when you just want to say ‘I’m thinking of you’ or ‘I wish you well’. I only ever fold one or two at a time, picking paper based on the colours and words of my mood. I’m sure I’ll reach 1000 some day, but who’s counting? I have this silly romantic notion that I’m folding up the pages and turning them into something that can take flight, which kind of explains why they’re all over the Liberty Avenues website.

My latest website has been so much fun. Caragh Buxton is a delightfully talented illustrator and face painter, and I’ve been lucky enough to work with all of her beautiful images in creating Party Faces London. Pop on over to enter her world of princesses, fairies, mosters and other lovely party treats.

This site has been all about the detail: we’ve handcrafted each page to be a little different. Here are a few snapshots, although you really must visit her site to see how wonderful her work really is…

I’ll add a little more detail over on the portfolio page soon.

http://partyfaceslondon.com

According to William, art mustn’t be confined to the elite. If we are to agree that creative expression is essential for our development (both technical and soulful, as a species and as individuals), that art facilitates communication between people who might not have otherwise come together, that it allows us to reflect on how we live and how we might live, then we have to agree with William. Not everyone may want art, but no one should be denied it.

‘I do not want art for a few any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few.’ William Morris

It’s a value that runs throughout our work at Liberty Avenues. Some of Luke’s greatest moments in theatre have been when it’s encouraged people to come together as people, rather than based on class or other social divides. Similarly in web, we’re passionate about creating beautiful spaces that work wonders for their functional aims, without costing a fortune. Everyone deserves a beautiful home, regardless of whether their business is flourishing or they’re working hard to make it – and I think that if William were alive today he’d agree that the principle holds for homepages as much as for houses.

William Morris worked around the corner from where we work – in fact, it’s the prints he created with Arthur Liberty that give our little studio it’s name. It seems only fitting that we’ve papered the walls of our website with one of his fabrics (the ‘Bird and Vine’ texture to our green background was stitched a couple of minutes away at Merton Abbey Mills, and the photo above, from the collection at the V&A, shows the original). You have to decorate your home with the things that inspire you.

You don’t just read a great book … you live it. The language, the stories, the typesetting, the weight of the paper – they become your world until the final page (and often stick around long after that). So if we’re lucky enough to be reading something wonderful when creating a website, chances are we’ll end up drawing something from within its pages.

It doesn’t really mean anything; we just find it interesting. It’s part of the fun of working in theatre, web and publishing all at once. That’s why each time we add a site to our portfolio, we’ll tell you what we were reading when we created it.