PJH Studios

Category: Creativity

How things are created, mainly dealing with the process and means of creation

  • Just start

    Jason Z. of the 37 Signals crew writes when web developing, the first step is to start.

    While it would be easy to recommend stacks of books, and dozens of articles with 55 tips for being 115% better than the next guy, the truth is that you don’t need learn anything new in order to begin. The most important thing is simply to start.

    I’d go one step further and say this is true for any creative project.  Just start.  Don’t worry about what you don’t know and focus on what you do know and build from there.  There will be moments when you’ll need to learn something, but to think you need to know everything up front will only fuel the analysis paralysis, or bluntly, instigate the fear of failure.

  • Paper Arts, Dallas, TX

    Tucked away in a small strip center South of downtown Dallas (Peak and Elm), Paper Arts offers a mind boggling selection of papers from all over the world. One of a kind, hand crafted, exotic, off beat, special purpose–they have it or can get it. In my own impromptu tour, I was told that “we have access to 8000 different kinds of paper, but only have 1500 in stock” at the store. In a sense, if you like paper, you’d be like a kid in a candy store with the ceiling high cabinets full of brightly colored offerings.

    In meandering the store, looking at what there is to offer, scrap bookers have options with patterns and brightly colored stock, but the heart of the store is for those that need a unique feel, beyond what the paper aisle at Hobby Lobby or Micheal’s offers. Wedding invitation designers can find elegant and contemporary stock for the occasion. Collage artists can find one of a kind (literally, there’s only one sheet with that pattern), hand marbled papers and papers with various thicknesses, translucence and tension. Origami folders can find wet and dry folding stock. Book makers can find cloth papers with special backings to prevent glue from seeping through. Papers are sold in half sheet or whole sheet options, sizes ranging from 8.5″ x 11″ to 32″ x 40″. Prices vary from $1.99 a sheet (basic papers) to $20 a sheet (specialty, exotic paper).

    The owners are friendly, extremely knowledgeable and willing to help you find what you’re looking for. Mention you want something like XYZ but in a different ABC or 123, and they’ll guide you to a cabinet with suggestions.

    Paper Arts is open Tuesday through Saturday and can be reached by phone at 214-828-9494


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  • Brett Favre is like the Internet

    In a great example of divergent thinking, Kottke collects a series of tweets by Tim Carmody comparing Brett Favre’s career to that of the Internet.

    In 1995, Favre wins the MVP, the Packers get to the NFC Championships, and Windows 95 brings the internet & graphic interface to the masses.

  • Of terminology and semantics

    Debates over terminology and semantics are for archivists and academics. If you’re interested in the living heart of what you do, focus on building things rather than talking about them.

    –Ryan Freitas

  • Words

    Follow along to the Words. Excellent use of transitions and word association.

  • Ones and zeros are free

    On the plane this weekend, I watched David Hobby’s photo lighting seminar from his Lighting 102 material for Strobist.com.  At one point he’s explaining that you don’t have to get the right exposure, and sometimes it takes some fiddling to get the proper combined flash and ambient exposure.  You may need to take more than one shot, he says. With this digital stuff,

    Ones and zeros are free.

    So true.

    Take as many pictures as you can.  Often, I see people take a picture, look at it, and not be totally satisfied with what they took and accept mediocrity.  If they took a few more shots, they might take one they actually enjoy.  Digital photography and cameras these days are limited by two things: the size of the memory card and the person taking the picture.  The former is a scarcity of space for those ones and zeroes, and the other is a scarcity of effort.

  • Creativity and divergent thinking as a strategic national asset

    Thomas Friedman views immigration and the melting pot that is America as a strategic asset of creation:

    …America’s most important competitive advantage: the sheer creative energy that comes when you mix all our diverse people and cultures together. We live in an age when the most valuable asset any economy can have is the ability to be creative — to spark and imagine new ideas, be they Broadway tunes, great books, iPads or new cancer drugs. And where does creativity come from?

  • Bookshelf porn

    Bookshelves are sexy, like the librarian with trendy glasses:

    Bookshelf Porn

  • Detroit Art City

    Economic collapse means you can build a lot for your buck amongst the rubble, especially if you’re an artist in Detroit.

    But its particular brand of civic and economic decay has also drawn something unexpected: a small but well-publicized movement of artists and other creative types trying to wring something out of the rubble.

    TED, Banksy and Make Magazine are some of the big names, and the mayor has hired a special position to help coordinate art events.

  • Play nourishes creativity

    In publishing her latest book, Jillian Tamaki says this about the importance of play to the creative spirit:

    But I do sincerely believe that without personal work and comics, I might go nuts. For the most part, there is little Sense of Play in commercial illustration (there are a few glorious exceptions to this rule). And the Sense of Play is really what nourishes creativity and, ultimately, good work (paid or otherwise). Sometimes, I think, it’s actually more important than rigorous practice.

    I have a day job that pays the bills, but my creative projects save my soul.