Typography & Graphic Design Blog
Typeface addicts: REJOICE!
Our latest book, “The Preposterously Huge Book of Google Font Combinations” is now available for download in the BonFX Store. It’s a fully-indexed and clickable PDF that looks amazing on an HD monitor and even more beautiful on an iPad. Pinch and zoom is stunning, and the detail is unparalleled.
“Where I create, there I am true” — Rainer Maria Rilke
The Starry Night, Vincent Van Gogh.
Surely the propensity to “fall asleep” as we function is more common than anyone would care to admit. How easy it is to catch ourselves mechanically slogging through the motions from time to time – left unchecked and our work turns dismal. For this reason I offer a gentle injection, a nudge of sorts, and pass on a few “secrets” to ignite artistic inspiration in your journey as an artist.
Actually, the following are less secrets than gems hidden in plain sight –often overlooked by aspiring artists, while indispensable among the accomplished.
So, what are these gems?
Illustration – Douglas Bonneville
Although advice on fostering creativity is not hard find, it often falls short to dig deep into the reservoir where creativity germinates.
In her book, The Artist Within, Betty Edwards explores a force that propels creativity. She stresses the need to recognize and develop this force, or mode, to enhance creativity and solve every day problems…. [Read More]
Illustration – Douglas Bonneville
One of the greatest challenges for any developing artist is not only painstakingly discovering their own voice, but then courageously taking the risk of stepping into the unknown to share it with the world.
Numerous studies, books and workshops on the topic of finding a distinct voice reveal this raw nerve has always existed. Do we find our own voice by going it alone and striving heroically to be original? Or do we simply copy someone else?
Well, both.
As an artist, Frederick Franck is concerned with more than drawing solely for the sake of pleasure. He views it is as powerful tool in learning to truly see. Seeing, he believes, correlates to being deeply present in everyday life experiences. He writes about awakening through the practice of drawing directly what the eyes perceive, and no more. As a by-product, he finds inexplicable aliveness in all things, and the capacity to communicate that aliveness to others.
ILLUSTRATION – DOUGLAS BONNEVILLE
Anyone who is engaged in creative work has inevitably experienced the ebbs and flows that come with it. But like weather, even the most turbulent spells eventually pass, and though we can’t will them away, we can work with and through them until sunny skies return. So what can we do when the clouds that darken our eyes are Creative blocks, the common culprits that keep us from taking pleasure in our work?
While there are probably hundreds of ways to tackle the age-old issue, the following are a few possible approaches. They are bite-size and practical since overcomplicating things can sometimes reinforce what keeps us stuck.
It’s about removing clutter, both external and internal so creativity can resurface and blossom. We can do this through creating space while becoming vulnerable, still, gentle and self-forgiving.
Let’s start with the obvious:
Beautiful work worth sharing. Susanna Bauer creates these works of art from sticks, leaves and pieces of wood together with crochet woven ornately and with delicate balance.
There is a fine balance in my work between fragility and strength; literally, when it comes to pulling a fine thread through a brittle leaf or thin dry piece of wood, but also in a wider context – the tenderness and tension in human connections, the transient yet enduring beauty of nature that can be found in the smallest detail, vulnerability and resilience that could be transferred to nature as a whole or the stories of individual beings.
You can find more of Bauer’s works on her website and Instagram.
