A Cool Texas Summer
Exciting plans for a summer of teaching, podcasting and other live fun
This letter was originally sent out to subscribers of the Love:Letters mailing list, a weekly longer-form email series from the desk of Ryan Hamrick at ALFA Studios, on June 22nd, 2019.
If you’re interested in personal, honest stories and thoughts on life as an independent designer, parent, spouse, and more, sign up by clicking the image below, and I’ll see you in your inbox this weekend.
We’re in the full swing of summer here in the Hamrick household, about four weeks into the kids’ vacation from school, and it’s pretty damn hot here in Texas, as I’m sure you’re surprised to hear. While the kids would certainly tell you they wouldn’t mind if there were a bit more going on so far, to a dad trying to get a bit of work done, launch a new studio, and what feels like a million other things, the days and weeks have been moving by awfully quick and seem about as full as they could possibly get.
They’re in full-on teenager mode for really the first time this year, sleeping in until late morning, or even early afternoon, which can be great for my morning productivity, but once they do get up, they’re immediately bored, of course, and often looking to me for what new ways I plan on entertaining them that day. I have been trying to do a few fun things here and there to keep their madness at bay, and they really are pretty good at finding ways to entertain themselves, even if that means a steady stream of friends milling about the house for most of the afternoon.
We need to soak up all of them that we can, though, because at the end of next week, they’ll be embarking on their second annual tradition of flying by themselves to Indiana to be passed around and spoiled by all the grandparents for three weeks. That leaves Brooke and I to live like a childless young couple for that whole time, which is no small thing for us, since we started our family at the very beginning of our twenties, and a mere year and a half into our relationship, therefore skipping a lot of those experiences on the front side. We have at least one extended weekend trip planned, with the potential for another more work-related one, but together, and there will be a lot of date nights happening, to be sure.
But I also have plans to really pour myself into a few different things with all of the pure, unadulterated work time I’ll have at my disposal, which is what I want to talk about this week!
ONLINE LEARNING FROM ALFA
One of the things I’m most excited about having more time to work on, is the build out of the Learning page of the ALFA site. I shared a post this week while testing some setup stuff for a new kind of online workshop. From the post:
“If you can access it, first-hand, interactive instruction, where questions and feedback can happen in the moment, is the best way to learn the art of the letter. But not everyone can travel to where this important teaching is available or attend high-value conferences to get it.
We love to travel and give in-person workshops, but when that’s not possible, there should be another way to access real-time, interactive letter learning from anywhere. #challengeaccepted”
These live lettering WorkStreams, as I’m calling them, will be smaller-group sessions, where I will essentially conduct a workshop in the same way that I would in person. I will be able to easily switch between my video feed, a direct overhead shot of what I’m sketching at my desk, and even the screen of my iPad if I’m talking about drawing digitally, just like I do in a classroom setting.
The one thing that always held me back from doing something like a Skillshare — aside from taking too long to produce mine until the pay model changed and it became way less clear how instructors made real money — was the fact that there’s really no way to have true, meaningful back and forth interaction in real time. So much of the most helpful information that an in-person classroom of workshop students gets, is from seeing someone else ask a question they wouldn’t have thought to ask (or were too shy to) and benefitting from that information, too.
So if you’re interested in a new kind of online letter learning you can do from anywhere, stay closely tuned to the ALFA Instagram (@thealfaset) over the course of the next week or so for news about some free introduction sessions you can sign up for to see first-hand what the WorkStream experience will be like and get a great picture of the value this will offer to you before registering for an official paid one. Exciting!
PODCASTS
I’ve experimented with a few podcasts over the last few years, to limited success, but the one I just started earlier this year, The Art of the Democracy, is one that has stalled for a while, but certainly not due to a waining interest on my part or a lack of interest from listeners. I was getting amazing feedback on the few episodes I managed to put out, and was really proud of them, but then I ran into an issue that I couldn’t simply move past.
The show, for any of you that didn’t catch it as it briefly passed by, was an audio series on the power of art and creativity in historically inelegant times — i.e. our current political environment. I was building a list of great artists I wanted to talk to, that were putting out amazing protest work, and using their platforms to really shine a light on important political or social justice issues. However, as I continued to reach out to people and hunt for others that would be great to feature, I quickly unearthed a difficult reality that posed an existential dilemma for the show.
The vast majority of the people getting loud and doing important (and truly great) work in this space were white, and far too often men. Then, the response rate and interest in participation drastically declined among all the women, non-binary folks, and people of color that I did find and reach out to. And of course, that makes sense, right? Something I hadn’t considered nearly enough, largely due to my own privilege and perspective, was how much easier it is for a white man to speak up and take a public stance on something divisive, without the inherent fear of retribution or career detriment that others who aren’t at the absolute height of privilege have to battle with.
There are so many profound and powerful non-white-male artists and designers out there, that could be the strongest, and most meaningful voices, capable of making the biggest change of all, but who understandably can’t justify the potential risks to their ability to continue making a living with that same singular talent.
I was working at Apple still at the time I was trying to make this thing happen, and simply couldn’t dedicate the time necessary to track down and convince a more diverse lineup of guests that were making the brave decision to speak out in the face of the personal and professional damage that history has taught them to expect. I started the show off with one of my favorite strong woman artists, Annica Lydenberg, which was great, but I refused to just keep pushing forward with a stream of white, predominantly male guests, especially on topics so important as these.
All that said, I still think this is a show that should absolutely exist and I know there are folks out there doing important work, who would love to participate, and deserve a platform to get more attention for their art and message. So I’ll be working hard on trying to find these people this summer, and I’d love your help!
If you or anyone you know are stepping out of that comfort zone and using art or design to speak up for what’s right, please connect with me at artofdemocracyshow@gmail.com. Let’s make this thing happen for real. You can check out the episodes that did make it out and learn more about the show at artofdemocracyshow.com.
I’ve also been planning on putting together a podcast series for AIGA Austin, focusing on hearing from a diverse and inclusive array of Austin designers to talk about their experiences and provide an extremely low barrier for the design community here to see themselves reflected in our AIGA community, and encourage more of them to get more involved. So again, and if you happen to be in Austin, especially, let me know who I should be talking to! You can reply directly to this email if that’s easier (same with the AOD suggestions above), or you can send them to me at communications@austin.aiga.org.
SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
There are a few other things happening this summer that are a little less in the forefront, but that I’m equally looking forward to. In the latter half of July, I’ll be heading back out to San Francisco for a few days to be on another Adobe Live show! This time, instead of just being lettering focused, specifically, I’ll be talking about drawing/lettering in Photoshop and ways to use it in a professional letter designer’s workflow, and may even do a healthy amount of demoing of Adobe’s new Fresco drawing app for the iPad that I’ve been fortunate enough to use the prerelease of for a little while now. In addition to just that, I’ll actually be hosting some live shows later in the same afternoons, with designers working in Adobe XD on some UI/UX projects, so I’m pretty excited about that experience, too.
On the ALFA front, we’ve had a number of letter-focused artists reach out seeking representation, so I’m beginning some conversations with experienced agents about facilitating some of those needs with us. If I’m not already talking to any of you that do that, or you know someone that would be into advocating for some stellar #letteringers, let’s talk!
If you want to support this series, one of the best ways to do so right now is to subscribe to get it in your inbox, and share it with a friend. You can also hire my studio ALFA for a project, which will obviously support me directly!
’Til Soon,
