getting inspired

As a designer, it is important to seek inspiration to feed future ideas. Design, is part inspiration/part process and the creative aspect comes into play by filtering through all the ideas to choose the most relevant solution. However, sometimes it's important just to play with images and type to regain that feeling of exploration. This helps open your mind to new ideas and techniques for later use and re-engerize you. So I've pulled some interesting images that I've found inspiring today. -- Artwork by the artist Kim Hiorthoy

Visiting the MET

This weekend, I wanted to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's been nearly 4 years since I was last there which is way to long. It's the largest museum in the city and world famous for its vast collection of more than 2million objects from all around the world. Although my favorite rooms to visit are the European masters. Since we are locals, though I decided to limit our visit to just one exhibition which was 'The Phillip de Montebello years', a motley exhibition that gathered some of the most prized aquisitions during the 30 years that Montebello was the director. Here are some of the pieces we saw. You can view the online exhibition here:
Phillip de Montebello exhibit

Interactive Sign

I'm a big fan of the HBO show 'Big Love' and when I saw this poster promoting the new season, I had to stop and look. This poster is interactive, it encourages you to plug in your headphones to jacks in the wall (presumably you have you ipod with you as any urban dweller would). When plugged in you will hear secrets that the people in the picture are thinking. It's a really cool idea.

Christmas O8

Group photo documenting Christmas '08 at the Swartz's.


Dinner at the Old Towne Buffet with high school friends. (l-r. Becky Mertz, Molly Sharp, Cindy Frobose, Lisa Behnfeldt, Renee Carter, JaNell Koskie, Me)


Traditional family dinner on New Year's Eve with the Nelsons.

Holiday Season '08. we traveled back to Ohio again for our festivus traditions of feats of strength (Bowling) and the airing of grievances over the annual lasagna dinner. Mostly we just reminisced about old times, to which Roderick was lost. However, there were some new games, 'dance dance revolution' and jeopardy contests and the local places of color tour, especially the Depue.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 08. This year there were 11 guests at the dinner table. Emily created the magnificent feast on which we all dined with gusto. Only 1 chair and 1 coaster were lost. There was lots of wine, pumpkin pie, apple pie and plenty of ice cream to follow the 25lb bird. Maya and Maizey enjoyed the chocolate turkey most of all. We had lively discussions about religion and politics. And Maya fulfilled the Potts family tradition of watching 'Predator' at an early age, or in her words, 'The Man from Space', which is also pretty accurate.

Argentina highlights

If you are thinking about spending some time in Buenos Aires, the 'Paris of South America'... here's a post with lots of photos, summing up what we've learned from our 10 day visit there.
1. Sleeping. We stayed at Caserón Porteño, a B&B and Tango Studio, www.caseronporteno.com. Our rates were very reasonable and we enjoyed a nice breakfast of medialunas, fruit and cafe con leche or tea as well as friendly conversation with the other guests. Here's Rod in the sunny courtyard, with the dance hall in the background.
2. Walking Palermo. We did a lot of walking around the neighborhood of Palermo. It's a very hip section of town with many good restaurants, beautiful architecture and good shopping. Here's an example of the architecture, typifying the rich european heritage and the charming cobblestone streets.3. Walking the MicroCentro. Here's me in front of Argentina's equivalent of the White House or in their case, 'Casa Roja'. Supposedly the reddish hue comes from mixing the plaster with Ox's blood.
4. Feria de San Telmo. Every sunday, there is a terrific street fair and antique market on Avenue Defensa in San Telmo. Not only is there great shopping, but also lots of entertainers about such as these performers above.5. The Recoleta Cemetary. Something not to be missed is the famous, above ground cemetary dedicated to Argentina's rich and famous leaders. Though once inside, we made a beeline for Evita's grave.6. Salta. We decided to visit the city of Salta in the northwestern region, situated in the Andes Mountains. This small colonial town was much more traditional that Buenos Aires. Shown above is an elaborately painted church, a replacement for the original, which had been destroyed in a fire. Also shown is the town plaza, where many café's and shops lined the center park. Reminded us of Oaxaca, Mexico.
7. Lost in Translation. We found that fluent english was less common in Salta. Many signs and posted translations were a little off. We found this on our gondola ride up to the San Bernardo Hill overlooking the city.


8. Driving through the Andes. We rented a car in Salta and drove south towards the wine town of Cafayate. The distance between Salta and Cafayate is about 3 hours on a winding highway, that also cuts through many small towns along the way. We got to see some amazing landforms, such as the Garganta del Diablo ( behind me) and beautiful, jagged red rocks like those of the Southwestern USA, (behind Rod).

If you enjoy our photos and want to see more - you can check out our flickr set here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32459511@N03/

50th St. Subway Art

I never noticed the subway art at the 50th St. ACE Subway station before. When I saw this designed icon system resembling the clear Swiss signage system icons, I had to take a photo.