I attempted to answer Bruce Mau’s 40 Questions. Well…just the part that Shaughnessy excerpted.

What is the difference between nigri and sashimi?
Nigri is how-we-do, sashimi is what-we-do-it-with. Quite scrumptious when the forces combine.

Who designed the CNN logo?
I have no idea! Who?
I found a picture of their first broadcast that’s pretty awesome, though.

Now they have holograms. Holograms!

What artist founded the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas?
Donald Judd. I only knew that because Rita Ackermann was part of the artist-in-residency program there in ’08 and I hart her and her work verily.

What text by Guy Debord was central to the events of May 1968?
The Society of the Spectacle, 1967. Yay for writing about Situationism earlier in the term!

Can I have a job now? Part-time?

I forgot how many times Shaughnessy mentions the fact that the reader shouldn’t take his words and experiences to heart, verbatim, follow like disciples, and so forth. It’s kind of amusing. Maybe he’s trying to protect himself from being sued, like ingredient labels saying that something “may contain peanuts.”

Everything I see and touch makes me a better designer.

Oh, yes. Sweetest advice/remark from these chapters. I think it can easily be applied to everything that Shaughnessy touched on concerning getting a job, networking, freelancing, and starting up your own studio. Regardless of what avenue we young designers decide to take in the beginning, it seems highly unlikely that we’ll be sticking with that path for the rest of our careers. Graphic design is such non-static, almost volatile nature to it (at least with good design). There’s no way you can settle — everything you experience contributes and adds to your aesthetic.

I’d probably like to open up my own small studio in the future, but at this point I am definitely unsure of how to really even get there despite Shaughnessy’s advice. All I am sure of is walking into an artist’s space or design studio and being able to say underneath my breath,

“I’d like to work here.”

I like the people.
There’s challenging work to be done. I can grow.

Let’s see what comes from that.

I could make hot shit while also helping these lovely guys in Minneapolis.

I could live in their closet-0f-amazingness until I found my own place.…

….which would be this.

And I’d maintain a sense of optimism, humor, adventure and curiosity like,

David Horvitz

and Mark Horowitz.

It could happen.

+After reading many articles, books, journals, blogs, one-liners about design so far (including this particular book), it’s still one of my faves. Probably because it’s written like I’m having an actual conversation with a designer who’s been through all of it and yet, isn’t a condescending a-hole about it.

+Each chapter is the A to my Q.

+This book is pretty.

/////////////////////////////

The world is shrinking. In this day and age where it’s just as easy to call your mother as it is to video conference with someone in Cambodia, the field of graphic design is no longer a microcosm. It’s exceedingly multi-disciplinary on a technical level, with video, construction, illustration, sculpture, and mixed-media being pretty standards methods. While this is really exciting, I find the most interesting part about this multi-disciplinary, cultural immediacy is the range and eclecticism of graphic designers themselves. How does designers’ backgrounds, including academics and where they grew up, shape their styles/POVs?

Just thinking about our own little graphic design group here at PSU, I’m still widely fascinated by the backgrounds of my peers and professors. Former science majors, immigrants, fine artists, writers, history buffs, happenstances, etc., etc.

Where are we from, where are we going?

“..a book designed to help those who believe that graphic design has a cultural and aesthetic value beyond the mere trumpeting of commercial messages.”

Can I get a holla’?

“less you means more you.”

I’ve got to work on this. I’m so bloody opinionated that I think that if I expound on them, people will automatically identity. Maybe. Not always. Sometimes the genuine rationale and explanation is enough.

Reading Shaughnessy’s ponderings and experiences concerning cultural awareness, communication, and integrity in graphic design was another welcome reminder that even the best in the biz go through some of the same professional and existential questions that fresh, nubile graduates have. I couldn’t help but think about the Advice to Sink in Slowly series while reading the first chapter.

I interpret the following as don’t invest TOO much into your work. Be open to criticisms and people challenging you!