Aaron Draplin has quickly become one of my design heroes. If you don’t have design heroes and you are a designer… you should find some, or call me and I will give you some to pick from. For starters though, Aaron Draplin.
Anywho. This guy is the most down to earth, real talk, no BS guy that you will ever hear speak. He has an amazing beard and curses like a sailor and I love every second of it. It will be a life goal of mine to find this dude and throw a bear hug on him. Okay sorry, moving on. I have not yet had the honor to hear Draplin speak live but he has plenty of good videos on YouTube expressing his philosophies on not just design but also life. Here is one video to take a look at: video.
To generally sum up the video: (which is extremely difficult to do) work really damn hard, don’t complain, do some shit for free, do some shit for yourself, work with people you like, surround yourself in cool shit, take your pants off, buy some target sweatpants, sketch a lot, always have a camera, move to someplace cool that you like, do your research, travel anywhere someone will send you, talk to anyone that will talk to you, be yourself. Okay that is a lot of stuff, you really just have to watch the video it’s freaking great.
The thing however that stuck with me the most throughout the video is that he really is all about appreciating the history of design. He is respecting where the roots of design came from. Shape, line, color, negative space, etc. He genuinely has a respect for the rules and continues to make what DID work, work TODAY. That appreciation of the roots of design shines through in all of his works and in his working process as well.
For more information scrounge YouTube or visit Draplin’s website. Draplin.com. Pick up a copy of his book: Pretty Much Everything. Or come back here, I’m sure I will write more about him in the future!
That is it for now!
-G
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