Ira Glass: Stuff at first will not be good, but you have killer taste.

DK’s take on how to get there: trust the process, all the way.

Many thanks for the hard work! –Josepf Haslam, Dragon Search

Ric Dragon, who heads Dragon Search in upstate New York, was in a Tweet chat at the same time with me a year ago, and now we’ve done two drawing projects for his company. Which is awesome, but the more intriguing thing was when he told me to Google Ellsworth Kelly. Whoa!

I’m just back from a week in Washington, DC, where I got to see a bunch of Kelly pieces now showing in the modern wing of the National Gallery of Art. I also got to wander about on parts of the Mall where Akira and I first had our conversations about art, meaning, and joining our lives together, and that was back in 1996! Coming full circle with knowledge of artists after having seen pieces in museums of cities like Berlin, Tokyo, London, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, and many more, I was really moved to note the time lapse. I feel older, but more awake to things. Seeing this museum after so many years and experiences was powerful. Kelly is one of DK’s new heroes: keeping it simple, straight, and delightful at the same time. A solid concept, a well-executed motion. Love at first sight, you could say.

Drawing with intention

When Ric asked Design Kompany to make some drawings for the front page of their web site last year, it was great because he was open. To our idea, to my sketches, and to DK’s homemade process (interview, clarify, reflect, clarify, and then build). You can see the four vector drawings I made if you stay on this page to watch the animation change.

Next up was the infographic design you see at the top of this page. I got really excited about this. I love information.

I got a chance to nerd out about layout again, and it’s been so long since my news design gigs. I also got to revisit the beautiful book by Edward Tufte, Envisioning Information.

We started with a really raw clump of words:

The raw data set I started from

Asking questions to retrieve better data, and iterating

I’m the kind of person that likes to make sure I know everything I need to before I start to publish something. I want it to be right, I want it to be fair. I guess that comes from working in two newsrooms, one in Seattle and one in southwest Ireland. Accuracy is big.

So it was fun to put on my journalist hat to discern the who, what, where, when, and why in our first interview. I asked about audience. And how they’d receive this. That gave me a benchmark for the tone of the writing I would put into the later versions of the chart. Friendly, accessible. Search marketing is complex and overwhelming, so it’s nice to be able to break it down. I wanted to make it look like a fun game, so that’s why there’s “START” and “WIN!”

Who doesn’t like to WIN!, right?

Later, I got to follow up with Josepf Haslam to gather mini-checklists (purple flags in the drawing), because I thought it was important to tell the story with some action steps for “users.”

Wow, I can’t believe I said “users.” Some work we’re doing right now on user experience design is influencing me, too.

I also made some concepts for them, and we went with “The Chart” for the infographic design you see above. It has to start with a clear concept, not an overproduced Illustrator image that you have to sell to someone. Strong concept is as important as a smart data set.

The winning concept

This post is going to be continued, because I have a lot of things to say about infographic design, and presentation design in general.

A hint: I’m an engineering student-turned journalist who’s now doing brand message and dialogue design. So I’m really interested in setting up the problem in the way that makes it easier to come up with bright, beautiful solutions later.

More on that in my next post, and some pics of my Washington, DC, visit, too.

Later, I found this video on his Tumblr.

the lady and the horse mural/sculture from MALO on Vimeo.

You can see this man thinking, improvising, and stretching as he goes over the 3-D surface of this gigantic thing he transforms into an art piece.

His solo show at the Carrack runs through May 10. It’s worth a look.
—AM

Going to be in Washington, DC, for our stop there for AETHER, a conversation about medium, message, and design.

I’ll be wearing DK’s “dialogue design” outfit, Orangutan Swing. I’m looking forward to getting back there, DC is where Akira and I used to hang out when we were young and in college and looking for inspiration.

It was the first time I saw Eschers — ones that were real, not college-girl posters (of which I had one, the staircase paradox one, you know about that one?).

The real-life Escher images burned right upon my youthful, and easily-impressed-upon mind. That, along with engineer-turned-artist Alexander Calder’s pieces, which I also saw in DC for the first time (and some of which are now showing at Duke’s Nasher Museum, by the way), probably inspired the kind of minimalist line art I’m making at Wavular, too.

I’m excited to host one of the AETHER conversations, after Akira got the tour started in AETHER New York and AETHER Boston in recent days. Can’t wait to see what happens up there. I’ll be stopping into some Meetups, too, being social and stuff.

Washington DC creatives and media folks, watch out for Orangutan’s Swing.

Rebranding is costly, not just in terms of money but in terms of time, too. You’ll want to make sure to set up the process right by thinking through every aspect thoroughly, including the company name.

Can’t stop thinking about this cinematographically tight, ace story by master filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu, last mentioned by me when we met logo designer Kiyoshi Inoue. The film is called “Sanma no Aji,” which translates as “The Taste of Mackerel,” but for marketing purposes to English audiences, they called it “An Autumn Afternoon.”

I was so keyed into its delights I wanted to write this post in Japanese. But this updated version of Wordpress, um, doesn’t let me. That means I don’t have to break out the dictionary from, um, 1996.

A soft and quintessentially Japanese aesthetic

Watch this film if you need to reflect for a minute on the gravity and ephemerality of the story that is life. A calm, soft-light and terrific film that quiets the nerves, for sure.

Highly, highly recommend.

When he was 12, Otis Lyons‘ mother told him to leave home. “My mother was on drugs every day,” he said to a group gathered at the Durham Rotary Club’s meeting downtown yesterday.

Turning to gangs and the rough life in poor neighborhoods of Durham, he was thrown into jail and sentenced for 30 years for being “influential,” he said. Some of that time he was in solitary confinement. But the sentence was overturned, and in 1994, Lyons was released. With a new lease on life, Lyons committed to an abstract idea. Giving kids hope. “Every kid has some good in him.”

Today Lyons runs a nonprofit called Campaign for Change, which takes for its slogan George Eliot’s line, “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.”

Certainly not.

Lyons partners with area groups to gather and distribute Christmas presents, organize NBA-esque basketball leagues, get people to try karate for the first time, and otherwise bridge gaps between cultural haves and have-nots. You can read more about him in this article on Otis Lyons by Connie Campanaro and this one at Clarion Content.

He told us area nonprofits like the Boys and Girls Clubs, the YMCA, the United Way and others are doing good work, but money they raise doesn’t go to impoverished communities. People are scared to go there, for fear of being killed or robbed. And with good reason. But someone has to go into those areas and offer hope, because if kids don’t have someone show alternatives, they won’t know. They’ll turn to gang leaders and drug lords, like the ones who bought Lyons his school uniforms, without the kids realizing they’re being groomed as replacements.

It reminded me a lot of Roddy Doyle’s book, A Star Called Henry. You don’t realize people are using you, until it’s far too late.

I asked Otis Lyons after his talk one question. After all he’s been through, what he would have liked to have been different for him?

A mother and father who loved him, he said.

“Someone to show me the way.”

What love does for kids

All those books on attachment parenting, all those months of being with my little baby kid, all those nights staying up late nursing and singing and crying: suddenly, in a whoosh, all worth it. Validated, in a millisecond, by one most inspiring ex con.

“Those kids are not told they’re going to be something in life,” he said.

“They’re not told they’re special.” He shared the narrative of the movie The Blind Side, about a poor child who’s given square meals, clothes, and his own room by a benevolent family. The impoverished communities are fishbowls. They don’t have new influences, or people showing them what’s possible. They need positive examples. To borrow from the 100 Black Men of America’s slogan, “What they see is what they’ll be.”

I believe the children are our future

Except for her ending, Whitney Houston had it right. These words ring even truer after hearing Otis Lyons’ story firsthand. RIP, Whitney…

From The Greatest Love of All:

I believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children’s laughter remind us how we used to be

Something new.

Improv art show.

Sidewalk sale. Sharpie tattoos. Us. You.

Yes?

Sometimes we need to hire photographers. It could be for events, for portraits, or for our clients’ web site imagery.

Here are some people we’ve gotten to know personally, and whom we love working with because they’re professional, talented, and probably most important: fun to be around. (Who wants to work with cranky artists? Not me! Yet, there are so very many…)

In the realm of commercial photography, there are 7 people who stand out as head and shoulders above everyone else, and I’d like to give them a shout-out here. Since I’ve personally worked with all of them, I can tell you from firsthand experience why I like them, and you’ll find the reasons are diverse. In this post, I wanted to give you an idea of how DK picks whom to call on for a project.

Largely, it boils down to this: what is it you’re trying to say with the images you want to make? Each photographer has a specific personality, and their style is what you hire.

In no particular order, here are our favorite photographers:

Seattle photographers and videographers we love

Patrick Wright took some portraits of our family with one of his bazillion very intriguing old-looking cameras. The first time I met him was at one of DK’s happy hours, and he took this really beautiful shot of a Belgian beer. Something about it: the poise, the moment, the total completeness of being right there and with it, made me take notice of Patrick after that. We were lucky he took some lovely portraits of our family in that same quality of style. Patrick also does amazing video work, like this video for DK. I would hire Patrick immediately if a project called for storytelling. Of naming the quality of a thing. Or, in less esoteric words, to be “real.” Note to bands, artists, and performers: Patrick’s work is worth checking out if you want to stand out as an individual with a unique voice. He is very tuned into finding that chord, sometimes in ways that illuminate for you who you are, simply by being photographed. Check out Patrick Wright’s site. Also see the cool video he made at the top of this page.

Victor Ng, our intern in Seattle in 2009, also takes portraits of people, often fitted with intriguing outfits and sometimes, curious hats. Even though he’s not in Seattle, he has roots there, and may be back from time to time. If you want to do something “out there” and fashion-related (clothiers, retailers, makeup artists, salons–I’m talking to you), check out Victor’s work. My hunch is he’ll be doing haute couture photos into the future.

Laura Totten took some photos of our family just before we left Seattle, and they are totally fun. She and her husband, Dave Knirk, shoot weddings, and you can tell that Laura loves to capture the fun parts of life. I still remember how she wore a tiara to the awesome 30th birthday party she invited me and Akira to. It was too fun.

I would hire Laura in a minute if I needed to capture something for “the heart”–portraits of people in love, of families together, or of older people holding hands on a front porch. Laura Totten, deffo. If you can catch her during her busy schedule, you will be very happy with her work. Find her Web site at Blissed Photography.

Anita Nowacka. I got to see Anita’s work for the first time on her Web site, where there are some intriguing portraits of boats. I can see that she loves nature and technique, too. Her photos are serene, in a way that says, “Take a breath now. Look around.” I would hire Anita for a project that called for that kind of expansive space: capturing the heart of the ambient room or atmosphere, and bringing that potion into the message. In other words, when the setting is as important as the subject. Anita, for sure. Here’s Anita’s Nowacka’s Web site.

Durham photographers we love

Jessie Gladin-Kramer. Last year in the weeks heading up to the winter holiday, DK needed a photographer to stage shots for digital images we were designing for a client’s seasonal promotion. As art directors, DK needed to come up with a look and feel, plus find a photographer whose work would match it. A mood board collage gave us a suite of colors and a general “vibe” for the series that would be important during this busy season, the single biggest window for the company to make its online sales. After asking around a bit and coming up empty, Akira suddenly remembered meeting Matt Dudek, the boyfriend of photographer Jessie Gladin-Kramer. I totally enjoyed how quickly she “got” the idea we were going for. It had been a long time since I’d seen someone with such a dedicated work ethic, too, to capture “the shot.” I was right there, on location with her, at a farm location she found and made happen on short notice when I said, “It would be nice to have some chickens in the background.” Jessie is resourceful, and thorough. I would hire her again if I had to create something very technical, like a brochure for a lifestyle or education company, or if a client of DK’s needed to add a little bit of “life” to its corporate suite of marketing images. I’m thinking architects, designers, and universities, for example. Jessie is from this area, but she’s also spent a considerable block of creative time in Boston, so there’s a strong New England influence in her work, in DK’s humble opinion. If you want to see what I mean, check out this cool book she made, Broken Umbrellas.

OMNI Photography is Jamila Davenport, a Durham native DK met through a shared appreciation for design, and especially, the design process. She was at Penland one summer, loving that experience, and trained at the Savannah College of Art and Design, too. Once I started to realize that Jamila, so unassuming at first, was a bubble of energy, I asked her to shoot some of my artwork and the opening for Today I Love You, my first solo show in Durham. Because we’re both process oriented, I thought she might want to see where I was going to use the images, what I already had on file, and how the new work was going to fit in to my new goal of building an art website. You can see the results here and here. She had a very sweet assistant come out to help, and it turns out they’ve known one another for the length of (his) life. It was quite a moment for me to see that someone could carry on such warm relationships over enduring periods. I admire that quality a lot.

I know for a fact Jamila wants to get more into food photography, so I would hire her immediately if I had a project come up again like our work for Row House Cafe, where strong images of food are a major part of telling the brand story. Connect with Jamila here.

Alex Manness. About a dozen years ago I met Alex through a subcontract I got as a freelance photographer for the Independent Weekly, where he was on staff. I was to help him come up with a series for their “Best of the Triangle” series. I’d never done anything like that before, but Alex was a great ‘”boss,” letting me have the freedom to make things he knew I wanted to make (architecture pictures, very boxy images, stuff with a bit of humor), and I was excited to share in a real, collaborative creative process. He really inspired what DK has become, today. I thought his portraits for the Independent were the best they ever ran, at least in the years I was in the Triangle (1993-2000) before heading abroad and west to find out what else was out there in the world. If I had a project where I needed to do a portrait, something honest and real, maybe a literary angle, I would totally ask Alex for a quote. Full disclosure: DK is jazzed to be working with him on a new service we’re offering called The Road to Awesome, which I can’t talk about too much just yet, but I can say it’s a short version of our branding process custom made for solopreneurs. Find Alex Maness’ site here.

“I’m thinking about trying out something new, maybe in Budapest,” I say to W. at lunch yesterday. I’m having green beans and hominy, and both the plate and I are baking in the 80 degree sun. “A short-term thing, I’m not sure what, exactly, but I just kinda feel like getting out and about and seeing it. I’ve never been.”

“The baths are nice,” W. says.

“I’m not sure about it, though. I mean, so many people… ugh. People think you can’t just keep up and moving around all the time. But I’m getting a little… um, bored.” I think about the call of the road from time to time, and wonder if I’ll get the chance to up and go flying off to Greece or Turkey or Finland sometime. My gut says yes.

W. doesn’t even have to think about this. “You’re a person who needs a lot of new input.”

When she said that, a little star floated into a popup bubble that formed atop my head.

She was dead-on.

W. and I went to high school together, and have known one another more than 20 years. Keeping in touch through longhand letters has made it really fun to see the changes over time, and I feel lucky to still know her well.

Since I’m able to be totally myself when we talk, I rambled about wanting to do something out of town soon, maybe even this summer, partly to get out of the heat, but mostly to just do something different. Inventing a short-term stay in Budapest, for example, since I am a fan of old architecture*, terrific cafes, foreign languages titillating the ear, and places I’ve never been. In short, culture and the new. (*And modern. I love Tokyo. I need to seriously publish my book of photos from Kyoto and Tokyo, it was finished in 96, and people who come over get to see it, and they like it, so… why not? I was going to say, “Why Not?” said Mike Mulligan, but I don’t know how many of you would appreciate that joke.)

Around the corner and up ahead

The closest I’ve come to Hungary is Prague, which I fell in love with instantly on a weeklong visit from Ireland, where Akira and I were based at the time. Around 2002. I was way overdressed for the Prague sun, (did I have my sheepswool socks and that red zipup Tragumna Knitwear sweater? I think so), and we cooled off with pilsners in tall glasses with our friend P., who’d crisscrossed Europe by rail with points intersecting with DK in Skibbereen and Prague. P. also likes lots of new input.

A lot of people think once you have a child, you have to stay put somewhere, but I’m not one of those people. I’m already looking at ways to go abroad again, and that is exactly the way we got to Skibbereen, Ireland, where we stayed for three and a half years. The quiet place shaped my life in ways no college experience ever could, and I want to do something like that again, especially while my son is still unruined by “the system,” aka SCHOOL, where you get the wide-eyed wonder of wondering knocked out of you in a huff. Sad.

Georgia

I told you all I was in the treehouse colony in Georgia a few weeks ago, right? Someone at Shakori Hills said I had to go, so I did. I guess you could say it was a way to “go somewhere” new, but not have to invest loads of time away and money (that we don’t have, really, since you know, I like to blog instead of do “business development” and stuff like that. That may have to change if I want to live in Europe a few months “for fun.”)

My trip to the woody lot where people escape reality was mixed. It was unnerving and intriguing at once, to be there I mean, and reminded me of all the things I loved about my early 20s: the road, newness, new people, strangers, potentiality, and all that’s ahead just around the bend. But it also reminded me I am a person who loves the real world, because that’s where we can jump in and get our hands dirty, and make little splashes of color here and there, and get people to think differently sometimes, just because of the undulations.

Input

W. is right. I am a person who often needs a lot of new input.

Sometimes I can get this by throwing mixers at our house, or roundtable gatherings for Orangutan Swing, or taking Greyhound (which two of the three Raleigh police I met on my way back told me they would never, ever do) just to get lost to find center.

Sometimes I like to think I’m still young enough to pop off to, say, India for a few months and kick around like I did twice in my 20s. I’d love to just go see what kind of poetry and stuff I’d make this time. Maybe it would be rotten. But maybe it wouldn’t. Still, I have to think about my family now. I have to go somewhere with the boss-man, and the Akira-man that would be more comfortable than elephant-walking Delhi.

Budapest?

Help me out, fellow wanderers and seekers.

Where else is good?