Maybe I’m starting to feel old. I just turned 28. 30 is looming close. I realize that’s not old by most standards, but it feels like a milestone I’d rather not reach. Either way, I’m realizing I’m not producing enough work. I have lots of initiatives and projects, but often as a result of sacrificing time for the design & writing work I love to do.

So, I am going to try and do 28 things, 28 times, in my 28th year. 28×28. I realize that is 784 possible things. That’s more than 2 things per day. Some may overlap and I’m guessing most won’t even happen. Never-the-less, here is my attempt to do 28 things 28 times. And I have to be happy with all of them, I can’t just phone them in. Which likely means I’ll do all of these 3 times. We’ll see.

28×28

1. Make 28 screen prints
2. Read & review 28 books
3. Design on 28 vinyl toys
4. Make 28 books
5. Make 28 tops
6. Make 28 characters
7. Make 28 toy prototypes
8. 28 pieces of public design
9. Make a 28 page magazine
10. Take 28 photographs & print them
11. Write 28 short stories
12. Write 28 blog or magazine articles
13. Make 28 movies that are 28 seconds long
14. Make 28 wood/cardboard based somethings
15. Make 28 button designs
16. Draw 28 characters of an alphabet
17. Draw 28 new pandas
18. Write 28 design history articles
19. Make 28 life icons/tear sheet
20. Make 28 event posters
21. Make 28 3D Models
22. Make 28 self-logos
23. Make 28 quote posters
24. Paint 28 paintings
25. Make 28 patterns
26. Make 28 t-shirt designs
27. Paint on 28 objects
28. Put all this shit in a book, make 28 copies.

There, now its on the internet, which means I’m accountable to finish these all. 51 weeks til I’m 29.

Here we go…

The Phoenix Design Museum is a pop-up concept meant to highlight Phoenix and its unique culture and community. We’ve put together a collection of exhibitions in the oldest warehouse in Phoenix on an extremely limited budget and with the hard work of a small team of dedicated, passionate individuals.

This warehouse is owned by Michael Levine, whose devotion to the historical preservation of buildings in downtown Phoenix is inspirational, to say the least. In working with him on this project, the entire team has been motivated, learned about the history of our city and grown to appreciate stories that are not told often enough.

We are working with Mookesh Patel and the White family to catalogue the late Ken White’s archives, which include journals and teaching materials, in addition to the posters on display in this space. This collection’s importance to the history of design is immediately evident in the work shown, and the impact will be even more clear when we’re able to share his entire story.

We spent countless hours over the past month and a half cleaning and restoring portions of this 106 year old building. Late nights and hard work because we care about design, we care about the history of our city and giving new voice to the power of our citizens. This museum, open for a month only at a time in different locations, is meant to be an ephemeral experience, an added story in the timeline of the history of this building and the history of Phoenix.

Not only do we realize this is not like other museums, we embrace it. We create experiences beyond just being inspired by the work being shown, but by the place you live in, the community you are a part of.

The museum is also a collaboration across the country, showing the breadth of influence that design can have in bringing people together. This project will be done in Chicago, as an extension and partner of the museum in Phoenix

We hope you appreciate the time and effort that went into this pop-up. We also hope you take home something to your city and find ways to use design to better your community and those around you.

And most of all, we hope to see you when we do it all again.

Signed:
Mark Dudlik
Tanner Woodford
Andrew Coppola
Jim Nissen
Kris Olmon
Raquel Raney

We’re doing a couple short-term “pop-up” ideas that will be happening in October as part of Phoenix Design Week[s].

One of those is the Phoenix Design Museum. The museum will be open first for the month of October and feature two traveling exhibitions as well as a selection from part of the permanent collection. Yes, the permanent collection. While the idea is to have the museum be limited engagement exhibitions, there are also plans to develop archives and create materials (books, posters, etc) for them. Last week, we got a huge and amazing donation that I will talk about when the details are finalized. Phoenix is going to have a Design Museum in October. I’ll admit, it’s still weird saying it out-loud.

Another project that we’ve been working on is Ignorance & Ambition. It’s also a “pop-up” and it’s going to be the shop for the museum. I think its going to be amazing to have a museum shop that only has limited edition, locally designed products. There are 30 designers and counting participating and a lot of fun things that they’re all going to make.

Part of the Museum + I&A is generating some money to get these things going. To do that, we started with a t-shirt sale. There are 3 shirts created by store participants (and myself) that will be available for another two weeks over at http://ignoranceandambition.com. (You can also find out why the crazy name.) They are limited edition as well, in keeping with the store. They are only available for the 30 days they are on sale at the site, then gone forever!

We’ll be doing this every month, year round.

The shirts are being produced by Tumble Tees and the proceeds go to funding the Museum/Store and getting things going. We had thought of doing a Kickstarter or something similar, but why not let the designers excellent work speak for itself?

I’ll keep everyone updated, but in the mean time, buy a shirt and keep your ears/eyes open for all the amazing stuff happening in Phoenix this fall.

My Day Job
Opening a Museum
Opening a Store
Managing a 2 week design event.
Making a book
Dating
Having sex with all of your mothers.

I started to embrace these limitation, and my own shortcomings. I even changed my twitter handle to mediocre asshole. I think it was a good call, but enough people told me I was being stupid for me to second guess myself. Changed it back. Still believe it to be more accurate though.

The main argument seemed to be that I was neither of those words. I disagree wholeheartedly. The asshole portion is debatable depending on who you are, but in general, I can be a dick.

The mediocre part however is beyond contention. I know what my work could be. I know that I’m so far from being exceptional that its laughable. And I know that I’m not going to get much further along in my skills/career/success than I am right now.

Why? Well…I don’t know. I just think I’ve reached my limit. I’ve done some cool stuff, but nothing extraordinary, and nothing that couldn’t be done by someone else, probably better.

This all might be a symptom of me being in some kind of rut. I’m bored with myself, perhaps. But either way, I know that I’m not doing anything groundbreaking, and I know that I’m not going to make any “top 30 under 30″ lists in the next 3 years, without something drastic happening.

Maybe I can grow by accepting that this is the best I will be. My mediocrity, my average-ness is a blessing. I don’t have to sit around and think I can change the world. I don’t have to sit around and pretend that I could get a kickstarter for 100K for my stupid book that I haven’t even written yet. I don’t have to pretend that if only I could give a speech, people would invite me to all their conferences to speak about design. Pfft. I’m nothing special kids. (Potential Fight Club quote commenters: Save it.) I’m crap, and that’s acceptable.

This is not some post meant to have people tell me I’m wrong. I know I’m right, and fuck you if you try and say otherwise. I don’t need your stupid compliments. What I need is to enjoy what I’m doing again, and that’s borderline impossible. Because what the fuck am I even doing anyway? I have no fucking clue.

And that’s okay I think. Or is it? Maybe I am stuck. This post is boring. Don’t read it. I probably should’ve started the post with a warning, but I’m too bored with this to scroll back up and fix it.

Publish.

While the event is meant as an outlet for the PHXDC, members of the Phoenix Design Community, this event has some speakers who might not seem to fit into the group on first glance.

The “theme” of this iteration of the event is “Urban Catalysts.” I invited people who have a deep passion for the urban environment. A passion which is influenced not just by aesthetic but by a desire for their surroundings to thrive. There’s also an unexpected theme of people who are hard to define, who do a number of things well, not being limited to just one field or career.

Cindi Farmer is a designer for the provost at ASU. She handles a lot of the university’s sites, from usability to accessibility to brand consistency. She also studies connected intelligence and broad ideas of collaboration and creativity.

Peter Wolf is “a recovering engineer” and a lecturer at ASU. He teaches design research, among other things. He also manages a community that addresses concerns related to the overpopulation of feral cats.

Jim McPherson has worked in the biosciences field in various parts of the country for years. He is also a staple for Arizona causes, helping with preservation and improvement throughout the valley.

Michael Levine is an engineer and an artist. He has been vital to restoring buildings in Phoenix, and has helped create some stunning spaces with adaptive reuse principles.

The Haymarket Squares is a collection of people who are musicians with day jobs in completely different areas. You can find them playing in clubs or on street corners.

While these may not scream “designer”, I think the lessons and value from listening to their stories and ideas will be something special, relevant, and important not to miss.

Apply at http://tedxphxdc.com by January 20th for the event happening January 26th. Hope to see you there.

Part 1: Mark Dudlik is not in charge of this shit.

Last year I wrote some angry letter. It spawned a whole awesome week of celebrating Phoenix designers and the work they do. And then, we did it again this year.

But I wasn’t expecting any kind of attention for me personally. I wanted it to be about the designers! I always did. No one praises the starting pistol during a race. The people running it are those who should be lauded. So I thought it weird to get any attention for basically facilitating other people’s excellence being shown.

But what was even more strange were some expectations put on me. Expectations of…I don’t even know how to categorize them. I have been criticized for not following everyone back on twitter, like I’m an elitist. I’ve even been criticized for having an opinion! Recently, I was told I can’t be “rude” if I am trying to be “that guy who wants to build community.”

I have censored myself somewhat, to be honest. I’ve kept certain thoughts constrained or to myself. Hell, I’ve essentially turned into a cheerleader. I started last year by trying to make the community better. I’d like to consider myself an ambassador, and nothing more. I am not some figurehead of what is essentially a hashtag and an idea: The Phoenix Design Community. I don’t feel like I should have to stop being opinionated or angry. I enjoy my ability to find a reason to hate almost anything. And I enjoy being vocal about my atheism, my dislike of certain political beliefs, and making dumb jokes about poop and sex (sometimes at the same time). I’m not a fucking robot.

Soo, fuck you. I’m an asshole. I don’t care.

That shouldn’t reflect on Design Week, or the #phxdc. I shouldn’t have to be everyone’s friend! My angry nature doesn’t exclude anyone from the stuff I work on, because its not MY stuff, its community things.

Even saying that I realize some people might say “Well if you’re an asshole, you’re going to push people away from things” and I don’t have an answer for that. I don’t feel like walking around with pom poms anymore though.

You don’t have to agree with my thoughts on (insert issue here) to find the common ground of a shared passion for design and Phoenix.

Part 2: Phoenix still isn’t that great.

But I still like to think my opinion holds some weight, so lets talk about where we we can improve. What are the problems the design community should overcome to continue to move forward. (And I can tell you its not who I’m following on twitter, or whether I call republicans fucking morons.)

I asked on twitter what people thought the key areas for improvement were. I’m taking some of those and expanding on them.

Patience.

There is a long road ahead of us towards making Phoenix better. And a long road of trial and error behind us. Its stupid to think we’re going to make huge leaps and strides in two years. And its stupid to pretend that those of us who are active on twitter are the only people working towards change.

We’ve accomplished a lot in the past 18 months. Honestly, other cities should look to us as a model of how to kick-start a movement. But there is still lots to do, and we need to not get frustrated in the meantime.

Cliques?

For some reason I don’t understand, the #phxdc idea is apparently giving off a “You’re not part of the club” vibe. I’ve heard people say it’s cliquey. I don’t know why. I know there are names that keep popping up. I know there are groups who work together a lot, but that’s not a clique, and I don’t think anyone is saying “you aren’t one of us!” It’s a community of designers, not a club. The above quote doesn’t reflect this entirely, but might be a symptom of it.

Critique

This may be counter to point two, but we should stop being cheerleaders as if everything is great. There are two ways to look at this: help those who aren’t doing great work to get better or stop praising them just for being vocal about their work. There’s no A for effort, but we tend to be promoting everything, even the mediocre.

We should start a dialogue on how best to openly criticize our peers. Otherwise, we keep saying people are great, when they aren’t, which makes our opinions less valuable.

Promote the best

I am a huge fan of SeeSaw Designs. They are going to be in Print magazine’s design annual this year. They are great! And so are lots of other people who can and should be right there next to them. How do we facilitate the promotion of our greatest creative assets without being seen as cliquey though? Or do we just rely on them to do it themselves, like Seesaw has.

Less competition!

I think its problematic when one person/group/website thinks they can serve the entire community of designers in this giant city. Don’t fight or criticize something just because its serving a similar purpose. Just be involved with both. The end.

More competition!

As much as there shouldn’t be a pointless “I’m better than you” mentality, I think we all improve when we measure ourselves against our best. I constantly look to some of our community’s great designers and see how I can improve myself to be on their level. I do this on a national level as well. It is the friendly competition and oneupsmanship of going against your friends, and enemies, that makes someone better at what they do, and in the end, elevates the community together.

We should find ways to promote these things, (you know, like Phoenix Layers does.)

Be outwardly facing more often.

We often talk about our accomplishments and how great our community is becoming. Which is cool, and accurate, but we should look for ways to tell others about the value of what we do. We need to convince those outside of our industry that they need us.

Some assholes just won’t get it.

We’re trying to build community. There will be people who criticize the focus, the intent, the reasoning. Ignore them.

In the end, we’re doing great things for our discipline. Keep it up.

Part 3: Stuff going on.

Phoenix Egotist started. It’s great. Visit, support, submit. I have nothing to do with it, despite what you may have heard (that kind of spawned this post as well, the assumption that I’m involved in everything.)

Joe di Stefano, Andrew Coppola and I are working on making an aggregated calendar site for design events in Phoenix. Should be helpful. More info as it develops.

AIGA has a ton of events they put on. Go to some. Join.

Co+Hoots is doing cool things with Phoenix Night Owls. Go!

MakeShift is coming back. Come!

We’re trying to put more things together on PHXDW.com, like the Dribbble invite list. (sorry, it’ll be up soon)

Go to PechaKucha on Friday.

What are you working on?

1. I’m going to bring Urban Forest Project to Phoenix. It’s in the works. I’m going to make it happen.

2. I’m going to open a pop-up design shop. I don’t know how to explain it, but I’m going to do it, in partnership with Tanner Woodford. CHIxPHX.

3. I’m going to open the Phoenix Design Museum. This is part of Dojo’s overall goals, and this will happen, in some form, in 2011.

4. I’m going to continue to help non-profits in Phoenix with Rapid Refresh and a planned design summit that will focus on long term projects.

5. I’m going to help make Phoenix Design Week 2011 a success, and help make Phoenix design & designers examples of excellence while the AIGA national conference is here.

The funny thing is, this just sounds like tip of the iceberg stuff to me. We’ll see how it all turns out.

Directions Poster Show – November 5th
TEDxPhoenix – November 6th
NightOwls – November 11th
PechaKucha – November 12th
Phoenix Brew Party – November 13th
MakeShift – November 18th
PodCampAZ – November 20 & 21.

Having participated in Startup Weekend Phoenix, I noticed why the teams were all so successful: Different skill sets! I know, I know, you are surprised too. Such a simple idea.

I am proposing an idea: The Design & Development Barter, shortened for ease and comedy to D&D. It’s a barter system, where a developer who has a passion project, fun idea, that they want to make more aesthetically functional can trade services with a designer who has a great project that they don’t know how to create a backend for. This could on a short-term basis (weekend project) or a longer term thing.

But, What else can it be? I’m not sure. I am reaching out for ideas, and (coincidentally enough) a developer to help Andrew Coppola & I to develop the site functionality.

Essentially the site would be a marketplace where you can list a project you want to do and then someone can agree to help, in exchange for you working on their project. “I’ve had this great idea, but i need someone to make it work.” or “I made this app, but it sucks for usability and looks like ass” Or it can be a collaboration on unstarted projects. “I want to do this, anyone want to help?” (It will NOT be for client work. There are other places for that.)

This was recently successful for Andrew Ryno and Jamie Martin who worked to make http://wtfshouldibeforhalloween.com. Teaming up to make something awesome. Something fun that didn’t need to be made, but why the hell not?

So, What do you guys think? Thoughts? Who wants to make this happen? Any ideas for how it could be the most useful?