So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.

-Christopher McCandless

I completely needed this.

by Sawyer Hollenshead/ quote by Ira Glass.

"It sometimes seems there are two kinds of graphic designers in the world. One kind sees each project as an opportunity for self-expression, producing a body of work that bears an unmistakable mark, that is more alike than different, that is more about the maker than the message. At its best, the output of this kind of designer is personal and passionate; at worst, it's repetitive and self-indulgent, the mark of the attention-seeking diva.

The other kind of designer attends first to the client, to the message, and to the audience. This graphic designer's role is to be neutral and invisible, an efficient conduit between broadcaster and receiver. The best of this kind of work is devastatingly effective; the worst is anonymous and forgettable, the product of the kind of hack who gives design a bad name."

Michael Beirut of Pentagram, Victore or, Who Died and Made you Boss?

I love receiving new books in the mail. I love turning the untouched pages. The smell. The feeling of paper. The stock. The excitement it brings. The unveiling adventures, page after page. Being gentle so not to fold the corners or bend the paper. The delight of hard-copy vs digital. Sorry trees.

----- Words du Jour ----- 

 

This adorable typographic illustration is actually making me feel more positive; not just from the encouraging words but the fact i can relate to each single phrase, thus proving all the fuss and stress I carry daily are also felt by other creatives; i'm not alone and I belong.  "Clean your workspace", I thought I had OCD! I really do that when i've struck a creative block—reorganize work station, closet, or entire bedroom.

I'm working on "take risks" "break the rules" "finish something" "stop trying to be someone else's perfect".

May I add: #30 Stop logging in and out of facebook profusely
                    #31 Stop perusing online shopping sites
                    #31 Get off the internet. period.
                    #32 But keep blogging ;)

New Year: new resolutions, new goals, new wants, new needs, new musts, new eats, new things, new friends, new clothes, new cities, new discoveries, new inspirations, new creations, new ideas, new experiences, new regrets—so make it happen, NOW.

This quote stands so true in my life. I often reflect on the past than the present, pondering things i shoulda woulda coulda done. So as a person hitting past their mid-twenties, I begin to feel restless and hopeless but it is because I am going pass my mid-twenties, I am wiser, so I am starting to omit my fears and try to do things before my bones tell me no and before the young kids call me old.

" When everything looks good,

nothing looks good "

Reading a section off one of my favorite design books, Graphic Design: A User's Manual, as Adrian, the author, comments how photography has been made to easy in the modern age of technology. It's hard not to take a good picture, with the added ease of digital cameras, instant results, and photo manipulation software like Photoshop, we are spoiled and lazy. The quote truly sums up our 2010s culture and beyond. If ornate things turns into common things, then what are we left with to admire and relish in?

Solidarity does not assume that our struggles are the same struggles, or that our pain is the same pain, or that our hope is the same future. Solidarity involves commitment, and work, as well as the recognition that even if we do not have the same feelings, or the same lives, or the same bodies, we do live on common ground.
- Sarah Ahmend

"The quest for inspirational reference materials, is one of the best parts of being a designer: leafing through strange books and bumping up against unfamiliar worlds is a neverending joy". - Adrian Shaughnessy, Graphic Design: A User's Manual, p264.

Amen. This book is seriously the best reading investment. I'm going to call it my bible. Never grows old or tired. Maybe I'm going to marry it—you I know I probably can like that Japanese man who married a robot or his gaming console, it was something gadgety.

"Don't try to be original, just try to be good."

- Paul Rand

"All that we do, almost all the time, is design, for design is basic to all human activity. The planning and patterning of any act toward a desired, foreseeable end constitutes the design process. Any attempt to separate design, to make it a thing-by-itself, works counter to the fact that design is the primary underlying matrix of life.

-Victor Papanek, Industrial Designer, 1971.

"If design fails to attract critical interrogation, it risks remaining on par with knitting— a craft practised with great love and dedication by many but ignored by everyone else."

Graphic Design: A User's Manual, Adrian Shaughnessy. P.83. Chapter: Criticism in Design.