Talənt

Steal Like An Artist, Austin Kleon (p. 101)

This weeks chapter was longer than previous ones and covered a lot of good topics: Make friends not enemies. Surround yourself with the smart and talented people. Instead of arguing about things that make you angry, use that anger to fuel your next project. Find people that you admire, write to them.

Something that I particularly liked was his statement "If you ever find that you're the most talented person in the room, you need to find another room." (p.104) I love it. It's not what most people want, and it's definitely not what I thought I wanted when I was younger (now it's only inevitable I won't be the most talented person in a room) but I love it because, not only does it take the desire of being the best off my shoulders, it allows me to learn from those whose who are better.

Le Crazy, Malika Favre

The people that I surround myself are the people that offer me their creativity without even knowing it. My list of inspiration are (in no particular order):
1. Malika Favre: she teaches me how to create beauty using few colors and simple shapes.
2. Rowland + Broughton: these guys fuel my creativity, not only because I have a nostalgia back when I wanted to be an architect, but because of their innovative designs.
3. Anything from Pentagram. Self explanatory.
4. My peers from school really push me to be better.
5. Lotta Nieminen
6. Alexis Eke: she's younger than me and already has a stunning and definitive style to her illustrations.
7. Na Kim: really great book covers.
8. AIGA Chicago

There's obviously so much more, I follow a lot of artists and designers on social media.

Kleon mentions you should write to your heroes. I don't have a particular hero, more like I cherish everyone that I discover and take in everything that they have to offer. I guess my only words to say would be that I hope one day I can repay everyone for the inspiration and creativity that they have given me in one way or another.

That's all for this week. Thanks for reading.

— B