Design. Development. Strategy.
01/07: T-Mobile UK homepage, step-change re-design, 2009.07.01
Today marks a new chapter with T-Mobile's launch of their homepage and vision to deliver 'World Class Web' for 2010. This is a radical step-change in both creative execution and platform solutions, before rolling out a fresh look utilising innovative technology later this year. I have been instrumental in championing and orchestrating the delivery of the creative every step of the way and it was indeed, one heck of a journey to get it where it is today, however the results have been well received and a positive step in the right direction.
04/05: T-Mobile Sing-along, 6pm-7pm, Trafalgar Square, London, UK, 2009.04.30
Building on brand awareness and the 'Life's for Sharing' campaign, T-Mobile charged forward from their successful 'Dance' event with 'Sing', a spontaneous event, hosted in Trafalgar Square, London. Passer by's were randomly handed out microphones to then sing on cue from a huge screen counting down to the event. An astounding 13,000 people managed to cram inside Trafalgar Square, in which the packed crowd then sang to popular titles, with 'Pink' making a surprise guest appearance and covering a few of her own titles, before bringing the one hour event to an euphoric end with 'Hey Jude'. Extended media coverage was present, and the result, was a televised 2 min coverage of the event broadcast on national prime time TV on May, 2nd 2009, at 9pm, on channel ITV.
Vernon Kay hosts and presents T-Mobile's 'Sing' event, with surprise guest appearance by Pink, singing along with a crowd of over 13,000 people.
There is now an exclusive 4 minute extended version on YouTube and on T-Mobile's own channel, with exclusive clips to the build-up of the event.
The campaign's online experience was bought to life with James Hoeksma, heading Online Experience, myself as Creative Lead and Rob Wolfenden as UX Designer. We worked exclusively with Saatchi, Elvis, TMW, Freud, Mediacom and BLM Quantum to align the 'Sing' concept and creative elements with our new products and price plans, so the campaign was fully integrated prior launch of the event. This was indeed a huge success, and will now continue with phase 2 of the 'Sing' campaign.
07/02: Comments disabled on my blog for the time being
For the more web savvy visitors who happen to check mark-up and validation on my site, may have noticed some undesired auto generated 'code' in the xhtml. My blog channel recently fell victim to a raft of spamming activity received by unknown sources resulting to a flurry of links embedded into the mark-up language and redirecting would be visitors to "adult" orientated channels. This had an impact on some of the other pages, and I'm baffled as to how this can happen or even work?! It's as if someone or something replaced the original files with an alternative page with hidden links. This has of course been resolved now, by means of replacing the corrupt files with the original back-up copies and disabling comments for the time being on my blog until I can find more secured measures to prevent this from happening again. I really don't see why or what purpose these so called "spambots?" serve other than waste time and cause misery for those hosting their own websites.
17/01: T-Mobile's official launch Dance online campaign
Head of Online Experience: James Hoeksma; Art Direction: Kenneth Tse; Designer: Rob Wolfenden
T-Mobile online Dance campaign, homepage 2008.01.16<
Above: This is T-Mobile's first ever attempt to move beyond the traditional 800px x 600px format, placing two skyscrapers ad campaigns either side. The decision was made since embedding the campaign inside the already limited canvas would have lost it's overall impact. The approach delivered a far more dramatic appearance, and ideally suited for the first two weeks of brand consideration.
T-Mobile online Dance campaign, landing page 2008.01.16
Above: Dedicated landing page for the initial 'Dance' launch, driving traffic to a dedicated 'YouTube' channel in which T-Mobile's new strapline 'Life's for sharing' comes to live.
14/12: Alpha testing a new theme switcher
I have devised a new theme switcher on my own website today. It's something I always wanted to have on the site to provide an alternative visual palette for users and demonstrate how easy a site's general make-up can be altered using various style-sheets and graphics.
Black theme switcher
Just like fashion, graphic design also moves with trend. What may appear to be modern, edgy or 'in' at the time can literally be unfashionable and dated overnight. Re-skinning my site has never been so easy.
There are several key reasons for this decision:
- To create several themes to suit a particular user's mood or to accommodate a potential client's business requirement
- To provide greater flexibility to update my site cosmetically at a whim
- To satisfy my creative expression with change
- To creatively challenge CSS boundaries
For designers and developers alike who are running their own website, many rarely update their site's overall appearance once it's up and running. There can be a number of reasons for this, for example: the complexity of the site's framework. For me personally, before I understood how to manually hand code in (x)html and apply style-sheets in CSS, it was the time invested for the general technical and graphical maintenance of a site that was discouraging.
This has all changed since CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) have become common practice in the world of "web design" and I have welcomed this advance with open arms. I became frustrated when my designs in photshop were not making a seamless transition from canvas to front-end development. It was at that point I realised I should take the time and initiative to hand code and make myself become a more efficient web designer for development. This has subsequently made me more appreciative and sympathetic towards the development process, equiping me with the right knowledge to effectively execute a functional and practical website. I cannot emphasise enough the importance for every designer involved in web to embrace and appreciate it's fundamental relationship with front-end design and development.
I will be adding more themes to my site over time.
27/11: Contract extension position for 6 months at T-Mobile, UK
I am pleased to have been officially appointed the role of Lead UX Designer for a further 6 months on a contract basis at T-Mobile, UK. I will fulfill this new and important position in a recent restructure to the online team to driving creative excellence and stability during the transitional period before the role is permanently assigned. In recent months, I have played a pivotal role managing the online creative, working closely together with creative partners to deliver a more coherent brand and campaign across all channels. I will also continue to support head of online experience, James Hoeksma to secure three permanent positions for UX designers to service and transform the site experience over the next 12 months to deliver world class web for 2010.
26/09: Google G1 mobile pre-launch registration page
With the imminent release of T-Mobile's highly anticipated Google G1 mobile phone running on the much 'hyped' and talked about 'Android' platform. I was working against the clock under extreme pressure, with only 7 working hours to turn design around for development and deployment, a pre-launch registration page was required on the 'What's Hot' section on the T-Mobile's commerce channel to capture market audience and interest. The result has proved a magnificent success, for the 1st phase of the online campaign.
T-Mobile's Google G1 mobile phone pre-launch registration page image.
08/06: Watashi wa nihongo o benkyo shite imasu
The subject title means 'I am studying Japanese' - I think, I am little rusty around the corners as it's a language which I have predominantly self taught and picked up along the way during my year out in Japan as a Creative Director at a company called Paradigm, an International publishing house in Tokyo, Japan. I plan to take the Japanese Proficiency Language Test Level 4, also know as JPLT in December 2008, in which I have already submitted my application for the test. The JPLT curriculum is recognised globally, with Level 1 being the most advanced and through to Level 4, being the entry level and would be the UK equivalent to GSCE.
07/04: Contract position for 9 months at T-Mobile, UK
T-Mobile is part of one of the largest mobile companies in the world. It's the UK network of T-Mobile International, a major branch of Deutsche Telekom AG whose subsidiaries and affiliated companies serve over 86 million mobile customers worldwide. T-Mobile International operates mobile companies in the USA, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Poland.
I am currently employed by German mobile network provider T-Mobile since April 2008, and appointed as their online user experience web designer reporting to James Hoeksma, Head of Online Experience. This is a contract position and will be subject for review during November 2008. I work as part of their online user experience team located at T-Mobile's head office in Hatfield, UK. Team members consists of user experience web designers, web developers, web producers, project manager, sales, business and web analysts and content administrators.