This is the design blog of Brad Woodard. Where everything is design related, in some way or another. Enjoy.
Artwork by Diana Lange
How do you get employees at your start-up company to start thinking like founders? Simple: Let them launch a product of their own.
1. Get people out of their usual roles.
2. Make it fun.
3. Give employees a sense of the choices you face.
Holy Hawaiian hurricanes, look at what the H is going on today. These fellas are already having at it! Brad Woodward heaves his ham-hocks at the head of Brandon Rike, who holds him off with a hard heel-kick to the hind-parts. This is gonna get harsh. Get ringside now and vote for the heaviest hitter.
Go and vote!
Today we have my good friend, Brad Woodard, representing his birth state, West Virginia, and it’s capital, Charleston. Here’s what he said:
“After moving from West Virginia when I was only 3, my family and I would return every summer to visit my grandparents who lived right outside…
During my last semester of college I created these Picasso inspired instruments, and I have had them posted on my site for some time. Well I finally got them all together on one poster and have it up for sale at Gram Posters! My work has just been approved to go up for sale, so I am letting you all know! It is part of a limited series of 50 prints. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did making it!
The much anticipated desktop calendar by Studio On Fire is finally available for sale! With the help of talented illustrators to contribute art, the letter-pressed calendar is ful of a humorous representations of a positive apocalypse in 2012. For only $30 you can get this set for your own desk here.
Contributors to the calendar’s art:
Missy Austin
Brian Gunderson
Studio On Fire
Everything you would ever want to know about the ampersand, all in one graphic. I created this piece a while back at Column Five Media, and I never realized it was released to the web. So today is my first time actually seeing this graphic on the web. I was happy to see it was passed along to many sites, so if you have already seen this, sorry, it is still going up. Hope you enjoy it!
Back when I was in college taking design classes, I had an instructor who always told me, “Own your work.” It was something he told me when I was acting defensive and finding excuses about my work, as I was being critiqued. He was trying to tell me to take pride in my work and accept critique. Even if my design had blatant problems, it is still my work and I need to own up to the fact that they are my mistakes.
I often have to repeat this quote to myself to remind me to own up to my work. It is easy for me to compare my work to other designers, and I see where my work becomes a little too influenced by other’s work. Own your style, and own up to your mistakes so you can correct them.
Prints of this simple reminder can be purchased at my shop at: society6.com
After seeing the newest Dexter poster for season 6, that Ty Mattson illustrated, I found out he had also designed his own opening titles to the show. I loved how it feels like you were watching a show from the 60’s. Enjoy!
The great Saul Bass pitches the new Bell System logo in 1970. For more on Bass, see the highly-anticipated new monograph on his work and legacy (via)
By: Brad Renner
The other day I discovered this amazing illustration that hearkens back to 1950’s Children’s Digest magazines. I am a sucker for minimal color palettes with a lot of contrast. Just an overall solid and nostalgic piece.
The Depictionist recently posted an article about how design is helping this man, who can’t afford running for president in Mali. Yeah Samake is a graduate of Brigham Young University and has a strong following in his hometown. In effort to avoid gaining funding dishonestly, unlike many of his fellow runners, he has found the help of Cole Neilsen is designing everything for his campaign. It is refreshing to see how a designer really can help make the world a better. There is so much we can accomplish as designers, we just need to decide how we are going to do it. Read the article here, it is worth it.
The Do Lectures just posted the video from my presentation this past September. It’s a little talk about doing things the long, hard, stupid way, and the opportunity of beginning to think about our work as designers as a gift. It also jumps a bit into the issues that need to be overcome to be able to do so in this new digital context where most of our work now lives. I’d be remiss not to mention the influence of Lewis Hyde’s book, The Gift, which gave me the framework to begin to apply these ideas to my own work. If you haven’t read it, I highly suggest it. Special thanks to Laura Brunow Miner for introducing me to David Chang’s “long, hard, stupid way” line on Treme, and to Amit Pitaru for making the wonderful iPad app Handwritten, which serves as my example of building “gift-giving machines.” In the spirit of doing things the long, hard, stupid way, I decided to give this talk a go without slides. Man, was I nervous. It was totally nerve-wracking being in that tent of intimidation, full of a small group of such brilliant, shining people. I spoke next to last, so I got to be my own worst enemy for a few days, worrying about the talk by pacing around my tent muttering to myself like a mad man. Thankfully, it seems to have gone over well. It’s a shorter talk at about 20 minutes, and I hope you enjoy it. I think it’s the best talk I’ve given, and certainly the most urgent message I’ve ever felt the need to share.
