centered

Keep focused. Stay the course. If you have a feeling that what you're doing is right then don't look back. If you fail at it then great, you can always start again. There's never been one right way to do something. But now, more than ever, we are bombarded with choices. And I'm not even talking about the complicated ones, like will you marry me or buying a car, no I'm talking about the day-to-day choices we face. And herein lies the key to staying centered, are you ready for it, it's patience. Don't be moved by emotion or by trends, be moved by the Spirit of God. I heard it said today that God is always moving, but He's never in a hurry. That really speaks to me. I hope it does to you too.

keep it simple stupid

I was going to write a really in depth post about why I'm unhappy with the way my blog is laid out. But then I thought, who cares? I don't need to talk about it, I just need to do it. It's the same with a lot of other areas in my life. If I could just shut up and put pen to paper (so to speak) I could be more productive.

New Friends On The Block

newFriends This year was great. I got the chance to travel to California and St. Louis and even drove myself out to Wyoming for a weekend. BTW, 14 hours in the car will make you question your sanity. So here's a list of some great people I had the pleasure of meeting this year.

Aaron Irizarry

You're probably already familiar with Aaron if you're reading this, as I had been too via twitter. But this past summer I had the opportunity to fly out to Southern California and meet him face-to-face. Aaron is a family man and an all around "rad" guy. Even though I didn't get to see him as much as I would've liked, just visiting with him for a few hours at his house was awesome. We even sat down and recorded a video blog together.

Chris Wallace

Meeting Chris was like meeting a long lost brother that I never knew existed. Even though he's younger than me he doesn't act like it. Maybe it's his story of surviving cancer or the fact that having a wife and two kids is what drives him to succeed. Whatever it is, Chris has it, and I'm proud to know him. While I was out there in St. Louis we went to a Cardinals game and to take some pictures down at the graffiti wall. But probably my favorite part was just sitting down and talking with him. Check out Lift.

Firehost

Ok obviously Firehost isn't a real person, but I did get to meet two of the people behind Firehost, Chris Drake and Casey Barthels. I don't know if I can say enough good things about these guys. Humble, reliable, innovative, generous, the list could go on. But seriously, if it weren't for these guys I'd still be stuck on the phone with Media Temple having to put up with their poor customer service. Thanks Firehost.

Garth Humbert

Garth is one of those guys flying under the radar. You may not see him in the limelight but don't be fooled, this guy has some serious design chops. It was Garth who flew me out to California and opened his home to me for a short weekend this past summer. Upon arrival I thought we would spend more time in front of the computer, but it turned out to be a relaxing mini-vacation with a trip down to San Diego and to the Temecula Valley Wine country. That was one of my favorite weekends of this past year. Be sure and check out his new company May.

Matthew Simo

It was only the second WordPress meetup group I had been to and the group had grown from about 10 people to close to 50. So it came as a surprise when I found myself sitting next to a like-minded designer. Plus he wore a really cool hat. Since then we've hung out more and more, and you can usually find us up at The Flying Saucer on Monday nights sharing a pint or two and talking about life. Matt is currently working on a new version of his website and I know it will be featured on smashing magazine, at least five times.


That's what it's all about folks, making real connections with real people. If you would've asked me at the beginning of 2009 if I thought I would be traveling across the country to meet people I only knew online I might've said "cool" (seeing as how I did meet my wife online) but it certainly wasn't expected.

Now I'm excited to meet you in 2010. If you're going to be in Dallas, let me know. If you like good beer, good food and good design let's plan a trip one weekend. I want to get out there and meet those of you who I've been connecting with online.

Featured on Sketchnote Army

anxiety I'm sure you've heard of Mike Rohde, and if not by name then more than likely by his SXSW Interactive 2009 Sketchnotes. They are truly beautiful and really freaking cool if you have an iPhone. I first found them a few months ago and was instantly inspired to do something similar.

Church Notes

Since my wife and I have been making an effort to go and fellowship on Sunday mornings at The Village I have been taking notes. But unlike Mike, who uses his moleskin, I enjoy my Field Notes as they are more compact and feel less intimidating. Also, I am the type of person who pays more attention when I'm drawing/doodling when someone else is talking. So while those next to me might be thinking I'm off in some la-la land, I'm actually in tune with the message. It's just my pen that's doing most of the looking, instead of my eyes.

You can view the growing set of my collection of Church Notes on Flickr.

Sketchnote Army

The site was started by none other than Mike Rohde. After a few brief direct messages with him on twitter he said his initial idea was to have a place to organize sketchnotes for SXSW. But looks to me like this site is becoming a much bigger community than that. And I'm excited to see it grow and get new ideas from others out there sketching their notes. Check them out at SketchnoteArmy.com.

Thank you Mike for your inspiration and adding my sketchnotes to the site.

Running Update

I wanted to share how my recent barefoot running adventure in my Vibram FiveFingers is going and how I'm liking them. I also picked up some new headphones so I could listen to music while I run. On my playlist right now is Daft Punk, Justice, Ronald Jenkees and We Are Scientists.

Connect with me on DailyMile

If you're interested in learning more about barefoot running check out the book: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. I haven't read it yet, but I've only heard great things about it.

What Inspires You?

inspire Where did the greats like Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Rembrandt draw their inspiration from? It's hard for me to imagine being that we live in the age of computers, where there are no limits to what we can find. Especially inside the design community where there is a huge playing field of resources available for all our inspirational needs.

But how much is too much?

Personally, I think we've already crossed that line and are now left to wade through all the muck. All of these inspirational blogs are only hindering us from creating something truly original.

Take a look at Shephard Fairey for example. He started out making "Andre the Giant Has A Posse" flyers and stickers. From there he took the stencil art world by storm. And we all remember his Obama campaign poster that gained him national (even global) attention. But how many rip-offs have we seen of his Obama poster? I'm not saying that it is wrong to be inspired by another artist. But I am saying that we shouldn't set the bar so low as to copy someone else's work and be proud of it.

Dare To Imagine

So is it so hard to imagine that maybe the classic artists, the greats, were able to paint, design and craft magnificent pieces of artwork without having to look at hundreds of others work? Maybe there's something to be learned from a life without computers. Where people actually interacted with one another and had discussions face-to-face instead of on facebook. That's why I love meeting up for a drink with friends to talk shop or finding local meetup groups that share my interest. Or even taking my dogs to the park for that matter. Just getting outside and communicating with other people is so refreshing.

We need to be more creative in the ways we get inspired. I don't want to compare myself to others whose work is amazing and feel like giving up. I'm sure the people behind those great pieces of art/design didn't make it just to make the rest of us jealous. But instead did it from a place of passion and wanting to push the envelope. And I bet if you talked with any of those designers that inspire you they would tell you to do work that is original and that you can be proud of.

I think true inspiration is a gift that's given to us. Some have called it a Muse, others have called it drugs, but I think it's the One who created us that imparts it to us.


Originally posted on WeAreJustCreative.com on February, 05 2009