Month: January 2010

Blizzard?

Asheville – 29 jan 2010

What are the top ten books you believe designers should read?

Earlier this week we did a post on a printed piece created by British design firm Spin that details the top 10 books from 50 major figures in graphic design.We sorted through the 500 listed books and found that there were 14 books that appeared in almost every list.

Here’s the list in no particular order:
01. A Designer’s Art Paul Rand
02. Typographie Emil Ruder
03. Mode en Module Wim Crouwel
04. A History of Graphic Design Phillip Meggs
05. Jan Tschichold: Typographer Ruari McLean
06. Design as Art Bruno Mari
07. 8vo: On the Outside Mark Holt
08. Tibor Kalman: Perverse Optimist Peter Hall
09. Weingart: My Way to Typography Wolfgang Weingart
10. Designed Peter Saville
11. How to be a graphic designer with…Adrian Shaughnessy
12. The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell
13. Modern Typography: An Essay in Critical… Robin Kinross
14. Envisioning Information Edward Tufte

liz:1 plaidinc:2

NOTES:
1) Liz, “Follow up: Spin asks: What are the top ten books you believe designers should read?” accessed January 27, 2010, https://liz.tumblr.com/post/352754770/follow-up-spin-asks-what-are-the-top-ten-books
2) Plaid-Creative, accessed January 27, 2010, http://blog.plaid-creative.com/post/346685665/follow-up-spin-asks-what-are-the-top-ten-books-you (page no longer available, Tumblr account deactivated)

Field notes

dear tumblr, i really need to quit you.

Clients

Clients are the difference between art and design.

Michael Bierut (via soulellis)

Field notes

special thanks to @malaprops for hosting the poetry reading!

Field notes

also, thanks to those online friends i got to mirl… nice to finally meet face to face…

Thanks to all for joining me at Malaprops…

I was surprised to look up during the reading & find the cafe full & with people standing in the back!

Poetry reading tonight

Tonight’s one-hour poetry reading at Malaprop’s Bookstore (55 Haywood St., Asheville, NC) begins at 7 p.m.

I’ll read from 7:00 to 7:30. Here is my set list:

  1. Immigrant
  2. Quits
  3. Leave my girlfriend alone
  4. Three shots in the night air
  5. Autobiography I
  6. Autobiography II
  7. Wander
  8. Immolation
  9. Dream catcher
  10. We are so far from home
  11. Stone upon stone I’ll bleed the river
  12. Always departing
  13. Where can men weep?
  14. Harvest moon
  15. Winter roost
  16. Bonfire
  17. What divides us
  18. We shall carry our pajamas in our book bags

This list is subject to change.

Field notes

just returned for the celebration singers of asheville’s winter concert. the soloist, a 9-yr old, performed memory from the musical cats! amazing!

Blogging is an art form

ireadintothings: Blogging is the art form of the 21st century. When you’re blogging, you’re doing art. Quote me on this one.

The Traveling Bonfires’ “Vagrant Wind”

The Traveling Bonfires return to Asheville with a one-hour poetry reading featuring founding members Pasckie Pascua and Matthew Mulder.

Friday, January 22, 2010
7:00pm
Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe Street, 55 Haywood Street City/Town: Asheville, NC

nikography:

i went to school for graphic design, and did not spend my nights getting drunk. instead, i worked my ass off, spent most of my outside-class time learning/trying/doing as much as possible, and then got an awesome job after graduating.

protip: if you’re lucky enough (and i mean it when i say lucky) to be in college, you should be spending all available time learning, trying, making things, messing things up, experimenting and READING. (seriously. they make sketchbooks with words in them already. they are just called books.)

i didn’t waste a single day. and neither should you. build your momentum and go with it.

for the but-i’m-an-artist’s: you want money? learn a technical skill related to your field and get good at it. then get better at it. jonathan harris built wefeelfine on the weekends while working a full time job. just sayin’.

final note: i had a BLAST in college, and miss it like crazy. working hard does not mean no-fun-allowed, it means relax harder 🙂

orginal image via synecdoche

(Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/workerman/4285870664/)

The 7 Components Of Design

(via vanseodesign)

dear tumblr

i really, really need to quit you… you’re interrupting my work…

2 Moral Lessons

Moral #1: “If you work hard, stay focused, and never give up, you will eventually get what you want in life.”

Moral #2: Sometimes the things we want most in life are the things that will kill us.

Donald Miller

Field notes

somedays i miss smoking. then i walk to starbucks, order a coffee & enjoy that burnt java taste. reminds me of unfiltered camel cigarettes.

Downtime

I am something of a recluse by nature. I am that cordless screwdriver that has to charge for twenty hours to earn ten minutes use. I need that much downtime.

Donald Miller

Taking requests

For those who are familiar with my work, is there a poem I wrote that you would like me to read at Friday’s poetry reading at Malaprop’s? Email me at coffeehousejunkie@gmail.com to make a request and I’ll dedicate the poem(s) to you during the reading: http://www.malaprops.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp?s=storeevents&eventId=433391

Field notes

putting together my reading set list for Friday’s reading.

a dying part of the graphic arts

nikography:

so, i work at a company that makes videos. that means lots of props. since it’s much easier to just make something like a giant fake ticket with custom text than edit/composite it in later, there’s lots of fun stuff to be made.

in the world of digital art/graphic-making, this is totally dying. why make something to photograph when you can just composite the image from assets on the screen?

because it never. looks. as. good. (seriously!)

examples that will always fail: why hand draw type when you can just pick a handwriting font? why write on a box when i can just draw on the box with my tablet? why take a certain photograph when i can just digitally change his/her hair color and possibly move that arm over somewhere else…

answers: because the handwritten effect is lost when every duplicate letter looks exactly the same. because it will always look like you just drew on a box with your tablet and skewed it (and no layer blending property can achieve the correct texture). because the photo will always be just slightly off.

so, if you want to make some text out of yarn or whatever. don’t go looking for a photoshop brush, just friggin’ do it. on your desk, on a big white piece of paper. your results will thank you.

Cool or fool

somethingchanged:

Cool

  • Taking party photos and printing them for your friends instead of blogging them.
  • Reading cookbooks like novels and not necessarily cooking the recipes.
  • Introducing two real life friends you know will love each other.
  • If you see a solo tourist trying to take their own photo in front of a landmark, stopping and taking it for them.

Fool

  • Flashmobs put on by commercial enterprises or organisations.
  • Stories about Twitter in newspapers.
  • People who say “I’m sorry I haven’t posted on Twitter/my blog for so long I’ve been soooo busy.”
  • Marketing and online strategy blogs that are completely removed from the real people who make up the internet.

Field notes

join me on Jan. 22, Fri., 7pm, i’ll read new & selected poems.

Field notes

five or so years ago i would post something on my blog almost every day. now i type 400 or so words almost every day & then delete them…

Field notes

just returned from a very production meeting @starbucks & now processing notes gtd style