Fail at Full Speed

A few weeks back I posted about the artists that inspire me.  Last night I had the chance to talk to one of these artists, Nathan Yoder, on the phone for an informational interview.

After discussing everything from his recent move to California, to how Sevenly, the company he works for, operates, to how we both deal with creative block, the interview was over and I was left with the notes I jotted down.  "If you're going to fail, fail at full speed!" something Nathan's football coach told him, really stuck with me above everything else.

Today, I broke out my brush pen and created a typography treatment based on the quote!

First time on a printing press

For being as infatuated as I am with hand-printed posters, I can't believe it took me until almost halfway through my junior year to print one for myself.

Today, with the instruction of my good friend and teacher Don Kilpatrick, I printed an edition of 50 posters from a linoleum cut design I made.  The posters are for the punk rock band I play in, The Directive, and are going to be shipped out with the first 50 orders of our new EP.

I printed on Vandercook press and after the first couple prints fell in love with using this machine. There is something very relaxing and meditative about the repetitious process of printing. The (roughly) 2 hours I spent alone in the printshop didn't drag on or seem lonely at all.  The sound Frank Turner playing from my phone, the rain falling outside, and the mechanical noises produced by the press with each print I would complete made for a great soundtrack to the experience.

Today really reinforced my idea that a print made by hand is not just the image on the paper, but an embodiment of the entire experience of printing that went into creating it.  Today's session was the first in what will hopefully be a lifetime of afternoons spent printing.

First Infographic Experience

As an illustrator and designer my job is to translate ideas into an image.  Often times this comes in the form of a logo, poster, tattoo or shirt design, or painting. But this week I was presented with the new task of creating an infographic.

An infographic is exactly what it sounds like, a graphic that displays information.  Having never created an official ‘infographic’ before, I was a bit unsure how to go about doing it.  After sketching up some thumbnails I quickly came to the realization that all the images I create are infographics, they are just not presented as such. 

Bringing together a combination of type treatments, poster design, and logo-like illustrations, I created this infographic on how to successfully run a facebook contest.

Moral of the story: Don’t dwell on categories and genres and approach any task like you know what you’re doing.  Chances are, you really do.