Often when I am on Twitter I get annoyed by the overzealous people in my feed. I want to hear about the news, but if there are four posts in a row from the same feed it's too much. On the other end of the spectrum, there are a number of people that I am always excited to see pop up throughout my day. One of my favourite feeds to follow is the blog The 99 Percent - Insights on Making Ideas Happen, created by Behance (an online portfolio website for creative professionals). The blog has articles from working designers about exciting new innovations, career advice, skill development and a slew of other things that are helpful for young creatives beginning their careers.
The articles are to the point and written by people in the field, because of this they are easy to relate to and inspire me to keep wanting more for my career. I enjoy that the length and format of the posts vary and that their website is so user friendly. If I need to look up an old post I can easily search by theme and find what I am looking for. Overall I think this is a great resource and encourage you to take a few moments to read one of their articles.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Garage Sale-ing
Last weekend I went home to visit with friends, spend time with family and go to garage sales. It may sound silly to go to another town to go to garage sales, especially since I have happened upon some lovely pieces for sale in Toronto, but my bike just doesn't cut it. My main reason for going out last Saturday was to find a table and chairs for my balcony. It is a great size and I feel guilty for not using it, but without any furniture it wasn't very functional. Luckily, with Mom in tow, I was able to find two great wood laminate chairs as well as a handy rolling table for a grand total of twenty-seven dollars.
When we returned home with what I considered treasure, it was quickly pointed out that the chairs were in terrible disrepair and that I had a lot of work ahead of me. Because of this, I wanted to document a few before photos and follow up when the project is completed with another post. Unfortunately, the weather is a bit wet today so I wasn't able to take photos but I found a similar chair to wet your appetite (assuming you like the same types of furniture I do). Hopefully the project will turn out great and I will have tons of photos to show for my work. If you don't see any posts for a while, you know where I am.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Wood you like to be friends?
This week will be a busy one for me, but after getting my Design Exchange membership last week I couldn't help but go to another DXTalk. Tonight's talk was by Jim Taggart FRAIC, recent author of Toward A Culture of Wood Architecture. The theme of the book and tonight's talk was the importance of wood in architecture and how he would like to see things improve in the future.
The talk was very interesting, Taggart's illustrated many of the prominent styles in wood architecture with ample examples from Canada and around the world. While some of the information was a bit over my head (most of the attendees were architecture students), I especially enjoyed what he had to say about the renovations at the Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga. Taggart started by asking a simple question, "What do you do when you want to relax?" His answer was the same as mine, go to a park, go for a walk in a forest, enjoy the outdoors in any way possible. For people dealing with cancer, this may not be an option. The renovation (pictured below) allows patients and visitors to escape to a more relaxed atmosphere without having to leave the hospital. Further to that point, Taggart indicated that a study conducted by the University of British Columbia proved that including trees and wood in your environment improves general happiness. I suppose that explains why I have always loved walking down tree-lined streets and going on hikes.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Discovering the Wrong
Tonight I went to the Design Exchange for another DX Talk. I prefer this type of event rather than events where it is required that I meet new people and speak intelligently about things I don't know a lot about (often I end up studying prior to those sorts of events). At these talks I have the opportunity to mingle but can also go, enjoy the talk, then leave without being pressured to do anything but enjoy the speakers. I really like the relaxed atmosphere and the opportunity to hear from designers from a variety of backgrounds.
Tonight Ann Thomas, Curator of Photographs at the National Gallery of Canada, spoke to Lynne Cohen about her work throughout the years and specifically about the pieces she is currently showing at the Design Exchange. Cohen's work consists of photographs depicting domestic, commercial and institutional spaces in cool, but welcoming compositions. Cohen creates her photographs by reframing interior spaces in intriguing ways. I say that the work is cool because the the photographs are generally devoid of life and the stark appearance of the spaces are uneasy in an almost wrong way (Cohen spoke a lot about how she is always looking for something that is wrong to photograph). One of the members of the audience brought up an interesting feature of the photographs, while they are cool, they are also welcoming because of the angle they are taken from. Cohen never creates barriers in the foreground, each of the photographs feel as if you could walk through them and into the space (Cohen thought perhaps that was the reason for all the nose smudges on the glass frames). The scale of her work also helps to create the illusion that you could walk through them. Rather than using a traditional film camera, Cohen works with an 8 x 10" view camera, and produces photographs that are approximately three feet by four feet, with both portrait and landscape compositions.
Tonight Ann Thomas, Curator of Photographs at the National Gallery of Canada, spoke to Lynne Cohen about her work throughout the years and specifically about the pieces she is currently showing at the Design Exchange. Cohen's work consists of photographs depicting domestic, commercial and institutional spaces in cool, but welcoming compositions. Cohen creates her photographs by reframing interior spaces in intriguing ways. I say that the work is cool because the the photographs are generally devoid of life and the stark appearance of the spaces are uneasy in an almost wrong way (Cohen spoke a lot about how she is always looking for something that is wrong to photograph). One of the members of the audience brought up an interesting feature of the photographs, while they are cool, they are also welcoming because of the angle they are taken from. Cohen never creates barriers in the foreground, each of the photographs feel as if you could walk through them and into the space (Cohen thought perhaps that was the reason for all the nose smudges on the glass frames). The scale of her work also helps to create the illusion that you could walk through them. Rather than using a traditional film camera, Cohen works with an 8 x 10" view camera, and produces photographs that are approximately three feet by four feet, with both portrait and landscape compositions.
I found the talk very interesting and was happy to learn more about the photographs that I viewed beforehand. I find that when someone, be it the artist or a curator, explains the intention of the work it is more memorable and inspiring. I decided to get a membership for the Design Exchange after returning home from the talk, I realized that I really enjoy immersing myself in design and that having a membership will encourage me to go to as many events as possible.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Sound Advice
I used to read a wider variety of blogs while I was in school, but now that I use Twitter I find it much easier to keep track of a few favourites that way. Today I was looking for a topic to write about and decided to check out some other blogs.
Brian Hoff's blog The Design Cubicle offers great advice for designers on a number of topics such as products, plug-ins, and lessons learned through experience. His most recent post was about the client/designer relationship and when to show concepts. While his posts are brief, he really gets the point across. "Get it right – the first time! Clients often ask Designers if they can update them daily, bi-daily, or other timeframes that suits their craving. Designers, stop doing this." Hoff goes on to explain that showing clients work you are not proud of undermines your abilities and your client's trust. When clients see unfinished work they get worried and often slow down the design process with changes and suggestions. Instead Hoff suggests waiting until you have a design that you feel comfortable standing behind, give yourself a chance to refine your work and come up with something great.
Brian Hoff's blog The Design Cubicle offers great advice for designers on a number of topics such as products, plug-ins, and lessons learned through experience. His most recent post was about the client/designer relationship and when to show concepts. While his posts are brief, he really gets the point across. "Get it right – the first time! Clients often ask Designers if they can update them daily, bi-daily, or other timeframes that suits their craving. Designers, stop doing this." Hoff goes on to explain that showing clients work you are not proud of undermines your abilities and your client's trust. When clients see unfinished work they get worried and often slow down the design process with changes and suggestions. Instead Hoff suggests waiting until you have a design that you feel comfortable standing behind, give yourself a chance to refine your work and come up with something great.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Pasted Posters
When I walk around Toronto I am never looking down but always at the things around me (thanks for the lesson on how to see Vince Sowa!). I have two paths that I take to work (on my bike or the streetcar) and even though I read the posters I see almost every day, there is always something new or different. A great example is a bus stop ad I pass for Gap, it features a model with a gap in her teeth. For a while the ad was left alone, but then someone added white out to fill the gap. The day after that someone drew back over the white out with black to put the gap back. I found it very interesting to see how people were interacting with the poster, fighting with one another as to whether the imperfection should be fixed or flaunted.
Last year I remember seeing the posters for Design Thinkers all over poles in the downtown core. Their vibrant colour (and the fact that I interned with the studio at the time they designed them), really attracted my attention and inspired me to look more closely at the posters around town. Since, I have enjoyed a variety of posters. Some are humourous, others help me better understand the neighbourhood I'm in and still others pop out with sheer ugliness.
While looking for images of the Design Thinkers 2011 posters, I came across a very interesting poster campaign/installation. In 2009, artists Sean Martindale and Eric Cheung attempted to liven up public space by attaching cone shaped planters to a pole at Queen West and Spadina. The result is visually intriguing and I am sure their goal to engage the public was successful.
Last year I remember seeing the posters for Design Thinkers all over poles in the downtown core. Their vibrant colour (and the fact that I interned with the studio at the time they designed them), really attracted my attention and inspired me to look more closely at the posters around town. Since, I have enjoyed a variety of posters. Some are humourous, others help me better understand the neighbourhood I'm in and still others pop out with sheer ugliness.
While looking for images of the Design Thinkers 2011 posters, I came across a very interesting poster campaign/installation. In 2009, artists Sean Martindale and Eric Cheung attempted to liven up public space by attaching cone shaped planters to a pole at Queen West and Spadina. The result is visually intriguing and I am sure their goal to engage the public was successful.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Bantjes
I'm nearing the end of month two for my "Read all the stuff on your bookshelf before buying more books or getting a library card and borrowing copious amounts" project. It is going fairly well but my newfound love of riding my bike or running to work is cutting into my reading time. I recently moved on to the design section of my shelf and my enthusiasm for graphic design went wild once again. I forgot how much I loved reading design magazines, the articles make me feel like I am part of the club and get me thinking about new possibilities. Regardless I bring this up because I came across another great article.
Marian Bantjes is a "lapsed graphic designer" (Applied Arts Magazine, March 2010) who produces beautiful custom typographic solutions. After seeing a few of her pieces it is easy to identify her work, not because it is all the same, but because of the intricate details in her work. After dropping out of Emily Carr, in Vancouver, Bantjes spent ten years typesetting, designing books and doing production at Hartley & Marks/Typeworks. In 1994 she co-founded Digitpolis Media and taught herself corporate design as projects came up. Bantjes eventually tired of the strategic side of things and took a break to work on her personal style. It may be referred to as a break, but the work she produced and contributed for free to various magazines ended up landing her a job at Details. Things moved quickly from there and Bantjes is now contacted directly by art directors and designers, allowing her to stay fully immersed in her creative work.
My favourite part, aside from the images of her work, is that Bantjes is Canadian. There are many well known and talented designers from around the world, but it is great to have such talent coming from Canada.
Below are some of my favourites. (People who know me from childhood may understand my particular interest in the intricacies of her work, remember my graph paper drawings?)
Marian Bantjes is a "lapsed graphic designer" (Applied Arts Magazine, March 2010) who produces beautiful custom typographic solutions. After seeing a few of her pieces it is easy to identify her work, not because it is all the same, but because of the intricate details in her work. After dropping out of Emily Carr, in Vancouver, Bantjes spent ten years typesetting, designing books and doing production at Hartley & Marks/Typeworks. In 1994 she co-founded Digitpolis Media and taught herself corporate design as projects came up. Bantjes eventually tired of the strategic side of things and took a break to work on her personal style. It may be referred to as a break, but the work she produced and contributed for free to various magazines ended up landing her a job at Details. Things moved quickly from there and Bantjes is now contacted directly by art directors and designers, allowing her to stay fully immersed in her creative work.
My favourite part, aside from the images of her work, is that Bantjes is Canadian. There are many well known and talented designers from around the world, but it is great to have such talent coming from Canada.
Below are some of my favourites. (People who know me from childhood may understand my particular interest in the intricacies of her work, remember my graph paper drawings?)
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