The Graphic Design Diary of Scott Landells

Creating Analog My personal reflections on:  Steal Like an Artist   by Austin Kleon, Chapter 4. I wrote a poem to summarize Chapter 4. Making things by hand lifts the spirit and makes you feel good. Computers restrict direct contact with your work. Analog work imbues a part of you in to your design. The act of making starts creative thinking in the brain. Analog work engages most of the human senses. Smell, sight, sound and touch are important human traits to use during the making process.* Analog work generates better ideas than digital work. Computers are good for editing and publishing ideas. Find a balance between the analog and digital worlds. Each one has unique benefits. * (Please don't taste your work, unless it is edible.) Analog tools. Started drawing a skull. Getting the basic shapes down. Added scary. Then I turned the skull in to this.   Added emotion. Dr...

This week the class assignment was to read chapter three from Austin Kleon’s book, Steal Like an Artist. Chapter Three is titled Write the Book You Want to Read . Don’t worry. I haven’t changed careers again. In chapter three, Kleon is essentially trying to prescribe a problem solving skill to unlocking creative thinking. He’s saying don’t worry about what other people like. According to Kleon, t his type of thinking blocks ideas. Rather we should just make what we like and eventually this act will lead to other ideas. Now we should note that he leads his argument with “we make art because we like art.” If you’re an artist, his words may give you inspiration. However, this blog is primarily for graphic designers. Do graphic designers really have that luxury? I don’t know. I’m not a paid graphic designer yet. I am going to bet it’s very far and few between. Nevertheless, what I will take away from this chapter is the self-guided affirmative philosophy behind Kleon’s message. It’...

This week we move on to Chapter 2 of " Steal Like an Artist."  Chapter 2 is titled  "Don't Wait Until You Know Who You Are To Get Started." In summary, Kleon is saying just do it. Just act like an artist. Talk like an artist. Do artist like things. Make stuff. People will start to think of you as an artist if you play the role. In other words, fake it until you make it. That's right. Play the role until you get the part. Understanding the difference between plagiarizing and practice is also important.  On page 20, the author says, "Don't steal the style, steal the thinking behind the style." I think Kleon means he wants you to try and understand what is it the artist is trying to communicate. Understand how your heroes see, don't just copy their work.  How would I do this? I would try to understand the message behind the style. What is the style trying to convey and how did the artist reach express that message. For example, Art Ch...

See list bibliography list below. Austin Kleon recommends we should always be reading. He describes the library as a magical place. I particularly like it when he said, "It's not the book you start with, it's the book that book leads you too." I do that a lot of the time when I am surfing Youtube. I start out watching a documentary about  Popcorn Sutton  and end up learning  how to salt, cure and smoke whole pigs  in country shed.  Kleon wants you to pay attention to the bibliography sections of books. And he promotes the building your own personal library, even if you don't plan on reading them anytime in the near future. I like this advice. I've always wanted to have a room full of books. Something reflective of what in my brain or what I would like to have in my brain.  The picture of ten books you see above are books I checked out of the Parkland Library that I would like to read. I chose books based on my research for Art Chantry. I st...