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I love work.  I love working.  Lately, work has been challenging, exciting, and has involved lots of creativity.  And the more I work, the happier I am.  The more I create, the more creative I feel.  The more challenged I feel, the harder I work to meet the challenge.  And the harder I work, the harder I play.  And that has its own benefits and drawbacks… but ultimately, it just serves to keep me focused.

I’m working as a designer and social media consultant for a recently founded new media consulting firm in Topeka. 

Our theory was like this: If you can’t find a job you like, why not create one?

It has been a long time since I’ve been so captivated by a documentary – but I watched Helvetica with a few friends last night, and I think I could probably quote parts of it now. I loved it.

Rarely, as a designer, do I get to be immersed in content created by someone else that is relevant to what I thoroughly love and do everyday, but this was exactly that.  A movie about type and design, and a broader discussion of design as an important part of life.

One of my favorite parts of the film (other than the “For Crystal Meth, call Christine” sign) was the clash between modernists like Wim Crouwel and Massimo Vignelli, postmodernists like David Carson, and then younger, more contemporary designers like Lars Müller.  I feel a lot like Müller when I design – I know the “rules” that the modernists set and the postmodernists broke - and I know the reasons for each – but I design by my own set of rules and motives.

A friend of mine made a great comment on twitter recently:

Sifting through my old journal entries has caused me to realize that I was basically intolerable until I had the age 15 years and 5 months.

And it reminded me to check out some of my old web sites and poetry that I host on GeoCities.  I’ve had http://www.geocities.com/kfgd since probably 1999 (when I was 13).  I made some really creative web sites, and it’s interesting to see what conventions I used.

I loved image rollovers. And I’m still pretty proud of this design.

And I stacked images all the time.  I don’t even remember how this works any more.

I figured out that huge graphics on the page look awesome, even if the mouseovers aren’t great or perfect.  And I may again use radioactivewriting as a brand – so let this be the copyright.

I made a nice opening page for the local neighborhood organization, but the internal pages are set in Courier and nearly impossible to read due to a heavy background. Blech!

I was also really weird.  I had an e-mail penpal in Iowa with whom I wrote a story about marshmallows that lived under a Wal-Mart and revolted against humans.  But my flame graphics are sweet – and a little ironic, considering one of the terrible crimes agains marshmallows is turning them into s’mores.  I don’t think the flames were on purpose, though.  Be sure to check out the ‘book’ page, where you can find the actual text of the story, and see the accompanying photo illustrations.  Pretty sure my dad helped me dye those marshmallows brown. Gross.

I also wrote lots of poetry from that time until I was about 18 or so, when I started writing songs for guitar.  I found some great excerpts:

You can’t expect me to bring home the bacon
If I’m always doing the cooking
Because I buy the drinks, the dinner, the tickets
And I don’t give a damn who’s looking

(Part of a poem I wrote when my girlfriend at the time refused to ever pay for dinner we went out to eat in public!)

“L is for the big word Love,
You’re the Big Bird I’m dreaming of”
Belted Oscar from the depths of his can

“And nine is for the times I cry
Each night that I can’t hold you tight”
Sang Big Bird, from far stage left

The two continued, harmonizing
Cameras rolling, just too surprising
100,000 eyes unblinking

“We’ll be together, no matter the norms,
Our eyes are open, now open yours,
Love should never be concealed”

They walked together, embraced each other
And turning away from facing each other,
They held hands and addressed the TV audience

“We’ve loved each other since Episode One,
And until last month, it was always fun,
But sharing’s best for everyone

“That’s why we’ve come to you today
We must do this, we have to say
We love each other and it’s staying that way”

(And this one is about a romance between Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird. But it has a nice message! I think I wrote this one three years ago.)

It’s nice to look back once in a while.  And hey, I guess that’s what blogs are for, too.

So, in the last three days, being unemployed, I’ve found time to make a pretty nice messenger bag.

On a slightly related note, if you’re looking to hire a full-time graphic designer in a entry- to mid-level position, please contact me!

Found on 20 Typefaces to Start a Designer’s Career.

Commuting by bike has taught me a few things about clothing materials and eating habits.

Wool is warm, but breathes.  Silk is soft, light and breathable.  Treated leather makes a great weather shell.

I feel bad immediately after I eat McDonald’s or drink pop.  I can’t do any of that and jump on a bike and ride 20 miles without feeling awful.

Bread is great and I can pretty much always eat it.

And today, I had an adventure into the world alternative milk.  That’s right, I had hempmilk with my corn flakes today.  And it was really pretty good.  My friend Andrew told me one day that he’s lactose intolerant, and that really everyone is to some extent.  That got me thinking that cow’s milk really isn’t that natural to be drinking mass quantities of.  So, milk with my cereal every morning is probably out. And I couldn’t find milk I liked in France, so I switched to soy milk there.  Why not go back?

As I get older and wiser and think more and more about investing in quality, I realize that makes a difference in the products I buy and the way I treat my body.  If I buy crappy food, I’m going to get crappy returns!

So I guess all this means I’m turning into a hippie.  But I’m not giving up my Levi’s or my Converses.

The more photos I see, the more I miss shooting film.

I miss the value of a photograph taken when you only have a roll of 24.  When you have a limited number of photos to take, you think about each one a little harder.  I miss planning my shots like that.

I love digital – because I know I’ll always have photos I can use, and I can always take more if I need to.  But the pictures I get from my first-generation Nikon D70 aren’t that great.  The color saturation is typically pretty poor.  I always have to pump them up in PhotoShop.  And even when I use my 50mm f1.8 lens, I’m still not that happy with my shots.

I know, I know, I need to upgrade.  People tell me I can’t be a professional and not shoot Canon.  I’m not sure that’s true, but I definitely need something newer and better than what I have if I want to keep shooting digital.  Or maybe, I’ll just switch back to my Pentax K1000 or my Nikon FE.  I’ll build a studio and darkroom in my dad’s house and I’ll be fine.  I’ll track down black and white film from some tiny dealer in New York, and buy processing chemicals in bulk.  I’ll probably have to buy a deep-freeze, too, just to keep the chemicals longer.  But my photos will be a bit more beautiful.

Maybe for the 10-megapixel camera I buy next, I will use only 128 or 256mb cards.  That way, I will have a limited number of shots per card, and I’ll have to think a little more about each one.

I’d love to set my sights on a new DSLR, but I just need a few more photo gigs before I can invest that kind of change in a tool which I won’t often use.  And by the time I have that change, there will be a newer, more expensive camera I’d rather have.  Ohhh well.