This post was originally posted on January 6, 2019 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
Taking a look in the Facebook mirror.
I often look at people’s Facebook posts and ask “why?” Why did you post that status? Why did you share that meme? Why did you feel you should comment on that post that you disagreed with?
Does it make you feel better? Do you enjoy sharing something controversial and have some of your friends agree with you? Does that provide you validation of some sort?
Are you trying to anger those that disagree with you? Do you get some satisfaction from pissing off your “friends?”
Was this story critically important to share? Did you honestly read past the headline? Are you sure the story is even true?
Are you outraged? Why are you outraged? Because the news told you to be? Because the Russians told you to be? Do you know why you are outraged?
Seriously, where does it end?
Every interaction on Facebook — posts, comments and likes — is in your activity log. It’s easy to find. Just go to your profile and click on the “Activity Log” button in the top right of your profile page.
Just look at the last week. For each interaction, ask yourself “why?” Why did I share that comment? Why did I like that meme? Why did I share that link?
What value am I adding to discussion?
How am I making the world a better place?
Are my interactions with people positive and encouraging?
Am I sharing joy?
When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Do you see hate and angst? Because if so, you aren’t helping your cause. You aren’t helping society. And you aren’t helping yourself.
Now the hard part: Start asking “why” before you post? Understand the impact of your words before you comment. Or like. Or share. In all likelihood, this exercise will cause you will post less. Comment less. Like less. That’s okay. The only person who will get upset that you are using Facebook less is Mark Zuckerberg. (And honestly, he’s too busy trying to collect all your personal data to notice.)
Don’t get sucked into the negativity. Don’t get caught up in the outrage machine. Don’t let the trolls get to you. And I promise, your Facebook experience will get better and your personal outlook will get better, too.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, grad student, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He recently finished a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on January 6, 2019 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
Getting through the gatekeeper.
When we create content for anything, a communicator considers the audience. Who is going to read this piece or watch this video? What are they hoping to get out of it? What do we want them to do?
When we create for online and social, we consider our target audiences. But there’s another audience we often overlook: the algorithm.
The algorithm isn’t a person, but it is an audience. The algorithm determines what our primary audience sees online and on social media. The role the algorithm plays is no different than an administrative assistant who’s sorting the mail — a gatekeeper — and we need to treat it the same way. Think about what the algorithm needs to see to get the message through to our intended target. List it as a secondary audience on our creative briefs. We need to understand how the algorithm “thinks” as much as we need to understand our primary target audience.
Because a message that is well-crafted for your primary target audience is wasted if they never see it.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, grad student, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He recently finished a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on December 29, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
Don’t call them goals or resolutions.
Looking back, 2018 was great. Lots of challenging moments and disappointments, but so many great things happened. This year marked a change in emphasis for me. I made the decision to apply for graduate school in early January 2018 and started in August. And so for the last half of the year I was working full time and taking classes part time and teaching and parenting and… I’ve had to take a hard look at how I spend my time and prioritize.
I usually do some kind of annual planning and pull together a handful of specific things I want to achieve in the upcoming year, but for 2019, I’m going to try to do something different. I’m going to pick a couple of broad themes that I want to focus on for the year ahead.
These aren’t goals. There is nothing S.M.A.R.T. about them. And they aren’t New Year’s Resolutions, either. They are just topics to give me some focus of where I want to spend my time and creative energy this year.
Graduate School. I started working on my Masters last year, but 2019 will be much more intense. Being a graduate student is my primary focus in the upcoming year as I develop a research plan for my thesis.
Type Design. I love type design, but over the last few years, I haven’t focused on it much. In 2018, I did some contract type design work and really enjoyed it. I want to design more typefaces in 2019.
Python, Javascript or both. I’ve tinkered around with learning to program for years. For 2019, I want to expand my knowledge of Python and/or Javascript. Both languages are used with data visualization packages and I could see that being useful with my graduate program. As a bonus, Python is also used heavily in type design and would be helpful if I’m working with type more.
Writing. I want to write more. How much more? I don’t know. What do I want to write? I don’t know. But I do know that I enjoy writing and need to do it more often.
Social media. Last year, I started to change my relationship with social media. I’m learning that less is definitely more. This year, that will continue. Expect me to post significantly less on Facebook and Twitter and focus almost exclusively on Instagram and Micro.Blog.
So these are my professional themes. My creative priorities for the upcoming year. It doesn’t mean that I won’t do other things during the year — for example, I have some other t-shirt related ideas — but they’ll be one-off projects.
I’ve also got a couple of personal themes about family and health, too. These are mostly about balance. Maintaining enough quality time with the family and taking care of myself.
I’m looking forward to a fabulous 2019.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, grad student, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He recently finished a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on December 27, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
Better than my “Best Nine.”
A couple of weeks ago, I generated my Instagram “Best Nine” as I’ve done the last few years. If you aren’t familiar with it, you go to a web site, put in your Instagram profile name and it generates a single image containing the nine images you took over the last year with the most likes. And you post it on Instagram as a retrospective from the year.
When I looked at my best nine image for this year, I noticed that while these may have been the images that got the most likes, they weren’t my favorites.
I had another idea. What if I went through my Instagram feed and just picked my favorites?
I started to go through Instagram to pick my favorite eight images from the past year. With “Best Nine,” you don’t have to put any thought into it. The algorithm selects the ones with the most likes. But with “Fav8,” this process takes some time. I posted 120 times over the last year and many of the posts had multiple images. I used Instagram’s bookmarks filter to keep track of my favorite shots. A first pass quickly got me to about 14 images, but getting down to 8 was really hard. I cut many of the artistic shots for the ones that meant more to me personally.
A quick summary of my Fav 8:
Our oldest had a fun first season playing JV Lacrosse this year.
We picked strawberries. The whole crew loves strawberries.
My wife tried pickle-flavored Pelican’s SnoBall. She did not like it.
We joined a pool and had a blast.
I went back to grad school.
We discovered that the whole crew loves hiking.
I finished my shirt project and had an art show at USC Upstate.
I’m a designer, so naturally, I fired up Photoshop. I’m sure that there is an easier way to do this, probably with some app on iOS, but I’m much faster on my Mac. I created a 1200 px x 1200 px Photoshop file and then scaled each of my favorite images to 400 px x 400 px and arranged them in a grid.
That left one block in the lower right. I was just going to put the year there, but I decided to build a quick little “Fav8” logo. It’s SbB Epyx, a Fontstruct design I created last year.
For a little bit of whimsy, the background color of that last square is the average color of my favorite eight images. Which leads us to a quick Photoshop tip. (Feel free to skip this next section if you aren’t a Photoshop user…) Getting the average color from your images is easy:
Edit > Select All
Edit > Copy Merged (If you are like me, your images are all on different layers.)
File > New… (It will automatically set the size to what’s on your clipboard)
Edit > Paste
Filter > Blur > Average (This will generate a solid color that is the average of all the color in your image. It will likely be some shade of gray.)
The take that color and make it the background of your final square.
Back from the random Photoshop tip and moving on to some social (media) commentary.
Instagram lets us share our images with friends (and strangers) across the world. That’s mostly awesome, but it also means that we know what those people think about our images. And I think we start crafting images to generate that positive feedback.
Something like “Best Nine” is fun. Take a look at the images that other people liked most. But I’d rather look pull together the images I liked most and relive those memories and moments. Sorting through my images to select my favorites was fun. It reminded me of some awesome moments during 2018 — some that I honestly had forgotten about.
My favorite eight were my favorites not because other people liked them, but because I loved the moment and the story behind the image. And that’s something an algorithm can’t know.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, grad student, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He recently finished a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on September 30, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
Designasaur: Open through October 26
Designasaur: On display at USC Upstate through October 26.
A few weeks after I started my 52 Shirts project, I decided that at the end of the project, I wanted to have a show featuring my creations. I started sketching some ideas out, but honestly, I wasn’t sure where to even start. I’ve never held an art show before. I started looking into how to get gallery space, paying attention to other shows and asking questions.
After I wrapped up the project this summer, I wanted to take a couple of months off and then start working to make my art show a reality.
While I was on vacation in the mountains of North Carolina, I got an email from Jane Nodine at USC Upstate asking if I’d be interested in bringing a show to the Curtis R. Harley Gallery at USC Upstate in Spartanburg, South Carolina. I responded immediately that I was absolutely interested and started working on how to build a show.
I edited my 52 Shirts project down to a selection of shirts that discuss my creative process and evolution as a designer. Designasaur is my look at creative process and the quest to avoid creative extinction.
The show was installed last week and I get to do an artist’s talk on campus this Thursday, October 4 at 4:30 pm. I’m so happy with how it turned out and excited about the talk this week. If you are in the Spartanburg area between now and October 26, stop by to see the show in the Curtis R. Harley Gallery on the first floor of the Humanities and Performing Arts Center.
I can’t begin to tell you how nervous I’ve been for the last three months planning the show. This isn’t something I’ve ever done before and I had so many questions. I need to thank a lot of people: my wife and kiddos, my friend Marius Valdes, Jane and Mark at USC Upstate and all the people that bought shirts and encouraged me along the way. I really couldn’t have done it without you all.
Also, I’ve designed a poster for the event. In keeping with the on demand nature of the project, you can order it from Threadless, too.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, grad student, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He recently finished a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on August 23, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
Back in the classroom
Yesterday, my children went back to school. But today was my turn: I officially started graduate school.
I am now an M.A. student at the University of South Carolina studying communications. I’m going to work on my degree part-time over the next few years with an eye towards eventually pursuing a Ph.D.
In some ways, this has been in the works for almost 15 years. I decided then that I wanted to start working on a terminal degree, even going as far as touring several schools. But for various reasons, I was never ready to make the jump.
This January, I revisited the idea of returning to graduate school. I scheduled an appointment with the graduate coordinator at the South Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communication to talk over my options. I left energized and excited. I talked about my plans with my wife, my friends and some faculty members that I know well. And every time I explained why I wanted to head back to school, I became even more convinced that the time was right.
I assembled everything that I needed for my application and prepared for the GRE. I actually did pretty well on the GRE — even the analytical section — a significant accomplishment considering the last math class I took was AP Calculus in high school. Honestly, I was just as excited to get my graduate school acceptance letter as I was to get my undergraduate acceptance letter 25 years ago.
I’m thrilled for this new chapter. To make time for my new classwork load, I’m scaling back some of my side projects and commitments, so you won’t see me around Columbia and social media as much. I look forward to learning more about formal academic research and getting to know my fellow graduate students and faculty.
My first day of graduate school picture. Photo by my daughter, Norah.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, grad student, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He recently finished a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on August 9, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
The bathroom at my office has four sinks and three soap dispensers. Each soap dispenser has a clear plastic front so the cleaning crew can see how much liquid pink soap is left and refill it if necessary.
Sometimes, the first two soap dispensers are low on soap, but the last one, furthest from the door never seems to be low on soap.
You could draw conclusions from this single data point that no one uses the dispenser. And you would be right.
But why? Maybe people prefer the sinks closer to the door? Maybe it’s not in the most convenient location? Maybe there are too many soap dispensers?
The soap dispenser is broken. It hasn’t worked in at least 8 months.
But I imagine the cleaning crew has no idea. They are only looking at that one indicator: Is there soap in the dispenser?
Just a reminder that often, our data tells us what’s happening, but not necessarily why.
Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
This post was originally posted on June 17, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
Finishing one project, starting the next.
Each week for a year, I’m designed a shirt and released it on my Threadless store. This is the final design of the year.
This is it. The final shirt of my 52 Shirts project. This project has been everything I hoped, letting me explore a bunch of new ideas, techniques and inspiration. I’m almost sad to see it end. My sketchbooks are full of unused ideas. I could probably keep rolling for another few months without any problem.
I’m ready to move on to my next project, though. I’m starting a new blog and podcast: Bold Fish, Big Ocean. I’m excited to look at the people, things and ideas that inspire and shape me.
Bold Fish, Big Ocean is not quite ready yet — I’m still finishing up some things on the shirt project and need to work out some of the specifics for how I want to set up my new blog. But the logo is ready. This bold little fish has been hanging around for a few months waiting for the shirt project to wrap up.
The rest of this week, I’ll be posting some more reflections on 52 Shirts project. And look for my bold little fish to launch in early August.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He just finished a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on June 10, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
It’s been a rough year.
Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 51.
It’s been a rough year. I don’t talk about it much, but 2017 was challenging. A few months ago, I had a rough day. I was frustrated. Aimless. Struggling. And then, out of the blue, I got an invitation from a friend to grab coffee. It was precisely what I needed at that moment.
While I was leaving, I heard Peter Gabriel’s Don’t Give Up at the coffee shop. I hadn’t heard the song in years, and thanks to the magic of Apple Music, when I got back into the car, I was listening to the original Gabriel/Kate Bush duet.
In this proud land we grew up strong
We were wanted all along
I was taught to fight, taught to win
I never thought I could fail
The whole song is beautiful. If you haven’t heard it, listen to it. Basically, it’s a duet between someone who’s lost their way and someone who cares about them.
I wrote a version of this blog post that day and designed the shirt to accompany it. But as I edited the post, I worried what people would think. I wanted to be honest about how I was feeling, but was I being too honest? I shelved the post — and the shirt design — and released something else.
After this week’s suicides by Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, I’ve been thinking about mental health and how scared we are to talk about how it impacts all our lives. Especially within the creative community. I thought back to this shirt and blog post.
Rest your head
You worry too much
It’s going to be alright
When times get rough
You can fall back on us
Don’t give up
Please don’t give up
I’m really lucky to have a bunch of wonderful people around me. Encouraging me. Supporting me. Loving me. Reminding me that there’s a place where I belong. I can’t imagine life without my support system. And if it weren’t for my wife, kids, family and friends, I don’t know how I’d be able to handle everything. Especially my wife, Liz, who manages to always be there for me when I need to talk or vent.
I don’t post much here that’s deeply personal. I don’t talk about my challenges. I don’t discuss my failings and flaws. Part of this shirt project is trying to open up. To write things I wouldn’t normally write. This post is not something I would normally write. But I look around me and I see friends struggling. People dealing with much more than I am. Even in the face of my own struggles, I hope that I can be someone that encourages others, as so many have been there for me.
This week’s shirt is “Don’t Give Up.” I’m biased, but I love it. I’m thinking about ordering a bunch and wearing them underneath my typical business casual attire. Just as a reminder that I’m never alone.
Don’t give up
‘Cause you have friends
Don’t give up
You’re not the only one
Don’t give up
No reason to be ashamed
Don’t give up
You still have us
Don’t give up now
We’re proud of who you are
Don’t give up
You know it’s never been easy
Don’t give up
‘Cause I believe there’s the a place
There’s a place where we belong
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently nearing the end of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on June 3, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
I loved my analog childhood
Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 50.
My entire childhood was essentially analog. I grew up with records, cassette tapes, VCRs and rabbit ear antennas. I took pictures on film and developed them in a darkroom. When I did research for papers in high school, I used the card catalog in the library to find resources. I sent people letters. And they wrote back. I didn’t have a mobile phone. And smart phones didn’t exist outside of science fiction. We had computers, but they were very simple and barely networked. I didn’t have to worry about social media or texting.
When I got to college, the internet was just taking off. I got email my freshman year and by the time I entered the workforce, everything was different.
I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t go back if I could. I love technology and I love all the things that are possible because of the advancements we’ve made over the last three decades.
But I loved my analog childhood. I feel like I’ve had the best of both worlds. I was able to grow up in a world with a lot less pressure and stress than kids have today. And then, I was able to fully benefit from the internet in college, when research and connectivity were more important. I appreciate how “easy” we have it today because I remember what it was like before. I think it makes me more thankful for the technology and capabilities that we have today.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently nearing the end of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on May 27, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
Ancient stories in the sky
Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 49.
At certain times of the year, when I walk out my front door, the constellation Orion is directly in front of me. Orion’s Belt is easy to spot — three bright stars aligned in a row. I learned all these constellations in Cub Scouts in elementary school, and I had a star field guide at some point. I’ve forgotten most of them, but I remember Orion. I tend to look for it whenever I’m somewhere I can see the stars clearly. Now, my kids and my wife look for it, too. My son, Ryan, is still convinced it’s called “Ryan’s Belt.”
I’ve been thinking about constellations lately. How ancient people found shapes in the night sky to tell their stories… and how we don’t really do that anymore. Our ancestors shared their ideas widely as they traveled and traded. Other cultures took and shaped the stories to fit their traditions. And now, we know stories that pre-date written history. It’s impressive that their narrative is alive today.
What constellations could we find today in the night sky to pass onto our future generations? What grand stories do we even want to pass along?
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently nearing the end of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on May 20, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
The perfect beach souvenir
Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 48.
Living in Columbia, South Carolina, we can easily make a day trip to Isle of Palms to spend the day on the beach. It’s a relatively easy drive when I-526 isn’t under construction. Other times during the year, we’ll head to Hilton Head. And whenever we head to the beach, our kiddos are somewhat obsessed with finding sand dollars.
Finding a sand dollar isn’t always easy. If the beach is crowded, it’s going to be tough to find one. You want to find a sand dollar that’s in one piece — the beach is littered with fragments of sand dollars. And it can’t be alive. Sure you can take a living sand dollar off the beach and bleach it, but that’s cruel.
We’ve got more than a couple that we’ve collected over the years. And they always remind me of the family beach trips we’ve taken in the past. We’ll take another day trip soon, and hopefully we’ll come home with a perfect sand dollar souvenir.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently nearing the end of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on May 13, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
Things always loop back around
Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 47.
I was a young kid when my parents got us a Commodore VIC-20. Around the same time, I was exposed to TRS-80 computers at school. With either system, you could load and play very simple games, but you could also write some simple programs. One of the easiest things to do was to write a simple loop, and then the string in the first line would repeat infinitely.
I’d go into Sears, Montgomery Ward or Service Merchandise and they had computers out in the electronics department. No one really knew how to display computers, and it was pretty clear the sales people had no idea what to do with a computer. The machines would just sit there. So I’d always write a loop, with “hello” or my name repeating infinitely. Just because I could.
It was also in that Chicago suburb that I learned about coffee. My father was the pastor at a Lutheran church with a strong Swedish heritage. And those church members loved their coffee. Strong, black coffee. No cream. No sugar. I didn’t drink coffee then… I was too young. But many years later, when I acquired a taste for coffee, I always tried to drink it black because I believed that had to be the best way to enjoy coffee. It’s funny how experiences from childhood always manage to loop back around.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently nearing the end of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year. Follow Bob on Twitter, Instagram and Micro.Blog.
This post was originally posted on May 6, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
Facts at my fingertips
Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 46.
My daughter, Jill, was asking me what I read for fun when I was her age. The answer probably isn’t surprising for anyone that really knows me: I read the encyclopedia for fun.*
My family had a set of World Book encyclopedias. I’d grab a volume, crack it open and look for something that interested me. I liked to read about space travel, other countries and creatures of all sorts.
Jill, of course, has no idea what an encyclopedia is. She eventually concluded that it was “like the internet, but printed out and never updated.” And yes, that’s reasonably accurate and more than a little snarky. But when I was a kid, the world’s knowledge, as I understood it, was completely contained within the 20 or so volumes that sat on the shelf in the family room. I still love finding a topic on Wikipedia and learning everything I can about it.
* I read more than just the encyclopedia. I also loved the atlas and anything by David Macaulay.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on April 29, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
Tangible validation
Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 45.
My daughter’s orchestra performed at a competition at Universal Studios this week and won the highest honor. She volunteered to help carry the trophy back to their bus. While walking through the middle of a crowded park, people along the way — even though they had no idea why she was carrying a trophy — congratulated her. Everyone wanted to know what the trophy was for.
As a society, we love trophies (and plaques and certificates). They are a tangible representation of success. For some things like sports or races, the trophies are awarded to the last team or competitor standing. Other things are less black and white — like musical competitions, the Academy Awards and yes, design awards.
We love the validation that a trophy provides. We love to celebrate the moment. But too often, we’re quick to move on, seeking the next trophy. Wondering what else we can win. Never settling. And while that drive is wonderful, it’s also exhausting. It’s always important to keep things in perspective.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on April 26, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
A larger sketchbook sparked my creativity.
Lauchttrum 1917 Master Slim, Moleskine, Field Notes
I’ve used Moleskine-sized sketchbooks for the last 10 years or so. The size was portable and useful. Not too small, not too big. Functional. I used one notebook for both sketches and meeting notes.
About a year ago, I purchased a Leuchttrum 1917 Master Slim sketchbook at the Atlanta Pen Show. The Master Slim is an oversized hardcover notebook. The official size is A4+, meaning it’s larger than a European letter size sheet of paper. I got the dot grid, which is my favorite paper type for any notebook. I didn’t have a purpose in mind when I purchased the Leuchttrum Master Slim. I wasn’t really sure what I was going to use it for. It sat on my desk unused for about a month waiting for the perfect project. I finally broke it out to start working on some lettering ideas for a new typeface.
It took some significant adjustment. The pages were so large, I had to get used to working with a larger surface area. I was working at a coffee shop and the open book took up most of the tiny table I was at.
But now, it’s my favorite sketchbook and I can’t imagine going back to the old size. I’m already on my second one.
I love having the big pages to work with. The Master Slim gives me room to do a whole series of small thumbnails, or work on a single, really intricate illustration. I can see the evolution of an idea across a spread instead of flipping through multiple pages. Every sketch for my 52 Shirts project is in a Master Slim notebook. It never occurred to me that my creative process might be altered by changing the size and type of sketchbook I’m using.
Having a large sketchbook has forced me to reevaluate how I use my notebooks. The Leuchtrum isn’t really practical for taking to meetings and it’s definitely not pocketable. So I now have two notebooks: The Leuchtrum is my sketchbook, and I use Story Supply or Field Notes pocket notebooks for any meeting notes and my new task tracking system. Using two notebooks works better for me and each notebook is better suited for their designated role.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on April 26, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
Join the cutest club around.
I’m excited that Threadless has chosen to include in their collection the shirt I designed with my daughter Jill as part of my 52 Shirts project. Team Rainbow Unicorn is one of the cutest things I’ve ever designed, and if I’m honest, it’s all because of my 10-year-old Jilly. She loves unicorns and when we gathered around the dining room table to create this shirt, she had some very strong opinions about what the unicorn should look like — especially the eyes. We sketched eyes in “kawaii” style, working on the perfect placement of the highlights and the eyelashes. The eyes make the design, and that was all from Jill.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on April 22, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
My six-year-old has some Siri-ous concerns.
Race Cars by Ryan, 6.
We were driving down I-20 towards Atlanta heading to the Atlanta Pen Show to see Myke and Brad at the live recording of The Pen Addict. The whole crew was in the car because we were dropping the kiddos off at Grandma’s house on the way.
It had been a long week so just outside of Columbia, everyone was asleep… except Ryan. Our six-year-old was wide awake and ready to talk. He eventually started telling me about all the things he wanted to invent someday. Rockets and spaceships, mostly. But then, he brought up cars that can drive themselves…
Ryan: I’m going to invent a car that can drive itself.
Me: That’s cool, bud.
Ryan: And you’ll control it with a video game controller.
Me: That’s not exactly a self-driving car. Engineers and scientists are already working on making a car that will drive itself.
Ryan: But how will it know where to go?
Me: You’ll hop in and say “Take me to Grandma’s house” and you’ll be on the way. There won’t even be a steering wheel.
Ryan: THAT WILL NEVER WORK!
(Keep in mind that 5 minutes ago, we were talking about building invisible rockets that could fly to the sun…)
Me: Why not? People are already working on it.
Ryan: Dad! Have you ever tried to ask Siri anything? That’s never going to work.
I don’t use Siri much. I use it for voice dialing when I’m driving. I’ve switched my AirPod controls so they don’t use the Siri functionality. I’d rather just tap to pause or play.
Ryan, though, loves talking to voice interfaces. He loves asking Siri questions. He uses the Siri remote on our Apple TV. We have an Echo Dot at home that he loves to ask Alexa about the weather, add things to our shopping list and ask it to play music and tell jokes. Ryan isn’t good at structuring his sentences in the perfect way to get the best response — he’s six — so even with the Alexa, it’s hit or miss.
We all know that voice assistants have to get better before they become the primary interface for our cars and devices, but I think it’s telling that a six-year-old who believes he could grow up and invent invisible rockets that will take us to the outer reaches of the solar system has zero confidence that Siri could ever get him to his Grandma’s house.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on April 22, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
But maybe a picnic isn’t your only option.
Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 44.
It only takes one person to destroy what should be a fun time. One angry cloud. One person without perspective. One person committed to making people miserable. One unexpected storm. One person convinced that they are more important than everyone around them. And when that storm hits, it’s pretty much impossible to enjoy the picnic.
When the rain is coming down, no one will blame you if you pack up and go home. But it isn’t your only option. You can tough it out (and dance in the rain). You can change your plans and get away from the rain. The choice is up to you.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on April 15, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
Pizza and Pixels
Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 43.
When I was a kid in the 1980s, we frequently ate at a neighborhood pizza place called Orlando’s Pizza. I don’t really remember that much about the pizza, but we always wanted to go there so the food must have been good.
In the back of the restaurant was a small arcade. “Arcade” is a little generous. It was at most four or five machines. After I finished my pizza I’d head to the back of the restaurant. If I had a quarter, I’d play. Or just watch the machines cycle through their demo screens. I played Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Galaga for the first time at the pizza joint.
It’s hard to imagine now, when the phone that we carry in our pockets play an endless selection of infinitely more complex games, but those arcade games were my first real exposure to computers. Our family eventually bought several Commodore computers, but my love of video games and technology can probably be tracked back to Orlando’s.
The restaurant is long gone, but I wanted to commemorate it with a redesign, renaming Orlando’s Pizza to Orlando’s Pizza and Pixels. And it was an excuse to turn a slice of pizza into an apostrophe.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on April 8, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
Ten years of Fontstruct
Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 42.
Ten years ago, I came across a web app called Fontstruct that allowed me to build modular type. I signed up and produced my first typeface, Pixa, which must have been terrible because I deleted it. But I blogged about Fontstruct and Pixa on April 6, so considering the site launched on April 1, I must have been one of the first wave of users.
Since then, I’ve released dozens of typefaces through Fontstruct. Some of these designs have been selected as Top Picks and some are pretty bad. Fontstruct designs have served as prototypes for several of my commercial designs. I don’t create much on Fontstruct anymore, but every so often, I’ll show up and enter one of their contests or knock out a quick idea that’s rolling around in my head. I love creating type, and Fontstruct is absolutely fun to create in. I really do need to find time to build more on Fontstruct.
It’s really amazing how the tool and the community has evolved over the last ten years. Users are building increasingly complex typefaces and now with the Google Fonts integration, the better designs might get a wider audience.
To commemorate joining the Fontstruct community ten years ago, I wanted to make a shirt featuring one of my glyphs… but which one? One of my pixel art designs seemed like a good idea, so I settled on my favorite robot from the original “Dingbots and Monsters.”
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on April 1, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
Exit only
Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 41.
I love Easter Sunday. The sunrise service. The hymns. The special music. The flowers. But most of all, I love the joy and the excitement. After the reflection of the Lenten season and Holy Week, we celebrate — we rejoice — that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead.
The release date for this week’s shirt falls on Easter. The stone is rolled back and our savior exits the tomb.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on March 24, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
No one ever wants to eat there…
Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 40.
When I was little, we lived in Stanley, North Carolina. Every so often on the weekend, we’d make the trek over to Gastonia to have dinner, go shopping or catch a movie. We’d drive along a road where every tree seemed to be covered in kudzu. If you aren’t familiar with kudzu, it’s a vine that grows relatively uncontrolled across the southeastern United States. It’s legendarily impossible to kill.
At some point on the trip, my dad would ask us where we wanted to eat. He’d give us three options, but the third option was always “Kudzu Palace.” Kudzu Palace didn’t exist, of course, but every time, my siblings and I would yell “Not Kudzu Palace!”
Now that I have kids, I often offer up Kudzu Palace as a dining option. Surprisingly, they never pick it either.
When I started this project, I actually planned to do a bunch of fake restaurants and brands. Kudzu Palace was one of the original ideas from my first set of sketches. The project has taken a different direction and the designs have been more conceptual, but I’m glad I finally got around to creating a shirt for my favorite fictional restaurant. Now, I’m wondering what’s on the menu.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on March 18, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
You can believe in both.
Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 39.
I recently read an article by Don Lincoln, a physicist at Fermilab* describing a potential new discovery that sheds light — pun intended — on the formation of the universe. But what struck me about the article is his discussion of what happened after the Big Bang, how the universe expanded and formed planets and stars.
For some reason, science advocates and religious advocates are diametrically opposed these days. If you believe in basic scientific principles, some people assume that you don’t believe in God. And if you are Christian, some people assume that you believe that science is a hoax and the earth is only 6,000 years old.
But I’ve never felt my faith in God and my belief in science have been at odds with one another. I believe in evolution, climate change and vaccination. I also believe in the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. I feel that modern science is just one of the tools that God has given us to experience and understand his creation. I can believe in God while accepting that the Earth formed in more than 6 days.
* I grew up in Batavia, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago and the location of Fermilab. I took many a field trip to the particle accelerator in our neighborhood.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on March 11, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
Everything is in the cloud now.
Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 38.
My first computer, a Commodore Vic 20, actually used cassette tapes for data storage. We upgraded to a Commodore 64 and it used a 5.25 inch floppy. So did the TRS-80 at school and the IBM PC at my dad’s office. When I got to high school, the 5.25 in drives gave way to 3.5 inch floppies. And while I was in college, the 3.5 inch floppy was replaced by a Iomega Zip drive that held an “amazing” 100 MB. Zip drives were popular until writeable CD-ROM drives became commonplace. Writeable DVDs seemed to be the natural next step, but USB thumb drives were cheaper and more convenient. Now, everything pretty much lives in the cloud.
There were — of course — storage devices that never caught on… I remember 44 MB and 88 MB SyQuest Drives. Iomega had a 1 GB Jaz Drive and introduced a 250 MB Zip drive to capitalize on the success on the 100 MB Zip Drive. Portable hard drives are still popular with people who need a lot of storage, but USB thumb drives are getting cheaper and increasing in capacity. Writable Blu-ray discs are expensive and take forever to burn.
I’ve watched computer storage evolve over the last 30+ years and now, we’ve reached a point where everything is in the cloud and there is very little reason to have physical media at all. There’s a part of me that misses carrying around all my files and projects and a collection of Zip disks, but I won’t miss the fear of losing a disk or having one fail catastrophically. Now, all my files are available to me on pretty much any device at pretty much any time.
This week’s shirt, “The Evolution of Storage” is a look back to the changes of how we store our important files and projects. Starting with 1.2 MB and spanning to the now seemingly infinite cloud.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on March 4, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
It matters what you write with…
Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 37.
Several years ago, I was looking for new podcasts to listen to. I was regularly listening to Upgrade with Jason Snell and Myke Hurley and Myke mentioned that he had another podcast, The Pen Addict. An entire podcast on pens? I was curious and so I downloaded an episode to check it out. It didn’t take long before I had a collection of different writing utensils, inks, bags and sketchbooks.
I’ve mentioned before how uncomfortable I am with my handwriting and writing in general, but with better tools, writing was far more enjoyable. I really like writing with a fountain pen. Choosing the ink and the right nib style. Cleaning and taking care of them. I love the feel of drawing with a good mechanical pencil. I adore sharpening a wooden pencil and getting a perfect point.
Most people don’t think about what they write with. They use the pen in the office supply cabinet or whatever happens to be laying around the house. The last wooden pencil they used was a cheap #2 in elementary school. There is nothing wrong with that approach, but I believe the experience of writing changes when you use a good pen or pencil.
One of my earliest sketches for this shirt-a-week project was a short, fat pencil and I refined it into this shirt, Pens and Pencils. I’m going to the Atlanta Pen Show in April and figured I’d release the shirt now so I can order one and wear it to the show.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on February 25, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
My lucky streaked started with a Commodore 64 game
Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 36.
I was in 6th grade and had saved my paper route money to buy “California Games” for my Commodore 64. I opened the box in the car on the drive home to look at the instructions and found a scratch off game card. Scratch off three circles and if they match, you win that prize. I scratched off three circles and they matched. I shouted in a mix of confusion and joy… “I won a jet ski! What’s a jet ski?” My mom didn’t believe me — and since she was driving, she got my older brother to take a look. He confirmed that I had, indeed, won a jet ski.
And that started one heck of a lucky streak. Over a couple of decades, I won a bunch of stuff… radio contests, door prize drawings, golf clubs, an iPod, season tickets for minor league hockey, software, a watch, a framed print and more. For a number of years, every time there was a door prize, I knew I was going to win it.* It was fun, although occasionally embarrassing. The streak seems to have ended a number of years ago, but I always wonder if the streak will ever kick back in.
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day and my own crazy luck, I wanted to create a “lucky” shirt. And since my beloved Commodore 64 had lovely eight bit graphics, I figured a pixelated pot of gold was the perfect tribute to my amazing lucky streak.
*Everyone asks if I ever won the lottery. I have not. Some odds are too impossible.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on February 18, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
You are responsible for every meme you share.
Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 35.
The school shooting in Florida this week was heartbreaking. Heartbreaking because of the loss of life. Heartbreaking because this keeps happening and no one acts to try and prevent it from happening again. Heartbreaking because I send my wife — a teacher — and three kids to school every day and pray that they are never placed in harm’s way.*
In the aftermath of the shooting, social media was … chaos. I know that friends were hurting and angry like I was. They wanted to make a point that something has to change. I get it, and yet, many of them were retweeting things that were false or exaggerated. Bogus stats. Exaggerated claims. Speculation.
Gun advocates were rushing to similarly harshly drawn conclusions. Recommending “solutions” like arming teachers. Tweeting and retweeting false or inflammatory statements — anything they could do to shift the blame towards something other than the American gun culture.
And as if that wasn’t enough chaos, Russian bots jumped into the fray stirring up trouble in their own way.
Here’s the thing, though. When you push false or hastily checked information, your side in the debate suffers. Even if you are mostly right, the minute you stop offering facts and a path forward, you lose credibility.
Retweeting — or sharing on Facebook — information that you don’t know is true, but you want to be true… it does more harm than good. You are as responsible for the things you retweet as the posts your write yourself. When you share something, you personally endorse that you believe it. So spend a few minutes researching before you hit the retweet button.
Twitter and Facebook reward the quick retweet or share.** They are designed to allow you to react with minimal thought. Don’t fall for it. Don’t feed the outrage machine — there’s enough to genuinely be outraged by. Think and help advance the discussion, because something has to change and we have to get there together.
* Heartbreaking because I know the feeling of fear that comes with a lockdown. I’ve been in a active shooter situation twice in the last five years. Once at the University of South Carolina because of a murder-suicide. And once with my entire family at a local mall when there was an apparent shooting.
** I’m beginning to appreciate Manton’s hesitation in introducing reposting to Micro.Blog.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on February 11, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
Getting excited about space again.
Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 34.
I grew up fascinated with space. I had books on the space shuttle. I wanted to go to Space Camp.* I watched movies and documentaries about the Apollo program. I remember the loss of Challenger. And the loss of Columbia. As the shuttle program came to an end, I followed along with the International Space Station and all the probes and rovers that we’ve sent out to the solar system. I listen to a podcast about space regularly. But with our future of space exploration in doubt, I admit that my excitement has waned a bit over the years.
This week, Space X reignited that excitement.
Falcon Heavy — the largest rocket launched since the Saturn 5 took astronauts to the moon — completed a successful test launch.
The launch was spectacular, but for me the highlight was the landing of two boosters in unison. Online, I saw too many people focused on the Tesla Roadster now floating towards the Kiper belt, or the loss of the third booster. But the Falcon Heavy represents the next step to returning to the moon, and maybe someday heading to Mars. Falcon Heavy is a big deal, and the test was a massive success.
“The launch was spectacular, but for me the highlight was the landing of two boosters in unison.”
I started the day as the only one I knew excited about the launch. I gathered my coworkers around the screen as I watched the launch live — with commentary from Jason and Stephen from the Liftoff Podcast. Some of them weren’t sure what it was a big deal. Others had no idea there was a launch happening. But it was wonderful to share the experience with my friends.
Later, after dinner, I shared the video with my wife and kids when I got home and talked about the launch and space exploration in general. Space X and Falcon Heavy have given people a reason to be excited about space again. I hope they continue to push forward.
* And yes, this probably had something to do with the movie, Space Camp.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
This post was originally posted on February 5, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.
Ten years of Sketchbook B
Ten years ago today, I launched this blog. My plan was to use Sketchbook B as a home for a bunch of side projects that were rattling around in my head. Typefaces and photography, mostly. I’d spent most of my career up to that point as an art director in the insurance industry and I needed a home for more creative endeavors — projects that would keep me energized when the day job was a little too straightforward.
Over the last decade, I’ve averaged about a post a week. Roughly 520 posts. And while I’ve posted about creative projects, I’ve also written about just about everything else you can imagine. I’ve written about my community. I’ve gone through phases where I was providing weekly InDesign tips. I split out an entire “off-topic” blog. And then I merged it back in with the main blog. I added Google ads. I took them out. I’ve written long posts and short posts. I’ve written about social media, pens, cars and popular culture. It’s been an ongoing experiment.
In 2016, I tried to get serious about Sketchbook B. And by serious, I mean that I tried to have a publishing schedule and build an audience. In the process, I stopped writing the things I wanted to write and started writing things I thought my “audience” would read. Two things happened… my traffic increased slightly and I no longer enjoyed writing posts.
As 2016 came to an end, I knew I needed to make a change and started to think back to why I started Sketchbook B. It was a creative outlet. It was my creative outlet. I needed to start writing for me and stop writing for statistics.
“I needed to start writing for me and stop writing for statistics.”
I spent a day at a coffee shop that December thinking and sketching. Planning. In January, I stumbled across the Micro.Blog kickstarter that made me think even more critically about my writing online. I read Stephen King’s “On Writing” which really challenged me to think about what I was writing — and more importantly — why I was writing.
That process led directly to the 52 Shirts project that I’m in the middle of. I love designing the shirts, but I also love writing the blog post that explains what I’ve created. I tell people all the time that the project isn’t just the shirt design, it’s the design and the explanation.
I’m writing about topics that interest me again. And two things have happened… my traffic has increased slightly and I love writing.
So here I am, ten years into this blog and I feel like I’ve finally found my voice. I’m excited to be writing regularly. I’m becoming a stronger writer and recognizing areas where I need to improve. I’m working hard to push outside my comfort zone.
I’ve got some plans for what I want to do over the next couple years with Sketchbook B. Plans can change, but I’m looking forward to what’s ahead.
And most importantly, I can honestly say that I’m more excited about Sketchbook B today than I was ten years ago when I launched it.
Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.
