Taking a Day Off

Hi guys! Welcome back for another blog post! Unfortunately, I have to disappoint. I'm traveling and so am not able to make the usual blog post. I'll be back again next week. Have a great week everyone!

--Charlie Griffin

Stick with me, and we'll get wise together. 

Fear, The Insidious

Hey guys! Welcome back for another blog post!

So let's address fear this week. Fear sucks. Figuritively and literally. It drains our energy. It cripples us. It causes us to make some less than productive choices. Sure there's healthy fear. You can find information all over the place talking about the healthy aspects of fear. Clearly, that's not the subject I'm writing about though. Since I'm talking about the "bad" fear, I have to say it's a good thing I'm not afraid of anything. At least, that's what I've told myself for years. 

When I was young, I was extremely afraid of spiders. When I saw a spider, I would scream my best "scream queen" scream and run as far away as I could as fast as I could. At some point I developed the idea that as a man I couldn't be afraid like that. I think the idea was partly macho, and partly reason. So I began to face my fears and overcome them one by one, until finally there was nothing left for me to be afraid of.

Here's the thing though. Fear is such an insidious thing, that I have been living in fear my entire life without realizing it. It's easy to identify things like fear of spiders, or fear of heights. I have discovered that it's possible to even be afraid of fear itself. It's also possible to be afraid of telling the truth, to others or yourself. You can be afraid of change. You could have both together.

I have been telling myself for years that I am a person who embraces change. I embrace it so well that every couple of weeks I change the direction of my entire life. Interestingly, this has the effect of creating a changeless environment, because nothing truly changes and I'm left with an unsatisfying baseline. The definition of progress is moving consistently in the same direction. The truth is I've been lying to myself. If I truly was to be a person to embrace change, then I would allow the process of change to take hold. Instead, I've been standing behind the shield of "I've lost interest..."

A few weeks ago I started this blog. Another one of my notorious changes in a predictable schedule of change. As usual, this was precipitated by a series of other changes. This time though, I started this journey knowing that I can't stick to anything. I embraced this enthusiastically and wondered how long I would stay interested. Last night, I almost backed out. I almost called it quits on the blog. Fortunately, I've made a commitment to you guys, and I have an awesome wife who reminded me of how important this is to me.

It's so easy to fall victim to this insidious thing called fear. As I reflected on this it occurred to me that fear is something that stands in the way of a lot of creative individuals. I've talked in the past, rather vehemently about motivation in regards to art. I've said if you've got something to say, then you'll say it with your art. I've said there's no shortage of ideas for people who truly look for them. I've said that if you truly have a passionate message then you'll be motivated to do your art. Hands down, problem solved. But that's not the entire picture is it? There's this fear that we have. Will our art be liked? Will it turn out the way we expect? Will it have the intended effect? Will it get published? Will it take time away from other things? What are we missing out on? What will our friends think? These questions are all hallmarks of fear, and there are plenty more. 

The only advice I've ever accepted about fear is the need to face it and overcome it. Every time I've done so, I've always been better for it. This is no different. The nature of this fear may not be so tangible, but it's still something that needs to be faced and overcome. The first step is naming it. The rest falls into place relatively easily as long as I continue to steer the course of courage.

It's time to face my fear of change.

It's time to face my fear of commitment.

It's time to face my fear of completion.

It's time to commit to this change of course that I have prescribed for myself.

--Charlie Griffin

Stick with me, and we'll get wise together. 
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Day Wisp

Radioactive Breakthrough

Community Challenge

Hey Guys! Welcome back for another blog post! Yesterday a friend was reminding me of the importance of community. So I thought I'd address that point in this post.

Tim Ferriss often says "You are the average of the five people you most associate with." That's pretty true I think. I have spent a lot of my life surrounding myself with people who created drama, and found myself always caught up in drama, whether it was theirs or my own. Eventually I decided I didn't want to be living a life of drama and I distanced myself from the people that perpetuated the drama cycle. Guess what? The drama died away. I haven't yet surrounded myself with the people that I would more closely like to be identified with, as I haven't met them yet. But what I do do instead is make sure that I'm regularly exposing myself to the kind of influence I would like. This means the books I read, the podcasts I listen to, the videos I watch. And this is OK... But it doesn't encourage me. They don't call me up to exchange ideas, or go out for coffee. They really can't, because they're not actually people, they're merely concepts being expressed through a medium. I can see that associating with the right people would make a big difference, and I can see the value of my friends statement.

But where do I find a community? How do I consciously build up a circle of friends and associates who embody what I would like to be? Well, for starters, I should probably be where they are. Then, I should probably get over the social awkwardness that is only in my own brain and actually talk to them. But what if I don't know if they're the right people? Well... I certainly won't know if I never try to talk to them. Sure, maybe I could find some people on line, get to know them through blog posts, social media, interviews. But when I see these people in real life I suddenly find they really don't compare to the fantasy I've built in my head. So really, my only choice is to talk to them. Nobody said reinventing myself was going to be easy...

Okay. So now I know that I need to talk to them. I also established that I need to be where they are at. But where are they? If I continue in the routines that I've set for myself, I'm never going to find that place. It's time for me to step out of my comfort zone and change my routines. So, I started by looking into the different conferences. I've heard that the best part of a conference is actually the networking and socializing that happens between the panel speakers. It's a lot harder to find conferences than I thought it would be. I kind of had to dig a little. It would have been easier if I hadn't been trying to localize things. I tried to keep my search specific to Canada. This rather excludes conferences such as HOW Design, SIGGRAPH, or the AIGA Design Conference. But I have found there are a suitable number of conferences which happen to be pretty much in my back yard in Toronto. I was only able to find conferences related to Graphic Design, and unfortunately nothing really in regards to CG. I'll have to keep digging for that one at another time. The short list I compiled follows:

FITC - Future, Innovation, Technology, Creativity: This conference already took place in April, but there will be another in 2018. For more info, go to: http://fitc.ca/event/to18/

DesignThinkers Conference: Hosted by RGD (Registered Graphic Designers), this event takes place November 7 & 8 at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto.For more info, go to: http://designthinkers.com/toronto (There's also one in Vancouver on a different date.)

GTA Photography Conference: This one is rather short notice. It takes place on July 19th, and is only a one day event. It should go without saying that this conference is specific to Photography. For more info, go to: http://gtaimaging.com/conference2017/

Design & Content Conference: Another one with short notice, this 3 day conference takes place July 17-19... And it's in Vancouver, so not quite on my doorstep, but I figured it was worth including anyway. For more info, go to: https://designcontentconf.com

It seems to me that there is probably a resource that I'm missing somewhere in regards to finding a community without going to conferences, so I guess I'm leaving that open for advice from the audience!

--Charlie Griffin

Stick with me, and we'll get wise together. 
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Country Roads

Web of Light

Melting Forest

Deadline Dilemmas

Hi guys! Welcome back to another blog post! Unfortunately some changes demanded my attention this week. My personal hero swept in and saved the day, which is super awesome! But that does mean that I'm pushing the line on that deadline again this week.

The thing is, when you have a deadline, you do your best to meet it. In many ways it's like a promise, you simply never break a promise. I've heard mixed opinions on deadlines. They generate stress, and subpar work. However they also push you to get work done that you wouldn't otherwise have done. Imagine saying to your children, "I'll build the swing set for you." That's a non committal promise. You're saying you'll build it when you get to it. In theory, your children might not need the swing set by the time you finally gotten to building it. Now, if you say "I'll get the swing set built this weekend." You've already begun clearing the space in your mental schedule to allow for the swing set to be built. There may be unforeseen circumstances that make it so you don't finish the setting set on the weekend, but you've certainly made every effort you can. It's similar at work. Recently I had a project with an arbitrary end date around a month in the future. Time went by and I plucked away at the project. I figured I had time. Suddenly I learnt that the project was due the following day. You can bet I devoted all of my attention to the project to ensure it was finished! This is the power of deadlines. They are a call to action.

But what about quality? Won't quality for the project suffer? Maybe. If you've over booked yourself it will, almost guaranteed. Ultimately though, the deadline encourages you to put your attention into the project sooner rather than later. In my opinion, the quality is actually likely to improve. You're not letting other things distract you. You don't start, then stop, then remind yourself where you left off. When it's been so long since you worked on a project that you literally had to deconstruct the project to figure out where you left off, it's often easiest to scrap the project altogether. I've done this, and for some I'm still mourning the loss, years later.

Of course, if you leave all the work till the deadline, you're not doing yourself any favours. In that case, the quality may suffer so much that you might as well have never done the project in the first place. Just because you have a deadline doesn't mean you won't procrastinate. You still have to actually put that focus into the project you've committed to. The deadline is an agreement between all parties that you will do the best you can to get that project done. Note that's "the best you can," and not "whatever you get done in time."

Does everything require a deadline? Well, probably not. But if you want to get something done in a timely fashion, set a deadline.

--Charlie Griffin

Stick with me, and we'll get wise together. 
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In recognition of Canada Day, and Independence Day I have a comparison between fast shutter speed, and slow shutter speed:

Happy Celebrations!

When Words Aren't Enough

Hey guys! Welcome back for another blog post! Sorry this post is so late! Life grabbed me and ran away with me for a few days...

So, the question I left you guys with: What is Graphic Design? Well, if you read the post at AIGA (http://www.aiga.org/guide-whatisgraphicdesign), then you read about posters, advertisements, branding, books, web design and a bunch of other stuff like that. On the surface, that is what Graphic Design is, and again AIGA's post is a very good summation of the topic. And it should be, after all AIGA is the American Institute for Graphic Arts, they are pretty much the foremost authority of Graphic Design. What their article doesn't cover though, is the subjective view on what Graphic Design is, as it is individual and... well... subjective.

If you've been following my blog you may remember I had a post about artists and the passion I feel they should have for their art.  (http://cgwise.blogspot.ca/2017/05/the-passion-of-art.html) Well, Graphic Design is Art. It is the means of communicating the message the artist is empassioned about. In this way it becomes a language, and it's a language which has been around since the dawn of time.

Cave paintings have been found that can be dated as far back as 40,800 years. That's more than 38,000 years before our Current Era(CE). It's long before people began recording history. Aboriginals have long been associated with body paint. Natives of North America would decorate their bodies for various occasions, but each color and symbol had a specific meaning. It was a communication, either to the wearer, other members of the tribe, other tribes, or even the spirit world. The ancient Mayans and Egyptians developed pictures to actively communicate and record various things. These pictures are now known as hieroglyphs. Modern writing evolved from pictographs to become the alphabets that we know today. Pictures have been used as a language, longer than history can say, and that hasn't changed to this day.

We do have a habit of viewing pictures as entertainment, which in turn leads us to make pictures for entertainment. We've got them hanging on walls, in books, on TV, in video games and comics. So many of us hear the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, but we never stop to think about what words a picture is trying to tell us. In many cases now, even the person making the picture doesn't know what the picture says. It's merely a means to an end.

Graphic Design steps away from that trap and intentionally puts a message into the picture. We look at every element we use, from letters, to colours, to shapes and ask how we can convey our message. Absolutely everything created through the lens of Graphic Design is intentional. There are no accidents. But there is room for interpretation. That interpretation is just like the way we interpret the spoken word and don't always understand what the speaker meant. Sometimes there are unintentional messages in the work, just like there is in speech. And of course there's always the conventions of different cultures.

In short, Graphic Design is the art of  language as art.

--Charlie Griffin

Stick with me, and we'll get wise together. 
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Rosé Rose

Maple Leaf Gardens

Hidden Depths