Try this next time you’re at a restaurant: –What can I get for you, sir? –Well, I’m hungry but I’m not sure what I want. –Do you want me to give you more time with the menu? –No, why don’t you just make some things and bring ’em out. I think I’ll know what I […]

This article is in: Design, Identity, Illustration, The Nerdatorium

The design of the physical money in our pockets says volumes about us: how we see ourselves as a nation; what we value as a nation (or at least what we say we value); what we consider to be quintessential elements of our national identity. It’s a daunting task to create a design that captures […]

This article is in: Design

  Don’t overcook your good ideas Design by committee and endless revisions can turn the best idea into a charred, smoking wreck. Most projects begin with a spark of a creative idea, and that spark can grow into a complete, developed finished piece. But the revision process can be brutal on that initial idea, especially […]

This article is in: Creativity, Design, Ideas

Sioux Falls’ New Event Center On Friday Sioux Falls celebrated the completion of its new event center with a ribbon cutting ceremony, complete with a large ribbon and giant pair of scissors. The Denny Sanford Premier Center opened its doors after a series of remarks about the history of the building project itself. I have had […]

This article is in: Community, Design, Photography

I recently borrowed a wide-angle lens from a friend to take some exterior photos of a building and I was reminded of two things about photography, and work in general: Having good equipment makes all the difference. The best equipment in the world can’t take good pictures for you. You still have to be intentional […]

This article is in: Creativity, Design, Photography

When you study something intently, you sometimes lose sight of what made you want to study it. When readers begin paying attention to a book’s design, it is usually because the design is getting in the way. For better or worse, the words of the Bible have been studied and parsed and dissected to an extraordinary degree. […]

This article is in: Book Design, Books, Design

Not my best work One of the cold hard facts of the creative life is that we all have some past work that we’re not proud of. We’ve all put our names on projects in the past (maybe not even the very distant past) that we now hope will be forgotten. Sometimes the most painful […]

This article is in: Creativity, Design

We are drawn to things that we know have been handled and shaped by human hands. We sense that those things have taken time to craft, and they feel more valuable. “That human quality is what attracts me to it. Those imperfections, mistakes–that’s interesting.” Even if there are imperfections, we prefer our mom’s lumpy chocolate chip cookies […]

This article is in: Creativity, Design, Illustration

A friend asked me a few days ago about the pros and cons of doing freelance design work along with your primary design job. Even though I approach the question as it relates to my work as a graphic designer, I think there are general principles here that apply to any profession. The biggest benefits […]

This article is in: Creativity, Design

As a parent teaching my kids about letters, it’s sometimes difficult to know which A to focus on.  What is the Platonic form of the lowercase A?  It may also be an occupational hazard that I want to tell them about serifs and italics and the difference between a two-story “a” and a one-story “a.”  And […]

This article is in: Book Design, Books, Community, Design, For EMM, Type Design, Typography