Social Media Explained by Mac Web Guru Douglas Wray
#SharpFunny

So funny, so smart: Christoph Niemann

What a cutie.

Christoh discusses how he divides up his 9 hour work day.
(Love the second guessing and 'Inspiration' sections!)

Christoph explains the balance he requires in order to limit stress:
1 wildly creative job with no limitations for every 3 dull ones!
His feelings during the creative process

Today I watched the Creative Morning video from April with Berlin based Illustrator + Designer Christoph Niemann.
Insightful + hilarious and filled with great metaphorical drawings to illustrate his points.
My favourite point: His belief that assignments with 100% creative freedom can be very stressful. As a big fan of limitations I agree!

*Highly recommended for anyone working in a creative field.*
Do yourself a favour and watch this.

Inspiration: The Beauty of Maps

I'm watching an amazing documentary called the The Beauty of Maps which is a 4 part BBC series.
Found via swiss miss.

Through it discovered British artist Grayson Perry.
Here he is describing his Map of Nowhere from 2008


Love this - his ingredients of the Individual
Note how small talent is in relation to Confidence and Lady Luck. :-)
Wish I thought of that.

File under Wish I thought of that

Should I work for free? Flow chart.
Another funny + spot on creation from smarty pants designer Jessica Hische.

A Night at the Bell Light box

Our new Bell lightbox. Love at first sight.

Isn't it beautiful?


Inside: Buzz buzz buzz.

O+B's Canteen Look: Breakfast Wrap 5 bucks!

A great visualization of how TIFF chose the 100 Essential films.
(Looks better in person. Go see it.)
ps. Here is the LIST.

Close up

Close up

Part of the Essential 100 Exhibit
Carl Dreyer's angsty Passion of Joan of Arc plays on a big screen - on a constant loop!

Really loved The Lives of Others. Glad it made the list.

An installation called 24 Hour Psycho Back and Forth by Douglas Gordon which plays Hitchcock’s Psycho on 2 adjacent screens, one in forward motion and the other in reverse!

This is playing tommorrow!

My brother Danny working on the Red carpet at Roy Thompson Hall
Yes Handsome Devil!

Requisite star siting: Michael C. Hall

I went to visit our new Bell Lightbox for the first time tonight. Got a lump in my throat when I saw it. Corny but true. Such a beautiful building. Designed by Toronto based Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg (KPMB). Such a beautiful testament to our city's love of film.It was completely buzzing with people + activity and because it was open late it had that great 'pajama party' feeling. I peeked into Oliver and Bonacini's Canteen. It looks an adorable + affordable perfect spot for people watching.

I went to see The Essential 100 Cinema exhibition.
Favourite part was the 'Wunderkammer' or cabinet of curiosities room, which was filled with artifacts, photos, fantastic posters, and clips from TIFF's 100 Essential films.

I rounded out the evening with a visit to see my brother working the Roy Thompson red carpet and then an unplanned celebrity sighting of Michael C. Hall.

I am so in love with my city tonight.

Really love this

Great conceptual thinking.
By designer Joey Roth.
via swiss miss.

Far Foods: Brilliant

FAR FOODS is an alternative packaging concept for supermarket produce, highlighting the distances that some foods travel from and the resultant carbon dioxide released during the journey. The receipt features a boarding card style tear-off strip. By James Reynolds. Brilliant. via swiss miss.

Data Visualization: Lists tell a story

Ever since listening to Spark's podcast about the Feltron report I
have been thinking of ways that data can tell stories. This amazon receipt for example tells a story about my summer vacation.

Data recording on steroids: The Feltron Annual Report

Detail

Listened to a Spark podcast tonight and discovered The Feltron report:
a data based "portrait of a year" produced annually by Graphic designer Nicholas Feltron. Personal statistics in the report include number of books read, miles travelled and "Least kosher meal eaten".
In the interview Nora explored, among other things, the question of why we have become so obsessed with self reporting and cataloguing all our data and whether it actually serves a purpose. One point I thought particularly interesting: Feltron feels the reports become more + more interesting as the years go on and predicts they will one day serve as heirlooms. hmmm.
I love the idea of data collection as story telling.
Great interview. Highly recommended.

Hillman Curtis: Pentagram film

Watched Hillman Curtis' short film on the history of Pentagram today.
It's narrated by Paula Scher speaking very quickly.
(I think Hillman actually sped up the tape) Her zippy fast voice over combined with quickie diagrams jetting about the screen somehow made the entire history seem terribly funny.

Paula Scher: Make it Bigger

Am currently reading Make it Bigger by Paula Scher. Is fantastic.
I particularly enjoy her diagrams, charts and whimsical genealogy trees. As she explains at a certain point in her career ( around 1985) the act of concocting complicated systems of useless information became an important and personal part of her design vocabulary.
For me she is the Queen of Data Visualization.

ps. glass o wine, apartment in nyc and paula scher.
doesnt get much better than that.

Inspiration: Paula Scher

Fantastic Ted talk by Paula Scher.
She differentiates between Serious and Solemn work and then goes on to outline the conditions which are present when she produces her best (Serious) work.
She explains that she is usually underqualified for the job and involved in serious play.
When this work becomes perfected (therefore Solemn) - and copied by other designers!- it's time to move on to a new challenge.
I love her chart above which outlines this creative pattern.

Sarah Palin Flow chart

from the fabulous swiss miss.