The desks of creatives

DESK, as its name implies is a very nicely designed site that “shows desks of the people that create.

(via Quipsologies)

Real-life paintings by Alexa Meade

by painting directly onto her subjects and photographing them in a variety of constructed and real-world environments, artist alexa meade conflates the worlds of painting, photography, and performance 'transit', 18x24" limited edition chromogenic print all images © alexa meade

american artist alexa meade creates her representational paintings directly on her subjects, covering people and objects in layers of acrylic paint before photographing them. the works offer an unusual conflation of painting, installation, and photography, as the three-dimensional forms are collapsed in space, taking on a 2D appearance in the prints. In her exhibitions, meade frequently paints over small rooms in which a human subject sits for the duration of the show, offering a performative aspect to her work.

These paintings blew my mind. Do yourself a favor and see the rest of the images. The concept and execution of this is just brilliant. 

Via Designboom

John Jay on Creativity

This is a wonderfully inspiring video for anybody in the creative profession. It's pure motivation.

Dribbble Rookie

For those of you who aren't familiar with dribbble, it's essentially a portfolio site of sorts, only a bit more informal. Designers post small previews (400x300px images) of projects they're working on, and other members of the community can comment, give feedback, etc. Membership to the site is invite only, so the quality of work that is displayed is inspiring to say the least.  

I was recently lucky enough to receive a dribbble invite through a contest on Aidan Hornsby's blog. My first dribbble shot is below. Click the image to view the post on dribbble:

Thanks again to Aidan Hornsby and Andy Smart for the invite!

Creative Mornings: Mike Monteiro

Mike Monteiro, of Mule Design, was a speaker for Creative Mornings recently and his talk was really refreshing to say the least. Instead of discussing design though, ( which would have also been nice), he decided to talk about the business aspect of design, the importance of making money, and having a good lawyer.

My personal experiences with the business aspects of design are a lot like the examples Mike outlines above, that is to say, I'm not good at it. I'm not sure if any new designer's are "good" at it. It's definitely a learned skill. These kind of talks, (designing + making money), should be more common. This topic is probably one of the most misunderstood yet most important aspects of being a designer. After all, we all need to get paid.

A quick side note: If I ever become a design professor, I'm bringing in a lawyer to help teach the students about this kind of stuff. I wish I had someone show me this when I was in college.

Hometowns on Dribbble

Created by designers on Dribbble, a unique collection of hometown pride. There are over 400 entries here. Via design work life.

Meet Buck

Buck is an ordinary guy. Well...if you except the "deer head" thing. And today, Buck is gonna spend this cool Sunday afternoon with his girlfriend who's so happy to see him (she's pretty much always happy). But when Buck find out that her father is not the sympathic and tolerant guy he excpected, the Sunday afternoon turns really bad.

There is some really great artwork in this animated short. I love the "digital painting" texture that was used in conjunction with the 3D. Wonderfully done fellas. Check out salesmanbuck.com to learn more.

Massimo Vignelli Documentary

Massimo Vignelli is perhaps one of my favorite designers. Although his work is rather stunning in itself, it is his personality and way that he speaks that truly intrigues me. A meeting with him for a day would be euphoric. The amount of knowledge that could be had just by listening in for even a few hours would be quite substantial. After watching the video four times already and working on the fifth, I’ve pulled what I feel are three of the most important pieces from this video.

Lines lasts longer.

Details lasts longer.

Good design lasts longer.

Many things come to mind after hearing Vignelli say this. All of which I try to apply to all of the design work I do. For example, a lot of the international style or Swiss design is simple. It is now very prominent in our inspiration folders—it is good design. If you’re done with the video now, watch it a second time. Perhaps you can pull some other insights from it.

(Via Wanken)

Wings: Making the Field Notes 2010 Fall Edition

Photo by Brandon Leedy

(via Pentagram)