Inspiration

The Creative Journey – Wacom

It’s Monday March 16, 2020 and the world is in shutdown mode over the Coronavirus outbreak/pandemic. The stock market is losing ground again, people are hoarding supplies like the world is ending, schools are closed, businesses are having employees telecommute rather than come in to work and a slight sense of general pandemonium has settled over my part of the midwest.

Here is a way to hopefully help you forget all about what is going on in between washing your hands, coughing into your elbow, keeping your distance and doing all the other things the WHO wants you to do to stop the spread of COVID 19.

“Not To Scale” and “Iris” have collaborated to produce a beautiful series of eye-catching short animations for the Wacom Cintiq 16. The films imaginatively illustrate the typical journey and endeavors that an Artist takes through their career to realize their creative ambitions.

There are 6 in all and I have the behind the scenes/making-of video at the end. So, do yourself a favor and take a bit of time to escape the pandemic news and watch this series of short animations. You’ll be glad you did.

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Today’s Inspiration, the AIGA Medalists on YouTube.

I’m always on the lookout for design inspiration. It can come from anywhere, and take on many forms. I think it’s that always curious about learning new things, or looking for new ideas. One of the latest things that has sucked up a huge amount of my time is the AIGA Medalist playlist on YouTube. If you’re looking to be inspired, look no further. 44 videos averaging about 3 and a half minutes in length. The latest video is below. All 44 are at the link above.

A Little Research Leads to a Little Inspiration.

One of the things my job requires is looking for inspiration, and doing research on styles, and trends, in graphic design, animation, illustration and motion graphics. A long time ago, a college professor told me, “If you stop looking, you stop seeing, and your work suffers.” He was referring to research, and looking for inspiration, and he was right. If you don’t spend time checking out what others are doing you stop learning, and your work becomes dated and stale. So, I was cruising through a number of sites this morning when I came across this piece on Vimeo that has a really nice look to it. Illustrated and animated by  . His two minute short for the “Alberta Family Wellness Initiative” knocked my socks off. It has a great style and approach, with nice timing, transitions, and a solid look that will hold up for quite some time. The portraits toward the end were produced by Felix Wong and blend seamlessly with Gervais style. Nice work guys.

Friday Inspiration. Glen Keane Steps into the Page.

Take four and a half minutes and watch this video if you haven’t already seen it. This dropped yesterday on Vimeo and I have watched it multiple times, with good reason. Glen Keane’s passion for his craft, for storytelling, for the creative process is so infectious and inspiring, it keeps pulling me back.

Keane is one of the featured speakers at the Future of Story Telling Summit, and this promotional short for the conference shows just how excited he still is about the act of drawing, storytelling, and where technology is taking this world. When he  puts on the HTC Vive headset and picks up the 3D painting app Tilt Brush you see how he is as excited today, as he was 4 decades ago when his career began. We all need to be this passionate about life and our careers. Truly inspirational.