Permission To Suck

There are elements of a great picture beyond composition, simplicity, light, color, texture and all that designy-crafty stuff. With some tormented thought, I’ve narrowed it down to three elements that seamlessly overlap but are also separate enough that they seem to own a category.

Something well designed is compelling; we are drawn to its efficiency, effectiveness, elegance, beauty, and often it’s cleverness and humor. You’re a designer when you arrange your clothes in an order that gets you out the door faster in the morning, or when you plan a route to the office. Then why is “design thinking” [...]

I had a chance to talk with Creative Director and Copywriter Mike Allen about his career in Advertising and get some of his thoughts on branding and creativity. Here are 10 minutes from that discussion.

What is the street artist’s intent? Anti-social pop art with an extreme satirical point intended for consumption across all socioeconomic barriers, or is it hype driven brandalism by an artistic terrorist bent on pulling one over on a naïve culture?

How do we know we aren’t behaving like comfort loving factory workers? I doubt there is a material answer, but the subtlety of creative exhaustion knows no bounds. Take a look at this experiment explained by Dan Heath at Fastcompany.com.

I think this is what Sir Ken Robinson has in mind: Too many of us tolerate what we do rather enthusiastically do what we love. Our schools don’t teach us to discover and cultivate our passions. Transforming means shifting from a linear manufacturing approach to an organic agricultural approach; create the environment under which students can flourish.

I’ve been influenced by Usher Fellig (aka Weegee the Famous). I had no idea. But I’m in good company from Diane Arbus to Cindy Sherman, and the rest of us. It’s hard to peel away the nostalgia from his photos from mid 20th century NYC, but as I try the feeling of intensity remains; as though one held a candle under humanity fluid and let it reduce.

What defines our story are significant moments and endings; memorable works and what we’ve done lately. Artist’s think of the future in terms of anticipated great works. It’s a trap.
+ View a TED video presentation by Daniel Kahneman

Artistic creativity is an act of intimacy or not; it’s genuine art or it’s artifact. Learn to manipulate tools and their crafty mechanisms so they become secondary or not.

In general, the scarcity shift is away from artifacts and toward process. Can you establish the culture that creates, the moment worth photographing, the performance that affects, or the product that markets itself?