When inspiration doesn't flow, I play the 'What If?' game in seven idea-stoking ways.
Seven Ways Writers Can Play ‘What If?’ To Get Inspired
Eureka! I Found a Workaround for the Utterly Awful WordPress Reader
Don't suffer with the inadequate WordPress.com Reader a moment longer. Here's how to follow your favorites in Feedly.
Collecting Eye Candy for Inspiration—and Fun
Collecting eye candy is a snap for most visual types. And it’s a harmless way to find inspiration for your own work.
How Can We Turn Distractions Into Focus?
The impulse to distraction will always be with us. But to find focus, we can look within, where our own best experts live.
Are Shelfies The New Selfies?
A shelfie seems like a generous way to share your library of ideas, instead of your silly selfie face. Shelfies also reveal how unique you think your intellect is, but they can show how deep is your soul.
There Is Nothing Fair About Fair Use
How can you respect the rights of image creators? Simple. Don't download their work without permission, and don't claim "fair use" if you do. Check out these royalty-free sources for free art instead.
Are We Enslaved By Our Tech Tools?
The marketplace is so crowded with content and platforms for sharing and communicating. Choice is a powerful thing. But it can leave little space for the creative ideas that are waiting to bubble up.
Why It’s Called Social Sharing
You won’t be noticed, much less discovered—there is too much competition from the entire global community for your one little drop in the big web bucket to get found. Instead, start local, where your roots are.
How I Became An Unintentional Publisher
Being a publisher lets me do what I love to do: write, paint, photograph, read, design, learn, share, repeat.
There’s an App for That: Achieve Your 2014 Tech Resolutions
Get your tech affairs together so you have more time for creativity in 2014. It's nearly 2014. The year will begin with experts' columns, advising us on New Year preparations, resolutions and goals. Generally the best recourse is to read these columns, save them in a location where you'll never find them, and then procrastinate until... Continue Reading →
More Steps to Creativity—for Visual Learners
No matter your learning style, there's more than one way to skin the creativity cat. Take a look at the wealth of tools offered in this idea-packed infographic (that visual learners will love), from Neoman, a UK creative agency. — "Creativity is not a science, it is a problem solving tool." —Neoman — HOW DO YOU... Continue Reading →
Raise a Glass to Pressgram: An App That Plays Nicely With Cava and Creative Control
Thanks to a new iPhone app by John Saddington called Pressgram, creatives are able to publish their own images directly to their blogs and -- here's the big concept -- maintain ownership of them, by sharing on a platform that insists they must own their content, too. Unlike Facebook and Instagram, there is no fine... Continue Reading →
Getting My Weekly Wacky Fix
As a self-defined seeker of the wacky, I've cultivated a number sources I follow online to get my Weekly Wacky Fix. These are some of the more creative bits I've read this week, many of which I round up every Friday in Time Traveling. The current buzz term for this is content curation, so that... Continue Reading →
Dumping Facebook, Dating Twitter, Avoiding LinkedIn and Flirting with Google+
How social media encourages us to flirt, date, avoid, dump, repeat.
How Can You Pick Just One Passion?
"Like a parent with many children, I'd find it hard to name a favorite among my creative passions—Art, Design, Photography, Writing, Technology, Web, Social Media, Marketing, Blogging. I think my days are a success when they're all playing nicely together." —Jann Alexander, Austin Details Art + Photo Purchase prints from Jann Alexander's Lightscapes series and see... Continue Reading →
On Art + Magic
“It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it.” ― Anaïs Nin Right, Anaïs Nin circa 1920; Wikipedia When is the last time you saw magic in... Continue Reading →
What’s True
As a child, I was either reading, writing or drawing (or some combination thereof), which is what I still mostly do today. In fact, I made a career of combining these passions—creating and designing magazines, publications, ads, websites, exhibits; writing headlines, blogs, marketing content; now adding photography and painting to the mix, and working on... Continue Reading →
Get Your Tech Affairs in Order for 2012
Mail thinks this is junk. Mail is right. Welcome to 2012. The day that experts' columns appear with abandon, advising us on New Year preparations and goals. Generally the best recourse is to read these columns, save them in a location where you'll never find them, and then procrastinate until it's too late to act... Continue Reading →
Your Image Is Your Brand
Your image is your brand: what you present is what you become known for. You must guard your image, nurture it and tend to it. Here's how.
Design Is for Function. Looks? A Bonus.
"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." —Steve Jobs, US computer engineer & industrialist, Apple (1955 - ) Flipboard, meet Steve Jobs. Actually, you already have! You've created a product for Steve's iPad that follows his philosophy that good design is about good functionality ("how it works"), and... Continue Reading →
Jann Alexander :: Pairings 