Design Feast Highlights of 2013

Calendars available at CreativeMornings/Chicago #14, the first gathering of 2013

Like its predecessor, 2013 was a year super-charged with creativity. Here are some of the most memorable people, places, and things I cherish this year.

Everyone


Audience at CreativeMornings/Chicago #17, the fourth gathering of 2013

Since the first time I put together a list of annual highlights in 2010, Everyone—each of you who take what you’re imagining and turn it into something real—will always remain my first acknowledgement. There are many themes that are reinforced, and one of them that’s consistently fascinating is making. Imagination, paired with honesty, consistently motivates and inspires. Keep making, Everyone!

Katie and Joseph Thompson of Joseph Thompson Woodworks


“The Perch” by Joseph Thompson Woodworks at the One of a Kind Show 2013

In February 2013, I had the privilege of interviewing the wife-and-husband duo behind Joseph Thompson Woodworks, Charleston, South Carolina, in a Designer’s Quest(ionnaire). It was the striking form of their chair design, dubbed “The Perch”, that first got my attention. In April, Katie emailed me about Joseph Thompson Woodworks’ appearance at the One of a Kind Show and Sale in Chicago. Fast forward to December 2013—Katie invited me to see them and their exhibit space at this annual event. One takeaway here is the importance of retention. Proactively keeping someone/thing in mind—and doing so until the time is ripe to seize it as an opportunity (in this case, to meet up)—is positively memorable. Katie remembered our email thread, from a few months ago, about finally meeting in person.

Katie’s memory was sharpened by her and Joseph’s complementary passes to see the One of a Kind Show and Sale—my first experience. It was delightful to see them, especially Joseph’s telling of the ideas and approaches that go into realizing his and Katie’s products. This is a huge benefit of meeting craftspeople: To discover thoughts that were the prelude and the platform of their work. Another benefit is personally experiencing craftspeople’s products. Joseph graciously offered me to try The Perch—elegantly comfortable with a mild lilt in its rocking motion.

Cusp Conference


Nathan Sawaya’s LEGO artistry at Cusp Conference 2013

Another first-time experience for me this year was attending the sixth Cusp Conference, which also takes place in Chicago. Being a CreativeMornings enthusiast, it’s immediately noticed the amount of dedicated energy it takes to realize a dynamic gathering fusing topics and presenters, audience and place, plus everyone and everything in between to carry the gathering, especially for one that is launched on a consecutive basis. The team at Multiple put together an eclectic lineup of presenters—from digital comics publishers to an architect of habitats in space (outer space)—at Cusp Conference 2013. To apply the title from the book by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander, Multiple’s yearly conference shines the rays on “The Art of Possibility”.

“STRATA” Open House


Photography by Darlene Delbecq captivating the workspace of 50,000feet 

For the first time too, I was invited to experience an annual event hosted by Chicago-based creative agency 50,000feet. It was a diverse art exhibition curated at their workspace, wonderfully imbued with work by regional and international artists representing photography, painting, fiber, textiles, print, mixed media, and video. Its 2013 iteration was called “STRATA”, bolstered by the visible and subtle layers of artwork on display throughout.

50,000feet’s proactive belief in the rewarding connection between art and work is one to insist.

CreativeMornings


Linsey Burritt and Crystal Grover of INDO at CreativeMornings/Chicago #25, the last gathering of 2013

The new Website for CreativeMornings speaks to the human determination to make things—and the humanity of doing it, sharing it, talking about it, being vulnerable to it, and persisting it. This is most apparent in CreativeMornings’ video library of Talks by each speaker, in each chapter, since the chapter’s debut in its respective location throughout the world. This growing collection of CreativeMornings Talks makes a collective statement: Create yourself.(1) One definitive experience of this call to action is the Talk, set to the CreativeMornings global November 2013 theme of Bravery, by multidisciplinary artist Vanessa German at the Pittsburgh chapter. Her presentation is a poetry jam, mighty and heartfelt, about the power of love. As Vanessa vigorously revealed, “Anything and everything that I know about bravery, I only know through love.”

As mentioned before, I’m a CreativeMornings enthusiast. CreativeMornings is part celebration of human effort, part affirmation of human lessons—all parts neighborly and executed in a no-frills manner.

Big thanks to Kim Knoll and Kyle Eertmoed of Knoed Creative, and to their Team, for achieving a complete month-to-month year of CreativeMornings in Chicago, where many and I received a monthly serving of a creative lecture blended with creative community—as a result, creative commotion that’s locally grounded and naturally accessible.

Of course, this list is incomplete. What are your creative highlights of 2013?

As you recall your highlights: Thank you for visiting and reading. Have an excellent new year of picking yourself to create yourself!

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(1) Essentially gleaned from this quote, attributed to playwright George Bernard Shaw: “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

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Photos by Nate Burgos: One of a Kind Show, Cusp Conference, STRATA Open House, CreativeMornings

Design Feast Highlights of 2012

Like its predecessor, 2012 was charged with creativity. Here are the people, places and things that I enjoyed discovering and kept in mind yearlong:

Everyone

Echoing my first highlight of 2011, I commend everyone who work hard to make ideas happen! The desire to make is, as Seth Godin put it, a desire to “Pick yourself.”

CreativeMornings


Photograph by Nate Burgos.

Founded by swissmiss, a.k.a. Tina Roth Eisenberg, CreativeMornings is “a free, monthly breakfast lecture series for creative types.” Can’t say it enough: CreativeMornings is my kind of design conference. It brought me back to the social fold of creatively engaged people with its spirited and succinct experience, rooted in celebrating local practitioners. Thanks go to Mig Reyes for establishing and leading the CreativeMornings chapter in Chicago, where I’ve been readily inspired to blog about each meet-up and compiled insights made by creative practitioners invited to present at CreativeMornings throughout its fab debut year.

Yoshi’s Blend



Directed, edited, and produced by Mackenzie Sheppard, this film incorporates strong elements of welcomed whimsy—from vinyl records and big-band music to crooning vocals and vintage coffee grinders. The film focuses on Yoshi Masuda, who shares his coffee enthusiasm with people directly affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. The result? Niche is therapy. Its effect, to use a phrase from Masuda, is “stronger than a tsunami.”

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson



I recently discovered Dr. Tyson, a beautiful mind. Stephen Colbert’s 2010 interview with him at Montclair Kimberley Academy was my first exposure to Tyson’s brilliance, expressed in a plainspoken manner. His 2012 testimony to the Senate Science Committee (above) gives many of his eloquent persuasions: to intensify dreaming-and-doing toward a “better tomorrow,” to build on past “seeds of innovation.”

In his interview with James Lipton, actor Jamie Foxx defined a “player” as a “mover and shaker of culture.” Dr. Tyson clearly fits this description. His talks offer an important reminder to a very tough challenge: being oblivious is easy, yet being mindful—especially when it comes to the building blocks of history—is hard.

Drawings by brothers Tom and James Hancock


Photograph by Tom and James Hancock

Born this month in 1879, painter and Bauhaus teacher Paul Klee expressed, “A line is a dot that went for a walk.” Brothers Tom and James Hancock (above), who were born four years apart, walk together by drawing together. Tom has Downs Syndrome, and together with James, they have long made it a habit to draw as a duo. They reciprocate each other’s creative marks on paper, one dot and one mark, at a time.

Dunwich Type Founders
and The Lost Type Co-Op


Image by Dunwich Type Founders

At first glance, I took to the bold and upfront character of Recovery, a typeface designed by James Puckett of Dunwich Type Founders in New York. His other typefaces designs are rooted in American typography from the Reconstruction Era, Gilded Age and Progressive Era of U.S. history. Recovery is a sign of the times. James also maintains an impressive blog of lettering matter called Daily Type Specimen.

Celebrating diverse historical and regional lettering, the Lost Type Co-Op also offers a splendid portfolio of typeface designs, including Abraham Lincoln (suitable for Steven Spielberg’s 2012 film about the 15th U. S. President) designed by Frances MacLeod, and Airplane (suitable for Robert Zemeckis’s 2012 film Flight) designed by Kady Jesko. For a current project, I was steered toward Haystack, a typeface designed by Trevor Baum. Aligned to Dunwich Type Founders, the Lost Type Co-Op is an excellent showcase of unique lettering informed and driven by many sources of typographic motivation.

Of course, this list is incomplete. What are your Design-related Highlights of 2012?

As you recall your highlights: Thank you for visiting and reading. Have an excellent new year of picking yourself, to think and make!

Design Feast Highlights of 2011

2011 was another year charged with creativity. Here are the people, places and things that I enjoyed discovering and kept in mind, year-long:

Everyone
To echo my first highlight of 2010, I commend everyone who commits to making ideas happen and crushing it!


Source: Nate Burgos

CreativeMornings
Founded by swissmiss, a.k.a. Tina Roth Eisenberg, CreativeMornings is my kind of design conference. Previously, I had felt triple-dissed with my experiences of design conferences: disillusioned, disenchanted and dissatisfied. CreativeMornings brought me back to the social fold of creatively engaged people. It provides a spirited and succinct experience, grounded in the celebration of local practitioners. I’m thankful that it arrived in Chicago (along with other cities), where I’ve been easily inspired to blog about each meet-up.


Source: Alonzo Felix

Sweat the Small Stuff
A pithy phrase respected by graphic designer, letterer, illustrator, and Studiomate, Alonzo Felix, and brought to life in his poster. Custom typeface, smooth-and-connected in character. Bold color combination. The result fully embodies the phrase.


Source: Dwell

Villa Welpeloo
In Enschede, Netherlands, 2012 Architects made a house mostly composed of locally found materials. Old billboards were used for the kitchen’s cabinetry, and a retired textile mill provided metal, which was harvested for the house’s infrastructure. It is an exercise of sheer resourcefulness: taking things once rendered useless and making them useful again—prompting the impression of seeing something that’s beautifully restored.


Source: Noah Beil

Photo Books by Noah Beil
Handmade photo books that blend photography, letterpress and inkjet printing. Photographer Noah Beil has taken creative matters into his own hands to make things—things he cherishes. It’s a noble act worth repeating.


Wilco’s Tiny Desk Concert
With curated editorial sites like Designers.MX and Lost in Concert, creativity’s twin is music. NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concerts are kindred to CreativeMornings in their compact serving size. It’s a live format that rock band Wilco turned into a blissful set.

Of course, my list is never a complete one. What are your Design Highlights of 2011?

As you recall your highlights: Thank you for visiting and reading, and here’s to an excellent new year of thinking and making!

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Design Feast Highlights of 2010

Like 2009, 2010 was another ambitious year of creativity. Here are my picks of people, places and things that proved most memorable for me:

Everyone
To echo my first highlight of the last two years, I commend all those who strive to get things done, who aim to do good work and practice full-time integrity in these tough economic times. Even in the toughest times, creativity remains charged, and sometimes more so. To Gapingvoid’s Hugh MacLeod, “Art with purpose. Work with purpose.”


Photograph by Frau Kuchen

Growing and Learning at The Prinzessinnengarten
Highlighted in a Business News Report by Monocle magazine, Robert Shaw, a documentary filmmaker, and Marco Clausen, who worked in bars, dove into their gardening project with little knowledge of the field—but this didn’t scare them. Passion drove the project: they honed in on an unused space in the center of Berlin and transformed it into an urban garden. A gutsy move commanding admiration. What makes it impressive is their undeterred drive and commitment to succeed—despite a lack of related experience, as Shaw admits, “We’re not gardeners at all.” To also quote one of the garden’s visitors and participants, Jonathan, “No one’s an expert.” Shaw’s and Clausen’s urban garden project is for everyone.



The Scout’s Video Trilogy about the Joy of Creativity
At The Scout, a “lifestyle and design-conscious site” about cultural experiences in New York City, a delightful set of short documentaries is dedicated to craft. The first is an interview with the brother-duo Billykirk who make handmade, leathered goods. Architectural and interior design firm Roman & Williams is featured in the second, and chocolate-makers The Mast Brothers (above) are featured in the third and final installment. Each story is a champion of certain principles that ring true: size doesn’t matter in making good things; shared attitude is critical; achieving the impression of “well-made” is hard work. From writer Raymond Carver, “Art doesn’t have to do anything. It just has to be there for the fierce pleasure we take in doing it.”


Photograph by Joey Roth

Joey Roth’s Ultra-Simple Poster “Charlatan, Martyr, Hustler”
Industrial designer Joey Roth believes in making “products that push boundaries now and remain valuable for years.” This belief is demonstrated in his poster “Charlatan, Martyr, Hustler”. It’s part info-graphic and part op-ed, but 100% motivational. It visualizes the type of role model and co-worker in a stripped-down way. From walk-to-talk and bark-to-bite and vice versa, it’s crystal clear which type of person you aspire to become and the type of people you prefer to work with.

Lists of the Female Mover-and-Shaker Varietal
“A Field Guide to The Female Founders, Influencers and Deal Makers of the New York Tech and Media Scene” is a template for every city, no matter the size. Chicago’s all-female collaborative Quite Strong created and now sustain the “Lust List”, a growing serving of “quite talented and creative ladies.” The focus is on ladies who are passionate about design, business and technology and revel in these worlds.


Photograph by Reuben Stanton

“Time Flies” iPhone App Maker’s Open Process
Once I viewed the blog by Reuben Stanton, creator of the witty Time Flies app for the iPhone, I was smitten with sketches. Stanton shows his conceptual wares in wireframe after wireframe, for software features and apps he’s noodling about. Sharing these moments of process is just as rewarding as sharing the final product.

What are your Design Highlights of 2010?

As you think about it: Thanks for visiting and reading, and have an excellent new year of crushing it, rework and making ideas happen!

Design Feast Highlights of 2009

Like all years, 2009 witnessed a tremendous pace and work of creativity. The picks below are my selected highlights of people, places and things proved most memorable for me. Some did not actually take place last year, but were discovered then. And I enjoyed revisiting them again and again:

Everyone
To echo my first highlight of 2008, I commend everyone who is Remembering The Golden Rule, highlighted by Nancy Lyons of the Geek Girls Guide, and Getting Lusty With Their Work, highlighted by “instigator” Dyana Valentine, in these tough times.

Jason Fried Interviewed by Chicago Booth School of Business Professors and Students
37signals Co-Founder’s talk about “executing the basics flawlessly” and “learning to charge at the start” was free of the jargon that convolutes business conversations and writing. The lessons that Jason offers on making, writing and hiring reflect the timeless qualities of simplicity, brevity and curiosity. Best of all, they are expressed in a plain way that is refreshing. Jason’s clear-cut presentation reminded me of the clear-cut principles in the book Why Business People Speak Like Idiots: A Bullfighter’s Guide.

Sortfolio formerly Haystack
In the spirit of 2008’s highlight of CollabFinder, where designers can find web developers and vice versa, Haystack launched in October of 2009. It’s another good way to discover and locate a web design/development person or firm to help realize your web-based projects. Too bad that Haystack was renamed Sortfolio.

Letterpress
One overly abused statement is “Print is Dead.” Design blog and studio Swissmiss asked her readers for recommendations to do a small run of letterpress cards. The answers shout big admiration for the beautiful process and effect of printing. Communities like Briar Press help ensure that letterpress-era equipment and the art of fine printing remain preserved and open.

Crush It!
Like a lot of people, I picked up a copy of the book by Wine Library TV’s Gary Vaynerchuck. It’s a short read but packed with the must-have ingredient in making work and play the same thing: Passion.

The Difference Engine
Before the digital computer OS, there was mathematician, philosopher and mechanical engineer Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine, the first mechanical calculator. Its impressive function of 8,000 moving parts matches its appealing form. Then there is the timely connection with the world’s first woman programmer Ada Lovelace. Not simply based on a true story, it indeed is a true story, one of mechanical beauty, by design.

Trussart Steel Guitars
Speaking of mechanical beauty, musician and luthier James Trussart has pushed the guitar-envelope. His custom guitars are made of an unorthodox material in steel. Each takes two laborious weeks to make and only 300 are made. The result is a coveted object whose look and tone are richly tuned.

Teux Deux
Tina Roth Eisenberg’s launch of her take on the to-do list further demonstrates the sublime order of typographic elements applied to an interface toward getting things done. It also demonstrates the collaborative potential of people who are close by. The webapp was co-developed by Cameron Koczon who is Tina’s studio mate. Wondering if the semiotician and author Umberto Eco, whose latest book is about the The Infinity of Lists, uses Teux Deux.

Grain Edit’s and Lettercult’s Interviews
At blog Grain Edit, Dave Cuzner’s growing list of featured meetings and studio visits with illustrators, letterers and graphic designers offers a motivational perspective about visible language. And the letterform factor, in all its varietals, is well served with visits to type designers and their worlds by Brian Jaramillo and Ray Frenden of blog Lettercult.

Cody Hudson
I’m fascinated with the playful graphics of this Chicago-based artist whose studio is struggle, inc. Cody infuses urban wit and grit into a wide net of visual media, like skateboards, wallpaper and posters. Cody’s distinct sensibilities are also a part of refreshing the experience of an old Chicago neighborhood inn, which is equally bold and fun like his visual work.

Of course, this list isn’t complete. These wonderful works were memorable to me. What are your Design Highlights of 2009?

As you recall your highlights: Thanks for visiting and reading, and here’s to an excellent new year of designing!

Design Feast Highlights for 2008

This year has been another rich demonstration of imagination. At Creativity Online, folks like Paula Scher of Pentagram and Helvetica filmmaker Gary Hustwitt gave their Design Highlights for 2008 (subscription required). It compelled me to compile my own personal list. Here it goes:

Everyone
Aligned to the urban educator and writer Jane Jacobs’ statement “Design is People,” my first acknowledgement goes to those who are surviving the sharp edge of this economy by improving how they live and work, thinking of ways to better collaborate, and ultimately extending empathy beyond the workplace into the home.

From small- and large-business owners to freelancers and in-house practitioners, this first highlight of People justifies a list on its own. My constant search to uncover interesting content for design webliography Design Feast brought these design highlights to my attention (listed in no particular sequence):

Webapp Creators
The web’s means and languages have unleashed a creation-rush of web-based software and services. I wrote about the debut of my friend’s MetalMiner IndX(SM) webapp, which helps those in the metals industry. Transforming a suite of ideas into a suite of online tools must have been a satisfying journey. Equally notable was the launch of Sifter, a “hosted bug and issue tracking application focused on making work less tedious,” as well as the very simple StickyScreen created by Jack Cheng. This micro-sampling of entrants doesn’t negate the diverse range of existing webapps that were re-launched with significant updates by their makers.

Living the Blogging Dream
Achieving a blogging rhythm is no small effort. It’s hard work to sustain the drive to deliver content, particularly design-centric matter, each day, every week, such as acejet 170, AisleOne, analogue, A Daily Dose of Architecture, Design Thinking Digest, grain edit, GraphicHug, The Groundswell Collective, Karrie Jacobs, Logic+Emotion, swissmiss, Thinking for a Living, and The Curated Object, among a great many others. The design blogosphere is thick, even murky, but the authors behind these efforts are role models for those who aspire to start a blog—or Wiki, Tumblr, etc.—of their own (one rigorous posting at a time), and not let it become too idle.

Self-Publishers
Design studio Brighten the Corners wrote, illustrated, designed and published a children’s book Victor & Susie. Designer Duane King of the educational site Thinking for a Living published a self-titled booklet dedicated to open source design education. Designer Mark Boulton wrote A Practical Guide to Designing for the Web which will be released early next year. Whether finding a partner in a colleague, printer, distributor or utilizing a service like Lulu and Blurb, the urge to make and publish a book is within reach, and requires no one’s permission.

Photo Essayists
The coupling of images and words is enjoying a big wave of engagement in the form of online narratives. Notable examples include the Photo Essays of Jan Sochor, Chaplin: A Life, The World’s Photostream of Public Radio International (PRI), and Erik Gauger’s travel writing in Notes from the Road. Pangea Day is indeed every day.

Regarding singular picks, these left a strong first impression that still lingers (again, in no particular sequence):

A Working Library
I’ve found myself visiting this library more frequently than physical ones—a pity I know. Reader, writer, and designer Mandy Brown’s thoughts about the connectivity of books and the reading experience motivate me to truly reflect on the visible word and its handling. A Working Library defies the misconception that a blog can’t be both intimate and insightful at the same time.

CollabFinder
With all its languages, the web is a canvas for designers and developers alike. Sahadeva Hammari and Ian Van Ness of Boy Girl Talk help both find and realize collaboration for big ideas online. The synergies sparked from designers to developers and vice versa are well served by this resource.

Gary Vaynerchuk’s Favicon
This icon design probably didn’t debut this year, but it was a new discovery for me at the personal site of the creator of Wine Library TV. At 16 by 16 pixels, the Favicon bears an accurate resemblance to its subject. The attention paid to the smallest personal branding details commands respect.

How do you design? A Compendium of Models
Hugh Dubberly’s organic gathering and cataloging of 100-plus-and-counting design processes is a ginormous effort aimed at offering a useful loupe or circus mirror to the “How” of design. I anticipate the educational reception of Hugh’s curating of design-thinking-and-doing.

Opening of the Summer Games in Beijing
As described in an earlier posting, the prelude to this past Summer Olympics was an impressive demonstration of site-specific installation art and gave unique expression to milestones of Chinese invention and history. Filmmaker Zhang Yimou’s orchestration, done on a massive and ultra-coordinated scale, was moving in a multitude of ways.

President-Elect Barack Obama’s Campaign (but not its identity design)
Much well-deserved coverage has gone to the design and utilization of the typeface and logo in Obama’s Presidential campaign. But a nod should also be given to other inspired initiatives that connect design and the U.S. government: Design anthropologist Dori Turnstall galvanized the U.S. National Design Policy Summit, Designer William Drenttel wrote an open letter about A Design-Oriented National Endowment for the Arts, BusinessWeek contributing editor Bruce Nussbaum wrote an open letter about an Innovation Dream Team. These are aligned to the spirit of other programs, such as the planned Artist Corps and Kiff Gallagher’s formation of MusicianCorps.

Sean Tevis’s Comic-Strip Run for the Office of Kansas State Representative
Though he lost his election bid, information architect Sean Tevis won in his unique approach to campaigning. He tapped into his skills in web design and technology to create a visual storyboard, presenting his positions on issues with a sprinkle of humor and fresh references to popular culture. See the interview about Sean’s approach which helped make the race a close one. Let there be a sequel.

T-Mobile G1
This is a biased pick due to my documentation about its use. Nevertheless, it’s my first “smart device” and the G1, with its Android software, has made my steps into mobile virgin territory smoother and more connected.

Typography for Lawyers
Typographer-turned-Attorney Matthew Butterick has done a good deed in making a guide of typography tailor-made for legal practitioners. Having worked in the litigation field, I appreciate Matthew’s effort to educate his colleagues. Why is typography important? Butterick answers with a resource that’s smartly put together and, in a way, cements good typography as the law in and out of the courtroom—for lawyers and jurors alike.

Arriving at this list was a little easier than I thought, as it consists of design works that have been particularly memorable to me. Whether they be a few or a group of one, what are your Design Highlights of 2008?

As you ponder the answer: Thanks for visiting and reading, and here’s to an excellent new year of designing!

Year-End Design Lists 2008

The end of the year prompts reflection and especially collection of the who’s who and what’s what that made 2008 a notable one for design and designing:

• New York Magazine’s The Top Ten Designs
• Architecture critic Paul Goldberger’s Ten Best of 2008
• The Observer’s Hail the New Modesty
• Web-zine Yanko Design’s Best of 2008
• Gizmodo’s The Best, Weirdest, and Most Wonderful Gadget Designs of 2008
• Design Cubicle’s blogger Brian Hoff curated 50 Brilliant Design Articles of 2008 in 23 Categories + 40 Reader Submitted Posts

Amidst global-economy fatigue, the design output of 2008 is a beacon for what can be accomplished in 2009.