Seth Godin on failing before you succeed

In this video Seth godin taught me a great deal about failing. Also I really connected with his reason for not having a title on his latest book. When Seth had said freelancers are not entrepreneurs that opened up my eyes about calling myself a freelance graphic designer.

If I fail more then you I win. – Seth Godin

The Birth Of A Tool. Part III. Damascus steel knife making (by John Neeman Tools)

The Craftsmanship is unbelievably good. I’ll admit I got a little jealous when I seen he was making the knife in a cabin. It looks so peaceful there.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Hope you all have a great time with your family and friends. If you already celebrated I hope you got everything you wanted.

Designers Critiquing Other Designers

In the design community you have many people who want to help each other out. Some of those people are more honest then others and some are helpful and others are not. One thing that I always check for if the person actually has work equivalent or better then yours.

A lot of it has to do with a person ego that they have built for them self. When you are critiquing a designers work you should always make sure to give them helpful advice on not just what they did wrong but also what they did right.

How to give a proper design critique

If you are critiquing work get off your pedestal
You are not that good because someone else is better
Be positive about it
Give helpful advice
Let the person know what you actually like
Remember your work was not good as good at some point in your career
Leave your Emotions at home
Taking things personal does not help
You can explain why you designed the way you did but if they don’t get it explaining will not help

Image rights belong to USC

How to Design Like Apple

In this video they give some very precise explanations on how to design like apple. Jonathan Ive being influenced by dieter Rams has helped Apple to design some beautiful products. Whenever I somehow find myself using non apple product I tend to get upset by how everything is works from the design to the software. The Steve Jobs biography taught me how serious Steve Jobs took design, even when he was in the hospital he was thinking about design. He also complained about how certain things were designed poorly I forgot what to be exact.

Steal Like an Artist Review

So This past week I finished reading The book by Austin Kleon called how to steal like an artist. The Book lists 10 things nobody told you about being creative. After watching Austin’s ted talk I have always been interested in what else he has to say.

The book is only 140 pages with short golden nuggets that you can easily apply to your creative life.

Here’s a list of a few

Steal like an artist
Don’t wait until you know who you are to get started
Write the Book you want to read
use your hands
Side projects and hobbies are important
The secret: do good work and share it with people
Geography is no longer our master
Be nice ( The world is a small town)
Be Boring (its the only way to get work done)
Creativity is subtraction

If after watching the Austin’s ted talk has you more interested I definitely recommend getting your hands on a copy of this book. When I was in barnes and noble I picked it up and I had to force myself to stop reading it before I got home.

Designed a logo a day for 30

So on I finally finished up my latest project that I feel was a great experiment. I’ll admit at times I felt a little frustrated with feeling as if I’m doubting myself with designing logos. The reason for taking upon the task of designing a logo a day for 30 days I felt it would help me become better at designing logos.

Some of the rules I set for designing these logos were

They can only be from local businesses
I will not spend more then 10 – 15 minutes coming up with a concept ( The reason for this was to set limits on my time of thinking and to see what I could come up with)
Think fast and stick with my gut feeling
Sketch first before going to the computer
Experiment with different types of businesses

So overall I am very pleased with what I can up with. Some of the logos are just little refinements and others are completely brand new. Mainly I wanted to design the logos how I felt they should be used to represent the type of business correctly. Here are a few of my favorite logos that I designed. Check out the rest of them here and here

Robert Crumb Documentary

Last night I watched this documentary called crumb. The documentary was about the cartoonist named Robert Crumb. The way I came across it was by just searching for documentaries for designers to watch.

What I learned from this was how he was always sketching. His wife said that wherever they would go he would always be sketching. After hearing that It really opened me up to carrying my sketchbook around when the time is right for it. Also it shows his childhood and you get to see his family and why he no longer lives in the USA. Here’s a link to the documentary let me know what your thoughts are in the comments below.