A Key to Creativity

Click to enlarge

The Short of it:

The desire to effect change on any medium, plus the belief in the opportunity for positive reception of your ideas unlocks the gate for for a powerful torrent of new, and creative ideas.

The Long of it:
This is the story of B. and Me. B's initial has been changed so he can no way be connected to the story I'm going to tell. B. was, when I met him, a ward of the State under the care of the Missouri State Mental Heath Department, and was living in foster care with 3 other boys. B had been signed up to participate in VivaVox - Imagine Arts Mentoring Program, a non-profit I was working for last year.

The main goal of VivaVox is to give arts training to kids in order to allow them to develop their creative voice, and to channel their destructive behaviors into creative ones. There are drawing workshops, music, dance and poetry classes of which B, participated before finally going into personal mentoring with the poetry/rap instructor. B. happened to actually be the best visual artist of the group, with a desire to draw, but I digress.

Due to political infighting, B and 10 other kids were unceremoniously yanked from the program by their caretakers in early May; 6 weeks before the end of the program cycle and the big artistic showcase/graduation ceremony. That was it for B. and Viva Vox.

This past weekend I ran into B. and his brother down in "The Loop", St. Louis' hip street of shops and restaurants. I asked B. how he was doing, "Fine." He asked me if I had talked to Larry (Viva Vox President) recently, I said no, and he went on to tell me that he he had contacted Larry with a bunch of ideas for Viva Vox. I asked him what sorts of ideas he'd been having, and he told me few which blew me away. Very deep thinking for a 16 year old kid who has spent many years shuffled from home to home, institution to institution. There was a palpable energy and enthusiasm to his words, an urgency to be heard.

Of the hundreds of kids I met through Viva Vox over the years, B. is one of maybe 5 kids to actually use this program to find his creative voice. It so happened that B. was moved from his house to an "orphanage" where Viva Vox was running some programming, and he actively sought out Larry to present his ideas.

When B. was telling me his ideas, I was struck by the parallel to my own recent story: After a creative turnover at the agency I was working for, I was out of a job. I went to work for Viva Vox with whom I've had a long relationship. After six months of hard work some job leads were dangled before me which tempted me to quit Viva Vox and follow up on them. They turned out to be vaporous, and I ended up going into Creative Temp Services.

While searching leads I found a company in a sector which really appealed to me. It's what led me to this whole "Thinking in Pictures", Visual Communication. Learning to Draw thing in which has ensnared my imagination, and caused a dynamic creative outpouring I haven't had in years.

Why are B. and myself so currently creative?

I believe what it comes down to is that in a world where it's easy to become lost as an individual; if you believe someone is going to listen to your ideas, to take your thoughts (pictures, art) seriously, then this creates a key to unlock the floodgates of your imagination, which will in turn feedback on itself and create even more ideas.

Of course where the ideas go from there are completely up to the you. Chances are a lot of those clever ideas are going to fall by the wayside, some will be listened to, some will be adapted etc. I think what is important is not the ideas themselves, those can be generated almost Willy Nilly (don't forget to capture them), but the belief in the Opportunity. That if you want want to keep generating ideas, then you have to believe that someone is receive them and present feedback, otherwise you stagnate. From there it's less a matter of finding the Opportunity like myself, than creating and seizing the Opportunity like B.

A Very Swanky Typography Overview

via Todd Roeth is an Assistant Professor, Graphic Design. School of Fine Art.

Mr. Roeth has also provided overviews for his other courses, of which I fully plan to investigate. At his on-line suggestion , I've already aquired a copy of: Grid Systems in Graphic Design by Josef Muller Brockmann and when I finish that I plan to read: Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout by Timothy Samara.

Infography: welcome to the sidebar

infography: "Infography: n. 1. The emerging art and science focused on the visual explanation of complex or potentially confusing information. 2. A group blog for practitioners of infography around the world, dedicated to sharing work, sharing ideas and keeping in touch."

Via-Gabriel who I met at Communication Nation

Logo Design Trends 2007

"Everyone wants to set the curve when it comes to style. No one wants to design out of a book of trends, but nevertheless, they emerge. Take a peek at the following 11 logo design trends that we think will define the look of 2007.

The first design is the speech bubble, and there is a counter argument: Die Speech Bubble Logo, Die. found at xBlog: The visual thinking weblog

Digg, but for Design

Design Float

Jonathan Yuen (2006)

A wicked cool design portfolio site. Quick loading flash, intuitive interface. Good Artwork. Go.

Creativity Spark From Masters Of Graphic Design | Design Showcase

Creative thinking is an essential part of design workflow. Whatever sketch you are working on, at some point you find yourself in the situation where you simply need some fresh ideas to find your path around the creativity block. Going away may help. Listening to the music may help. But particularly the works of the famous graphic artists may help. In fact, studying them very closely, you can not only explore new ideas, but also learn the smallest details - they form the profound foundation of every masterpiece.

In this post we’d like to present you an ultimate breakthrough for your creativity blocks; over the last weeks we’ve been searching for the most popular graphic designers, illustrators and artists around the world. We’ve selected some of their works to give you an idea what style they have and what details of modern design you can expect and learn from them.

So what do we have as result? Over 100 breathtaking illustrations from some of the best contemporary graphic designers, illustrators and artists; besides you’ll also find references to further (mostly unknown) sources for inspiration you can use on a daily basis.

via Smashing Magazine

Interesting Things About Color

Hybrid Logo

A few weeks ago, I saw this logo as part of Chevy's new environmental marketing stance. It was among several other logos that made no visual sense to me and I had to turn to the next page to figure out what they were. I'll post more on those later).

The thing that first struck me about this logo is the Silver X, and I didn't know the whole logo was supposed to be the letter H. After the X I saw the arrows and thought that someone was stealing a page from the FEDEX playbook.

Here are too important notes to remember: It's much easier to bash a logo than to come up with one. The logo you see is not always the best one presented by the designer, but the one chosen by the client. A designer may come up with dozens of ideas, and big companies will often solicit several companies for ideas. Then the client will use bits and pieces from each logo until they find what they are looking for.

So you've got green, you have tire shaped patches and arrows signifying motion. But as you can see, it really only works when placed with the rest of the body copy.

I think it works as a good header, but poorly as a stand-alone logo.



You can find a HUGE collection of specific car logos at
Cartype.com

Some words from "Old School"

I'm currently freelancing at an Ad Agency and I had a discussion with a Senior Creative Director about layout and design.

The following monologue was something like this: "There is too much shitty design out there. The problem is no body wants to learn because they know everything already. They go to "Portfolio Factories" and they develop a style, and they come in here and look at their book. This is a menu, this is an ad for oil change, this is letter head. If they have enough different kinds of pieces, they all look they same even though they are all used for different customers and markets. Why? Because they have developed a style, but haven't learned the fundamentals of design. Design is a science: placement, balance, color and typography will always work, but todays New School is about breaking boundaries for the sake of breaking them, and it's sloppy and bad. I can tell at a glance whether that ad was done by a new school or an old school person.

I think that a particular style is sign that the artist has found a comfortable niche, but from there refuses to grow and and will stagnate.

Advertising is different from Fine Art. You do need an eye for aesthetic detail, but you aren't trying to capture the essence of a subject. You are trying to make your client happy, and for that you need to take yourself out of the equation, throw personal style away and have the ability do many different kinds of styles, whatever it takes to get the job done.

I was thinking to myself, maybe they should have monthly meetings where the old guys teach the new guys, and the suits the basic principles of design as refreshers. They can have beer and snacks.

Art, Design, and Visual Thinking On line Textbook

Art, Design, and Visual Thinking
By Charlotte Jirousek from Cornell University

The first section of this course is concerned with understanding the basic concepts of design; How to analyze and talk about visual material. These fundamental components are known as the principles and elements of design. The approach we are going to take has a strong cultural bias. However, since European and American design is the base from which we are operating here, it is in this culture we will begin. We will eventually look at other cultural approaches to aesthetics and design.

In this section, first we will define some basic terminology essential to the understanding of visual language. We will then look at the elements of design, or the components which form the structure of a work. Finally, we will consider the design principles, the concepts used to organize the structural elements. The principles and elements of design are the basic building blocks of visual composition, and in order to understand how visual images carry meaning, we need to understand this basic vocabulary of visual language.

Visual Resume

This morning I created an updated resume in Mindomo and when I had finished I was thinking to myself, "Where have I seen this before?" and I went diving back to my dusty, dusty archives.

13 years ago, I had been deeply into Visual Communication, but unguided. I created a non-linear resume to shop around to the agencies. It was pooh-poohed at the time because it didn't make any sense to anyone who wasn't me. Click my photo for the enlargement. I had iconed each section with the appropriate icon, so the eye could determine what each section was represented, and I drew lines connecting the different islands in a meaningful fashion. Education to Art School to Production Art, School to Teaching Jobs etc. Now years later, I've done nearly the same thing, but this time there is the added dimension of time and visual motion.



click the minus sign in the image below to scale it down. or just click the link. Mark Plattner Resume

After a long hiatus of living and working, I find myself drawn back to Visual Communication and pleased that the tools have been created to allow me express my what I had attempted to do so long ago

The Intro

I've been a Graphic Production Artist for 12 years after I dropped out of Design School due to lack of money. Since then I've become a Graphic Problem Solver, which means I can do pretty much anything to help get the job out the door except for the actual design. I'm sure I could do it, but I lack self confidence. Let's face it, there is no shortage of crappy design out there, and I don't want to add to the noise.

Sooooooo, I decided to throw myself into the deep end of the design pool and teach myself the principles of good design. And I decided to start a new blog instead of cluttering up my personal one with links to design sites and such. So I started Visualization Station. Cue the party noisemaker.

Below is a link dump of the prior posts from my personal site. I also plan to keep running visual maps at Mindomo - Web-based mind mapping software of the interesting links connections to this site: Visualization Station Mind Map, my own personal journey into design, and a different sort of resume. Cue the noisemaker again.

International Icon Tarot

I had seen this a few years ago but had forgotten about it until I saw a low res repro posted at a used bookstore yesterday. Since I am still thinking about story telling using the International Icons (that odd event story I'm still waiting to tell), and the artistic use and design will really influence how I design and illustrate my own story.

Fantastic work by Needmore Designs

Free Edumacation With Which To Wrinkle Yer Brain

I was looking around for a mind mapping application for a collaborative project that is trying to get off the ground and I found Mindomo with which people can post public maps they have constructed. Thanks to Lady Gray who took the time to lay out some resources. Just roll over the little globes for pop-up links.

Smarten Up Yer Thinkbox

Some of the greatest people in history have educated themselves to a large degree using a process known as autodidacticism. This is something that's more easily undertaken these days with the great wealth of online tools available to anyone.

Whether you've gone to college or not, you can learn just about anything these days on your own. Want to learn about the classics? Carpentry and home maintenance? Philosophy or cooking? Chess or computer programming? It's all online, and with a little bit of excitement, you can motivate yourself to learn a subject in a growing number of ways.

Why self-education? Well, besides the obvious reasons of wanting to improve yourself, prepare yourself for success, and just learn as much as you can, self-education offers a few extra benefits: you can learn at your own pace, and in your own way. You can follow your passions, and learn about things that excite you. There's no price for failure, but there's every reward for success.

How do you go about becoming an autodidact? The answer is simple: any way you want. I would suggest you set aside just a little time each day to learn a specific subject, but that really depends on your learning style. Some people learn all in one great rush: they'll stay up late hours for a few days in a row, consuming everything they possibly can about a subject. Others are overwhelmed by an approach like that, and would rather learn a little each day.
More




via - Dumb Little Man

About Time

Last night while driving to the airport to pick up Alessandra I was thinking about how I visualize time.

My days of the week are pictured in mostly horizontal circle. Saturday is at the top, furthest away from me, Sunday is a swing back down towards the bottom counter clockwise. And the rest of the days of the week are an angled ramp back up. I only see the present day and the day ahead and behind on my wheel. They are spelled out by name and I can zoom in to look at my day.

Likewise my yearly calendar is a larger circle that runs counterclockwise with December and January up at the top of a 20% grade, then it's back down the dial to reach Summer. Of course the seasons are color coded with January and February being dark, dark gray and Summer the rest of the year being vibrant.

I've tried to describe how the whole thing is lit, and I believe I tried to model it years ago in 3D, but I just can't get it across.

Here, read about Flower Clock Gardens instead.

Youuuuuu....Arrrre....Therrrrrrreeeeee!

I am driving Southwest on Highway 44 at 8:15 pm. At Grand Ave., the Compton Hill Water Tower is to my left and the afternoon rain has slicked the highway; cars and trucks are throwing up puffs of mist.

The clouds have opened up and the sun is fat and red on the horizon. The rays burst across the highway from the right and all the cars are enveloped in pink-orange halos, throwing up pink smoke from cartoon cars.

I've never seen this before. Was I always in the wrong place at the wrong time or is my vision heightened by long hours at the office and a desire to nail down the world around me, and lock it into my brain? How much of my 40 years have I skated by looking at my inner eye, not using my outer one? Really, this is what I'm thinking.

The the cars pass back into the shadow, and I think about how I can't wait to tell Alessandra, when I get home. She's out of town, but we have Skype! We will look at each other on the the computer half a country away. "These are the days of Miracle and Wonder, this is the long distance call," indeed.

Half a mile ahead I see cars and trucks break the wall of light and turn into fast moving cotton candy. I love cotton candy, and I smile.

Hindsight tells me this is more rare than a Green Flash. If you live on a west coast, you can probably catch one daily. But this one...all the forces have to be in alignment. Time, Space, Weather and Season. Bullseye!

I pull off the highway at my exit and I look at the sky with its boiling clouds. Every color is represented in darkened hues. Why does the combination of Pink and Green or Orange and Purple look like crap everywhere else but the sky?

I wish, not for the first time, that I had the camera with me, so I can show you what I saw.

But, until I wise up and carry it with me, I have to use the words to paint the picture and bring you to me instead. Tonight: Youuuuuu....Arrrre....Therrrrrrreeeeee!

Story Revision

Edit: If you didn't get the story, don't be surprised. I need to give it some coherence rather than just explode it. I'll post the rework, shortly.


After running my story past an illustrator, he suggested I add another feature to my key in order to add clarity. So I did. And I also added one more arrow somewhere.

It's not supposed to be a puzzle with the secret known only to me, everything you need to understand the story (without words), or breaking into a left to right story flow (in case there are right->left or up->down readers who encounter this) should be there.

You can click the picture or this link

I Speak Picture

I got a blowout on the highway yesterday, and while wandering around a Borders as my tire was being replaced I found a book entitled Amazon.com: Pictograms, Icons and Signs by Rayan Abdullah,Roger Hubner. The final chapter was an essay by Jochen Gros discussing his creation of a working
grammar for a pictogram language of his devising.

At his site:
icon-language.com you can download an Open Type font that converts your text to pictures as you type it.



This is a complete sentence. What did I say? (The answer is in the comments.)

You should check it out. What also amuses me, is that many of the words he has pictogrammed involve sex, bodies in states of undress and seduction. I mean if I were going to create a language, those would be the first things I would define too.

A cool weird thing

happened Sunday Night. Over the past few weeks I've been growing my visual thinking perception, and I've been doing some layman's research by getting into articles from Visible Language, the journal of the Institute of Design from Illinois Institute of Technology, (I have a Proquest access to thousands of pdf journals, but that's another story). As a result, when the incident occurred I visualized it pretty much like this. Let me know if I'm able to get the point across. The first person to tell me what occurred Sunday night wins a prize.

The idea here is that the story should be understandable for illiterate (but not unintelligent), people of all nationalities. And I decided to use the generic AIGA Symbols for aesthetic purposes as I learn to draw, so the piece looks kind of primitive. Sorry about that.

Anyway, you'll need Adobe Acrobat or other pdf reader to view it. You are encouraged to zoom. Click the picture to begin download.

Things that go BANG! The Art of Firecracker Labels!

via TotalFark via i-mockery