Nate Burgos's Blog, page 15

Pride, Work and Necessity of Side Projects: Indie rock band Sunjacket’s Garret Bodette

What are you working on—on the side?

My side project is a band called Sunjacket. I play drums and electronic percussion in the band, and our music is a blend of dark, synth-driven pop and layered, experimental indie rock. The elevator pitch usually boils down to “dark, synthy indie rock.”

How do you manage to work
on your side project(s)?

Since I’m a full-time graphic designer, a fair amount of evening and weekend time is reserved for my side project, as I’m sure many other folks in the creative...

Pride, Work and Necessity of Side Projects: Esther Fan & Olivia Park—Sad Asian Girls

What are you working on—on the side?

Esther & Olivia: Our side project is Sad Asian Girls, where we make activism-based projects about our experiences as East Asian femmes living in Western spaces.

Olivia: I am also working on a photo series in which I’m documenting Asian art school students who clearly use clothes and styling as an integral tool to express themselves and how that could relate to their artistic practice and upbringing.

Esther: I haven’t been working on any personal projects...

Keep it Weird: Creative Director Michael Freimuth at the 59th monthly CreativeMornings gathering in Chicago

During Michael Freimuth’s talk at the 59th gathering of the Chicago chapter of CreativeMornings, the Eagles 1975 hit song “Take It to the Limit” looped in my head:

“…Take it to the limit, take it to the limit
Take it to the limit one more time…”

The refrain of Freimuth’s presentation was “balancing convention and fantasy.” He described the former as “good solid design.” The latter, “interesting and weird.” Together, they make “pure imagination”—compelling me to recall the 1971 movie “Willy Wonka...

Believe in Magic: User Experience Designer Rebecca Ussai at 57th CreativeMornings gathering in Chicago

One of the few times the CreativeMornings/Chicago chapter had an interface/interaction designer as a speaker was Jason Fried in 2011, who co-founded Basecamp, which is both the company and popular Web-based project management app. At the chapter’s second gathering (see my write-up), Fried offered his version of design principles, primarily dealing with clarity.

Fast forward to September, 2016, Rebecca Ussai, a user-experience design director in ad agency R/GA at the time, shared her angle on d...

Pride, Work and Necessity of Side Projects: May Shek & Her Collaborators Take A Stand

What are you working on—on the side?

Immediately after the election that surprised practically everybody, it became apparent to me that we had to take action of some sort, as quickly as possible. I asked myself what skills, and which people and resources, I could get together and mobilize.

The Take A Stand Project was born swiftly after a few emails, phone calls and brainstorming with some badass women over coffee. Working collectively, four designers each selected a cause that was likely to be...

Pride, Work and Necessity of Side Projects: The Drakes’ Bright Night Project

What are you working on—on the side?

The Bright Night Project started as a simple wine-fueled idea to have an art exhibition in the dark. It then grew into a 4-month epic project that ate all our evenings, weekends and spare moments. A collaboration between myself, Leigh-Anne Drakes and the solar-powered lamp Little Sun. We selected 23 South African artists, illustrators and photographers. Each was tasked with creating an original work around the theme of light.

In order to fund the exhibition,...

A Most Colorful Life: Painter Reginald Baylor, first meet-up, CreativeMornings chapter, launched 2014 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

To an artist, both color and artist are idiosyncratic. With their respective nature in mind, neither can be tamed. It is the headiness of color that drives painter Reginald Baylor to find refuge in his process: color by numbers, color within lines, color applied to precisely crafted compositions.

In his CreativeMornings/Milwaukee talk, Baylor shared his youthful connection to coloring books. This object could be seen as a tool to conform. But to Baylor, a coloring book is a model of logic, sim...

Pride, Work and Necessity of Side Projects: Meghan Arnold’s Advent Activism

What are you working on—on the side?

I recently launched a side project on December 1 called Advent Activism. I was incredibly depressed following the Election. After a week crying in bed and two weeks of being angrier than I’ve ever been, I decided to turn my emotions into action when I was putting up my Christmas decorations.

A couple of years ago, a designer-friend from Germany gifted me a beautiful handmade traditional Adventskalendar with an individual felt stocking for each day. Instead o...

Pride, Work and Necessity of Side Projects: Meghan Arnold ’s Advent Activism

What are you working on—on the side?

I recently launched a side project on December 1 called Advent Activism. I was incredibly depressed following the Election. After a week crying in bed and two weeks of being angrier than I’ve ever been, I decided to turn my emotions into action when I was putting up my Christmas decorations.

A couple of years ago, a designer-friend from Germany gifted me a beautiful handmade traditional Adventskalendar with an individual felt stocking for each day. Instead o...

Life, Work, Tools: Alex Mendoza, Sign Painter

What is your tool—the one that helps you 
do the things you do?

Quill sign painting brush. I use several brands including Andrew Mack, Luco and French Masters.

How has this tool helped you?

I have been able to do a lot of lettering and graphics with a quill. It is the king of sign painting brushes, because it is the most versatile. I can achieve fat strokes to fill in a letter, thin strokes to outline a letter and a fine point for tiny details. There are a few other brushes out there, includ...