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Illustrators owe it to themselves to be dissastisfied, to be unhappy with their work, their situation, their direction. It's the constant burden all artists must face if they want to push forward their creativity. Never be complacent, always have something to gripe about. Creativity is galvanized by being unhappy with the way things are, for discomfort leads to change.

This line of thought was prompted by a recent Campaign blog post by Steve Henry "Safe isn't Safe" which emphasises that producing comfortably acceptable work is the death of genius, being merely okey at something condemns your work to obscurity. There's nothing worse than living in a comfortable groove and staying there in a creative cul-de-sac. There's a logical cycle to creativity. You get inspired, you have ideas, you explore them until they run out of steam, you take stock, scream with boredom, which pushes you on to the next wave of creativity and the cycle starts again. It's a naturally intuitive way for artists to develop. Unfortunately for illustrators though, their art and direction is often controlled by outside forces - changing fashion, expectations of the market, clients, which can handicap the natural creative process. Illustrators can find themselves stuck in a repeating groove, being led by the market rather than leading it, burdened by their past output and unable, or unwilling, to move forward.

I experienced exactly this working in advertising in mid-1990's in Tokyo. Having made a big splash on the commercial illustration scene at the beginning of the decade I was lucky enough to become inundated with ad work, much of it asking me to repeat my first hits, as art directors based their pitches around my previous work. This resulted in a dangerous loop, whereby I'd end up doing pastiche's of my own work, constantly recycling the same themes. The first version, usually commissioned by a talented AD (Mr.Ideas), would be an exciting and creative exercise, guided by a designer who knows how to encourage an illustrator on a project, the teamwork would lead to something fresh and exciting. Then I'd be asked to do a similar version of the same job by AD No2 (Mr.Lazy), who'd seen the first image and used it to sell his pitch with few ideas of his own. The task for me in this situation would be how much could I change the brief to make the artwork unique and interesting, usually AD no2 would have very little input in the creative process.

The worst would come at stage 3 though, when AD No3 (Mr.Clueless) would see version 2, completely misunderstand what made the image successful in the first place and throw some cruddy cut-and-paste comp at me. So for example, an idea developed in a poster for a Tokyo fashion dept store, would spark a commission to do similar for a somewhat less fashionable supermarket in the provinces, which would in turn open the the door to cruddy "cartoon" commissions for instantly forgetable DM leaflets etc. By the second half of the '90's I realised I was dealing more and more with Mr.Lazy and Mr.Clueless and less and less with Mr.Ideas. I was pigeonholed and getting very stale. I became miserable, dissatisfied with everything I did, I hated my entire ad output. Fortunately (in a way) this coincided with a lot of major changes in my life, not least the crash of the bubble economy in Japan, so as the advertising market cut back I had plenty of time to take stock and re-order my output. My dissatisfaction galvanized me into new areas, new directions, and new work. Some of the projects led nowhere, others revitalised my existing output. This sense of being in a creative rut and being forced to move on led to inspiration. The late nineties and early noughties were a very experimental time for me. I never forgot the lesson, now I actively encourage myself to be aware of ruts and seize any kind of job that gives creative freedom to move forward. In that sense my work matured, I'm much more in c

photo from Contra Costa Library, thanks!

I got an email that ALA’s @yourlibrary site had redesigned and I went over there but found it’s the same old clutter of information. It is possible I’m getting curmudgeonly. I also got an email from former co-Councilor Heidi Dolamore who is working on an advocacy project that I like much more: the Pinole Library valentine campaign. The Pinole Library’s website is here. You can see that the library is open 24 hours a week over four days. They’re starting a campaign to show how much people support the library by having people write notes on these valentines.

Hello again! I don't have much time to chat today as I have a pretty complex project on hand, so I'll just jump into a brief step-by-step of a recent project I can finally post. I think. Although I do not see anything for the campaign online, I was told that I could start promoting the artwork in October...

Over the summer, I was very lucky to be chosen for a poster campaign. It is for Sidedoor Productions, a film studio that accepts submissions/scripts for movie ideas (think Project: Greenlight). They are teaming up with Mountain Dew to get the word out: you could have your movie made! The design firm handling the promotions was TracyLocke in Connecticut. A special thanks to Kim and Andy for selecting me as well as their friendly demeanor and patience.

The project was originally going to run four posters, but the number was cut down to two due to budget. There may be a third poster in the future if needed. The first two posters were to a pitch/script-themed poster and a generic all occasions poster.

Quick composition layouts that were discussed before sketches: Round one of sketches:

Round two of sketches (face alterations):

Round three of sketches (additional face alteration):

First round of finished art (too green):

Second round of finished art (more facial detail and new figure, background alteration):

Third round of finished art (face alteration and color changes):

Final posters as produced by TracyLocke:

I decided to show the original artwork on my website so that viewers will see exactly what I delivered. So I placed the needed text on the art and produced these versions for my promotions:

The entire process for these posters took around six weeks due to Andy and Kim waiting for feedback from folks at both Sidedoor and Mountain Dew, folks on vacation, etc. I do hope we continue with the third poster as I greatly enjoy working in a series. I also think I enjoy poster work so much that I am hoping to do more both for clients as well as self-initiated projects.

Enjoy the Day,
Chris

Elvin Lim is Assistant Professor of Government at Wesleyan University and author of The Anti-intellectual Presidency, which draws on interviews with more than 40 presidential speechwriters to investigate this relentless qualitative decline, over the course of 200 years, in our presidents’ ability to communicate with the public. He also blogs at www.elvinlim.com. In the article below he looks at Obama’s health care debacle. See his previous OUPblogs here.

As the wise saying goes “if you’ve nothing good to say, don’t say anything.” But President Barack Obama went ahead anyway with a prime time press conference, and as Bill O’Reilly was right to observe on Wednesday night - he said practically nothing specific about what the shape of the health-care bill would look like and viewers were left scratching their heads.

President Obama wanted to let Congress take ownership of the bill, rather than hand them a fait accompli (as Hillary Clinton did back in 1993/4), I hear Democrats chant in his defense. But if Obama wants to stay on the side-lines, then he should do so consistently. Either be genuinely deferential to Congress and stay out of the picture until a consensus emerges, or take complete ownership of the agenda - don’t try to do both. Yet the president is back in the limelight doing prime-time press conferences, and attending town hall meetings in Cleveland and such. Obama should decide which way he wants to go. If he is the salesman-in-chief, then he has to have something to sell, if not his consumers would be left completely befuddled as to why he’s putting on a show for no particular reason at all.

Liberals are mad that Obama didn’t throw a few more punches at Republicans. I think many are unwilling to admit the more pointed fact that he just didn’t do a very good job at all, because he didn’t have much to say.

So Wednesday’s press conference was a squandered opportunity. We are not in 2008 anymore when Barack Obama would announce that he is giving a speech and the whole world would stop to listen. The clock is ticking on his presidential luster, and the next time he says “hey, listen to me,” it’s going to be that much harder.

Let us be clear why health-care reform has stalled, at least till the Fall. Because the Congress, and in particular the Senate Finance Committee could not agree on a way forward. I don’t see why the President and his advisers thought that a prime time press conference last Wednesday night would have gotten things moving. In fact it probably achieved the exact opposite, when we heard on Thursday morning from Senator Harry Reid that a Senate vote before the August recess would not be possible. The president’s time would have been better spent persuading his former colleagues up on the hill in private conversations to compromise on a bill. When they’ve got a bill and all/most are united, then go out and do the media blitzkrieg, by all means. Wednesday night just wasn’t the time for that.

So it looks like the Permanent Campaign is back. The President has chosen to go back to campaign mode, selling himself. Because without a specific plan to sell, all his public appearances amount to going public for the sake of going public. This strategy belies a serious misunderstanding of American politics. Personal approval ratings do not translate to public support for specific policy proposals (not that they were forthcoming) - the president should have known this by now. They barely even translate into congressional support for presidential policies.

This error - of going public with nothing specific to sell - was compounded, and probably encouraged, by a complete underestimation of the push back from the conservative wing of the Demcoratic party (the “Blue Dogs”) worried about spiraling deficits. These were the people Obama should have been talking to. And given he’s still out town hall-ing and speechifying, I’m not sure he fully understands what came over him.

To make matters worse, Obama had to pour fuel over the fire of the Henry Louis Gates controversy during the press conference, accusing the Cambridge police of of a “stupid” arrest when he had incomplete possession of the facts. Have something to say about anything all the time has become the rhetorical ethic of the modern presidency. Obama’s observance of this ethic was a disastrous distraction to what little point he had to make at his press conference. The news cycles are now spending more time covering the Gates controversy than they are covering the health-care debate.

I’m afraid to say - though this is water under the bridge - that Hillary Clinton would have known better. This week, for the first time in his fledgling presidency, Obama looked like a total novice in Washington. His 4th press conference was a waste of time, and probably the first time since Obama broke onto the national scene in 2004 that his rhetorical wizardry had fallen so flatly on death ears. He seems to have bought the bad conventional advice - whenever you’re in trouble, just go out and give a speech - wholesale. The president should take heed:

1. The public is less attentive between election years and he must have something meaningful to say if he wants to keep their attention.
2. Especially on a complex issue like health-care where there are too many details to cover, the media is much more likely to jump at an opportunity to take the path of least resistance to cover something juicier, like Henry Louis Gates and racial profiling.
2. Just because the public (still) loves Obama doesn’t mean that they will love what he is doing as president (and not as presidential candidate).
3. It is often more important to talk to members of Congress - the people who actually pass legislation - than to deliver speeches around the nation where the only tangible return of applause is a fleeting sense of psychic gratification that one is loved.

President Obama, it’s crunch time. Stop yakking.

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