Kate Moross : Make Your Own Luck : Graphic Design & Illustration Lecture

Last night, I attended AIGA Philly's Lecture with Kate Moross, entitled Make Your Own Luck. The event was held at CHAD (Charter High School for Architecture + Design), so as a bonus I got to check out some of the senior work on display before the lecture started. It took me back to my own high school art classes ~ though if I had gone to a High School especially for design, I would have had a MUCH better time ;)

CHAD Student Work : My favorite self portrait -great colors!

CHAD Student Work: Look closely - the beautiful pattern on this purse is also the artist's initials - AB!

Kate's lecture was very entertaining, though it wasn't quite what I expected. She talked a little bit in the beginning about how she started off as a very young designer and how she eventually built up to paying gigs, but the majority of her talk focused on how she had moved on to making music videos, both using film and rotoscope (a technique where illustrations are drawn over film stills - if you've seen the film Waking Life, you know what I'm talking about). While she didn't talk specifically on "how to make it" in the graphic design/illustration world, it was obvious that she had become successful by being bold, social, working non-stop, and not limiting herself to one style or medium (like her move from design to film). Kate said that if she ever found herself not knowing how to do something, she would simply look up a tutorial on the internet and/or hire someone that could do it better than her.

Kate Moross sharing the concept sketches she made for a rotoscope music video featuring Disclosure and Mary J. Blige

Though I was slightly disappointed there wasn't more "How to make it" advice (she did say she had toned down that aspect of her lecture because she mistakenly thought the AIGA crowd would be old & not interested in that part, haha), her work and tireless enthusiasm was incredibly inspiring, and there was some really good music. I also bought a copy of her book: Make Your Own Luck: A DIY Attitude to Graphic Design and Illustration, which talks about all the subjects I missed in her lecture. I am only about 1/2 way through, but so far enjoying it. It is very nicely designed, has great colors and very gorgeous paper for the cover and pages. You can buy it on Amazon after March 31, 2014.

So now, freshly inspired, it's back to the drawing board (literally) as I work on a new side for my business.....I just need to be more brave.....here I go......