Doing some organizing today and unearthed these portfolio shots Julia Stotz took of my work a few weeks ago. This is the Purple Book, it’s a sketchbook I made in which I am only allowed to use the color purple. And hot pink.

Also, some Instagram outtakes from said shoot. You’ll get to see the rest of Julia’s magic photos soon, there are things planned! Dun, dun, dunnnnnnn. Cliffhanger! I have you teetering on the edge of your swivel chair (or yoga ball, if you’re into that) with suspense don’t I?
 

Okay, go go gadget blog post. Finally. Doing it. Noting the time, even: 1:41am. I’m not sure I’ve gone this long without posting before and it’s equally freeing and guiltifying. It’s been really tough to find reasons to post here, to be honest. And sometimes participating in the whole rest of the social media world totally usurps anything else I would’ve shared. It happens. I get over it and find myself back here. Hopefully you do as well!

In the meantime, I have been working on some extracurriculars though, with the likes of some awesomely talented people like Peculiar Bliss magazine and… Design Sponge! Really excited for the day when I can finally show off the fruits of these. And for photos, here’s some instagrams of my weekend inspiration trip to Milwaukee, ganked from my tumblr.

Annnnnd. Fin. More soon!

These are bread spoons: “a set of containers made specifically for measuring bread ingredients. the size of each the vessel is precisely large enough to hold the ideal amount of water, flour, oil, sugar and yeast needed for a loaf. The white ceramic bowls have labeled wooden handles, making it easy for users to bake home-made bread.”

Oh, major want. Our tiny kitchen barely has the space for the basics, much less single purpose tools, but these are so beautiful it would be worth it. And no grocery store loaf can compare to the real deal! Still in prototype by design student Niels Datema, I hope these go into US production pronto. Via White Wood Grey.

+ Buy Some Damn Art got a new design! Aw yeah, good work as always, Ghostly Ferns! Artwork is by Kate Pugsley and is the most recent to be showcased on BSDA. So buy some damn art, would ya? Cause prints are great, but originals are better.

+ I’m giving a BIG speech in the coming months and I’m already prepping (gulp!). Scott Berkun’s speaker’s checklist is exhaustive and will prove to be quite useful no doubt. His point about making sure to get directions not just to the venue, but also within the office-park insanity, and within-building insanity made me chuckle. Nothing worse than arriving a few minutes early only to discover you took the wrong elevator and end up tearing through the building to make it to the room on time. (Not that I’ve done that, ahem.) Via Nickd.

+ Wired on why being sleepy or less than sober are good for creativity. Excellently reasoned article, in short it says our brains are able to free-associate more readily during these states which makes total sense to me. There is, obviously, diminishing returns on this phenomena so get it while the getting’s good I guess.

Unplanned blog hiatus; so lame I know. Does writer’s block ever announce its arrival? Or perhaps it was a social media hangover from last week’s Pinterest debates. Regardless, it’s passed finally. It was these album covers that jostled me out of the funk, discovered after spending several hours internetting researching today. I’ve posted similar Jazz album artwork before, but I may even like these classical covers more. Why precisely they grab me so, I don’t even know, just feels like running into an old friend. Plus, I have a hard time believing there’s any chance the music inside could disappoint. More on Symphonie Fantastique, the same folks who run Project Thirty-Three, which is also well worth the visit for more like this. Via But Does It Float.

I didn’t think Pinterest was for me until one of my oldest friends, one who knows me better than almost anybody, called me out for not using it. As in, you’re crazy for not taking advantage of this resource…

That was six weeks ago and already it’s grown my traffic by a measurable amount (thanks, analytics). Better still, Pinterest – currently one of the fastest growing sites in the world – ranks as my #3 traffic source, right after organic google searches and direct visits. Pinterest is also ad-free at the moment, though there is the occasional and unintrusive sponsored/for sale pin. On Pinterest, there isn’t obsessive self-broadcasting and self-documentation; it’s just about curating and collecting cool stuff. The tone is more “isn’t this awesome?” rather than “look what I had for lunch.”

My friend, she was right.

Yet, I can’t unplug my brain from the rest of the negativity surrounding Pinterest. Snide pie charts mocking women who use Pinterest, wisecracks and reassertions against Pinterest are regularly cropping up in my feeds, and tech analysts and the media (Reuters + AOL, MSN Money) sure as heck don’t know what to make of the women flocking to this tool. And, as we know about online culture, these types of things can easily trigger and rapidly escalate to a place that is counterproductive. I’ve been watching this unravel, doing nothing with the hope it will blow over. I’m not doing nothing now.

Scoping out Pinterest’s home page, I totally understand the backlash. The topic is the day’s most popular content, pulled out of the context of that user’s particular stream. There’s no theme or structure otherwise. Individually, they aren’t inherently bothersome and most likely represent only a fraction of a user’s tastes. But put them together and collectively they are a hot mess of confusion, which doesn’t reflect the real experience of actually using the site, nor the amount of depth it offers. Instead it reads like a Barbie doll or a Cathy comic: exaggerated, out of proportion, and not indicative of reality. This makes it all too easy for the casual visitor to swiftly make their exit without need of return. Ew, indeed.

Still, every social network has its turn-offs. None is perfect; all have flaws and breakages. But it’s as though Pinterest must be bulletproof in order for it to be taken seriously. Which is silly. If any start-up waited until they were fully formed to launch and build users, there wouldn’t be any of them! That’s simply not how start-up culture works.

All of this boils down to the core idea that the site is somehow less worthwhile because women got to it first. It’s as if Pinterest needs a tagline: “No, really, it’s NOT just for women!” This conversation wouldn’t be happening if Pinterest’s early adopters were dudes, no doubt. Who knows if it would even still exist if Ben Silbermann & his team hadn’t decided to offer the first batch of invites to female design bloggers. Yet, he did and – stop the presses – it’s a big stinking deal because it’s never occurred to the world that a group of women can be early adopters of a technology. And as history tells us, women-folk bucking trends always seems to ruffle feathers.

Sure, Pinterest is dominated by women’s interests right now. Who says the site can’t grow and change? Who says there aren’t some open-minded guys out there who are willing to wade past the make-up tutorials and cupcake food porn to balance the playing field? Curating and sharing content is clearly not a behavior that will go away anytime soon, who knows, maybe Pinterest will fade into the background as similar sites like Gimme Bar and Dropmark emerge. (Both are still in beta, which means they are exclusive, still developing features, and can’t even begin to touch Pinterest’s growth yet.)

I don’t even really care how it plays out, I just don’t want it to be segregated and I don’t want to feel like I have to justify using a tool that is so obviously working for me & many others. Use it or don’t use it, but ragging on what doesn’t work for you is pretty declassé if you ask me. Capisce? Good. Now, how’s about we get back to getting inspired, making stuff, and sharing stuff shall we?

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Like the eye candy? Well, there’s plenty more, I don’t think I need to tell you where. #1 is Tangerine Dream by Jim Lambie, pinned by Chloé Douglas of Plenty of Color, #2 is a vintage tattoo, pinned by My Love For You, #3 is vintage buttons pinned by Christen Carter.

Thanks to Elizabeth Giorgi at The Mary Sue for inspiring this and supplying many of the sources. And also to Kate Singleton for directing my attention to this in the first place. Hugs + high fives, sisters.