Nate Burgos's Blog, page 16

Pride, Work and Necessity of Side Projects: Femke van Schoonhoven, Designer, Writer and Podcaster

What are you working on—on the side?

My friend, Charli Prangley, and I would often chat about issues we face as designers and freelancers. After a while we realized, ‘Hey, we should be recording these!’, and our side project “Design Life” was born.

“Design Life” is a podcast about design and side projects for motivated creators. We saw a gap in the podcast market for a conversational show about design and the issues young creatives face. As female serial side project addicts, we felt there...

Life, Work, Tools: Lisa Hazen, Writer, Editor

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

Notebook

How has this tool helped you?

Most of my go-to tools are electronic—my iPhone, my laptop, my time-tracking apps (Harvest!) and QuickBooks. But the one thing that I absolutely cannot live without is totally analog. It’s a simple lined notebook where I track pending projects.

This humble journal serves a variety of immediate purposes—helping me see at a glance what awaits me each day, providing a constant reminder within e...

Visual Exploration by Graphic Designer Jonathan Sangster in His Handmade “Concept Containers”

Graphic designer Jonathan Sangster’s “Concept Containers” reminded me, in a visceral way, the fascination with compositions on paper. Line and shapes converge in each volume of Sangster’s tactile series. Here, he elaborates on this project’s purpose in the creative life of, as he put it, “a visual person.”

How did your series of “Concept Containers” originate?
The series came to life, because I needed a place for all of my impractical ideas to live. All of the ideas revolving around texture, pa...

Becoming a Working Artist: Ryan Duggan at 56th monthly CreativeMornings in Chicago

At the 56th monthly CreativeMornings gathering in Chicago last August, artist and printer Ryan Duggan started his talk with the inspiration that led him to his life’s work. Not a surprise that the roots of what he does for a living are traced back to home, especially his father:

“Art was always a pretty big thing in our family. My dad always drew. It was something that both my sister and I took to early on. We really liked drawing.”

Identifying the source of one’s lifelong passions is the gift...

Pride, Work and Necessity of Side Projects: Emily Wisser’s hand lettered “Oui, Sir!” prints and collaboration on Maker Mornings

What are you working on—on the side?

I have a couple of side projects that I’m working on. The first one is a line of hand-lettered valentines aimed at people in the web/tech design field, using funny and oft-cheesy pick-up lines for web designers and developers. I’ve always loved a good play on words, so it’s fun to be able to combine the process of brainstorming clever phrases with hand lettering—another thing I love—to make these cards. The website Oui, Sir! Prints (after the phonetic pronu...

Life, Work, Tools: Sharon Poggenpohl, Editor Emeritus of Journal “Visible Language”

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

MacBook Pro running Mac OS.

How has this tool helped you?

Working on fairly long-range communication projects (1–5 years) requires a stable platform of tools. The migration of work-in-progress from one computer and software system to another can be an impediment. I am reminded of the philosopher Martin Heidegger who wrote about “ready-to-hand” and “present-at-hand” in his magnum opus, “Being and Time” (2010). “Ready-to-hand” is...

Art for the public consciousness: Luftwerk at 55th monthly CreativeMornings in Chicago

Last July, the Chicago chapter of the CreativeMornings community held their 55th monthly gathering with speakers Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero, the couple behind art-installation studio Luftwerk. Regarding public art, they recommend: “Let it live. Let it go wild.”

When art is installed—even integrated—into public areas, it begs to be noticed. While traveling through Chicago and elsewhere, I recalled a few examples of artistry, in the open, that happened to catch my attention.

This tree, in a...

Pride, Work and Necessity of Side Projects: Brake-rotor lamps, Hockey-stick table and more by Erik Lutz

What are you working on—on the side?

My main focus has been taking items that are deemed useless and repurposing them into functional art. For example, the worn-out brake rotors I just replaced on my truck may not be able to complete their designed task of stopping a moving vehicle anymore, but they made great bases for two lamps I made out of a collection of used car parts. Another repurposing project I recently completed involved welding a table frame out of a bunch of square steel tubing th...

Life, Work, Tools: Musician, Teacher & Coder Briana Swift’s Reliance on GitHub

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

GitHub! It’s where I do most of my interaction for my job, but it’s also a tool I use to plan other things—like my wedding.

How has this tool helped you?

GitHub is my email, especially when I’m planning something. It’s easy to have conversations, “@” mention people, have HUGE amounts of visibility, update and share information, and respond to multiple people in a logical way and place.

GitHub is known for being a place to develop...

Relentlessly pursuing wonder: 9th gathering of the annual Cusp Conference, Chicago, 2016

At the opening of this year’s Cusp Conference, I was sad to learn that Mike Ivers, community leader, particularly as President and CEO of the Yuma Community Food Bank, is sick. Fuck you, Cancer. With a swagger and a smile, Ivers kicks off each annual conference with an important opening message. Although his physical presence was absent this year, he still lent the audience his voice, in recorded audio. His vitality was apparent. Ivers rallying cry was “To be in the wonderful world we live in...