Just Another Day has the most adorable, cleanest stationary. I love the simple shapes and fantastic type choices. Guess that’s what you get when the designer is an art director by day and paper lover by night…
For Design Crush readers let me fill you in a little: Idea Sandbox’s Post2Post Tour is a web-based book tour where authors and their books are connected with websites and readers. For five business days, making five stops, the author moves from one site to the next – discussing with the web hosts and readers – the book, the big idea, and other items of interest. And for those of you visiting Design Crush for the first time: Welcome!
A graphic designer by trade, this philosophy has intrigued to me to say the least. What about my Photoshop? My Illustrator, InDesign and Dreamweaver? Surely I can accomplish more than someone who’s never so much as drawn a line.
According to Roam, solving problems has absolutely nothing to do with drawing pictures or innate artistic ability. In fact, sometimes those who have those talents struggle the most. The process of visual thinking is comprised of four steps, each of which we’re already good at. Looking, seeing, imagining and showing.
Visual thinking means taking advantage of our innate ability to see – both with our eyes and with our mind’s eye – in order to discover ideas that are otherwise invisible, develop those ideas quickly and intuitively, and then share those ideas with other people in a way they simply “get.”
Ideas govern our world. Imagine if Aristotle or Socrates hadn’t been able to get their ideas across – we’d be screwed! We’ve all imagined fantastic ideas, but unless we can successfully convey them to others, the value and possibilitiy of our ideas may never be known. Everyone’s drawn on a bar napkin at some point, whether it be to sketch your Next Big Idea or to give your phone number to that hottie sitting at the other end of the bar. And according to Roam, that’s as complicated as it needs to get.
With this process, as with so many others, there will be times when the steps don’t flow 1-2-3-4. Sometimes we’ll even need to go back and make changes. This happens most frequently with Look and See which constantly feed off one another. But if we’ve successfully shared our idea and done the job right, the people we are showing work to will immediately start their own visual thinking process. And so the cycle begins.
As I said in the beginning, I’m a creative-minded person by nature, so I was really quite interested in how this book could possibly effect me. I can draw, so surely I can get my ideas across. Or so I thought. My main takeaway is that bigger isn’t always better. Just because I have the capabilities some others might lack artistically or in the computer department doesn’t make me a better communicator. Simple is best when it comes to getting your point across. It also leaves more room for the people you are sharing you idea with to expound upon the initial thought.
Check out the other stops in the Post2Post Tour: The Back of the Napkin!
Monday, March 17:
Jeff De Cagna
Principled Innovation Blog
Tuesday, March 18:
Peter Durand
The Center for Graphic Facilitation
Friday, March 21:
Keith Bohanna
Pureplay
And if you’re still thirsty for more stop by The Back of the Napkin blog for the inside scoop.
How pretty would this look perched on a kitchen windowsill?!
Sagaform’s Trio Herb Pot is a simple solution to prolonging the life of your fresh herbs. Simple and practical design, this ceramic pot is an ingenious way of enjoying fresh herbs much like flowers: insert a bunch into the opening, and keep hydrated by pouring water into the corner hole. The broad base ensures that all stalks have access to water, while allowing air to circulate so herbs keep from becoming limp and waterlogged.
Posted In grand design, grow it
Designer Barbro Wesslander is behind Joy Bowls, which are so fun and colorful. There are even tumblers to match. The perfect combination for a summer shindig. Well, one with responsible adults who won’t be drinking too much and breaking your fun glassware!
It’s fantastically rainy today and I’m loving it. The past week it’s been nothing but sunshine and cloudless skies. Which can make for a looong day in the office when you can see out of a window! So the overcast weather is actually fine by me. Makes me feel like curling up in a comfy chair with a book, some tea and a couple of these Lemon Brioche Croissants.
I’ve been a bibliophile since birth. I blame it on my grandmother and mother who read to me daily. And on my aunt who is a librarian and always brought me the latest books from her school library to read before any students even had a chance!
The American Book Review has released a list of what they consider the 100 best last lines from novels. Some of my favorites that made the cut:
3. So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
– F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
52. Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.
– J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (1951)
65. This is the difference between this and that.
– Gertrude Stein, A Novel of Thank You (1958)
:: via Neatorama
Posted In online, read upI’m really enjoying artist Andre Jordan’s sketches. Every single one gets the point across in a way I never could. Here are just a few of my favorites.
:: via MadeByGirl
I stumbled across Etsy shop Contagious Jewelry last week and am absolutely smitten with her organic feeling pieces.
She says it best. “An advocate for the small and forgotten, the displaced and discarded, I find the act of adorning oneself with these objects to be empowering. Each component of the natural world is beautiful, from molecules passing through the walls of cells to toxic mold, from single-celled organisms to deadly viruses. By embellishing ourselves with the forms we take for granted or are too afraid to think about, we celebrate ourselves and our place in the world around us.”
When it comes down to it, all you really need is something as simple as the Clothespin trash can.
:: via Apartment Therapy
Posted In accents, grand design, house and home
