It’s in! After a few long months of guessing, our Fontbook finally arrived. Now we can peruse the many useful (and many more useless) fonts of the world. In all honesty, this will be a really large asset when trying to come up with new type combinations for our clients, be it rebranding, publication design or otherwise. An added bonus – we get exposed to new font names, such as Wolfdance.
Most designers need to sketch. Whether it’s just scribbles to organize random thoughts on a post-it, or elaborate drawings in a sketchbook, it becomes an essential part of you as a creative person. If you’re like me and can’t leave the house without your sketchbook, then The Sketchbook Project may peak your interest. They describe the project as “A concert tour, but with sketchbooks”. I describe it as “Awesome”. All you need to do to be included in the tour is purchase a sketchbook for $20 from here, choose a (loose) theme, and sketch away until January 15, 2011 when all of the books must be returned to the Library. In March, the tour will take the thousands of sketchbooks that they receive on an Art Gallery tour. You will receive email/text updates when someone takes out your book, so that at any point in the tour you will know where it is and who is reading it. You also have an option to get your book digitized for the Brooklyn Art Library website. Sign me up!
We’ve had this little book in our library for some time now. Callum recently took a journey to Scotland, and he brought back with him a pirate’s bounty – in book form. Somehow a few of these books got lost in the shuffle, and it wasn’t until I needed some creative energy this past Tuesday that I discovered “It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be”. The aforementioned book, written by Paul Arden, is an anecdotal look at creative processes. Many of these anecdotes may be obvious, however they are often overlooked in everyday life. I found the book to be the shot in the arm I needed to continue creating and be inspired to do so. I recommend reading the book, as it serves as a reminder that altering your perspective can keep us fresh and help us to continue to progress as individuals.
I’ve recently been suffering from writer’s blog. Call it the post-holiday blues. Today, however, with our server down and a little free time to surf the interweb, I discovered some inspiration to light a fire under my arse. A new weekly feature at Grafik Magazine will see Jon Dowling of Counter-Print list fifty essential books that any self-respecting graphic designer should own. I’m always interested to see what other designers read, and in 2010 I’d like to expand my horizons in terms of breadth of material read. 50 books looks like a good place to start.
I will admit, I am not a huge reader. I’d like to be, but the reality is I am a bit out of practice. It took me about as long to read this book as it took Bill Bryson to actually complete his journey through the Appalachians. That being said, it was literally a “laugh out loud” journey, with Bill and his friend Stephen providing the comic antics. At the time they were plodding miserably through forests, over mountains and in icy streams, I’m sure they were not thinking “this is freakin’ funny”, but trust me, it had its moments of true hilarity. A highly recommended read.
There was talk in the office the other day about what inspires each of us (I was actually absent for this discussion but I was brought up to speed later). In consideration of this topic, this book came to mind. Even though there was more trials and tribulations in this story than there was jubilation, it made me want to throw on a pack and go hiking. As I thought about the idea of inspiration a little more, I realized it wasn’t so much this book that inspired me but the idea of doing something out of the norm (at least for me as I haven’t been hiking for several years). New experiences of almost any kind are inspirational to me, so this year - call this my new year’s resolution - I am going to make an attempt to try new things. Goodbye countless nights in front of the TV and hello to a new and exciting 2010!
