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We’re at the close of yet another month. We’re moving into September, which means we’re moving into my favourite time of the year: back to school season. Yes, I am a massive nerd. But there’s always been something so exciting about the start of a new school year, that has stuck with me years after leaving. Just bring me a new pencil case and a planner and I’m yours.

But before we get there, here are some of the links I’ve been loving throughout the month of August.

stop watch illustration

SHORT READS, IF YOU’VE ONLY GOT A FEW MINUTES:

Mentors: Ruth Beatty

As a part of The North Face’s #SheMovesMountains campaign, senior designer Ruth Beatty offers some mentorship. She dives deep into gender, creativity, empathy, and fear. Rather than a weakness, Beatty says, “Vulnerability is exciting”. It’s the perfect Sunday viewing if you’re in need of a gentle pep talk.

 

‘Color Problems’: Rediscovering a Forgotten Female Pioneer of Color Theory

You know I’m all about showcasing the women who have shaped design as we know it so when I came across this piece on Medium I knew I had to share it with you all. A publisher and a record label have teamed up to reissue a visionary work by 20th-century artist and scholar Emily Noyes Vanderpoel.

 

Reebok debuts a shape-shifting, NASA-inspired sports bra

A Reebok designer has taken inspiration from NASA because when it comes to material design go cosmic or go home, and created a new fabric that stiffens when you’re moving and relaxes when you’re still. No more feeling suffocated by your bra.

 

6 Rules of Great Storytelling (As Told by Pixar)

Pixar is arguably one of the greatest storytellers of our generation. So Brian Peters has broken down the 6 reasons they’re so damn good at it and turned them into guides you can use to be damn good too.

Dentures illustration

LONG READS, IF YOU WANT SOMETHING TO GET YOUR TEETH STUCK INTO:

‘My brain feels like it’s been punched’: the intolerable rise of perfectionism

We often talk about perfectionism like an inconvenient asset, but the pursuit of perfection, taken to extremes, can lead to OCD and depression – and the number of students reporting the problem has jumped by 33% since 1989. This Guardian article considers the dark side of perfectionism.

 

Luck Is a Long String of YES’s

Jocelyn K Glei explains how luck and hard work are not mutually exclusive. In fact, the success of almost any endeavour depends on both, which is what happened in her case. Or, as that old Seneca quote goes: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

 

Embracing Britishness: musings on biscuit lettering culture

Elena Veguillas muses on how she started to embrace “Britishness” via the medium of our nation’s obsession with biscuits. As Elena is a typographer, her learning to love biscuits, of course, had to include a fascinating exploration of the lettering used to adorn our “small baked unleavened cake[s]”.

 

Illuminated Manuscripts Brought Medieval Art out of the Dark Ages

Artsy’s Jonathan McAloon discusses the thinking behind one of my favourite historical art sources, the illuminations in Medieval manuscripts – seriously check out how they drew cats.

 

The British Heat Wave and Aerial Archeology

As you may have heard, it’s been hot this summer in the UK. “The freak conditions have made this summer one of the best in living memory for what archaeologists call “parch marks”—ghostly, pale outlines of vanished castles, settlements, and burial sites that materialize on the land when it dries out and grass and crops die off.” So get prepared to learn about the ghostly outlines of “Iron Age farms in South Wales, a Roman road passing near Basingstoke, burial mounds in Ireland, and the outline of Second World War bomb shelters on the lawns of Cambridge” I promise they’re seriously cool.

 

How to Crit

Art and design tutor Mitch Goldstein has set up How to Crit after a tweet thread about how to give and receive criticism in the arts took off. “Rather than letting this information get lost in the ephemera of social media, [he] created this site to act as a resource for art and design students (and their teachers).” It’s honestly such a useful, and thorough, resource for anyone, even if you’re not in the arts because we all give/receive feedback at some point.

WHO TO FOLLOW, IF YOU WANT TO SPRUCE UP YOUR INSTAGRAM FEED:

@sonnyrossillustration

This month, I came home to an exciting package full of swag from Sonny Ross which I’d picked up in his studio clear out. We’re talking postcards, prints, zines, originals, and all of it was magical. I love how whimsical his work can be. I’m also really into the super tactile textures he uses.

 

@haleytippmann

In a rare and wonderful moment this week Instagram explore actually recommended some an artist I now love. Haley Tippmann’s characters are just wonderful. She plays with perspective and proportions in a way that accentuates personality and movement but doesn’t ever feel out of place. Plus she toes that line between sketchy and well put together so so so well. Can you tell I’m a new fan?

 

@_marianeves_

In these days of dark politics and almost biblical wildfires, I feel like we all need something a little light-hearted to keep our spirits up and that’s exactly what Maria Neves children’s book like illustration offer. They’re fun and lovely and filled with animal goodness.

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Wit and Delight recently did a piece interviewing some inspirational creative ladies about their workspaces, and what those workspaces say about them. I really enjoyed getting a sneak peek into their worlds, so I thought I’d do my own. 

I’m very lucky to have a semi-separate office space in my room. I did a full illustrated room tour last year if you’re more interested in that. Having that extra bit of space in London is a real luxury, and definitely helps me stay focused.

The majority of my “office” space is taken up by a desk which used to be a garden table. It’s more than big enough for me to fit everything I need on there, and then some, which means I’m in a constant internal battle not to let it become cluttered. All I really need is my laptop, iPad, journal and a few pens and pencils. But it also has my art books stacked in the corner, an extra notepad or two, and normally some kind of snack. Above my desk, there’s an assortment of postcards from travels and art galleries, including a few my mother felt were marginally disturbing when she came to visit. That includes a few pull outs from Printed Pages magazine and a new addition from Sonny Ross.

Aside from my desk, I’ve got a chair which was thrifted similarly to the garden desk, so it doesn’t really offer any support but it’s what I’ve got. Eventually one day I’d like to set up my desk in a much more ergonomic way, but until I have a proper space of my own my lower lumbar is going to continue to suffer. Something I’m sure I’ll pay for later in life. I try to make up for it with the occasional cushion though. I also have a little plant called Hector who I’ve managed to keep alive for almost a full year now – a personal record! On the opposite wall, I have a giant wall calendar from Kikki K, which covers the whole year, and my Kanban board. How I use my Kanban has changed slightly, but it’s still the tool I come back to when I have a lot of plates to juggle.

My office also has to function as a bit of a storage space playing host to my bike, clothes dryer and vacuum cleaner. There’s a full corner dedicated to cards and supplies for my store, which really should be sponsored by Muji storage boxes.

What does my workspace say about me?

While I’d love to be a minimalist and I fight off being a clutterer, I tend to live somewhere in between. My desk is tidy but I try to keep it close to my inspiration. But ultimately, I think my desk is that of a Hermit. It’s kept away from my own social space and is then a locked door away from anyone else 99% of the time. I’ve created a half wall with some shelves to truly make it feel like a safe nest where I can try out any and all ideas or just think in peace.

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“I love being by myself, love being outdoors, love taking a long walk with my dogs and looking at the trees, flowers, the sky.” – Audrey Hepburn

I’ve never felt like Audrey Hepburn, she’s the epitome of elegance and style, two words I wouldn’t be associated with in a million years. But when read the quote at the top of this post I thought I could have written it.

I’m an introvert, a homebody, a modern hermit if you will.

I grew up as an only child, with my canine brother only joining our family when I was twelve. So I’ve always been happy in my own company. I was a child you could leave alone for hours to amuse themselves, in the garden, in front of the TV, or with my craft supplies (as long as you were prepared for mess to ensue).

Despite having been a hermit in the making for as long as I’ve been in the making, I’ve only recently started to truly own my love of solitude.

I used to be envious of people who wanted to go out all of the time, who had adventures and came back with stories of friends made, drama witnessed, love lost and found. I felt like there was something wrong with me because I was comfortable in my own company and wanted time alone as much as I wanted those adventures.

And let me be clear I still love adventure. Leave me to walk in the woods, to explore a new city, to eat anything and everything under the sun. But I want to do it myself or with, or as, a sidekick.

The hermits of the medieval period isolated themselves completely in order to practice religious contemplation. They had feld the monasteries they felt had lost touch with their ideals and sought a higher form of devotion, living self-sufficiently and only in praise of God.

When I say I’m a hermit that’s not quite what I mean.

But I love the history of the term and I think the idea of taking a step back from a society that can feel “absorbed in the ever-increasing complexity of their own rituals” in order to contemplate is where I feel like I’m at.

I love having time alone to think, to be.

It’s how I recharge as an introvert. But more than that I think that learning to be by myself has become a key part of who I am. So I’m going to own it.

There’s more to discover about my own hermitage and I’m as excited to explore being alone as much as I am to go on any other adventure. I hope any other modern hermits out there are too.

The final thought I want to leave you with is the definition of The Hermit in my tarot deck by Caitlin Keegan: “Sacrifice without regret. Self-care”

Etch that on my urn.

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Last year, towards the start of this design stories series I delved back into the history of the white t-shirt. So, I thought it was high time that I turned to fashion for a design story again and investigated the white t-shirt’s perennial partner the blue jean.

Levi’s are the name that we most commonly associate with jeans. In fact, they’re almost synonymous at this stage. So, that’s where we’re going to be focusing our attention today.

A lot of people think that Levi (previously Loeb) Strauss invented denim, but that isn’t quite the case. Similar fabrics had been used by sailors across Europe, particularly in Portugal, since the 16th century. Denim was actually accidentally discovered in the 18th century in Nimes, France when people attempted to replicate a sturdy Italian fabric which was known as serge. The fabric created by the people of Nimes was made of a mix of cotton and wool. It was first known as “serge de Nimes” but as it became popular its name shortened to be “denim” as we know it now.

So if they didn’t develop denim, what did they do? Well, I’m glad you asked. The story begins, according to Time magazine’s wonderfully written piece in 1950 like so:

When 20-year-old Levi Strauss sailed from Manhattan round Cape Horn to San Francisco in 1850 to seek a fortune in the gold fields, he carried a roll of canvas in his baggage. He intended to sell it to a tentmaker to get enough cash for a grubstake. But when he got ashore, the complaint of a friendly miner gave him a better idea. “Pants don’t wear worth a hoot up in the diggins,” said the miner. “Can’t get a pair strong enough to last no time.”

At what was the height of the Gold Rush miners were wearing dungarees, which as our friendly miner tells us didn’t “wear a worth hoot up in the diggins”. In particular, their pockets ripped out and seams tended to pop open under the stress of being worn for vigorous physical activity. So when Levi Strauss, a well respected wholesale dry goods store owner, came across a customer named Jacob Davis who had a proposal for how they could make the strongest overalls in the land he was all ears.

Davis had been a tailor in Reno. While working he started “placing copper rivets at “points of strain,” including pocket corners and the seam below the button fly, thereby creating a garment that could withstand the work life of miners and other hard laborers of the time”. He knew he was onto a winning idea. But he didn’t have any money to file a patent or any resources to mass produce his reinforced overalls.

That’s where Levi Strauss came in, and the pair filed a patent on May 20, 1873. As soon as they had that patent, they started manufacturing their waist overalls (aka jeans). Made by seamstresses in their own homes at first their first jeans came in brown and blue, and “featured a single back pocket with the soon-to-be-famous arcuate design, a back cinch and, of course, rivets at points of strain on pockets and the crotch.”

As Davis had predicted their hard wearing waist overalls were an instant success.

By 1880 the pair had opened their own factory to produce their XX waist overalls. The XX in their name didn’t denote size but instead demarcated their extra-strong design, which was the precursor to the 501s we know and love now.

In 1886, the pair’s patent was nearing its end and Strauss knew there would be an influx of other jeans makers entering the market. So he decided they needed a way to mark out their product amongst a sea of competitors. That’s when the famous Levi’s patch was born. Strauss and Davis’s brand was all about strength so, Strauss had a patch emblazoned with two horses pulling at an unbreakable pair of jeans sewn onto each pair of jeans they made. The patch became so recognisable that they were known as The Two Horse Brand until 1928 when they officially became Levi’s.

As with the story of the white t-shirt the popularity of jeans owe a lot of their success to the rock n roll stars of the music industry of the 1950s and the ever charismatic figure of Marlon Brando. Once jeans moved from a workwear staple to a statement of youth and rebellion their fate completely changed. By the time that stonewashing technology revolutionised the manufacture of denim in the 1970s, jeans were a staple in almost every wardrobe.

Jeans have endured as an icon of design, even though their XX standard of strength has waned over the years the strength of their branding hasn’t. I, for one, do actually live in Levi’s.

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Okay, so we both know your laptop is filthy. There’s no shame in it, but we’ve got to be honest with ourselves at some point.

 

If you’re anything like me you spend almost all of your waking hours attached to a keyboard in some capacity, which at the very best means its covered in all of the grime and dust your hands have been shedding in age since you last cleaned it. At the worst, it means (as in my case) your laptop is also covered in crumbs because you haven’t learned to eat biscuits somewhere else and your screen is looking something like the most boring 5 year old’s finger painting ever.

 

But don’t fear, cleaning your laptop, as I found this weekend, is ridiculously easy. Plus it has the added benefit of potentially speeding up your machine’s performance or at least reducing the dying whirr it’s probably emitting.

 

These instructions are based around cleaning a mac, but they’re pretty similar for all laptops. If you’re unsure about anything, especially the inside cleaning, there is undoubtedly a YouTube tutorial out there made just for you and your tech baby.

So what do you need?

  • A tiny screwdriver (check the screws on the bottom of your laptop to work out which kind)
  • One of those pressurised canisters of air – you can get these anywhere, including poundland, or if you don’t want to venture outside Amazon has you covered
  • A couple of microfibre or lint free cloths – if you own any kind of glasses you already have one of these
  • Cotton buds (AKA Q-tips if you’re from across the pond
  • Water – it’s best if you can find the distilled kind but no worries if not
  • Isopropyl or rubbing alcohol – check the cleaning and medical aisles (this dries quickly and helps disinfect)

 

Get inside first

You want to start with the inside of your laptop first so you can get any dust and dirt out without tracking it back across anything else you’ve cleaned. This is the slightly trickier bit, so it also means everything afterwards feels easy.

  1. Before you do any cleaning you want to unplug and switch off your laptop. Yes, shut it down properly, don’t just close the lid. Give it a few minutes after you’ve shut down if you can, perhaps have a cup of tea.
  2. Flip your laptop over (gently) and unscrew the back. Make sure you keep the screws somewhere safe.
  3. Give it a spray out using the air canister. Pro tip follow the instructions on the can to the letter, short bursts at a fair distance are your best friend otherwise you’ll get can juice in your laptop.
  4. Make sure you pay special attention to the fan.
  5. Now you’ve tackled the guts, it’s time to move to the back piece of your laptop. Mix a 1:1 ratio of water to alcohol, and dampen your cloth. When I say damp, you want to ring out your cloth so it’s as dry as you can make it, this needs to be a drip free zone.  
  6. Then wipe down the back piece you unscrewed from the back of your laptop, making sure you don’t forget the vent section.
  7. Let it dry. Seriously. Just wait.
  8. Screw everything back together.

 

Polish up the outsides

With the inside of your laptop as fresh and clean as the day it was born on the factory line you want to move onto the bits you can see and get dirty with your grubby (hardworking) fingers everyday.

  1. Give the keyboard a spray over with the air canister. You still need to follow the instructions.
  2. Wipe down the keyboard and trackpad using your damp cloth.
  3. Wipe down the outsides of your laptop using your damp cloth – avoiding the screen.
  4. Last but not least take a dry cloth and clean your screen.
  5. Step back and admire your work and forget about cleaning your laptop for another year*.

 

*Not recommended but realistic