Weekly Inspiration

The new AA terminal at JFK is an interesting study in repetition. There are row after row of dividers for getting people into lines for checking in, monitor after monitor for self check in. When I arrived at 2am to the empty terminal, the anticipation created by the setup was excruciating but the chance to see the order and symmetry (the hook) were inspiring.

Weekly Inspiration

I went to see a really small play called 'The Brig'. The play itself wasn't so inspiring, but the set was really interesting for all of its layers of texture. The audience sat very close to the performing area, and the texture layer closest to the audience was floor to ceiling barbed-wire. Right behind that on the ground was a two foot wide area of small brown gravel. This was against a shiny black concrete-looking surface. Next was floor to ceiling chain-link fencing. Next was the set of bunk beds (5) lined up against the back wall which had a floating divided shelf unit. Each layer was tactile and engaging on their own, and the combination of them together was interesting to look at.

Weekly Inspiration

Yesterday I went to sing with a choir for the first time in over a year. It was wonderful. There are these moments of absolute inspiration and joy that I experience when I'm singing, especially with a group. You're a part of something large and you are directly contributing to it. I really want to explore some visual representations of this phenomenon. I suppose I'm still figuring out the process of translating my background of performance (acting, singing, even directing to a degree) into my current design work. It seems important to look at where they can overlap conceptually.

Weekly Inspiration

On the way to and from school I pass three different stores with dogs in the windows. Of course this means it takes me about twice as long to walk as it should.

I once heard poet Billy Collins speak and he said that if he ever didn't know where a poem was going, he would let a dog wander through it. I think this can apply to design as well. People really relate and connect to dogs, even images of dogs. There's always a few people looking in the windows of the stores when I get there. A common ground gets created between us. It's like since we know must both like dogs, then we must be nice person (or at least one you'd talk to on the street).

Weekly Inspiration

In a conversation this weekend a new friend of mine (from the North) got excited when he heard I was from the north. He promptly recommended a southern themed restaurant in my neighborhood. "You throw peanut shells on the ground!" I'm not sure exactly why southern culture boils down to, but I doubt if that really encapsulates it.