Thoughts from the Dirty City

I have been thinking about the upcoming New Year quite a bit lately, more so than I would like to admit. I have been looking back over the last years (years) and deciphering what it is about my life that needs changing. What issues need resolved. I know this is nothing new, and in fact almost everyone starts to spend a bit more energy pondering the rearview mirror this time of year.

Read more

From iGoogle How to of the Day

I was intrigued when I saw the title of today’s “how to of the day” I don’t consider myself an angry person, but who couldn’t learn to be a little more understanding. I was hoping for something really inspiring to make me want to call those mean girls from high school and tell them they are pretty and I didn’t mean all of those horrible things I said. Instead, I wanted to send iGoogle a message telling them where they could shove it. Too harsh? I don’t think so.

Theirs is a 12 step process, that alone should have been enough to prevent me from reading on. Read more

I think a Ninja stole my creative mojo this morning while I wasn’t looking. Some times I wake up and I can feel the creativity coursing through me, mostly I just hit snooze and wonder how anyone is suppose to feel “artsy” before the sun comes up. Some days are worse than others, days like today for example. I have been rearranging the same four images for almost two hours trying to make something happen. Well maybe I am just killing time, trying to LOOK busy waiting for some motivation (inspiration) to find me. I would never actually admit to the latter.

There are lots of tips out there for reclaiming your creative steam. There are countless sites, forums and blogs devoted to this subject, proving that I am not alone in my artistic malaise. I have to admit it is rare that any of these sites actually help do any thing more than kill time for me. So I wonder if these little tips are helping other designers out there. According to the forums they are life savers. To me, that insipid complementing is even more frustrating than the initial lack of creative spark.

I have been giving this a lot of thought today, considering the gusto I have for my current projects. I have come to realize a few truths about me and my work habits. These aren’t things that will inspire creativity. This is just a list of things I have noticed about my work habits, and some of my favorite ways to pass time on the odd days that I can’t find my creative footing. My top ten in no certain order:

Read more

“A lecturer when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, “How heavy is this glass of water?” Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.

The lecturer replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you’ll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it’s the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.”

He continued, “And that’s the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won’t be able to carry on. As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we’re refreshed, we can carry on with the burden. So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don’t carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you’re carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can.”

I have gone round and round many different times on what the first installment of this blog should focus on. Should it be about me, Akron, Dirty City Design, does it NEED to be about design, should it be introductory? I have jotted down a million and one topics, expounded on the merits of each and eventually disregarded each as being “too trite” or “not a good place to start.”

I jacked the quote off a friends blog. When I read it I realized I had been carrying this blog around for months and it had grown insanely heavy. Finding the “perfect topic,” one that could centralize everything that I am as a designer as well as everything I hope this site will be, had gotten in the way of the site being anything. For too long this site has been the resting place of Lorem Ipsum. The proverbial glass had gotten so heavy with the burdens of starting, it had anchored me to one spot, so I put it down.

That brings us to today, picking the glass back up. I stared into it, full of all the disregarded topics, I remembered why I had put it down. Where should I start. What do I have to say that anyone would want to read? Round and round we go….so for now, instead of putting the glass back down, I’m taking a nice long drink and moving on.

To conclude, I have realized that blogging is a lot like designing, if you over think it, it isn’t going to be any good, and sometimes the best place to start is where someone else left off.

Hopefully this quote will inspire you to put down your burdens and enjoy some of the first signs of spring.