I love this Toronto Life interview with one of my favorite jewelry designers, Maryam Keyhani. Such an inspiration! I love this snippet below:

“When I get orders from people by e-mail, I google them first because I want to know who’s buying me. It’s so personal; the necklaces are made from things I’ve been collecting for years.”

LINK:  MARYAM KEYHANI on TORONTO LIFE

Boy do I have a treat for you guys this morning. If you’re a bit of a magazine junkie (like me!), you’ve undoubtedly heard the buzz of the newest mag in town: Anthology. Because I love to support start-ups, independent businesses and the beauty of print, I was thrilled to offer Meg Mateo Ilasco (creative director of Anthology and all-around goddess of publishing) a spot on Design for Mankind to chat about the mag.

Read on for some serious inspiration. And take notes. This Anthology team is smart, and this mag is going to be huuuuge. Take it away, Meg!

1. Tell us how the magazine came about. Pure inspirational moment? Years of ruminating?
When magazines like Blueprint and Domino folded, it left a huge void for a lot of people, including us. Anh-Minh (Editor-in-Chief) and I have such a DIY ethos; If we can’t find what we want (like a good shelter magazine), it just means we have to make it ourselves! And that’s exactly what happened: Anh-Minh and I independently began considering launching a magazine last year. When I found out last year that she wanted to start one, I basically said, “So do I!” After we had a conversation about it, we realized that we both had the same ideals, goals, and rigor about starting a shelter publication. It was a good fit. We began working on the magazine at the beginning of the year.

2. I’m so, so thrilled to see a print magazine blooming up to fight the odds. Why did you decide to go the print route, rather than publish an online magazine?
We actually never considered anything else but print. It was never a decision; it was an objective.

3. You’ve gathered a fantastic team for the premiere issue! How did you select the people involved?
We rounded up 23 freelancers for the first issue. Because of our experience in publishing—Anh-Minh as a columnist for the SF Chronicle and mine as an author and book designer—we were lucky to have worked with so many talented photographers, illustrators, writers, and designers before we started the magazine. We pulled from our personal contacts and also reached out to people we wanted to work with.

When I began thinking about the video in April, I wanted there to be a dual message: one announcing our magazine and another showing how print and paper are important in our lives. I drafted the concept of a woman going through her day and how paper (specifically a magazine) is a big, but subtle part of her daily experience. Even though I knew it was going to be a ton of work, I also wanted much of the set and the props to be made from paper.

When I brought the idea to Thayer Allyson Gowdy, the director, she was able to bring more dimensionality to my original concept. Her assistant, Maren Patton, produced the film, rounding up the talent (from editing and lighting to selecting a fashion stylist and model). My favorite part of the experience was developing the set design and styling. I also enjoyed making many of props in the video, including the cardboard typewriter—it was nice to craft things with my hands for a change!

As for the magazine cover, there’s definitely a throwback quality to it. There was a time when most magazine covers weren’t seducing you with catchy headlines or top 10 lists, rather they were pieces of art, something that could be framed. Vintage Harpers Bazaar and Vogue covers are so inspiring and a testament to how illustrations can be just as powerful and moving as photographs. It’s shame that we don’t see more illustrated magazine covers.

–

Thanks, Meg!
p.s. You may remember Anh-Minh Le from The Dailies, our virtual stalking series! See her day right here.

8:58am:

Goooood morning, Durham. It’s approximately one million degrees out today.  (Most) everyone is up and ready for work.  Five minutes from now, the mad dash to the coffee maker ensues.  Let the workday begin…

9:05am:

…and the workday has begun.  Most of us spend this early morning time catching up on emails, doing the rounds with our daily blog reads, preparing for our morning meeting or updating OK Great.

9:45am:

Steve pops the giant Swiss ball he uses as a chair.  Because he’s morbidly obese.    This wakes everyone up a bit.

10:00am:

Monday morning meeting!  Every Monday at ten(ish), we all grab a coffee and gather around our conference table to regroup and go over the week’s projects.

This week it’s a handful of logos we’re developing, a book layout and a seriously complex architecture website.

11:15am:

Puppy timeeeeeee.  We have two dogs in the office today (there are four altogether) and they need their legs stretched.  Time to go out to the “Itsnota” park (it’s not a park, technically) next to our building and play some fetch.  Asa is crazy.

11:29am:

The grind kicks in.  Kristy’s on the phone with clients, designers are tweaking logo concepts for a creative session/review we’re having later in the day, Joe’s relentlessly draining Diet Pepsi and coding like a madman and the Shins are playing on an extra computer.
12:37pm:

Lunchtime(ish)!  We all went our separate ways for lunch but here are the highlights: a turkey & swiss sandwich, a Veggie Deluxe Burrito from the Cosmic Cantina, juice boxes, hard boiled eggs, apples, turkey & ham at Subway, soup, a veggie burger, peppers and feta on a pita and some cheese pizza!

1:10pm:

After lunch, we all head down the block to Locopops (ilovelocopops.com) for some afternoon popsicles.  Locopops is arguably everyone’s favorite place to take our team field trips (Locopops is a local phenomenon.  It’s a traditional Mexican popsicle shop.  So excellent!)

Woody gets a Mexican Chocolate, Ellie gets Toasted Sesame Seed, Kristy gets Chocolate Brownie, Steve & Yoli get Pomegranite Tangerine, Brendan gets a Grape Apple, Nicole gets Pineapple Lime and Dylan orders a Cucumber and Ginger. Viva Locopops!

1:30pm:

Brendan has been working on logo concepts for a human rights center that focuses on civil and international human rights and their interconnectedness.  Through an extremely complicated system of moderation, facilitation and consensus that we like to call “talking it out”, we hash through the various aesthetic approaches and select a handful to develop.

Some employ gritty, deteriorated looks with a conservative concept and some lean towards a more corporate, polished feel while the underlying message is much more polarizing and raw.   And there are pretty colors!

3:15pm:

K-N-O-C-K-O-U-T!  Three o’clock means serious basketball at Flywheel — a ritual we partake in almost everyday.  It’s a great way to blow off some steam and clear our heads.  Brendan wins the first game,  Nicole wins the second and Kristy wins the third.  Steve’s too busy pulling off ridiculous dunks to actually win.

4:00pm:

Ellie and Nicole take a fieldtrip to Garner for a press check on a fluorescent brochure we’ve been working on. After somehow finding the completely unmarked building, we’re given a grand tour, during which Ellie tested the extent of our printing rep’s knowledge by quizzing him about the mechanics of the press. We saw lots of machines and even got to crawl up on the big press and see the insides. It was neat, and our piece looked great!

5:30pm:

By 5:30, we’re all filtering out of the office and back to our respective homes.  Joe heads down to the Pinhook, an excellent bar across the street, (& our favorite watering hole) to imbibe in a post-workday bourbon.  Mmm.

Thank you, goodnight.

The sweet Jess Goldfond of Shiny Squirrel fame has posted a lovely interview with me, where I dish on Mankind Mag, creative energy and well… pretty much everything else.

Enjoy, and thank you, Jess!

Link:  THE SHINY SQUIRREL

Are you skilled in the self-discipline department, or do you lack the motivation to manage yourself? Procrastination: Friend or foe?

Today’s Dialogue is all about the glorious aspects of task management—find out how Kelly Lynn Jones, Faythe Levine and Lisa Solomon manage their time and how they reward themselves when they complete a project!

How about you? How are you in the art of procrastination? Any tips for time/task management? Comment below to start your own dialogue!

IN THIS EPISODE:  KELLY LYNN JONES LISA SOLOMON FAYTHE LEVINE
Link:  Dialogue on Design for Mankind

Jessie, one of my favorite budding authors, asked me a few questions for her university newspaper. So, if you want to know what life’s like for a crazy, feel free to check it out.

Link:  Imprint Magazine