Enjoy traversing through
August 2008

To Infinity and Beyond!

Pixar is a company we all know, with most of us having a soft-spot for their films and lively characters. Pixar have proven themselves as maestros of pixels, bringing them together in a way that is best described as symphonic. To Infinity and Beyond! The Story of Pixar Animation Studios, written and pieced together by Karen Paik, is a beautiful and well designed book that very few won’t be able to find some point of interest in. Telling the story of Pixar from their early beginnings through to the merger with Disney, Paik has brought us something hard to put down.

A shot of the fabric cover, featuring a glossy sticker of Buzz.
The title is printed on a removable wrap-around.

More than a book about an animation company, To Infinity and Beyond! is about an idea had and a non-stop drive to not only to have it realised, but to realise it over and over without repeat. If you have an interest in Pixar that is only slight, you’ll find something enjoyable in this book. Be it the beautiful artwork and film stills, or the development of technology that goes on, to become standards industry-wide, or perhaps the stories of the process gone through for each film will capture your interest. And if you’re already a big Pixar fan, well, you’ll wet your self.

A close up shot of the Pixar logo in it’s two varieties – the bottom version featuring the Luxo Jr. lamp from one of the first shorts, c. 1986

A pastel illustration by John Lasseter of Wally, a character from the first short created by the team that would go on to become Pixar Animation Studios. Created while at Lucasfilm. c. 1984

A still from the first animated commercial created by Pixar in their early days after first going independent. Directed and animated by John Lasseter.

To Infinity and Beyond! is 300 pages of beauty. Found between the lime-green hard covers are illustrations for each film in a range of mediums, interviews with dozens of people at Pixar—from the founders through to the new(er) generation of directors, writers and tech people—run downs of each of their films, ranging in subject from the genesis of the stories, goals they set for each film, fears had and problems found. And the best (visual) part of all? Pages and pages of beautiful rendered stills from the films.

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Home Office, Sweet Home Office ~ Two

What would be the point in having a home office, if it didn’t feel like a home? If the first part of this two-part article was about the office in home office, or perhaps a simple introduction to the needs of a freelancer, then this second one is about the home. A home should feel comfortable and inviting. A place of refuge, inspiration and relaxation, a place worth spending your time and a place that should be yours—a true reflection of who you are. It goes without saying that this is especially true of the home office. It should be a space that you can be in for long hours and never feel uncomfortable or out of place. A space that lets your creative juices flow, without stifling or restricting your imagination. I was lucky enough to speak to the editor of Design*Sponge, Grace Bonney, as well as Amsterdam based creative, talented and all round good guy, Martin Pyper about these types of places.

We all know the feeling of coming home after a rough day. Our homes give us safety and warmth and love. We feel comfortable in our homes. We put that which will make us smile on the walls and the books that make us think on the shelves. Our collections are scattered everywhere and, more often than not, we somehow turn our mountain of possessions into the foundations of our home. Brick and timber may build our houses, but it’s the heart and soul that strengthen our homes. So if you were to have an office that is a part of your home, why not pour your heart and soul into it? Make it yours as best you can and make it an inspiring and beautiful place and your well of inspiration shall never run dry.

Grace Bonney

For the editor of Design*Sponge, the name Grace is rather fitting. She and the other writers she works with on D*S manage to bring their audience beauty several times a day. Design*Sponge is one of the sites that make me smile when it pops up in my RSS reader. From the work of illustrators and product and interior designers to beautiful furniture, lovely textiles and all the bits and pieces you’d need to make your home feel like home. The content they provide gives so much inspiration that you’ll want to start making additions to your own home as soon as you load the homepage up. Go and visit it, visit it often, I gurantee you won’t be disapointed.

It is such a thrill for me to have had my questions answered by Grace, as I’ve been following D*S for quite a while and always wanted to reach out and have a quick chat. She was kind enough to make time in her busy schedule to give us a few tips on how to make an office a home.

What do you think is one of the easiest ways someone can make a home office more comfortable, especially on a tight budget? Are there any must haves?
Absolutely – the easiest things to change out are lighting, floors (with the addition of rugs or carpet tiles) and desk accessories. I always suggest to readers that they soften things up by adding interior lamps rather than ‘office’ lamps, or try something dramatic and adding in a chandelier or bold pendant lamp above their desk. If you don’t have a home office or permission to change hardwired lighting stick to colorful table lamps found at inexpensive stores like cb2.com and Target (Target AU).

Soften things up by adding interior lamps rather than ‘office’ lamps, or try something dramatic and add in a chandelier or bold pendant lamp

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Home Office, Sweet Home Office ~ One

Ahhh, working from home. When it comes to being a freelancer, there is a myriad of reasons why it’s a good idea. The strongest one of which, for most of us anyway, is that you can work from home. But there is no point working from home, if you haven’t got a home office worth working out of. You might be free to roam, but you need a good base, a home office that functions just like an office should, but is as comfortable as a home should be at the same time. So let’s have a look at what makes working from home possible and how it can be done. In this article, the first of two, I speak to Skellie, a writer from a plethora of well known freelance blogs, as well as a creative designer with an incredibly beautiful home, Traci Yau. So go grab a coffee and a biscuit and get ready for some great advice!

Looking at the home offices of others seems to settle a voyeuristic need in some of us. It gives us insight into the minds and processes of others. The frames and posters on the walls, the piles and shelves of books, the nick-knacks on the desks and the big, shiny gadgets are rather inspiring. Seeing what makes people comfortable in their environments reminds us of what makes ourselves comfortable in our own spaces. Creative minds need creative spaces, something doubly important for the freelancer, for whom the luxury of bouncing ideas off the person at the next desk is rarely an option.

Skellie

When it comes to freelancing and blogs, Skellie has a resume second to none. A rather obvious choice really – writing one of my favorite blogs, Skilliewag, being a staff writer for ProBlogger.net, Daily Blog Tips, Freelance Switch and many more, the depth of her knowledge is astounding and her writing style easy to understand and enjoyable to read.

The latest online adventure for Skellie comes in the form of Anywired.com; helping those who want to work-on-the-go in their quest to achieve their dream, as well as giving great and practical tips on blogging and freelance life. It comes as no surprise to anyone that has read any of the mentioned sites that Skellie is a number one choice to answer a few questions about how to put the freelance into a freelancers home office. Luckily she was able to put aside a little bit of time from her busy schedule of writing and studying to answer a few questions. And in true Skellie fashion there is much wisdom in the answers given.

Freelancers could share rental space with other freelancers, or always work on the move – what do you think makes the idea of having an office at home so appealing? What do you think is the best part of that type of lifestyle?
I think the allure of the home office is multi-faceted. You don’t have to spend time in traffic or on crowded public transport to get to work. You can control your environment, set it up as you like, decorate it as you like. You can do the ‘working in my Pyjamas’ thing if that appeals to you. You can structure your day freely. But nothing is perfect, and working at home is no exception. Freelancers do sometimes complain about feeling isolated, and that working at home breeds procrastination and distraction to an extent. That’s something we all have to keep an eye on.

You can do the ‘working in my Pyjamas’ thing
if that appeals to you

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The Windmill in My Garage

There is something special about the printing method that is letterpress. Brief affairs between the very real metal type and beautiful uncoated stock produce children of tangibility, each slightly different, but always of the same family. A thinly veiled process that gives any piece of design extra warmth and comfort, metal type was the norm from Gutenberg through to only a few decades past. Through a stroke of good luck I’ve managed to get a 1930s designed Heidelberg into my garage.

Friday

Oh, by the way, you’re getting your press tomorrow. This simple email from my wife was by far one of the best I’ve ever received. I now knew for certain that the following day I would have a large track backing into the drive way, to deliver something I’d fallen in love with; a piece of engineered beauty—a Heidelberg Flywheel Platen Press.

Naturally, I was so excited that I shared this little piece of information with the whole studio and spent the rest of the afternoon thinking of what my plans were for my new toy, while working through changes to jobs and anxiously drinking copious amounts of coffee and water, waiting for the day to come to its end.

How it Happened

I didn’t go looking for this press. I wasn’t looking for any type of press really. The 2 tonne machine just fell into my lap. I married into a family of printers. My wife and her family run a printing business—something that made introductions easier. To make a long story short, in the pursuit of expanding their business, they’ve recently bought out another printing business and effectively doubled their list of equipment. In their list of machinery was now two of these presses, when they only need one (mostly for die cutting and numbering), so instead of it taking up space in their shed, we gave it a home in the garage.

The Heidelberg “Windmill” Platen Press

The moniker Windmill comes from the way the paper-gripper rotates when moving paper through the press. Two arms rotate as they pick up a sheet of paper on the left, drop it in the middle to be impressed by the inked type, to be picked up again and dropped off on the right.

Heidelberg built around 250,000 of these machines over a 30-odd year span, ending in the 70s. Going by a serial number on the front of the press, this was was manufactured towards the end of the run, in 1967. Unlike most mechanical things you buy, a Heidelberg press isn’t one you need to worry about. As long as they are kept well oiled and fairly clean they’ll keep on going, making impression after impression.

Saturday

Saturday morning rolls around and I’m reminded that my wife’s father, the truck/crane and the press will be arriving sometime soon. We clean up the garage, have some breakfast, move the car and wait while watching some awful Saturday morning television.

Around 11, things start to happen. We get a phone call to let us know they are on their way. Not long after this, a truck wider than our house shows up and the fun starts. Doug (the truck & crane guy) steps out of his truck and introductions and pleasantries are exchanged. A few moments later, he hops back into his truck and backs it into our driveway, right up to within a couple of meters of our garage.

A few moments later and the press is unchained and floating through the air—I don’t know why, but 2 tonnes of flying metal is a rather intimidating sight. Ten minutes after it initially goes airborne off the back of the truck, it finds its feet back on the ground. Now the tricky bit – getting it into the garage.

press

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The Garden of the Mind ~ Part Two

In part one we looked at how intuition isn’t something that we are born with, but it is something that we develop. We plant the seeds to our creativity almost constantly—tending to the shoots that grow if we are drawn to what is planted and defining what it is that makes up the weeds of our garden. It is how we determine what is good and what is bad, sometimes without being able to verbally express it, just feeling it. However, a problem may arise in that we sometimes have trouble finding our ways back to the right plants when we need to. We need a map of our gardens. Let’s call it inspiration.

One of the earlier paragraphs in part one stated that if our imagination were a garden, then all the marks we see is the life that grows from the soil that is our memory. What these seeds are, is every manifestation of creativity we see, from posters to magazines, or music and movies. Some of these plants are beautiful and some ugly, but both are important. The ugly helps us know what the beautiful is, while the beautiful lets us know what the ugly doesn’t have.

Intuition is our subconscious roaming this garden

We also established that intuition is our subconscious roaming this garden. When we are working, or see a creative piece, our mind references everything that is in our garden to figure out if we conceive it as being good or bad – if it is worth spending time looking at and absorbing, or just glossing over. While we do this subconsciously more often than not, when we are under stress, be it of a deadline, demanding client or high expectations, we run around our garden like a child on too much sugar and forget what direction north is. So what we need is a compass to guide us home.

Inspiration

I think for a lot of people inspiration is something that is seeked out to give a direct solution to a problem. My issue with this is that the solution is found in the inspiring—the ideas found are copied, rather than the inspiration being used as a trigger for further exploration and a variety of solutions. Nobody likes copy-cat work, nor do they like solutions wrapped in inappropriate clothes – the creative, the artist or designer succumbs to what is fashionable, what is in style.

Inspiration is a guide – a key to unlocking
the places worth visiting on our mental landscape

For me, inspiration is a guide – a key to unlocking the places worth visiting on our mental landscape. All our memories are part of a tangled web, lightly connected to one another. When we have strong memories, a strong understanding of something, the tracks between relevant memories are well trodden. For example, the idea of a home cooked meal evokes memories of my family, my childhood home, all of my favorite meals and a thousand other tangents. These memories are important to me because the nightly, home cooked meal eaten around the table, was and is an important thing for me. It’s a memory of safety, comfort and love. I don’t just remember the name of a meal I liked, but use it as a starting off point to all of that listed. The tracks between all of these are deep. The same is true of all the marks in your garden that are special.

Some of the tracks between our memories are weak, while others are vibrantly strong

Some of the tracks between our memories are weak,
while others are vibrantly strong

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Hidden!Hidden!