Everyone has a side passion project, or at least aspires to have one. Some people spend their evenings and weekends working on projects that test their creativity, learn new skills and experiment with their comfort levels.
Side projects are not usually money-making businesses, but they can turn into one if you really put the time and work into it. That is how Global Wire Associates started 10 years ago, when it was just me blogging about communications and human rights. I would have never thought that a blog would be a jumping off point for a new career as an entrepreneur. In today’s changing economy, more people want (and need) their passion projects to turn into a paying job.
But most people don’t do passion projects for income. I think it is a great idea that for everyone to have a side project because it helps to reveal your deeper desires and lets you focus on what is important to you. Whether you had a bad day at your job, got into an argument with your significant other or just tired of all the crappy news about mass shootings, police brutality, ISIS and other awful things happening in the world, having a side project can be an outlet for relieving stress.
Most importantly, life is too precious and short to not to find time to do something you really love. One day you will be older and regretting not doing something.
What is my passion project? Well, actually, I have two projects. I like collecting vintage posters, postcards and book covers and trying to recreate them in Photoshop or Illustrator, or creating a website complimentary to the art. Sometimes I sell the posters and book covers for some good money! It is work-related, but it is a great way to learn visual communication history, find inspiration and improve my designing skills. I have also been working on a documentary for a while that I hope to finish one day…
So go out there and write that novel, knit that sweater, paint that portrait or start blog ging. Summer is a great time to start doing something.
Stop with the excuses and indulge in your passion (project).
Believe it or not, I actually do take a break once in a while from all the business and journalism projects I am working on at any given time. While it is very rare that I go on a actual vacation where I don’t think about business, I try to use the many business trips I do go on to do a mini vacation.
A couple of weeks ago I was in New York City to meet with some clients and to finalize the plans for GWA’s 10th anniversary party with my event planner. I did schedule in some time to do some fun stuff by visiting three museums. I highly recommend visiting the following exhibits if you happen to be in the Big Apple this summer!
If you are a graphic designer, branding specialist or just a design history buff, you will appreciate this exhibit about the grand master of American design himself Paul Rand. There are over 100 posters, advertisements, book covers, logos and corporate brand collateral that show the diversity of Rand’s career. He is best known for creating the logos for IBM, UPS and ABC-TV.
You know you are getting old when you start to see people you grew up listening to exhibited in museums! I felt like I was stepping back into my teen years when I saw the exhibit of the dozens of photographs of memorable rappers from “back in the day” like MC Lyte, Run DMC, EPMD, Big Daddy Kane, A Tribe Called Quest, Salt N Pepa and Queen Latifah. It was also pretty cool to see old copies of Word Up! magazine and pictures of some of the early movers and shakers in break-dancing and graffiti writing. This is a must-see exhibit for people who appreciate what real hip-hop used to sound like.
So as a web designer, I get inspiration from seeing the work of other designers. This exhibit shows how posters can be powerful forms of visual communication. If you love vintage posters, this exhibit is worth checking out.
Adjaye is the architect behind the upcoming National Museum of African-American History in Washington DC. He put together this exhibit displaying textiles from West and Central Africa, including some beautiful Asante Kente textile and Malian mud cloth.
The “Pen”
While the museum is housed in the former home of Andrew Carnegie, which was built in 1903, the whole space is very tech-savvy and design forward. Once you pay your admission fee, you are giving this pen that works like a digitized USB drive and a specialized URL on a piece of paper. All the items in all the exhibits have small, black plus signs next to them. If you like an exhibit item, you can press your pen on the plus sign and the information about that item is saved. All the items you saved on the pen are saved on a webpage that can be accessed using that specialized URL for you to view later. The webpage gives more in-depth information about the items you selected. You can also use the Pen to draw your own designs on computer-aided design tables that also get saved on that webpage. It’s a great to remember all the cool stuff you saw and did at the Museum.
I got to play furniture designer and created the following table, hanging lamp and vase using the CAD and the Pen.
Most artists, writers, designers and other creative people keep a notebook to jot down items of interest and inspiration. This is what Jean-Michel Basquiat did. The Museum recently acquired newly discovered notebooks with sketches and writings that show the early process of many of Basquiat’s works of art. The notebooks give a nuance perspective on his thinking, ranging from politics, racism, class warfare, history and everyday life in general.
Zanele Muholi is a famed photographer and activist who specializes in capturing images of black lesbian and transgender life in her home country of South Africa. The exhibit showcases 80 of her photographs, commentary on homophobia and a short film of a lesbian wedding in a township. While South Africa was the first country in the world to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation in 1996, it is still one of the most dangerous places for LGBT folks, where homophobic violence is commonplace. As the United States moves forward on marriage equality, this exhibit will quickly remind you that there is still work to be done in other parts of the world.
I thought this was the coolest exhibit at the museum. Sneakers have contributed greatly to our social and cultural history. There are over 100 pairs of sneakers to mull over, including Air Jordans, and the Adidas X autographed by Run DMC. Again, I’m feeling the aging process!
This is video of Adidas designer Rick Owens famed Vicious runway show celebrating sneaker culture, which was shown at the exhibit:
Now that Boston’s bid for the 2024 Olympics is over, can we now get back to the business of fixing the city’s infrastructure?
The dear departed Mayor Menino once said “the car is no longer king in Boston.” I am a strong advocate for car-free urban areas not only for health and environmental reasons; but also because it just makes better urban planning sense. Unlike Washington DC and New York City, Boston was not a planned city. This is why most of the city streets, especially in the downtown area, are so awkwardly designed for modern transportation.
This is also why I suggested a few weeks ago that cars should be banned in all of downtown, including the financial district and parts of Back Bay, with the exception for buses and delivery trucks. The narrow roads and the erratic driving is a terrible combination for traffic accidents. I can’t tell you how many times I almost got ran over by a car that came out of nowhere and didn’t care to yield to pedestrians or cyclists.
Cars may be going by the wayside in the near future. Statistically, millennials don’t want to own or drive cars. Yes, these youngsters want to live in urban areas where there is more diversity and use their money instead on purchasing the latest “iThing.”
In my neighborhood there is a new apartment complex going up. Many of the long-term, older residents are concerned that no one will want to rent in this building because the facility doesn’t have its own parking lot and there is limited street parking. The building developers argue that the complex is designed specifically for young professionals (millennials), who they anticipate will mostly use public transit or cycling to get around. There are other such developments going up around the city as well.
If this is the future of urban housing, than I think the city needs to seriously consider putting more thought into a more comprehensive, car-free strategy for its urban policy. I’m not a trained urban planner, but being a lifelong Boston resident who has never owned a car gives me some perspective on this issue. I have been lucky to travel to many American and Europeans cities where they are proactively curbing car use. They all use really interesting, innovative techniques that Boston should emulate:
Car Bans: I notice in Madrid that cars are permanently banned in central, mostly congested areas. The city just extended this banned into residential areas. People who live in those neighborhoods can still drive their cars, but non-residents driving into those neighborhoods are fined. If there can’t be a permanent ban, why not just a temporary ban on weekends and holidays?
Incentives: Give people discounts or vouchers for using public transit or bikes. Personally, I would like a discount on my monthly MBTA pass for being a frequent user. (But knowing how the T operates, I don’t see this happening anytime soon, unfortunately…)
More Bike Sharing: The Hubway bikes seem to be mostly stationed in central, more touristy parts of the city. It would be great to have more bike sharing stations spread out in residential areas, especially in transit-starved Mattapan, Roxbury and parts of Dorchester.
More Bike Lanes: It would be nice to have more bike lanes, or in Copenhagen’s case, more bike “superhighways” dedicated to both commuter and recreational cyclists alike. I went riding on the Minuteman Bikeway recently and thought to myself why doesn’t Boston have more bike paths like this one.
More Pedestrian Zones: More green spaces, upgraded parks and wider sidewalks would be nice. As a runner, I would like to see more jogging paths and other recreational spaces that are designed to be easier on the knees when the foot strikes the ground, such as asphalt pathways.
Extend Subway Lines and Service: This might be a good time for the city to think about extending rapid transit into areas that really need it, like along bus routes 28 and 32. And, no, not another Silver Line; a real subway line is needed. I don’t know how this can be done, but more efficient public transit is needed in those areas. Also, if residents become more reliant on public transit, the MBTA should consider starting 24-hour service. (I know it’s a stretch, but we can all dream sometimes!)
This week Global Wire Books released its latest e-book in the Short Guide series. In the year since I launched our web shop Global Wire Design, we learned a lot about our customers who are mainly small business owners and their needs. After a while we noticed they were asking the same questions. So earlier this year we decided to create a Short Guide that answers the most common questions and issues small business owners should be aware of when considering a website design.
Short Guide to Business Websites is a quick, informative checklist for small business owners looking to create a new website or redesign their current one. Over 50 percent of all businesses don’t have a website. Many of them cite the high cost to create one and not having the time to maintain one as obstacles. Many businesses that do have websites have a hard time figuring out how customers can have the best user experience.
This Short Guide provides a concise list of tips and issues business owners need to consider before embarking on a website design, whether the website is built in-house or a professional web designer is hired.
The tips from this Short Guide come from best practices and case studies developed by Global Wire Design.
Short Guide to Business Websites Price: US$13.99 Buy it here!
Everyone has a side passion project, or at least aspires to have one. Some people spend their evenings and weekends working on projects that test their creativity, learn new skills and experiment with their comfort levels.
