Welcome to the Liv Design blog, an eclectic mix of great design and quirky finds

Spent the day at Interbuild 07 at the NEC in Birmingham today. It's a trade-only show for the building and construction industry but it's not as bad as it sounds! It's great to see the latest new products, gadgets and construction techniques which will filter down to the consumer, including lots of green and eco-friendly techniques. You can gets the latest info from companies from all over the world (notably whole areas for Chinese, German and Danish exhibitors). You can always tell the companies with money and their own marketing departments – big expensive stands with plasma screens, plenty of literature and instant demonstrations. In any market, it's perhaps not only the 'wow' factor that attracts customers though. Bigger isn't always better. A concise message with a clean, clear brand identity will make it easier to sell your product.

There seems to be an ever increasing problem with websites when viewing in Safari on Macs. What is going on? The amount of Mac users is increasing worldwide with 2007 sales of desktop Macs up 34% on the same quarter in 2006, and Laptops up 37%. Is it Apple then? Is it the web programmers? Is it the client brief? 'Yeah, don't bother with Safari, no-one uses it and we can save a couple of quid too'... You try getting online insurance quotes and see what a 'time saving' and 'easy' experience it is...

Well I've already had two emails this morning before 9am trying to persuade me to hand over hard earned cash on the new OSX Leopard. I can get it first at 6pm tonight apparently if I don't have anything better to do at the start of my weekend... How many different cat names are they going to come up with? Does anyone actually know whether they have Tiger, Panther, Leopard or Tabby installed? When they've run out of names are they then moving on to dogs names?? I've had a look at the blurb from Apple and it all seems very nice, but is it necessary? I'm not sure. And the annoying thing is if you buy a new mac now you'll get Leopard, and I always worry about running different macs in studio with a different OS. I for one will wait and see...

Well it's about time. Finally we've got round to doing our own blog. Whether it's successful, useful, or even entertaining I guess time will tell. We hope to share news, views and info with like-minded creative individuals. You don't have to be a designer. You don't have be employed by a design agency. You just have to be you. In fact, we positively encourage you to be you. Be an individual. Be creative. Let your imagination run wild. So, to kick off, on our site liv-design.co.uk we have a new page called 'Passion'. We want this to be an interactive page to showcase how people think, how we tick, how we're influenced. It's about where we get our creativity from and what influences and inspires us. So, let me know and we'll put some of the best ones on the website. Scott