Austin Kleon

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SILHOUETTES AND PROFILES

So I was listening to the “Hair” episode of Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour, and halfway through it went something like this:

Dylan: I ran into Matt Groening at the comic book store. He took time out from buying the new Superman to talk to me…

Matt Groening: The secret of designing cartoon characters — and I’m giving away this secret now to all of you out there — is: you make a character that you can tell who it is in silhouette. I learned this from watching Mickey Mouse as a kid. You can tell Mickey Mouse from a mile away…those two big ears. Same thing with Popeye, same thing with Batman. And so, if you look at the Simpsons, they’re all identifiable in silhouette. Bart with the picket fence hair, Marge with the beehive, and Homer with the two little hairs, and all the rest. So…I think about hair quite a lot.

Groening has said this in quite a few interviews. I made the graphic above to test it out. It reminds me of what Saul Steinberg said about profiles:

profiles.gif

UM, IT LOOKS DIFFERENT AROUND HERE…

Those of you who visit the actual website and don’t read this blog via RSS will notice that I’ve redesigned.  I threw out the sidebar and went for a big ol’ wide single column.  I’m hoping this stripped-down style will be better for posting comics and sketchbook pages.

Now if I could just get around to posting some.  The trouble with working the web for a living is that the last thing you want to do when you get home is sit in front of a computer screen.  I’d much rather sit in front of the TV screen.  (And play Resident Evil on the Wii…)

WHAT IT TAKES TO BE AN INFORMATION DESIGNER

This is a “self-portrait” by Nigel Holmes from Steven Heller’s book, Nigel Holmes on Information Design, that came to me by way of Mark Larson by way of Michael Surtees:

WHAT IT TAKES TO BE AN INFORMATION DESIGNER: A SELF-PORTRAIT by Nigel Holmes

My chart might look like this:

  • 25% easy access to both sides of the brain
  • 25% drawing and writing treated as equals
  • 15% curiosity
  • 10% computer skills
  • 25% sense of humor
  • 25% curiosity about the world

I changed my list. That sense of humor is important — as is curiosity.

DID WE BRING EAST CLEVELAND WITH US?

I pass one of the best comic shops in Austin on my way to work every day: Austin Books. After 2 or 3 weeks I still haven’t found the time to stop by. And so yesterday I was really worried because I saw a bunch of cop cars outside the shop. Turns out everything is okay: somebody threw a brick through the window and was looking for cash, but amazingly, there was no cash to be stolen, and none of the comics got ruined. I’ve always heard what a great, safe city Austin is, but since we’ve moved here, my car has been stolen, a church two blocks away from us was set on fire by an arsonist, and now the local comics shop gets broken into. WTF, Austin?

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