From my childhood I fondly remember staring at Richard Amsel’s Raiders of the Lost Ark poster outside of the theatre box office: it’s clean lines, graphic symmetry, and beautifully rendered images and bold colors inspired me.
Richard Amsel’s iconic poster for Raiders of the Lost Ark.
As a designer, I have always loved to create and study posters. They have always struck the balance between information and creativity; often revealing an artist’s distinctive style and singular point-of-view as much as the product or service it’s promoting.
Cooper Hewitt’s How Posters Work Exhibition explores the theory and technique of the poster and is on view from May 8, 2015 to November 15, 2015. I have included samples below, but a detailed look at the curated pieces for the exhibition are online and print in a companion book edited by Ellen Lupton, Cooper Hewitt’s Curator of Contemporary Design.
Jimi Hendrix, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Joni Mitchell, The Doors, and the Eagles, and Paul McCartney. Photographer Henry Diltz captured them all in the iconic imagery we all recognize today.
Listen to Henry Diltz’s interview with Here and Now’s Robin Young.
I had the privilege of participating in a martial arts seminar and instructor training with Kyoshi Dave Kovar (an elite martial artist with black belts in 10 Martial Arts styles) and many of the lessons learned in the dojo can be applied to the office.
Your attitude – are you teaching every class as if it’s the best class ever? Are you approaching each project as your best project ever?
Your appearance – are you tidy and professional? A tidy and professional appearance instills confidence in yourself, your team, and (most importantly) your client.
Your presentation – have you spent time preparing for class, and do you have a plan? Strategic planning, organization, and goals for your team and your business are absolutely essential.
The attitude, appearance, and presentation of your staff – have you provided the guidelines and guidance for your team to succeed in the three areas above? Lead by example, but also clearly communicate attitude, appearance, and presentation expectations to your team.
My seven years of martial arts training and study have been a great resource for maintaining my physical and mental health and I would encourage everyone to engage in a physical activity or sport as a tool to maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
As an Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber I have recently added a suite of their mobile applications to my iPad to test their functionality and possibly integrate into my workflow and I have been impressed by these powerful, yet easy to use tools.
Create layouts, illustrations, edit photos and video, export them to Adobe CC applications.
