Friday, June 25, 2010

Weekly Inspiration #1

Thank you to everybody who left a comment on my last blog post. The things you guys said really meant a lot and I might be doing a follow-up post soon.

For today though, I want to introduce a new weekly-ish segment (yes, another one), in which I share some people or websites that inspire me, either directly related to graphic design or not.


The first person I am going to feature today is Nubby Twiglet. I have been reading her blog for several months now, but since I first came across it, I haven't missed a single post. She is basically everything I want to be in a couple years: a professional graphic designer with incredible fashion sense who seems to have some sort of adventure every week. Her graphic design work is beautiful, and her style, both in her art and in her fashion sense, have noticeably influenced mine. If you are a graphic designer, I highly recommend checking out her advice blog posts, as she gives lots of good insight into putting together a portfolio, working freelance, and other helpful subjects we all face. And if you're not a designer, she doesn't only post about graphic design! She has series of posts called What I Wore, The Week in Pictures, and Link Love, and everything she posts is incredibly beautiful.


I'm sure most people reading this blog already know who Alan Lastufka is, but if case you are new here, he is the co-founder of DFTBA Records, a musician who has released two albums, Erase This and Taking Leave, and a YouTuber under the name fallofautumndistro. Alan is one of the most hardworking people I know. He has so many great ideas, but then also has the skills to get those ideas put into action. He has turned DFTBA from a small start-up with a couple artists to a label signing some of the biggest names on YouTube, that sells thousands upon thousands of CDs. And he's done all that from a little town outside of Chicago that's basically in the middle of nowhere. Alan is a master at using social media to build a community that stays true to the values it was founded on. He has skills in many, many different fields, from graphic design to music to business management and a natural instinct about who would be good collaborators to make his projects the best that they can be. Since Alan and I became friends a little over a year ago, I've learned so much while working with him, and I can never wait to see what else he manages to come up with.


I have been reading the Unclutterer blog for more than a year now, and it is always one of the first websites I check every morning. Erin Doland, the main writer, manages to write in a way that is accessible to people at all levels of organizing, and is helpful and encouraging without being pushy in the slightest. As it says right on the homepage, "Unclutterer is the blog about getting and staying organized. A place for everything, and everything in its place is our gospel." I recognize in myself that I am quite the pack rat (seriously, I have way, way too much stuff), but reading this blog has helped me begin to realize why I am that way so that when I eventually move away from home I hopefully won't take all that clutter with me! Along with the daily posts about things like managing your to-do list or how to tackle and organize paper clutter, Erin also has weekly posts called Unitasker Wednesday, which is absolutely hilarious, and Ask Unclutterer, which can be very useful if you have a similar problem. There are a good number of people who post in the comments every day, and they often offer suggestions or ideas that are just as useful as the original post. If you are looking to declutter your life on a large scale or just need a daily kick in the pants to stay organized, this blog is a fantastic resource.

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