inspiration books + zines

ny times year in ideas 2009

Paula Scher

Paula Scher/NY Times

The always illuminating New York Times Magazine Annual Year in Ideas issue is out, and we are guaranteed hours of interesting reading. Here’s a short-list culled from a wealth of subjects. The titles indicate only a fraction of the nuanced information in the article.

My favorite is “Good Enough is the New Great”, an idea I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. “Good enough”can be an antidote for perfectionism that keeps you from finishing something, or from doing what REALLY matters to you, or getting hung up in insisting on “Great” when it’s not really essential. For over-achievers, “good enough” can be a useful philosophy for prioritizing.

(Once you click the link, scroll down to find the article):

Good Enough is the New Great

Bicycle Highways

The Counterfeit Self

Massively Collaborative Mathematics

Gourmet Dirt

The illustration above is a selection of the year’s proprietary inventions: a testament to unfettered imagination…

12.13.09 | comments | in inspiration, inspiration blogs + sites, inspiration books + zines, sightings, why not? |

more on inspiration and other visual journals + scrapbooks

After reading ‘ted muehling and the inspiration journal’, designer Pamela Hovland wrote about the many kinds of visual journals she’s kept over the years: “one for my garden, one for my house, one for my summer cabin in Minnesota (all of which are ongoing projects). I keep a visual journal for art and design inspiration, another for wardrobe inspiration (as sometimes I’ll attempt to make a skirt I’ve seen or ask a tailor to do the same). I even have a journal devoted to all things black and white.”

Pamela mentioned Jessica Helfand’s wonderful book Scrapbooks: An American History. That sent me on a path that expanded my view of what journals and scrapbooks can be. One of Helfand’s own scrapbooks commemorates the ritual cleaning of her graphic design studio; it includes bits of dead insect, chicken meat, angel hair pasta, a Prednisone prescription, and Clementine peel into glassine envelope. read more…

10.11.09 | comments (3) | in gifts, inspiration, inspiration blogs + sites, inspiration books + zines, media, projects + play, tools |

GOOD’s video contest: enter your world-changing idea

GOOD is at once magazine, website, blog, video series, community, and events devoted to exploring what good is and what it can be. A collaboration of individuals, business and non-profits, they invite everyone to become of a member of the GOOD community: “Please join us in defining what comes next.” (The subscription price for their magazine is whatever you choose to pay, which Good will donate to the non-profit of your choice. That is putting your money where your mouth is!))

Their latest project (in league with Babelgum) is asking artists, inventors, and thinkers one simple question: If there werent any pesky practical limitations, what world-changing device would you invent? read more…

08.13.09 | comments | in community, inspiration, inspiration blogs + sites, inspiration books + zines, media |

concrete block love

concrete-block-table-breuer4
For years, I made short-shrift of concrete block, associating it with the clunky cinderblock-and-pine shelves beloved by frugal college students, or bleak, prison-like garages and homemade tool sheds. I’d  pass cheap, strong concrete blocks at construction sites and lumber yards, and wonder what I could do with them. Although I’m crazy about concrete, I seemed to have no imagination for concrete block.

Lately, new visions of concrete block have come my way, and opened my eyes to possibilities. read more…

05.20.09 | comments (1) | in elements, furniture, hard, inside, inspiration books + zines, materials, reimagine |

perfect kid’s book: donut chef

donut-chef-boingboing

I’m always on the lookout for great children’s books to give as gifts to my friend’s kids; books are inexpensive, and can be enjoyed over and over again, not to mention inspiring who-knows-what? in those young brains and imaginations. BoingBoing‘s recommendation of Donut Chef,  written and illustrated the brilliant Bob Staake, is dead-on. It’s the story a chef whose donut shop becomes a big success, only to be threatened by a rival around the corner, who sparks a competition to create increasingly fabulous donuts. There’s a great fun riff on improvising and the messes and revelations that invariably occur.

read more…

01.24.09 | comments | in art, inspiration books + zines, kids, projects + play |

marcel breuer: sun and shadow, the philosophy of an architect

sun-and-shadow-breuer

A wordless, pictures-only post on Reference Library tipped me off to Marcel Breuer: Sun and Shadow, The Philosophy of an Architect, that Breuer wrote in the fifties. I found it on Ebay for a good price, through a “buy it now” dealer of out-of-print mid-century and design books. It’s a treasure, in part because of Alexi Brodovitch’s unique design: You holds the book sideways, turning the pages like a calendar, so each section is a double-page spread of drawings, photographs, plans, elevations.

But what is most amazing is to read the thought processes and logic behind Breuer’s designs. read more…

01.21.09 | comments (3) | in elements, inside, inspiration, inspiration books + zines, materials, reimagine, resources |

 
 
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