The Collective Consciousness of "I"

 

3.1 Venice magazine – cover art  ©  Taylor Barnes 2013

I had a dream. I actually had an epiphany. I had a moment. Maybe a moment of insanity! But I did it. I started a magazine.  3.1 Venice was born May 30th, 2013 – weighing in at 60 pages and measuring 8.5" x 10.5".

I can use "I" with a sense of humility because I was the instrument for the idea. Much like giving birth to my daughter - I have a sense of bringing her into the world and having guardianship over her but what happened after that was her destiny, not mine.  

I just happened to have the skill set the universe required and it used me to get the word out. But the idea came through me like a Japanese bullet train. Four weeks ago it was a conversation at the local coffee shop, a statement of conviction, "I am starting a magazine." Four weeks ago, it was an impulsively bought domain name, 3point1-venice.com and a temporary web site proclaiming an arbitrary release date of May 25th. There was no particular reason for that date (and I missed it by five days) except to proclaim to the world that "I" was starting a magazine.

But the power of conviction is what convinced me that my little village of Venice Beach, California, was interesting enough to warrant a magazine – after all, there had been two before me. The publication and the website came fully realized and in four short weeks the universe ushered to my door everyone and everthing I would need to make this a reality. 

The theme of the first issue revealed itself very quickly and it certainly was not what I would have thought if you asked me at the beginning of this journey. The very first interview, with a wonderful urban farmer, Matt Van Diepen, led to an entire issue built around the farm-to-table movement here in Venice. Each story lead to another and the discovery of the people who make our community unique. We have musician Finian Makepeace talking about Mycorrihzal Fungi and his dreams for a community garden, a profile on the modern ukulele band The Ooks of Hazzard, and a piece about Chance Foreman's film, One Day in Venice. There are other stories – The Learning Garden and the Seed Library, and interviews, art, video, photography. Everybody had something to say! All of these stories emanated from the 3.1 square miles we call Venice.

But it's the design process that was affirmed and revealed during the creation of this publication. The idea that I could be so deeply involved with the subject matter, that I could have a vision and be the guardian of it was a renewed experience. I have been here before but it has been awhile and I'd forgotten how intoxicating it can be. This project was a joyful coming together of all my skills in one place. Today, three days post launch, I am exhausted from all the joy.

I found myself in the middle of a process of collaboration, discovery, invention and communication that was energizing and inspiring and I am reminded why I love publication design so much. There is a bit of withdrawl now because it is a heady experience to bring something to fruition that was just a dream four weeks ago. But every time I look at the sixty pages of original content and the list of talented contributors, I am in awe of how creative humans can come together to build something more powerful than the singularity of it's parts.

Even though I started this post with references to "I", "I", "I" – I am ending this post as the collective "I." Think of the Borg of the Star Trek series. They were individuals all tuned into one mind – this is the "I" I am referring to. Collective Consciousness driving many people towards one binding mission. In this instance it was to create, even for a moment, a sense of community and awareness that you are not alone in the world. "I" is also "eye" when spoken, so the use of "I" with reference to a magazine could be interpreted as "I see."

View the first issue of 3.1 Venice at issuu.com

Ideation

ide·a·tion

noun \ˌī-dē-ˈā-shən\

Definition of IDEATION: the capacity for or the act of forming 

or entertaining ideas.

Forming ideas does have a process. It may be a little different for everybody but the more we do the better we become. The other day my students said to me that I was the first art teacher to tell them there are rules. They said they are always being told to follow their feelings and just have fun with art. I agree with that philosophy to a degree but I know there are rules and once we learn the rules we can intelligently break them.
 
One of the rules I honor is allowing myself time to freely play with any and all ideas when I start a new project. Everything is fair game until I hone it down to what will work for me and what will work for the client. Trying not to be jaded and judgmental requires greater and greater amounts of education. The more I know the less I know.

When I start a project I look at art. I visit galleries and museums looking for things to set my mind whirling. I walk a lot and observe my surroundings. When I present a new project to my students I do the same thing for them - I present artists but I also ask them questions that cause them to see the conditions of their environment and how it impacts their art. For example - every year I do a project based upon the work of Wayne Thiebaud. I bring in cupcakes which the students place in front of them and use as a 'model.'

Cupcake painting by artist Wayne Thiebaud

Obviously there is a sensory element and a desire to eat the cupcake that adds to the intensity of the work. But I also discuss the science of the cupcake and the ingredients that cause it to expand in the oven and create the puffed top and the flared cupcake paper. I talk about imagining the pastry bag that the icing was pumped out of. The more my students learn about what they are painting the better they paint it. 
 
This year an interesting thing happened - the first day of painting I could not pick up the cupcake order in time for class so I started the project with a virtual cupcake instead. I pulled up a picture on the classroom computer and let the students reference it. The paintings were the least successful they have ever been - flat, without life or understanding of the subject. In past years this is always my most successful project so this came as a complete surprise. Today I brought the actual cupcakes in and the difference in the work was significant. It was obvious to me that if you can't fully imagine the sensation of what you are painting you need the most complete reference you can get. In time you will be able to train your imagination to create fully realized ideas that supply all the details you need to finish the work.
 
To me it was obvious that there is a process to creating the reference in your mind that you will pull to form ideas. As artists we need to know when to fill in the gaps. I recently saw a picture of the illustrator Maira Kalman drawing an egg slicer. Although her style is playful and not fully realistic she still needed to reference an actual egg slicer to get the full feeling of the object she was drawing.

Maira Kalman drawing and egg slicer.

http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/1901532/print

The formulation of ideas is such a complex process and to begin to break it down would barely define it. But to try and understand how we personally start on the road to a fully realized work of art is part of maturing as an artist. It helps us to break faster towards our own ideas and final pieces.
 
Ideation is about engaging the senses and breaking up preconceived notions but at the same time maintaining a certain order to your thinking. An idea is as complex as a light bulb when you think about it. It has to connect to something to spark the energy that creates the light. What a perfect analogy!

Libra the Balancing Act

Libra design available on zazzle.com (©Taylor Barnes 2010)

Today was the autumnal equinox and the beginning of the astrological sign of Libra. The equinox is one of two times in the year when the day and the night are of equal length and Libra represents the sign of balance. So it seems fitting to reflect at this moment on balance in design and life.

As artists we strive for balance in our work. We try to create a visual that is weighted equally between many elements (type, illustration, color, etc.) and allow the viewer to take in the whole message without distraction. But there is the opposite end of the spectrum – that rare designer that can take chaos and orchestrate it so artfully that it is a delight to feel "off-balance."

But if you dig deeper the working artist also needs balance in the home and studio. Emotional distraction (such as my daughter just now walking into the room to yell "hi" to me as I am writing this blog post) or financial imbalance can retard the creative process. 

I once knew an artist who taught me this lesson (ironically he was born under the sign of Libra.) I noticed that although he worked a full time job he was very productive in the studio and always showing his work. I asked him what his secret was and he said that he had simplified every other area of his life so that the most complicated thinking happened when he was making art. He had five white button down shirts, five pairs of jeans, he ate the same lunch every day, and kept to this routine no matter how boring it might seem. But he produced a lot of work and seemed very happy.

I tried this for myself and found I did get more done. I have also discovered that whenever I give in to my caprices and let go of structure I get nothing done creatively. I end up "giving away" my creativity to my teaching, my child or my clients. In the end I am disappointed, out of whack and want to get back to center artistically. My survival instinct as a creative will kick in and cause me to do something to correct the situation but that causes a new imbalance as well.

Balance – the equinox of ebb and flow of ideas, money, love and harmony in one's life. That is the goal. However... that being said, it is the chaotic times that have produced some of the greatest inspiration in my life. Being human is not easy!

A New Look and A New Attitude!

                         Virgo by Taylor Barnes © 2010


A redesign is a good but unnerving thing to undertake. I approached this one with so many possible ideas but one criteria – I wanted things to lighten up. I am fond of saying, "white space is your friend" yet I wasn't practicing what I was preaching. Hence, the redesign.

I am happy with the cleaner look and you may have noticed the new logo in the header for L'Image Graphics. My primary focus as a designer is to resurrect the brand that I developed several years ago. I had not planned to walk this road until a few months ago when three completely random emails requesting to buy my products sparked an idea. It seemed to me that if, after all this time, people were interested enough to track me down then maybe I should be interested enough to produce that product again.

But once again that brings me to the subject of 'redesign.' Of course I couldn't put out the same product I did several years ago -times have changed. But what parts to keep and which to change are the difficult challenges we face as designers. A brand has to be respected but it can't get stuck either.

So with all that in mind welcome to the new and improved L'Image Graphics. If you are interested to see the new work you can find it at www.zazzle.com/limagegraphics.

Enjoy.

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E

The "E" bothers you, doesn't it? It is incongruous to the meaning of the word structure. The word feels as if it can't stand on its own. As you read down the letters you expect a certain symmetry to follow the function of the word.

I picked this photo of the Paris airport because of the structure. Everything in the photo is composed based on the architect's vision. As I was looking at this picture I was thinking of the need for structure in our lives. Our moral structure, our societal or governmental structure, our personal structure that we impose on our lives. It occurred to me that in design we start with structure but some of the more challenging designers then break from the the obvious formulas or expectations. Designers like Tibor Kalman or David Carson made entire careers out of breaking the rules.

The question to ask is when is the right time to break the rules and mess up the structure. Obviously not by moving the "E" off the bottom of the word. Even that could have worked if I had used a very stressed font that already felt "unstable." Then the off-balance "E" would have been expected or almost anticipated.

The second part to the question of structure is how do we break the design to make it even stronger than before? I know there are no easy answers to this question but I would say that many new inspiring new ideas are born out of instinct, rebellion and experimentation.

But in the act of breaking the structure it still needs to be respected. Order needs to be formed even within visual chaos. It can happen by the chance of colors grouping in not so arbitrary ways, or scale being used to define space and then the chaos is laid upon it. However we choose to risk breaking the structure we alway have to offer the viewer a new way to see that creates a new order in their thinking.

But the truth is that even in breaking the rules the most rebellious designers often become predictable for the particular set of rules that create the structure to their individual look - and they become imitated. Eventually their rules become the rules to be broken. Structure prevails in the end because of the human need for order.