September 1, 2011 In appreciation, art, books & stuff, communication, creativity, design, drawing, graphic design, illustration, imagination, inspiration, philosophy By Patricia Saxton

“52 Weeks of Peace” ~ The Book!

Two years ago to the day, I launched a creative series called “52 Weeks of Peace”, posting a new design on my blog each week for a year.

Today, I am so pleased to announce that thanks to my publisher Lightbox Books (a division of Shenanigan Books), the entire collection is now in gorgeous postcard book format, available for sending, framing, or just enjoying. You can order copies here, or by clicking anywhere on the announcement below.

A side note ~ you might find it interesting (I did!) that the book’s release coincides with the 50th anniversary year of the Peace Corps ~ and that a selection from the series is part of an upcoming 9/11 tenth anniversary exhibit. It’s really something how that all lined up ~ maybe the universe had a hand in it!

I thank you all for your support and encouragement, your appreciation of the art, and helping to spread the idea that “peace starts here”, with each individual, in every day ways.

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January 23, 2009 In art, graphic design By Patricia Saxton

In Praise of Black and White: Part I

Ansel Adams, Moon and Half Dome

Ansel Adams, Moon and Half Dome

Each year, a new Ansel Adams wall calendar hangs on the door leading to my studio.  His superbly articulated, stunning black and white photography reminds me daily of my love for the natural world as well as the innumerable shades, shapes, shadows and tones that create, change, and emerge from, the world around us.

Yet in a time when everyone wants color, the classic beauty and the powerful visual possibilities of black and white are often neglected.  In the design world, black and white is often completely overlooked or passed by in favor of any use of color.  As if black and white implies something less important, or something dull – even something “cheap”.

But when used well, black and white can be anything but dull, nor without value.  Black and white can be intensely dramatic, elegant and rich.  It can get a strong point across without the distraction of colors.  It can be brilliant or moody, edgy or slick in ways that color cannot.  It can sparkle with cleanliness. Black and white carries undisguised strength, character and integrity … when used well.  Not all photographers have the eye nor skill of an Ansel Adams. Not all designers see in black and white.  Clients rarely consider it.  But it would be nice to see a greater appreciation of the noble duo of black and white.

When people want straight talk, they’ll say “tell me in black and white” – which infers that they’ll get to the truth of the matter.  But more often people speak in shades of gray, or dress it up in garish colors for dramatic effect. So it is with design – a multitude of colors have the potential to become an undifferentiated sea of grays, or gussied up so much the point is lost for the color.

Of course color is beautiful.  As an artist, I can’t help but adore color. Bold, rich fusions of color. Yet color alone will not make a bad design good. And it’s not so much that color is overrated, but that black and white is underrated. You don’t see it alot, which is unfortunate, because the effects of black and white can be pretty spectacular.

It’s a rich experience to see things in black and white; stripped of color, a million shades of gray become a lansdcape of lights and darks that blend and bounce against one another to create a whole. Even if you don’t see things quite like that, a striking black and white image often touches people unexpectedly.  It’s raw and fundamental – and like a good story, it’s satisfying, and it allows your mind to fill in the color that’s left unsaid. Like a well-told story, black and white art can be refreshing, engaging and wonderfully, surprisingly inspiring.

Below is a broad sampling of some pretty nice black & white work. There’s a whole lot more  (though not enough)  than shown here, but it’s a good smattering of styles …

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May 24, 2008 In graphic design, marketing By Patricia Saxton

Marketing Overload?

Maybe it’s because it’s the end of a work week, but my head is really beginning to swirl.  I just received some “must-have” information about LinkedIn – you probably know it, the online networking tool touting more than 20 million experienced professionals and ways to discover inside connections and potentially expand your business in untold ways. And the information I just received is intended to share all the fantastic ways you can make the most of the LinkedIn environment. 

But I’m feeling struck by a seemingly raging river of marketing advice out there – mostly the marketing about marketing variety. And everybody, their uncles and maybe even their pets, are jumping on the bandwagon – make that rafts – and make that plural, rafts.  I’m not making a negative judgment, because it is what it is, and probably needs to be what it is, but sometimes I get what I’ll call a “New York City” feeling: a sense of stimulation overload.

In this case it also arrives with a sensation similar to desperation, or perhaps anxiety – in the form of a message implying that if you don’t do these things you will not succeed. So you must do these things, and that is that. Join or lose. Fight and wriggle for your place amongst the million others vying for virtual attention. Do, do, do. Share, share, share. Express profundities and hope to be found. Blog it, video it, radio-blog it, webinar it, get the edge. Be everywhere. And the claims are promising; if you do this, and do that, and then do enough of that and that – and if you do all that over and over again – you’ll eventually hit gold.

Don’t get me wrong; the internet is a mind-boggingly wonderful medium. The opportunities for learning and the possibilities for connecting are pretty staggering. But once you dive in to the pool of all-the-marketing-you-need-to-be-doing, it can take a toll on not only your time, but may also take a little piece of your sanity.  It’ll swallow you up if you don’t take a healthy break.

This raging river is partly because, of course, no one really needs to see anyone. They can work wherever. But the hope, of course, through all of this internet marketing-you-need-to-be-doing-so-you’re-not-left-behind, is that you do connect, and maybe you will meet, and in the end everyone can make wads of money and live happily ever after. I get that. I also get that people are yearning for connection.

Normally I love learning new tools, finding new and better ways to do things. So, call it Friday afternoon blues, semi brain-dead from filtering through all this stuff …  but the onslaught of marketing to-do’s leaves me feeling compelled to simply avoid the frenzy, and approach it more from a zen-like place. Using the Chicken Soup mindset, or The Secret, or a Power of the Subconscious Mind place. 

That’s where I’ll be this long-weekend. Not marketing, but “knowing”. Letting the zen of knowing take over, while digging my hands into a delicious bit of garden earth with joyful mindlessness – in between, of course, working feverishly on the illustrations for my next children’s book.  (there; was that a good, if not round-about, touch of self-marketing?) 

In the end, I know it’s smart to do both – the zen and the marketing. You have to pull back now and then, reflect, affirm your ground and define your goals. But you also have to “do the work”, and be a part of the changing way things are done.

Virtually speaking, that is.

And, yes, by the way, I am on LinkedIn.  (Isn’t everyone?)

 

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May 22, 2008 In graphic design By Patricia Saxton

Never Out of Style

we’ve been there.  we’ve seen trends come.  and go.  and come back.

what drives a style, a “look”, or an effective ad campaign? what’s at the pulse of changing appetites? how do you keep from missing a beat – the one beat that counts? the one they’ll want to dance to, shout about, make the call for.  we believe it has a whole lot to do with the one thing we know for certain never goes out of style:  creativity.

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I have alot more to say about creativity, but will have to add on at a later time.  For now I’ll leave you with this 20-minute video from a TED conference, in which Sir Ken Robinson gives a brilliant, witty, very-listenable and thought-provoking talk on education and creativity.

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