You never notice the thing that lines up. You notice the one that's slightly off, and then you can't stop noticing it. That's most of what happens here: something a little out of alignment, taken apart to see what's underneath.
Two kids wanted to be somebody. J. Cole documented his entire life and career in the open. Henry Hill took the shortcut and got the table at the Copacabana. Sixteen years later I'm still working out which one of them got the better deal.
13 min read
Every tombstone gets two dates. I spent college setting them in type and never thought passion gets them too. On burning out, finding my way back, why "do what you love" is risky advice, and what I tell young designers instead.
11 min read
A creative director in an old Model T plant told me "no" at 22. Later in my career, an accelerator folded, a protocol didn't hold, and a marriage ended. Kanye asked what's left when it all falls down. I've had four chances to find out, and I'm still learning to let someone else answer.
8 min read
Two kids wanted to be somebody. J. Cole documented his entire life and career in the open. Henry Hill took the shortcut and got the table at the Copacabana. Sixteen years later I'm still working out which one of them got the better deal.
11 min read
I have never taken a design class. What I had was a photograph of a shoe in SLAM and a pirated copy of Photoshop, because a basketball video game got the sneakers wrong. Twenty five years later, that is still the whole method.
6 min read
The summer I was twelve my parents drove us six hours to see Crater Lake, and I refused to be impressed. Years later I found a $2 Rasheed Wallace card with that exact view behind him, and understood what I'd been looking at.
