I just finished my first round of Stitched Stories, a 12 week e-course on writing about textiles. Later this week, I’ll be sending course participants a list of books that have inspired me to keep going with my writing.
What are your favourite books? What inspires you?
If you read my newsletter, you know that I’m taking a design course right now. My course is on the subject of ideation or idea development, and as part of our homework, I have to do a ‘thing a day’ project.
What is a ‘thing a day’? It is a project where you make something every single day, regardless of whether you feel prepared do so or not.
Some of my classmates are making short videos, others are doing illustrations, and some are doing interviews. As my schedule is always jam-packed, I decided to pick up a project that I started a long time ago and then quit – I am taking a photo of a sign around my workplace in the Chinatown/Gastown/Downtown Eastside part of Vancouver. The reason why I chose to photograph signage is that I think that these small letterforms say so much, indirectly, about the changing-nature of my city.
The neighbourhood that I work in has been undergoing rapid gentrification for the last five years. It has been an interesting experience to watch it all happen from my office window. Housing for those with low income have been refaced into high-end condos, services for those in need have been turned into high end nail salons and baby stores, artist studios have morphed into sexy, empty loft spaces which no-one can seem to afford to rent.
Pictures from my #SignADay project.
I’ve taken on intense projects, but this is the first time that I’ve committed myself to making something visual every single day. I’m about a third of a way through the project right now and I’m learning about myself and how I approach my creative projects.Some days when I’m feeling resistant, I end up coming up with my favourite stuff, and some days when I’m feeling ‘I got this’, I end up terribly disappointed with the results. But when I look back at the last four weeks, I’m proud of myself for showing up every day – whether the photo turned out well or not. Sometimes it was pouring or I didn’t go to work, so I had to draw a picture of a sign – and despite not liking what I made, I had to post it. There is a special kind of magic in making things in large quantities. I’m finding that you can learn a lot about making by just showing up – over and over again.
More pictures from my #SignADay project
If you want to take a look at what I’ve been up to, you can see my project take shape at #SignADay over on Instagram. Not all of the photos are mine – the interesting thing about sharing things in public is that people join in and are now sending me photos by using the hasgtag. This has become a spontaneous extension of the project, and one that I’m enjoying a great deal.
At the end of 12 weeks, I’m going to be rearranging all of the photos that I’ve taken into either a bound book or a piece of graphic design. I’m not sure what form the end presentation will take, but each photo that I take has sparked different ways that I could summarize this project at the end.
Other people who have done Thing A Day projects:
Noah Scalin’s Skull A Day (2008)
Lisa Congdon’s Collection A Day (2010)
Jessica Hische’s Daily Dropcap (2009)
I gave up making New Years Resolutions a few years ago. Instead, I’ve adopted a theme word for each year – last year’s word was JOY (and amid the ups and downs of life, there was a lot of it) and this year’s word is STRETCH. For me this means trying new things, taking on projects that I haven’t done before, and expanding the limits of my comfort zone.
Over the next few months, I’ll be filling my time with some exciting projects, including:
It seemed like 2014 was a mixed bag for many people I know, and there is a feeling of optimism about the coming year. 2015 – I think you are going to be a good one.
Did you receive Strange Material: Storytelling Through Textiles as a holiday gift? Drop me a comment on this post and let me know what you think of it!
And, thanks to the Surface Design Association for naming Strange Material a must-have book for 2014. I’m honoured!