Death to the hyphen

I have a huge pet-peeve when it comes to design. One that I often see other designers overlook: the use of line-breaking hyphens. To say I hate them is an understatement. I think they are ugly and unnecessary, and as such you will never see them in my finished design projects. Today's desktop publishing software has advanced enough, developing tools that allow for a fluid and balanced character placement without the need to use line-breaking hyphens. Designers who clutter up their layouts with hyphens show nothing but a lack of attention to detail.

I think unfortunately the simple beauty of the written word itself is often overlooked as a graphic feature on a page in the world of graphic design. To a non-designer's eye, the words are just text. But for most designers, text when seen as a collective unit, has its own defining artistic elements. How you set the leading, how tight you make the kerning, determine an overall look. Do you full justify or leave a ragged right edge, or left? Knowing how much, or how little, to say on a page not only defines its readability, but also its beauty. I think these elements of design apply both online and in print.

It is easy to get "too close" to a design. After a while all of the elements on the page start to meld together. That is why it is so important to take a step away from it awhile, particularly in the editing phase, so you can see with fresh eyes. When doing so, look at the whole page, large detail and small, and look for those dangling hyphens jumping out at you. Getting rid of them will take your layout to a higher level of perfection. I promise.

The colorful beauty of Chihuly Glass Art

As part of this year's summer vacation to my hometown of Tacoma, Washington, this year I got to learn more about famed glass artist Dale Chihuly. He was born in Tacoma, and as such, several locations downtown, including the Tacoma Art Museum, have permanent installations of his artwork on display.

The photo taken above is part of a glass ceiling display of the "Glass Bridge" that pedestrians can take to get to the Tacoma Glass Museum down on the waterfront of Commencement Bay.

According to Wikipedia, Chihuly's largest permanent exhibit can be found at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. In 1983 Chihuly returned to his native Pacific Northwest where he continued to develop his own work at the Pilchuck Glass School, which he had helped to found in 1971. Throughout the 1970s, influenced by the great glassblowing tradition of Murano, Chihuly experimented with the team approach to glassblowing. Working with a team of master glassblowers and assistants has enabled him to produce architectural glass art of a scale and quantity unimaginable working alone or with only one assistant.

In 2010 the Space Needle Corporation submitted a proposal for an exhibition of Chihuly's work at a site in the Seattle Center, in competition with proposals for other uses from several other groups. The project, which sees the new Chihuly exhibition hall occupy the site of the former Fun Forest amusement park in the Seattle Center park and entertainment complex, received the final green light from the Seattle City Council on April 25, 2011. It opened May 21, 2012.

If you ever have the opportunity to see his work, I encourage you to do so. Photographs just don't do justice to the vibrant colors and the intricate sculpting shapes and contortions of the glass art.

Early opportunities and praise had positive impact on who I am today

I've been extremely lucky. From a very young age I've had my creative talents encouraged. Sure, every kid learns how to finger paint and make Popsicle stick castles, but I had teachers who always took art time to the next level. For example, in the first grade I remember cutting out construction paper cats, attaching spiral tails to the bottoms and then hanging them from the ceiling above my desk. In the third grade I got to make a Christmas tree candy dish out of clay, paint it and then have it fired in a pottery kiln. I still have that candy dish today and proudly put it out every holiday season. In later years I put just as much effort in my school reports, adding illustrations at each opportunity that presented itself. And every teacher I had embraced this expression full throttle. I never got told something I created was ugly, or not good enough. Every piece was worthy of Picasso praise. I know that validation had a major positive impact on the creative person I am today.

Outside of school my creative influence was just as strong. For 12 years I was a Campfire Girl, lead by a woman who put the craft in crafty. Mrs. Graf was super talented in her own right, but perhaps more importantly she had the patience, the thoughfulness, and the generosity to help us girls create something new each and every week. Over the years I learned things I know I never would have otherwise. I learned how to do macrame, cross-stitch, paper mache, paint, sew, embroider, and the list goes on. A lot of those skills stayed in my youth, but I know learning once made a lasting impact on me.

So now I'm not in school or Campfire anymore, but I am reigniting my crafty side by participating in a local Ladies Art Social group. Being exposed to so many different mediums, I've realized that every activity is a new opportunity to grow and express myself in new and unexpected ways. I feel so invigorated by the process and the results.

I think back to even when I was too sick to really be creative. I was recovering from a serious respiratory illness and I was on oxygen for several months. I stayed a majority of my time at home, too tired and weak to be out and about. I asked my mom to bring me home a puzzle to work on. She bought a 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle that formed a 24 x 36 inch portrait of beautiful sunflowers. I kept and framed that puzzle, and have it hanging in my home office. It is very special to me. Not only does it remind me of a valley in my life of which I climbed out, but it reaffirms that even at my weakest, a fire burns deep inside of me to always keep creating.

LPA Today Magazine

I am a little tardy in getting this week's post published, but with good reason. I just put my 27th issue of LPA Today Magazine to bed. Yes, for the past seven years I have been the editor of the primary publication of Little People of America. If you don't know what LPA is, it is a non-profit organization led by and for short stature individuals of all ages, and their families. LPA is dedicated to improving the quality of life for people with dwarfism, while celebrating with pride, our contribution to social diversity.

I joined LPA in 2002, and in 2005 I decided I wanted to give back to an organization that I so enjoy being a part of. I came to know that the executive committee was looking for a permanent editor for the publication, so I applied for the job.

LPA Today has served as a great creative outlet as well as a reason to keep my graphic design skills fresh. Since I haven't been freelancing on a professional basis full-time, LPA remained my one client, if you will. In addition to doing the visual graphic elements of the page, I also edited copy and wrote as well. I've always been proud of my journalism and writing skills, and LPA Today facilitated keeping those honed too.

To be honest, LPA Today is the one thing that I have done the longest in my life. I've worked at it longer than I was in college, longer than any 9-5 job I've had, longer than any other creative project I've been in charge of. I'm finding that such commitment has a surprising reward: a volume of content that provides an arc to see how my skills and esthetic has evolved over time.

The next issue is always a mixed blessing. I'm glad there is going to be one, yet challenged to keep the issues fresh, not only for myself, but for the membership. Because we live all over the country, the magazine is something tangible that connects us. Yet I know people have busy lives. My goal is to tell our members' stories in a way that honors them, yet also jumps off the page. To be substantive, yet pleasing to the eye. Full of information, yet quick to read. Sometimes as a designer you can't have it all. But I will never give up trying.

Note: For more information about Little People of America, go to www.lpaonline.org

Happy accidents

Sometimes what happens is what I call "a happy accident." You are going about your creative task, intent on accomplishing one result, when, just when you least expect it, a better outcome presents itself. You experience this combination of a voilà! and ah-ha moment that provides a momentary high.

I love it when that happens.

Truth be told it happens more often than not when I don't know what I'm doing. My joy soon turns to doubt that I will ever be able to know quite how I got the result I did. Take the picture shown above, for example. I took that last week with a new camera Andrew just bought. It is a digital SLR with more buttons and functions than I'm sure I'll ever master. He asked me to take a photo of the boards from a low vantage point. I guess the camera zoomed in on the nails, that I honestly didn't even notice, and voilà! when I reviewed the captured image on the camera screen, I realized I had taken a really cool picture.

Sometimes creating art, or even great art, isn't about knowing exactly how to make it, its just about recognizing it when you see it, even if it is simply the result of your latest "happy accident."

The art of collages: chaos and cohesion

There is something about turning random chaos into structured cohesion that has always gotten my creative juices flowing. I think part of what I like about collage making is the purposeful intent with which each piece of the collage is chosen, without yet knowing exactly how the finished product will look. The process is thoroughly organic, and if you allow yourself to let go of your inner critic screaming for perfection, the process is also thoroughly liberating.

Pictured above is a collage I made it during one of my monthly "Ladies Art Social" get-togethers. For a couple of hours a group of about seven creative women sat and thumbed through magazines to find words and pictures that inspired each of us. As you can see, what was on my mind was writing, and more specifically, success at writing. I am making writing a priority this year (this blog is one example of that) and I wanted something inspirational to hang on my office wall to be a visual reminder of what my life's passion is right now.

The process of making collages isn't that foreign to me. I used to love to make collages when I was young. Back then my intention was less about getting in touch with my feelings or making art. Back then during those peer-pressured homogenizing teen years, it was about covering three-ring binders and school lockers, using words and pictures to say "this is me." It allowed me to make a statement at an age when doing so was risky.

Today those risks are gone, and the fear of not being good enough only happens when I foolishly compare myself to others. Having an art outlet like collaging reminds me that I haven't lost my creative compass. I can still start out with a blank canvas and end up with something uniquely beautiful, not only as I envisioned, but also intended.

Feared and Fearless: Vogue magazine's Anna Wintour

Credit: Vogue Magazine

“If you look at any great fashion photograph out of context, it will tell you just as much about what's going on in the world as a headline in The New York Times.” ― Anna Wintour

Ouch. As a writer, former journalist, and admirer of high fashion (as art) this quote hits close to home. As said by Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue magazine, in her matter of fact way about her, she points out that fashion as art is highly subjective. Nothing should be taken too literal.

I’m not exactly sure, but I would argue, in part, this is the attitude that she would take when responding to her critics about the use of fur in fashion or portraying an elitist aspect of feminism. She has spent a lifetime defining what great fashion is from behind the lenses of her iconic dark sunglasses, and for the past 24 years she has editorially communicated that through the pages of Vogue. Very unapologetically I might add.

Popular culture came to learn more about Wintour through the movie "The Devil Wears Prada." The movie was originally a book written by Wintour's real-life assistant. Many have speculated (although it has never been confirmed) that Meryl Streep’s character is based on Wintour herself. And the characterization isn’t pretty. Streep plays an aloof, demanding perfectionist who is respected more through fear than admiration. And while that role isn’t said to be biographical, a quick scan of Wintour’s Wikipedia bio confirms that indeed, it is probably not that far from the truth.

Still, I can’t help but admire her. No, I’m not pro-fur, nor am I a fashionista myself. But I do think that we need people in this world like her. Creative women in positions of power who say, “This is what I want, and this is how I can get it done.” Maybe it is her illusive mystique that makes her all the more interesting to me. But I give her credit for that as well. To craft and maintain your legacy of style and image, not only through what you wear, but simply in who you are, simply by existing. Well, wow, now I think that is just pretty damn cool.

Note: What spurred this blog post was a recent watching of "Seamless" on Netflix. It is a documentary released in 2005 that features three fashion designers (out of 10) in a CFDA fashion competition. I think this may have been the basis for what became the hit reality show "Project Runway."