Swimming sessions - illustration as a personal certificate of achievement for incremental but satisfying improvement

My new year's resolution for 2012 was to set a small, attainable, achievable and measurable goal for myself each month. Actually, each lunar month, as thats somehow more cyclic, and I can watch the month passing in a satisfyingly graphic passage of time. Anyhow, the last month (#3) was to swim 2km. Now, I know all you swimming people think: yeah, 'thats a fair enough distance to do in one go', but I, not very comfortable in water, decided to swim it over the course of the entire month. Very humble, (but measurable!) So I sputtered and splattered my way, and improved modestly, doing 2.6 in the end.So here's my personal achievement certificate, a drawing done last night.... a layer of just line and some water-based inks. Tried drawing on the iPad this evening in the pub but can't seem to get the sense of it yet... have a great weekend now anyone reading this....

Offset 2012 - Interview with Stefan Sagmeister – and whether or not he is design's Oprah Winfrey

I'm just back from an inspiring weekend at design conference Offset, which was held at Dublin's Grand Canal Theatre. The talks are still percolating in the subconscious. Themes that were interesting for me personally seemed to be summed up in this interview. The ever-learning Stefan Sagmeister meets my first creative director Ciarán O'Gaora (zero-g). It touched on the pursuit of happiness, being a graphic designer, maintaining creative longevity, productivity and making time for personal work. Yes, thats all in there somehow. So below is what he looked like just *before* speaking to "that girl" mentioned, and just to prove that yes, I was there, you can see a terribly boring shot of everyone waiting for the interview to start... his head is behind the guy with the glasses, bun and beard, who is Ciarán.

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