Tag Archive for 'design'

showertime perceptivity and its greatest gift to me

Published
by
avarhirion
on November 13, 2008
in In General
. 0 Comments

Cameron Moll, blogger and web standards pioneer, wrote this week about the epiphanies had “under the cadence of falling water”–in the shower.

Moll explains, in what I believe to be one of his best posts of all time, how the self-imposed interruption of taking a shower gives a moment for uninterrupted passive thought–where the body’s business with the monotonous activity of cleaning itself leaves the brain is left to carelessly wander–often in ways that yeild answers sought or frees blocked creativity.  He cites the work of Edward de Bono and Professor Lajos Székely, who described the creative pause, and Moll makes a case for a shower being a perfect creative pause.

I say: Brilliant!

Often times, when lost in creative block I head to the shower.  It seems natural for me, I guess.  Some of my greatest ideas come as a result of a peaceful warm shower (or cool shower if after a hot summer day in AZ).  One in particular stands out, because not only do I consider it one of my favorite moments of creativity ever, but also because I made a big deal about it coming to me in the shower.

My friend Kieran Thompson and I were hanging out an Order of the Arrow event in spring 2006 when we discussed a competition coming up for the 2006 National Order of the Conference (NOAC).  The shows committee was holding a short-film competition and he and I decided to go for it.  The prizes were cool: front-row seating at one of the arena shows for our entire group and our film being shown to the whole conference.  We planned a day to do it, and then didn’t speak for six weeks.

The night before we were going to see each other, we didn’t have a story.  I had to come up with one.  As I packed my bags for the trip I would depart for the next day, I mulled it over.  Finally, in the shower before bed, the night before I left, it came to me.  The story was perfect for the theme, and it was a hit with Kieran.  After a little bit of further development with my partner, we made the film and it won.  Now “No Sash, No Flap, No Service” is immortalized on YouTube, though if you are unfamiliar with the Order of the Arrow, it may seem confusing to you.

Mr. Moll put into words and then explained something that I have believed for a long time, and while I read his well thought article my dittos were following every sentence.  I believe wholeheartly that taking a shower is a great way to open your mind to its creative side, and that the showertime perceptivity reaps great rewards.

awesome music video: Mountain Goats

Published
by
avarhirion
on September 8, 2008
in In General and Web Design
. 0 Comments

I like these guys, they have a great folky-alt-rock sound with a compelling message. I also like this video… it is wonderful example of design, typography, and breaking-of-the-mold. Check it out if you have a sec.

TST featuring “Finnish National Railroad” by Ambiguous Clothing

Published
by
avarhirion
on September 2, 2008
in T-Shirt Tuesday and Web Design
. 0 Comments

Welcome back to T-Shirt Tuesday, now one month old.

The Threadless $12 sale continues this week and got even better, with select styles further marked down to $9.  While the selection of $9 shirts pales to the everything else selection at $12 each, there are still a few gems in the $9 sale (especially if you’re a girl or a size small guy) worth looking at.  Threadless released, like it does every week, a couple of new shirts and a couple reprints yesterday which are all only $12, including this one I am sure to pick up eventually (like, wow, UV color changing inks?  Crazy!).  I also discovered some great typography tees at Ugmonk… including a must-have called lowercase.

Finnish National Railway by Ambiguous

Finnish National Railway by Ambiguous

This week’s feature shirt explores another design trend in tee shirts, typography.  Typography is basically the study of and practice of design with typography, known in layman’s terms as the font face.  Great typography makes or breaks a design, case in point (Barack Obama’s bold yet comfortable feeling website design to John McCain’s rather bland and sterile website design).  Regardless of who I prefer, the design and use of creative typography on Obama’s website is superior to McCain’s. T-shirts also benefit from good type.  A beautiful design can suffer if the text used sucks.  On the other hand, some shirts can be simply words in different colors and fonts and be an awesome design.  This weeks featured shirt, which I call “Finnish National Railroad” is such an example.

Finnish National Railway closeup

Finnish National Railway closeup

This shirt was designed and wholesaled by Ambiguous Clothing, a skate and snowboard type company.  Ambiguous does not deal directly, but can be found in most “west coast style” stores.  These guys make some awesome typographic tees, including this one from their Summer 08 line and of course this week’s featured shirt.  What is cool about typographic design is that shirts like “Finnish” have simple artwork compared to something like “Refraction” but they still look great.  All it took was some layered fonts, a few lines, and a few colors, and the result was a stunning design that works well and looks great. I picked up this shirt two weeks ago at Pacific Sun Company (or PacSun) on half off sale for $15.  I had been eyeing it for weeks waiting for a sale.  I got the last in my size.  If you have one of those stores around you, check it out and see if you can pick up this gem for as good or better a price than I.

Until next T-Shirt Tuesday, I offer this advice: you may be a great friend who’d do anything for those you care about, but they can get their own t-shirts.