I always like to keep an open mind about people. When we start saying why do all X do Y, we are potentially revealing our biases that we have accumulated. It’s easy to do, but it’s not always the right thing, and it’s potentially hurtful.
Author: lemsy
John LeMasney (lemsy) is an artist, graphic designer, and technology creative. He is located in beautiful Nelson County, VA, but works remotely with ease. Contact him at: lemasney@gmail.com to discuss your next creative project.
I saw this great post on Lifehacker (at http://lifehacker.com/5543914/do-not-covet-your-ideas) that I feel clarifies a big part of why I’m doing this project. This quote belongs to Paul Arden, and the Lifehacker post shows more of his related ideas. This idea rings true for me. It explains why all of my work, posts, and images are Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike licensed. It explains why I often will give presentations for free if the budget does not exist. It explains why I love open source software and open standards. I know it all comes back a hundred fold. Yes, I have a paying job, but in that job, I work to show what I know about topics in an open way. Yes, I often will be lucky enough to get a compensated presentation, but I try to pass on as much information as I can in those sessions, and I often ask people to contact me with follow-up questions or connect with me. Holding on to your ideas and knowledge with a tight grip does very little for you, and nothing for anyone else. For those of you who share so freely, thanks for all you do!
lemasney, creative commons, open source, inkscape, gimp, open, openness, freedom, sharing
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Peter Bromberg, a very good friend, suggested using a Tragically Hip lyric as a basis for a sketch.
Would you be willing to create a sketch illustrating the Tragically Hip Lyric, “Driving down a corduroy road/ Weeds standing shoulder high / Ferris wheel is rusting off in the distance. You can give it a listen here to get the vibe: Some more context at: http://www.facebook.com/l/e3d30;www.hipmuseum.com/100.html Thanks my friend, Pete
Thanks so much for the suggestion, Peter! It’s a great song, and I loved the visuals it evoked for me. I’d love to try this a few more times, as what I see in my head in response to the song is not quite what I was able to fit in 500px square, but that happens pretty often. 😉
The message here is a simple one — if you need a clear answer, a library is a great place to start. You may notice however, that I’ve broken a major design rule.
In this sketch, and some others that are coming up, I’ve tried to disregard the well known rule about no more than 2 fonts per design. The reason for the rule is that theoretically when you choose a new font you ask your viewer not only to adjust their reading continuity, but depending on the difference of font style, you may be asking them to stop and contemplate the differences in and of themselves, which could very easily get in the way of your primary function in communication: getting the message delivered clearly. I’d say that in my case, at least for these sketches, my primary function is to get viewers to notice font forms as shapes, to make you stop for a moment and contemplate form versus function, and also, to a lesser extent, deliver some message. So, yes, I know you’re not supposed to generally, but knowing the rules and the reasons for them help you to break them sensibly. I hope I’ve done that here.
This is another quirky look at what happens when you take one ordinary object and another ordinary object and put them together in an unexpected way. I want one, myself. In Inkscape, I used the rectangle tool and node editor to quickly sketch out an armchair. Then, I used the calligraphy tool to create wings. Hope you like it!
I really love the new spraypaint tool in Inkscape’s 0.48 beta, likely to be released this summer. I’ve begun using it quite a bit to create spontaneous backgrounds and textures, such as this one. Normally, you’d have to create an item, then drag it about the canvas, choosing where to lay duplicates with the spacebar, rotate them all individually, then choose to bring all of those shapes together withe the combine path operation. With the spraypaint tool, you can do all of those steps in one movement. It’s amazing for a certain kind of productivity. Hope you like the effect!