Happy 50th Lego

http://gizmodo.com/349509/lego-brick-timeline-50-years-of-building-frenzy-and-curiosities
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1707379,00.html

Playing with Legos as a kid taught me how to be creative. Without knowing it at the time, I was learning to be resourceful (I never had all the pieces I wanted so I made work-arounds to get what I wanted.) And I learned how to be in “the zone” of creativity and build for hours by myself. (Years later as a graphic designer I discovered I was doing essentially the same thing only with different tools.) It was always the process of building and not so much the acting out of scenarios that I liked – which is still true today for what I do as a graphic designer and musician.

Christmas Redesign

Studio 360 may be one of the best weekly NPR shows for anyone interested in the creative process. Below is a link to one of my favorite segments and its description from its website.

http://www.studio360.org/episodes/2006/12/22

Studio 360 commissioned Pentagram, one of the country’s leading design firms, to give Christmas a makeover. They came up with a new typeface, color scheme, fir tree surrogate, and a radical proposal to channel the rampant commercialism to good ends. Pentagram partner Michael Bierut presents the plan to Kurt Andersen.

Be sure to check out their visual presentation kit as well!

Side note: I met Michael Bierut (and Kurt Andersen) briefly this last year at an AIGA conference. He is sort of a Wynton Marsalis for the graphic design profession in terms of respect, work, and being an industry spokesman. He’s the media’s goto source for smart commentary for graphic design developments and contributes to magazines like Print and his own shared blog Design Observer.