Around These Parts This Week
love this shot by Kevin Archie
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Collected Ephemera: for the love of print
For years, I’ve collected folders full of old ticket stubs, receipts, catalogs, booklets, invoices, postcards, labels and other printed pieces dating from 1900 – 1975. These items are best defined as “ephemera” — things that were created to serve a practical, short-term purpose — not really meant to be saved (or written about in a blog post some 50+ years later). But being a designer who loves history and design history, it comes as no surprise that these items interest me. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever met a designer that doesn’t like rummaging through shelves of thrift stores or antique malls looking for cool printed “stuff”. I believe that collecting and studying these artifacts is really important — we can learn from the past and can find inspiration for current work.
I realize that some may classify all of this “stuff” as trash, but I see it as treasure. I appreciate the printing process, the craftsmanship, the hand lettering, the attention to detail and the history behind each piece. So I’ll keep on colllecting — I’ll just have to add some more folders to the filing cabinet.
Here are just a few samples I’ve collected over the years:
What a great script — and the perfectly tracked Futura typestyle.
1900 self-promotional brochure for a Chicago architecture firm
Back of an old photo card showing amazing lettering and detail.
Sheet music with hand-drawn lettering
Camera brochure cover. I love the Pilot logo.
A great example of good design for everyday purpose.
Kodak box cover
Great numbering style on a receipt from my grandfather's hardware store (1968)
Citizens Radio cards.
Invoice from my grandfather's hardware store - I forgive the spacing (kerning) between the W and the A in "Hardware" but love the typographic choice.
Beautiful lettering style and attention to detail on the back of this photo card.
What a nice lettering style and a capital "F". c.1925
On moms.
Describe a great memory with your mom.
Will Weatherly
99.7% of my early life was spent playing organized soccer. Early in my career, at age seven or so, mom once took me to the fields near our house for mother-son practice. Even at that age, I knew mom wasn’t exactly an athlete, so I expected little out of her. I positioned myself in the goal, and dared her to attempt a shot. Without even pausing to stop the ball I’d just rolled her way, she wound up and unleashed a rocket of a kick that sent the ball soaring what seemed like a mile high and a mile long. It didn’t come near the goal, but that didn’t matter. I knew it had surpassed any of the shots I’d ever taken.
That was the first time mom’s abilities outside the realm of “normal mom stuff” truly amazed and inspired me.
Teresa Coles
My mother taught me the basics of gardening, many of which are a lost art today:
- How to drop seeds in the hole while riding on the back of a planting rig
- How to shell a whole bushel of beans in one episode of Days of Our Lives
- How to get the milk out of an ear of corn without splashing all over your face
Any many, many other farm chores that I didn’t appreciate at the time.
Perhaps the biggest gift she gave me was an understanding of the land, how it sustains us, and what we owe it.
Kevin Smith
Me, Mom and my dog in a U-Haul for 14 hours from SC to NYC. I had rented an apartment at 22 West 15th Street sight unseen. We walked in and were relieved to find it nicer than we expected. Mom stayed the weekend and helped me get everything in place. Just before leaving, she joined me for a walk to my new office to make sure I knew just how to get there on Monday.
Julie Turner
After our first son was born, my mom came to our house every day for a week to help. Laundry. Rest police. Conversation. Started dinner. Advice. And the best meatballs I’ve ever had. It was a generous (and much appreciated) gift of time and talent.
Cathy Monetti
When I was in my early 30s, I got the chance to take the trip of a lifetime with my mother, Posey Rigg. We joined a tour group for several days in the Canadian Rockies, including stops in Lake Louise, Jasper, Banff and more. Mom and I got the opportunity to go white water rafting in Glacier National Park and I somehow talked her into it—something I still find unbelievable.
Being Posey, she was determined NOT to paddle. In fact, she refused to even hold a paddle while on that raft. Then she somehow secured a seat up on the rim beside the guide.
The rest of us paddled wildly, soaked to the bone as we made our way through the rapids. Mom? She just sat up there on the back of that raft, dry and smiling, fully pleased.
Ryon Edwards
After a grueling day of preschool, I remember my Mom coming to the door of the classroom to pick me up. In her hands was our newest family member — a black lab puppy, named King. I remember the excitement of the moment and the look of pure joy and happiness on her face. Thanks, Mom!
Design Finds: Poler Stuff
A series devoted to beautifully designed things found in unexpected places.
I was first introduced to Poler Camping Stuff through a design blog last year and I've had the camping itch (no, not chiggers) ever since. By that, I mean their branding makes me want to quit a job that I love to go live in the woods with friends forever. If you read my last Design Finds post on Best Made axes, you are probably aware of my affinity for the Great Outdoors and cheesy camping puns (see: pining over lumberjack paraphernalia) and are perhaps somewhat weary of such nonsensical outdoorsy quips. Well have no fear noble reader, for I'm fairly certain that I've exhausted all possible iterations of such tawdry wilderness lingo and can assure you that this post will not be nearly as campy as the last — well, starting now.
Poler is a company started in Portland by a bunch of skate/snow/surf boarding creatives who all share a passion for adventure and the Great Outdoors. They sell various camping equipment as well as branded apparel. Their logo is set in a wooly hand-drawn font and is often accompanied by a one-eyed monster/tree. I am currently the proud owner of their Two Man Tent — as opposed to just The Man Tent — as well as their beautiful canvas Rucksack (both pictured above). The Poler crew knows that details matter. The tent is the perfect size and shape for two people and has two entrances as well as a monster-eye-shaped window on the rain fly. The Rucksack has optional side bags for additional storage space, leather embellishments along the front and zippers and even a slot for your laptop — for when you're NOT camping of course.
Poler's branding shows the benefits of having creative people on your team. Talented designers like Caleb Owen Everitt and Aaron Draplin have helped keep the brand consistent and consistently awesome. Each item comes well-branded with their logo, or some variation of it, and is typically either black, orange, or camo. Every few weeks they release an Adventure Series — a photographic memoir of various trips and expeditions taken by one of their many talented photographers. The photographs, beautiful in an analogue/retro/1970's kind of way, serve not only as a catalog displaying Poler Stuff in use, but also as a harbinger of their brand essence: adventure.
shot by Ben Christensen
Shot by Benji Wagner
shot by Alana Paterson
Now get off your computer, go outside and stare at a tree.
Deadlines, Creativity and CreateAthon
Jay: “You won’t believe what I heard on Marketplace driving home today.”
Me: “What?”
Jay: “A Harvard Business School professor did a study on the impact of really tight deadlines on the creative process. Now what does that make you think of?”
He pulled up the transcript right then and there as we sat on a bench at Lexington Middle School, waiting on our daughter who was ever-so busy socializing at the Spring Arts Festival. I scanned it to confirm someone had actually studied this dynamic, and sure enough there it was.
Teresa Amabile, a contributor to NPR’s Marketplace on workplace performance and the author of The Progress Principle, shared some research findings that were frankly not all that surprising in the general work world. For example, she cited that professionals in her study indicated they were 45 percent less likely to come up with a new idea or solve a complex problem on a tight deadline.
Grace under pressure?
(By the way, does that mean they are 55 percent MORE likely to be creative? Isn’t that pretty good?) But I digress.
What caught my eye was this: “We did find some creativity under high pressure, but the enabling circumstances are rare in most workplaces. People have to feel that they are on a mission to tackle something crucial — and they have to be protected from interruptions and extraneous demands.”
Let’s see: A 24-hour work marathon during which a company closes for business and releases its staff to develop marketing strategies and creative deliverables for nonprofit organizations. Might that constitute a higher sense of purpose? Perhaps even generate national, award-winning creative work? Check. Check.
So I’m off to find my soul sister Teresa (she even spells it right, it’s so karma) and load her up with some CreateAthon ammo. I’d love to have a cup of coffee or a good email over her comment that “the most important (thing in motivating people) in making progress is meaningful work.”
Purpose always produces.
Wouldn’t it be cool if we CreateAthon-ers ended up in a Harvard study to help prove her thesis true? Then again, we already know it is.
On good reads.
Recommend a good read…
Cathy Monetti
Nightwoods, by Charles Frasier
(my current Favorite Book of All Times)
Teresa Coles
11/22/63, by Stephen King
A page turner I’m only about a third of the way through; definitely need some quality beach time to soak it all in!
Kevin Archie
A Moment in the Sun, by John Sayles
An ambitious historical novel chronicling the events that marked the turn of the 20th century, this book is a beautifully written masterpiece whose numerous characters intertwine almost as ornately as the words on its cover.
Jody Piland
Cash Mob Boosts Newton Hardware House
I think this is a really cool idea. It’s like a flash mob, but instead of dancing, large groups come to a small business and spend at least $20.
Will Weatherly
The Reason For God, by Tim Keller
Kevin Smith
Old School, by Tobias Wolff
Julie Turner
The Hunger Games trilogy
1. Perfect beach read
2. Book > Movie
Ryon Edwards
Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson
The New Failure
I’ve never had much of a green thumb, but I come from a stable of accomplished gardeners — on both sides. I guess eventually it just catches you. I finally caught the gardening bug at our first house about 10 years ago.
The house was a traditional, tiny downtown starter home owned at one point by someone who was quite a gardener. In the time between her and when John purchased the home, the yard and plantings overgrew. Beneath all the tangles and years of neglect, all that beauty was still there, waiting to be rediscovered.
Area by area, we hacked out the clingy vines and cut the wild weedy trees. We pulled out years of thick English ivy. One by one I learned what lived there and how it needed to be cared for. By the time we moved a few years later, I handed the new owner a thick manual of plant placement diagrams, pruning instructions and details of improvements we’d made. It was no Biltmore Estate by any means, but I think we managed to recapture some of the yard’s original beauty. While the new homeowner managed to destroy most of that work within a year, my green education stuck.
My green thumb had finally taken root.
Three years ago, I decided to graduate from a mildly successful jalapeno plant grower to a full-blown raised bed gardener. My neighbor, who is an accomplished gardener, cheered me through all my fears and insecurities and shared more know-how than a pile of books. I still remember the excitement of seeing tiny starts of romaine lettuce and thinking ‘I could grow lettuce at home!’ I wasn’t thinking at all about the superior taste of homegrown veggies nor was I thinking I’d get much more than a salad or two. I ended up getting weeks and weeks of crisp lettuce that made store-bought lettuce taste like sawdust. So now I am completely spoiled.
My first garden did fine for a complete amateur. My second spring garden did much better, which led to a summer and winter garden that year, too. Now in my third year of gardening, it’s safe to say I am always growing something.
All my life I’d thought my parents had some classical training. How were they able to amble through a yard and identify almost everything? How did they know where to cut, when to plant and if something was dead or dormant?
It turns out, there’s no big secret to cultivating a yard or a garden. You just stick your hands in the dirt and give it your best shot.
I think we’ve been afraid to do things ourselves for too long. What if I fail? What if it doesn’t work? I don’t know how to do that. But these days, fear is giving way to something better, something brighter.
Consumers of the new economy have a rekindled sense of DIY. They are seekers, and learners. They collaborate, cultivate and share. It may be something as simple as learning to garden or joining forces with a friend to form a new company. There’s an exciting fearlessness that’s refreshing after the drought of a recession.
Consider the explosive growth of the digital scrapbooking site, Pinterest. While primarily used by young women, it’s growing by never-before seen leaps and bounds. It’s even managed to sneak its way up in usage right behind Tumblr and Facebook.
The new reality is that nothing is out of reach in the minds of today’s consumers. Trying and faltering is no longer a failure. It’s how we learn.
Being afraid to try is the new failure.
Converge SE 2012: web designers paradise
Friday and Saturday, I attended Converge SE 2012, a web design conference in Columbia, SC. The conference examined the intersection between design, development and marketing and is the brainchild of Gene Crawford and friends from unmatched style.com and Period Three, a local web design firm. This year, the event coincided with Indie Grits, another wildly successful event that started in Columbia just a few years ago. This year, Converge SE sold out in just two days!
Converge SE attracts the design-conscious and the technically-savvy crowd from all over the country from a wide range of industries: education, government, small business, corporate, solo designers, and more. Experts and industry thought leaders conducted workshops and presentations that focused on topics ranging from the practical to the philosophical. Creativity, emerging technology discussions and the encouragement to push the boundaries of web design were common themes this year.
For the workshops, there were four different tracts attendees could participate in: Design; Development; Front-End Development; Marketing and Mobile. I participated in most of the Design workshops which covered everything from typography to design process to prototyping. I also participated in a lecture by J Cornelius who talked about the benefits of using HTML 5 markup language and why it’s so awesome.
And speaking of awesome, Leslie Jensen-Inman from UT-Chatanooga kicked us off Friday morning with an inspirational talk and encouraged everyone to follow their passion and to simply “make awesomeness.” Last year, Leslie spoke at Converge SE and discussed her involvement in CreateAthon On Campus at UT-C and how powerful the experience was for her and her students. Pretty cool to hear about the impact CreateAthon is making in other parts of the country. Yeah, shout out to CreateAthon!
A few notes and sidebars from some of the other speakers that I found interesting:
• From J Cornelius, a software/web developer:
- “IE7 is the new IE6″ (IE6 is a developers’ worst nightmare)
- 4.8 billion people have never seen the web
- HTML5 gives us the ability to do amazing things. Check out www.thisshell.com to see what’s possible.
- In the end, it’s our job {as web designers} to create an “experience” online.
- And lastly, J suggested that we “Go build some cool stuff.”
• Chandler Van De Water discussed typography and how he uses software to create original typeface designs. SIDEBAR: I won a typeface creation app for drawing a lowercase R! I’ll be using it to experiment with a new type family soon!
• Giovanno DiFeterici talked about historical and contemporary art and the psychology behind it. He discussed the importance of collaboration and talked about the process of creating the artwork for this year’s ConvergeSE marketing materials (which is amazing).
• Bermon Painter showed how he successfully eliminates wireframes and excessive documentation and jumps right into rapid prototyping by using sketches and actual content (as opposed to greek copy).
On Saturday, we heard from nine or ten more speakers who discussed topics ranging from mobile testing, building online communities and the importance of customer service, simplicity in design, coding for CSS, importance of social groupings and identity, design process and much more.
Overall, a great conference and a great venue to meet new people and to learn more about web design and development. Way to go Converge SE — I’ll be back next year!
See It Differently.
I will admit it. I have a bit of an obsession with Instagram. It’s a photo sharing app that allows you to snap a shot with your iPhone, add a cool filter, then share your image with the world via Facebook or Twitter, or via Instagram’s own publishing feed. The filters are cool, the square format is interesting, and the publishing is easy.
So much to love.
Still my commitment to Instagram goes deeper. This free little download has changed everything about the way I look at the world around me. Partly because it’s just fun to keep an eye out for an interesting something that might make a swell photo. But also because I am wildly inspired by the images that are delivered to me, right there in my Instagram feed. There is something fascinating about seeing ordinary, daily life transformed into magical crops, viewed through someone else’s life lens.
For example:
from Riggs Partners Design Director Ryon Edwards
from my friend, Karen Dukes
from my daughter, Eliza Ellis
What a gift it is to see the world differently; to be more aware simply because you are looking.
Today is a great day to look around. Look for light and shapes and texture and color. Snap a shot or two and see if your view of the world doesn’t open up just a bit.
Beauty is all around us, every moment.
Just look.
3 Steps: Using Effective Candor in Marketing
The 1960’s changed everything. As Mad Men chronicles so entertainingly, the legendary advertising environment of the 1960’s stopped selling products and started selling a products’ benefits. This shift was so profound that 40 years later, marketers remain focused on selling a consumer benefit. There’s a problem though.
Benefits are great, but selling is not OK.
People don’t like salesmen. That’s because people believe that good salesmen pitch and charm people into buying. While actually untrue of the best salespeople, “an Eskimo buying ice” is perception.
One technique taught by the consultants at Sandler Training is disarming honesty. Disarming honesty throws prospects off balance, and makes them feel in control. The same technique can work in marketing. Esurance uses the technique beautifully in their recent commercial about savings.
Our business is all about closing the gap between perception and reality. Here are three steps to accomplish this effectively:
- Most importantly, don’t lead with the “sell.”
- Empathize with your audience’s insight by using disarming honesty to create a problem.
- Demonstrate how your product or service solves the problem.
The worst mistake many marketers make is trying to sell by confronting a perceived negative consumer perception up front. Oldsmobile’s famous failure: “We’re not your father Oldsmobile” comes to mind. With a more informed and demanding consumer than ever, it’s time to let candor take the lead.
