Words to live by



This is a sad time for many, many people with the untimely passing of Steve Jobs yesterday. Sure, we all knew he was sick, but no one really ever expected him to die. Not so soon, anyway. He had a profound impact on many people’s lives, particularly those in creative industries and he will be greatly missed.

So rather than get all weepy, I thought we should look at it more positively and celebrate him. He was an incredibly insightful man and uttered some pretty powerful words on many occasions. Here are some of my favorites, many of which were taken from his commencement speech at Stanford in 2005.

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. … Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”

 

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

 

“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. … You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”

 

”Ask yourself: If today were the last day of your life, would you want to do what you are about to do today? When the answer is “no” for too many days in a row, you know you’ve got to make a change.”

 

If Jack is going out the back, and Gus is taking the bus, what’s Jane doing?

I’m guessing she’s gettin’ on a plane. And she’s using this flight card. Cuz’ she’s hip and cool and all designer-y.

Flight Card is a flight tracking application, it’s incredibly beautiful, simple and totally intuitive. Simply search for your flight by number or route, track it and share its status with your family and friends. Done and done.

 

To the window to the wall…

Our current home construction project is our guest bath (we’re almost done so pics coming soon), which backs up to our home office. Well, during the demo phase, we managed to knock not only all the pictures off the office wall, but also some of the drywall as well. So now I need to refinish the office wall, patch and paint it. And apparently, not hang anything back on it since the back side of it is thousands of dollars worth of tile in the bathroom. So… I’m thinking about chalkboard paint. Or maybe even magnetic chalkboard paint. Does anyone have any experience with either? What was the application like? How does it look? Is the magnetic paint actually magnetic? Better yet – has anyone ever used a color other than black (or green, if that’s even possible)?

Here’s a few lovely inspiration images.

via Apartment Therapy

via Rue Mag

via Graham Yelton

via Merle Robillard for National Post

via House Obsession

Historic pictograms

Creative station, H-57, embarked on a recent project creating historical figures out of pictograms. Amazing how they’ve managed to interject such wit into such minimalistic design. Michael Jackson is my favorite.

via Ignant

iPhone obsessed

I finally broke down and got myself and husband iPhones this past week. It doubled as renewing our 2-yr contract and husband’s birthday present. It’s always nice when you receive a present on someone else’s birthday. Those are my favorite. However, now I’m like a kid with ADHD in a candy store. I want EVERYTHING iPhone! I want to stay home from work so I can sit around in my pajamas and play with it all day. It’s bad, people. Baaaaad.

I’ve already outfitted both phones with totally cheap, totally functional cases made out of boring, design-less silicone. But these are just that – boooooring! What I’d really like is to have a collection of iPhone cases, rivalling only my shoe collection, and have enough that I can change them out daily. And I’d like to start with these.

Wood Camera iPhone Cases from Photojojo

Strike a pose!

That’s exactly what these Russian high school kids did for their yearbook photos! But instead of that corny, fall JC Penney backdrop, they used something relevant, and created it themselves. Instead, they posed in front of a chalkboard with drawings that reflected their personality and showed off their interests, making each student’s photo unique. I wish my school had done something like this. I actually have a couple of sorority photos from college where I had to wear a velvet drape. Do you know what those even are? Hideous. That’s all you need to know.

from Incredible Things via TechEBlog

I’m Comic Sans, Asshole!

For all you designers out there, this little video is sure to make you smile!

via Like Cool

WeWood

One watch. One tree. One planet. That’s the motto of this high tech timber timepiece company, WeWOOD. It’s the offspring of an Italian shoe dude and two green entrepreneurs, who together combine scrap wood and Miyota movements to create fashionable, unique, eco-friendly wooden watches.

The first watch was designed in 2010 and was instantly an icon for sophisticated sustainability. Since its inception, WeWOOD has opened in Los Angeles and teamed up with tree-planting-partner, American Forests. The goal of this partnership is to help restore our precious earth, by planting a tree for every WeWOOD purchased. In just the first three months, WeWOOD planted 5,000 trees with American Forests!

 

 

Channeling creativity

So far this week I’ve armed myself with some tools to cope with the stress of being back at work, however, it has yet to go into effect. I’m not too stressed though as this week is pretty mellow thus far. That being said, mellow doesn’t exactly light a fire under my ass to get shit done. Perhaps this fabulous illustration can be of some assistance…

This, along with many other equally adorable illustrations are from Justin Poulter, from the UK. I like it. I like it a lot.

via JazJaz

11

11 is aptly named “the beautiful game” as its visual aesthetic is really quite stunning. It’s a luxury foosball table  with sweeping curves, atmospheric lighting and chromed metal players; making “football” appear to be an incredibly glamorous sport. Each table is individually numbered table and meticulously hand-finished by skilled European craftsmen.

The award-winning design was first showcased at the Milan Furniture Fair in 2008 and was so well received, it is now being developed for limited production. And while I agree, 11 is quite possibly the most beautiful game I have ever seen, the price tag made me throw up a little bit in my mouth. Perhaps this might be a gift my wealthy alter ego would buy for her man…