I took a handful of photos on a recent trip to Washington, DC so I thought I’d post a few. DC is a really fascinating place and I think it would benefit anyone to go and visit at least once. The museums are really amazing (and free!) and there’s nothing quite like standing in front of the actual Declaration of Independence. It will give you chills.

I didn’t expect the monuments to be as powerful as they were. It’s a well spent afternoon to stand in the same spot as Martin Luther King did in 1963. Just standing in front of the White House was quite the experience, too, when you start thinking of all the people who have lived there.

Other highlights of the trip were the Holocaust Museum, Museum of Modern Art, the Allen Ginsberg photography exhibit at the National Gallery of Art, the National Archives, Ford’s Theater, the Museum of Natural History, and lots and lots of great food!

I also did a little post-trip reflection over at our work blog about finding storytelling inspiration in museum design.

I’m thinking about trying to expand this blog to allow me to post a bit more frequently and to include some more inspiration from around the internet as well as some more images and thoughts of my own. Most likely, this will mean shorter posts that are easier to digest in addition to the work that I’ve been showcasing already. We’ll give it a try and see how it goes and feel free to let me know what you think in the comments!

So, with that in mind, I’ve been looking at a lot of architecture and interior design lately. I’m sure it’s because Spring is around the corner and it makes me want to start some projects around my own home! I know very little about architecture, but here are a few things that I enjoyed looking at:

• The Glass House by Philip Johnson
• The Farnsworth House by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
• An amazing computer generated tour of Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright
• Dwell magazine just did a redesign of their website and they expanded their slideshow section.
• A Wikipedia entry on the architecture of Kansas City.

If you missed it earlier, I did a studio tour of a Studio 804 project midway through production that you might also find interesting.

In this short clip, I think he nails it on the head in terms of starting out a career in a creative field. I feel like I’ve been doing this for a while now and I still can relate to what he’s talking about. To a certain extent, most creative professionals run up against this their entire lives. As frustrating as it can be, I think it’s a good thing because it constantly forces you to evaluate your own performance and continue to improve. There 4 parts to this total which you can watch in the related clips at the end.

In his words:

“The photographs culminate 40 years of my work in the topic of Chinese migration and the emergence of China in an unprecedented pace that shocked the world. I question the process and the cost of how these monumental and irreversible changes affect the faces of the ordinary common folk of this monstrous and diverse nation.”

If you’re interested in seeing more of his work, you can visit his website at www.pokchilau.com where you’ll find a nice gallery of his photographs and you can order his book Flow China as well as his first book Dreams of the Golden Mountain. Pok Chi’s images are fascinating, shocking, humorous, haunting and beautiful and his books are a great addition to any collection. As an added bonus, proceeds from the sales of his books will used for scholarships and charity!

Image courtesy of AIGA KC

On March 10, AIGA Kansas City hosted a lecture by New York based graphic designer and typographer, Stefan Sagmeister. Mr. Sagmeister is one of the most recognized living graphic designers and I’ve always been an admirer of his work and the way that he works with concepts to complete his projects. In his hour long talk, he touched on the work that he has been doing since he took his self-imposed sabbatical (the “year without clients”). He has set up his small design firm, Sagmeister, Inc., in a way that I think would be ideal for most designers. The firm breaks down work into 4 categories:

1. Design for music (i.e. the identity for Casa de Musica and also his long list of famous album covers.)
2. Socially responsible design (i.e. True Majority)
3. Corporate design (Zumtobel)
4. We are the authors (his most current typeographic work)

Since he’s been interviewed a bunch of times and you can see videos of him online including this video at Hillman Curtis and his TED lecture, I just wanted to mention a few points that were interesting to me:

1. Design as a profession is much more powerful than just selling and promoting. It can educate, entertain, tell stories, etc.
2. A boxing coach once said, “there are no gutsy men out there, only fearful men who can overcome their fear.”
3. Assuming things is stifling. Censorship of yourself in your own head or assuming a client won’t go for an idea kills way more projects than a client actually killing it.
4. (This one made the audience salivate…) He only shows his clients one comp for a design because he firmly believes that he knows how to do his job better than his clients know how to do his job. With multiple options, you inevitably end up with a Frankenstein mash up of ideas that you’re never pleased with. He does one design and works on it to make sure it is the best it can possibly be. I can’t see this being easily accepted by many people, but the idea is certainly nice!
5. Tips on getting stuck: first, he always has 3-5 projects in the conceptual stage at one time, so if he’s having a rough time on one, he switches to another one. Second, he recommends the book Thinking Course by Edward De Bono. He talked about how to make yourself really think productively (even if just for 5 minutes) and also how to trick the brain into seeing things from a different point of view. Third, he talked about a strategy he got from the film director, Steven Soderbergh. He goes into a busy cafe or restaurant and takes only piece of paper and a pencil. Eventually, you feel so awkward that you’re sitting there alone with nothing to do, you start writing and working to look busy. In effect, you’re shaming yourself into getting work done!
6. A couple of things that inspired him to take a year off: one was looking over Ed Fella’s sketchbooks of typographic experiments. The other was doing a lecture at the Cranbrook Academy and seeing a lot of mature graduate students freely experimenting in design.

Stefan Sagmeister is a fun speaker to listen to. His experience and insight into the profession of design is fascinating. Although some would see his situation and experiences as unique, I found him interesting and entertaining. He definitely has an air of humor and happiness in his work and his lectures. If you have a chance to see him on his current book tour promoting Things I have learned in my life so far, I’d highly recommend it. Thanks to AIGA KC for hosting the lecture!

UPDATE: Check out this new video from Hillman Curtis!

When I was in design school, I remember being hit one day with this scary thought that maybe my career choice was worthless. Upon graduation, would I simply be making things look “pretty” while trying to convince people to buy crap that they don’t need? When compared to doctors, politicians, teachers, and even fine artists, how important is design in the grand scheme anyway? Some of the great pieces of graphic design have been in support of things I despise like oil companies, companies supporting slave labor, cigarettes, and fast food, so how could I find a place within that and still feel good about myself at night?

Fortunately, I had a great teacher who was able to really shed some light on this. She told me that, contrary to what I was feeling, design is a very noble profession. Sure, you find guys who sell their soul to promote bad or dangerous products, but the nobility is found in the work that you do to promote the causes you believe in. A graphic designer might have the power to enable a struggling startup business to succeed, and perhaps allow the owner to feed their family. Or they might help spread the word about important political and social issues which might not reach the right audience without also being visually engaging. In the end, it’s the designer’s choice.

So, I really took that to heart when deciding what kind of work I wanted to do. Right now, I do a LOT of work for artists and musicians who work their entire lives for countless hours, perfecting their craft and getting paid next to nothing to do it. These people have such passion for what they do that I feel honored to help them reach a larger audience through a poster, CD design, website, or even a business card. I have also helped a number of people move from a great idea to an actual business with a meaningful identity. A bulk of the work I do is for the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning where my work helps struggling learners succeed in school and in life. It doesn’t get more important that that, right?

So, yeah, I do feel that design can change lives and I feel that the work I do is noble and, while it may seem over-idealistic, it is what keeps me going, even when it’s 2 a.m. and I’m trying to meet a deadline . . .

This is an interesting read for all designers out there:
The First Things First 2000 Manifesto.

For this first post, I wanted to let people in on a great Friday afternoon time waster. Layer Tennis is a site sponsored by Coudal Partners that pits two designers against each other in a mano a mano design battle. It’s amazing to see how fast they work!

On a related note, in 2006, Jim Coudal gave a presentation for the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada. They have the video online and it gives great insight on how one design firm got started and kept itself in the game. A real inspiration for those contemplating a design startup!