March: Inspirations & Observations

Welcome to the March issue of Inspirations & Observations. This is my monthly reflection on the 5 things this month that inspired me, and 5 things that were cheesy, ineffective or just plain boring.

Inspirations

1. Hand-rendering with pen & ink. Oooh, we did an assignment of rendering fur texture with pen & ink, and it was the most calming activity. Can't post the result yet though, the teacher still has it. But here is a sample from a Flickr user hanssolo.
   
   
   
2. Paper craft. I am discovering a whole world of these crafty designy things I can get into. I already love making things by hand, so it's perfect! Here is my current idol, Yulia Brodskaya.
   
   
   
3. And this month I discovered scrapbooking. I've heard the term before, but I didn't know what it was. Check out Shappy Pricess, really great "digital scrapbook" kits.
   
   
   
4. "The Artist's Way" book by Julia Cameron. It's about awaking the artist within, getting in touch with our innate creativity. I feel the changes happening already.
   
   
   
5. "How to Get Ideas" book by Jack Foster. First part of the book describes the mindset we need to have to attract more ideas. Second part is a step-by-step manual for getting winning ideas. It's interesting that "The Artist's Way" and "How to Get Ideas" frequently give the same advice. It's all connected, describing the same reality from different angles.
   
   
   

Observations

1. Using "click here and here and..." as anchor link text. It would be a lot more useful, if the link stated exactly what I'll find after clicking it. For example "learn about the psychological deviations of underwater worms." Ok, now I know exactly what's behind the anchor-text door.
   
   
   
2. Redesign of Hotmail interface leaves me asking "Where is the send button?!!!"
   
   
   
3. Sydney rail tickets, made of paper. First, I can only buy a ticket for today, it expires at the end of the day. Second, it's a paper ticket that cannot be re-used. Third, I have to put it through machine and wait for it to come out. Fourth, I can only buy one ticket at a time, no buddy rides. Need I go on? Really slows down the morning rush-hour commute.
   
   
   
4. Mini Dell ad. Trying to look like the currently popular floral style, but doesn't make it.
   
   
   
5. All respect to SitePoint, but no discrimination here. This ad was part of the newsletter I received, and I think it's feels like it was actually made by a developer. Literal metaphors for "slow" and "fast"...where is the zesty idea?
   
   

Previous months

• February: Observations & Inspirations
• January: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Type and music

Soft and personal, just the way I talk to Earth.

My favorite quotes

Short and Sweet

• The secret of all effective originality is not the creation of new and tricky words and pictures, but one of putting familiar words and pictures into new relationships - Leo Burnett
  
• Attractive things work better - Stephen P. Anderson
• The most direct way to influence a decision or perception is through the emotions - Stephen P. Anderson
  
• In advertising everything rhymes so perfectly and profitably - Todd Sampson from Gruen Transfer show
  
• It's not official until it's been on Facebook - Heather Ann Snodgrass
• Failure to learn is the only true failure - Tom Poppendieck
• When it comes to self improvement, tomorrow means never - book about opening the third eye
• You are not in traffic, you ARE the traffic - unknown...
• Ring the bells that still can ring
  Forget your perfect offering
  There is a crack in everything
  That’s how the light gets in.
  Leonard Cohen
• Pare down to the essence, but don't remove the poetry - Leonard Koren
• I love to travel, but hate to arrive. - Albert Einstein
• It takes 20% of the time to complete 80% of the work, and 80% of the time to finish the 20%
  

The Teachings of Don Juan
recorded by Carlos Castaneda

• Power rests on the kind of knowledge on holds. What is the sense of knowing things that are useless?
• I had to be inflexible with myself if I wanted to learn.
• A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war, wide-awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to knowledge or going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and whoever makes it will live to regret his steps.
• An ally will make you see and understand things about which no human being could possible enlighten you.
• Man lives only to learn. And if he learns it is because that is the nature of his lot, for good or bad.
• You get angry at people when you feel that their acts are important. I don’t feel that way any longer.
• Learning is never what one expects.
• “And what can he do to overcome fear?” “The answer is very simple. He must not run away… He must be fully afraid, and yet he must not stop. That is the rule! And a moment will come when his first enemy retreats.”
• The twilight is the crack between the worlds.
• Anything is one of a million paths [un camino entre cantidades de caminos]. Therefore you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any conditions. To have such clarity you must lead a disciplined life. Only then will you know that any path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you to do. But your decision to keep on the path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. I warn you. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question… Does this path have a heart? All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. They are paths going through the bush, or into the bush. In my own life I could say I have traversed long, long paths, but I am not anywhere. My benefactor’s question has meaning now. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn’t. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you.
• “I say it is useless to waste your life on one path, especially if that path has no heart.”
“But how do you know when a path has not hear, don Juan?”
“Before you embark on it you ask the question: Does this path have a heart? If the answer is no, you will know it, and then you must choose another path.”
“But how will I know whether a path has a heart or not?”
“Anybody would know that. The troubled is nobody asks the question; when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart, the path is ready to kill him. At that point very few men can stop to deliberate, and leave the path.”
“How should I proceed to ask the question properly, don Juan?”
“Just ask it.”
“I mean, is there a proper method, so I would not lie to myself and believe the answer is yes when it really is no?”
“Why would you lie?”
“Perhaps because at the moment the path is pleasant and enjoyable.”
“That is nonsense. A path without a heart is never enjoyable. You have to work hard even to take it. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy; it does not make you work at liking it.”
• He said there were lots of things that could drive a man mad, especially if he did not have the resolution, the purpose, required for learning; but when a man had a clear, unbending intent, feelings were in no way a hindrance, for he was capable of controlling them.
• When a man begins an act there is no way to stop.

Typography rules in motion

Take a journey into the world of all the little details of typographic rules. What's an ascender and x-height? What is the difference between leading and kerning?

The Vancouver Film School brings you this dynamic animated poster to explain just that.

Playing with type

Better way to learn your ABCs, cute and fun too!








And this one is an interesting play on negative space.

Stop motion - made with love and LOTS of patience

Stop motion is an animation technique, where animation is produced by taking series of photos and sawing them up together into a motion sequence. Even though there are many applications available to produce professional-looking sequences (like Flash and After Effects) to me stop motion still has the charm of hand-made craft.

This stop motion was done by Blu, armed with chalk and charcoal. Wow, this must have taken ages!



The Pet Shop is a clay figure animation, and I believe it's based on actual interviews of people in a pet shop. So fun!

I met the Walrus - animated dialogue

This video is a brilliant example of mixed-media animation of a dialogue. Watching it, the mind struggles to keep up with the speed of the imagery, and each new frame unfolds a new experience.

Jeff Vader and death by tray

An example of how a dialog can be animated using very basic animation techniques and Legos. It's the idea that makes it work :)

Dimensions debate

We watched these two videos in class, and then we were invited to have a discussion on whether we understand the concepts, agree or disagree. The teacher also talked about a theory proposed by a Ph.D research, that Fairies exist in the fourth dimension, and that's why we only see them for split moments. There is food for thought...

Expressive typography

This scene from Pulp Fiction using only Rockwell typeface, 3 colors and no music. The power of this typographic sketch is the alignment and spacing. Beautiful and incredibly effective piece of typography.

Clever stick figues

Stick figures can express so much.



It's not always the dazzling vectors of the animation that capture the audience, but the clever idea behind its execution.