This sign in a shop window was just too good not to take a picture of!
Its a grand reminder that offerings in every line of work run the gamut from the careless wanna-be, to the precise practicioner... from the heart-felt aspiring amateur, to the competent and experienced professional. As always, caveat emptor!
Professionalism
Monday, July 27, 2009
Wisdom Working
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
I thought if I posted the above title it would egg me into writing some thoughts I've been ruminating over for some time now... please stay tuned!
Innovation & collaboration in the BC Public Service
Late in 2008 Kim Henderson, then the Web 2.0 visionary in the office of British Columbia's Deputy to the Premier, charged Rumon Carter and I to find new ways to leverage the power of Web 2.0 to help spark a new wave of innovation and collaboration in BC's Public Service. I was asked to research our options and develop the character, organizational and visual concepts behind what has become the professional networking intranet site SPARK! The project has gone on to become a national benchmark for professional networking within government as evidenced by the cover story above. Though I was a spark in the process, it was Rumon who was the flame that really ignited the project... congratulations Rumon!
If interested, you can read the cover story in Canadian Government Executive magazine: CLICK HERE
In addition to SPARK! I also designed a suite of online and print collateral to support the project. You can see a few samples by scrolling this blog to "Office of the Deputy to the Premier". RSD
An old process
Monday, July 13, 2009
Each of us is born with various talents. One of life’s challenges is the development of the skills that allow each of us to both express the quality of our talents and to earn a living. The strength of our talents is a determining factor in how deeply and extensively we'll acquire our skill sets.
To be historically accurate, this writing is exclusively about men. Women were not allowed to pursue a a career in the Middle Ages. Women can do so now, and the world is a better place because they can, and do.
Back then there were several paths to learning. All involved young men working for someone who had mastered the skills required to bring something new into the world. In craft they’d serve an apprenticeship to develop the basic set of skills for his chosen craft, in the professional world, they would intern, while in the academic world they would serve a Baccalaureate. In religious life they were, and still are called novitiates. I’m not concerned with the professional, academic, nor religious models here.
In the world of craft, with the completion of an apprenticeship, a young man acquired the basic skills necessary to earn his living as a journeyman. Some say the origins of the word journeyman are in the description of skilled person who, not being the master of his own workshop, had to journey to find work. Others say the word's roots are in the French journèe… the period of one day, referring to the right for a man to charge a fee for his day’s labours. Either way, journeymen had earned the right to independently make their way in the world based on natural talent, and their developed skill set.
A journeyman with strong practical talents, and a passion to develop his skills, would ultimately create his masterpiece, proving to his peers he'd mastered the skills of his trade. This journeyman metamorphosed into a master craftsmen, and went on to further the technical advancements of his trade.
The journeyman possessing both a mastery over his skills and the ability to express his self in ways unique to his talents, upon creating his masterpiece, became an artist.
Both the master craftsman and the artist could choose to practice their trade alone, though when they took on apprentices of their own they propelled the wheel forward for another revolution. RSD
To be historically accurate, this writing is exclusively about men. Women were not allowed to pursue a a career in the Middle Ages. Women can do so now, and the world is a better place because they can, and do.
Back then there were several paths to learning. All involved young men working for someone who had mastered the skills required to bring something new into the world. In craft they’d serve an apprenticeship to develop the basic set of skills for his chosen craft, in the professional world, they would intern, while in the academic world they would serve a Baccalaureate. In religious life they were, and still are called novitiates. I’m not concerned with the professional, academic, nor religious models here.
In the world of craft, with the completion of an apprenticeship, a young man acquired the basic skills necessary to earn his living as a journeyman. Some say the origins of the word journeyman are in the description of skilled person who, not being the master of his own workshop, had to journey to find work. Others say the word's roots are in the French journèe… the period of one day, referring to the right for a man to charge a fee for his day’s labours. Either way, journeymen had earned the right to independently make their way in the world based on natural talent, and their developed skill set.
A journeyman with strong practical talents, and a passion to develop his skills, would ultimately create his masterpiece, proving to his peers he'd mastered the skills of his trade. This journeyman metamorphosed into a master craftsmen, and went on to further the technical advancements of his trade.
The journeyman possessing both a mastery over his skills and the ability to express his self in ways unique to his talents, upon creating his masterpiece, became an artist.
Both the master craftsman and the artist could choose to practice their trade alone, though when they took on apprentices of their own they propelled the wheel forward for another revolution. RSD
Community work
Thursday, July 9, 2009
streethope is a dedicated group ministering to the community of the homeless living in Victoria's core. They've a very cool project they call shoebox... without judgement, and with love and understanding they give the hundreds who've come to them shoe boxes containing stuff like a new pair of socks, a couple of energy bars, deodorant, soap, dry soup, and the like. Its a grand way for them to make human connection and to bring a little light into the lives of those they care deeply about.
I'm proud to be helping them develop some communication tools to help streethope raise money to continue their good and worthy work. RSD
ABC3D
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Well, here they are: the chorus line of the printed word and the stars of typography! If you'd like your very own copy of this wonderful little book... CLICK HERE
RSD
What Martha said...
Friday, July 3, 2009
"There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through your into action, and there is only one of you in all time. This expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium: and will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others." RSD
Martha Graham 1894 -1991
Pioneer of modern dance
driftwood
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
I drew the battered end of a piece of driftwood early one Sunday morning in a fresh, clean ocean breeze as a one-foot swell hypnotically broke metronomically on the shingle. From one perpective, a drawing is an artifact of what one was actually able to see. RSD
Office of the Deputy to the Premier
Thursday, June 25, 2009
When British Columbia's Deputy to the Premier wanted to spark a new wave of innovation and collaboration in BC's Public Service she decided they needed somebody who was "outside their box"... me. I spent eight very interesting months working under contract, collaborating with some really smart and dedicated folks on the development of a number of new web and print tactics to help convey the new message set. RSD
Victoria Classic Boat Festival® poster
I designed this year's poster with the Committee's direction to acknowledge a legendary vessel of another sort. She's the MV Coho, Victoria's vital automotive link to Port Angeles, Washington, for the past 50 years. I took the picture as she rounded Laurel Point to enter Victoria Harbour, an iconic scene in this part of the world.
I've been designing the festival posters for the last 14 years and also designed and maintain the festival website:
CLICK HERE
RSD
Mown hay
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
This is my first pencil drawing in decades and decades.
I was driving down a quiet country road on my way home from my pal Ed's place in Naniamo when I glanced this sunny field of mowed grass framed by big, shady trees. I stopped the car, got out pencils and sketch pad, sat in the long grass and made this picture. RSD
I was driving down a quiet country road on my way home from my pal Ed's place in Naniamo when I glanced this sunny field of mowed grass framed by big, shady trees. I stopped the car, got out pencils and sketch pad, sat in the long grass and made this picture. RSD
Willows Beach
I made this picture looking across Oak Bay to the marina while sitting at a shaded picnic table as an army of carneys set up the rides for the Oak Bay Tea Party. It was great to watch them roll in with the tilt-a-whirl, the ferris wheel, whack-a-mole, the cotton candy booth and the rest of the wonderful attractions that make an old-fashioned fair. Summertime... and the livin' is easy! RSD
Reflections on reflected light source information
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
This is a bit of a ramble, but its something I've been ruminating on for years. Its the first time I've written on the subject, so I apologize for any and all discontinuities you might find if your brave enough to continue!
Throughout our evolution, Homo Sapiens have received and processed visual information via reflected-light sources, save for fire and the stars, the only sources of direct light available to us for thousands of years. During World War Two the cathode ray tubes of RADAR, the SONAR became our first direct light information sources (statement unsubstantiated).
From these beginnings came television, our first mass direct-light source medium. Television's evolved into the computer monitor and the iPhone touch screen so direct-light-source media is now in almost every home, hand, classroom, and workplace in our culture.
From these beginnings came television, our first mass direct-light source medium. Television's evolved into the computer monitor and the iPhone touch screen so direct-light-source media is now in almost every home, hand, classroom, and workplace in our culture.
For thousands of years prior to television and the computer monitor, our brains evolved almost exclusively processing reflected-light source visual information. Information that effects our old brain, that part of concerned with survival issues... food, danger perception, and reproduction among them; information also effecting our mid brain, where our emotions are generated, and our new brain or consciousness. So its only since the 1940's our brains have been processing direct-light information sources.
My question: Are direct-light sources as effective as reflected-light sources in activating subjective cognition in our minds?
I'd like you to think of favourite movie you saw years ago... can you conjure images and feelings that movie evoked as you saw it (a light source projected onto a screen and then reflected back to your eye, and then to your brain) ? I think you probably can. Now, think of a television show you saw two weeks ago... can you conjure the same clarity of image recollection, or of feeling they evoked in you? I think probably not. Is that because our brains have not evolved to process those direct-light images as deeply as those reflected light source images you experienced in a movie theatre?
Think about it. Then think about the effectiveness of so called direct-light "learning" sources being promoted today. Think about the ramifications of this thesis. RSD
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