Information is Beautiful. I’ve been living far too long without this blog, and now that I’ve finally found it, well, I’m smitten. Enamored. Infatuated. Hung up. And I can’t help thinking — being the information nerd sponge that I am — maybe this is right up my creative alley.

At the very least, ogling beholding such informational elegance has offered ample inspiration as I try to develop a much-needed update to my online portfolio. It’s difficult to concisely explain in words the different factors that influence my work, and how those factors interact to make me, er, me. So I turned it into a diagram!

What do you think? Fairly accurate? Meaningful? And how can I do this to my resume?

Two questions typically race through my mind when I hear of an impending major do-not-leave-your-home weather event: Do I have enough craft supplies? and Do I have enough flour? In other words, when I’m trapped inside for a weekend, there’s a 2 in 3 chance that at any moment you can find me doing one of two things — making or baking. Crafting or cooking.

So you might find it ironic (as I did do) that my personal recipe collection is so haphazard. And ugly. Scribbled notes on the backs of receipts, in notebooks, on index cards of various sizes. Printouts from the Web. Pages cut and torn from magazines. Most get stashed in a pile or stuffed in a book. Do you know that one year I developed the PERFECT dairy/egg-free pumpkin pie, and no sooner than I had licked the pie plate clean I had LOST THE RECIPE? All thanks to my brilliant recipe filing system.

I know it makes no sense, and its nonsensicalness is twofold because I am both a designer and one of those neurotic people who panics if her shopping cart isn’t organized right. This is someone who should be capable of devising an organizational system and making it pretty. And yet, I’ve found no method that really appeals to me.

Until now!

I whipped up these simple recipe cards one snowy weekend, and boy howdy do they fit me just right. I can have my recipes just the way I like them: neatly typed and nicely designed — with the ingredients section clearly separated from the instructions — low maintenance, not overly cute or pretty or frilly or decorative, and subtly humorous (to me, at least). I suppose after years of cooking, you would develop a better sense of what works for you. Still, it’s amazing how after all this time, the right solution could be so quick and simple.

Not long ago, I made a pact with myself to be more brave with art and design, and life in general. I think I’m making baby steps — decent psychological progress toward standing more confidently behind my own ideas when presenting them to other people. But what’s struck me lately is the sting of disagreement, uncertainty, or rejection; even though I think I’ve got a pretty thick skin when it comes to criticism of my work, I guess when you start putting more of yourself into and behind it, you still bleed when someone else comes along and says “I don’t think that’ll work,” or “I don’t get it,” or “Yuck.” Ouch.

It looks like I’ve reached Be More Brave, Stage 2: shake it off and get back on.

You know what’s tough? Collaborating with non-designers/artists, which is not to say non-creative people, but people who tend to visualize things in black and white. Which is to say, they are quite literal when it comes to designing and decorating. Which I suppose is the opposite of imagination.

Normally, I can deal with this. It’s easy when they accept that you’re both creative and smart, and they trust your creative instincts to pull everyone’s ideas together in a cohesive, tasteful way. But some people get blinded their own perception, and they go and take your description of (blank)-inspired and interpret it to mean (blank)-themed. And they tell you so! You say, “I was thinking of a nautical-inspired design,” and they come back with “Yeah! I like the idea of a nautical theme!” MEGA-CRINGE.

I mean, I’m thinking about a design that layers textures and patterns and colors to evoke the idea of something, and they’re picking and choosing from every motif known to culture and making it fit a predetermined color scheme, which MUST NOT deviate from tradition. I just — it doesn’t… no.

And that’s why I’m suggesting that we take the word “theme” and burn it in effigy, and then forget it ever existed. Ever. Can we?

Still, I’m not sure whether it’s harder to work with someone who’s stubbornly fixed in one creative direction or someone who passes all control off to you because, to them, you are a creative GODDESS. I’ve always been one who liked working within parameters. I like the challenge of meeting a set of requirements in the most creative way I can think of.

The total lack of direction tends to throw me off; the total refusal to have anything to do with coming up with a direction makes me want to tear out my hair and jab out my eyeballs and run screaming like a banshee through the countryside. I’m not magical. Even mediocre design isn’t as easy as an incantation.

And yet, I suppose it ought to be flattering because is it not the hallmark of greatness to appear effortless and completely natural, as though what you have created was always meant to be just as you created it? That would be fantastic and also weird because very often, I believe I really have no idea what I’m doing.

To be trusted completely or hardly at all? To be free to roam about or to be met with resistance at every turn? It probably doesn’t matter: both are equally challenging. It seems the most important thing is to remember that thing about being brave. Shake it off. Get back on. Kill “theme.” And live creatively ever after.

Photos: Zilker Botanical Garden; Heroes of the Alamo monument at the Texas State Capitol; buildings on Congress Avenue

The one thing I’d sort of hoped to glean from the HOW Design Conference in Austin last week was guidance. Direction. Some affirmation, or some way to gauge whether what I’m doing is what I should be doing. What am I missing here in my unmentored shelter of designing for engineers and scientists, who want nothing more from me than to “make it look cool!”? Could I cut it out there in the hard core design world?

Some part of me imagined I’d come home with pages of notes, sketches, ideas out the wazoo. It’s what I wanted. But I didn’t get any of that – no mind-blowing revelations, no deep discussions for introspection and reflection. Instead – and I’m quite sure of this – I got exactly what I needed.

Photos (clockwise from center): Summer berry compote with lemon panna cotta, from Annie’s Cafe & Bar; Art the Vote logotype by Travis Brown; Austin Convention Center; Downtown Austin (from Congress Avenue Bridge), Annie’s Cafe & Bar dinner menu; Austin Museum of Art exhibition poster — “The Lining of Forgetting: Internal and External Memory in Art”

Much of what the presenters had to say were things I instinctively knew – whether by nature or by training. But for the first time, I started feeling confident in my choice of an MA in communication, rather than an MFA in graphic design. In a way, it feels like having devoted that time to focus on the purpose and the meaning of communication apart from the medium might set me apart – in a good way – from other designers, and enable me to steer my career in the direction I imagine it going. And despite having made no effort to actively “network” with other designers, I can say that I feel far more connected with people and resources within the design community than ever before.

More importantly, for the first time, someone else – more than one someone – told me to do those things I always want to try to do. These are things I’ve been telling myself I need to focus on, but somehow hearing it from someone else is more empowering.

Tell stories. Have fun. Be brave. It’s my new motto!

In other words, design at its most powerful should not only be one-hundred percent functional and aesthetically strong — it should also be meaningful and create a relationship with the viewer. It should be authentic and meaningful to you, the designer, and it should be created without inhibition – “Fun, not fear!” to paraphrase Von Glitschka, who presented Living a Creatively Curious Life.

The trip itself, the conference — it was all a bit of a whirlwind. There was so much to take in all around that at the time I wasn’t sure how much I was really getting out of it. Four days later, I’m having some difficulty putting everything into words. It turned out to be a fantastic creative recharge — I’m even feeling a bit sassy. Sassy is good. Sassy is fun. Sassy is uninhibited.

Photos (clockwise from top left): Zax Pints & Plates; Mexican vanilla ice cream from Amy’s; Cookie packaging from Annie’s Cafe & Bar; Milk book jacket by Barbara deWilde; Annie’s Cafe & Bar interior; “Bad Typography is Everywhere. Good Typography is Invisible” by Craig Ward; Paramount Theatre

So although my head is still spinning with all the ideas and inspiration, the concepts, and the possibilities, I’ve begun to realize that great design is not the sum of these things. It’s no good trying to equal or emulate anyone else. The best thing I have to offer is my own perspective, my own voice, my own vision: authentic, passionate, liberated.

This week I’ve decided to dedicate I Misunderstand! to pursuing the art of invitation miscommunication.

I never thought I’d ever create anything this sugary sweet-looking willingly and for free.

Sarcastic, yes. Sugary, no. I continue to surprise myself, all in the name of academics.

The dot pattern was inspired by a J.Crew dress I bought last year. The script typeface is called Giddyup, and it uses a little star to dot each “i” (I added one to the exclamation point; it seemed fitting). So, naturally, it seemed like the perfect cutesy typeface to underscore the sweet color scheme.

There’s probably someone out there who’ll love the design. But me? I just about gag. And then I laugh at myself.

On the other hand, Gilda and William sure are cute, if I do say so myself.

While there’s not much happenin’ here on my side of the Internet — I take that back, there’s a lot happening, but not much of it’s fun. However, I took some time today to photograph a few finished projects that have been piling up and collecting dust since the summer.

Here is the wedding invitation I designed for my friend Jen‘s friend, Amy. It was a challenge, as they had a complicated list of dos and don’ts, a challenging color scheme, and other than that, no really clear idea of what they wanted (ack!). So it required pulling out the big mind-reading, type-selecting, color-balancing, layout-designing, invitation-wording guns. Incidentally, the design in the lower left corner is a modified version of the embroidery that was on her wedding gown. It’s simplified a bit, and I incorporated two figure-eight knots, one of their wedding motifs (the groom is one of those sailing-types). Puuuurdy.

She asked me to do the escort cards/favor box tags, thank you notes, and programs too. Altogether, the job was a challenge, to say the least. But everything turned out well — no rampaging groom or murderous bride. Most importantly, the guests seem to have understood the date and time, made their way to the wedding, followed the order of the ceremony, and found their tables just fine. It’s good to know that my work is helping make the world a better place.

THIS one was more of a collaboration with Jen, the production dynamo, who was struggling with designing an invitation for Amy’s Bridal Shower tea. In case you haven’t noticed, we make a good team: I like to design but dislike tedious production work; she dislikes design but likes tedious production work. The result is always something delightful.

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Here’s a look at some programs I finished just today. These were a bit of a last-minute job for a cousin’s wedding, but it was fun as they gave me a lot of freedom design-wise, and so I got to do some work that’s closer to my own preferred style. I love it when that happens. Now they are happily on their way through the good old US mail. :)

**MAD PROPS ALERT** Major thanks to Jen: if not for her love of all things tedious and repetitive, and her crazy mad collating, folding, hole-punching, and ribbon-tying skills, I would probably still be working on these. In fact, I realized today that I’ve never had to hole-punch a single wedding program in my life, thanks to her. Thanks, Jen! **END MAD PROPS ALERT**

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Also, Keith has started his own blog about woodturning, called Wood for Brains. He’s just starting out, but he seems to have a talent for it, as he’s turned out (HA! Ha? Ahem.) some very nice pens already. You can also see some more of my design work on the WfB masthead — another recent design I’m very happy about! It will be easily adaptable to business cards and product tags. Now if only I could come up with a killer new design for Oomphasis…

The Other
This past weekend we (barely) made it to Artsfest in Solomons. It was a good show this year. We happily bought 3 photographs from Joseph Campell, who is a great photographer and was really fun to talk to. Still trying to decide where they’ll go, but I can’t wait to see them on the wall!

Custom design is a good challenge, but it takes up a lot of time. I think most artists agree that commissions tend to take the fun out of the process. Even though you love the work, it becomes just that — work — and it gets tough to be excited about it when there’s half a dozen other projects you want to work on.

I once thought I might enjoy doing custom invitations, announcements, etc. full time. And although I think I would certainly prefer it over my current employment, could I handle it 24-7? I don’t know. One of the things I like least about design is the need — nay, the requirement to try to make everyone happy. This is despite the fact that I am naturally inclined to want to please people; I tend to gauge my self-worth based on my perception of others’ satisfaction with me. So, ironically, that problem-solving aspect of intuiting many points of view and making them all work is also the thing that draws me in. Mind reader + diplomat + magician. That’s me.

So we’ll see. I’d love to take time to build up a body of current work, enter some shows, get into some galleries. Unfortunately I don’t see any time for it in the near future: I’m working on A&R’s wedding through the end of August, marathon training through October, plus I’m hoping to start the last of my grad studies classes this fall and finish my master’s thesis project in the spring. I’ll then probably allow myself to be a bit lazy for, like, a month after that, which brings me until right about this time next year before I’ll be free to do whatever the heck I want with my spare time.

That said I’d rather design invitations until my mouse bleeds than be a bridesmaid. Un-bridesmaid? Anyway…

On the WAAAAY UP side I finished A&R’s invitations, as one of several accomplishments and/or significant strides achieved over the long weekend. We even saw WALL-E. I feel very productive.

So I’ll get to take a very short break from A&R’s wedding, after delivering 65 invitations — printed, trimmed, wrapped and tied — yesterday afternoon. Between cutouts, linoleum and crochet, I almost don’t know what to do. Really, I should just get working on a design for the programs.

This rare photo of me is brought to you courtesy of Keith, who was kind enough to visit my messy, messy studio and play with my camera while I was cutting lengths of cord. He is suffering from DSLR withdrawl while ours is being serviced. I should clean. I should also get to the gym. Look at that. Can’t even tell she’s training for a marathon. Yeesh.

Alright kids — all of you aspiring graphic designers — it’s time for a dose of cold, hard reality, the ugly, dirty truth that nobody in art school speaks of except in hushed tones and Voldemortesque “That-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named” euphemistic language.

You really *do* need algebra.

Settle down! Don’t panic! The good news is that you don’t need all of algebra: none of the matrices or imaginary numbers or polynomials or anything much beyond solving for x really. Algebra 1 is plenty more than you’ll need to get you through life as a graphic designer.

But the bad news is that you’ll use it mainly to figure out proportions, say, for paper size and whatnot: so you’ll need to get cozy with fractions and converting fractions to decimals and decimals to percentages and percentages to measurements you can use. You’ll probably also need to know how to convert between units, feet to inches for example.

You’ll also need to know how to set up an equation from a question, see? Like a word problem. Allow me to illustrate.

Today, I started printing reply cards for A&R’s wedding invitations. However, Neville, being new and wanting to impress, was enlarging the cards, so that (a) they would not fit into the reply envelopes properly — bad — and (b) the cards were not being printed entirely, getting cut off at the very end — extra bad.

Hoping against all hope for a quick, easy fix, I selected the “fit to page” option, but then they printed too small. Oh bother, I sighed, where’s that measuring tape?

It turns out that left to his own devices, Neville printed the cards a full eighth-inch too big. I would have to calculate the percentage by which Neville was enlarging the cards, and figure the percentage by which to reduce the print size.

So I drank some coffee, and did some early-morning That-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named to figure out at what percentage of the original size I needed to tell Neville to print in order to compensate for his “bigger is better!” philosophy. I’ll spare you the gory details (unless you really *want* to know).

I know it’s not perfect, and it probably took me way longer than it should have, but I FIGURED IT OUT, and now the cards print at exactly the right size. Hooray! Algebra isn’t so useless after all.

And the really good news is that, aside from the basic critical thinking and arithmetic skills required, the most advanced stuff you’ll need should be covered in the unit on proportions/ratios, whatever those math people call them. So after that, you can go on doodling in your notebook margins.

Just don’t say it was me who told you.

Every now and then I receive a card that totally knocks my socks off, and reminds me in no uncertain terms that we live in a country full of brilliantly creative and funny people. This one, in particular, is from Jen.

I kind of want it enlarged to poster size and framed to hang on my wall, not only for a daily dose of self-esteem, but because it uses one of my favorite visual humor techniques: using type and imagery that is completely inappropriate for or unrelated to the meaning of the text. Keeps you on your toes. Anyway, it also reminded me of a project I did for one of my graduate courses a while back; wouldn’t it be cool to finally use it for something? (Fathers’ Day IS coming up…)

It just goes to show that in design, as with all creative pursuits, there’s always a way to break the rules to your advantage. All rules — that is — save one: form follows function.