Design does WHAT now?

So funny. This is a slide that Saul Griffith, an inventor, kicked off his presentation at an AIGA event, Compostmodern.

I swear, this is what I was thinking all second year at OCAD when I was sitting in my Think Tank class and we were going around the room and people were saying why they got into design. People actually said it was to "change the world." Really? Seriously. So it wasn't just because you were the best artist in your highschool and you liked to doodle in the margins of your notebook? I dunno...maybe they were being sincere....but I doubt it.

I'm not saying that design doesn't have the power to change the world; influence it...but it sounded so insincere and poseur in that class. It is the equivalent of pageant queens saying they want "world peace."

Anyways, that's just me being a bit cynical :P

4 Steps to Achievement

"Plan purposefully.
Prepare prayerfully.
Proceed positively.
Pursue persistently."

-WILLIAM A. WARD

Sitting Pretty

Number one, I am obsessed with the song Lovesick by Priscilla Renea! Perfect wake-up-in-the-morning, playful song and these days, I need a happy wake up to survive.

There is a quote by the graphic designer, Milton Glaser (best known for his 'I Love New York' logo) that I have always been very inspired by:

"The real issue is not talent as an independent element, but talent in relationship to will, desire and persistence. Talent without these things vanishes and even modest talent with those characteristics grows"

It is inspiring in so many ways. If you have talent, it motivates you to work harder, to not be content; to be hungry. So often there are people who are talented and know they're talented. Being creative comes naturally to them, their technical skills and their aesthetic eye is flawless but they are sitting pretty and forget that it takes so much more. They feel entitled, they think "Hey, I am talented. I should have that amazing job." Yea, but your work ethic is nonexistent. People who rely solely on talent aren't going to get very far w/o a tenacity to match it.

If you don't have natural talent, this quote gives you hope that being good at something; being successful, is dependent on more than just what God gave ya. Maybe if I want it bad enough and I work hard enough, I can make it happen!

At the end of the day, Milton Glaser's quote inspires me to try and be the best I can be. And that's the most anyone can ask.

Frances Lee

Went to the OCAD grad show last night. I barely got around the place because I must've felt particularly social and I chatted w/ people who I ran into that I either knew from when I went to school, work or the grads who were showing their work. Blew. My. Mind. There is so much talent out there, it's inspiring. I wish I had more opportunities to go to events like this where I could mingle with other people who love doing what I do: creating!

It's funny. When I went to school, I studied graphic design but last night I couldn't tear myself away from the amazing illustration work!!! Particularly the work by Frances Lee, a comic artist and freelance illustrator. I wanted to steal some of the pieces right off of her wall! I look forward to seeing more of her work in the future.










My fav piece is probably the fish one. The pisces in me wants it in my room :D
She had some lovely traditional art on her website too but the ones of the little girls scared me a bit. lol

About Me

I have to leave for hot yoga in 5 mins so I'll make this quick.

I'm in the process of forcing myself to make my website happen in the next month or so and therefore I've been researching other designers' sites. I hate when people have really bland 'about' pages that tell me next to nothing about themselves. Why have the page at all if you're just going to be curt and vague?

Maybe it's just the information monger in me that wants to know more! But mostly I think it's because I've always been more interested in the process than in the end result. I'll think a piece is beautifully done but if there's no rationale to go w/ it, it slips through my mind like a colander. Odd metaphor, I know. I want to know why the piece looks like that. What reasoning?! That's what makes design so interesting to me, it's the solution that made the most sense to that person and I want to know why they went that route over all the many possibilities.

It's the same w/ bio/about pages. To me it's like understanding the process of that person, what interests and things that they enjoys that affects what they do.

Anyways....time for hot yoga!

T

No way...

...I'm blogging two days in a row?!!!

Yea, get a good look cuz it's never going to happen again (most likley)

So a year ago I was in the awful unemployed time in my life where my bank account balance was getting into the 3 digit area (yikes!) and I avoided social outings, not so much from money issues but more to avoid the dreaded question "Did you find a job yet?" Bah! I'm sure everyone can relate to this feeling. I wasn't prepared to find a job in my field. I didn't know where to look. I had no one to help me! My whole family is comprised of engineers and accountants. For about a year, I struggled to maintain my sanity and find a permanent job. I went on a lot of interviews, got a position as a designer at a fashion pr company and then a job at a marketing company. Neither really went anywhere but it wasn't wasted time.

My biggest hurdle was maintaining an optimistic view otherwise I would give up and either succumb to endless tubs of Ben & Jerry's cherries garcia or slit my wrists. Instead, I looked at my unfortunate unemployment as a chance to learn something new!

I fell in love with the work by Swedish fashion illustrator Cassandra Rhodin. Love love love love! I would gladly pay an obscene amount of money for a piece of hers to hang on my wall! I loved the light ink lines mixed w/ watercolour washes, the flowing hair, the eyes, the high eyebrows, the heavy lids, etc...I admire her individual style that was so recognizable to me that I had stopped dead in front of a store that had her artwork in it and knew, without a doubt, it was hers.

Here's some of of favourite works of hers:

I had to limit how many I added because otherwise I'd be going all day!
Don't you just love finding another creative individual that inspires you as a fellow creative? I dusted off my long forgotten watercolours and used her work as my jumping off point and trying to find my own style. I don't think there's anything more flattering than if someone saw my work (design , photography, illustration) and it inspired them so much they started doing it too.

Here are 2 of my own pieces that I just uploaded to my Flickr:

Sharing Is Caring Manifesto

Do you ever have things that you mean to do but never get around to doing it because you keeping saying "Oh, I'll do [insert whatever you want to do] as soon as I....." For example, I want to write more often in my sad, lonely, little blog but I keep saying to myself "I'll write more frequently in my blog as soon as I design the header." That was....a hypothetical example of course ;)

Sigh.

Will it ever happen? Tune in and find out if Teri ever gets around to doing half of what she wants to do. Although, apparently I've accomplished practicing the annoying habit of talking in the third person.

Sigh x 10.

So many excuses. Oh, I work all day so I'm tired. I have to exercise. I'm busy. Blah blah blah. The world is full of excuses but don't beat yourself up over it. Just try to do one thing a day and then celebrate the small victories of life! This is my small victory of the day, writing this blog. It is a promise to myself that I will TRY to write once a week. Then maybe I will write twice a week, and so on.

When I think about the kind of person I want to be, a big thing is, I want to be someone who does what they say they're going to do, 100% of the time (not just 50%). I also want to be dynamic and inspirational! No, I don't have Mother Teresa, or ever Oprah-like, aspirations. I just want to share. You live, you learn. A lot of the times we're going about our own lives, caught up in our own problems and feel so alienated and isolated, not realizing that there are tons of people experiencing the same problems and it would really help if we just shared more. I am, by no means, a wise person, but I may know things that other people do not and that's why I want to write this blog. To share what I've learned yearly, monthly, weekly.....whatever! Whether it's featuring a photographer that I find inspirational or an exhibit that was interesting or a book that was hilarious.....knowlege should be shared! No matter how trivial.

I am an information monger. I crave knowlege! I want to know! Questions will pop in my head and I will go on the internet and type it in a search engine to find the answer. Curiosity at it's finest! I not only chase information, but I greedily hoard it into a nondescript moleskine. In Stefan Sagmeister's book Sagmeister: Made You Look, he said that one of the smartest things he ever did in business was keep a business diary. So in my moleskine, I write down everything: ideas for future projects, how I feel in my job, my aspirations as a designer; as a creative individual, company profiles that I admire, artists, how to give a good interview, how to prepare for a portfolio review, etc...

So in the spirit of sharing (and for the benefit of other information mongers) I am writing this blog. Even if I'm the only one reading it ;P

xo
T