One of the most difficult things for me to accept as an adult has been that life isn’t always a pursuit of growth and meaning. I push myself very hard to accomplish things that I feel give meaning to life and move myself forward in some way. I try to manage my time as efficiently as possible so that every moment I have available can be used productively—so I can make a difference in my life as well as the lives of others I care about. But, there are always these road-blocks—little things that I have to do that take up way more time than they should: grocery shopping, cooking food, cleaning the house, driving, this little thing and that little thing, walking the dog every day, replying to emails, etc. etc. 

I know that some of you who are older are shaking your heads and smiling to yourselves. You already know what I’m talking about and have been experiencing it for years, but multiplied by ten for each kid you also have. Sometimes I get frustrated, and in a dejected voice, tell Michelle or whoever is around me at the time that I just don’t want to live or be an adult, there’s too much filler that has to be taken care of and I just want to work really hard and not worry about anything like money, food, responsibilities to other people, or “networking.”

With this new fire that I have given to my pursuit of grad school, I haven’t been the most kind or patient person over the last week. I’ve had little patience for things that seem to take too long for what they are worth, or that don’t seem like a very big deal to me. And, I realized how miserable and irritated I was. The past few days I have had to re-discover that patient, loving person that lives in the moment, yet still works very hard toward the future and managing my time as efficiently as possible. It has been good for me. It is the person who, in the past, has been that happy “I’ve got a secret…I’m pretty excited about life” person I love to be. 

The following video really hit home for me this morning. One of Michelle’s co-workers showed it in a meeting, and she passed it along. Now, I’d like to share it with you. It’s about nine and a half minutes long. But, take the ten minutes and watch it. It is worth it. It reminded me what I’m working toward—not just a productive life—but, a productive and well-adjusted life full of happiness and the ability to smile at everyone I meet.

“This is Water” (an excerpt from a commencement speech by David Foster Wallace)

It failed. It didn’t really work. It wasn’t interesting. I looked back at the photos over the past few days. It wasn’t working. Good concept. But, it just didn’t work.

As I have begun to be more serious about the idea of going to grad. school for an MFA in visual arts, I have begun to do more research, and the old creative juices have started to flow again.

I absolutely love research. I love sitting down with a book or sifting through web sites about different things, and allowing the ideas to flow and connections to spring forth. It is incredible how fast ideas start to come as you read and write.

There is an idea that I came up with a few years ago that I have been toying flirting with from time to time that is finally formulating into something really interesting and provocative. As some of you may know, I have a bit of a thing for parking lots. They are geometric, they are organized, they are interesting, empty places at night, and the list goes on. Well, this new project takes that fascination, and the series of photos I’ve been taking for the last few years, and takes it in a new direction involving video, my more recent work with instant photography, and the contemporary subject of “the gaze.” 

The barriers to making this project happen immediately include:

• I need a video mixer to make it happen. I don’t know of anyone who has one, and they cost around $500.
• I need to find a space willing to let me do an installation. I don’t know how willing a gallery would be to let me do an installation without much of a CV to show that my work can be taken seriously.

Another, more passive, project that I started today involves documentation. Every hour, on the hour, when my watch beeps, I take a photo of whatever I’m looking at. This was spawned by a free writing session that I did with my wife via instant message at work. I’m interested to see what this uncovers about myself and my daily rituals as well as about my passions and thoughts.

Some concerns I have about this project include:

• Although the project is intended to be a passive documentation, it is possible that it may become an invasive, irritating thing to those who I am around frequently.
• Do I really want to take a photo of my penis if I happen to be peeing on the hour?
• The project could influence the way I go about my day rather than passively documenting what I normally do.

Last, but not least, I am continuing to take landscape photos. Previously thes photos have been taken digitally, documenting the landscape in a geometric way, most frequently. Recently, (over the last six months or so), these photos have been taken on instant film, either Polaroid 600 type film produced by The Impossible Project, or on pack film in an old Polaroid Automatic 100. However, this project is taking a new direction involving hand-spun alpaca yarn that I have made and photographic objects. We’ll see where this takes me. I don’t have a clear direction in how to turn the yarn into the objects quite yet, or how they relate to the landscape. I recognize the relationship between alpacas and the mountains, but I don’t quite have a good idea obout what I want the objects to look like or how I want them to relate to the landscape I place them in.

As many of you know, I’ve been working as a web designer for the last six months or so at Weber State University. They were kind enough to let me transition from a print job that I wasn’t really happy with. In order to get myself up and running as a web designer I had to do a lot of research 2fast 2furious on how to make websites that looked and felt the way I wanted them to. The last training I really had on web design was a crash course at a local technical college as part of a short certificate program that I did before moving on up to the University, and that was back in 2005. So, needless to say, it had been a while, and things had changed. 

I picked up the books produced by A Book Apart. I found them to be exactly what I needed, short, concise, and very current, practical, and progressive. One of the books I found most informative and intriguing was Mobile First, written by Luke Wroblewski, one of the leaders in this approach. 

I think this is probably one of the most incredible breakthroughs not only for web design, but for graphic design in general. His point is very accurate and clear, we can’t design for the web the way we design for print, it just doesn’t make sense. If we are designing properly, we should be designing in a way that is appropriate for the viewer. The internet is no longer a desktop-browser space. It is a platform that changes its shape to fit a thousand different mobile devices, televisions, monitors, and browsers. So, this is how we should design. 

He takes this one step further, however, and tells us that the best way to accomplish this fluid design is to design for mobile devices first. Brilliant. Smaller, portable devices shouldn’t be trying to load enormous amounts of code that they can’t even display. So, put the small stuff first. Make it so that the mobile devices load less first and the desktop browsers load more as the page loads and the media queries are read.

I’ve found that this doesn’t work very well for me. I have to expand and contract, expand and contract, refresh, refresh, refresh and design for all sizes at once until I get all my classes worked out and defined properly. If I only design for mobile in the beginning, my vision for how this is going to transition to a larger, desktop browser gets lost and I then have to sort through way too much code to decide what steps need to take place to make the site work on all devices. 

This works for me. It’s not extremely fast. But, it’s faster than the alternative. And, I guess that’s what really matters—that I am designing as quickly and well as is possible within a cost/benefit balancing act—an act that isn’t always easy to perform, but is worth thinking about at every step of the way.

Movies and video games are a branch of storytelling, which has always been an extension of what we dream, fantasize about, and are as human beings. The purpose of storytelling is to explore what it means to be human, how we relate to one another, and what we aspire to be. The stories that fill mass media are, then, an extension of society in general and what it fantasizes about.

Violent, sadistic, hyper-sexualized fills our mass media behavior because that is what we pay for. We as a public have come to expect and crave it. So, why are we so surprised that violent, sadistic acts occur in public places? And, why do we blame mass media for producing what we as a people pay so much money for? How can we blame a chicken for laying a chicken egg, and how can we blame a chicken egg for hatching into a chicken? It is a reciprocal relationship. 

We can only start with ourselves. Our society is, after all, a collection of individuals.

“Do I want a designer or do you want someone to run Photoshop/Illustrator/Indesign/etc./etc. for me”

This is the question you should be asking yourself when you hire anyone to design for you. Designers are trained at a university or college to analyze a need and the parameters/scope of a project and from those guides create a relevant solution for you. This is what a designer is, a visual problem solver. There are many solutions to a given visual problem, some are better than others. So, it is important to ask your designer to create a few different concepts for you to pick from so that you not only get something that is appropriate and relevant, but also something that you like. In general, your likes/dislikes should be kept clear of what is being designed. Just because you like the number 125 doesn’t mean that 125 is the right solution for a given mathematical equation. The same is true in design, just because pink is your favorite color, doesn’t mean that pink is an appropriate color choice. Trust your designer. As him questions. Ask him why a certain color/shape/style was selected and why they thing it is best. Your designer may be a trained professional, but you know your business better than he does.

Here is a list of things that will irritate your designer and make him less willing to work with you:

• Ask for endless revisions
• Ask him to do your work for free/nearly free.
  Just learning the software and programming languages needed for today’s design needs takes endless hours and constant training not to mention the meticulous attention to detail that good design entails. People earn masters degrees in Design. It isn’t a hobby, it’s a profession and it is really a slap in the face to ask him to do your work for free.
• Ask him to design for you without having any content
• Make every decision about your personal preferences
• Ask to have something designed from start to finish in just a few days, require that it look professional and polished, and refuse to pay for the rush

Considering these things when you hire your designer will ensure that both you and your designer are happy at the end of the process and have many great projects in the future.

.music .Solange-Knowles {volume: 11; knob: off;}

— Shawn Barker (@shawn_s_barker) February 14, 2013

Updating the visual aspect of your #brand without updating your #brand experience will only provide short-term results. People are smart.

— Shawn Barker (@shawn_s_barker) February 5, 2013

I’ve been updating things! Take a look. 

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Every year more books are published on the same theme—how to become and stay creative. The answers are the same in every single one of them. Work, work, work, consume as many influences as possible, and don’t limit yourself. Creativity is a practiced habit. Start making lists, making doodles, and thinking of how to solve problems differently, and don’t stop—make it a habit.

So, why are so many books published on this theme? Why is it necessary to continue to publish more and more material that says the same thing? Because publishers know that people are lazy. We continue to look for an easier answer than “work at it and don’t stop.” Publishers know that people will continue to buy the books because people will keep looking rather than practicing. 

I’ve got news people. Creativity isn’t alchemy. The magical end product isn’t really magical. It is the product of exercising the habit of creativity. Create things every day. Don’t stop. Consume as many books, movies, magazine, music, philosophy, etc., et. al. as you can, and allow yourself time to digest it.

You don’t need a book to be creative. Just start and don’t stop. Don’t let fear of failure limit your potential.