While I’m on a roll, this is my current computer location. Probably the neatest area of my house at the moment… my whopping huge desk is in the study where the globe has blown and is covered in a whopping huge printer and a lot of paper and books… besides getting through to it as difficult as there are still boxes all over that floor.
And the Coffeehouse Theology book finally arrived today, as did a very belated 18th present for my little sister.
Last week I took myself down to a cafe for a motivational change of scenery. While in the ‘slowly improving’ main street, I ducked into an opshop and was rewarded in finding some quite lovely design things. All this for only $4.10.
sheet music
a novel
and an old graphic design/print handbook!
“The biggest problem designers face is fear; fear of clients, fear of failure, fear of ideas. Our ability to overcome fear is perhaps the greatest skill we can acquire. Most bad design, most mediocre design, is a consequence of fear. Clients are frightened, designers are frightened; audiences are frightened. The modern world of commerce runs of fear: a marketplace terror that makes us timid and risk-averse. Most of us deal with fear by falling back on the familiar and the safe. but if we do this, we are not allowed to turn around and say our lives are dull. If we are going to avoid losing our souls, we have to overcome this fear.” – Adrian Shaughnessy (p.147)
I finally managed to get my hands on a library copy of this book and am already eternally grateful. Shaugnessy has written a brilliant book that talks about the Design industry through it’s pitfalls and triumphs, it is gloriously practical, interesting and well written. I am a fan.
This takes the shiny button for the ‘best’ of design books that I’ve read thus far, just ahead of tellmewhy by karlssonwilker. Very different, incredibly helpful. I even feel vaguely prepared, although I’m sure that’s naive.
On another note, I’ve been exploring illustration lately… in that I’ve been thinking about it rather a lot and am getting these small hits of inspired glee. I bought a CAP magazine on Illustration a little while back but I’m holding out until holidays, where those things that I “have” to do aren’t getting in the way.
My branding assignment for the school is FINALLY coming along. I need to meet up with them again to discuss through some of the concepts that I’ve come up with. Still battling to get a decent linear mark as the uni brief requries that we produce: a linear, solid, abstraction, postive/negative, pictogram.
My head currently is great friends with the procrastination monster (here is where I should jump into Illustrator and haul out some illustration skills and show you what my monster looks like).
I spent yesterday afternoon reclaiming sanity by cleaning my house and spending time with my friend Ana in the glorious sun at a cafe. I thought I’d won the war in capturing control.
Today control has made some kind of spectacular get-away and I am floundering.
I hate having to do bits and pieces without accomplishing anything tangible. Unfortunately these bits and pieces NEED to get done to even get remotely close to the whole.
I currently have four books on the go, struggling to get through the Pratchett (of all things!) and feel quite unstable.
Coffeehouse Theology: Reflecting on God in Everyday Life
Ed Cyzewski. NavPress, $14.99 paper (240p) ISBN 9781600062773 Freelance theologian Cyzewski enters into the Emergent conversation from the conservative end of the evangelical spectrum. He urges readers to explore theology while reassuring them that they don’t have to become postmodern philosophers: theology can be considered, as it were, in the coffeehouse. Arguing that “[o]ur local settings and cultural values—in other words, our context—influence how we read God’s Word,†Cyzewski approaches “contextual theology†by weaving together discussions of mission, culture, God, Scripture, tradition and the global church. Personal anecdotes of his own growth in faith are disarming in their honesty. While this accessible work is a useful introduction to aspects of Emergent theology, Cyzewski’s summary of modernism and postmodernism is sometimes too sketchy to be useful; however, each chapter includes valuable suggestions for further reading. Gently nudging his fellow Christians to listen to diverse points of view, Cyzewski doesn’t explain why he is committed to engaging in dialogue with some aspects of culture and not others (say, progressive theologians and secularists). This addition to books about emerging and missional forms of Christianity ends on a hopeful note for unity across denominations. (Sept.)
This book came out today! I will be reviewing in October some time as part of the online ‘tour’… when it arrives in my mailbox that is.
Selling on Amazon, bummer about the exchange rate at the moment.
