Small Bites: Design Links I Love | April 6, 2015

Happy Monday after Easter. Hope everyone didn’t overdose too badly on Peeps and chocolate bunnies. Now that you’re coming off of that sugar high, here are some design links and articles to get you going this week.

Creative Market posted the top 10 TED Talks for Designers this week. It has a bunch of new ones I haven’t seen previously, though it includes a few of my favorites (Chip Kidd’s talk is phenomenal). Get inspired with these amazing talks on creativity and design.

Feel like taking a nap instead of working? Want to down that extra vodka shot? Apparently, both will help boost your creativity. Design Taxi posted this great infographic this week with 10 Scientifically True Facts About Creativity. Perhaps this is why all the great writers and artists of times past were such raging alcoholics. Actually, I find meditation very helpful. It’s hard for my ADD brain to calm down to do it, but it really helps tremendously and is much better for you than a line of shots.

A very controversial ad campaign came to light this week. Creative director Ganesh Prasad Achayra released a series of ads promoting using condoms by pointing out if you don’t, you could have a mini Hitler, Stalin or Salvador Dali. Okay, I don’t think Dali should be in the same category as Hitler or Stalin. He contributed positively to society with his fabulous art, but he had a great mustache that fit the campaign. I think the ads are pretty smart, and since I don’t particularly care for children, I find them very funny. But, I can most definitely see the controversy surrounding them, and I’m not entirely sure how effective they would be in preventing unwanted pregnancies. Definitely something to muse upon.

I absolutely fell in love with this beautiful candy box packaging design from The Dieline. Meant to be a gift for the Indian holiday of Diwali, the illustrations and construction of this box deserve a mention.

The travel addict in me loves these beautiful vintage inspired flight prints by designer Neil Stevens. I want them all!

And, finally, don’t forget that Elle Luna’s 100 Day Project begins today. Sign up for an Instagram account, pick your project for the next 100 days and start sharing your creativity. I will be posting under the hashtag #100DaysofTravelLettering.

Make What You Wanna Make

On Thursday evening, I had the pleasure of seeing “designy illustrator” Mikey Burton speak at the Denver Art Museum as part of the AIGA Colorado Speaker Series. Mikey is a funny guy who loves bears, breakfast and La Croix sparkling water (he says “La Croy” and claims only snobs say “La Crwa”). Despite some AV issues, he gave a great talk about his work, his process and showed his evolution from a designer to an illustrator from a student to his current status where he has clients like the New York Times, Converse, Playboy and ESPN.

Mikey Burton, a “designy illustrator” speaking at the Denver Art Museum as part of the AIGA Colorado Speaker Series.

What I really enjoyed about Mikey is that he presented work that were passion/side/self-generated (he hated all those terms!) projects that eventually turned into something. He redesigned book covers for his Masters thesis and received a C-, but two years later THE Steven Heller featured them on his blog and it launched into a line of tees and more book covers. He loves to draw food and draws what he eats every day, then Tumblr asked him to make a food tee shirt they could sell. They were his best projects, because he was creating work he wanted to create, without the pressure of a deadline or agenda of seeking a job. His passion and abilities were reflected in that work and it did lead to something professionally.

So many of us designers get stagnant in our work and bogged down by the job, that we forget why we got into design in the first place. It is our love, our passion, but the day to day and tight deadlines get in the way of that love. Most of the designers we little people look up to do encourage side projects, but it’s hard to follow that sometimes. For one thing, finding the time is a challenge, we get burned out and need the downtime, but I also think it’s a thing in the back of our mind that we secretly hope it’ll turn into something.

Mikey’s words really resonated with me—”Make what you wanna make and be patient and focus on your craft.” On my drive into work this morning, I was listening to Debbie Millman’s podcast “Design Matters” with the creators of The Great Discontent, a creative blog and magazine. They were quoting a friend of theirs, but they said the best advice they received was “learn to be content with the discontent” and then you can pursue your dreams.

Do your job and do it well, strive to do it better and create better work, but don’t forget to make the work “you wanna make” and find your passion for the craft you fell in love with again.

Express Yourself: Alternative Creative Outlets

As designers, I think we tend to be generally creative people who branch out into other arenas besides graphic design to express ourselves creatively. I also think it’s a good thing when a designer has a lot of other creative hobbies and interests, because those things tend to carry over into ideas for design projects. In this digital age, we’re glued to our screens and sometimes forget the world around us.

When I’m not designing or spending hours on social media reading tweets and posts about design, I like to cook, bake, dabble in photography, decorate my house, and now learn hand lettering. I love coming home after work and cooking a nice meal after sitting at my desk all day. It’s very therapeutic to put on music and get creative in the kitchen. My favorite thing to cook is what I call elevated comfort foods. I like to take old favorites like grilled cheese, a burger, a BLT and add a creative, gourmet spin to them. I make a Sriracha garlic mayo to put on my BLT, and it makes all the difference. I put a Parmesan garlic butter crust on the outside of my grilled cheese sandwich. I stuff my burgers with smoked gouda and bacon. I hate following recipes and usually the food isn’t nearly as good if I do. I look at recipes to get ideas for what flavors are combined and then do my own creative spin to it. It’s a great outlet for being creative, but it’s away from the computer.

Living in Colorado and my chronic case of wanderlust has spurred an interest in photography with me. I really enjoy taking pictures, and thanks to some great instruction from a guide I had in Kenya, I’m finally learning to get away from the hated “auto mode” and learning how to shoot real photos. I’m not a photographer anymore than I’m a chef, but it’s an awesome creative outlet for me. It gets me outside, looking at light and working on my composition skills as a I frame a shot.

The chalkboard wall in my kitchen is one of my creative outlets. During Christmas, I changed it to a Chinese food menu for fun.

The back wall of my kitchen is painted with chalkboard paint. Now that I’m learning hand lettering, it’s a great place to practice. Definitely not producing the results of Dana Tanamachi, but it’s fun and whimsical and it’s a nice way to relax. I liked changing up my designs, and it’s always a fun conversation piece when guests come over.

What are your creative hobbies to get the juices flowing, but away from work?

Bored to Death…Or Not

When I was driving home from work the other night, I heard an interesting story on NPR’s All Things Considered (read the full story) about the lost art of boredom. Basically, since the advent of the smartphone, we, as a society, are no longer bored. We don’t have to be. You don’t have to be bored in a doctor’s office when the magazine selection is sparse. You don’t have to waste time spacing out at the grocery store in a long line. We have constant entertainment at our fingertips, literally, at all times. But, is this a bad thing—especially for creatives?

The NPR story covers a study that was conducted on groups of people and their creative thinking abilities. The group had to do a horribly boring task: read the phone book (seriously, do they even make those anymore?) and then tasked to think creatively. It turned out that when their minds were at rest with a mundane activity, they were able to really, creatively think. However, when we’re constantly stimulated with electronics and text pings and non-stop digital interaction, we’re less likely to come up with creative solutions.

As a graphic designer, I’m definitely a tech, computer geek who spends way too much time on my phone, iPad, laptop, etc. I love to learn and soak up new information, so I typically get lost down many rabbit holes throughout the day through Twitter links, Facebook feed and design blogs. While keeping up with design trends and new concepts in the industry is important, does spending so much time online hurt my creative conceptualization skills?

Even before I heard this story on NPR, I believed it was true. I’ve noticed over and over again that if I’m having a case of creative block, the best thing I can do is walk away from my screen. Usually doing something mindless like reading a magazine or doodling in my notebook triggers an idea far before endless staring at the screen will. I actually find that my very best ideas come in the shower, first thing in the morning. My mind is rested and fresh. I don’t have to think, so my mind is free to wander and that’s when the ideas happen.

I remember attending the HOW Design Conference several years ago and speaker Justin Ahrens from agency Rule 29, mentioned that he keeps a scuba diving writing board in his shower for ideas. He also got the most inspiration in the shower and kept the waterproof board as a notepad to write those ideas down.

Even when I’m trying to solve a problem, like a difficult issue in HTML with code not working, the best solution is to step away from the screen. That’s almost always the answer—it’s so simple, but, in this digital age, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to achieve.

As creatives, we need to generate fresh ideas and think outside the box. We need to sometimes get away from outside influences in order to come up with less jaded ideas. So, the next time you have a looming deadline, go and be bored for a while. Read the phone book, stare into space, or take a shower. Chances are, the brilliant idea you’ve been waiting for will come pop right into your head.