Do you “pin”? Most of you have probably caught the Pinterest bug by now, it’s contagious.

I love pinning because it I am a very visual person; looking at, and collecting images inspires and motivates me. Some people are motivated from within – they have a clear vision based on information, lessons, and images they have already processed and digested to make into their own. This kind of person can often formulate and carry out ideas based on what they already know (that’s not to say they do not let new ideas influence their choices though!). Visual thinkers tend to be make decisions on what they like and don’t like by seeing their choices and either gravitating toward them, or rejecting them. Visual thinks tend to allow their ideas and opinions and styles to change pretty easily, and are often tuned into trends rather than classics. I haven’t really thought this idea all the way through, but these ideas had me thinking this morning.

I was wondering what pin is the most popular on Pinterest – does it change with the trends? or is a more timeless image? From my own pin boards two images get re-pinned more than any others:

This image, from wallquotedecals.com, was something I collected as I looked for wall murals for a work project. I don’t love the image, because the “mural” is obviously photoshopped into the room. But it gets re-pinned dozens of times a day.

The second-most pinned image of mine is this one, a clever typographic image I first saw in a post of graphic designs influenced by animal imagery on youthedesigner.com.

I’m not a taurus, but I suspect many people who re-pin it are? I do live in Bull City however, and often collected bull-inspired images when I was making a logo and identity package for my daughter’s hair salon, called Bull City Salon.

So, do you pin? Which of your collected images gets re-pinned the most?

The selection here is my wishlist – one of these will be mine this year. (Note that the Hollandia frame that is so inexpensive is a single speed – it will need a new rear wheel and shifters, and a 3 or 8 internal hub added to it; with labor, likely another $400-$500.

I’m in the market for a new bike. After living in Holland I got really used to the traditional Dutch geometry of many of the bikes there. I modified a vintage schwinn step-thru but it’s just not right. I’ll share some pictures of what’s on my wishlist tomorrow.

Today, this statistic has me thinking:

Hit someone at 40mph, 70% chance they’ll die.

Hit someone at 30mph, 80% chance they’ll live.

Oh my god I am in love with these accessories. Machine knit in the tiniest of gauges. Beautiful. By Elinor Voytal.

Found Here

Love this wallpaper that looks like knit stretch ribbing. Perfect for the studio.

Found Here

This website has many more equally fascinating animations. So cool. I could watch these for hours.

This made me smile today.

So many beautifully said things in this collection of advice for  graphic design students by Frank Chimero – and so much is applicable to other professions.

Design does not equal client work.

It’s hard to make purple work in a design. The things your teachers tell you in class are not gospel. You will get conflicting information. It means that both are wrong. Or both are true. This never stops. Most decisions are gray, and everything lives on a spectrum of correctness and suitability.

Look people in the eyes when you are talking or listening to them. The best teachers are the ones who treat their classrooms like a workplace, and the worst ones are the ones who treat their classroom like a classroom as we’ve come to expect it. Eat breakfast. Realize that you are learning a trade, so craft matters more than most say. Realize that design is also a liberal art. Quiet is always an option, even if everyone is yelling. Libraries are a good place. The books are free there, and it smells great.

If you can’t draw as well as someone, or use the software as well, or if you do not have as much money to buy supplies, or if you do not have access to the tools they have, beat them by being more thoughtful. Thoughtfulness is free and burns on time and empathy.

The best communicators are gift-givers.

Don’t become dependent on having other people pull it out of you while you’re in school. If you do, you’re hosed once you graduate. Keep two books on your nightstand at all times: one fiction, one non-fiction.

Buy lightly used. Patina is a pretty word, and a beautiful concept.

Develop a point of view. Think about what experiences you have that many others do not. Then, think of what experiences you have that almost everyone else has. Then, mix those two things and try to make someone cry or laugh or feel understood.

Design doesn’t have to sell. Although, that’s usually its job.

Think of every project as an opportunity to learn, but also an opportunity to teach. Univers is a great typeface and white usually works and grids are nice and usually necessary, but they’re not a style. Helvetica is nice too, but it won’t turn water to wine.

Take things away until you cry. Accept most things, and reject most of your initial ideas. Print it out, chop it up, put it back together. When you’re aimlessly pushing things around on a computer screen, print it out and push it around in real space. Change contexts when you’re stuck. Draw wrong-handed and upside down and backwards. Find a good seat outside.

Design is just a language, it’s not a message. If you say “retro” too much you will get hives and maybe die. Learn your design history. Know that design changes when technology changes, and its been that way since the 1400s. Adobe software never stops being frustrating. Learn to write, and not school-style writing. A text editor is a perfectly viable design tool. Graphic design has just as much to do with words as it does with pictures, and a lot of my favorite designers come to design from the world of words instead of the world of pictures.

If you meet a person who cares about the same obscure things you do, hold on to them for dear life. Sympathy is medicine.

Scissors are good, music is better, and mixed drinks with friends are best. Start brave and brash: you can always make things more conservative, but it’s hard to make things more radical. Edit yourself, but let someone else censor you. When you ride the bus, imagine that you are looking at everything from the point of view of someone else on the ride. If you walk, look up on the way there and down on the way back. Aesthetics are fleeting, the only things with longevity are ideas. Read Bringhurst and one of those novels they made you read in high school cover to cover every few years. (Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby.)

Stop trying to be cool: it is stifling.

Most important things happen at a table. Food, friends, discussion, ideas, work, peace talks, and war plans. It is okay to romanticize things a little bit every now and then: it gives you hope.

Everything is interesting to someone. That thing that you think is bad is probably just not for you. Be wary of minimalism as an aesthetic decision without cause. Simple is almost a dirty word now. Almost. Tools don’t matter very much, all you need is a sharp knife, but everyone has their own mise en place. If you need an analogy, use an animal. If you see a ladder in a piece of design or illustration, it means the deadline was short. Red, white, black, and gray always go together. Negative space. Size contrast. Directional contrast. Compositional foundations.

Success is generating an emotion. Failure is a million different things. Second-person writing is usually heavy-handed, like all of this.

Seeking advice is addicting and can become a proxy for action. Giving it can also be addicting in a potentially pretentious, soul-rotting sort of way, and can replace experimenting because you think you know how things work. Be suspicious of lists, advice, and lists of advice.

Everyone is just making it up as they go along.

This about sums up everything I know.

Found Here

“Richard Hutten’s Playing With Tradition carpets blend traditional paisley motifs with a striped pattern that brings to mind either a barcode or an image in the process of loading.” Love it!

Found Here

One of these days we are going to be updating some of our kitchen; I want to use pennies as the backsplash. Look at this fabulous closet/dressing room (in a retail space?) that has pennies entirely covering the walls and the door! I have seen pennies on a bar, and I’ve seen a photo of pennies used as flooring in a diner, but I think this is my favorite application yet. It seems glamorous and earthy at the same time. Beautiful.

What a great idea! Found on ffffound, from a flickr photo. Maybe because I am on my bike everyday now, I think this is genius. Not for sale, as far as I know, but I imagine you can buy this reflective material online or maybe even at your local fabric store.

Found Here: Martin Wilson. Via Photojojo