Tech Fatigue, Tired of Tech

Yes, I have nagging feelings of technology overload. And two-factor authentication. Password resets. Fear of identity theft. Is your data plan enough to keep you from accidentally using a thousand dollars worth of space? Register your domain. Then decide on your hosting plan. Google keywords getting people to you? Have you heard about filter bubbles? I hope so. Why does my Bluetooth go out frequently? Bluetooth speakers? No, thank you. (UPDATE: Do you have the latest update?) ((Security improvements.))

Wireless was a game changer. Wireless is always following me. Have you spoken with Alexa lately? Are you being tracked wherever it is you go? Are your files all backed up in the cloud? Is it cloudy overhead? Please, clean up your desktop. Do you need to dust your desktop IRL? Be sure to back up your files on the hard drive(s). Be sure to drink your Ovaltine. (Your video will begin after this advertisement.)*

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The Top 10 Albums of 2018

In my past lists, male artists dominated. I even had a year where there was only one female band on my Top 10 list. That is just shameful. So this year, the year of the woman, the most punk rock thing to do is go one better. In a year of listening to more female artists than ever before, here are the albums that spoke to me in 2018, in no particular order:

• Janelle Monáe, Dirty Computer

• Black Belt Eagle Scout, Mother Of My Children

• Wye Oak, The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs

• Jorja Smith, Lost & Found

• Sudan Archives, Sink

• U.S. Girls, In A Poem Unlimited

• Noname, Room 25

• Mitski, Be the Cowboy

• Snail Mail, Lush

• Charli XCX, Pop 2

This might be my favorite Top 10 list to date. And sadly, Kali Uchis, Santigold, and Haley Heynderickx didn’t quite make the cut. But damn, the year of the woman roared, rocked, soothed, inspired, motivated, intrigued, captivated, grooved, and in so many aspects opened my mind. #MuchLove

One Side

There are two sides of American democracy but they are not equal. Only one side has embraced a very anti-democratic agenda in order to keep their power. Not only is the Republican party the one side who has embraced a ruthless strategy of making it harder for people to vote, now they are changing the rules after the vote has happened, limiting the power of the Democratic party. This is not normal. This is not acceptable. This is a threat to our collective future. And it must be stopped.

Graphic design in these absurd times

Whether standing up for women’s rights, for truth, or for the need for the nation’s kids to feel safe from gun violence when they go to school, there is no shortage of issues that need our attention.

In that 2018 setting, I took on a packed schedule of work, projects, writing, and collaborations. What follows are the projects outside of client work designed to move the needle, in whatever small way. Because it all adds up.

Making what I want how I want to make it

A good amount of weirdness. That’s still beautiful. It’s collaborative in the idea and with the back and forth in the design. Bringing people in and such. Just the right amount of constraints with just the right amount of no rules.

It feels “alive.” And it feels worth it. Like this thing is unique and deserves on its own merits to be explored and enjoyed.

Can’t love everything. When trying to level out a work/life balance, I’ve had to get better at learning what I don’t like. There are only so many hours in a day and you simply can’t do everything. I find it reassuring to be honest and say to myself, yeah, I don’t like this thing, moving on to the next.

The Freedom of Design

It is different from art, and while there are boundaries or restrictions or parameters needed to define/contain the design, there is still the fact that the best design happens when there is freedom to make it happen. Yes, I work poorly when micro managed and nitpicked to death in the name of feedback from a whole host of opinions. When that happens, I’m too cautious, I design for approval, and I really just want the project to be over.

But when I’m working in a client/designer relationship where they do what they do and I do what I do, the benefits of such a relationship reap a multitude of benefits, both trackable and untrackable. I generate more ideas, I use my time better, and I deliver what I would consider to be a higher quality of work. There is also the extra time spent day dreaming about the project, noodling over here and over there, and looking for opportunities to take things to unexpected levels. I’m not just looking to complete the project, I’m looking for the best outcome possible.

You might say I should do that all the time, regardless of the relationship. To which I would say, I’ve been doing this long enough to know that just ain’t how things shake out.

Exhausted Capitalism

Aren’t you tired of it all? I am. All the buying and selling, selling and buying. America has too much of it. This “marketing mindset” is just getting old. The constant message barrage in one media stream after another is that buying is the key to everything; happiness, success, love, fame. Sure, family is important, community is key, leisure is a must, but before you get to any of that, gotta buy-buy-buy. This ad says so, as does that one. It’s all fucking exhausting. Nothing is ever enough. You can never be satisfied. There is no turning back. Can we simply push pause on this whole enterprise and just see what happens?