week 2 of 2023
Ed Fairburn creates amazing portraits on top of maps.
problems
I find lots of cool things while wandering through feeds, newsletters, emails, and random dives down rabbit holes. I tend to save links in my daily notes and sometimes add them to relevant lists on the website. Not sure the system is working all that well. I write things down but never go back to review them. Cool things are missed and forgotten. That seems like a waste.
I would like to be saving these things on my website somewhere for others to discover. Maybe I’m just the conduit for an important link to find its way to the person who really does need to see it. Or not. I don’t know. I’m not even sure anyone is actually visiting my site or interacting with the content. I’m sure a few current students are using the relevant content I share for class (or at least they should be).
By nature of being a mind garden, most of the content on this site is undated. I revisit pages and modify often. I find and build links between pages when there is a need. I love this approach to having a website. On the other hand, I kind of like the idea of having a blog with dated posts. Having a regular deadline will keep me working on things.
solution
The solution seems to be having a regular dated dump of neat things I’ve found over the past week or two. It could be links to sites or specific articles, interesting pictures, or even cool quotes. I expect these pages are going to be random. Some weeks will be fuller than others. Some will be more interesting than others. Still, I think it will be cool, especially if I can build the habit of doing it regularly.
I see this as being somewhat similar to Tina Roth Eisenberg’s SwissMiss site. Some of the content I find there will probably end up here since that’s one of the sites I like to visit. There will probably be plenty of things from Austin Kleon’s website and Anne-Laure Le Cunff’s Ness Labs too.
Anyway, here’s the stuff from the past few weeks…
The responsibility of any creator is to do the work, not judge it.
Your job is to fall in love with the process, not grade the outcome.
— James Clear
Always pushing creative process, always! I truly believe that if you take the time to do good work at every stage of the process then the final outcome will take care of itself.
Simple Type font foundry. I want to buy some of their fonts. They are so cool. rotundo. vault alarm. This mug is cool too.
I’m a huge fan of open source design tools. Cool people making and sharing cool things. Here’s a list of free fonts for commercial use. Of course, it is worth paying people for quality work too. Designers gotta eat. Show your appreciation.
Good Design is Intentional from Humane By Design. The whole Humane By Design site is quite nice.
gotta find the source because i didn’t write it down.
The Marginalian on Networked Knowledge and Combinatorial Creativity I have a bunch of notes and links on combinatorial creativity that I really need to flesh out soon. This is an important topic to me lately and something I’ve been pushing on my students as we work on logo designs. Plus, of course, idea sex sounds so naughty for some reason.
You Need a (Creative) Manifesto from creative mornings. Good to figure out what it is you are doing and why. It helps to have words to explain to yourself and your clients. So does this whole website thing of mine count? I’m up for the regularly scheduled Faculty Performance Review at work and have been making tweaks to my teaching philosophy.
How to Become Comfortable With Uncertainty is the most recent of an ongoing collection of articles I’ve collected related to dealing with uncertainty. My unfinished Masters thesis was about uncertainty in the creative process and how art teachers can work to help students navigate the uncomfortable terrain. As artists, we are are bringing new things into the world. It is hard to know where you are going and to trust in the process when you are creating a new path.
As a designer and teacher, I’m unbelievably good at dealing with uncertainty when it comes to making new things. Strangely, as a human being in modern society, I absolutely suck at dealing with uncertainty. I want to know my job is secure and that I’m dedicating my time to meaningful projects. Not so good at that.