Nate Burgos's Blog, page 27

CreativeMornings, not a movement

Tina Roth Eisenberg, Founder, CreativeMornings, Chicago chapter’s debut, 2011

CreativeMornings is a breakfast lecture series held monthly for the creative community. Founded in Brooklyn, 2008, by Tina Roth Eisenberg of design journal Swissmiss, CreativeMornings has now grown to 99 cities worldwide. It’s easy to label CreativeMornings as a “movement.” But it’s not. Broadly speaking, movement is a newsy word. Movements are typically associated with political and religious upheavals: the agenda s...

Human and Machine: Joseph Thompson Woodworks’ Marvel of a Jointer

Joseph Thompson Woodworks is a Charleston, South Carolina-based studio and workshop that specializes in creating bespoke, heirloom-quality furniture and decor for the home. The founders, husband-and-wife team of Joseph and Katie Thompson, recently made a substantial investment, weighing approximately 3,000 pounds and is around 70-years old—a jointer. This metal giant is used to produce a flat surface along a board’s length. The acquisition of this tool has greatly emboldened their personal ap...

Illustrator Alice Stevenson, Delightfully Wandering the Natural and Urban Landscape

It was the visual form-making, playfully provoked and nurtured by both nature and cities, that attracted me to the art of Alice Stevenson. Based in London, she is an illustrator, surface pattern designer, and educator. Here, she shares her thoughts on drawing from her environment that influences her attitude and work:

On being an illustrator and a writer

From your website, you stated that you are “Inspired and informed by the patterns and structures found in nature…” Can you expand on this? Wha...

Patronage Package 9 of Duly Discovered

Apps

Cloverpop

Pixate

Books

“How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World”
by Steve Johnson

“Size-specific adjustments to type designs: An investigation of the principles guiding the design of optical sizes”
by Shoko Mugikura and Tim Ahrens

“My Grandfather’s Gallery: A Family Memoir of Art and War”
by Anne Sinclair

“Learning Responsive Web Design” 
by Clarissa Peterson

“Firebird”
by Ballerina Misty Copeland

“Book Typography: A Designer’s Manual”
published by Libanus Press

Craft

Rings and...

Andrew & Kelsey McClellan, the Heart & Bone of Sign Painting

Andrew and Kelsey McClellan are the couple behind Heart & Bone Signs, a traditional sign-painting and gold-leafing company in Chicago, Illinois. At the Renegade Craft Fair, Andrew happened to overhear me mention sign painter, Ches Perry, who also works in Chicago and has been designing and hand-painting signs since the 1970s.

The introduction by Andrew to Heart & Bone Signs, and their dedication to historic techniques affiliated with one of the oldest craft-disciplines in the United St...

Seize the Hidden: Bob Boilen, Host of All Songs Considered, at 11th gathering of CreativeMornings/Washington, DC

CreativeMorning’s global theme for March 2014 was “Hidden.” Speaking for the Washington, DC, chapter was Bob Boilen, founder of the National Public Radio show “All Songs Considered.” He spoke of a practice he exercises in his life: To look for hidden qualities in people—potentially good qualities. As the beneficiary of this action at a young age, he set the course of his career.

After college and a few jobs related to music, Boilen formed a band called Tiny Desk Unit(1). Their time in a record...

Pride, Work, and Necessity of Side Projects: Marielle Schmidt’s growth of ParentsWork

What are you working on—on the side?

I am on the board of ParentsWork, a grassroots Illinois parents’ network, dedicated to creating more family-friendly communities, schools and workplaces. Our primary online presence is currently Facebook, with a revamped website in the works.

It’s actually a funny story how I came about joining ParentsWork. I was a part-time working mother of three kids, under four, pursuing a new career in life coaching. I was getting some pastries at Bennison’s Bakery in E...

Anna Rascouët-Paz’s Call for Curiosity at 5th CreativeMornings in San Francisco

The author Dorothy Parker(1) said, “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” With her global upbringing, international work, and multidisciplinary zeal, it’s safe to say that for journalist Anna Rascouët-Paz, there’s never a dull moment. Paz spoke at the fifth gathering of the San Francisco chapter of CreativeMornings on August 26, 2011. To Paz, the world is not a stage, nor a canvas. Rather, the world is a cultural salon. She encouraged the audience to cultiva...

Pride, Work, and Necessity of Side Projects: Amy Marquez’s Improvisational Comedy

What are you working on—on the side?

I work with a long-lived improvisational comedy troupe in San Antonio, TX, called The Oxymorons. They’ve been around since 1989. I actually “interned” with them during the summers when I was working on my undergraduate degree.

I began performing improv when I was 19. I co-founded the Texas A&M University improv troupe, Freudian Slip, in 1992, and studied at ImprovOlympic in Santa Monica, CA, in 2000. When I moved back to San Antonio in 2007, I met back u...

Freelance Illustrator Lucy Engelmann, Inspired by Nature and Drawing

Working on my latest book “BROKEN: Navigating the ups and downs of the circus called work” yielded the opportunities to have illustrations and work with an illustrator. With the latter, it was hard seeking an illustrator—not because there is a shortage, but there are so many illustrators, with different styles, making distinct work. It was the drawing aesthetic of Lucy Engelmann, that captivated me toward her visual compositions. Her pictures complement BROKEN’s prose and helps enhance its me...