Nate Burgos's Blog, page 32

Tweeted April 2014: Food for thought

Tweet icon designed by Adame Dahmani from The Noun Project collection

“We should strive to be a society of free people,
not simply one of well-compensated managers and employees.”
—Scott Samuelson, Educator
Tweeted by @brainpicker on 4-30-2014

“So UX design and speculative fiction—again
not that much of a stretch between them.”
—Elaine Chen, Designer
Tweeted by @elainethebrain on 4-29-2014

“…our attention is a gift to be given thoughtfully, that we shape our own media universe, its idea...

Patronage Package 4 of Duly Discovered

Apps

ProofHub: “Web-based project management and collaboration tool”
Note: Recommended in comment to my Interview of Krisa Engler

Typekit Practice
Discovered via Daring Fireball

Blogs

DESIGN + SOLVE: “journey from creative nerd to UX Designer”

Gurafiku by Ryan Hageman: “visual research surveying the history of graphic design in Japan”

Books

“Capital in the Twenty-First Century” by Thomas Piketty

“The Public Library: A Photographic Essay” by Robert Dawson

“Content Strategy at Work: Real-world Stories to...

Making each and every customer review count: Chris Campbell of Review Trackers

At the debut of coworking space Patchworks (see my photos) in Chicago, I met Chris Campbell, who co-founded Review Trackers. In a digital society where everything is increasingly remarkable, this tool piqued my curiosity. Here, Campbell relates more about his customer review-tracking software platform, his team, their toolkit, and what makes Chicago a vital place for digital makers:

On being a product-based business founder:

What is Review Trackers?
Review Trackers is an online review monitoring...

Fashion design for modern badass women: Jessica Caldwell of Machine

Jessica Caldwell’s ambition to design bold clothing, including fondness for motorcycle trips, drove me to contact her about participating in an interview. She is the founder of independent apparel company Machine in Portland, Oregon. Here, she shares aspects of her personal style-making process, and having a fearless attitude to keep moving forward as an independent creator of clothes:

On being an apparel business founder:

How did you arrive at being a fashion designer?
Was there an in...

Demystifying the World of Sex Toys: Searah Deysach at Chicago CreativeMornings #29

Photo by Nate Burgos. View More.

At meet-ups, there are giveaways, and there’s SWAG (in marketing-speak, Something Worth Actually Getting). At the April 2014 gathering of Chicago’s chapter of CreativeMornings, tubes of lube were placed on each of the seats. They were an optimal gift—Something Worth Actually Getting—considering that CreativeMornings’ global theme, for the month, was Sex.

These giveaways prepped the audience for a talk by Searah Deysach, founder of Chicago’s first woman-owned sex...

Economy of means and expression: Designer and Book Artist Melissa Green

I discovered Melissa Green via Twitter and was quickly drawn to her work in book design and construction. Her keen interest in economics further compelled me to reach out to her about participating in an interview. Here, she shares her mindful takes on the state of the printed medium and its most storied form—the book, her fascination with the handmade, and being a critical-thinking designer:

On being a designer, book maker,
economics enthusiast:

How did you arrive at the desire to become a desi...

Typographic detail: Considering type size and line spacing for BROKEN

After selecting the fonts for my latest book BROKEN—Recovery for headers, Harriet for body copy—one of the next typographic steps was to determine their sizes and line spacing, or leading(1). There was the temptation to rely on how paragraphs looked on screen, since the book was planned to be only made available as a digital publication (PDF, eBook). But not applying fonts and line spacing to prose, on a printed page, would be dismissive.

From his seminal book The Elements of Typographic Style...

Tweeted March 2014: Food for thought

Tweet icon designed by Adame Dahmani from The Noun Project collection

“The main thing in an interview is to think you have nothing to lose.”
—Norman Rush, Author
Tweeted by @parisreview on 3-30-2014

“And in the end, we were all just humans...drunk on the idea that love, only love, could heal our brokenness.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald, Author
Tweeted by @anapischl on 3-30-2014

“I’ve always believed a book functions best when it leaves a person more capable of living in the world.”
—Richard Powers, Author
Tw...

Erase, Reconcile, Make

Eraser icon designed by Tommy Lau from The Noun Project collection

A fact I’ve only gradually come to realize (and desperately revisit) is that although the act of making is inherently labored, it’s the also the act of making that gives the nudge to continue.

Erasure through making

Whether you’re blogging, drawing, painting, filmmaking, photographing, or engaging another creative outlet, the process demands a lot of work. Hard work is a given—and it’s this experience that makers willingly submit...

Why you want to write

Write icon designed by Joshua Hutchins from The Noun Project collection

You write because you want to.

There is something satisfactory about putting words together to form thoughts into sentences that turn into statements, which, in turn, become passages.

There is something profound about witnessing characters come together to form a composition.

There is something challenging about doing something whose primary objective is to make you struggle with every pause and press.

There is somet...