Here’s our names laid out on the bed, iPhone photo courtesy of Tanner Glaves. I selected a 24pt Univers for my name, which turned out to give us a bit of exercise. Since there are multiple fonts in each case in our letterpress shop (a font in this case is one set of all the forms in the typeface), and it’s possible that those fonts were cut slightly differently, a particular form can look “off.” As you can see in the photo, my “l” looks a bit larger than the rest of the forms; either a capital “i” was mixed in with the “l”s, or the piece was from a larger point size or a different cut of the typeface.

To fix it, I grabbed another “l” from the case, used tweezers to extract the old one, and inserted the new one. We ran another test print, and it turns out the new “l” printed only a ghostly image—it was too warn down and old. Into the “hell box” that copy went, and I finally found a nice, clean “l” that printed wonderfully.

“The prairie has a beauty of its own and we should recognize and accentuate this natural beauty, its quiet level. Hence, gently sloping roofs, low proportions, quiet sky lines, suppressed heavy-set chimneys and sheltering overhangs, low terraces and out-reaching walls sequestering private gardens”

— Frank Lloyd Wright, on his prairie-style architecture

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the creative process and inertia. As a young designer aware of “Where I’m At” and “Where I Could Be,” improving my creative skills seems like an agonizingly slow process. I’ve heard this sentiment echoed by plenty of other design students: “I’m not getting good enough fast enough.”

I think we need to chill out (and work hard).

All the energy funneled into comparing ourselves to other designers is a waste and something I am entirely guilty of. I call upon all young (or old) designers to quit stalking ffffound/The Die Line/portfolio sites (it’s called procrastination, not inspiration) and think critically about what’s clogging up your head space. How can you be more productive? How can you unhinge your mind-claws from “Being Good” in favor of being a thoughtful observer of the world?

So you don’t think you’re growing. Well, why not?

Make a list of all the things you feel keep you from doing your best work. Maybe you blindly trust critiques. Maybe your space is too messy, clean, loud, or quiet. Maybe you need more sleep, iron intake, or time spent with personal work. Read your list and think about which items you can change. Replace bad habits with good ones.

Creativity is a state of mind.

Groovy, man. A mind prepared for the creative process is: intrepid, experimental, optimistic, patient, forgiving, and diligent.

Replacing “Inspiration” With Observation

When we search for inspiration among gallery-esque sites, we are not acting as producers—we are consumers of images. Here’s a couple things that can help us better understand life’s intricacies in order to make design humans can relate to.

• Blog embargo! It’s very easy to (unknowingly) internalize design solutions.
• Keep a tiny notebook with you at all times. Write down all the things that bother you, that you think are curious. Weird words. Strange haircuts. It’s all useable.
• When you are stuck, do things that seem counter-productive. Go for a walk, eat some spinach, call an old friend. Your molecules need some shaking up every once in awhile.
• Research something that has nothing to do with visual arts. Science is poetry.
• Find something about the idea, product, or brand that is true and compelling. It is more powerful to honor the truth than to try to make a brand something it’s not.
• Seek the unknown always. New experiences beget new ideas.

I think it’s hard to remember to do these things when jam-packed schedules and looming deadlines demand so much energy. However, the sweetest things in life tend to require a bit of effort, and creative growth seems pretty tasty to me.

More thoughts on the creative process and inspiration:

• “The Problem with Creativity”—David Airey
• “Consumption: How Inspiration Killed, Then Ate, Creativity”—Owen Shifflett
• A list of creative exercises

Dan Denney—who created the conference a year ago in order to learn more about design—did a great job of gathering 7 talented speakers. I felt that I took away something from each of the people who presented (collectively, 6 pages of notes), but for the sake of brevity,

• “Design is in the big picture.” —Niki Brown
• Do color research based on your audience. Different groups of people will have different reactions to color based on context and experience. —Niki Brown
• [On process in picking web design colors]: pick base color, then color scheme; Add muted colors, select a text color, and then experiment with how transparency can bring depth to your web design. —Niki Brown
• The way you write your copy and the way you speak should be the same. Matched messaging builds credibility, but out-of-sync personality (web vs. personal) can feel as though you are lying. —Lea Alcantara
• Use inspiration boards to create a visual context for the “feel” you want to go for (e.g., if you want to evoke the Victorian period, gather Victorian references) —Meagan Fisher
• “If you want something, ask for it”>—Lea Alcantara
• [On CSS Workflow]: Be psychic; have foresight for changes in content. This way, you won’t have to go back into your code later and make major adjustments. — Jina Bolton
• A brand is what you do and who you are

Like I said, Friday was so chock-full of goodness that I can’t possibly post it all here and expect anyone to read that giant wall of text. So because I can’t give everyone their due, visit Front-End for the full list.

Slide Downloads:
“CSS Workflow” by Jina Bolton
“Design is in The Big Picture” by Niki Brown
More downloads to come when they’re linked on the Front-End website.

“The worst it got was near the end. A lot of people died right at the end, and I didn’t know if I could make it another day. A farmer, a Russian, God bless him, he saw my condition, and he went into his house and came out with a piece of meat for me.”

“He saved your life.”
“I didn’t eat it.”
“You didn’t eat it?”
“It was pork. I wouldn’t eat pork.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean why?”
“What, because it wasn’t kosher?”
“Of course.”
“But not even to save your life?”
“If nothing matters, there’s nothing to save.”

A few days ago, I finally watched Miyazaki’s latest animated film, Ponyo. I’d been stalking it in the university library forever (seems like it took eons to “process” the DVD).

According to the summary on IMDB:

The son of a sailor, 5-year old Sosuke lives a quiet life on an oceanside cliff with his mother Lisa. One fateful day, he finds a beautiful goldfish trapped in a bottle on the beach and upon rescuing her, names her Ponyo. But she is no ordinary goldfish. The daughter of a masterful wizard and a sea goddess, Ponyo uses her father’s magic to transform herself into a young girl and quickly falls in love with Sosuke, but the use of such powerful sorcery causes a dangerous imbalance in the world. As the moon steadily draws nearer to the earth and Ponyo’s father sends the ocean’s mighty waves to find his daughter, the two children embark on an adventure of a lifetime to save the world and fulfill Ponyo’s dreams of becoming human.

I really enjoyed this movie; the cuteness was almost unbearable. The animation style was incredible, as it was truly a layer of multiple techniques—flat color and line-work distinctive of anime moving on top of scenery that looks as though it has been rendered in colored pencil. Ponyo marks the return to all hand-drawn animation for Miyazaki, who said, “hand drawing on paper is the fundamental of animation.” I love that as the rest of the children’s film industry pushes towards CG and 3-D production, some people are preserving the traditional cartoon-esque style of my childhood. I also could appreciate that elements of the story reminded me of the “true” (e.g. not Disney-fied) Little Mermaid story.

The one critique I have is about plot structure. The movie is exciting, the pacing is great, but I felt the conclusion was not all that climatic. The characters seemed to be building a certain moment as crucial, pivotal, but I was surprised by how easily that conflict was resolved. Regardless, I enjoyed this film and would recommend it to any who need to experience a childlike wonder of the world. A warning: you will want to watch some nautical Discovery films after this.

The Philadelphia Story is a film about Tracy, a Philadelphian socialite and ex-divorce on the cusp of her second marriage. She is a private woman, and as a pair of reporters from Spy magazine are sent out to dig up her wedding story, hi-jinks ensue. This movie was based off a play, which in turn was based off of the life of Helen Hope Montgomery Scott. I watched this film a little while ago, but I’ve been so busy that I didn’t get around to digitizing the type until tonight (which is in itself, I admit, a rush job).

Spoiler alert! I really enjoyed The Philadelphia Story; it was a nice calm after the march of the insane Kubrick films. However, I was pretty dissatisfied with the resolution—that is, when Tracy remarries C.K. Dexter. I think everyone is rooting for the reporter-slash-little known-author, Mike Connor, and the plot would leave you to believe that Tracy will call it quits on her wedding to George Kittredge (yes folks, that’s three men) for his sake. Imagine my surprise when it’s C.K. Dexter walking her down the aisle in the end of the film. I’m pretty sure I yelled at the screen, “didn’t he hit you in the very beginning?!”

That said, a great film was soured by its all-too-neat ending. I felt that it was the stuff of daydreams from children of divorced parents. After watching The Philadelphia Story, I read on Wikipedia that remarriage films were popular in the 1930s and 1940s. It makes sense that the public would desire happy endings in a decade wracked by war and economic depression.

All in all, a good film as long as you take it with a grain of salt and a pinch of empathy for a war-torn generation.

Finally updated The Self-Sufficient Life with the miracle of natural growth. It’s been awhile since I last tinkered with The SSL, but I have more things to post about since the sentiment to become more independent of corporations has not ceased.

Upcoming posts will include my experiences with giving up my clothes dryer in a teeny apartment, attempts at balcony gardening (which will begin in approx. August), and hopefully building an easel.

If you have any projects that you’d like to see me attempt and then blog about, let me know.

If you need to relax, the best thing you can do for yourself is play this thunderstorm .wav while listening to mellow, ambient instrumental music (such as Explosions in the Sky or Message to Bears). Make sure to turn your iTunes sound slider down half-way so that the noises of the rain are equally matched to the music.

Use at your own risk: Anonymity can be fun, but can also bring out the worst in people. Don’t feel bad about disabling anonymous questions if they turn nasty or inappropriate.

It was a small moment, but I’ve never seen a website protect its users in this particular way before. I was actually a bit touched by this tiny slice of honesty and sensitivity in a climate which is—as they point out—often harsh under its cloak of anonymity. I can appreciate Tumblr’s attempt to preserve humanity in a system which unwittingly encourages negative commentary that might not surface in face-to-face interactions.