Got a few packs of these notebooks for Christmas and I love them so much I could stand in a field, all day, just taking notes. 

As per Christmas tradition, I recently watched the reputable Home Alones 1 and 2 with some friends. Between the intermittent laughter and re-quoting of our favorite lines (Buzz! Your girlfriend! Woof!) we realized something significant: 

Kevin is very trendy.

If Kevin ran a blog today, he’d be a menswear fashion icon. He’s the original well-dressed imp of the big city. He’s an O.G. with a master plan and a waxed-cotton toggle coat. He’s witty and sassy and likes his milk in a goblet. He watches old movies and loves television and cheese pizza and high quality goods like toothbrushes that are approved by the American Dental Association and ski hats with a deer motif. He likes drawing things and eating massive amounts of sweets. Last year, he even got a sweater with a bird on it.

He’s basically the Internet, minus a cat. 

Kevin would be the King of Tumblr.

Don’t believe me? Look for yourself. And keep the change, ya filthy animal. 

Just thought I’d share this revelation. 

I made this print and put it on some cards for Thank You Notes a while back— everyone I sent them to loved them and some even wondered if I had the print in a larger format or poster-sized! Always a nice feeling! (oh stop stop you’re making my blush…)

In my flattered laziness, it’s taken me until now to get something up online, but you can now buy the Glory Glory print (in gray or black) for $18, printed at 11x17 on heavyweight archival matte paper. Plus, 15% off today with the code: 12DAILYDEAL3 

Perfect for a Christmas gift or recent/almost UGA grad or newly admitted pup! I have some other posters collecting dust on my harddrive that I might be uploading in the future, so stay tuned and… Go Dawgs.  

The Glory Glory Print is perfect for the home of any Bulldog fan. Simple enough to blend with most home designs, but bold enough to let everyone know who you’re cheering for on Saturday. Glory Glory and Let’s Go Dawgs!

After a very long day of moving my sweet baby brother out of his apartment with mi madre yesterday… making this poster is the only thing that seemed appropriate to get the creative juices flowing this morning as I stare zombie-like at my computer. WAH WAH. 

Mondays, Am I Right? 

The song Daylight by Matt & Kim is one of my all time favorites— the percussion, the lyrics infused with happiness and a dash of melancholy…  And everytime I listen to it I always get hung up on the line “I hope that someday I’ll see without these frames.” 

Though perhaps this is really just a line about Lasik, it makes me think of the restorative power of the Gospel in our lives… that someday the Lord will make all things new and there won’t be a need for glasses or any other kind of man-made invention we use to “fix” ourselves. 

Probably about Lasik, though, I mean let’s be honest. There just aren’t enough corrective eye surgery songs out there. 

I had this as a post-it on my desk. Now it’s a poster. Always good to be reminded. 

I was looking through some old books at an antique store this weekend— I admired their design and simplicity and the beauty of it that has remained constant even some 40 years later. I was holding this particular book and I got to thinking about my job…

I don’t talk about my job very often, and I have my reasons (both personal and practical.) But every once in a while I do get the urge to explain What I Do (and lately people in the Tumblrverse have been asking) so I’ll attempt to explain. I say “attempt to explain” not because my job is overly complicated or interesting. The actual job itself is not— but what I try to do with it is. 

Mostly, I’m a designer. Things I draw and create and design get made into tangible things: T-shirts. Brochures. Packaging. Websites. Posters. Etc. I am a Proliferator of Stuff, a Designer of SWAG, a Curator of Typography and Color Schemes and Kerning and Tracking and Leading and Balance.  Sounds fancy. And it is, sorta. 

Honestly, I don’t care too much about it. That sounds bad, I know. But don’t misunderstand— I LOVE design. But the job is just a job like every other job. By itself, it’s simply not anything to get all worked up about, though I do enjoy it and I’m good at it. It’s just not the Actual Job that I love or even Design itself… but it’s the process of trying to do something greater with it. 

Art is a gift from God.  It’s part of God’s universal grace given not just to believers but to all humanity.  It allows us to express the inexpressible, the truths that we see only dimly in this life, the concepts whose shadows we grasp at.  Like the Creator, we take ideas and mold them into being, whether through visual arts, writing, music or dance. —Josh Jackson of Paste Magazine 

Design is great because it illustrates perfectly that there is a created order to things… a way things are supposed to be. Imagine that there are two t-shirts in front of you. You are allowed to take one, and both are free. One is poorly-designed and the other is well-designed. I would bet anything you’d chose the well-designed one. Even people who don’t understand a thing about the intricacies of design will choose the well-designed one because it seems, well… Right. It’s beautiful. It makes sense. There’s order amongst the chaos.

There’s a way this world was created to be, yet it is far from that. As humans, we feel this inadequacy. We understand that the world is broken and not as it should be. So much of Art tries to capture this feeling and give it meaning and speak to the universal human condition.  We try to make sense of the chaos we live in through books and paintings and photographs and plays and films and sculptures. We either try to find God or disprove Him or wallow in the despair of our messy existence.

It’s why we blog. It’s why we journal. It’s why we try to find jobs that are meaningful and it’s why we like beautiful things. It’s what we’re created to do. We can experience and preach the Gospel through art… even through something as simple as a well-designed shirt.  

So… that’s what I do. 

Whatever you do, work heartily, as it is for the Lord, and not for men. —Colossians 3:23

When productivity gets sluggish… I like to create something fun. 

A dance. A song. A poster. Or all three. 

“Great” is optional. Fun is not. 

Happiest of Thursdays to you all.