Type Mandala

#2018NewYearMandalas

Leave a comment
Created for the 2018 New Years Mandala project. One Mandala to represent each month of the year. This one was created with the mesh tool.
Mandala created for each month of the year- This Mandala explores type and movement of letters.

I was added to this group by a mentor of mine.  I normally do not participate in things like this on Facebook but this one struck me as being a little different.  The goal is to create 12 mandalas in the month of January- each representing a month of the year.

It is not something that you labor over.  It is to be quick but thoughtful and for me it has been a blessing. Sometimes creativity gets stuck and you feel like what you create is just for others. Creating these has been solely for me.  A time when I can check in with my design sense and when something does not speak to me I have to find a way to put a dissonant chord back in harmony.

With each mandala I am pushing myself to try new things.  In the first one I worked with the mesh tool in Illustrator and with the second I forced myself to use color- something that does not always come easy when I am staring at a blank page.

Inspiration comes from so many places and I am so excited to see what all twelve will look like when done.

Variety

Leave a comment

How can time pass so quickly?!?!  In the past year I have had such a variety of work and experience there has been no time to capture them.

When I started working as a graphic designer I thought I would be just doing the same type of projects over and over… I thought, layout, art, typography… okay that is what I need to know.  WRONG!  That is just the surface and in some ways the very last step.

The last few months I have plunged into the world of advertisements for horse shows, tattoo artwork, and of course my job at Fluke has me illustrating everything from biomedical equipment to calibrators.  With each project I am learning that you have to approach each in a different way and that each time the mind grows in a new direction!

Working with a diverse set of clients I have had to really slow down and make sure I am listening to their goals and what their vision.  Slowing down when the pace has increased has been difficult to say the least, but I have to say because I have had to work quickly I was able to get some very interesting results.

The two things that I have to remind myself:

Every day is an opportunity to learn.

Just because something failed does not mean I am a failure!

 

Change

Leave a comment

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.  – George Bernard Shaw

Change… why do I resist it?  Because it feels uncomfortable? Scary? Reckless?  Without change then we do not move or grow or learn.  We do not learn how to push ourselves and we do not learn how to relate to others.  Change in many cases is involuntary and happens every second of every day of our lives.

So, it is 2017, a new year and I am going to embrace change this year.  This is not a New Years resolution but just a time to invite change in instead of trying to avoid it. I am going to embrace what I don’t know and make a change by continuing to learn and explore.  I am going to take steps and be resolved to not always know where I am going.  I am going to spend less time on listing the reasons “I can’t” and focus more on the reasons “I CAN”.

This should be fun!

Photo credit: Andrew Neel

Design Process

Leave a comment

Barkley Process

The more design work I do the more I realize how much life is like the design process.  You start out having all of these ideas of what form, shape, and texture something is going to look like and then you start putting pen to paper, scissors to cardboard,  goals to actual life and it gets messy.  Sometimes you realize that the dreams in your head are bigger than your ability… or is it?  It’s easy to give up and think another chance is just right around the corner but in all reality it will not be easier. The choice will still be the same, except this time the doubt that you accumulated from all those times you didn’t take a chance will be getting louder and louder, telling you to wait for the next corner, that you are not ready. What I have recently learned is that the next corner comes even when you do take a chance, so what is there to lose?

Listen

Leave a comment

cropped-lecoute-by-henri-de-miller.jpgL’Écoute by Henri de Miller- Paris, France

Since the moment I saw this sculpture and watched kids play silly games around the giant head and tourist letting the giant hand cradle them I have been fascinated with it.  I have been to Paris several times and every time I make my pilgrimage to this piece of art.  Listen- l’écoute- something that takes time to do, something that takes an effort to do, something that if done right can change the world.  If we listen we will find the answers. Maybe answers where we were not even asking a question.