Thursday, July 29, 2010

too many ideas scattered about in too many books



Every one of you creative, idea-driven individuals can probably relate to this......I LOVE blank books...sketchbooks, notebooks, college ruled, no ruled, graph, spiral, hardback, large, small.......and I've developed a habit out of having a book with me at all times, to capture ideas as they happen.  (if you don't write them down as they appear, they're likely to be lost forever, you know!) :) The problem with that is that I have WAYYYYYY too many books going at any given time.   Sometimes if I'm traveling, I grab a smaller one to have with me;  if I'm in the studio, I love having the large ones nearby; If I'm in a hurry and can't find the one I was last using, I grab whatever's close by; if I'm bored and looking for a fresh start, I grab a shiny new one (whether I've filled the other ones or not)....cuz we all know the feeling that a brand new, crisp sketchbook can bring....I have no rhyme or reason to the books I use, to how the ideas get organized....so guess what?  Whenever I need to go back and find something, it's a daunting time-stealing task. Sometimes I end up actually leafing through ALL the books searching for something I KNOW I jotted down ideas for.......only to come up empty....SOOOOO frustrating.  (It is however always an inspiring exercise to go back and look through the pages of our idea books, so time spent is not a total loss)  



My question is this....how do you keep track of all your ideas so that you have quick reference to them?  To rip out the pages and do some sort of filing system would somehow KILL the whole idea capturing process for some reason...not to mention the comfort and excitement that comes from watching the books pile up, knowing that there are zillions of ideas, thoughts, doodles and drawings captured between the sheets.  On those 'blank' days, it's like having money in the bank!  Creating some sort of scribbled index in the beginning of each book would be a bit of an extra job, but maybe that's the route I need to go...... 

Do you have a method to your creative madness that you'd be willing to share?!  Would love to hear about it.
 
Cheers to blank books just waiting for us to grab hold and fill!
michele.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

s.m.i. welcomes.....

Tarah Sissing to 408 Grant...she's a long way from home (Holland.....Michigan) and joining us for an adventurous internship this summer. Whoo! Hoo! Welcome to the team, my friend! (look at her....she's already taking a project and running with it...love that!)


Cheers to creative interns everywhere!
michele.