Kendrick Lamar's new album is madness. So. Good.
My favorite song (warning: explicit) is "For Free?" It's an interesting combination of jazz instrumentation underneath a smooth, syncopated flow.
Traveling alone
I took a plane east last week, and landed for the first time in New York City. My backpack was filled with art supplies, several books that I stupidly thought I would get through, and my trusty notebook (Harriet the Spy anyone?)
It was my first time really traveling alone. I didn't know what to expect from New York. I was brimming with excitment to see such an iconic city, but at the same time utterly in knots because multiple people warned me to "stay out of allies" and "don't go out alone at night". Would I be safe traveling on my own? Was I going to get mugged... or worse?
But once I walked out my hotel the first morning and into the "fresh" air of Midtown, I felt my insides settle. It was exactly how I pictured it! Locals dressed in an unlikely combo of corporate work attire and bright nikes on their way to work. The markets on every corner had an array of the most interesting foods and plenty of vegan options to satisfy my breakfast rumblings. And the trees... the trees were all in bloom! I passed a couple parks on 5th avenue on my way toward Central Park, and I could feel that New York was going to treat me just fine.
I ate at vegan cafes and painted in every urban park I stumbled upon. I walked the highline, I stopped in the Chelsea market. I talked to some people playing chess about bullshit degrees that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and I gawked at the designer window displayes like a kid in an 80's movie. I pretended I was a hippie, and pretended I was a New Yorker, then I pretended I knew where I was going, and I also let myself get lost. I preteneded I was Harriet the spy, writing down descriptions of Subway characters and rants I heard out on the street. But after all of this, I left New York for my humble apartment in Sunnyvale Calfiornia and felt the playful elation slip away.
It was non-stop bliss in New York, but when I came back I was forced to aknowledge everything I left behind for that week. I had errands to run, papers to fill out, bills to pay and work to do. I also had familiar questions about what I was doing with my spare time and where I was going. I was shaken up by noise and city lights, and now here I was, quiet and in the dark.
Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
That's what I've learned. New York sent me on a wild ride, and I'm still trying to shake off the dizziness. Getting out of your comfort zone is not easy, but it's necessary. I know this, and yet...
I keep telling myself the dizziness will pass. It's a contant push and pull inside. A fight between young and old, but my older self doesn't like to listen. Deep breaths and long walks are common around here, which isn't a bad thing....
I guess I'll have to travel alone more often ;)
Cover...check!
I have to admit, I didn't have the energy to work on this cover painting until last week. The book has been finished for a year and a half, but I didn't know how to design the cover, and how or when the book would become a real thing...until now.
No asking friends for feedback on this one. I usually love feedback, and I have a reserve of special illustrators that are amazing at story and design, but I didn't ask anyone. I wanted to sit down with my firneds, the Nothing, Something, and the Everything, and have one last horrah. One last adventure in their world.
After all, there's no art director on this project. It's just me and all of you, so the cover, I did for me.
The cover painting without text
Next steps are finishing touches, some more layout, and prepping the files for print.
Here we go!
Thinking about Thinkers
When I started at RethinkDB almost a year ago, I had no idea what a database was. What the heck were these engineers even doing to "build software"... and where do I even begin when designing a mascot? I walked into the office day after day and went directly to my sketchbook to flush out ideas. As much as I read about tech and databases, the concepts weren't sticking, and the explanations of run commands and rake files meant nothing more to me than if I'd picked up a French novel and tried to glean from it a plot line (I don't speak French, at least not yet).
Where do I even begin?
My initial goal was to convey concepts and add life, color, and personality to their website and community. Part of me thought I was responsible for producing branded images from the beginning. I struggled to do this because I was still learning about the company as the company was still learning about themselves. But open source is different--they have a chance to speak to their audience with an authentic voice, devoid of corporate branding strategies and sales-like tactics. This is what Github did, what Meteor, Docker, and lots of other successful open source companies did. So I tried to follow suit, and think less about branding and more about story.
After hundreds of different characters and strange sketches (my forte), we were all pleased with what was emerging. I designed a T-shirt graphic within the first couple weeks that was pretty detailed and whimsical--luckily the co founders were not just supportive of my art, they were supportive of my style as well. I started using a character I'd worked with a lot as a "place holder" to illustrate different API commands. He was cute, malleable, and expressive without being too detailed or commercial. He was this white puff of joy that loved building things and just...worked.
I'm running a kickstarter campaign to publish this book! Pledge here!
He was created from a character in a picture book I wrote a few years ago--a creature that embodies "the artist, the builder, and the human being." Sounds far out there, I know. But he was also pretty darn cute, and kept coming out of my beloved blackwing pencil.
I didn't trust myself.
It's all about the clean, geometric, flat look these days. I had a hard time believing people would fall for this pudgy, hand drawn hero. Would he look dated? Would he look too childish?
To my surprise I'd hear the engineers casually talking about him. "He's cute." "He's so happy!" "I just want to squeeze him, or her. Is it a her?" We got a little positive feedback from users about the doc illustrations, and at that point I knew we were on to something. People were responding to him and people did like him. We were still growing as a company, but maybe he could grow with us. He was, after all, malleable and willing to build anything, why should we be as well?
I heart open source.
Open source thrives on collaboration and brainstorming. It's an amazing place to work as an artist. As I walked into the office, I didn't feel weighed down by previous choices. There was always many roads to take, and many people to help direct me. We made stickers of the little guy, put him on T-shirts, gave him a backpack, changed his head shape ever so slightly, put him on a healthy diet so he could lose a little in his midsection (oh wait, that was me). We even worked with other companies and used this character to tell the story of our external collaborations through new images. He explored new worlds, made new friends, and told new stories about RethinkDB.
Then someone asked one day: "what's his name?"
His name? I hadn't thought of a name, really. It might have been the quick and clever Mike Glukhovsky, or it might have been my own doing, but someone suggested "The Thinker." A fitting name for a curious guy who likes to engineer magical and unconventional things, I thought, and it doesn't hurt that RethinkDB is our name. Thinking is definitely our game.
We'd been using the Thinker long enough that he needed an update. My wobbly outline wasn't cutting it anymore as our product moved further down the road to sophistication. Still keeping a hand-drawn aspect to the process, I rendered the Thinker in Adobe Illustrator and changed his backpack to a richer teal color over the limeade green. Voila! Thinker 1.0!
With a better rendition to work from and a better understanding of my role at the company, projects formed gracefully rather than in stumbling pieces; our branding took off with new T-shirts, custom Moleskine journals, release posters, and lots of other images--each image meant to remind our users that we're all thinkers and creators and in this thing called life together. Well, I added on that last part in my own verbiage, but everyone at RethinkDB will agree that's the gist of it. I tend towards the passion and love of creating because I identify with it as much as anyone does, and think it's what makes the open source tech community such a special place.
The Thinker is you and me. He will continue to grow because we will continue to grow. I have hopes of witnessing community iterations soon--I can't wait to see how other people draw him in all his pudgy glory. The more stories we tell the stronger we are as a community. We know this from history.
So ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you,
The Thinker.
Much thanks to Watts and Christina for editing!
Listening to Others
I've been doing a lot of listening lately. I've read books on learning new techniques, spent time quietly sitting in cafes, I've absorbed and consumed experiences and materials that inspire me and teach me something, and I've taken a lot of alone time for myself. I am in a short intermission of "digestion".
Because of this I haven't wanted to blog, write, push a message, or even make anything new. My dad askes me if I've been working on any new music and I have to shake my head sadly. No. No, I have nothing to say right now.
But that's ok because I'm listening.
Listening helps you reconnect with what you want. And usually we choose to listen after some detremental or unfortunate event. There's nothing like a struggle to make us shut up and start looking for some answers. But what if there is no answer? What if there is only the truth?
When I read I am constantly in love with people and what they have to share... but they don't have answers. In this day and age (gosh I sound old) we are bombarded with imagry and advertisments that scream at us with solutions. The tech industry, where I work, is a conglomerate of companies that solve various "problems". But what if we had to solve our own problems? Would we still see them all as problems after sitting with them for a while? Were they ever problems to begin with?
I like listening because it reminds me of this truth- that my problems are not, in fact, problems, but chances to create, learn, or share something.
Reccommended reading- http://peacefulrivers.homestead.com/maryoliver.html (Best read aloud so as to enjoy the textures!)
Annie
Here are some sexy photos I took omy first block printing adventure. I highly suggest trying something new and pretending like you're an expert by taking high quality photos of the event. It's just too easy.
Used the "easy to cut" rubber speedball linocut look-a-like to make my print.
Spread paint out on a plastic palette with the Brayer.
Rolled on that paint!
Ancient technique of pressing the paint on with special spoon.
By golly, it worked!
Painted in a couple details.
Finished art!