Leadership Qualities, Or Better Yet, Life Qualities

Leaders are not what many people think–people with huge crowds following them. Leaders are people who go their own way without caring, or even looking to see whether anyone is following them. “Leadership qualities” are not the qualities that enable people to attract followers, but those that enable them to do without them. The include, at the very least, courage, endurance, patience, humor, flexibility, resourcefulness, determination, a keen sense of reality, and the ability to keep a cool and clear head even when things are going badly. This is the opposite of the “charisma” that we hear so much about.

I found the quote above over on Caterina Fake’s blog, which was taken from a book about homeschooling by John Holt. In her post she writes about who and what inspires her, and how varied the forms are. I found the quote quite interesting because I feel like it defines not only how I see myself, but also how I see the people I look up to.

Oftentimes I have people write and ask me for tips on blogging or being a designer, and I think what John says in the paragraph above is a perfect way to guide your thoughts. After writing this blog for four years, I know that what people appreciate most is my unique voice and my honesty. I know that I’m not the best writer out there, but that doesn’t matter because my passion and enthusiasm counts for so much more. Having a strong opinion and being honest is the other thing I find to be a key to the sites success. A lot of blogs these days just repost content and there’s no voice behind the content, but what’s the point of that?

The people I look up to the most have a unique point of view that’s unlike any out there. When I get up in the morning I read three blogs: Daring Fireball, Kottke and You Might Find Yourself. A blog about Apple & technology and two blogs about generally interesting ideas. Their unique voices set them apart from the rest, the lives they’ve lived have led them have the opinions that they express.

You can apply the principles from Holt’s statement to a lot of leaders, which is why I have Steve Jobs up there, but they’re qualities that I wish more people had. Hopefully this gives you a little food for thought and perhaps even makes you think a little differently about your goals.

Bobby

Day-After-Day in NOD by Andy J. Miller

Andy J. Miller never seems to stop working. Honestly. Since April he’s been working on a really nice project set in the land of NOD; a dream-like world filled with many weird and wonderful creatures. Every weekday he introduces a new one, which as he puts it, will “slip, putter, or swagger out of the darkness”. With more then 80 NOD inhabitants already on display, NOD already seems to be a busy place.

Miller say’s that he’s got all kinds of ideas for where this project could go, but for now it seems pretty great as it is. It’s particularly exciting to see the variety of ideas that Andy has and the amount of fun he seems to have creating these characters. The plan is to run the project for a year and finish with a total of 260 characters (I’m not sure if they’re called NODletes or NODites or NODs, so we’ll stick with characters!).

You can view the ongoing work on the Day-After-Day blog, and if you use tumblr make sure to subscribe to the page and discover more about the NOD universe everyday.

Philip

The Lazy Blogger & The Plague of Press Releases

Over the past couple of months I’ve been really distracted by a growing number of blogs that have become overrun with press releases or sponsored content. The reason this bothers me is that I feel like this sort of behavior goes generally unnoticed by most readers. There’s really no particular genre of blogs that are more at fault than others either, the gamut ranges from design to illustration to fashion to architecture. I don’t plan on pointing the finger at anyone in particular, though I’m sure many people will feel I’m attacking them. I blame this epidemic on two things: Lazy bloggers and press releases.

As someone with a decent sized audience, I can say I get a lot of press releases in my inbox every morning. Do I post about these press releases every now and then? Of course I do, because every now and then something interesting pops up, but most of the time it’s some young artist from (insert city here) who’s looking to get a break. But there’s this plethora of lazy bloggers out there who take these press releases that pour into their inbox, cut and paste everything verbatim, then try to masquerade them as real content. What’s worse is when someone is shilling for a thing or place, trying to make it seem like they happened to show up at the right place and time, when they’ve been handed a chunk of change to write about.

To this I ask, what’s the fucking point? Why would anyone with a popular blog waste their time, day in, day out, posting about the same damn press release that every other blog in their field received as well? Do you enjoy what you do or do you view what you do as a way to pay the bills?

Maybe I’m naive, maybe I’m too optimistic, but I try to think of good blogs as something akin to the New York Times, a constant source of new ideas and information. Would the NY Times take a bunch of pre-chewed content and baby mother barf it into the mouths of their readers? Never, because they have integrity. Maybe this is me on my high horse, but I personally hold myself to a higher standard, and I don’t even do that much. Since starting this site over four years ago I have written by a particular forumla: One paragraph describing the topic, a second paragraph describing why I think it’s worth a damn. That’s it. It’s not rocket science, but it’s me trying. In fact, in my four years, I’ve written nearly 3,200 posts about topics that I think people should look at and trying to explain why you should give a damn.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, stop pretending to be a writer and BE a writer. Stop filling the internet with more recycled crap and start posting something of worth. There are so many people out there who want to read an interesting story, or come across something inspiring to make their day or share with their co-workers over lunch. So why are you wasting our time?

Like I said at the beginning, I’m not trying to be negative with this post, so I’m going to point out the people who should be recognized for making blogging something awesome. My mornings usually consists of Kottke, Daring Fireball, You Might Find Yourself and Design*Sponge. I also love Aquarium Drunkard, Brand New, Subtraction, Yewknee, But Does It Float, designworklife, It’s Nice That and today and tomorrow. I would consider all of these to be fantastic, shining examples of what blogs should be. Please do me a favor and bookmark these blogs, tell your friends about them and visit them often. Support the people who are actually trying to create amazing things and not the dumps of press releases.

Bobby

Austin Kleon Teaches Us How To Steal Like An Artist

“Good artists copy, great artists steal.”

The age old saying by Pablo Picasso which has been quoted a countless number of times, but to many still ring true. Just as Austin Kleon who recently created a simple list of 10 things he wishes he would have heard when he was in college. I think the advice that he’s giving though is applicable to anyone no matter education or age. You might be familiar with Austin’s work, Alex posted about his blackout poems almost exactly one year ago today.

Austin comes up with some really good points which I feel describes my own personal path pretty well. I mean, I didn’t even go to college, but it would have been amazing if someone had sat me down and told me half of this stuff. One big part that I agree with is soaking in information, the idea of learning constantly. You never know where your inspiration may come from, and that’s a part of the fun. Osmosis is a powerful part of creativity.

His other point that I really love is “do good work and put it where people can see it.” For me personally, that’s all this site is, a public display of the things I’m passionate about. But it could be anything, an illustration blog or a Tumblr filled with beat poetry, it doesn’t matter.

If there was a secret formula for getting an audience, or gaining a following, I would give it to you. But there’s only one not-so-secret formula that I know: “Do good work and put it where people can see it.”

It’s a two step process.

Step one, “do good work,” is incredibly hard. There are no shortcuts. Make stuff every day. Fail. Get better.

Step two, “put it where people can see it,” was really hard up until about 10 years ago. Now, it’s very simple: “put your stuff on the internet.”

I tell people this, and then they ask me, “What’s the secret of the internet?”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Be sure to visit Austin’s website for the full list if anything above grabbed your attention. Like I said before, these are nuggets of gold that should be helpful to anyone.

Bobby

Film Chromatics: Moviebarcode

I have always had a fascination with how colour works in film: how it effects the viewer’s emotional reactions, the symbolic meaning behind the use of certain coloured filters and the overall visual impact. It’s not something that receives a lot of critical attention; however, it has become the unconscious focus of Moviebarcode. Condensing the action of entire films into an abstract bar code, the images on Moviebarcode cleverly reveal the chromatic design of diverse cinematic gems. From the dark woodsy tones of The Social Network (2010) to the synthetic greens of The Matrix (1999), the site showcases each film’s unique palette.

Perfect for film students or those interested in chromatic design, it is amazing how addictive going through the archives of Moviebarcode can be. And, if you’re a bit of a nerd like me, you can try and guess from which film each bar code comes. Unfortunately, I don’t think I got one right.

The bar codes featured above are from Jaws (1975), Hero (2002), Requiem for a Dream (2000) and In the Mood for Love (2000).

Thank you to Andrew Lowe for the tip.

Danica