top fives: good things

And so onto my highlights from this year... 1. good projects I don't talk about my work that much on this blog. Don't know why that is. But I had a few especially good projects this year. I worked with interesting people, did some naming projects, wrote lots of stuff, art directed other bits, worked on Facebook apps, and was the voice of a brand in various social spaces. I enjoyed them, was tested creatively and in other ways, got good feedback (mostly) and learned a lot. Oh, and Contagious magazine said the first one "put shame in the game of many youth brands". I'll take that quite happily. 2. my son's first birthday Milo's birthday weekend was so, so good. The best two days of the year. We went to see Pop at the Tate Modern, and he loved most of it, especially the Takashi Murakami and Damien Hirst rooms. The next day we had 40 or so friends and family over for his birthday party. There was cake and there were goody bags, as there should be at every good party. And we got him a trike that he loves. 3. watchmen marketing Watchmen was a transmedia narrative par excellence, with games, mock documentaries, printed stuff, music videos and more springing up around it. The distributed story was so good you almost didn't need to see the movie. 4. robots were awesome

Playful 09 - Gamechanging & Change Through Play

View more presentations from Katy Lindemann.

They really were. There were great things like Chalkbot and Katy's presentations for Interesting and Playful too. 5. slow projects Earlier this year I felt like I was losing track of writing for my own fun. So I've made a point of making time for it. It's starting to pay off too. I enjoyed NaNoWriMo, although I didn't get far. I had a bit of success with Leaf Books and a couple of other things. There have also been Crossrail Pop-up Pop and a bigger thing, which I've often obliquely referred to but never got round to finishing. So maybe that'll show up one day soon. The point is to start these things, even if you may never finish.

top fives: bad things

So here are the things I won't miss about 2009. They are a bit of a random mishmash of personal/worky/other, so they probably look a bit odd piled up next to each other like this. 1. my son being in hospital There have been a few difficult things on the personal front this year, but none more so than my baby boy spending time in hospital. Three times in 2009 with breathing difficulties. (Apparently they don't say it's asthma until you're a bit older.) So the fact I've had a heavy cold over Christmas has meant I've pretty much spent the whole time scared that he would have to go in again...and that I'd be responsible. Thankfully, that hasn't happened (hope I don't have to say "yet"). Here's to a healthier 2010, Milo. 2. michael jackson During the summer I found it really weird that there wasn't more of a conversation around Michael Jackson on the planning and creative blogs. He seems to have been knocking around some of the really big cultural shifts of the last five decades. As a performer, as a brand, as a social phenomenon (I found out on Twitter before it was on the news - you probably did too), it didn't really feature. But as an uber-fan, maybe I'm just being a bit precious. 3. losing too much time to free flash games OK, it's not the biggest thing in the world. I got hooked on sites like Kongregate for a bit in the middle of the year. And then moved on to Canabalt, which is awesome. But if you add up the total time I've lost over the whole year, you'd probably laugh at me. And life coaches would offer me their services for free. Seriously, it must be four days or something. 4. brands trying to show how social they are Making ads like this. Rather than behaving socially. 5. felipe massa's accident OK, so formula one is my not-so-secret guilty pleasure. There are lots of good reasons not to like it, but I can't help it. Somewhere along the line I managed to invest myself in the story of it, and I've been hooked ever since. When this happened, I was absolutely gutted. Felipe should have won the championship the previous year, when it was claimed by Lewis Hamilton. (The driver was the consistent side of the partnership in Ferrari, the team was at McLaren. If you don't agree I will fight you on this.) That image I have of him beating his chest on the podium in Sao Paolo, knowing he'd won the race but lost the championship by a single point, holding his head up high...that's one of the most inspiring sporting images of the last decade for me. To be hit on the head by a spring from someone else's car the following season, whilst travelling at 162 mph, that just doesn't seem fair.

bonkers good personalisation

My brother sent me this film he made from a toy produced to say thank you to Swedes who pay their equivalent of the licence fee. You've seen such things before with the Dexter Hitlist. But I love the epic feel of this. The person featured, in case you're wondering, is my baby boy Milo.

high dependency

We're back from a couple of days spent in hospital with Milo. He's fine, but it's his second time (the first was about a month ago) in with breathing difficulties caused by a viral chest infection. He had to work very hard to breathe when he went in. You could see his stomach sucking in, and he was using every muscle in his top half just to get air in and out. We stayed in what was called the high dependency unit, where you need a bit more regular attention. But now, thanks to lots of inhalers, nebulisers, steroids and other things he's much, much better. The NHS is a funny thing, and I know this isn't everyone's experience. We had to tell the same story and give the same details about five or six times within the space of a few hours. As a customer journey or relationship thing, that's a bit bonkers. But the people, all of them, from the paramedics who took us in the ambulance to the A&E doctors, to the nurses, doctors and consultant on the children's ward, were absolutely incredible. You could not fault the level of care and attention to detail. They remembered our names, had proper conversations, remembered our stories and who we are, and passed it on from shift to shift. When by comparison you consider how much many commercial companies invest in their CRM and still get it massively wrong, you realise that the NHS has a lot right with it. And probably the thing that makes the difference is the thing that underlies any customer relationship programme that works: people who care.

they grow up so fast

based on extensive research

Or see the more legible version here.

hot new creative talent

Move over Juan Cabral. Laters Fred and Farid. There's a new kid in town.

other stuff i'm doing

So my baby boy is a week old tomorrow. And it turns out that taking care of daddy business is a heady cocktail of extreme, frenetic activity mixed in with periods of complete idleness in which you do as much relaxation and/or other stuff as you can. So, aside from catnapping every few hours, here's what I've been up to: Reading a couple of very good books. Contributing to Dawdlr (which is sort of an anti-Twitter). And, most importantly, enjoying eating peanut butter on toast.

twitter-ish thing for parents

Further to yesterday's investigation of digital dad-ness, here's a Twitter-style thing for parents to share news, pics and video with friends and family. Randomly found it via an ad on Stephen Fry's TwitPic.

i'm a dad! woohoo, let's all get tattoos!

I've been away taking care of my baby, who was born last Friday (yay, yay!). I'll probably not be posting much over the next couple of weeks either. I am having fun finding out all about digital dad-ness though, when there's time. Dad Club is an excellent place to go if you're about to get into the whole fatherhood thing, or if you're already there. Mike writes a column called The Front Line which is fun. Your Family is less irreverent, but still useful and a good read in a magazine-y kind of way. It's sort of a fledgling social network, too. When you think about it, it's surprising there isn't a more established online community for this stuff (beyond Mumsnet that is, mums are really organised).