Truth is timeless

Marcus Aurelius (born 121 AD):

"It is enough that we are comfortable in our own skin; that we lay our head on the pillow each night regretting nothing of our own making, that we feel as if we have somehow done some little thing to help this world be a bit kinder, to know we withheld our judgement and saw the better part of the situation, to have circulated our prosperity with gratitude. 

"To be able to let go of each day as if we had lived up to our highest potential is a rare thing indeed but not a bad aspiration. Living up to our true potential has nothing to do with worldly achievement. It is not about being famous for our work or becoming a billionaire entrepreneur. Our potential is an unlimited ability to love unconditionally, to see with compassion, to initiate joy, to express kindness, to count on our own creativity, to encourage optimism, to celebrate the temporary, to cultivate inner peace, to prosper benignly.

"If we lived up to even a fraction of our potential we would automatically contribute to the betterment of our shared human experience. It has always been that those who make a great impression on the rest of us are those who are about the business of being themselves. They do not need victims to help to feel worthy. They do not need validation for their generosity. They do not expect applause nor do they seek it. They are not out to get anything, they are invested in the fun of being alive."

You Are Beautiful

 I was walking down the street one day, when suddenly three words popped out of a grey wall.

You

Are

Beautiful

"Wow,"  I thought.  "How nice!  And so sweet that someone wrote it."


What I didn't know is that "You Are Beautiful" is a worldwide Street Art movement.  It aims to make the world a better place by catching people in the midst of daily life and creating moments of positive self realisation.  Advertising constantly tells us that we're not good enough; this project tells us that we are. 

 A You Are Beautiful website actively encourages people to spread this simple, powerful statement.  It provides downloadable templates (in a variety of languages), and if you want, they'll send you free stickers.

It began in Chicago in early 2003, and since then, the stickers have spread to every continent in the world (including Antarctica).

Adelaide, Australia

Aruba, Central America

Alabama, U.S.A

Prague, Czech Rep.

Rome, Italy

Cape Town, South Africa

Berlin, Germany

Cairo, Egypt

Beijing, China

Dublin, Ireland

Ironically, if you type "You Are Beautiful" into Google, the first site that comes up is.... a plastic surgery company.  Not to be mistaken folks!

Life Without Limbs

I have times when everything seems like an uphill battle, and giving up on my dreams seems like the easiest option.  I think most of us have these.

That's why I think it's so important that people like Nick Vujicic are out there.  This is a man who was born without arms or legs, who wanted to commit suicide at the age of eight, who attempted it at the age of ten, but who's gone on to live an inspired life.  He has a degree, he plays sport, he's loved and lost.  He's now travels all over the world, giving talks about how anyone can take control of their lives.

I think it's his ability to laugh at his own disability is the reason he speaks to me.  I don't feel like he's trying to guilt me into feeling grateful for what I have.  He just shows me that it's never too late to achieve our full potential, or find meaning in life.

See for yourself.

Random Studios: Possibly the coolest web design ever.

After mistyping a web address, imagine my surprise when I ended up on possibly the coolest landing page I have ever seen. (isn't the animation on the umbrella just beautiful?)

After a little bit of navigation, I proceeded to be blown away by the company's previous projects: web design with an interactivity that crosses into video-game territory.

Check out:

This interactive music video for Placebo's "The Never Ending Why"
This interactive online Exhibition at Tate Modern

I discovered that RANDOM STUDIO (based in Amsterdam) create interactive productions - both online and offline.  So not only do they do cool websites, they also build interactive installations like this one for Diesel. (Okay, it's advertising, but a person's gotta eat!)  Daan at Random Studio said "I'm inspired by intelligent, subtle design and interaction. I do not like most advertising because it always tries to stuff messages down people's throat. I like sites and applications that surprise people and put a smile on their face. Give and immerse - don't force anything on people."

So is this where web design is going?

The first decade in the 2000's was a time when people in creative spheres felt they had to be jack-of-all-trades.  Many people created websites for themselves.  Daan believes that now web design "will get better and more specialized. The overall quality is already improving."  With a greater emphasis on interactive video and applications, "The web will not only be a website but a tool that will be incorporated into daily life, all over the house. Designers need to think about different ways of interacting."

Thanks Daan for answering my questions.  Looking forward to seeing more of your work!

http://www.random.nu/

Cover Junkie

For anyone who loves magazines more for their beautiful design than their content!

Cover Junkie

The Little Prince

My God Daughter's christening is tomorrow, and my mother instructed me to buy her something that "she will have forever".  Well, whatever I got for my Christening (a silver spoon?  a rattle?) is long gone.  So what kind of gift will you really have forever?  Answer:  A book.

This led me to a book shop where I bought a hard-backed copy of "The Little Prince", and promptly started spazzing-out with the shop assistant about what an incredibly, amazing work of literature it is.

I like it just a little bit!

It's ostensibly a children's book, and for a child it's a great read.  But when I picked it up again as a teenager, I realised what a rare gem it is.


It tells the story of a man who, stranded in the desert, meets a strange little boy.  This little Prince has left his home planet to explore the universe.  Through his adventures, and his innocence, the book makes touching observations about life and human nature.

For me, the most potent moments in the book are the relationship he develops with the little fox that begs to be tamed ("You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed"), and his departure from the planet, which leaves the narrator and reader in a state of ambiguity about life and the after-life.

Originally written in French by the writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery (who did many of the illustrations), it's less than 100 pages long, and it's just beautiful.  Read it here. 


A graphic novel has just been brought out.  For me it's sacrilegious, but out of interest... 


And if you're lazy, you can always watch the cartoon ;)

Alex Box

"Fashion statement" is one of those phrases used so often that it's meaning is forgotten.  "Statement" indicates there is something to say.

Branded as a pretentious and vaccuous industry, many fashion statements do seem to be purely aesthetic. But sometimes, there is a sense that it's saying something.  That's what I thought when I first came across the work of makeup artist Alex Box.

According to her blurb: "Alex Box gives full access to images which radically unsettle and deconstruct conventional images of beauty in fashion."  My background is film, not fashion, yet from my lay man perspective, I do feel the thick layering of the makeup hints at the exploitative aspect of the fashion industry.

Irrespectively, the result is beautiful.  When Box paints, the face becomes a canvas, the image is a work of art.  Originally an installation artist, she's brought the three dimensional quality of video to these paintings on the face.

One year ago today, the first exhibition of her work (captured by the infamous fashion photographer Rankin, and later published as a book of photography), was launched.  I thought this would be an apt day to share it with you.  Enjoy!

Box even has a place of pride on my bedroom wall :)


 

Creativity and the Education system

I think this amazing, impassioned TED talk will resonate deeply with anyone who feels the education system passed them by.

Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we're being educated. He makes the point that there are multiple types of intelligence, but that only a few of these are nurtured by the school system. Standard education is based on outdated knowledge, and Robinson champions a radical rethink of our schooling systems, so that each individual's potential can be realised.





(If you haven't yet heard of TED - here's the blurb: "The annual TED conferences, in Long Beach/Palm Springs and Oxford, bring together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).")

Life is a tightrope

The Flying Wallendas are a world-famous tight rope walking family. One of their unique features is that they train and perform without the use of a safety net.

When asked about their success, the mother responded that because they don't use a safety net, every step is life or death. This is the greatest motivation one can have to do their best.

Perhaps in life, when things are too easy, we don't strive for our full potential. Instead of being limited by fears of failure, maybe we could be motivated by the desire to live.



Thanks to my good friend Elizabeth Gaffney for sharing this story with me. Check out her London shopping site here: http://www.shophoppingmap.com/

More on the theme of "Dreams-and-following-them"

I thought I'd share the story of Steven Spielberg's rise to success. I'm not the man's number one fan or anything, but I love this story because it illustrates the power of the individual to create opportunities. As they say: "A real man makes his own luck". Props to Spielberg for having the courage and imagination to do it.

Steven dreamed of being a movie director from childhood. He began amateur films with a primitive camera when he was still a child and the dream never subsided.



How Spielberg broke into Universal Studios is a legend in the movie industry. He took the Universal Studios Tour, an attraction that enables visitors to get an inside look at the movie business. Visitors ride around the studio lots on a tram. Steven sneaked off the tram and hid between two sound stages until the tour ended. When he left at the end of the day, he made a point of saying a few words to the gate guard.

Day after day, he went back to the studio for three months. He walked past the guard, waved at him, and he waved back. He always wore a suit and carried a briefcase, letting the guard assume he was one of the students with a summer job in the studio. He made a point of speaking to and befriending directors, writers and editors. He even found a vacant office, took it over and listed his name in the building directory.

He made it his business to get to know Sid Sheinberg, then head of production for the studio’s television arm. He showed him his college film project, which so impressed Sheinberg that he put the young man under contract with the studio.

His first full-length film, The Sugarland Express, received critical acclaim and won a best screenplay award at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival. Unfortunately, it did not do very well at the box office.

His big break came a year later when he discovered the book Jaws. The studio had already decided to produce Jaws and had chosen a well-known director to film it.

Spielberg desperately wanted to make this movie. Despite the financial failure of The Sugarland Express, his self-confidence had not diminished and he persuaded the producers to dismiss the chosen director and give it to him.

It was not an easy assignment. From the beginning trouble beset the production. It ran into technical and budget problems. However, when Jaws was released in June 1975, it enjoyed twofold success: it broke box office records, and the critics loved it. Within a month of its release, the film had taken in 60 million dollars at the box office, an unheard-of amount at the time.

Over the next few years, Spielberg directed several movies, including the popular Indiana Jones series. He later directed Jurassic Park , which would also become – at its time – the most successful movie in history, the third Spielberg film to break the record. It also brought in over one billion dollars in gross receipts, toys and other merchandise.

Spielberg continues to pursue his dreams. When he and two other Hollywood moguls created their own production company, they called it ‘Dreamworks’.

(taken from "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill which, incidentally I'd really recommend reading if you have a burning desire to be successful in whatever field you're in.)

Follow your dreams

I remember my school journals from when I was a teenager. Between the pages reserved for 40 weeks of homework there were little snippets of wisdom. Every week was framed by a quote from someone like Goethe or Ralph Waldo Emerson, and at intervals a couple of pages were devoted to inspiring poems.

I still remember one of these poems:

"Follow your dreams wherever they lead,
don`t be distracted by less worthy needs...
Shelter them, nourish them, help them grow,
Let your heart hold them down deep where dreams go."

The irony of printing a poem like that in a school journal didn't register that with me as a teenager. Back then I didn't see the education system the way I see it now: a funnel that promotes one dream, and one mode of success.

When we were younger we all had dreams and visions of where our lives would go. We indulged in them, we fantasised, but we were not encouraged to take them seriously. (In fact, I distinctly remember scribbling out the word "dream" in a friend's journal, and replacing it with "dick". Evidently I haven't matured much since then, cos' that still makes me laugh ;) )

We grow older quickly. We become adults with paths and responsibilities, but our unfulfilled dreams don't die. We feel them at the back of our minds, nagging us. We plough ahead and don't entertain these ideas of what our lives might have been. But every now and again, in moments of stillness, they surface, and drive us mad.

I am so honoured to say that, difficult as it is, I'm following my passion. But sometimes I wonder how it happened. I wasn't an "artist" growing up, so it never even occurred to me that I might be creative (even though I wrote poems, stories, songs, played instruments and sang). No one in my family is in a creative field, and I wasn't encouraged to pursue one. I always knew I wanted to create stories that touched people, but what gave me the impetus to pursue this shadowy path?

I think it's because I never stopped dreaming.


"Follow your dreams pursue them with haste;
Life is too precious too fleeting to waste...
Be faithful, be loyal, then all your life through,
the dreams that you follow will keep coming true..."
~ Larry S. Chengges


Do it.

Wise words from the founder of Apple

I first read Steve Jobs' words of wisdom five years ago, and they had a significant impact on me. I hope you find them as inspiring as I do.

Click here to watch:
The man behind the apple.