Showing posts with label Design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Design. Show all posts

Monday, October 19, 2009

In Transition

My heart was not in student activism: I was and am a reader, therefore a daydreamer also. There is so much to read and learn before closing my eye. I had realised that there is no joy which can equal with the joy of giving to someone in need. I always feel like as an ocean drop trying too hard to search identity with holding his ego as singularity and uniqueness. Still, I know that I am similar like all of rest drops and they are all me set against this time and space of fleeting transcendence. It is the best way devised by me to understand myself. I ventured outside my fixed realm making it a point to learn a thing. I am here continually evolving or contracting, who knows, but there is a prominent change or even mutation each moment. There arises so many amounts of crest and trough ideas inside me. Most of the times, they are absurd and quite bizarre. I also now days think of perpetual transition of my age and thoughts.

I search for the meanings of these abstractness in material world as to what’s the logic behind the everything. What is the use and explanation of such thinking phase in the past one hour. I look back and find most of it as futile. Its not even good to extract a good story. Still I find that writing and thinking about myself only will put me in more poignant way in the front of all. They may be sympathetic towards a image of loser rather than someone like me. But I am sure that my image as the loser is much more interesting than a stranger as a hero.

I have read something and a old feeling comes to the surface. That something was --

Death is inevitable that makes us question things, events and everything. Death makes us ask 'why are we here?' . Death scares us. Death inspires us to think, to create, to acquire knowledge, to question, and all this possibly so that we may leave a legacy. Ultimately death humbles us. So death or rather our mortality is probably the ultimate source of inspiration for humankind.

I am thinking these days more and more about death. Someone suggested that imagine death as something that’s coming towards you rather than you going towards it. I am unable to see death as pessimistic way but rather something mandatory which will end my identity. Still a fear of death is inside me. I have recently put Yaksha Prashna on my blog. One answer of Yudhister line to Yaksh is knocking me again and again in my conscious.

In the famous Yaksha Yudhishtir Samvad in Mahabharata, Lord Yama in the form of Yaksha asks Yudhistir many questions which Yudhistir answers with wisdom. Each of these answers can be explored in depth individually. Of the many questions, I found one very poignant and full of philosophy of ours perpetual transition ---

Yaksha asks Yudhistir: 'What is the most strange thing in life?
Yudhistir answers: 'Each moment death strikes, and we behave to live like immortals'.

Chalte Chalte:
Don't take my writings as original and me as very accomplished writer in English language. Words only represents my mood and metal state. A statement may be original and may be not. I have also copied bluntly others works without giving them credit if there words are expressing my experience in more clarified way. I believe that its not originality but message should be given more stress. The message should not be lost in metaphors and complex sentences. Originality isn’t everything. In the world of writing, art and design, originality is highly prized, but sometimes the emphasis is a bit too strong. The point of design isn’t to be original, but to speak a message effectively. If a highly original design does it, so much the better. But sometimes you have to reach the audience by expressing yourself fully.

Thoughts of the Night:

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.” - Bertrand Russell

“Education is the passport to freedom and liberty, the future belongs to those who take advantage of it TODAY.” - Malcolm X

There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth- not going all the way and not starting. – Lord Buddha

“To change the world, give the world what you have. And serve the world with what you are.”

"Many people would rather die than think, infact most do.” - Bertrand Russell

Sunday, May 24, 2009

The Calvin & Hobbes Super-Stupendous Guide to Design

Even if the only thing you’ve ever designed is a mashed potato volcano with gravy lava, you’re a designer. We all design in some way or other. The best of us get paychecks for their designs. The worst of us have to appreciate our elegant disasters for free. The best designs reach out and pull us in with their creativity, wit, and ingenuity. From the cardboard box of Calvin & Hobbes’ wisdom, five ways to better your designs:

1. Learn to see things differently:

One of Calvin’s most powerful traits is his childlike ability to see things differently than the grown-ups around him. Where they see mundane reality, Calvin sees the fantastic, the monstrous, and occasionally, the downright weird.

Like Calvin, designers must also learn to see things differently. Where others see text, designers see a typographical baseline. Where others see a photo, designers see the golden ratio. In everything, we should learn to see the underlying beauty that holds it all together.

2. Take time to educate yourself:

While anyone can learn to see things differently, designers can’t just depend on their vision to get by. They also need to be able to explain that vision to others. And for that you need the proper background and vocabulary.

That doesn’t necessarily mean going to an art school and majoring in design. There are some fabulous resources available to those who are willing to take a little time to teach themselves.

3. Originality isn’t everything:

In the world of art and design, originality is highly prized, but sometimes the emphasis is a bit too strong. The point of design isn’t to be original, but to speak a message effectively.

If a highly original design does it, so much the better. But sometimes the traditional is all you need.

4. Pay attention to the details:

One crucial part of learning to see differently is the importance of details. A great designer has the ability to recognize when changing things “just so” will take a design from good to brilliant.

5. Keep exploring:

In the end, a designer always needs to keep exploring, to learn new things, to learn new ways of seeing, or to relearn old ways. Exploring is what keeps things feeling new, regardless of how many times you’ve layed out a page or designed a logo. What are you waiting for? Go explore something!

#All images excerpted from It’s a Magical World by Bill Watterson.

Source:Even if creativity is all about hiding your resources, I am giving you source of the adapted post: The Calvin & Hobbes Super-Stupendous Guide to Design By Joshua. I like this article because of its originality and a keen emphasis on explaining the design as child's play. From now on, Bill Watterson (the author of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes ) is god to me and Calvin & Hobbes as will form holy trinity with him. Thanks to Nimmy for providing link to such a simple and beautiful article.I have also experimented with blog and make it colourful.