020: Design prompts, Charles Eames, and art criticism

Plus coded embroidery.

Welcome to Asset Library, my graphic design newsletter where I share inspiring and interesting design, tools, articles, etc. on the first Monday of the month.

Hello and welcome, happy to see you here.

I am still feeling the impetus of the new year and I want to try something new on the ‘sletter. Moving forward on Asset Library, I’ll add small creative design prompts along with my attempts at them. I miss my brain feeling challenged to make something new outside of work, like in the early days of taking art and design classes in college. Learning and trying new things is cool :)

I’ll start including these at the top of the newsletter and I invite you to complete them and share them with me if you do.

Enjoy!

Prompt 001:

Create a monogram using 1-3 repeating letters, formed in a radial pattern.

Set a timer for 15 minutes.

🛠️ Photo gradient dot com

Another great tool if you don’t have access to Adobe. A useful and flexible way to play around if you want to add texture and color to your work.

Here’s some gradients I made in 2 minutes

🗞️ Good artists borrow, big business steals by

Elizabeth Goodspeed

Elizabeth Goodspeed thoughtfully interrogates and examines the complexities of copyright law and its impact on creative practices. Amid the uptick of using archival imagery as a creative shortcut, she calls for a more respectful approach to interacting with archival media.

It’s something I think a lot about not only as a designer, but because I share a lot of other people’s work on this newsletter and it can feel complicated at times.

Rather than referencing the past, designers are stripping it for parts to be mixed and matched – treating design history like a visual junkyard (or maybe a reanimated corpse).

🖍️ Lore brand identity

I could not tell you what this company does. Apparently they “provide a platform where communities can create and manage a shared vault, co-purchase NFTs, and explore the boundless opportunities of crypto, Lore aims to bring people together in a collective adventure.” This could mean anything.

However, I found the brand work delightful. It’s whimsical and sleek and reminded me of

Madeleine Voge

’s Fantasy Camp™. The work also dovetails nicely with Elizabeth’s piece about archival borrowing.

🗞️ Charles Eames’ Advice for Students

This website is full of design manifestos. Read when you’d like to feel inspired.

“Make a list of books
Develop a curiosity
Look at things as though for the first time
Think of things in relation to each other
Always think of the next larger thing
Avoid the “pat” answer—the formula
Avoid the preconceived idea
Study well objects made past recent and ancient but never without the technological and social conditions responsible
Prepare yourself to search out the true need—physical, psychological
Prepare yourself to intelligently fill that need.”

🌀 Space Type Generator

A fun design toy for you.

You too could make this gif

🗞️ Hoping is not enough via Hyperallergic

A thoughtful piece about how criticism can be so much more than just “talking shit”—it can be a useful tool for progress and dialogue. The author writes in the context of the art scene but I found it timely and appropriate universally.

“Her assumption, which I think others share, is that a critical opinion piece must be diminishing or discrediting. That’s one-sided. Criticism can oppose; it can also cajole, provoke, consider, inform, and suggest. The general understanding of public critique is that it’s reductive, but it can also look to create an imagined future. More than being punitive or dismissive, public criticism can provide an opportunity to collectively look at a thing differently, and writing such a piece can be a collaborative venture. It can also be interrogative.”

✂️ Office supplies

I don’t know why in the month of February I suddenly became fixated with office supplies and decided I needed beautifully designed calendars and to do lists and notebooks et al. Maybe it’s the wedding planning; maybe it’s Paige Wassel’s new vintage storefront, Office Supplies. Either way, I’m sure a new notebook will change everything for me.

Clothbound notebook; Green planner; Don’t forget noteapad; Tusk beeswax candle; Wall planner; Tear-off daily calendar; Wall calendar

🖼️ Oefenstof (2024), Anna Lucia

“Oefenstof is a Dutch term that translates to ‘practice material’ or ‘training material.’ Anna Lucia presents her embroidered fabric works as part of an ongoing process, based on an algorithm that will develop throughout the project.”

A series of embroidered works based off an artistic algorithm made by the artist, exploring the relationship between automation and craft through code. The work is so unique and ingenious and beautiful and it reminded me of dancing the flip flop from last month’s Asset Library. You can buy her work here and here.

📖 Palate Palette

This book is full of delightful illustrations of food by an amazing group of artists and illustrators, interspersed with quotes about why they love illustrating food.

I work at a food-named tech company and I frequently have to come up with food related work, so this is a lovely dose of inspiration for me. And a great book to have in your collection.

Thanks for coming see u later.

From this wonderful Are.na board full of bread photos

See you next time. On the first Monday of the month, you can expect Asset Library and on the third Monday of the month you can expect In the Clouds in your inboxes.

If you’d like to support the newsletter, you can buy me a coffee.

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