Valuable Ideas and TED

• May 25, 2009
  4 Comments // Creativity

The most valuable of all that we can ever own costs us nothing. When it is passed from one person to another, it does not diminish in quality or quantity. In fact, what happens to this possession is quite the opposite – it grows. It develops and becomes strong, frightening the closed minded and exciting the willing. Let’s have a look at few video presentations on this special little something at the Technology, Education & Design conference – TED.

The most valuable of all that we can ever own is an idea. A thought.

An idea is the start of everything. most of everything is, obviously, ultimately worthless. Which means many of the ideas that come to us through the ether are, you guessed it, ultimately worthless.

Yet once in a while, an idea grabs hold. It latches on and infects the host with curiosity and passion. It pushes those in its path to discover something new. To do something great.

It may be something as simple as the ball-point pen or as complex as a thought as to how the human brain functions.

In a nutshell, the TED conference is about clever ideas. Creative, awe-inspiring ideas that help to shape worlds – be it the world of science, the world of the hungry, a third-world nation or the world of business.

An annual conference (or should I say because of recent expansions, conferences) TED runs for three days, as fifty people share their ideas, 18 minutes at a time.

It is for reasons like TED that I hold reverence for the power of the internet. A few years ago, those behind the conference began to share some of the moments of what happens on stage online. The popularity and spread of these videos is extraordinary. It shows that we are all curious and interested in how to better ourselves and the worlds around us.

The collections is now at over 400 videos, and it’s growing.

What you’ll find below are a few videos which I find to be fascinating and in relation to what you are here for—what it is we love—graphic design, creativity and beauty.

Stefan Sagmeister.

… much, much more difficult is, this,
where the design actually can evoke happiness.

There are two lessons that are to be learned from Stefan Sagmeister‘s talk at TED.

The first is about happiness. It is about the importance of finding as much happiness as we can from the work on which our thoughts dwell. And more than merely finding happiness for our selves, the joy one can take when they can inject happiness into their work and have it show through to the point of the audience being able to connect and share in such feelings.

The second lesson, and one that is no secret to anyone to whom Sagmeister’s work and career holds some familiarity, relates to honest. Honesty and the ability to place a little part of your own mind and thoughts into the work.

It is perhaps because of this that many see Sagmesiter dancing upon the line that separates graphic design and art. It is definitely why his work is so engaging and entertaining. Through his work, which is all client requested, he makes it easy to appreciate what it is he is thinking, feeling and saying, because the messages are perosnal to him. And they are messages he wants to share.

Experience & Trap Door Laughter

• May 18, 2009
  6 Comments // Working Life

When one has the same lesson over and over, it becomes known intimately. A person will know exactly how something will end, when it is experienced again and again and again. They will know the effect it will have, what the idea behind it is and eventually, even if it was at first, it becomes very unintelligent. It becomes stale, boring, obvious and foolish. This isn’t a secret by any means, yet many seem to forget about this little fact when it comes to dealing with clients, who haven’t had the lessons we have.

He doesn’t laugh at movies anymore. He said it so easily.

Well, that’s not completely true, he assures us. He says that this one film—he’s a film critic, you see—made him laugh once or twice, which was worthy of praise because he doesn’t laugh at movies anymore.

That’s a little jaded, isn’t it? That’s not a rhetorical question – I’m genuinely wondering if he can be labeled as jaded?

I watch this man and his co-host often. He, well, both of them, but it’s not her we’re talking about, has a very respectable intellect. He laughs and cracks his wit like a whip and has a joyous time with his on-screen partner, so clearly he’s a happy man, a man able to jest and smirk and laugh. So no, perhaps he isn’t jaded.

But, the thing is, he doesn’t laugh at movies anymore.

If one were to lend their thoughts to it for a moment, an easy discovery can be made – he doesn’t laugh at movies for the same reason doctors don’t shed tears for death. Which is the same reason a farmer isn’t bothered by going shoulder deep into Bessy. And why an electrician will happily play with that which can literally shock the life out of him

We’ve seen it before and know how it’ll work

Blackletter

• May 11, 2009
  9 Comments // Typography

Blackletter, or as it is often mistakenly called, Gothic or Old-English, is an all-encompassing term given to a range of fonts which started with Gutenberg’s 42-Line Bible. It strongly maintained its roots in the calligraphic scripts and organic shapes of its ancestors-in-influence for the following 500 years as it remained in strong use.

… In which the darkness of the characters
over-powers the whiteness of the page
—Steven Heller—

A better opening than this elegant description of the oldest of fonts, I cannot give. So let’s forge ahead.

Carolingian Minuscule

As the class of intellects grew in Europe around the 8th century, a standard script was developed in the hope to have the Roman alphabet more readable and the forms and accents the letters bore be less dependent on the region in which the text was written. If it was written on one side of the country, it had to be read on the other.

This script, on which the earlier forms of blackletter was based, was a beautiful culmination of Latin, Greek, Irish and English scripts used for the religious texts of monasteries. The script became known as Carolingian Minuscule.

Carolingian Minuscule was developed at the request of the Emperor Charlenmange, to be used throughout his land, which included Western and Central Europe. While illiterate himself, he held a love of letters and realised that a unified writing system that would aid in literacy across his empire would be beneficial to its survival and growth.

With its ease-of-understanding for those newly-literate, use spread across universities and through the boom of literature that was spilling forth. In the original form developed under the emperor, the script’s letter were wide, and large documents were labour-intensive to produce. The script evolved over time and a few hundred years after its initial development, it found its place as the father of blackletter. The letters became smaller, thinner and the script had less of a cursive flare to it.

Ironically, the life this script lead ended with characteristics that were deliberately avoided during its inception.

The purpose of Carolingian Minuscule, above all else, was legibility. It was the first script in which a clear difference between capitals and lowercase letter-forms, as well as one of the first in which a strong space between words, was required.

Links: Elegant Type & Floral Blades

• May 7, 2009
  4 Comments // Links

To be found this week is much in the way of publications. There are beautiful books, metal type, respect to white space and dramatic contrast in type sizes between body and heading. Not to mention a great deal of care taken in choice and positioning of photography and illustration. Everything I adore about publication design, be it magazine or book, online or off. There is also patterns and blades, a Wall-E cases mod which’ll do well to cure any bout of laziness you have once the amount of work involved is witnessed and you’ll want to keep your hands anything but idle.

Natural Talent

• May 4, 2009
  13 Comments // Creativity

Natural talent works well as a scapegoat and defense for one to protect themselves from the real world. To say someone is naturally talented is to say that no matter what efforts you exert, they will forever prove themselves better. Which is to say that they didn’t earn what they have. What utter idiocy. It’s a matter of being curious, answering questions which invoke inspiration and joyous hard work. That is where true natural talent lies.

I am not naturally talented. Nor are you. I’d say you’re better than that.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m in no doubt that you’re a talented, intelligent and creative person. What I do doubt, however, is the idea of such skills being given at birth. I doubt that our ability to draw like this or write like that is something that we don’t work for, but is something that just comes into us out of nothingness. I say you earned the skills you have. Hence you being better than that.

Curiosity

What I know though, is that you were given that which has been the driving force behind everything creative we, as a species, has ever done that is worth mention – curiosity.

All of those whose careers revolve around
creative thought are continuously curious

We’ve all curious about something. For some, to ask the question ‘why?‘ is to give ourselves happiness

We are born curious, this is what’s natural. Some of us are taught to stop asking questions because it’s annoying, others might not find the answers they want so give up. Either way, questions and probing becomes something of a lost art for some.

They are more curious and
are the ones who have an interest in a field

Those that may appear to be naturally talented are more likely to be those who are more inquisitive. They are more curious and are the ones who have an interest in a field that allows them to constantly ask questions. They haven’t forgotton how important they are.

To say a skill rather than curiousity comes naturally is to diminish the work those deemed naturally talented have done—and it demeans the work and effort you’ve put into your own craft, your own questions. It is saying that no matter how hard you work, they will always best you.