Richard Slaney shares the websites he wouldn’t be without
The process of deciding which sites to add to this list was rather complicated. Which websites are ‘new’ enough or unknown enough to warrant inclusion? Did design or content matter more? Does a browser add-on count as a website? So the whole Digital Department sat down, argued for a while and then came up with an extremely odd list:
This website provides a simple yet addictive font editing software, which allows you to make your own fonts in a really nice clean interface. You can then download them as a font file, install them and start using them! There’s also a gallery section where you can see what other members of the community have made, download these fonts and become thoroughly depressed at other people’s amazing creativity.
This is a fascinating, community-based database of who sampled whom, remixed what and covered which song. Useful for “Where does that come from?” moments, and for hours of web browsing when you should be working. The classical music section is a bit thin on the ground at the moment so perhaps ArtsProfessional readers could help contribute.
The website of digital artist Jonathan Harris, it never fails to inspire or interest. It’s fascinating how his projects, some of which are six or seven years old, are still relevant in spite of the huge changes in the internet and digital industries since that point. Jonathan’s photo blog (taking a photo a day for a year) has just come to an end, but is worth reading, and his sketchbooks are works of art in themselves.
Not technically a website, this free add-on to the free web browser Firefox is possibly one of the most useful tools available for web developers, allowing you to debug web pages and edit pages’ HTML and styles in real time. This also allows you to reverse-engineer web pages with interesting ideas to decipher their construction. In general, the add-ons available for Firefox are really useful tools – Chris Pederick’s web developer add-on being another incredibly valuable resource.
This blog always seems to make me laugh, whilst normally making valid points about certain areas of the music industry. With honorable mentions to the blogs of Alex Ross, Charlotte Higgins and Tom Service etc. who everyone already reads, so weren’t worth mentioning. But it appears I did anyway.
Richard Slaney is Head of Digital for the Philharmonia Orchestra.
http://www.philharmonia.co.uk