March 2010
32 posts
10 Blogs
So, you mentioned you only follow about 10 blogs in your reader. What are they?
It’s a bit more than 10, but here they be. There’s a bunch of sites I follow in Tumblr, but I can always count on the content in these places making me think one way or another:
Lined and Unlined — I’ve only wanted to be 2 things in my life: an archaeologist and a designer. Rob Giampietro’s...
Your blog sucks. And your work. And probably mine...
Have you read this article over on Design Observer, Frank? I’d love to hear your thoughts on it…kind of piqued my interest.
—Brooke Rane
Warning: This blog post is hasty and curmudgeonly. There are naughty swears and general playground banter.
I read it. Then I finished. And I thought, “Wait, so the author wrote an article about setting up a place for commentary online...
“Today, it doesn’t matter if a work’s been produced, it matters if it’s been...”
– Smarty smart Rob Giampietro
Print Magazine New Visual Artist
Photo by Robert Vidaure aka Nerdski. Thanks!
I’ve been honored this year by being named one of Print Magazine’s New Visual Artists, commonly known as the 20 under 30 competition. The issue is on newsstands now. Special thanks to Jessica Hische for the nomination and to Saiman Chow, Rob Giampietro, Joshua Darden, and Julia Hoffmann for selecting me.
Other folks recognized include...
Rules of Engagement
Note: Parts of this will seem familiar. Other parts are new. I’ve taken content from a few of my previous writings about frameworks for improvisation, utility ambiguity, pseudo-structures, and platforms and consolidated it into one essay. I’m proud of this one because it captures how all these ideas connect and bond, and it documents my mind space at the moment. Thanks for reading.
...
Intern Wanted
I’m in the market for a great intern. There’s a lot of work to be done over the next 2 months, and I need all the help I can get.
Applicants should be curious, organized and talented. There will be web design, design, and illustration jobs, though you don’t necessarily need web design or illustration skills. (Though, knowing how to design for the web and a bit of HTML and...
“I first heard of Alex Chilton in the Replacements song that bears his name....”
– Quoted from Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney in Why we loved Alex Chilton on Snarkmarket
There can never be another song like September Gurls. It’s as close to a perfect song as one can hope. And it has an official role to me: it’s played on open road, with my left arm out the...
“I have really extremely bad repetitive strain injury. Carpal tunnel syndrome,...”
– Review of the Thinking for a Living redesign from The Invisible Institute. Talk about the law of unintended consequences. When we made the decision to do keyboard interactivity on Thinking for a Living, I don’t think I ever considered the ergonomic benefits. But, reading this makes my day.
Anonymous asked: Who are your 10 favorite graphic designers of all time? (past present)
Enthusiasm
If you translate “enthusiasm” from its Greek origin, it means “to be filled with God.”
Being filled with God is a pretty ideal, state, huh? If you think about all the great philosophers talking about the supreme state of a person, and asking “What is the good life?” it seems to me that being filled with God is as fitting of an answer as they could come up...
“An elegant person is a gentleman, one who knows how to handle himself. He cares...”
– Mid-century novelist David Loovis, quoted by Ivy Style, from The New Yorker (via putthison)
“Too many of us have become terribly insensitive to the things we touch, smell,...”
– S. Neil Fujita in his book Aim for a Job in Graphic Design/Art, published over 40 years ago. Quote comes from an article from Heller on Design Observer.
jhsheridan asked: Hi Frank,
I really admire your (hate to use buzzwords) clean, possibly minimalist style. What do you consider to be the tools for this style? Do you use grids? Stick to a certain style of typefaces? Anything?... or is it more of an organic process.
Please keep producing great work!
I really admire your (hate to use buzzwords) clean, possibly minimalist style. What do you consider to be the tools for this style? Do you use grids? Stick to a certain style of typefaces? Anything?... or is it more of an organic process.
Please keep producing great work!
photoatomic asked: how do you use twitter effectively to network without feeling like a stalker?
Anonymous asked: With all the hype surrounding books moving from printed to digital platforms, is ANYBODY at all thinking about the impact it's going to have on our poor eyeballs? As if we needed more reasons to stare at screens for hours!
Anonymous asked: Whats the best way to get recognized in this new age of media?
austinkleon asked: What have you read recently that's really blown your mind?
Anonymous asked: What do you see yourself doing 3 years from now? Is there anything you'd like to dabble in, that you haven't already.. or maybe incorporate your work into a different medium?
Anonymous asked: What illustration or cartoon (but not comic) character would you like to be?
Anonymous asked: When's the store coming back? I wanted to buy some stuff around Christmas but missed out.
Anonymous asked: what is your all time favorite design book?
Anonymous asked: How much of your talent do you feel or you were born with and how much do you feel is learned?
Anonymous asked: If graphic design/art wasn't part of your life, what would you be doing as a "grown up" right now, and where you would you might be?
Anonymous asked: Why do you blog?
“Worry more about being good because you probably aren’t.”
– Stop saying ‘innovation’ by Scott Berkun
From the same article as the last post, but I some how missed this bit. So, let me take this opportunity to say: BURN!
Innovation →
bobulate:
Scott Berkun on banning the i-word:
Einstein, Ford, Picasso and Edison rarely said the word innovation and neither should you.
Because:
Ask people who say innovation what they mean. If ever anyone says the word in a meeting, ask “Can you give an example of what you mean by innovative?” If they can’t, you’ve just saved everyone in the room hours of time. Using the i-word is often a...
Kanye on Creativity
Am I really putting up something Kanye West said?
Yes I am. Because it’s about better. And, I’m inclined to believe this thought, regardless of what I think of the man’s music or behavior.
There’s no such thing as fact anymore, only opinion. The closest thing we have to fact is “common opinion”. Everything is an opinion. The way you dress is an expression of your opinion....
“The moment just past is extinguished forever, save for the things made during...”
– George Kubler
Be Real, Fill Real Needs, Sell It and Profit.
Simple, right? I don’t know much about “marketing” or “business development,” but if this isn’t a template for a simple, honest business, I don’t know what is.
We don’t need marketing. Customer Anthropology is the future. Strategies have changed and it’s no longer effective to have a traditional marketing model of yelling/broadcasting through the...
“Find the cracks in the wall.”
– Tibor Kalman, New York, June 1998. He continues, “There are a very few lunatic entrepreneurs who will understand that culture and design are not about fatter wallets, but about creating a future. They will understand that wealth is means, not an end. Under other circumstances they may have turned...