art inspiration reading

Amanda Palmer’s The Art of Asking

Amanda Palmer is a musician, but that’s not how I know of her. I first heard of her through Neil Gaiman’s online journal. Neil is a writer of strange and glorious tales of gods come to earth and secret doorways to places and beings outside of this world. (Hard to capture his work in a brief sentence, but that’s my stab at it.) My intro to his work came not through his acclaimed Sandman series,…

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thought fodder

Finding Meaning in Work

Fast Company is my new favorite business-y blog. The article I’m reading on the site this evening is about finding meaning in your work, indicating that companies that figure out how to make their missions and jobs meaningful to employees will typically see greater productivity and gains in income. If their employees are engaged and feeling full of purpose, companies will do better in general. While that is useful information, it feels a bit “duh”…

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process thought fodder writing

Working in Secret

In case you haven’t heard, Sony Picture’s computer system has been hacked due to the imminent no longer imminent release of the new movie “The Interview,” which features a plot to assassinate North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un. With the hack attack, Snapchat’s emails were leaked, revealing strategic business maneuvers the company was making. Snapchat’s CEO Evan Spiegel was upsetĀ about the release of this sensitive information and he released a letter regarding how he felt. What’s…

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art design inspiration reading

Reading Textbooks for Fun

You know you’re long out of college when you read textbooks for fun. It helps when you can choose your own textbooks and when they are particularly attractive. I’m currently reading “Designing Brand Identity” by Alina Wheeler. It discusses the ins and outs of what it takes to brand and re-brand organizations. What’s great about the book is the spare amount of writing to convey what brand designers need to know. The cover and layout…

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