We went to the lovely island of Mallorca in 2011, to celebrate my good friend Guy’s 30th birthday. This is the video he edited from footage we shot whilst away.

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Whilst thinking about this list, I had first decided to compile a list of the albums which I had listened to the most frequently during 2011. I took a look at my iTunes playlist and realised that it would have basically been, more or less, a list of my favourite bands. So, my top 6 albums released in 2011 it became, in no particular order. Enjoy!

Battles – ‘Gloss Drop’

I have been a Battles fan for a good while now, ‘Gloss Drop’ being their second full length effort. The album was released on June 6, 2011 and much was said at the time about the departure of Tyondai Braxton. Braxton left the band to pursue his solo career, with many fans thinking Battles sound would suffer as result.

My opinion is that the band have evolved, and as an album, and live, they sound as enthralling, experimental and exciting as ever. I saw Battles on their European Gloss Drop Tour in June 2011, and it was awesome.

Mogwai – ‘Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will’

‘Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will’ is Mogwai’s follow up to 2008′s ‘The Hawk Is Howling’, released on the 14 February 2011. For me it’s much more of a complete record than their previous effort, I love nearly every track on it.

Completely subjective of course, but with tracks like ‘White Noise’, ‘San Pedro’ and ‘How To Be A Werewolf’, this album is a winner. ‘White Noise’ make the hairs on my arms stand on end, and I have literally cried whilst listening to it.

Glassjaw – ‘Coloring Book’

Hopefully Glassjaw need little introduction. The post-hardcore band have been legends on the scene for over a decade. ‘Coloring Book’ was given away for free during their 2011 tour, and is a sneak peak of their next album.

The sound is a new direction for the band, but it works. ‘Gold’ & ‘Stations Of The New Cross’ are standout tracks.

Crosses – ‘†††’

Crosses (†††) are an electronic rock side project from Deftones singer Chino Moreno and Far guitarist Shaun Lopez. They have made their debut self-titled EP available for free from August 2, 2011.

I love it, ‘†his Is A †rick’ and ‘Op†ion’ getting the most plays from me. You can download a copy from www.crossesmusic.com.

Russian Circles – ‘Empros’

Russian Circles are a three piece instrumental rock band from Chicago. ‘Empros’ is their fourth studio album, released on October 25, 2011, and is the follow up to 2009′s ‘Geneva’.

I first caught them live on their first UK tour supporting Tool in 2007, and have been a big fan ever since. ‘Empros’ has been eagerly awaited, and does not disappoint. The opening minute and half of ‘Mládek’ sends shivers down my spine, ‘Schipol’ slow burning, but with its lunging, heavy rhythms, has a similar effect. Awesome stuff.

Will Haven – ‘Voir Dire’

I had covered the ‘Return of Will Haven’ in a previous blog post back in July. Will Haven released ‘Voir Dire’, their fifth full length release, on the 11 October 2011.

I had the pleasure of having my ear drums smashed in by Grady & Co. on November 11 2011, at the o2 Academy Islington. They played most (I think) of ‘Voir Dire’, then belted out some old favourites, it was a great night, and good to have them back in the UK.

Today I learned a valuable regarding salt beef. I had a Reuben. A Reuben is a grain mustard sourdough bun filled with 200g of salt beef topped with sliced pickle, russian dressing and sauerkraut.

The culinary delight was purchased from Brass Rail, which is located inside Selfridges, courtesy of my boss. Thanks Cem!

Suzuki Method are a band from Salford, Manchester. They are by no means a new band, having played the Manchester circuit for a number of years. Their debut EP is out now on Factory Foundation Recordings. Although difficult to pigeon hole into a specific style, Suzuki Method weave out the kind of infectious electro indie that you might find yourself humming, days after listening to them.

Camden Barfly

I nipped down the the Camden Barfly last Saturday night to catch them live. The sound was good, the band were good, the beer was warm. Good times.

To find out more check out this review on BBC Manchester, or take a look at the band’s MySpace page.

Take a look at their video for ‘What we do’s not secret’

Due to the mass media coverage, and the close proximity to my workplace, this lunchtime I took a casual stroll down to the Cathedral to see what all the fuss is about. Armed with my iPhone camera, and my friend & Colleague Siu, we prepared ourselves to ask some of the protesters some difficult questions about the outcome of this protest.

We didn’t talk to anybody, as there were not many protesters. Just a load of empty tents, visible police presence and a few hippys making coffee. So we took some pictures.

Mixed messages

It is quite hard to understand exactly what the protesters are protesting about. Capitalism appears to be the main issue here, although from eavesdropping on a few conversations, I picked up a few hints about some other organisations that pose a grave threat to humanity. “Children are dying” one lady said, I’d imagine that’s probably Google’s fault then.

Lunch break over

It’s a beautiful sunny afternoon, and as much as I’d like to sit around cursing everything, I had to go back to work to make some more money, leaving the protesters with their Starbucks.

The alternative is a working prototype, which the client can use, click around & have a much richer experience of the proposed design.

There are a variety of reasons for this idea being put forward. The most obvious reason is that it is not possible to demonstrate interactive elements. Drop down menus, fluid grids and Javascript behaviors are invisible to the client on a static screen.

You need graphics to ‘wow’ a client, not clean code

Bad text rendering, a clumsy interface and constant crashing seem to be negative attributes awarded to Photoshop in the aforementioned articles. Photoshop allows you to create rich, visually interesting mockups. You make a mockup for one reason, to win work. A client at this stage will not be interested in lines of semantic code.

The introduction of CSS 3 allows for much nicer interface attributes to be applied to a working prototype, text-shadow, box-shadow, border-radius. Of course, unless you ask your client what browser they will be viewing your mockup in, pretty useless. A static image will look the same viewed anywhere.

But if I spend time on coding, then the client doesn’t like it, haven’t I wasted loads of time?

Yes you have, although every design process will go through some form of amendment before it is signed off. Regarding time required for revisions, making a quick change to a Photoshop document or a change to the CSS & XHTML is probably going to take roughly the same amount of time (depending on the change).

The flip side to this is if you once you have a CSS prototype signed off by the client, half the work is potentially complete.

I don’t want to code all my mockups, what other options do I have?

Almost all of my designs start on paper, so a pencil is still very valid option. Although I don’t think a client would be very impressed with even your finest effort with a HB.

You can build an interactive wireframe document in InDesign. This is then exported as a PDF, which is ‘clickable’ and can give the client a good indication of the proposed website.

There is the iMockUp application for the iPad, allowing users to create simple application wireframes. Useful for quickly fleshing out of ideas, perhaps around the table at Starbucks. The version I have used on the iPad has limited export settings (PNG only) and only supports single page designs.

Photoshop will live on

Photoshop, the bread and butter image editor. I’ve been using Photoshop for years, and will continue to do so. A design is something that I get very precious about, therefore until sufficient cross browser support appears for CSS3 I will be sending a static image.

Louis Bloomfield is a freelance photographer based in London. Louis believes photography is about communication and interaction with subject and audience. Every image has a different story to tell, and that stories direction is completely dependant upon the mind of the observer.

“There are certain things that can influence the context of an image; but deviation, in my mind, is apparent with all images. A artist can influence an opinion but never make the final decision.”

Take a look at his website Louis Bloomfield Photography

Here are some images from his ‘Shop keeper’ series:

Crosses are an electronic rock side project from Deftones singer Chino Moreno and Far guitarist Shaun Lopez. They have made their debut self-titled EP available for free from August 2, 2011. You can download a copy from www.crossesmusic.com. Its pretty awesome, and here’s hoping for tour at some stage in the near future.

Take a look at this video for ‘†hholyghs†’:

Quality gig at the Camden Underworld, bought the ticket primarily for Animals as leaders, after their awesome support slot at Deftones.

No disappointment as the band were amazing, and we (me and Louie) got to meet them, which was nice.

They also have a new album in the works, which I’m sure will be sweet as, duck.

The band’s self-titled debut album was released in the UK in 2006. Tracks from the album also formed part of their debut American release, Businessmen & Ghosts, which came out in November 2007. The band cites a wide array of influences, including artists as disparate as Bill Evans, Devo, The Grateful Dead, and Yes. WFANFC’s sound has been described as “a flawless lucid-dream trip through a thousand fantastical influences” and “as fresh as morning rain on Piccadilly Gardens”. Regarding their importance, major media outlets such as the BBC have stated: “it’s the way that WFANFC have distilled Manchester’s history into an exciting future brew that makes them important.”

I know the guys personally and they are all top fella’s, so be sure to check them out. The above paragraph was obviously stolen from Wikipedia, but it sums up this post perfectly. Their music is awesome, check out the video below.

Video by Andrew Brooks.

MySpace