A magic realism tangent

Because of my current state of mind, the idea of Saturn’s return makes me think about the (unrelated) war on Saturn that takes places in the amazing, surreal The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia, which I am currently reading. People hide under the lead shells of mechanical tortoises to evade Saturn’s voyeuristic gaze!

For more fantastic works of magic realism, see the likes of Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Márquez, Haruki Murakami and Aimee Bender (specifically the books above). I had the privilege of meeting Aimee Bender on November 11 (yes, on 11/11/11) on the Oregon State University campus as part of the 2011-12 OSU Visiting Writers Series. She read a chapter from her new book The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (which I love) and a fantastic short story about prosopagnosia (i.e., face illiteracy or face blindness) called Faces. Magic realism is currently my favorite genre of fiction. Note to self: remember to read more absurdity from Richard Brautigan.

Back to Saturn’s return

The Saturn return calculator revealed that my girlfriend’s Saturn return started on Halloween 2011 and it doesn’t end until July 2012. She deemed this a disturbingly long duration and shook her fist at Saturn for cursing her to suffer its trajectory-altering, life-changing transformations for longer than most. I’ve since learned that Saturn returns usually last about a month.

Being curious, I entered my birthday into the calculator and found that my first Saturn return was of normal length (one month), during which I bought my house and took a two-week trip to Hawai’i. Both of these events had great significance to me. Intrigued, I looked at other notable positions of Saturn throughout my life and immediately noticed a clear theme emerging: transformational travel.

Below is my Saturn return chart, which I’ve self-indulgently annotated.

So, was the schedule of all these transformational travel experiences coincidental, or were they somehow written in the stars (or dictated by a certain ringed planet)? I have no idea. I do find it fascinating that the three most significant eras of my life (so far) were captured by a random astrological calculator on the Internet.

Stop watching me Saturn!

The first two are out-of-print children’s books written in the 1970s by American author Tomie de Paola. I tracked down copies of these short stories after my dad visited Oregon in September and helped me remember a few books he used to read to my sister and me. When Everyone Was Fast Asleep (1976) and the more obscure Songs of the Fog Maiden (1979) both feature the magical, singing Fog Maiden and her blue cat Token. These two characters visit the children of Earth at night and bring them enchanting, fantastical experiences:

When everyone was fast asleep, the Fog Maiden sent Token to wake us up. And we slid through the curtains into the night. We floated across the grass, dancing on the dew, and met the elf horse. We all sang, “Tra la, tra la, too lay, too lay, hop-a-doodle, hip-a-doodle, flip-a-doodle day.” Down the road we went, counting moons until we came to the troll house, but we were not afraid. We ate hot buttered bread and drank warm milk with honey, and dressed for the ball at the palace. The crocodiles danced a quadrille and the peacocks waltzed with doves and we all sang, “Tra la, tra la, too lay, too lay, hop-a-doodle, hip-a-doodle, flip-a-doodle day.” When the king and queen arrived, the play began. The lion roared while the gypsy slept, and the princess was saved by the sand serpent. The night was over and the Fog Maiden came to cover everything with her dress. She picked us up and floated over the trees to our very own window, where she tucked us into our beds and kissed us asleep.

Now if that isn’t an alien abduction story, I don’t know what is. You miss some context without the illustrations, but the premise of When Everyone Was Fast Asleep is that a large-eyed animal (or therianthrope) peers into your bedroom window at night and whisks you away to an alternate, overwhelming realm of anthropomorphic entities.

(Note: I have illustrated the Fog Maiden and Token the Cat as 8-bit characters for Mascot Mashup, my daily pixel art project; they are scheduled to appear on November 10 and 11.)

The third book, Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind (2007) by Graham Hancock, is about the origins of art, religious ideas, consciousness-altering agents and consciousness itself (and ultimately how these might tie into modern conceptions of fairies, elves, angels, UFOs, alien abductions, DMT, DNA and the spirit world):

Less than 50,000 years ago mankind had no art, no religion, no sophisticated symbolism, no innovative thinking. Then, in a dramatic and electrifying change, described by scientists as “the greatest riddle in human history,” all the skills and qualities that we value most highly in ourselves appeared already fully formed, as though bestowed on us by hidden powers. In Supernatural Graham Hancock sets out to investigate this mysterious “before-and-after moment” and to discover the truth about the influences that gave birth to the modern human mind.

Hancock’s quest takes him on a detective journey from the stunningly beautiful painted caves of prehistoric France, Spain, and Italy to rock shelters in the mountains of South Africa, where he finds extraordinary Stone Age art. He uncovers clues that lead him to the depths of the Amazon rainforest to drink the powerful hallucinogen Ayahuasca with shamans, whose paintings contain images of “supernatural beings” identical to the animal-human hybrids depicted in prehistoric caves. Hallucinogens such as mescaline also produce visionary encounters with exactly the same beings. Scientists at the cutting edge of consciousness research have begun to consider the possibility that such hallucinations may be real perceptions of other “dimensions.”

More than any other book I’ve read, Supernatural almost unifies (or, at least, neatly gathers) cross-cultural supernatural and paranormal experiences throughout human history. There is much to think about. You might have an existential crisis while reading this book. I highly recommend it.

The fourth book, Wildwood: The Wildwood Chronicles, Book I (2011), is “a spellbinding tale full of wonder, danger, and magic that juxtaposes the thrill of a secret world and modern city life. Original and fresh yet steeped in classic fantasy, this is a novel that could have only come from the imagination of Colin Meloy, celebrated for his inventive and fantastic storytelling as the lead singer of The Decemberists. With dozens of intricate and beautiful illustrations by award-winning artist Carson Ellis, Wildwood is truly a new classic for the twenty-first century.”

I’ll admit that I was first interested in Wildwood because I am a fan of The Decemberists—and because Colin Meloy and his wife Carson Ellis live in Portland, Oregon (which is also the geographic setting for the book). Despite being written for adolescent children, I quite enjoyed Meloy’s esoteric, archaic vocabulary and his antique-weaponry aesthetic (not unlike his quirky songs). Plus there are delightful warring factions of talking forest animals! With 560 sparse pages, it is a fast read (it only took me six hours or so to finish it). Definitely worth the time.

I need to remember to read bizarre children’s books more often. For now, it is time to appreciate the rest of the Day of the Dead. I will eat tamales and drink Mexican hot chocolate.

P.S. I visit How to be a Retronaut regularly and these are some recent posts that inspired me: Nuclear Bunker Mannequins (a secret bunker in England), The Invisible Mother (creepy moms hiding under blankets in old photos), Tunnels of the River Fleet (the largest of London’s subterranean rivers), Rephotographing Budapest (perfect overlay of modern color photos on black & white ones), Twin Peaks: The Last Days (I miss that show) and Video Games Then and Now (I prefer a primitive 8-bit aesthetic).

No. 200 happens to be Johnny Cash (because he died on this day in 2003). Even though I attempt to tie my daily characters into birthdays, death days, holidays and historical events, arbitrariness often prevails.

See 12 example characters below. Their body proportions, pigeon-toed feet and poses are due to their direct stylistic relationship to the primitive QBasic Gorilla, which inspired this whole project.

Mascot Mashup was born in 2009, but was often on hiatus for the first year of its existence. In April 2011, the site became a daily blog of 8-bit characters designed by me to be used in an ongoing Flash remake of the classic QBasic Gorillas artillery game (and possibly other 1980s-era games). Each sprite has four animation states. The first sprites drawn were all NCAA Division I college mascots, but the characters have since branched into randomness.

I plan to continue this daily art project through at least the beginning of 2012, possibly indefinitely? To be determined. See all characters at mascotmashup.com.

I am attending the HOW Design Conference 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. Below are my notes from the sessions I attended on Monday.

9:45 am-11:00 am – 36. All Your Creativity Questions Answered – Deborah Morrison, Heather Lins, Chris Chapman & Chris Elkerton
You’ve seen how Chris Chapman, Chris Elkerton, Heather Lins and Deborah Morrison keep their creative juices flowing and consistently deliver innovative concepts. Now’s your chance to ask them anything you want (preferably related to creativity). Even if you missed their earlier sessions, you’re more than welcome to come join the discussion in this panel-style session.

• Session hashtag: #howanswers.
• disneycollegeprogram.com - internship
• “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”
• No idea is ever original; get as much influence as possible; the best take stuff and put their own spin on it.
• “Your ideas aren’t precious.” – Heather
• Get out of the studio to generate ideas.
• Chris C.: My office is the world … my physical office is only where I execute
• Support people getting out of the office, and make the office more open and collaborative
• Everything is a Remix video series
• Statistical proof: The more fun people have, the more productive they are
• More design inspiration (through curation):
  • Brain Pickings – Deborah’s inspiration
  • The Cool Hunter
  • Inspiration Fuse sites
  • Designboom – good to look at 3D when you’re a 2D artist
  • Trend Hunter
  • Lovely Package
  • GOOD magazine
• Be a student of the world and never stop learning
• Get yourself out of your element
• Get engineers (or business people/marketers) and designers together from day one.
• Making the whole company creative might be better than building an isolated pod of creative people.
• Pick and choose your battles wisely.
• Have non-designers describe what’s not working instead of art-directing you.
  • You are the professional designer. Don’t let them move layout. Have them rely on you.
  • It’s really them just putting their thumbprint on something because they want to be part of the process.
  • Ask them: “What is this not achieving?” Big picture, not details. (Define roles, and context.)
  • You’ve got to train them on what their role is.
  • Example question: “Does this design recommendation you’re making impact the success criteria we’ve established?”
  • Don’t let them stand over you as you work.
• Search: innovation-based culture
• Academic credentials and working for universities:
  • Chris C.: All my biggest heroes dropped out of school or didn’t go to school at all.
  • Chris E.: You can go get the letters after your name, but if you’re a dick you’re not going to get the job.
  • Chris C.: “Get them [the manager] an MBA (Manage by Absence)” – your designer doesn’t have ownership because they know they are going to be micromanaged.
  • “Creativity is change. Universities don’t like to change.”
• Find this TED talk: Pixar (at their worst) during the Toy Story 2 process

11:15 am-12:30 pm – Closing Keynote – 39. Fascinate: How to Persuade and Captivate – Sally Hogshead
Why are you captivated by some people and not others? Why do certain messages convince you to change your opinion while others go ignored? And how can you create designs that irresistibly attract attention?

Find out as Sally Hogshead reveals her secrets for creating ideas that both persuade and captivate your audience. You’ll discover:

• which of the 7 fascination triggers you naturally use to persuade and captivate
• how to provoke strong and immediate emotional connections in your design and presentations—and even in your personal life
• how to influence decisions using the 7 fascination triggers: power, lust, mystique, prestige, alarm, vice and trust

What makes your personality irresistibly fascinating? Find out by taking the F-Score Personality Test.

• Session hashtag: #howfascinate.
• Are you selling a green ticket or are you selling an orange ticket? An orange ticket is fascinating.
• We take things that have no intrinsic meaning and we make them more meaningful and valuable.
• “Hi” is the GAP khakis of online dating.
• If your message fails to captivate … you get lost in the crowd.
• 9 seconds is our attention span (BBC study) and our brains are being rewired. You’re designing to goldfish.
• “In a competitive environment, the most fascinating wins.”
• The about your name that makes it different will one day make you love it.
• What makes you different, what sets you apart.
• Free digital version of her first book, Radical Careering: 100 Truths to Jumpstart Your Job, Your Career, and Your Life: sallyhogshead.com/rc
• Expressing your truest self is ultimate competitive advantage.
• You can be comfortable, or creative, but not both.
• Better to fail by going down in flames….
• Design comes in two flavors: Vanilla and Pistachio. If you want to create Pistachio, do not work at a (soul-crushing) Vanilla company.
• The 7 Triggers of Fascination (triggers are like instruments; the reasons why are almost compulsive about certain people & media).
• Mystique is almost the opposite of Passion; it is the most delicate of all the triggers.
• Rebellion is the trigger of creativity.
• Trust was the most dormant by a longshot among the HOW attendees.
• Trust is about consistency and reliability – make you work exciting and your structure boring if you want trust. Establish and repeat patterns to build trust long-term.
• Alarm is about deadlines and consequences. What is the negative consequence of not taking a particular action? If (not) X, then Y. Now your own emotional journey.
• Emotional journey of creative process: 1. possibility, 2. doubt, 3. agony (I am a hack and world is going to figure it out; I actually suck and this project is going to unveil me), 4. epiphany, 5. craft. The most important part is the agony, where you work through all the things that have already been done. Truly revolutionary ideas happen during the Throne of Agony. The worse it gets, the better the epiphany is going to be.
• Take the test: FScoreTest.com
• Mark Zuckerberg: Power and Mystique.
• HOW Design attendees:
  • 43% on the Passion trigger, secondary on the Rebellion trigger. (18% is statistically significant.)
  • You defend the world from predictability.
  • Passion is not a luxury. It is an imperative.
  • You rarely sort of care. The world is not changed by people who sort of care.
  • Use your natural fascination talent. It’s not enough to be the better (or best) unless it’s you.
• Make people fall in love with your ideas.

Thanks, Chicago. Back to Oregon.

I am attending the HOW Design Conference 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. Below are my notes from the sessions I attended on Sunday.

9:00 am-10:15 am – 20. Where Ideas Come from and Where They Go – Stephen Doyle
While designing brands for Barnes & Noble, Martha Stewart and his alma mater Cooper Union, you’re likely to find Stephen Doyle using a handsaw and a glue gun to create a piece of type…or casting a clay sculpture in bronze to create a sign. By nights, he’s transformed into a maniacal sculptor working with books or even dollar bills.

Tracing his career through magazines, books and package design to film titles, wayfinding systems and environmental graphics, he’ll explain how this unique combination of mass market and poetry—along with a heavy dose of craftsmanship—continually fuels his creative fire.

• Stephen: I’m successful because I’m “ambitious, naïve and selfish.”
• The Six Senses of Design
  1. A Sense of Appropriateness
     • Be cognizant of expectations and context.
     • Transportation Alternatives logo
     • GE ecology ad – LED light bulb
  2. A Sense of Community
     • Choices that are responsible to the community
     • Cooper Union – geometric box kite – CU
     • Actually more interested in language and semiotics more than typography
     • Peter Pan had forgotten his shadow so he comes back through Wendy’s window – an example of existential semiotics
     • I don’t think you can own an idea. I don’t think ideas are original. Ideas are fluid, like water.
     • Intersection of air, fire and water
  3. A Sense of Scale
     • LOGIC paper cutting – Thinking With My Fingers – a monument to lack of logic – lack of logic can sometimes lead to things logical
     • Sea Glass: The Carousel at the Battery – signs in the style of the perforation
     • Wrangling a client’s design project into a personal art project
     • Aquarium on Coney Island – shimmering tiles and bioluminescent
  4. A Sense of Wonder
     Bright objects hypnotize the mind
  5. Nonsense
     • You never know where it’s going to go. Logic doesn’t go everywhere.
     • Book and dollar bill sculptures – cutting up a book and gluing lines into forms
  6. A Sense of Purpose
     • Equate time that’s a little bit maniacal as value, because of this saying: time is money
     • Infrastructure – the story of civilization
     • Intelligence is nothing without delight.
  7. Bonus: A Sense of Gratitude
     • Taking on jobs only if you can move the needle (meaning: manipulate the jobs you accept: Fun, Fame, Fortune). Take on a job that fulfills 2 of the 3.

10:45 am-12:00 pm – 25. The NEW Web Typography: Where The Sexy Is REPEAT – Jason Cranford Teague
2010 was a big year for web typography—new technologies came online that will forever change the way information appears on our browsers. And as the dust from these changes settles, a new style of web typography is emerging, one that reflects print origins, but also experiments with the unique strengths of online communication.

In this session, Jason Cranford Teague will review the latest technologies and share case studies that push the boundaries of type on the web. You’ll learn how to find, choose and use web fonts, and discover new inspiration for web type techniques. In all, you’ll learn how to expertly use new web typography to set your work apart from the rest.

• Follow Jason on Twitter: @jasonspeaking. Session hashtag: #howsexy.
• His website: FluidWebType.info
• What is sexy? Makes you look again. Changes over time.
• Web Typography = the applications of HTML style to CSS text
• Humaan
• festivalmundo.com
• citizenmusician.com
• sweetlifefestival.com
• forumone.com
• 150,000 fonts
• 5 fonts commonly used on the Web out of 10/11
• If fonts were dogs … Comic Sans
• The Fatal Five: Arial, Verdana, Georgia, Trebuchet MS, Times New Roman
• 2010: The Year of Web Typography
• Webtype Basics
• Webfont
• SVG – caused Safari for iPhone to crash, avoid
• WOFF is the future of web fonts
• Upload an EOT, TTF/OTF and a WOFF version of your font in order to cover all browsers.
• Convert, Buy or Lease?
• A font is a piece of software that tells the computer how a particular glyph should be displayed.
• Choosing the right voice for your text is the job of the designer. Choose the voice that represents the brand message.
• Typography is to type what voice is to speech.
• Make web typography sexy:
  • Either high-color contrast and low-color contrast.
  • Scientifically shown: making things a little harder to read (such as with low contrast) improves content retention (memorable) because people have to look again and work a little.
  • Width contrast.
  • It’s not the ordinary.
  • lifefroots.com
  • lilaccreative.com
  • aifestival.org
  • “Above the fold” is a myth and has been substantially disproved. Space is what will draw them down into the rest of the page.
  • effectlab.gr – gives your eye time to move around in the space
  • Use scale: large and small
  • Text on the screen has been made too small on the screen for too long. 12 pt isn’t 12 pixel. People will find it easier to read your site if you go a little bit larger.
  • 18px body intro, 14px content
  • faciodesign.co.uk – all caps and regular font
  • A drop shadow is meant to simulate texture on a page.
  • Drop Shadow, Emboss or Bevel – use multiple shadow effects to create combination effects
  • e-shop.effectlab.gr
  • Letterpress effect – an emboss on the web
  • jaxvineyards.com
• Forum One – his company
• Fluid Web Typography book
• Download slides, posters and tools: bit.ly/howwebtype

2:00 pm-3:15 pm – 30. The Un-Guide to Creativity and Brainstorming – Chris Chapman
If you’re tired of having your ideas shot down, this session is for you. Disney Design Group’s Chris Chapman will explore the creative processes of some of the most innovative minds in history and show you how they found success.

Chris will explain how your creative mind works and give you the specific tools you need to break down the creative barriers imposed by clients, collaborators and even yourself. You’ll head home with loose guidelines to help you become a more efficient problem solver and brainstormer and—in the end—a stronger design thinker.

• Follow Chris on Twitter: @chapmancatalyst.
• Disney Design Group; Disney Creative Inc.
• You cannot act like an adult if you want to come up with big ideas.
• Pyramid chart: Arts (top), Crafts (middle), Sciences (bottom)
• People have been told they aren’t creative
  • By public school
  • Children go into school as a “?” and come out as a “.”
• You have to fail in order to find success.
• Orbiting the Giant Hairball book
• Statute of limitations – if there are rules you’ve got to bust them
• Line graph: A large segment of the “Creative Occurrence” line graph is an “invisible creative occurrence” and a smaller segment is a “measurable creative occurrence.” You need to give your creativity time to expand and breathe
• Jennifer Chatman – innovation-based culture stats … found this example article: “Investment Banking Serves as Case Study in Investigation of Services Innovation“
• You have to take great risks for great rewards
• ANTI-creative mood – “processed creative”
• Create the box: Fear, Knowledge (too much knowledge is incredibly damaging; don’t be an expert), Habit & Complacency (conformity, a blanket for people who can’t change), Assumption and Rules (break and bend the rules).
• Brain waves:
  • Beta – “you’re getting me in beta because you’re slamming me with pressure” – we’re not saving lives here (creativity can’t be forced or pushed)
  • Alpha – relaxed and effortless alertness, ideal for creative visualization
  • Theta – deep meditation
  • Delta – deep REM  sleep
• We live in a culture of judging ideas too soon.
• Brad Bird innovation article, with nine key lessons: “Pixar’s Brad Bird on Fostering Innovation.”
• How to be:
  • Positive minded
  • Be present – check your Blackberrys before the meeting
  • Share air – talk out to each other
  • Can it (wait) – do you have to?
• Conference tables are not for brainstorming
• Brainstorming “energizer” (ideal): 6-8 people, 4 hours tops w/breaks, 5 ideas
• 4 steps:
  • Vision – what question/topic are you trying to solve for (see success criteria)
  • Explore
  • Stretch – ideation phase, borrow it, twist it, re-express it
  • Ignite – judging the ideas like an adult, potshots
• Success criteria:
  • Do (what do you want it to do), Restrictions, Investments, Values, Essential outcomes
  • Catalytic question: “How might we…”
• Focus groups: Steve Jobs hates focus groups, and we (Disney) will never use them, ever
• Go out and ask individuals instead
• Stargazing: map the ideas (w/connections like star patterns)
• Brand guidelines don’t let you explore and make it your own; limits personal ownership, creativity and joy. (Designing in rigid environments becomes detached, soulless.)
• Recommended books:
  • Thinkx’s book: Think Better by Tim Hurson
  • The Five Faces of Genius: Creative Thinking Styles to Succeed at Work by Annette Moser-Wellman
  • Sticky Wisdom: How to Start a Creative Revolution at Work – The ?What If! group
  • Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace by Gordon MacKenzie

3:45 pm-5:00 pm – 31. Letter for a Living – Jessica Hische
Jessica Hische, letterer, illustrator and founder of Daily Drop Cap, will take you through the differences between lettering and type design and show you how to break into each industry. She’ll examine some of her own projects, as well as those of other lettering artists and illustrators, to show you the differences between these two seemingly related industries.

You’ll discover when type is more appropriate than lettering (and vice versa), and uncover the biggest differences when it comes to getting work, making work and getting paid in each of the two fields.

• Follow Jessica on Twitter: @jessicahische. Session hashtag: #howletter.
• Daily Drop Cap
• icanhasartschool.com
• Package Your Baggage game
• Chalk type – use pencil and smear it around, scan it in and invert it
• Crazy cat lady rule: you can have no more than +1 cat per bedroom in your house
• shouldiworkforfree.com
• Lettering – type as image
• Type design – full alphabets that are turned into fonts (which are software loaded on your computer)
• theinternetismagical.com
• Typography (the arrangement of letters) vs. Type Design (the people that made typefaces) vs. Lettering (type as image)
• photolettering.com – House Industries – all three rolled into one
• Type designers are the unsung heroes of the design community. Most people have no idea about the type designers.
• Text type designers:
  • (missed about three of them here)
  • Christian Schwartz
  • Chris O.
  • Okay Type
  • Jackson Cavanaugh – All Right Sans
  • Hannes von Döhren – Brandon Grotesque (similar to Futura)
    • Don’t Fear the Internet project uses Brandon Grotesque
  • Jos Buivenga – Exlibris – cheap fonts
  • Text type has to be a workhorse, but display type … not so much.
  • Mark Simonson – Coquette font
• Display type designers:
  • Alejandro Paul – AudioScript – every letter has like nine alternate characters
  • Compendium by Alejandro Paul for Sudtipos Type
  • Underware – alternate endings makes their fonts look more customized
  • Type designers are the most type-A people ever.
  • Liza Display Pro – insane features – 1300+ glyphs
  • There is a glyphs palette in most Adobe software
  • Carol Twombly
  • Zuzana Licko – Mrs. Eaves
  • Veronika Burian – Bree
  • Broiche – lots of alternate swashes

Continue to HOW Design 2011 in review: Part four »

I am attending the HOW Design Conference 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. Below are my notes from the sessions I attended on Saturday.

9:00 am-10:15 am – 3. Galumphing, Goats on Roofs and Other Revelations to Spark Inspiration – Sam Harrison
You come to the HOW Design Conference looking for inspiration. Jumpstart your first full day with this idea-igniting session hosted by industry veteran Sam Harrison. He’ll show you how to get up out of your chair and chase down inspiration, moving past the ordinary to discover the extraordinary. You’ll head back to the office with renewed powers of passion and play, all so you can fill your work with life—which is much more inspiring than filling your life with work.

• Session hashtag: #howgoats.
• Proficient → efficient → sufficient (at any skill)
• Galumphing (a Lewis Carroll word): proud play, to be silly, to be playful
• Nothing intelligent gets done with silliness
• Need permission to be lighthearted
• “The lightness of a beginner frees up creativity.” – Steve Jobs
• Paraphrase: “A mind stretched by a new idea never returns to its original dimensions.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
• Fail earlier to succeed sooner
• Does what I’m doing inspire me or tire me? Am I just doing it out of habit?
• Creativity is the encounter of the intensively conscious person with the world
• Go out there and gawk
• What we focus on is what we’re going to see
• Does your environment/mind have an “atmosphere of generosity”? (giving/receiving ideas freely)
• Related: Have a creative network
• Book: The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
  • Chicago World’s Fair and serial killer in Chicago
  • Ragtime, zipper, Walt Disney’s father
• What really inspires you?
• Money is a threshold motivator – not a strong force once your needs are met
• “Passion is not the quantity of emotion; it’s the quality of commitment.”
• “You are the greatest asset you will ever own.”

10:45 am-12:00 pm – 8. Creative Stuff: The Comprehensive Bulleted List – Chris Elkerton
Join Chris Elkerton as he divulges a wealth of secrets and ideas for staying creative when the daily grind is getting you down—amazingly, they’re all tips he gathered from friends, family, colleagues, design industry pros and everyday creative people.

You’ll see that it doesn’t take a lot of time and effort to get the creative juices flowing and you’ll leave ready to tackle your next great project with excitement and enthusiasm. Come prepared—this session will feature hands-on interaction from the audience.

• Follow Chris on Twitter: @opieshuffle. Session hashtag: #howbullets.
• Founded 3 Dogz Creative Inc.
• Get inspired
  • Theo Jansen – Kinetic Sculptor – walking on sand dunes in Holland
  • “I never lost the kid in me. I still look at design with the same eyes as when I was 10.” – Dominic Ayre
  • Homeless World Cup
  • Obituaries in the paper
• Start simple
  • “Fuck Photoshop” pencil – James Victore (2011) – “It’s a class about thinking. How the fuck do you do that in front of computer?”
  • Meridian acupuncture point energy diagram
  • Margo Chase: Keep it Fresh – emma.com
  • Line Drawing Madness exercise
• Get hands on
  • Taking photos of letters of the alphabet in the everyday
  • Refinished pinball machine
  • World maps made of type and letterpressed – Nancy McCabe
  • You have to take the time to work on your projects
• Keep a healthy mindset
  • Stay positive in order to achieve any good work in the design industry
  • You need to change your perspective sometimes – approach visuals from a different
  • Alex McClain: aerial photography to create patterns
  • Brand New website – Armin Vit (so much negativity related to design/web comments)
  • John Gabriel’s Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory
  • Cow diagram: Design → Public Relations → Marketing → Advertising → Branding
  • “HELLO my name is” sticker: 2nd most important design piece in history – according to Art
• Bring it all together
  • “Mad Men” signs
  • Force yourself to push the design
  • Collaborate!
  • “Playing for Change” video – “Gimee Shelter” cover – playingforchange.com
  • “If you hit this sign, you will hit that bridge.”
  • “Master your instrument … master your … forget all that bullshit and just play.”

2:00 pm-3:15 pm – 13. Get Out of Your Rut! – Cami Travis-Groves
Clearly picture your rut: using the same colors, patterns and fonts, falling into the same kinds of situations, doing the same kinds of projects…over and over. Are they just old habits or are you afraid of change?

Cami Travis-Groves will help you get—and stay—out of your rut by identifying what’s keeping you there in the first place. You’ll learn ways to let go of your fears and coax creativity from deep within you. You’ll even get the chance to share your pearls of wisdom with the rest of the audience.

• Follow Cami on Twitter: @imaccami. Session hashtag: #howrut.
• Stories of quantum physics, caterpillars and cilantro to help you get—and stay—out of your rut!
• Sometimes you just need to take a step.
• Giraffes are kept in by a psychological moat. Because they are afraid of falling (from birth when they fall six feet?). Be aware of your psychological moats so can get past them.
• There’s only one flavor of you that can do what you do how you do it.
• Underpromise and overdeliver.
• Stay humble.
• Monkeys in a cage with bananas story. Try a new approach.
• Your personal economy is what you can afford to give – and very little of that has to do with money.
• Quantum designing – Aaron O’Connell, quantum physicist – the golden time between sleep and awake – in a quantum world, multiple universes are possible and probable – so, the answer is always out there an it will come to you if you look for it. Our surroundings dictate who we are – the nature of our interactions with you and other people will shape who you are. Future book: “Whatever flips your Twinkie.” Don’t hang out with people and places that don’t inspire you.
• Diffuse the emotion, restate back what the problem is, and then step out of the equation.
• You are not your designs. You are not your creations. You are not your illustrations.
• Geeking out: BaconIpsum.com
• Never, never be afraid to single yourself out. It may pay off.
• Ask questions. Especially of kids.
• STOP – Share This (yourself) with Other People.
• Download the “Get Out of Your Rut” handout.

3:45 pm-5:00 pm – 18. Turning Your Creative Obsessions into Opportunities – Armin Vit
Whether it’s collecting, drawing, imagining or writing, we all have creative obsessions that we tend to neglect for fear that they’re a waste of time—or because they’re not billable. But there are designers out there who’ve been able to turn these obsessions into profitable and well known projects through books, websites or even just an expanded client base.

UnderConsideration’s Armin Vit will take a look at the paths some of these designers took, exploring the obsessions that led to these projects and the results they generated. You’ll learn different ways to channel your own creative pursuits, along with tips for making sure they get noticed.

• Session hashtag: #howopps.
• What is creative obsession? It’s the unnecessary expense of time, energy and thought put into any given subject or object that manifests in a tangible way.
• It can last a week. It can last years.
• What is opportunity? A situation that may provide a return on investment in the form of money, exposure, or validation. Or all.
• Examples: From creative obsession to publication, Internet fame and/or business.
• To Publications:
  • Collections:
    • Lisa Congdon – A Collection a Day
    • “In the age of the Internet, good enough is pretty damn good.”
    • PK – Bibliodyssey
    • Noah Scalin – Skull-A-Day
  • Monsters: Stefan Bucher – The Daily Monster
  • Generate content ^10
  • Variety is the spice of life. Prep your pitch.
• To Internet Fame:
  • Good Taste: Tina Roth Eisenberg – swiss-miss.com
  • Color & Outfits: Jessi Arrington – luckysoandso.com
  • Type & Humor: Jessica Hische – jessicahische.is – The Daily Drop Cap
  • Data Visualization: Nicholas Felton – feltron.com
  • Mashups: Olly Moss – ollymoss.com
  • Lessons from this model: Find a niche. And explore that. And if all else fails…
    • Double Rainbows – Paul “Bear” Vasquez
  • Stupid can work.
• To Business:
  • Detail & Style: Marian Bantjes – bantjes.com – “A Wonder” book
  • Simplicity: 37 Signals – 37signals.com – “Getting Real” PDF – Basecamp – “Rework” book
  • Letterpress: Jon Selikoff – voteforletterpress.com
  • Packaging: Andrew Gibbs – thedieline.com
  • Graphic Design: Us – underconsideration.com
    • Speak Up blog
    • The Design Encyclopedia
    • Brand New blog and Brand New classroom
    • FPO (For Print Only)
    • Quipsologies blog
    • Books: The Word It Book, Women of Design, Graphic Design Referenced and Flaunt
    • Brand New Conference – September 2011
    • Brand New Awards
• Lessons: You can’t anticipate. You can react. Look for the opening. Have money in the bank.
• 2. The Secret Ingredient: Stupidity.
• Cites “The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity.” Third Basic Law: Stupid people create a loss for themselves and for others. Four quadrants: Intelligent people – Bandits/Douchebags – Helpless – Stupid.
• Stupidity can lead to creativity. Creativity can lead to your obsessions. You obsessions can lead to opportunity.
• Examples of stupidity:
  • Idiocracy
  • Matt Stevens in Charlotte, North Carolina: Dunkin Donuts rebrand → Varsity Donuts
  • Type Sandwiches by David – everyday
  • Comic Sans – Brad Gilbert, Cleveland Cavaliers: using Comic Sans in the context of his LeBron James letter was like Strawberry Shortcake saying, “Fuck off.”
  • Netflix Prize – Dyslexflix: recommending wrong since 2008
• Stupidity beats inhibition. (And inhibition is what stops us from doing things we’re afraid of doing.) Lack of inhibition prevents obsessions. Stupidity leads to creativity. Creativity leads to opportunities.
• Do something for yourself. Put it out there. Expect the pot of the gold at the end of the rainbow. Do expect the best, but prepare for the worst.
• If opportunity knocks, just open the damn door.

Continue to HOW Design 2011 in review: Part three »