Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Keep Fishing


via inHOWse by Sam Harrison

“I once heard author Ian Fraser tell of being on a fishing trip with fellow writers Mark Singer and John McPhee.

“It was a cold, rainy day, and we weren’t catching anything,” said Fraser. “After a few hours, Singer said, ‘You know, this is masochism.’ And McPhee laughed and said, ‘No, this is optimism.’”

I love Fraser’s story because it applies to the creative process.

Sometimes our luck seems to be running out when it comes to snagging a few fresh ideas. Or maybe we have ideas, but clients keep tossing them overboard.

In those sad times, it’s easy to feel a bit sorry for ourselves. To feel the world is against us. To feel we’re stuck in a masochistic business.

But if we let ourselves go there, we get bitter. And if we get bitter, we don’t get better. Instead, we become victims. And victims, by definition, are powerless.

“You have to believe in what you’re doing and not get bitter,” says Jakob Trollback, founder and creative director of Trollback + Company. “If you let it harden you, you’re going to just get old and dull.”

So the next time you find yourself planning a pity party, seek out some optimism. Take a break. Go for a walk. Visit an upbeat blog. Talk to a positive friend. Launch a new project. Start your day over.

You’ve done it before and you can do it again. Ideas are swimming around in your mind and in the world around you. You can catch them. And you can sell them.

Keep fishing.”

Original post here.

Who is Bozo Texino?


via imprint


Who is Bozo Texino? is a beautiful black and white film by Bill Daniels. Made over 16 years during Daniels’ sporadic boxcar riding (or train hopping) adventures across North America, the film focuses on the men (vagabonds, hobos, nomads, pick a name) who live (or once lived) this increasingly difficult life. Most pointedly, the film focuses on the marks they leave on train cars in chalk or paint pen.”


Read the rest here, watch the trailer here.

10 line Kabel


via letterpress daily

This capital Q by Hamilton Manufacturing Company just makes me smile.

Apple Memorabilia Loupe Mystery


via cultofmac


Read about the mystery behind this Apple memorabilia loupe here.

In the early 80s, I remember popping the clear plastic back off of a similar size and style of loupe and then inserting a customized round paper disk in it so that the loupe was clearly recognizable as mine. I'd change the artwork as the mood struck me.

Earworm: Genki Sudo’s World Order


via very short list


“ Genki Sudo is an overachiever: a kickboxer, Greco-Roman wrestler, and retired mixed-martial-arts star who was known for his splashy entrances and flashy moves. He’s also an accomplished actor, essayist, and calligrapher, and the leader of a pop group called World Order. And in this excellent music video, he’s taking New York by storm. Like many other overachievers, Sudo has a personal motto—in his case, a motto (“we are all one”) that didn’t make sense in the ring but sits quite comfortably with his career as a song-and-dance man. Among other things, this is one of the most carefully synced videos we’ve seen. (Did we mention that Sudo is also the group’s choreographer?) And yet it’s interesting to compare World Order’s New York video with a similar one they filmed in Japan: If you think New Yorkers are jaded, check out the (non-)reactions of Tokyo’s passersby.”


Watch Genki Sudo’s World Order in New York City here, other links can be found here for the Tokyo video, and more.