The physical side of our studio is taking shape. Porta-Trace, X-ACTO knives, pens, rules, etc. have all gotten moved into their new digs.
“If a brand is making a promise that you’re going to feel better about yourself if you buy it, they’re making a false promise. Human beings metabolize their purchases very quickly. … This is an element of what social psychologists call “the hedonic treadmill”: If you’re always looking to validate yourself and get satisfaction from buying stuff or having a bigger house, then you’re on an endless, addictive treadmill. There’s no enduring satisfaction to this. If a brand’s only purpose is to get you on that hedonic treadmill, it might be good for business in the short run, but in the long run, you’re doomed. If you look at the components of long-term well-being, it has nothing to do with material goods. Once you’re past a certain level of material well-being, people’s long-term happiness and wellbeing is about having deep personal relationships, believing in something larger than themselves, and doing something meaningful that they enjoy.” — Dan Pink on the psychology of consumer culture and how marketers manipulate it. Pair with the science of whether money can buy you happiness. (via explore-blog)
Trendiness in branding can only take you so far. A successful brand relationship is based on deeper attachments than what lies on the surface. Look at the bones and flesh of a brand, not just the skin.
(Source: , via explore-blog)
I’m trying to decide if this tweet is intentionally or unintentionally douchebaggy.
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I’ve been dusting off my darkroom this week, in preparation for some big projects related to historic preservation documentation of 19th-century mine sites and structures in Colorado. It’s been great to face the darkroom again, as I haven’t really touched it in a while (raising twins+1 all under age 9 takes time!), and it’s good to get the monkey of inertia off my back and get printing again.
(Photo: my trusty water mixing valve above the darkroom sink)
Typography: Boldly going where no one has gone before.
George Takei makes a typography funnay.
It’s 4/20 tomorrow. The first 4/20 since Colorado legalized the Herb. Celebrate with one of my flavorful stickers!
I sometimes post snippets of projects I’m working on, so people can see what I’m up to and give me feedback (nothing complete is posted until the project is released into the wild, of course). Mostly these are conceptual ideas, and things I’m doing for myself. have a look and let me know what you think!
This magic moment won’t last.
I’ve compiled a semi-serious list* that illustrates what a miracle it is that any print project gets printed correctly, ever. Even though printing technology has been around for hundreds of years, each year it gets more complex, with more potential variables, and each variable introduces a potential breaking point. So when a client gets a job from the printer, and calls to tell me how great it looks, I say a little silent thank you to the ghosts of Gutenberg, Lord Stanhope, and Barclay.
25 ways a print job can get f*cked up:
*Not that I’ve done any of these things, or that they’ve ever happened to me. For the record, all my pressmen are saints and my print reps are the angels that flutter by their side.