It’s all starting to come together. Now, as you drive along Dodge Street, just before you get to 50th Street, you’ll be greeted with a big, beautiful sign that vertically reads “DUNDEE.” A marker for the community on the facade of the newly renovated theater slotted to open later this year. Check out the article from the Omaha World-Herald. I have a couple quotes in there.
This was my response to the question: how will you make Omaha a better place? Asked on the spot and then needing to sharpie it on a piece of paper, I thought frantically about the work I’ve done in this city and where this design career might be heading next. Accessible and relatedly. There you have it.
An urgent, hasty, sketchy mess of a design. Scribbled over and over. Repetition you can feel. A whirlwind of speed to let you know I think this is just enough. This is all that needs to be shown.
The point can stop here. With the mess of hair, the piercing eye slots, that cavernous mouth. Spewing forth chewed up words of lies and nonsense. Spitting on you. Spitting on me. With a simple 1-word association: FOOL. Trump as the fool, the court jester, that laughing stock that wasn’t taken all that seriously until now he is. He fooled you, he fooled me, he fooled us all. Now with his Tweets of distraction intended to continue to fool us. To keep us from watching what’s really going on. He wants to fool us away from truth and away from each other. Divide. Confuse. Numb. He the greatest fool of our generation. Created to fool. With his fury unleashed at the top of the heap. We need to stay vigilant and we can no longer remain on the fooled end of a fool’s errand to the insulting of the highest office in the land.
I was recently interviewed by The Creative Chair for the 50 States project. Talkin’ design, activism, collaboration, and reincarnation.
The great state of Nebraska is in the middle of flyover country America. Not a place known for high-quality design, booming creative industries, or interesting cultural forces. Which is what makes trying to build a very focused design practice so interesting.
Hence, I like/love design. Sometimes both at once. It’s all about emphasis and timing. Put together a masterful set of rules, guidelines, frameworks, and boundaries. But always be on the lookout for when breaking those makes the most sense. When you find just the right time to strike, then go ahead and break those rules, guidelines, frameworks, and boundaries. When it comes to design, the work will be better for it.
Oldie but a goodie. The mighty Jake Welchert and myself were interviewed by Donovan Beery back in 2013 about design in the political arena. Barack Obama!
I’ll just let 1997 Hot Water Music have the floor:
To shed skin and begin
An intake that will make a difference in clear thinking
For conquering any fear that is thrown in direction
When at a weak point or time of suffering
The edge won’t quit if there is no giving in to what drags on
To be negative or seem wrong to live
To carry back home
With full intent and better sense
To recognize what is false and part with it
Knowing doubtless by instinct which triggers
Thought on how to grow
In soul without gold or praised lies
Which keep the sheep all right
With anything that seems safe and convenient
