This is my true measure of success. The most inspiring people in my life have been humble, ready to give any and every piece of advice they can and have inspired me to be more than I believed I could. I can only hope to do that same.
via lotta agaton
Creative Mornings has a great new site up with videos of their speakers from Los Angeles, New York and Zurich. If you’re unfamiliar, Creative Mornings is a monthly breakfast lecture series for creative types. The events are free and hosts a different creative each meetup. They are currently in three cities and are expanding as we speak. Perhaps Ohio can be added to this list one day?
The lecture I wanted to share is writer Alissa Walker, or commonly known as Gelatobaby. After listening to her 20 minute Creative Morning, I was so inspired, I just had to post it. Her notes on how to change your life are exceptional and I hope to apply them to my day-to-day right away. It’s an inspiring video to perk me up on a very dreary day in Ohio. I hope you enjoy it, too.
It is so hard to step outside your comfort zone for the possibility to do something great. Someone told me last week that “if it didn’t make you nervous than you wouldn’t be open to possibilities!”
via indexed
I love love love this video of artist and illustrator Olimpia Zagnoli’s AIGA NY talk in a nutshell. Her accent is so beautiful and I love hearing her story of how she grew up to become an artist. And as Frank Chimero voiced on Twitter, “Dear creative folks whose work I enjoy: Can we all make these (artist bios) like Olimpia Zagnoli?” It makes me think of what I would do for a video bio of my own. Where did I get my inspirations growing up? Who influenced me as a designer? How did I get to where I am today?
via Frank Chimero
I came across this post by Study Hacks on 99% and thought I’d share.
“Not long into their interview with public radio host Ira Glass, one of the three college-aged interviewers, a young girl, asks, with a desperate smile etched on her face, how to decide “which of her passions” to pursue.
“Like how do you determine, how…”, she begins.
“How do you figure out what you want?”, Glass interrupts.
“How do you not only figure out what you want, but know that you’ll be good at it?”, she finishes.
There’s a pause. In this moment, when Glass prepares his answer, the young girl’s earlier admission that she’s a pre-med, and doubting her decision to attend med school, hangs in the air. Glass can relate: he too had been considering med school when he stumbled into his first radio internship, after his freshman year of college.
He proceeds cautiously, softly: “Honestly, even the stuff you want you’re not necessarily good at right away…I started working at 19 at the network level, and from that point it took me years. The key thing is to force yourself through the work, force the skills to come. That’s the hardest phase.”
One of the other interviewers, a young man in a baseball cap, interjects: “Do you think hard work can make you talented?”
“Yes. I do.”
The students let this sink in.
“In the movies there’s this idea that you should just go for your dream,” Glass continues. “But I don’t believe that.”
By the students’ reactions, this is not what they expected to hear.
“Things happen in stages. I was a terrible reporter, but I was perfectly good at other parts of working in radio: I am a good editor…I feel like your problem is that you’re trying to judge all things in the abstract before you do them.
That’s your tragic mistake.”
Many of these I live by, many I need to start living.
via Digital Bowerbird (a great blog full of digital media & observations on life)
Any wise advice from Ohioan Michael Beirut I listen to closely and his short article on staying up late is just that. Pulled from their 2005 archives, you can read more great articles on AIGA’s Design Journal as well. Enjoy!
“One week after I graduated from college in Ohio, I moved to New York with my new wife Dorothy and began working as a design assistant at Vignelli Associates. It was 1980, and I was the lowest employee on the totem pole. Working in a design office in those days was different. I never touched a computer. As I recall, the office didn’t even have a computer. In fact, we didn’t have a fax machine.
I spent most of my days putting thinner in rubber cement and taping tissue paper over mechanical boards. Every once in a while I would get to do a mechanical myself, usually following the direction of one of the more experienced designers. I was working in New York City for a designer I idolized and I was the happiest person on earth. It so happened that we got an apartment that was three blocks-literally, a 135 second walk-from the Vignelli office. Work started at 9:30 a.m. I usually got up at around five minutes to 9 and still had time to pick up a doughnut on my way in.
Dorothy, on the other hand, had a corporate job downtown, in the World Trade Center to be precise. She had to wake up before 6 to be at work at 8. I literally slept three hours later than her every morning. Every night Dorothy would go to bed at around 10 p.m. I was still wide awake, and our apartment was so small it drove me crazy. I had a key to the office. So I got in the habit of tucking my wife in every night and going back to work to start another shift, which often would last from 10 to 3 in the morning.
This went on for four years. Anything I’ve achieved in my career I credit today to those four years. I loved working late at night. I worked on office stuff, and I worked on personal projects. I played music really loud and drank Mountain Dew. I would design anything: invitations for my friends’ parties, packaging for mix tapes, one-of-a-kind birthday cards, and freebies for non-profits.
When Massimo Vignelli noticed I had extra time during the day, he started giving me extra work. Things that would have taken two days only took one, thanks to the night shift. The more work I did, the faster I got, and the better I got. It never occurred to me to ask for overtime. 25 years later, nearing 50 with three kids (and the same wife), I can’t tell you the last time I was awake at 3 in the morning, intentionally, at least. So my advice to anyone starting a career as a designer? Stay up late while you can. It pays off.”
Michael Bierut
Partner, Pentagram Design New York
via Keaton Taylor
Rework, a book by the fantastic guys at 37Signals (also Basecamp, Campfire, Backpack and Highrise creators) is an incredible addition to my growing list of Must Reads. The book is filled with short chapters each with a great illustration like one the pictured above and a real life experience in each paragraph. They aren’t writers, per se, and they completely accept that. They are only experienced in success, and their stories, lessons and knowledge are profound and concise. They talk of their successes and failures and most of all, how to find success. I think it’s a great addition to any designer’s library and I’ll definitely be re-reading it before I start another book on my list. Buy a copy here and let me know what you think!
