Long before I even realized they were my favorites, I was drawn to them in ways Im only just realizing. Whether it was a book cover I admired (and often ended up purchasing) to illustrations I was drawn to, I'm realizing I was drawn to a particular style. In the realm of illustration, Shepard Fairey is my absolute favorite, followed by Banksey, the British activist street artist, and when it comes to my second love, Typography, I am pparticularly drawn to the style of Italian American Louise Fili and a young woman who worked with her by the name of Jessica Hische.
I consider myself to be a true aficionado of the craft of design. Book covers, graffiti art, vintage posters and fruit, vegetable, and wine labels are forms of design/art that I'm especially drawn to. Since I was let go from my full-time job, one of the ways I kept my design skills up was to create these
Boxes of Inspiration. The inspiration behind the boxes came from Jessica Hische's
The Daily Drop Cap, a typography project she started a few years ago that literally blew her up. My rationale behind the Boxes of Inspiration was this—I was so sick of hearing the phrase "Think outside the box," which I feel has been usurped and it's value desensitized. My project was all about finding the inspiration within the box, and everyday—well, not everyday—but on a consistent enough basis, I eventually created 100 boxes of inspiration.
Being unemployed/self-employed/under-employed has been a blessing in the sense that I have a better understanding of which direction I should take my design, and I have thought about it a good deal enough to finally know how to go about getting there.
