Here’s a (very incomplete) list of the things I've been looking into this week:
I’m a sucker for a punchy title. Mine tend to be a little more drama infused than I like to admit (a process I will need to address at some point), but a clear, kind of clickbaity title is just fun. That’s how Eve Arnold grabbed me with the title, “The Real Reason Nobody is Subscribing to Your Newsletter”. The takeaway? Focus on distribution. That’s how you gain eyeballs. And yes, I know it’s kind of a 101 / candy article, but remember, I’m a noob. I need to know the tricks.
Also, to quote the wonderful fictional William Forrester from the film, Finding Forrester: “I read The Times for dinner, but this (reference to reading the National Enquirer)?” “This is my dessert.”Started the Domestika course, Impactful Book Cover Design: An Art Director's Perspective with John Gall, CD at Knopf Doubleday. While the courses are rather short, I’m getting used to extracting important information from them. Do we really need classes that are 12 weeks long? I think so, but there is a case for getting the Cliff Notes version of a topic as well.
I particularly like the small bits of knowledge I gain that fill in small holes in my foundation of knowledge. One such bit from this class was on the history of dust jackets and their purpose as nothing more than protection for the cover of a hardback book. They were initially meant to be thrown away before being added to a library. It was not until midway through the last century that readers started seeing them as art pieces that should be kept.I accidentally stumbled upon the book Sic by Henry Rollins, frontman for the seminal punk band, Black Flag. I’ve read a lot of Rollins’ work over the years and all of it is captivating and full of sadness and chaos. Sic is no different. Three years of journal entries from 2019 - 2022 make you realize how powerful and how vulnerable Rollins is. His ability to story tell coupled with an honesty that feels a little like rubbing sandpaper all over your naked body is what keeps me coming back to his work.
I don’t want to ruin the context, but here are three quotes I highlighted for my own notes: “Creativity, when used correctly, is a curse.”, “For most people, mediocrity is a perfect long-range life plan and for the sake of their well-being, they should stick with it.”, and finally, “What they call freedom in USA is abandonment. You’ve been left to make it or not.” Some of these may sound harsh, but context is the great illuminator, and that is best left in the hands of Mr. Rollins.Finally, I’m generally reading somewhere in the neighborhood of 7-8 books at any given time. It’s a wonderful side effect of my neurodivergent brain. Focus on one book for a bit, get bored, move to the next, get bored, repeat. Go neurons!
I’m a big cover design guy, and while I won’t ditch a book because of a poorly designed cover, I will often tend to not expect much of the content as I get into it. Sometimes I’m surprised, and that always makes me happy.
I started a new book called Logo Design Theory by A. Michael Shumate, a professor at St. Lawrence College. The book cover is horrible (sorry, Michael), but the content inside the book is unbelievably good — especially for young designers who want to learn the fundamentals. The book’s title is a little misleading in that it does address logo design, but its real focus is on core design principles and applying them to corporate design (logos included).
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