Hang on the Bright Side

"The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things in life like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people in life recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation.

For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And lessen the suffering of others. You’d be surprised how far that gets you."

— Neil deGrasse Tyson     

Keep It Real, Plz

He speaks the truths.

You Do Not Impress Me

But you're certainly fun to be around.

White Walls

Oh, the perks of being weird.

Quotes to Live By

Lovin' every single one of these. The last one from Cannes, especially.

The Message

Yeah, it's a promise.

Words

It's always fun to collect a series quotes about life as we know it.

10 Lessons for Young Designers

I couldn't have said it better myself. Looking to do more of #5 in the coming months. From John C Jay of Wieden+Kennedy:

1) Be authentic. The most powerful asset you have is your individuality, what makes you unique. It’s time to stop listening to others on what you should do.
2) Work harder than anyone else and you will always benefit from the effort.
3) Get off the computer and connect with real people and culture. Life is visceral.
4) Constantly improve your craft. Make things with your hands. Innovation in thinking is not enough.
5) Travel as much as you can. It is a humbling and inspiring experience to learn just how much you don’t know.
6) Being original is still king, especially in this tech-driven, group-grope world.
7) Try not to work for stupid people or you’ll soon become one of them.
8) Instinct and intuition are all-powerful. Learn to trust them.
9) The Golden Rule actually works. Do good.
10) If all else fails, No. 2 is the greatest competitive advantage of any career.

Reassured

Sometimes, you just need a reminder. For me, it's having the confidence to say that the mountain of loans I've taken out will eventually be obliterated by my sheer willpower.

Not So Much the Pink

But the medium is the message. Well actually... the message is the message. And I love blogging. So there.

A Focus on Process

"Art is an idea that has found its perfect visual expression. And design is the vehicle by which this expression is made possible." -Paul Rand

Asking the Right Questions, Building Ideas

An interesting take on sense vs. nonsense and a brief integrated overview of the human processing model. Lovely sketch notes by Frank Chimero.

Less is Not Necessarily More

"Being a child of modernism I have heard this mantra all my life. Less is more. One morning upon awakening I realised that it was total nonsense, it is an absurd proposition and also fairly meaningless.

But it sounds great because it contains within it a paradox that is resistant to understanding. But it simply does not obtain when you think about the visual of the history of the world.

If you look at a Persian rug, you cannot say that less is more because you realise that every part of that rug, every change of colour, every shift in form is absolutely essential for its aesthetic success. You cannot prove to me that a solid blue rug is in any way superior. That also goes for the work of Gaudi, Persian miniatures, art nouveau and everything else.

However, I have an alternative to the proposition that I believe is more appropriate. ‘Just enough is more.’" -Miltor Glaser (2001)

Image: AT

Best Design

"Best design, in my opinion, levels the playing field. It increases accessibility. It provides an easily attainable bar for universal happiness. But just not in that socialist kind of way." 

-Anthony in the restroom

Wise Man Once Said

"'Good' [design] means so many things to so many people. When something is plain, simple, and useful it becomes intelligent design." 

- Sir Terence Conran of the Conran Shop

Logical Perfection

"Why should we support further the incongruity of living in a outmoded superstitious adaption of some primitive carpenter's art and fitting it with all the evidence of our integrated civilization? Why not be true to our time and effect all the savings possible? Make the most of our abilities. Justify our theories of therapeutic sunlight, septic simplicity, and honest proportion. Erect the logical, orderly, and perfectly functioning machine and find beauty in its fitness."

-Sam Grawe from Dwell May 2010

Dieter Rams' 10 Principles for Good Design

And it goes a little something like this...

1. Good design is innovative.
2. Good design makes a product useful.
3. Good design is aesthetic.
4. Good design helps us to understand a product.
5. Good design is unobtrusive.
6. Good design is honest.
7. Good design is durable.
8. Good design is consequent to the last detail.
9. Good design is concerned with the environment.
10. Good design is as little design as possible.

Good ol' Dieter. I need to get me an extra-large poster with some of his work blown up in great detail. Yeah, I'd like that.

The Web Reader

"Web users don't like to read.... They want to keep moving and clicking." -Jakob Nielson, 2000

Identifying Identity

"When people show you who they are, believe them." -Maya Angelou

Justifying All That "Stuff"

"Coveting possessions is unhealthy. Here’s how I look at it:

All of the computers on Ebay are mine. In fact, everything on Ebay is already mine. All of those things are just in long term storage that I pay nothing for. Storage is free.

When I want to take something out of storage, I just pay the for the storage costs for that particular thing up to that point, plus a nominal shipping fee, and my things are delivered to me so I can use them. When I am done with them, I return them to storage via Craigslist or Ebay, and I am given a fee as compensation for freeing up the storage facilities resources.

This is also the case with all of my stuff that Amazon and Walmart are holding for me. I have antiques, priceless art, cars, estates, and jewels beyond the dreams of avarice.

The world is my museum, displaying my collections on loan. The James Savages of the world are merely curators.

As I am the curator of their things, and thus together we all share the world."

-A fine comment from one Pastabagel on Collect ‘em all!