Jen Bekman

Wow just listened to Debbie Millman's Design Matters podcast with Jen Bekman - owner of 20 X 200 + Jen Bekman projects.
Very interesting to learn how Jen's varied work + life experiences (and issues with authority!) eventually led to the creation of 20 X 200. Her scrappy, slightly bad ass nature really comes through in the interview and is completely inspiring.

One gem that stuck out:
"Your list of what you need to accomplish is always longer than your list of accomplishments
... But you have to look at the latter one every night and take a sec to enjoy your achievements in order to get the energy to move forward the next day."
Amen to that.

Such a good interview. Methinks required listening for any creative entrepreneur type - and extra special for the creative woman folk! Listen to it here.

Inspiration: Jennifer Egan

My sweet neighbour Jen (who works at the IFOA) recommended A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan to me and I have been savouring every word of it this month. Last night listened to a fantastic interview with her on Writers and Co. She explains that the novel explores the concept of time and how our perception of it has changed drastically since the internet. She also expressed a concern for a lack of solitude in today's buzzed out society which she feels is critical to the creative process. Highly recommended.
ps. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. ooh ahh.

Thinking about Slogans

Great episode on Age of Persuasion today on Slogans.

The always insightful Terry O'Reilly traces slogans back to the battle cries from medieval times. (The word comes from the Gaelic "Slaugh Gairn" which means "cry of the host.")

If you run a business it's a good idea to spend some time thinking "What would my slogan be?" It's an excellent way to help further define + refine your company.

Inspiration: Biz Stone Cofounder of Twitter

Great interview on Fresh Air with the cofounder of Twitter Biz Stone. I found his description of Twitter's creation very interesting. He explained that he + cofounder Jack Dorsey were supposed to be working on their podcast company Odeo but were uninspired and felt the need to 'scratch an itch'. This description fit nicely into one of my theories of work: that often the most exciting projects for creative folks are the ones they aren't supposed to be doing!

Great podcast: The Age of Persuasian on cbc

Great episode last week on the Age of Persuasion on Luxury Advertising.
Some key lines from Terry O'Reilly:
Madison Avenue is aware you are actually two people: The person you are and the person you want to be. Luxury Advertisers are only interested in the latter.
and
Celebrities are prestige delivery systems.
You can listen to the full program here.

Beginning work on Mannequin print

As I mentioned a few weeks ago I'm creating some small sewing related prints especially for The Workroom. Today I began work on the small ochre mannequin print which is a smaller version of the print which appeared in Canadian House + Home in the spring. See above.

Below a few process pics.

Mixing the ink
Ochre = 27% Magenta 94% Yellow 20% Black

Applying ink with spatula
(The other images on the screen are covered with paper so that the ink does not go through them)

After a few test prints production begins

1st Layer drying
This will be a large edition of 25.

Good company while screening = Eleanor Wachtel's interview with Jonathan Franzen.
I liked his line 'Most depressives are also the funniest people I know. Most of my friends fit into this category"

Yay Mad Men is back

Mad men is back and Don Draper is as intense and troubled as ever.
The opener was worth every penny of my 3.49 download from itunes!
Great interview with Terry Gross + creator/writer Matthew Weiner on NPR'S Fresh Air here.

Good Company: All Songs Considered

One of my favorite things to listen to when I'm screening is NPR's All Songs Considered. I especially enjoy the episodes where Bob Boilen brings in a guest DJ to play + talk about some of his favorite music. The listener gets music and a music lesson all in one! Tonight I screened while listening to Guest DJ Tucker Martine. He's a producer known for doing really atmospheric moody stuff. Recently he produced Laura Gibson's latest CD. He talked a lot about his creative process. He loves happy accidents (yay) and strongly believes that in art you always "Gotta leave in some of the mystery."

Nate Williams + Illustration Mundo

Nate's Caderas pillow (means wide hips!)
from his company Hola Amiga

Lion and Molecules pillow

EFII podcast on Illustration Mundo site

Lucky me!! I just won a gorgeous pillow from Nate William's Give away on his blog. All his designs are so great - it was hard to decide which one to choose - but I finally settled on his Caderas design.
I have written about Nate Williams in previous posts. He is a very talented illustrator + the creator of Illustration Mundo: a wonderful site which is filled with lots of resources for illustrators plus a great search engine for art directors to find exactly the artist to fill the job.
(If there are any young illustrators out there reading this post --- I encourage you to join the site - pronto!)
Nate has a very interesting story in that he once worked crazy hours as a programmer in California before realizing he was unhappy and chucked it all to move to Buenos Aires to lead a more rich + fulfilling life.
You can hear all about his journey here in this EFII podcast.
Highly recommended listening. Very inspirational.

Design Sponge podcast: The woman behind Dwell

Today I listened to Grace Bonney's interview with the two women behind Dwell Studio: Christiane Lemieux + Jennifer Chused. The designers explained that they initially designed bedding to go with the very modern "Boutique hotel" beds going on in the late 90s. They created very clean geometric patterns to go along with the furnishings.
(I remember their big dot duvet made such an incredible impact on me when I first saw it)

Dwell's well known chocolate dot pattern

Some gems from the interview:
When the big companies started ripping off their geometric patterns they didn't worry! They used it as a kick in the pants and decided to "jump off that band wagon and move in a more 'decorator luxe' direction."
They travel the world for inspiration. Christine feels that 'you are a more relaxed when you travel -- so your best ideas come to you then'. "We are always looking for the one piece of fabric at the flea market that contains genius".
Really inspirational interview. Highly recommended.

Ps. Design Sponge has many other great podcasts in their archive including interviews with Thomas Paul, Denyse Schmidt and Lotta Jansdotter. Inspirational and great company when folding laundry!