There’s reality. Then there’s your reality. The two are not the same. Reality just is. Your reality is how you see things. How you bend them to your vision. Reality might be that your company is not growing. Your reality is that you have an incredible vision to turn this company around and get it to thrive. If you stay in this reality — the reality of your vision — you become impervious to what Shakespeare called “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” In your reality, you can deal with losing talent, because you are going to bring in folks who are better. In your reality, you can deal ..read more

When you live in Los Angeles, as I do, chances are you’ll brush up against lowrider culture sooner or later. My exposure has come at Elysian Park on the east side, a stone’s throw from Dodgers Stadium. Throngs of people will gather with coolers, speakers, and souped-up cars that gleam in the sun and back traffic up for blocks. But unlike most LA traffic, this gridlock is worth it, with the cars serving more as works of art than automobiles and the joy radiating from the scene offering a palpable window into a rich subculture in the city. Lowrider culture is far from specific to Los Angeles, w ..read more

The Wild Party by Joseph Moncure March was published as a narrative poem in 1928. The poem tells the story of Queenie and her actor lover Burrs, who decide to have a party, complete with illegal bathtub gin and the couple’s colorful, eccentric and egocentric friends. But the party unfolds with more tumultuous goings-on than planned. Art Spiegelman revived interest in the poem when he published a newly illustrated version in 1999. Around the same time, two musical productions were in the works. Andrew Lippa wrote the book, music and lyrics for a 2000 off-Broadway version while Michael John LaCh ..read more

In the nonprofit world, the word ‘branding’ often gets a bad rap. It’s seen by some as a concept borrowed from the corporate sector, associated with consumerism and self-promotion. Many people who work for nonprofits view branding as a limiting force, a set of guidelines or a box that their communications team uses to keep everything consistent, but somehow restrictive. There’s also a perception that focusing on branding means prioritizing style over substance, detracting from the altruistic mission that forms the heart of any nonprofit and diverting time and money away from on-the-ground work ..read more

How could Taschen have the temerity to use the British spelling of “color” on the cover of The Book of Colour Concepts? Well, given Taschen’s amazing capacity to publish huge multilingual tomes on art, design, typography, photography, popular culture, etc., they can do any linguistic thing they want. So, if they want to call color COLOUR, it is their right. This two-volume set by Alexandra Loske and Sarah Lowengard is not just elegant … and massive … and intelligent, it is the final word on color as an essential life force. “We can trace an active intellectual engagement with colour throughout ..read more

No entrepreneurial journey is without its challenges, but even the biggest ones can be overcome with enough passion, drive, and support.  Today’s guest is Sadrah Schadel, founder and CEO of No Evil Foods, a nationwide plant-based protein company that she and her life partner started in their kitchen in 2014 with just $5000. After a few major hurdles which we discuss during today’s episode, they got to a point where they were weeks away from running out of money and having to shut their doors. Tune in to hear about the rise, fall, and recent rebrand of No Evil Foods! Key Points From This E ..read more

The op-ed is by Darren Foldes, Partner and Head of Films at Sibling Rivalry, a brand studio and production company based in New York and Los Angeles. Leaning into the company’s “craft first” mantra, Darren has reshaped Sibling Rivalry Film’s roster of talent to be grounded in the present, while at the same time distinctly leaning towards the future. At the heart is a talented group of accomplished filmmakers, diverse artists, and above all, kind people. The rise of streamers like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Apple TV has catalyzed a (New) Golden Age of TV: episodic shows have bec ..read more

Ace in the Hole stars Kirk Douglas as a streetwise urban newspaper man whose lack of ethics got him fired from 11 big publications. In the film, our desperate anti-hero tries to claw his way back to the top by reporting for a small-town newspaper in New Mexico, hoping to land the kind of sensational scoop that will grab headlines back East. I won’t give away the entire plot (you can get the idea here), but an incidental prop caught my eye. Can you tell what part of the mise en scene it is? Look closely, now. . . To the left of Kirk Douglas’ head is a handmade embroidered sampler—the vintage ..read more

This guest post was written by Anne Galperin, an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Design at the State University of New York at New Paltz, where she teaches courses in design research and history and relaxes by sorting pied type. With a body of work throughout the 1990s that enthusiastically and provocatively amalgamated dualities—word/image, real/virtual, hand/machine, past/future—American graphic, type, and multimedia designer P. Scott Makela established his reputation as a creator of postmodern visual languages outside normative graphic design. While designers of different ..read more

When your favorite nieces have babies, they might ask you as a designer, to do things for them. If that auntie has a soft spot for their little voices saying, “Titi Alma, could you do x or y…” Alma’s heart melts almost immediately. Our hearts are intertwined in a deep, deep bond. My nieces had baby girls weeks apart two years ago. They are now expecting again (due this summer). One of them asked me to design an artwork with letters because her daughter was learning them.  She had me at letters. The question was what to do: a poster, a set of cards, a book? If a bo ..read more