/

March has been a funny old month for me, I feel like I’ve packed in a lot. The clocks have changed and I’m so ready for spring. For the first time in a long time, I’m feeling super inspired to learn, absorb, and challenge myself. Part of that has included loving some of the stuff I’ve been reading (and sharing my newsletter), so I hope there’s something that catches your eye in this month’s list.

SHORT READS

Here’s what happens if you let kids design their own targeted ads on google

As Mark Wilson says “the internet is terrible and targeted advertising is largely to blame”. One of the great struggles we face is how do we teach the next generation about how corporations are shaping what they see and trying to influence what they do? A weekly series of workshops at Bushwick Public Library in New York where 11-year-olds design their own targeted ad campaigns is trying to find some of the answers, with some brilliant insights into what it’s like to be 11 as an added bonus.

KFC’s latest ad reminds you it’s not AFC, BFC, or even CFC

I think Londoners, who will pass a Something-Fried-Chicken shop every 5 blocks, in particular are going to love this glossy spot from Mother London for KFC. It’s Nice That analyses the ad which whizzes viewers on an alphabetical tour of 26 chicken shops.

Press Kits to the Moon

How do you market a trip to the moon? That’s a question David Meerman Scott has been researching for decades. In the process he’s amassed “what [he] believe[s] to be the most complete collection of Apollo 11 contractor press kits in the world” and he’s just made them all available online. They’re a fascinating look into what the moon mission meant and a delightful look at some vintage design.

How to Turn Your Vacation into an Artistic Retreat

“Whether you’re going across the world or just a few states away, travel opens us up to new opportunities and experiences that can lead to greater creativity.” We seem to be in the period where everyone is starting to plan holidays. It’s well worth giving this piece from Artsy a quick read before you do, although some of the advice may be out of reach, the idea of carving time out for creativity and personal projects rings true.

Long reads

We need to talk about Instagram: Illustration agency Handsome Frank on algorithm anxiety

This article has been shared infinitely over the last couple of weeks, with good reason. Jon Cockley’s analysis of the impact of instagram on artists is uncannily spot on and his advice really does resonate. If you’ve managed not to give this one a read yet, please please give it a look.

The Problem with Nostalgia

I’m prone to nostalgia but “Michael Musto argues that wearing rose-colored glasses always leads to an unfair distortion — looking back on the best of the past while comparing it to the worst of the present.”

Why designers should take silliness seriously

Harry Grundy makes a case for the absurd and foolish in design work and discusses how to walk and talk the silly/serious paradox.

The deadly truth about a world built for men – from stab vests to car crashes

I am so excited for Caroline Criado Perez’s new book Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men. In this edited extract from the Guardian Caroline outlines some of the deadly consequences that designing everything from crash test dummies to stab proof vests with only men in mind. Ahead of international women’s day next friday this is a brilliant read.

A Seat at the Head of the Table

In conversation with Katherine W. Phillips, a professor of organizational management at Columbia University, and Shelley Correll, a sociologist at Stanford, Emily Bazelon investigates some of the reasons women’s progression into the top echelons of business has stalled. This one’s well researched while remaining friendly.

Eye Candy

@dodo_toucan

We’re kicking things off with something 3D for this social recommendation. Dodo Touan’s porcelain animals are full of whimsy and wonder, the make me think of those little farmyard animals we used to have as kids but way waaaay better. Often stood against white backgrounds in herds or solo, they’re beautifully captured and are the perfect escape into another world when you need one.

@moodypng

This pick is something a little bit different, well, at least, just not an illustrator. Moodypng’s collages took me right back to being in school and making up sketchbook pages in art in the very best way.

@rooovie

Rich. That’s the word I would use to describe Fatchurofi’s illustrations. The colours are primary sumptuous and his line work is pattern based but detailed. Plus his animations remind me of zoetropes in the very best way.

If you like this monthly round up, you’ll love my newsletter. Every(ish) Sunday I share 2 articles and a social media favourite as well as a short personal essay and some original, often animated, illustrations. So what are you waiting for, sign up!

/

I’m a big believer in the power of making things visual. Whenever I take notes I make them a mix of words and images, because that’s how things stick in my brain. I’ve written a little bit about my note taking style in past posts. It’s a technique I wish more people felt confident in embracing. But whenever I bring it up, the, almost choral, refrain I hear is “I can’t draw”.

 

Everyone can draw. I mean we’re not all DaVinci, but we can all draw, and we can certainly all draw well enough to augment our own notes.

 

So I thought I’d show you some of the ways you can make your own notes more visual in the hopes that it gives you a confidence boost if you need one (everything here is really easy) or gives you a little bit of inspiration if you’re already feeling fly.

 

Simple layouts

Here’s a few ideas for how you can structure your pages to get the most out of them and give your notes an easy to follow layout.

Simple accents

One of the things I find the most useful in my visual notes is accenting and linking my written ideas. Here are a few of the ways you can add visual pops to make key ideas stand out or link up concepts.

Simple drawings

This is the bit you’ve all been waiting for, here are a few of my most drawn icons. I’ve tried to break them down so they’re easy to replicate and make part of your own work. These simple drawings should help you visualise your ideas and start to make you feel a little more confident with your drawing.

Challenge

I thought I’d leave this mini guide with a little bit of a challenge. I’ve given you a few starters, but this post doesn’t even scratch the surface of all of the things you may want to say or draw. The only way to do that is to start to develop your own visual vocabulary. Inspired by Krisztina Szerovay’s UX sketching challenge: 100 days of visual library building I’m leaving you with a worksheet to start to fill with your own drawings, as you need to. I’ve included some prompts, but also left you space to develop your own concepts where you want to. Krisztina suggests trying to do one of these little sketches every day to get you thinking more visually and to help you, slowly but surely, develop a full visual vocabulary.

/

What feels like years ago, I wrote a little bit about my bullet journal. I’ve been keeping what I think loosely classes as a bullet journal for at least the last five years, but perhaps more. While I certainly have periods where I’m far more dedicated to it (usually when I’m feeling good) and periods where I let it slip (usually when I’m feeling overwhelmed leading to a dangerous spiral), it’s a method which is now deeply ingrained in how I process tasks. Because I’ve been writing daily and weekly to do lists for so long now, I’m pretty confident when I say I know how to write a good list. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve crystalised what makes a to do list work in to 5 key principles.

 

None of these principles alone are ground breaking. But if you apply them consistently and consciously they are pretty much guaranteed to work.

 

So without further ado here they are…

  1. Choose a medium you actually use

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of apps and journals that claim to be the perfect place for you to put your to do list. They sell themselves as being the perfect size, having the perfect paper, or being integrated with every other tool under the sun. What really matters is whether they’re something you’ll actually use. I’ve tried digital tools but they don’t really work for me, because I like a meditative moment with my list and to have it out on my desk while I work. But I have colleagues who have personalised online checklists they love. So look for what works for you, maybes try a few things out. Just don’t over complicate it or choose something so nice you can’t get it messy if you need to.

 

  1. Keep your list short

Any daily to do list should be around 7-10 items, if not fewer. The longer you make your list, the less likely you are to finish it and the more likely you are to feel downtrodden by how much you have to do. Personally I keep a longer weekly list that holds long term tasks and a suite of things I want to get done in the week, to make sure I keep on track of everything, but I keep my daily list short and sweet.

 

  1. Pick your priorities carefully

I like to highlight 3 things I have to get done in the day. I can only have 3. This keeps me focused and really forces me to be reasonable about what I can achieve. These 3 things can be big or small, but they’re the 3 that always get done. If you focus your day around those tasks, then everything else on your list becomes an added bonus.

 

  1. Break down your tasks

Big vague things like create newsletter can be hard to pin down and actually get done. Instead break down tasks into manageable chunks – I suggest nothing you can’t achieve in 45 minutes. So in the newsletter example it might be: write opening think piece, select and summarise articles, create illustrated header. When something is bite size it’s not too scary to take on (no more procrastinating a thing because it’s unachieveable) and it’s easy to know when you’re done.

 

  1. Track what you’ve achieved

The reason I come back time and again to my written to do list is the simple satisfaction of ticking something off my list. Tangible progress is what keeps you going with a to do list, and if you’ve followed step 1 – 4 you’ll be making progress through that list every day. It’s addictive, in a self-gamification way.

And that’s it. Like I said it’s not rocket science, but it’s something that it’s good to come back to when you’re feeling overwhelmed or like you’re holding yourself back. Good luck listing!

/

I wrote in my newsletter a little while ago a mini thought piece on how we’re led to believe that to be professional is to be devoid of emotion, to be completely rational and how we’re shown offices are places not capable of containing any strong sensation, and definitely not tears. It was a few rough thoughts jotted down late on a Friday night, but it received such a strong reaction that I felt it was worth expanding upon, and shoring up with research, in a piece here.

Increasingly we’re being told that we need to find careers that fulfil our passions. Work is no longer just supposed to just be about providing the means to have a roof over your head and food on your plate. More specifically, we’re meant to find jobs that suit our specific preferences so well that can’t help but to make us happy, and there are endless guides to get us there.

That branding of the ideal job being one that makes us “happy” is the start of the limiting of emotions in the workplace. We need to be positive about our work, otherwise, foolishly and by our own volition, we’ve chosen a career that doesn’t suit us.

But even if we’ve found that one magical career that will bring us joy 40+ hours a week, often the vetting systems in place actively seek out those who can replace emotion with ‘logic’.

This vetting system is most easily seen in bids for the biggest jobs going, just think of every time the public was told a woman would be too emotional to be president or that a specific woman has modulated their emotions too hard and is thus too “cold” to wield power.

Elena Ferrante writes: “Even today, after a century of feminism, we can’t fully be ourselves”. She explains that not only is female power suffocated but also, for the sake of peace and quiet, “we suffocate ourselves.”

I don’t throw the term ‘toxic masculinity’ around willy nilly but this is it in action if I ever did see it. But displaying emotions at work isn’t just a women’s issue, although it is something more acutely and consciously felt by women. The idea that to be professional is to act in a masculine way and that to be masculine is to restrain one’s emotions is an issue for anyone who experiences a range emotions, which is pretty much all of us.

But we’ve gotten good at it, we’re good at balancing being just emotional enough to show we’re passionate about without being so passionate that it spills out of the prescribed shape of professional passion. In fact, many of us grew up training to do it curating our online selves to be palatable for likes, for financial gain, for potential employers to browse.

But I’m not sure this careful on stage management of our emotions in order to present as professional is good for anyone involved. As we’re asked to bring our whole selves to our jobs, to fail fast, to create personal brands outside of the office and be deeply invested in what we do inside of it, in a world where potential employers browse our social media as well as our CVs, where do we get to stop being on stage and be real? Even if that means being hurt or angry or frustrated?

I’m outwardly, usually, a very calm person but I feel, everything, very intensely. I’m learning to accept that this tendency to care isn’t a bad thing.

I care about what I do. I care about what I do during my day job. I care about what I make on an evening.

I care so much sometimes, heaven forbid, I show it.

In fact, I once even cried in the office because I cared so damn much, because what I was working on affected me. That was a personally terrifying moment, because I knew the invisible boundaries I was transgressing. While my, largely wonderful, colleagues didn’t let that specific moment phase them. I have also been asked to be cautious with the more emotional aspects of how my partner and I presented our research in the past and I’ve asked a number of times if I could “handle” my work after showing any moment of vulnerability.

A couple of months ago, after a lot of work in drafts and redrafts I lost a freelance job I was really excited about. It had felt like a perfect fit, a project I cared about in a style I loved, plus they reached out to me. But, in the end, they decided to go in a different direction. If I was being “a professional” about it all I would have just brushed it off. I would have cut my losses and been grateful for my cancellation fee. I would have rationalised their decision, leant from it, and put it into practice for the next job.

That’s not what I did because I was sad. It hurt. I was disappointed. I was frustrated.

That doesn’t make me any worse at what I do. Perhaps I shouldn’t have wallowed, but it’s part of life.

The idea that between the hours of 9 and 5 we shouldn’t feel, or show our feelings, is so bizarre. It’s genuinely mind boggling. We’re human all of the day not just when we’re at home.

But what does it mean to be emotional in a professional setting? While I without doubt stand alongside Jennifer Palmieri, the former head of communications for Hilary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, in the belief that “it’s our world and we should be able to cry in it if we want to”. I want professional, and political decisions, to be made with an empathetic consideration of the facts at play. But how do we strike that new balance and importantly how do we open up our workplaces to human decision making?

/

I’ve been in a little bit of a YouTube rut recently. So I thought I’d take a moment to step back and review who I’m following, who I’m loving, and pick up a few new favourites along the way. As my last two YouTube run downs seem to have proved popular, I thought I’d share my list with you guys as well. My editions from 2017 and 2018, still ring true and I’ve included a few of my forever faves below this year’s updates.

But if you’ve exhausted those lists are are looking for some more, or you’re just in the mood for a bit of a YouTube viewing party here are some of the creative video makers I’m really enjoying at the minute.

Frannerd

I’m going to be honest, I included Fran in my very first YouTubers list in 2017. But I’ve recently fallen back in love with her videos and watching her move to New York. Fran is brilliant at documenting her creative processes and showing how she tries out new things. Seeing someone as skilled and talented as Fran get her head around a new medium is so inspiring, you have to keep learning no matter how good you are.

Hollie Arnett

Okay, so Hollie was in my original list as well but she is one of my favourite internet people. She’s smart and talented, but she’s also endlessly giving with her knowledge (seriously check out her blog!). Her vlogs are a wonderfully warm and friendly look into her day to day, and often include so real lettering inspiration.

Holly Exley

I love how honest Holly is about all of the elements of being a full time illustrator in her vlogs. She’s not afraid to have the big discussions about money or spec work and competitions. Her speed painting videos are so calming. Plus her work is almost as wonderful as her pups are cute.

Minnie Small

Minnie’s videos are so wide ranging it’s hard to sum up her channel in a few lines here. In her own words she’s an artist who’s “here to work on turning our lives into whatever we want them to be, surrounding ourselves with beautiful things and seeking out inspiration in life’s experiences every step of the way”. She covers every corner of being a full time maker from the tools she uses, to testing out new styles, to how she shapes her space. She’s open, honest and reminds me to keep pushing myself. Plus, there’s something I love about having another London based maker in my feed regularly.

Bon Apetit

I know that I’m largely focusing on visual makers, but I think it’s so important to learn from people outside of your field and to try to be creative in new mediums. One of my favourite, non-illustration, sandboxes is cooking. Bon Apetit is has definitely fed that passion. Whether that’s Brad fermenting something and teaching me to play and have patience or Claire making a gourmet version of something that seems completely fixed to remind me of humble origins and what we can learn from imitation, Bon Apetit is so much more than a cooking channel to me.

Leigh Ellexson

Leigh Ellexson is another great master of the studio vlog. I adore how she edits her videos but more importantly I watch her videos and just want to be her friend. Her paintings are full of joy and colour (something I’m always inspired by), check out her acrylic bunnies painting video to see what I’m talking about.

Uinverso

If you just want to watch beautiful things being made, I can’t recommend Uinverso’s channel highly enough. I’ve followed them on instagram for a while but only recently found their videos. They don’t have a lot of content up at the minute but everything that is there is on that wonderful almost magical tipping point.

 

Favourites you should check out from the past lists too!

FURRY LITTLE PEACH

I mentioned Sha’an in my last list, but I had to mention her again because she’s posting regularly again and she’s my absolute favourite. Her studio vlogs are wonderfully put together and really give you a little insight into her world. She seems like the absolute loveliest person, and watching her work and create such amazing work has really inspired me to hone what I do. Also, if you didn’t know her watercolours are stunning!

MARIE JACQUEMIN

In my last list I shared my love for New Age Creators, and if you haven’t checked them out already please please do. Marie is part of that team, and that’s where I first saw her. Now I’m a big fan. I love her blog, as I mentioned in my rundown of creative blogs, and her solo channel is pretty dang great. She’s documenting her time freelancing as well as her travels, and lots of beautifully shot insights into her life. Her recent (well when I’m writing this recent) postcard from France video was absolutely stunning and definitely worth a watch!

JORDAN CLARK

Jordan is a new addition to my subscriptions list. Her videos are arts and creativity based mainly. All of her videos are just so calming, I think it’s a mixture of her voice and the editing style but they always put me in such a chilled out mood. So if you’re on the hunt for a new evening time favourite look no further.

LUCY MOON

I can get a bit frustrated by vlogs that all look the same, but Lucy’s 168 hours is a wonderfully refreshing (and beautifully put together) antidote to that. Her videos are creative and just so honest. I love her style and her love of tea is something I can definitely get on board with. I’m personally really looking forward to seeing her Sunday Social series grow.

WHAT OLIVIA DID

In my last list, I included lifestyle and fashion favourites on the list, and I’m doing the same again here, because I love What Olivia Did. I took me a good while of reading Liv’s blog to realise she had a YouTube channel and I’m so glad that I did. If you like her blog you’ll love her videos, they’re created with the same aesthetic and even more personality. Liv is in my list of dream lady friends. Her videos are mainly style based, but she does some great travel and lifestyle bits too. I love that she’s started talking about ethical fashion now as well. Her “Inside the wardrobe of” series is so good that whenever she releases one I save it for Sunday breakfast, my prime YouTube spot.

NATASHA NUTTALL

Natasha was the first design youtuber I watch and subscribed to, and her videos kind of led to a whole day of design-tube binge watching. Her videos cover every and anything design-y and they’re awesome. I’ve particularly loved all of her London recommendations and vlogs, as someone who lives in the big smoke. Her unboxings and reviews are ace as well, as, in fact, is all of the rest of her content. If you like this list, Natasha has two really great lists of creative youtubers on her blog, which really helped get me into the creative side of youtube.

ROBIN CLONTS

Robin’s paintings are absolutely stunning, but that’s not why I love her channel. I love her channel because she’s hilarious. She makes pure comedy gold out of the things every artist has thought, or felt, or done, or had said to them.

WILL PATERSON

Logo designer Will Paterson, is one of the most popular design-tubers with good reason. He mainly focuses on logo design, brand identity and Adobe Illustrator. Will’s laid back style make his videos so easy to watch, which means you find you’re learning things without even realising.

CHARLI MARIE

Charli is a freelance designer based in the UK and all round super cool lady. Her videos are about everything from branding, to designing t-shirts and apparel to working with clients. Her enthusiasm about what she does really shines through her videos and always inspires me to get going.

THE SAD GHOST CLUB

I love the Sad Ghost Club wherever they are. If you don’t know them already, The Sad Ghost Club is a club for anyone who’s ever felt sad or lost, which is kind of everyone at some point. Their youtube channel is still quite new, but their sketchbook club is so lovely.

HOUSE THAT LARS BUILT

As well as being one of my favourite blogs to read, The House that Lars Built (AKA Brittany Watson Jepsen) also makes some of my absolute favourite videos on youtube. They are beautifully shot and produced craft videos. I feel like calling them craft videos underplays it, perhaps aspirational DIY or mind blowing make and do projects might be better, either way everything Brittany makes is stunning and makes me want to be better.

ARIEL BISSETT

As I mentioned in my first Book Club post, Ariel Bissett has really helped reignite my passion for reading because she always just seems so damn excited to have a book in her hand.