Stuff and Nonsense

Malarkey is Andy Clarke, a UK based designer, author and speaker who has a passion for design, CSS and web accessibility.

Andy has been working on the web for almost ten years. He is a visual web designer and author and he founded Stuff and Nonsense in 1998. Andy regularly writes about creating beautiful, accessible web sites and he speaks at events worldwide. Andy is the author of Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design, published by New Riders in 2006.

And all that Stuff and Nonsense malarkey

The one where Malarkey talks about the latest chapter in the story of Stuff and Nonsense.

Back in June 2004, I wrote about a new chapter in the story of Stuff and Nonsense, the design company that I have owned since 1998. It was at that time that I combined the running of the two businesses that I owned, Stuff and Nonsense and Karova. Today I'm very pleased to be writing about the next exciting chapter in the story of Stuff and Nonsense.

But before I tell you what's next, let me wind the clock back.

The reasons why

I started Stuff and Nonsense way back in 1998 as a vehicle for my designs for the web. The company stayed small, deliberately so, and over the next six years we built a client base of wonderful people who enjoyed our way of working, liked what we did and (almost) always paid on time. Sometimes even early! During that time we developed the prototype and first release of Karova Store and formed a separate limited company which owned the new software.

In order to start Karova without outside finance or borrowing, I decided to help fund the company's growth by combining the running of the two businesses and investing all the revenue from Stuff and Nonsense into Karova. This had a number of benefits, not least reduced administration and hosting costs, the talented young team who subsequently joined the new company and the new clients that were (almost) always a pleasure to work with.

Over the last few months my interest in designing for and collaborating with different people has grown, as has my interest in writing, speaking and training on the different aspects of designing with web standards and accessibility.

For these and other reasons, I have sold my shares in Karova and made Stuff and Nonsense fully independent again, in order that Stuff and Nonsense can carry on into the future developing these interests and enjoying making creative work that I can be proud of.

A team effort

I know that without Stuff and Nonsense, Karova might never have grown as it has. Without them, I might not have had the opportunity to start working with those fantastic people at Disney Store, Invigor8, Woodland Trust or WWF to name but a few.

I am very pleased to have given Karova the legacy of what I know to be a great product: usable, accessible and good looking. I'm also proud to have left them with a web site that I consider to be among my best work, a portfolio of my designs and a team of young people who I have been honoured to see flourish. I wish Karova every success in the future. Now it's time for a new chapter for Stuff and Nonsense: bigger, better, building on the successes of the past and looking to the future.

What's coming up?

Design

It's not just going to be business as usual. There are a number of exciting projects underway which I hope to share with you sometime soon. Some of these projects are independent, others are working in collaboration with people that I have known or admired for a very long time. The new Stuff and Nonsense gives me the freedom and flexibility to work with new and interesting people, a prospect that I am very excited about. There will also be a new company poerfolio site that will be different from anything you might have seen from me before.

Workshops

There will be more of that written word malarkey, plus training and seminar events including an updated, two-day CSS For Designers and a new CSS For Developers workshop. I know that workshops are an important part of the swift adoption of standards-based and accessible techniques, they are also a fantastic opportunity to meet with new people.

Conferences

It's a busy year for travel and this year alone I'll be traveling to and presenting at:

• IceWeb. Reykjavik, Iceland. April 2006
• @media 2006. London, UK. June 2006
• Web Design World. Seattle, USA. July 2006
• And other (to be announced) events

If you're planning to attend any of these events, it will be a real pleasure to meet you.

So for now it's the start of another chapter for a new, forward looking and independent Stuff and Nonsense. A chance to carry on designing, writing, and speaking about design, standards and accessibility, plus the opportunity to meet and work with new people. I hope that it will be as enjoyable as the chapters that have gone before.