Turning My Life Into My Biggest Project Instead of the Other Way Around

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Art Director’s Club in New York on May 4th for their annual portfolio review along with other students graduating from Art & Design schools all over the country. I have to admit, I enjoyed talking to the other students more than pitching my work to the various Art Directors, Talent Scouts, and Head Hunters who attended the event. There is a great sense of community among these people and many shared ideas and philosophies.

I have timed this post to be published precisely at the moment I walk across the stage at the Baltimore Symphony Hall to receive my Bachelors in Fine Arts in Graphic Design from The Maryland Institute College of Art. I have come a long, long way since high school, and I can honestly say that I dedicated myself wholly to my work and studies at MICA. So much so, that looking back I wonder if I was too narrow focused. At any given moment over the past four years, my work was at the forefront of my mind, almost exclusively; I was truly and happily immersed. Things like eating, sleeping, romance, and relaxation were distractors — speed-bumps in my productivity. While this might have been alright for my student years, it is not how I hope to live my life.

So on this, my graduation day, I am hoping to turn my life into my biggest project, instead of the other way around.

I have no aspirations to move to New York or Chicago and work for some big shiny design studio, no dreams of becoming a “Young Gun” in the next seven years, and no desire to swim in big piles of money. I want to surround myself with people I love who inspire and challenge me, do fulfilling, wholesome work in my local community and beyond, and live a balanced life wherein I stare at a computer screen for less than eight hours a day.

To everyone out there graduating this spring, from Art School or otherwise, congratulations. Do what you love and don’t let it consume you.

Redesigned Yet Again

Trust me, I am getting as tired of it as you are, but I have redesigned my website yet again. Not really a stylistic change, but I think I made the work a lot easier to get to and took care of some pretty egregious interaction problems. Though I often worry about how vain it might be, my presence online is important to me; I want my website to be an effective way to see my work as well as a reflection of my personality, work ethic, etc. I have made some hierarchical changes this time around, putting my most time consuming pursuits, Friends of The Web and Folk Goods (more to come on both of those later) at the forefront.

Those who know me will be surprised to find that I have finally moved on from orange as “my color,” though I didn’t venture too far down the spectrum. I have decided to go with yellow this time around for a couple reasons. Orange was a cry for attention, robust and demanding. Sneakers, bicycles, soda cans and sports jerseys, all yelling at you. Yellow, while a chromatic neighbor to orange, has a completely different personality. Yellow is friendly. Yellow is primary and fundamental. Yellow is process — highlighters and sticky notes. My fascination with orange was largely born of a desire to be different. My crush on yellow is founded on what I believe to be more authentic grounds. Also, it is my mom’s favorite color.

The new website also includes some improved typography, served up by Typekit, a service I cannot recommend enough, as well as some photographs of me, past and present, all embarrassing.

I feel like I have said this before, but as I graduate in the next month, I hope to start writing on here more. Writing, not blogging. We’ll see how that goes.

Thank you to all of you out there who care about what I do and continue to follow along. Your encouragement, critique, and feedback means a whole lot.

“The Why Axis” to Bring a Critical Voice to Infographics

We all know there are lots of information graphics out there these days. Hopefully, we also all recognize that not all of these visualizations are well crafted or considered. I have touched on this subject before, calling for a more thorough, critical analysis of the information graphics in the media today. Bryan Connor, friend, colleague, and former roommate, knows a lot more about this stuff than I do, and he has just started a new blog, The Why Axis, examining the various forms of data visualization bombarding our eyes and brains on a daily basis. The modest amount of content he has posted to date already shows how relevant The Why Axis is going to be. Just in 2011, we have experienced a major revolution in Egypt, furthered unrest in the Middle East, and an earthquake, tsunami and ensuing nuclear disaster at Fukushima, ALL covered in the news by information graphics. Bryan provides us with an unbiased voice to help us digest all of this data; a safe haven in a world of politically and emotionally charged info graphics. I expect The Why Axis to be part celebration of successful data viz, part whistleblower on inaccurate and misleading information graphics in the news, and wholely informative and thoughtful.

The Why Axis

Crowdstorms is Live!

After months of hard work, Josh and I have finally launched Crowdstorms, a new online tool that uses the power of words and people’s associations with them to inform the creative process. Registration is on an invite only basis and will likely be for sometime, so if you want in be sure to apply for an invitation here.

For those of you without an invite, we would love some feedback on the top level messaging of the brand, homepage, FAQ, etc.

Degree Project Timeline

I have been hard at work on my degree project for the last month or two. For those of you that haven’t figured it out, I will be designing, branding, and marketing a small line of products. I am going to intentionally stay light on the details at this time, but until I have finalized a name for the product line I will be posting updates directly to this blog about the project. Above is the timeline I created for myself back when I began designing Love & Utility, if you feel like sleuthing you can probably figure out a good bit from it.

Love & Utility: Finding Meaning in Matter

After a number of weeks of hard work, I am officially launching a new blog, Love & Utility. The website will document research and inspiration for my upcoming thesis project, and focuses on our unique relationships to special objects in our lives. It is founded on the simple principle that a perfect product is both loved, for its beauty or uniqueness, and actively used. A person’s relationship with an object is built on this consistent and affectionate use.

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I’m a Player.

I have officially joined the ranks of Dribbble (big ups to my boy, Ed Nacional), a community for designers to show and tell what they are working on with small screenshots. I was a bit hesitant at first, but the more I use Dribbble the more I like it, and I plan on utilizing it from here out. There is a strong sense of community (dominated by web designers it seems) and it has already proven itself a valuable venue for feedback on in progress work. Bottom line, if you are interested in seeing all the nitty gritty stuff that I am working on day in and day out, you can follow me on Dribbble if you have an account, or subscribe to the RSS feed of my shots if you don’t.

Added bonus: Dribbble seems to be a breeding ground for the trendiest of the trendy trends in web and graphic design, so I also use it as a system of checks & balances for myself in my never ending sisyphusian battle to speak with a unique voice through my work.

It has also been valuable for me to thoroughly examine and use a web based service that serves the creative crowd, as I am also currently designing one.

One last thought: it seems that successful services have been very intentionally limiting the size or magnitude of their submitted content and using it as a marketing point, Dribbble and Twitter are the two best examples. This seems to me to be related to the idea that limiting oneself in art or design is one of the best ways to get inspired. “Make something beautiful” is much harder than “make a beautiful black and white flyer for a local punk show using only a photocopier”.

Announcing Crowdstorms

Senior year is in full swing and I have a lot of pots on the stove. The time has finally come to start publicizing one of the most exciting projects I have in the works, which is a comprehensive and (hopefully) unique web service that I will be building with my good friend, Josh.

The name of the project is Crowdstorms, and it will be a tool that helps designers, illustrators, writers, and other creatives form and develop ideas. It will use the power of words and people’s unique associations with them to fuel the creative process and encourage unconventional solutions to visual problems. Details are still fuzzy, but the site will allow users to create “topics” and then ask the community to populate them. It will carefully track all of the relationships different people form between words and ideas, building an associative reference tool unlike anything currently available.

I will keep this blog updated with the major news concerning Crowdstorms, but for all the behind the scenes action, check out the development blog Josh and I are maintaining. If you are interested in the private beta, sign up to be notified when it is available.

Making Connections

I have always been captivated by the culture and community of Craigslist. I am glad to announce a new ongoing project of mine, which takes advantage of the infamous “missed connections” section on the popular classifieds website.

For those of you uninitiated to the splendor that is “Missed Connections,” it is a section of the personal ads that is dedicated to the little connections we make with strangers on the street everyday. Say you see an attractive person everyday on your commute to work, or buy coffee from some hottie at your local cafe, but don’t have the nerve to say something. Missed Connections is a place where you can post these interests, in the hopes that the person you are talking about somehow finds your posting, feels the same way, and gets in contact with you: a romantic shot in the dark, an amorous hail-mary. I have decided to try my best to drastically increase the chances that these people actually get connected with each other by extending the message from a mere online posting in a niche section of Craigslist to a series of small, targeted print campaigns.

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My Favorite Subway Let Me Down

I have a favorite Subway sandwich shop. Though I have eaten at franchises all over Philadelphia and Baltimore, as well as up and down the east coast and a few select locations in the mid-west, none can compare to this one location in Charles Village near both of my current employers. I have eaten there on a regular basis since the beginning of 2009, so when I was asked by a school assignment to tell the story of a person I have regular interaction with, but know nothing about, the friendly sandwich-smiths at this Subway naturally came to mind. I came in for my usual five-dollar-footlong (BLT of course) and briefly explained my assignment to the nice gentleman behind the counter. As it was during the lunch rush, I also pre-wrote a little note explaining the project and asking if he/she would be willing to participate, providing all of my contact information. Although he gestured that he would be glad to help me out, I never heard from anyone at my favorite Subway, and was forced to move on to the next casual encounter on my list. The social aspect of Social Design often pushes the designer out of his or her comfort zone, quite intentionally, and it is hard not to take the would-be-collaborator with you sometimes.

I’d be lying if I said I won’t be a little embarrassed next time I visit my favorite Subway; and I don’t get shy very often.

UPDATE

As it turns out, my favorite Subway did not in fact let me down, they merely lost the piece of paper I gave them before they were able to even read it. I shall continue patronizing their franchise, and we have been brought closer through this whole ordeal.