The Illford film, just after rewind.

Since the dawn of the digital age, my Nikon film camera has sat on a shelf in my closet, sad and unused. In its past life, my Nikon came everywhere with me. Now I have a flashy new digital Leica that accompanies me through life.

Jesse vs. Lisa is a new feature on Jesse’s blog. Click here to see the results of the first shoot out. As we were planning for the second shoot out, we decided it would be fun to go old school and shoot film. We found our old film cameras and dusted them off. To my surprise, my camera was fully loaded with Illford 400 speed black and white film! The camera also had a dead battery so I didn’t know how many of the 36 exposures had been shot.

After a trip to West Photo in Minneapolis, I loaded the fresh batteries. The digital display read eight (my favorite number). Did that mean I had taken eight exposures or had eight left? That was an easy question to answer. A shot later I knew I had now taken nine pictures. A short walk with Jesse and Toby took care of the remaining frames.

Shooting the “old fashioned” film reminded me of a few things. One: not everything in life is instant. I tried to look at the back of the camera multiple times to view the shot I had just taken. Two: celebrate the little things like getting 38 exposures on a 36 exposure film canister. Three: anticipation is one of life’s greatest gifts. I can’t wait for the stores to open tomorrow so I can go drop off my film!

Until then, I will ponder. When was film loaded? What is going to develop on the mysterious first eight shots? I hope the film is still good after all this time. For now, I’m experiencing a lesson in patience!

My new Kodak Tmax 3200 ISO film for Jesse vs. Lisa shoot out number two.

Have you ever seen a really good idea, and thought to yourself, “Gosh, why didn’t I think of that?” We’ve all been there.

I recently wrote about what inspires me. What I didn’t mention are the times I’ve been inspired by someone else’s idea. Sometimes the best ideas are recycled—new and improved versions of the same old idea. Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely not talking about copyright infringement or plagiarism.

It is more than okay to be inspired by another person’s idea. In fact, sometimes I think the human race exists simply to think of the next best thing. We strive to be creative and constantly improve on the ideas of the past. If we didn’t think this way, and collaborate on this level, we as a people wouldn’t be where we are today.

There’s no reason to re-invent the wheel. But brainstorm different ways to use the wheel.

My all time favorite movie is Amélie. It’s a french film with subtitles, but don’t let that scare you away from watching it! French is very long winded which gives you more than enough time to read the English subtitles AND watch the motion picture.

Why is this movie my favorite? Amazing storytelling, beautiful cinematography, brilliant acting, lovely music. And full of emotion (including humor). The coloring of the film is also quite beautiful, with pops of red and green throughout.

Without giving away too much, I want to share a few things from the movie and how the film may have inspired other ideas.

1. Photo booths have great significance in the film. Which has inspired Jesse and I to have our photos taken in an old fashioned photo booth at the Minnesota State Fair every year (6 years and counting).

2. The entire movie is narrated brilliantly. But the beginning and ending of the movie are the most interesting. The narrative is very factual and descriptive. The beginning describes random things that happened at the moment of conception that resulted in the birth of Amélie Poulain. The ending narration describes things that occurred in the moment Amélie realized happiness with Nino: the marshmallow twister twists at the funfair, at Sacré Coeur the Cardinals are practicing their backhands, the temperature is 24 degrees Celsius and the atmospheric pressure is 999 millibars. I can only imagine that these scenes provided inspiration for the Sprint commercial counting the occurrences happening right now in Sprint’s “Now Network.” (View commercial here.)

3. Amélie’s father has always wanted to travel the world, yet he hasn’t. In order to get her father to travel, Amélie borrows his yard gnome and sends it with her flight attendant friend, in order to photograph the gnome enjoying all the splendors of the world. She then has the Polaroid photos sent to her father as a way to coerce him into traveling and enjoying his retirement. Is it a coincidence that Travelosity uses a gnome in their ad campaigns? (View commercial here.)

In summary, if you happen upon someone else’s idea and have a brilliant way to interpret it for your own purposes, go for it. And by the way, if you haven’t yet, watch the film Amélie.

Photo Booth: 2008 MN State Fair ©2008 Jesse Valley Photography

Two thumbs up! Must see!

Good Earth Tea is the best tasting tea on the market. I love their “Original” flavor. Best of all, it comes in a decaf version just for me. My husband and co-workers can testify to what caffeine consumption does to me! Yikes! It’s pretty funny that caffeine can effect people so differently. If I drink a coffee or soda first thing in the morning, you can bet I won’t be sleeping a wink that night. My husband Jesse, on the other hand, could drink four cups of espresso and then hit the sack.

Jesse drinks a lot of coffee and tea. It’s pretty normal for me to find his discarded tea bags in the sink, post steep. A few days ago I came across these tea bags and took this photo as they lay. I love that Good Earth inscribes each tea bag with an inspirational quote. Enjoy.

What things make you go “hmmmm?” What moves your intellect and emotions? What inspires you?

Things that inspire me:
1. Reading books and articles
2. Viewing art at museums
3. Listening to people talk about their passions
4. Seeing color. all color, everywhere, all the time.
6. Seeing shapes, how pieces fit together
5. Finding things that use the Fibonacci sequence.
6. Observing texture.

Of all the things on this list, texture is the one thing that inspires me the most. I enjoy observing both visual and tactile texture. Visual texture can be found in grasses and polka dots; the way stuff looks. And tactile texture is the way stuff feels, like cashmere and sandpaper.

My obsession with texture is probably why I also have an obsession with paper. My favorite paper collection is Neenah’s Eames collection, which contains paper with lovely textures. More on paper in a future post.

Repetition is probably my favorite design element. I think this is why I am so inspired by textures. Which leads me to explaining the photos below. When I was at the Westwood Nature Center last week, I captured these images. I was obviously inspired by texture in nature.

Fungus growing on a tree. The texture was soft and hard at the same time. I love the cracks, yet the substance seemed soft.

A rusty fire pit. I love both the color and the rough texture.

A rotting log. Beautiful sunset light really shows off the colors in this decomposing wood. I also like the woodpecker holes.

I love the repetition of the bark on this tree.

Lichens growing on a park bench. Love the color and flower like shapes.

Dry, dead grass. The pattern is like controlled anarchy (oxymoron?).

Close up of a leaf. Soft substance, crisp veins. Lovely monotone.

Decomposing tree trunk. I like all the random pieces that make up a whole.

All photos ©2009 Lisa Valley.

Introducing the complete palette. In the words of Katy Perry, it’s hot and it’s cold, it’s yes and it’s no, it’s in and it’s out, it’s up and it’s down. These jewel-tone hues balance each other out. Calm, cool and collected combined with hot, hyper and highly-enthusiastic.

As with most families, the apples didn’t fall far from the trees. 221 shares characteristics like an outgoing personality with 7406. (I’ve heard some say they are the life of the party!) 519 and 3025 are loyal and dependable friends.

While each color definitely has it’s own personality, they stand together united as a family.

Random thought No. 1: I love a good windy day. The gloriously large trees swaying, newly greened leaves floating, waving above the world. I notice the trees in all their majesty. I see the array of spring greens mixed with in between hues and dark evergreen needles.  It’s nearing sunset and I just had an amazing drive home from work.

I love wind. I can’t actually see it, grasp it. But it’s there. Dust blowing, small branches falling. The feeling of air whooshing past my face. Thoughts of wind remind me that in this life, very few things are within my control. And as weird as it sounds, it’s a comforting thought today. All I can ever do is my best. The outside forces may wreak havoc on my life, but I still have control over myself. I believe in fate, that God has a plan for my life. It’s there that I find comfort today.

Random thought No. 2: I love the Best Buy Rewards program. Today I realized I had $50 in Best Buy Rewards that were about to expire. So I called Jesse and had him meet me at the store after work. Now the next question: What to get? I know how rewards programs work, get me back in the store to spend even more money. I headed to the DVD department.

Now, I think I should explain how Jesse and I pick out rentals at the video store. When we aren’t in a hurry, we each pick out one movie and then argue their merits. At times, this includes a dramatized reading of the synopsis by me, right there in the store. It’s a great way to pick movies when in a group setting. Everyone gets to choose one, then everyone votes, argues and ultimately one movie is rented. We used this same idea at Best Buy today to pick out our freebies.

After we chose our items (I picked the Office season one and Jesse picked the Tudors season two) we walked past the iPod section which brings me to random thought number three.

Random thought No. 3: Jesse says, “How much smaller do you think they could make an iPod?” I respond with, “Next is the iPod pill. All you do is swallow it. Then say out loud what song you want to hear, and bingo! You can hear the music.”

And then I go on, “Actually, that is a pretty bad idea. Perhaps the worst. In conversation you will probably randomly say song titles with out realizing it, and songs will start to blast in your ears at inopportune times. Then when you say the command to stop the music, there is a song called ‘Stop’ that starts playing in your ears. It is a vicious cycle that doesn’t end once the pill is swallowed, not unlike the Matrix.”

I love going to design lectures at the Walker Art Center. I enjoy observing and understanding other people’s world views and opinions. I like to hear about design issues, challenges and solutions. I appreciate the connection I have with a speaker just because we are both designers and can laugh about the same scenarios that happen where ever you work.

Designers crave control. We see our ideas birthed, coddled and then released into the big, bad world. We create brand standards because we don’t want bad things to happen to good design.

To me, the most interesting concept in this lecture was that the Obama campaign didn’t police their logo. The campaign wanted to empower their supporters, so they made the logo available for download on the website. During the course of the election, the Obama logo appeared everywhere: in grafitti on a traffic sign, on homemade lawn signs and even cut into a hairstyle! There were people who altered the logo, both good and bad. My favorite alteration of the logo is the “Pirates for Obama” t-shirt (see photo below). There was even a website created called Logobama where you could personalize the Obama logo with a photo of your face!

The reason the Obama campaign didn’t police the usage of their logo is two fold. One: their grassroots effort and need to empower supporters was important. Two: They had more important priorities, like gaining support, registering voters and ultimately getting Obama elected to office.

Which brings me to my point. The lecture reminded me that we as designers need to choose our battles. Is a design going to always remain true to our brilliant concept? Maybe not. Sometimes we need to make decisions for the greater good that may undermine design rules but do right by our clients. For Scott Thomas, design director of the Obama campaign, it was far more important to get the message out than to nit pick the imperfections and dilly daddle on disseminating.

The lecture was good. Paul Schmelzer was moderator. He introduced the topic of campaign design by relating back to Minnesota elections such as Wellstone, Ventura, and Humphrey. Sol Sender is the creator of the Obama campaign logo. He showed us the other design ideas that his team conceived. Scott Thomas was the design director of the Obama campaign, focusing primarily on web communications. He discussed how keeping things simple is the best way to a great result. I give the lecture two thumbs up for presenting relevant information and making me think.