Search Results for: log book

TEDxAUSTIN ON STICKY NOTES

Monday, February 22, 2010

[ Watch a high-quality HD version on Vimeo ]

I was invited to draw TEDxAustin this weekend. I was skeptical about an event that was so secretive about its contents beforehand, but it far exceeded my expectations. It was well-planned, well-executed, and had a stellar lineup of speakers. I bumped into lots of great people and had some good conversations. Kudos to the team, and thanks to my buddy Sunni Brown for the invite!

The theme of the day was “Play Big,” so I decided to do something special: I drew the background stage and the studio in my sketchbook, then drew the speakers on sticky notes. I wasn’t sure what I was going to with all the drawings, and then the idea of making a video popped into my head. The video was shot with my Aiptek HD camcorder and cobbled together in QuickTime Pro on my slow-as-molasses Mac Mini. Watch the results. (Be sure to click HD!)

Favorites? As someone who hates answering the question, “What do you do?,” Steven Tomlinson’s talk about keeping all your interests in play really hit home. I also loved Carrie Contey’s talk on the power of the pause. John Philip Santos had some terrific images in his talk on genealogical genetics. Both the musical acts, Ruby Jane and John Pointer, were really impressive.

If written notes are your thing, John Lebkowsky has some great ones.

Here’s a photo that Shane Guiter took of me during a break (annotations mine):

See scans of all the sticky note drawings after the jump or on Flickr.

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OLD MEDIA / OLD NEWS SHOW IN ST. LOUIS

Friday, January 29, 2010

Those of you who live in or near St. Louis: there will be an art show featuring some digital projections of my blackout poems at The Luminary Center for the Arts starting with an opening reception tomorrow, Saturday, January 30th from 6PM-9PM. The show runs until March 27th.

Unfortunately, I won’t be at the opening reception. Plane tickets ain’t cheap, and with the book coming out soon, I have to save up my travel funds. It’s too bad, because some of my favorite creative fellas live there: Dave Gray, Bill Keaggy, Dan Zettwoch, Kevin Huizenga…it’s a town with a bunch of good brains in it, and I’ve always wanted to visit.

Maybe next time. If you go, take an iPhone snap for me and send it my way.

THE BUILDER AND THE KEEPER: A FEW THOUGHTS ON WEB DESIGN

Saturday, January 23, 2010

I don’t blog much about my web design work, because as Bob Dylan sang in “The Hurricane,”

Its my work…and I do it for pay
And when its over I’d just as soon go on my way

I spend 8 hours a day in a cubicle designing websites, so the last thing I want to do when I come home is work on more websites or blog about web design.

Consider this an exception.

Building websites is not my passion. My passion is spreading ideas. Designing information in a way that gets it quickly into your brain.

For me, websites are means to an end. A website can only be as interesting as the content contained within it. That’s why there are beautiful sites that mean nothing, and that’s why there are all kinds of crappy-looking, crappy-functioning websites out there that do just fine: because the content kicks ass. (If you’re at all interested, check out Kristina Halvorson on “The Discipline of Content Strategy.”)

I try to make sure that all my design starts with the content — this is really hard to do in a company or a college or any other big, bureaucratic setting, because most folks have no idea what they’re trying to do or say with a website. All they know is they need a website, and it needs to have flashy video and pretty pictures. But what about the content? I ask. What are you saying? Who are you talking to? What do you want to happen?

Sites like my friend Curtis Miller’s (I built this site for him last year) are much easier, because the content is clear: the paintings and drawings and prints. The goal is getting eyeballs on them.

Curt’s work is big, intricate, and colorful, so I didn’t want to bother fussing with the web design too much — all we needed was to get images of Curt’s work online with as little distraction as possible. Too often artist websites feature fancy Flash slideshows (which makes them unusable on iPhones), no descriptive text (so Google has no way to index the pages), no permalinks so that people can link to their favorite work, and worst of all, no RSS feed so fans can keep up with their new work and upcoming events.

All that is solved here by using WordPress. I built off of the Starkers theme and the 960 grid system to make a site for Curt that felt more like a traditional artist portfolio, but offered all the goodies and functionality of a blog.

For me, web design is more math than art: the content is X, and I solve the problem around that variable. I start with some kind of constraint, make a couple of calculations, set up a grid, and doodle in my sketchbook:

Once I have the sketches, I start on the code. And tweak and tweak until it’s done.

And once it’s done, I hand it over. I give it to Curt and it’s up to him what he wants to do with it. As pretty as the site might be at the handoff, it’s at the mercy of whatever content he chooses to put up there.

Since I think of myself first and foremost as a writer, this ultimately ends up as an unsatisfying transaction for me. It’s like if you wrote someone a story, but only handed them the outline and the first paragraph. The story isn’t finished. It’s just begun. Where does it go?

How does the site evolve? Who uses it?

I don’t know. I just built the damned thing.

Lots of people say web design is like architecture (I personally like to think of it as cartography), so if it fails, it fails for all the reasons that architecture does: the architect designs for the grand opening, for the ribbon cutting. The people ooh and ah over the shiny new materials, the architect shakes hands, and collects his check. How the building settles over the years, how the inhabitants use the space as their needs change…what does he care? He’s on to the next project.

The ultimate scenario would be if each building had a builder and a keeper, and the builder and the keeper were the same person.

Like my dad’s barn: he built it so that he could use it. He is the builder and the keeper. When he needs the building to do something else, he adds on to it. When he needed a place to store his hay, he built a hay mow. When he needed a place to hang out, he built a tack room.

Which is why I love this website so much. I built it four or five years ago. When I need a page for my new book, I build one. If I need a storefront, I build one.

I am the builder and the keeper.

2009: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Thursday, December 31, 2009

A few folks seemed to enjoy my Tweet earlier this month:

I have several friends who feel the same way: they’re more than ready for 2010.

For me, the year was colored by a setback at the end of January, when I learned my book release would be pushed back seven months to April 2010. At that point, I’d worked on the book seven months, it was eight months til the original release date of September. Another year and four months seemed like an eternity. In hindsight, it worked out fine: I did a big round of edits to the final manuscript in April, the fall book release schedule was incredibly loaded with heavy-hitters, and now I’m more prepared for the release. But it was tough.

The rest of the year felt like I was stuck in a holding pattern. Where to go next?

Still, there were some highlights.

The best thing I can say about February is that it bought me my first pair of cowboy boots. A perfect ending to the month that I’ve always joked is “a good month to die”, I spent the 28th in College Station.

20 days out of March we had out-of-town guests in our house, but despite the exhaustion, I met some great folks at my first SXSW, and had my first TV appearance. (Any month that ends with seeing Neko Case on the 31st can’t be all bad.)

April brought the biggest life change of the year: our dog, Milo!

Late May, my wife got her master’s, and the Vizthink Visual Note-Taking webinar was a smash hit, which later led to our accepted 2010 panel at SXSW.

In June, the official 2010 Texas Summer of Heat and Death began. The coolest thing I did was silkscreen Newspaper Blackout prints with my buddy, Curt Miller. I also saw a terrific taping of Austin City Limits with St. Vincent. My wife and I came up with an idea for a book, which we’re working on now, but I can’t say anything about…

July and August boiled my memory.

September I had my first religious experience with Texas BBQ in Lockhart. At the end of the month we released our 20×200 prints.

October, the weather broke.

November I taught my first college class, and had a terrific Thanksgiving with our friends.

The 1st of December brought galleys of the book, as if to answer January.

So here we are.

What I learned this year is that even the most modest success comes with a lot of paperwork. A book isn’t done when you turn in the manuscript. There’s a lot of logistical crap you have to deal with, and if you don’t keep doing your job–read, investigate, dream, make up cool shit–you will be brought down. There were a few side projects that kept me exploring (I’m thinking most of my tea drawings and de-signs), but overall, I kept too busy. I didn’t read enough, I didn’t relax enough, I didn’t allow enough space for myself to grow.

But then, that’s why we tick time off in years: we can say goodbye to all that, and start over.

Thanks to everyone for reading, sharing links, buying prints…y’all are awesome.

2010, here we come.

MY LISTENING YEAR, 2009

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

10 good albums I listened to this year:

	1. white denim – fits At the moment, my favorite band. Saw these guys twice this year — once at Antone’s, once at The Mohawk.
	2. bill callahan – sometimes i wish we were an eagle My favorite songwriter — at this point, he seems incapable of making a bad record.
	3. the monks – black monk time A record from 1966 at #3? Yep.
	4. the beatles – stereo box set Speaking of records from the 60s… The Beatles’ intentions be damned, skip the mono versions, and go for the stereo. They sound amazing.
	5. cass mccombs – catacombs I first heard McCombs’ “That’s That” on a White Denim radio show. I went out and bought all his records. This album is probably the best entry point to his stuff.
	6. dirty projectors – bitte orca I blasted Rise Above during my bus rides last year, while I was making the book, and although that record is still my personal favorite, this one might be even better.
	7. animal collective – merriweather post pavilion Yeah, this is as good as everyone says it is.
	8. atlas sound – logos / megamixes / 7 inches Do yourself a favor: go subscribe to Bradford Cox‘s blog. Not only does he give us Deerhunter and Atlas Sound records, he’s constantly posting these amazing megamixes and free 7 inch singles. If only every musician was so generous.
	9. phoenix – wolfgang amadeus phoenix Phoenix! What a cool pop band. Watch them tear up Letterman and try not to be impressed. This album isn’t perfect, but it’s great.
	10. st. vincent – actor Her Austin City Limits taping was the best live show I saw this year. Amazing.