Check out this excellent short story called “The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu, read by LaVar Burton.

LaVar’s Chinese is dreadful, but the story is magical, beautiful, and deeply meaningful.

The most inspiring session for me during Adobe Max 2021 was this one:

Doing Great Creative In-House When the House Isn’t Creative – S258

Dennis Lim gave a few poignant points that resonated with me:

• Don’t boil the ocean
  • Basically do what you can, focus on what matters, don’t try to fix everything
• Only do work impossible not to love
  • This one doesn’t seem realistic but it pairs well with the above point. Don’t put your effort into projects that are dead ends, just get it done and pour your heart into the things that matter.
• Build it and they will come
  • If you start making great work, one project at a time, people will come to you for more of the same work.
• It’s a marathon, not a sprint—outlast them
  • Stick to your creative vision and see it through. Take feedback to address issues but don’t compromise on the creative vision.

 

This global design survey from Dribbble was helpful in asking for a raise last year. It’s still relevant now but hopefully, they’ll put out a new one soon.

I made these actions for Adobe Illustrator to export file types for logo export.

Before you use the action:

• Create a folder on your desktop called “Temp”
• Clear the pasteboard and make sure the artboard is set how you like (if your design doesn’t fill the entire artboard, some file types will preserve the margins (this can be good if you think the client would benefit from having margins baked into the asset to ensure negative space around the logo))
• Save two differently named files for a CMYK color profile and RGB color profile

When the action runs, it’ll create all the file types you might need for a logo.

The CMYK action creates: .jpg, .ai, .pdf, .eps
The RGB action creates: .jpg, .png, .svg, .ai, .pdf

This Adobe Illustrator action transforms shapes into an isometric perspective. It’s really simple and I created it by following this Camp Keyframe isometric tutorial on youtube.

 

I often use stickermule for vinyl stickers.

Decent quality and affordable. Make sure you check their deals.

Ordered these cotton muslin bags off etsy and they were decent. Great at accepting ink from a rubber stamp.

 

Noissue. Saving this custom tissue paper vendor for a future project. Discovered the recommendation on Instagram from Huyen Dinh

This Hidden Brain episode is really interesting. The quick summary is that removing friction and obstacles for the desired outcome is far more effective than adding fuel, i.e.: a pizza party at work isn’t going to increase morale in a work environment that fails to address frictions and tensions in the office culture. Giving somebody a map to a vaccination site with operating hours is more effective than explaining why the vaccines are safe and effective because they can easily get to the appointment, instead of having to coordinate a time, date, and location on their own time.

It’s a core concept in most design circles but it’s nice to hear it from a different perspective.