This week, I've been cleaning out both my physical space(s) and my digital space(s). It is quite a task, but one that needs to be done to make room for the new. In one box, I came across a little coverless notebook I scrawled some notes on from a Milton Glaser talk I attended in 2013. At the time, I was in the midst of my senior year at design school. Fall semester was winding down, and finals were looming or already in progress. I dragged my sleep deprived exhausted ass out to Manhattan (from Brooklyn) because I wasn't gonna miss this talk for the world (even though all I could think about was my next nap and the golden beacon that was *wInTeR bReAk*).
Now if you have no idea who Milton Glaser is... welp, IDK what to tell you. LOL. He is a graphic design legend... and that is an understatement. You probably are familiar with the "I Love New York" logo. He made that. As well as a LOT of other iconic stuff. I'm not going to give you the long list - but feel free to check his site out for yourself. Anyways, I got a slice of pizza after the talk and thought it'd be a GREAT idea to put that bagged pizza vertical in my backpack... and the grease dripped all over my notes. I was devastated... but clearly still held onto the notebook because one does not throw out notes from a Milton Glaser talk! I'm surprised it's actually still holding up and that there's no mold?? But thought it might be useful (for myself) and maybe for others as well - if I gave the notes a new life. I read through what I could - they're a bit disjointed, but it almost reads like poetry. Here are some of my favorite notations:
Milton Glaser - December 13, 2013
The purpose of art is to inform and delight.
You teach a way of perceiving the world.
Making people work to figure out what you’re trying to say.
You have to connect.
“How are we gonna turn people on?”
• to entertain
• to make them feel something
“If you missed, you missed – at least you swung the bat as hard as you could.”
Driven by wanting to prove something. Passion.
JUST DO IT. BE FEARLESS.
THE PEOPLE CRAZY ENOUGH TO CHANGE THE WORLD DO.
In search of the miraculous or one thing leads to another.
Utility and Beauty
Work leads you to things.
What it leads you to is UNEXPECTED.
One continuous changing cycle of events
Everything is connected
Mishmash
Make anything from anywhere live together.
Nothing is brand new.
Embrace doubt.
Certainty… you’re usually wrong.
Your best work will often be rejected / misunderstood.
Get used to it.
Physicality. Ideology.
MIND. Open / Closed.
Stumbling in the dark – darkness
Does it make you try harder?
Does a person give up?
In search of the miraculous or one thing leads to another.
You can’t get there from here.
THE BRAIN WORKS ILLOGICALLY.
No matter how hard you try to approach something logically, you will arrive at it.
Drawing,
Knowledge of form,
Knowledge of pigment,
All needed before touching a computer.
BRAIN THEORY
What does it mean to pay attention to something?
YOU CAN'T CLOSE THE DOOR AND SAY YOU KNOW IT ALL.
Art as the centerpiece of life.
Centerpiece of interest, ever-growing and never finished, but is not learned.
So many older people regret not picking a profession they love.
This is not the case with art. Feel grateful.
The secret to work is to begin. Let it happen.
Don’t think about the creative process.
Don’t think about all that you need to do to get the job done.
YOU JUST BEGIN.
INTUITION.
When you walk into a room and you’re like YES YES NO NO YES
And you’re always right.
Color is wonderful. Everyone’s sense of color is different.
You go through periods of your own development.
Bright Colors vs. Dull Colors
Who is going to like the same colors you like?
The subjectivity of color
Stumbling in the dark
The part of work that is most satisfying is objectively moving towards a goal.
Process – like cooking the perfect turkey.
All the stuff in the fridge. Not knowing what to make.
I start by looking at what’s in the fridge.
If you do something and you learn from it, it’s not a mistake.
“Well… I probably should have worked out more.”
“I didn’t value some friends enough and show them that I value them.”
“I have made no professional mistakes.”
If you do something & don’t learn, then it is a mistake.
YOU DON'T ALWAYS HAVE TO WIN, AND SOMETIMES YOU'RE WRONG.
Don’t work for clients that make you produce mediocre work.
Where is the spot that you go to avoid stress of competition
-- and still produce good work?
No easy answer.
I find people’s behavior miraculous.
Have you found your miracles?
MIRACULOUS THINGS OCCUR EVERY DAY.