Best of Year #7

Another year, another move, another one planned (last one, I swear) and a host of posts on I Like Local! I left the busyness of London behind in September to come and spend some time in design-savvy Denmark, and in that time I have been sharing my Copenhagen discoveries here, in the Irish Times and in other publications. I've also launched a brand new design festival that will hit Copenhagen in a couple of weeks, made great friends, eaten fancy food and ridden on almost everything in Tivoli. And while it's been AMAZING to live here in Copenhagen, it's finally time to go home to Ireland, so once the festival's done I'll be packing my bags and heading back to Dublin. There will be a few final things to discover and share here in DK, so stay tuned, and take a look below for some of the highlights since I got here.

Best of Year #6

Phew, what a year! What has been a quieter 12 months here on I Like Local has been a crazy one offline: I completed a masters in Curating Contemporary Design, spent six months working in the V&A during its most successful ever exhibition, started writing for Image Interiors & Living and just last week made it out of London. I'm compiling the best posts of Year #6 in location #6 as I've just landed in Copenhagen, which means the coming months are bound to be full of some TASTY design and architecture, hooray! That said, there are still some things I've been meaning to post from my masters, some London things I haven't yet shared and of course, as always, heaps of Irish design, architecture and creativity to talk about. But before I get all those new posts up, here's a look at some of the most popular posts from Year #6, pictured clockwise from the top left above.

Best of Year #5

I Like Local is five years old! If it were human it would be running around, causing mischief and starting school in a few months. As it's not actually human, instead it's grown to be a bank of over 300 posts about design and architecture in five different locations with a small but perfectly formed readership from all over the world. It's one of the only places you'll find writing about Irish design and architecture online and - call me biased - it's a damn good read. Year number five has brought with it a move to a fifth location (this time it's London) and as a result, a wealth of design and cultural inspiration. Some of the most popular posts this year have been my now annual degree show listings, but there have been other highlights too, you'll find them below. Year number six will see me stay put for the first time in ages (I'm about to start a masters in Curating Contemporary Design here in the big smoke) but I'll still be covering the best of Irish creativity amid my inevitable London discoveries. Make sure you're signed up to the mailing list for updates, keep in touch on Twitter and keep enjoying the blog!

Best of Year #4

Another year older... I Like Local is now four! Year four has seen me move from Lisbon in Portugal to Edinburgh in Scotland via a brief stop off at home in Ireland. There's been more design and architecture spotting, culture vulturing and event listings and reviews. Thanks to all of you for being such great readers (both old and new), hi to all the mailing list subscribers and a general hooray for design and architecture! Here are some of the most popular posts to look back on from the past twelve months, while I look forward to continuing to share my finds and shout enthusiastically about the good stuff around me. Year five brings with it a fifth location (London, if you don't be minding) so there'll be no excuse not to keep this blog full to the brim! But for now, click through for some highlights from Lisbon, Dublin and Edinburgh. Enjoy!

Best of 2012

So we've made it to the present! The beginning of 2012 was spent in Dublin, the middle in Lisbon and the end... location tbc. See below for the highlights of 2012 so far and see you next week for the beginning of the rest of the year :)

Best of 2011

Best of 2010

In late 2009 I joined the ranks at the Irish Architecture Foundation and as a result I Like Local* started covering a lot more about the built environment. Most of the popular posts in 2010 were architecture-related (the most popular of all being about Open House Dublin, the biggest project I worked on with the IAF). Below are a couple of those archi-highlights. In 2010 I also spent most of my time in Dublin, but guest writer Colm Keller gave a little insight into design goings-on in Sweden in January of that year.

Best of 2009

Hey guess what: I Like Local* is three years old! Hitting the big 3 has inspired me to look back at all that's been posted on the site so far and see what's been preoccupying me over the past few years in my past few locations. It's also been interesting to see what posts have made the biggest splash or been most read. So with all that in mind, I thought I'd post a couple of 'best ofs' - the most read and/or most interesting posts of 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 so far. Here's a little run-down of the Best of 2009 :)