I'll start on the topic of design.
Recently I have been reading quite a bit over at Design Observer and it seems they have a recurring theme. There have been several articles in the past month examining the different ways to create *things*. Craft, they seem to be saying, is a special thing. And attention to the process of creating something is in some ways becoming less and less important in the design world. I am not saying the writers are a group of luddites, or that they even hint that computers and efficiency are ruining design. Which is what I thought I was reading when I first noticed this pattern of topics in the articles. What I gathered from reading these articles though, was basically a reaffirmation of my own beliefs about design and process. Balance is a good thing in all aspects of existence, including design. Just because you always set type on your computer and can precisely position every object down to the pixel (or smaller) doesn't mean that's always the best way. Designers used to hand-set type, maybe there is nothing wrong with going back and attempting to do something like that sometimes, even if just for fun. There was a great comic posted a few weeks ago that I thought fit perfectly with this idea. It made me laugh, I enjoyed it on a comedic level, but I also respected it as the critique it was undoubtedly intented to be, some of us are loosing where it all came from.
The comic, from Married to the Sea:
Reading that article on velvet touch lettering really made me think about my style. I want to include more non-digital pieces in my work. My girlfriend's roommate has one of those old electronic Brother typewriters and after seeing it one day, I immediately wanted to have one of my own. Random users, over the course of a few days, had written various sentences on a single sheet of paper in the typewriter. Accompanying these phrases were ink blotches, deleted letters, and even folds in the paper. All of these jumbled elements created a visually interesting and inspiring *thing*. Very similarly, DO did an article on makeready proof sheets, the pieces of paper that, once upon a time, would run through a printing press to get the ink balanced and ready for the run.
The random marks you get from doing things like these, things not on a computer, things that still have the touch of human imperfection, are becoming more and more intriguing to me. And I hope my fellow artists and designers see some merit in these articles, and maybe even this post. Efficiency is not always the key, exploration and mistakes often benefit people and movements in important ways.
-z
