June 30, 2010
“It’s a simple old fashioned trick of a daily list. Crossing tasks off feels good. Anything not completed gets bumped to the next day. Also iCal is a huge help. …
…it’s easy to overlook (the business basics) in the pursuit of creative excellence, but the simple rule is pay attention, it will get you in the end! …don’t neglect the nuts and bolts of business. It’s so boring but essential in allowing you to pursue your creative ideas. Also, don’t spend too much time poring over coffee table design books, nice as they are, looking for ideas to…
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Source: “Build” From Scratch by Behance Team
Labels: Work
June 28, 2010
The relay team with the fastest sprinters doesn’t always win, and the business with the most talented employees doesn’t either. Coordination is the unsung hero of successful teams, and it’s time to start singing.
Dan Heath and Chip Heath
Authors of “Made to Stick” and “Switch”
Source: Team Coordination Is Key in Businesses
Labels: Coordination
June 19, 2010
“Now, beyond the work, it’s not just about creating desired outcomes for clients. You’ve got to help fulfill desired outcomes for your designers too, as part of how you organize your team. If the people creating the work don’t get something out of it in the process, then it isn’t likely they’ll stick around.
This is the big mistake that most design firms make. They make awesome work, at the expense of sustaining the people making it. This rarely happens the other way around, because if you don’t do great work for your clients, you won’t have employees. You could argue that great creative direction can happen without consideration to other people’s emotions… but this is usually why design firms churn and burn. And as you hire and grow an organization, you need the full range of people, from planner to visionary, to force the necessary friction that leads to great work without rampant overtime.”
Source: Becoming a Design Leader by David Sherwin
Via: @changeorder
June 17, 2010
To be an artist, you don’t have to compose music or paint or be in the movies or write books. It’s just a way of living. It has to do with paying attention, remembering, filtering what you see and answering back, participating in life.
Viggo Mortensen
Actor, Poet, Musician, Photographer and Painter
Source: 10 Questions for Viggo Mortensen by TIME
Labels: Creativity
June 11, 2010
Creativity is just connecting things.
When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.
Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough…
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Via: Thinking aloud by Inaki Escudero
Labels: Creativity
June 7, 2010
It is not the means of expression and representation that count in art, but the individual in his identity and humanity. First comes the cultivation and creation of individual; then the individual can create.
Johannes Itten
Painter, Writer, Teacher at the Bauhaus
Source: Johannes Itten’s The Elements of Color
Labels: Individual
June 5, 2010
Josh Medrano: There are so many websites, magazines, books, etc. that teach us how to design something. What are your thoughts on why we design, or why we should design?
Brent Couchman: Theres a couple reasons I keep coming back to, the first is simply my own selfish need to create. It’s just what I have to do, and I feel lucky to be part of an industry that fulfills this need on a fundamental level. I bet a lot of designers/illustrators/makers feel the same way and are hopefully in a position that they can use their natural talents all…
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Source: Q&A by Josh Medrano with Brent Couchman
Via: @grainedit
June 3, 2010
I like the idea that everything is what it is. Nothing is enclosed. If it’s a radiator, then it’s a radiator. If it’s a light fitting, then it’s a light fitting. In the end, it makes the house very easy to understand.
Per Bornstein
Architect
Source: “Knotty by Nature” by Grant Gibson, Dwell magazine
Labels: Everything
