week 09 of 2024
the visual dome is a surreal art project thing on the web. Check out some of the cool people that live in the dome… 
high-fashion neo-vintage experiment with an extremely polished style. I mean, c’mon, look how cool this guy is!
I missed a post last weekend because I was recovering from hosting four regional SkillsUSA competitions. Also, my MSU animation class came to an end and so I had projects to grade. It was exhausting as hell. I wanted to avoid computers as much as possible. I’m sure you understand.
creativity is magic
To those poor people who don’t understand creative expression, what we do as artists and designers seems like magic. Our ability to conjure new visuals, musical flows, or dance moves can appear almost divine. To someone with a creative mindset, it doesn’t seem all that miraculous at all, except, of course, when it completely does.
Creativity doesn’t follow a set path, although there are common roads we can travel to find solutions. My job as a visual design instructor is helping students discover and define the different possible roads of their personal creative process. Nothing can be taken for granted, though, because what works for one project will not work for another.
Your mind should be flexible, but your process should be repeatable.
Style is a set of constraints that you stick to.
You can explore many types of constraints: colors, shapes, materials, textures, fonts, language, clothing, decor, beliefs, flavors, sounds, scents, rituals. Your style doesn’t have to please anyone else. Play by your own rules. Everything you do is open to stylistic interpretation.
Creativity is always an act of discovery. You follow your paths and find new solutions. Often that feels like magic, even to those of us who have been doing it for a long time.
Most processes leave out the stuff that no one wants to talk about: magic, intuition, and leaps of faith.
— Michael Bierut
To dig deeper, everyone should read Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. By far, it is my favorite book on creativity.
minimalism
I’ve always enjoyed visual simplicity when it comes to graphic design. Simple, clean, concise with few distractions. I’ve been spending a lot of time wandering minimal web design inspiration lately.
(I need to build these into lists for my website.)
A few minimal design inspiration hubs I’ve been visiting lately.
Minimal blogging sites I’ve discovered. Many of these have examples of people using the tool which leads to even more interesting discoveries.
While there are tons of sites out there about minimalism, here are a few that seem appropriate.
I’ve noticed a lot of minimalism sites want to sell you overly-designed and extremely expensive products. That bothers me. Use what you have and keep it simple.
Emptiness does not merely imply simplicity of form, logical sophistication and the like. Rather, emptiness provides a space within which our imaginations can run free, vastly enriching our powers of perception and our mutual comprehension. Emptiness is this potential.
finding your own style
While my current obsession into minimalism has gotten deeper with a focus on even simpler visuals, I’ve noticed more and more people going on about maximalism and how boring minimalism is. The dichotomy seems to be increasing and yet it doesn’t seem to affect my attitude. I’ve accepted that what I appreciate is what works for me and that I don’t give a rat’s ass if others don’t like it.
Developing taste is an exercise in vulnerability: it requires you to trust your instincts and preferences, even when they don’t align with current trends or the tastes of your peers. Because while having taste is cool, taste itself reflects a certain type of uncool earnestness – a commitment to one’s own obsessions and quirks.
other random stuff
Scott Yu-Jan paints all his tools white.
This gaming device is so cool. I want one right now!
The playdate handheld game system is stylish and it seems to have a solid community behind it.