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Category Archives: Inspiration
Monday Report
Our Limited Edition Holiday Poster was featured in FPO: For Print Only – Special thanks to Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit and Under Consideration. Buy Your Poster Here.
Miles of yarn put Double Rainbows to shame
Everyones favorite one-man internet comic strip creator has finally gotten off his lazy behind and put together a collection of his work – 5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth
Our Web Genius, Phil, has launched his first app – Field Trip – perfect for holiday travels or day trips to the zoo.
Make your own icebreaker tags!
Aside from being fun to scroll through, FONTS IN USE has a great article showcasing the various mastheads in the Egotist Network as well as a breakdown of the new branding for Comedy Central
LemonAid: Drinking Helps.
Speaking of Lemon, new 7-Up Brand … Discuss
If you are confused by THIS, you need to READ MORE COMICS
Frank Chimero breaks down his new digital arsenal to just 6lbs of power
How about this brilliant restoration of a 240-year-old map of New York? Check it out here.
I am loving the graphic experiments of Dan Mountford
From DEVOUR: Try not to listen to this cello cover of SMOOTH CRIMINAL. Just try. Rinse, Wash, Repeat.
From UPPERCASE: Call for Cereal Box Submissions – I have been loving the throwback designs, now you can take part.
Awesome packaging by Tyler Riewer – The Two Roads to Courage
Finally, how awesome are these money clips by JACK SPADE? (thanks @sarajaneroe )
5 Second Projects
We recently came across an innovative idea that has become very popular in the motion graphic’s scene. It was created by Nick Campbell (of Greyscale Gorilla), a motion designer and iPhone app designer who lives in Chicago.
Nick is very interested in helping others fight the dreaded mind-blocks and constraints that sometimes make the creative mind go crazy, and he has devised a system that helps people let go of those influences and let their creativity flow.
He gives his readers a theme, which can be a word, a phrase or a category and they create a 5 second video of whatever their mind takes them to. Nick then picks a winner and features this video along with some of the entries on his blog. Sometimes they may have prizes, but overall it’s just a great way to fill your mind with visual inspiration from people around the world.
It’s amazing to see the great variety of interpretations his readers had of the phrase “retro” or “straigh lines only.”
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Book:”Linchpin: Are You Indispensable” by Seth Godin
I recently came across an article about this book and I thought it spoke to what we strive for here at Paragon. I have to say, I have not read the book, but from the buzz it has generated online, it sounds like something worth sharing.
The main focus of the book is to emphasize the importance of being indispensable. There will always be an abundance of capable people or companies that can do exactly what they are asked to do, but indispensable people/companies will deliver things that were never expected of them and sometimes were not even discussed in a design brief. Being indispensable for Godin means adding emotional value to the experience, delivering things that can’t be put in an invoice because they cannot be quantified or valued through money. We cannot offer counseling, oil changes or free hugs (OK, actually we do offer free hugs), but what we CAN offer is design services, the right way.
For us it’s a joy to be able to meet and exceed our clients expectations and we see our everyday routine as anything but a routine. We enjoy having a direct relationship with our clients, being able to get a first hand reaction to our work, because we are proud of what we do, and we are always happy to show what we are working on.
It is a reality that a lot of people have access to the equipment and a lot of them use it to do business. What will ultimately set us apart from people that posses the right equipment, is the extra “something” we can bring to the table: an unwavering positive attitude, a desire to share our knowledge and experience instead of coating everything in mystery, and our desire to always help our clients achieve what they came to us for in the first place.
10.10.10
Father getting his daughter ready for school in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Picture by Mohammad Safayet Khan
Since here at Paragon we have a passion for innovative projects that bring people together, we found this project on motionographer.com and decided to share it.
It’s called One Day on Earth (10.10.10) and it’s about filming or taking photographs during a period of 24 hours in every single country in the planet. Now that 10.10.10 has passed, they will be putting together a film that will be available to the whole world (no pun intended) and they have also opened this project to contributions from people like you and me who would like to share something about their own lives with the rest of the world.
Passion for What You Do
I was inspired this morning by a post entitled “Messy is Good” on The Creative Coast blog by a great friend, Rad Harrell. In the post Rad talks about embracing a bit of chaos in the quest for solving a problem. Wise words. And I’ll add to that – the thing that keeps us moving through the mess is the passion.
Passion is the reason we excel. It’s that thing that causes us to make the right decisions even when we’re worried they might seem foolish. It forces us to put one foot in front the other when the results aren’t as sexy as we’d hoped. It reminds us where we’re headed even when it feels like we’re taking the long route. Passion is absolutely infectious. And fun.
Wouldn’t the world be a far better/more enjoyable place if we all sought out that thing we were truly passionate about and then DID IT?!
Here to inspire you this weekend is a man who just rocked my world with his passion for fizzy stuff….
(Thanks to James for sharing this video)
Click here to purchase some these awesome beverages online.
And, don’t forget to take a moment tomorrow to be grateful for the amazing life you have. Enjoy it.
A Presidential “Thank You”
I was truly honored to meet President Obama back in March, and took the opportunity to give him one of our portfolio books along with a note from the entire team.
Needless to say….this will be framed and hung in my office.
Laptops Needed for a Good Cause
I love the fact that over the years we’ve gotten to know so many generous people who care about making a difference in the lives of others. If I was ever tempted to become completely self-involved, those people would inspire it right out of me. Today I thought I’d share a story about one of them, Malcolm Boyanton.
Malcolm is a friend and colleague based in Seattle who works for a software company, and I noticed recently that he’s been requesting old laptops. I thought I’d get in touch with him to see what was afoot.
Well it turns out that he’d been planning a trip to South America, and after hearing about the earthquake in Chile (and first-hands reports of dire need from his buddy Ariel Stamm who has been there for the past month) he’s decided to make the first part of his trip a philanthropic stop in that country. And he’s doing it by putting his geeky skills to use.
“There are a lot of schools and families without access to any computers. So, when I leave in a few weeks I want to stuff my bag full of supplies and laptops. I’ve got a couple that were donated and then I’ll likely buy a couple more off people I know or craigslist….All laptops will be given out to rural schools with little or no access to computers.”
More Stories of…
Annie Leonard and Free Range Studios have done it again. With 2 new follow ups to their popular movie, The Story of Stuff called The Story of Cap and Trade and, most recently, The Story of Bottled Water.
Design Revolution Road Show Recap
Sure this past Saturday morning was cold and windy, but that was not enough to slow down Project H’s Design Revolution Road Show which cruised into town for the day.
Vintage Airstream that housed the exhibit. Talk about shiny!
I had the pleasure of spending the day with the inspiring folks at the helm: Emily Pilloton, Founder and Executive Director of Project H, along with Matt Miller, Project Architect – two super smart people, who aren’t just talking about making the world a better place…they’re doing something about it.
I won’t rehash previous posts (you can read them here and here).
Interview Advice from Design Veteran, DJ Stout
Thanks to BFG and their Creative Seed Initiative, we had the opportunity to meet DJ Stout. Head of Pentagram/ Austin and long time idol (but then again who at Pentagram isn’t one of our idols?). While it was great listening to the thought process behind some of his iconic work the most useful aspect I thought came at the end when he answered a student’s question about what a new design graduate should do to distinguish themselves when interviewing in this compressed job market.
His response broke down to the following points:
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