• Two Thousand and Thirteen Stripes

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    Austin design entrepreneurs UnderConsideration have a new initiative they are calling UC.Prints. The first run of posters commemorates American Independence Day 2013 with a clever puzzle involving the flag.

    See images here, and get one while they last here.

  • Creative Work Wanted for New Build at Austin Airport

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    Attention creative people. According to Culture Map, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is expanding, and Art in Public Places (AIPP) is looking to keep the new section weird with designs and artwork.

    They are placing a national call to commission a professional. This is not a small time pro-bono project. This is a chance to make a mark and earn some well deserved recognition.

    AIPP is hosting an information session for anyone interested. The meeting will be at 2:30pm on Monday, June 17, and will be simulcast as an interactive webinar. Check in with AIPP during their office hours for assistance.

    Check out the Culture Map article here.

  • Putting the D in Dallas' Tourism Campaign

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    Tired of your facebook blowing up with the same photos from Dallas' "Big Things Happen Here" campaign? Well, tire no more, because this guy finally did what we were all waiting for. Thanks, guy, for making this campaign more interesting.

  • Cliched Stock Photo Song

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    You're welcome.

  • This Is My City: AIGA DFW + PechaKucha Night

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    Join AIGA DFW and PK Dallas at the Lakewood Theater on Wednesday May 8th, for their speaker series dubbed "This is my City". Speakers will each present 20 slides at 20 seconds each under this theme, celebrating out city and all it has to offer. Tickets are $10 members and nonmembers, $5 students for emerging designers. Tickets can be purchased here, and more information and a full list of speakers can be found here.

  • DSVC May Meeting Featuring Jude Buffum

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    Join the DSVC this Wednesday in welcoming designer and illustrator Jude Buffum. Buffum has designed for “Wicked” and HBO’s "The Sopranos”, New York Times, SONY, UPS, Target, Disney, and Toyota/SCION, and more. His work has been honored by Graphis, Communication Arts, AIGA, Print Magazine, Society of Illustrators, 3x3, and American Illustration.

    Reception is at 6pm on May 1st, meeting starts at 7pm. Tickets are $20 for non-members and $10 for students. Hope to see you all there!

  • Beating The Block

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    I’ll confess: writing does not come easy to me. I know I’m good at it, but it is still difficult. I was really encouraged by a recent article I read in The New Yorker. A writer named John McPhee wrote about the idea of writer’s block. I know this sensation all to well. It is simply paralyzing. Often I just can’t seem to put words to paper.

    Take, for instance, this example from work. I’m a copywriter, which means I write the headlines for ads you try to ignore. Well, the thing about headlines is that headlines are (or should be) really short. We’re talking about 7 words tops. Seven little words to get the cash register to go “Cha-ching!” Now the thing about writing 7 words is, if you’re blocked, you feel like the client has asked for War and Peace, and they’d like it by end of day, “if possible (read: if you like your job).”

    Good Lord, I’d rather dredge the Panama Canal with one of those little dessert spoons they have in Downton Abbey.

    But let me tell you why this article encouraged me. Consider the writer’s sage advice:

    “If you lack confidence in setting one word after another and sense that you are stuck in a place from which you will never be set free, if you feel sure that you will never make it and were not cut out to do this, if your prose seems stillborn and you completely lack confidence, you must be a writer.”

    This article is a godsend. No joke. I’m young, I know. I’m inexperienced. “Headlines!” you say, “Those are nothing.” Well, you’re right. And on a good day, you’re right. But I’m at that sorry point where most days seem like bad ones. If this were fishing, I just haven’t seemed to have attained the touch. The water may be stocked, but I swear these fish can smell inexperience from a mile off. There’s a reason we have the phrase “words escape me.”

    My job is to wrangle them. John McPhee’s article “The Writing Life” in the April 29th edition of The New Yorker gives me hope that I can do it. It can give you hope. At the very least, it’s a fascinating read. Check it out.

    [This article originally appeared on a contributor's blog, which you can find here.]

  • H&FJ: The Video

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    As part of their AIGA Medal presentation, this video features type designers Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones of H&FJ.

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