I recently finished reading Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design by Michael Bierut and I am pleased to say that I really enjoyed the book. It is also comforting to listen to someone that has been so successful in the business talk to candidly about his experiences and take on design in the past, present and future.

Photo taken from Pentagram.com

I’ll admit, there are some ramblings in this book that I don’t get. I’m either not experienced enough or educated enough in Visual Communications to understand what Bierut is talking about. However, there are a lot of things he says that either made me literally ‘LOL’ or just had me shaking my head going, “Yea, you’re right!”

The real treasure of this book is the Appendix. Each chapter is listed, what type it was set in and references any of the source materials Bierut was referring to in his writings. I love this because you can see type, in action, and dig out the design annual or poster or whatever it may be that Bierut was discussing.

Good book Michael!

This past Saturday morning, while most people are sleeping away or watching NFL playoffs, I was excitedly learning the old art of letterpress. For those who don’t know, letterpress is the process of printing which utilizing raised type which is inked by rollers and pressed onto paper. This form of printing dates back 100′s of years and was standard up until the 1950′s.

Over the past 3 years I have taken a very large interest in typography and when I saw that a local educational center, the Independent Publishing Resource Center, was putting on a class called “Intro to Letterpress”, I had to join.

The class consisted of an overview of the letterpress process, an introduction to presses, cutting paper, setting type, preparing the chase for printing, inking and finally, printing!!! It was a very fun class that took us step by step through how the process works, focusing on the rules and limitation of the resource center. (Once you complete the intro class you can go in whenever you want and keep on printing as long as you are a member.)

There was a lot to learn but the thing that really stuck with me is having a much more intimate relationship with things that I take for granted on my computer. Setting justification, leading, line spacing and font choices is much more thought provoking when you are touching physical pieces.

We broke off into groups, came up with sayings and set our type. I was more curious about the process than actually making anything that I could use, so the girl I was paired up with had a phrase that she wanted to put on a postcard. We worked together, taking turns putting lines of type into our composition stick, placing the quoins and furniture in the chase for a tight fit, inking the press and finally pressing out some prints.

I really enjoyed getting my hands dirty, smelling ink and, believe it or not, standing and working. I am often stuck behind my desk or sitting on my couch to much to realize how much I enjoy physical labor.

Now that I’ve completed the class and have a membership, I may have to think up a few things I’d like to print up and go back and practice. Who knows, maybe I’ll setup a store someday. Regardless, it was fun to learn the process, play with sorts of type and print. I highly recommend giving it a go, or something like it, if you have an opportunity.

It is the New Year and it seems that no matter where I turn I see something about New Year’s Resolutions. I’m all for taking an opportunity to start a new, but I stopped participating in the ritual because I tend to have a new resolution every month as I continue to find things that I like and want to incorporate into my life.

For example, this year I want to read more, exercise more, draw/sketch more, take more photos, eat better and do anything that can help me become a better designer. Obviously that is to much to focus on, but I don’t want to pigeon hole myself

So in the end, I’ve decided to try and take a page out of The Book of Tetsuo, my cat.

I really don’t know how to sum up my cat unless I just said, he is lazy and loving. He sleeps…about 22 hours a day, which is where the lazy comes from. But he also is the most loving cat I have ever met in my life. This, again is hard to explain, but he always wants to lay with you, sit by you, be pet by you and is always purring. He will literally do anything to get next to you or in your face to hug, hold, pet or kiss him. He may look like a grumpy man, but he is a ball of love.

There are often times that my wife, myself and the cat are laying on the couch watching a movie and I look over at him and he seems SO happy to be there, in that moment, not wanting anything else. Utter bliss.

This is the lesson I want to try and take from him. Personally, I have a lot of drive and want to continue to grow as a designer, take on more projects, meet new people…I mean, just look at my previous list at the top of the page? But I want to start taking Tetsuo’s lead and enjoying my moments with my loved ones more. To stop wanting something that I don’t even know if it exists and just enjoy my life, my work and the people around me more.

So, in the end, you could say one of my New Year’s Resolutions is to be more like my cat…

I recently finished off another book that I borrowed from the wonderful library at the Art Institute in Portland where I teach. I try and try to keep reading books on design, but to be honest, sometimes I just have to be in the mood. I suppose it is that way with anything.

Anyway, I just finished off Layout Essentials: 100 Design Principles for Using Grids (Essential Design Handbooks). This book was a fantastic read and I found it more inspirational than informative. What I mean is, a good 85 of these were things I already knew, but if your anything like me, you only retain about 10% of anything you read. So that meant that even though 85 of these principles were familiar, I probably only knew 10 of them off the top of my head.

So the strength of this book comes for the quick refresher that it affords me. A lot of times when I sit down to layout information I generally look for ways to organize it to make sense. You know, put like things together, lead the reader to pertinent information, draw attention to important pieces of info and keep them engaged using effective design, just to name a couple. However, sometimes the information doesn’t just tell me how it wants to be laid out. Sometimes, I have to work with it a little bit, organize it, understand it before I can start to see how it would best be presented to the viewer. That is where this book comes in. I don’t always see the solution and sometimes immersing myself in the information, then scanning a book like this will spark the idea that best serves the content.

If you haven’t read it, I’d suggest it. As soon as I have a few extra bucks, I’ll be putting this one on my shelf.