Shop: Peter Miller’s Books

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I recently travelled to Seattle with my wife in honor of our 1st wedding anniversary. I had planned to stop at the Cole Haan Outlet on the way down and pick up a new bag. Yes as in, man purse. However fate intervened and of the two in-stock versions of the bag I was interested in, neither had straps. Apparently the straps had gone missing… and the sales associate was not permitted to provide a strap form a different bag… Alas! Gratuitous and unnecessary spending foiled again, brand loyalty damaged… oh unfortuitous events!

All was not lost as there is a shop in Seattle that I’ve visited before and thoroughly enjoyed, but had yet to make any serious purchases at, Peter Miller’s Architectural & Design Books and Supplies. Classical music playing, white walls, glass display cases, frontage on First Avenue, next door to Design Within Reach, and filled with fascinating books and design paraphernalia. The man behind the counter, presumably Peter Miller, was friendly, helpful and knowledgeable about his merchandise. Having been liberated from spending my money at a large corporation I instead supported a local Seattle small business. I purchased S, M, L and XL a book on Rem Koolhaus’s architecture, designed by Bruce Mau which I have coveted for many years, as well as a beautifully designed Nava bag.

Now Nava there is a manufacturer I can get behind… I won’t bore you with man lust for my new man purse… but if you are in Seattle check out Peter Miller’s shop… it’s an art, design and architecture oasis in the city; if these things fall into your area of interest you are sure to find something big or small here that will capture your imagination.

RIP: Steve Jobs

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My Dad called me at 4:47pm yesterday and I didn’t answer as I was in my hair dresser’s chair. He was calling to tell me that Steve Jobs had died. My Dad isn’t an Apple convert much to my chagrin. He always viewed them as too expensive starting back with the original Macintosh in ’84, when we had an Atari instead.

I admire Steve more than any of his contemporaries in the modern technology industry… it’s not just the beautiful products his company puts out in which he has been instrumental… but he is more broadly an inspired individual.. look at his Standford address:

Look at his rebel ad narration:

But perhaps most startling, most unique is this…

He was the CEO of the world’s richest technology company, and he still took the time to answer customer emails… including one of mine. RIP Steve, you were a rebel.

Creative Challenge: Logo / Graphic Design

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Creative Challenge Number 3

This week’s creative challenge, design a logo or graphic for yourself, your neighbour, your business, your dream business, your baseball team, your secret super hero identity.

Here’s mine for Exploring-Art.com:

In addition to the weekly participation call; to create one yourself and post it online to share with us, I will also review the process I went through to create this graphic, utilizing the creative process outlined in Monday’s post.

Phase 1: Initial Idea
My super-concious returned the idea for a logo or graphic, in response to two loosely coupled asynchronous queries… A topic for a weekly challenge, and a graphic for T-shirts and business cards for shameless self promotion…

Once I had decided to design a graphic, where was I to start? Again my super-concious answered. Remember those coloured bars on old, analog, CRT televisions when there was no signal? That was the seed from which my graphic emerged.

Phase 2: Discernment
I googled for images of “no TV signal” to refresh my memory of what they looked like… I counted the number of coloured bars and sketched a layout in my unlined notebook. I had originally imagined the pictures on top of the colour bars but quickly realized that it would be better underneath. I was originally thinking there would be space for the URL as well as the name but quickly saw that would be far too cluttered.

I also wanted to soften the colours from the no signal graphics, going back to my notion of creatio collegiate, I wanted the colours to be more welcoming than abrasive.

I recognized the need for block letters to make the .com name readable, striking and similar to the current theme used on the WordPress site.

A one man search through recent photos for photos that would blend into the coloured bar above them…

Can you feel it? The fabulously fantastic frenzy of being in the flow of the creative process? If you don’t do this regularly you really ought to try it… If a graphic is too intimidating try the pen name, or poetic snapshot challenge. Look for a new Creative Challenge every week a exploring-art.com.

Phase 3: Refinement
I had to fix the white black space. I tried a dozen different fonts, switched photos in and out… reiterate, iterate, reiterate.

Phase 4: Completion
I got that warm happy feeling, and I was done.