I really loved the majority of the second reading set, mostly for their encouraging spirit - starting with Stepfan Sagmeister's Is it Possible to Touch Somebody's Heart with Design.
"If I have nothing to say, the best design won't help me"
How relevant that statement feels. That is what we are all aiming to do with thesis, figure out what we are trying to say, something that I am certainly struggling with. What is it that I want to put into my work? This line really stuck with me and I suspect through out the rest of my design process I will continually come back to it, making sure that my work is content rich and not just surface design.
Reading through his list of what design needs to touch someone's heart a few more things stuck out for me.
1. They have the ability to make me see things in a new way
- I love when something is ambiguous or you are not quite sure what it is and then you can come to realize that it is in fact a very familiar subject. That is when something is zoomed in really close to highlight detail. The big picture might be lost at first but the longer you look at it the more it can be placed and perhaps even further appreciated. Not sure if that is where Sagmeister was going with his example, but it is where my mind went.
2. Somehow they remind me of an experience, maybe of my childhood
- Again, reading just this statement before Sagmeister's example, I began to think of my own interest with memory and how attached we can become to places, the emotions that such memories can trigger, and the experiences that stay with us far beyond their occurrence. It is these memories and the desire to evoke a nostalgia that I have been leaning towards in my work.
The rest of the list had some more valid associations but it was after the list under "How to touch somebody's heart" that I found another noteworthy line: "If I want to touch somebody's heart with a piece of design it has to come from my heart, it has to be true and sincere." This resonated. I need to push to put everything out on paper, to personalize, to find my process, my voice, in order to create works that not only am I passionate about, but that I can make others passionate about. After all, I too really just want to make art that matters, that means something to someone, that connects.
There were a few lines that I picked up out of Michael Rock's Fuck Content. In particular "The difference between designers is revealed in the unique way each individual approaches content, not the content they generate" and then a quote he borrowed from Roger Ebert, "A movie is not what it is about, it's how it is about it." I really liked these two ideas, encouraging that the best design can make any content look good, but then I thought back to what I really loved about Sagmeister's writing and his statement that "If i have nothing to say, the best design won't help me." I think I'd fall more in line with Sagmeister on this one.
And then I came to An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth by Bruce Mau Design. THIS I LOVED.
I will just pick out some of my favorites, but I truly enjoyed them all and feel genuinely encouraged by them. I want to cut them out and hang them around my room, paste them in my sketchbook, use them as a pick me up every now and again.
1. Allow events to change you.
2. Forget about good.
4. Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child)
5. Go deep. The deeper you go the more likely you will discover something of value (push yourself!!)
8. Drift
9. Begin Anywhere
14. Don't be cool.
18. Stay up late. Strange things happen when you've gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you're separated from the rest of the world. -- this one I have experienced and it sure is rewarding.
21. Repeat yourself. -- this one I liked even more in its explanation: If you like it, do it again. If you don't like it, do it again.
32. Listen carefully-- By listening to the details and subtlety of their needs, desires, or ambitions, we fold their world into our own. Neither party will ever be the same. -- I love that sentiment.
37. Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it.
39. Coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms. -- the waiting place.
41. Laugh
42. Remember
I have not included these in their entirety with every explanation but I didn't feel they were always necessary.
Following in the spirit of lists being really exciting and encouraging, I really also enjoyed Milton Glaser's Ten Things I Have learned. I'm going to post a few of my favorite lines.
"Some people are toxic. Avoid them. Professionalism as a lifetime aspiration is a limited goal. Just enough is more. I am a great advocate of drawing, not in order to become an illustrator, but because I believe drawing changes the brain in the same way as the search to create the right note changes the brain of a violinist. Drawing also makes you attentive. One of the signs of a damages ego is absolute certainty. Rule number one is that 'it doesn't matter.' Wisdom at last. Tell the truth."
These are certainly taken out of context here, but I kind of like the compiling of them. I liked Glaser's language and his matter of factness as well as his commenting on not only design as practice but on like in general. He was very relatable.
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