movie day: Matt Wedel

by | May 22, 2013 | call for entry, emerging artist, job posting, monday morning eye candy, movie day, residency opportunity, show us your influences, technical tuesday

Matt Wedel: Athens (2013) from L.A. Louver on Vimeo.

Matt Wedel & Christopher Miles in conversation at L.A. Louver (2013) from L.A. Louver on Vimeo.
Recorded 13 April 2013 at L.A. Louver in Venice, CA. Matt Wedel and Christopher Miles discuss Wedel’s work and current exhibition “Sheep’s Head”, on view 11 April – 11 May 2013.

movie day: Rilla Alexander: Without the Doing, Dreaming is Useless

by | May 1, 2013 | call for entry, emerging artist, job posting, monday morning eye candy, movie day, residency opportunity, show us your influences, technical tuesday

Rilla Alexander: Without the Doing, Dreaming is Useless from 99U on Vimeo.
We all have an idea we’ve been meaning to execute on, but how can we really make it happen? In this highly original, all-ages talk at the 99 Conference, illustrator Rilla Alexander walks us through this classic creative struggle by sharing the story of Sozi – an adorable character who walks us through the arc of an idea. She daydreams, she procrastinates, she sets deadlines, she gets tempted by new ideas, she buckles down and works hard – and finally – she realizes “Her Idea.”

1:15 – The start of an idea
1:45 – “I can’t work with anything hanging over my head…”
2:54 – “Finally. I put pencil to paper. ..and Im confronted by the mediocrity of my idea”
4:10 – What about all those other ideas?
5:03 – Five years pass…
5:30 – “I begin to hate my idea, its a huge weight of unfulfilled expectations”
6:05 – “I give up. But then, it happened…”
6:50 – I love this idea again
7:10 – Deadlines force me to have realistic expectations, “Instead of focusing on how wonderful it is, I focus on getting it done”
8:00 – How to execute your idea
8:41 – Dreaming up ideas is fun, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg
9:29 – Without the doing the dreaming is useless
9:55 – Set boundaries
10:11 – Let the idea take control
10:55 – Theres always another idea that looks better. But thats because I’m not working on it. I haven’t seen its flaws and failures
11:25 – Don’t give up. Don’t cripple it with self-doubt
12:09 – It’s a lot of work, but much more satisfying than procrastinating
12:30 – Rila reads “Her Idea”

About Rilla Alexander

Rilla Alexander is an Australian-born Berlin-based designer and illustrator. Her cast of creatures dance across Madrid’s Museo del Prado’s ceramics and stationery products, populate Swiss Credit Cards for Cornér Bank and sleep on the walls of Hotel Fox in Copenhagen (where she replaced the bed with a tent).

As a member of design collective Rinzen, she has published several books exploring the creative process. The felt-covered book Neighbourhood featured the collaborative efforts of over 30 artists reworking and remaking hand-made toys in a sequence that stretched across the world.

Her all-ages picture book, Her Idea, was launched with an exhibition at Colette in Paris — and tells the tale of her alter-ego Sozi and her quest to make ideas happen.

movie day: Jonathan Adler – Keep Other People’s Opinions Out Of Your Creative Process

by | Apr 24, 2013 | call for entry, emerging artist, job posting, monday morning eye candy, movie day, residency opportunity, show us your influences, technical tuesday

Jonathan Adler: Keep Other People’s Opinions Out Of Your Creative Process from 99U on Vimeo.

Jonathan Adler is now synonymous with the irreverent designs — pottery, housewares, furniture and beyond — that he sells around the world, but it all started with a college professor who didn’t believe in him. After receiving discouraging feedback about his ambitions to be a potter, Adler wandered around New York City doing odd jobs that usually ended with him getting fired.

After some soul-searching, Adler returned to his true love, pottery, and learned the value of ignoring the expectations of others and following your dream. Here, he injects his trademark wit while sharing how he found his underlying message of “irreverent luxury” as his business evolved from pottery to pillows to rooms.
Adler preaches that we should keep other people’s opinions out of our creative process and attributes his success to his disdain of focus groups and feedback.

0:51 – “I’ve done everything ass-backwards in my life.”
1:21 – How he got his start. “I always wanted to be a potter”
2:29 – His first job at a talent agency. “I was absolutely unemployable”
4:08 – His start as a potter, and why he wanted to do it differently. “My greatest hope was that I could hawk my wares outside a rainsoaked craft fair”
5:45 – “I wanted to make pots that were groovy and graphic and spoke to my heart”
6:40 – Have a “F*** it” attitude. Follow your heart completely.
8:50 – Don’t just make a statement and refine it. Don’t be hemmed in by your “brand.”
9:47 – Making Pillows (and other well-crafted work).
11:13 – …and then he figured out his brand.
11:55 – Understand the underlining message of what you are trying to communicate throughout all of your work.
13:41 – Why not make rooms?
15:20 – “I loathe other people’s opinions and I hate focus groups.”
17:20 – The anti-focus group he uses to judge his work.

About Jonathan Adler

Seventeen years ago, a little-known potter named Jonathan Adler was thrilled to receive his first order from Barneys New York. He couldn’t have dreamed that today, in 2012, he would lead an international design company offering decorative accessories, tabletop collections, bedding, furniture, rugs, pillows, lighting, and fabrics, all featuring Jonathan’s signature Modernist forms, bold colors and groovy graphics. Jonathan is obsessed with creating beautiful design mixed with impeccable craftsmanship. His motto is “If your heirs won’t fight over it, we won’t make it.”