This week I was inspired by three powerfully creative people, and it is totally worth waiting for this page to load with all its images and videos to make your day too.

Like Sarah in her in Media High + Finding freedom post, I was also inspired by some industry genius. This week was another installment of DSVC [Dallas Society of Visual Communication] meeting. Now, folks, I am not a designer. But I love learning from designers about communication, as it all plays into my passion for branding. (I also happen to secretly wish I had the natural inspiration for the perspiration it takes to be an artist and/or designer, but I digress). Our speaker this week was Erik Marinovich, a letterer and designer. Aside from his amazing talent, what I also found interesting about Erik was his initial career path. When he graduated he couldn’t get a job or internship (preach it). So he took to following in his father’s footsteps and taking over the brick laying business and had completely let go the idea of being a designer. Until his girlfriend, later turned wife, told him she was selling all her things and moving to NYC. He could either do the same, or she was breaking up with him. So he went. He took an internship, worked till 6 AM most nights, had some amazing mentors, and went on to becoming this amazing letterer. I think all young career driven people love hearing these stories, the ones that sound like theirs. It gives us confidence that if we do continue to work hard, we will succeed. And the fact that no one would hire us straight out of college, has no bearing on our lifetime success. I think I speak for Sarah and I when I say that we both had a rougher time than expected finding positions in our industry, and it was such an initial blow to our confidence and determination. We, as a 20-something, often struggle with the idea of why am I not there yet. Or at least, I do. To survive, we need mentors and role models like Erik to tell us to calm the freak down. Erik also reminisced about his time interning as a time of learning and great inspiration, he was young and still finding his way. Erik reminded me to work hard, work smart and stay passionate. In his presentation he instructed us to follow up on an idea. If you have a good one, go for it. Worst case scenario, it won’t work out, and life goes on. Erik was incredibly relate-able and truly put some fire under my feet this week at work.

Also, a quick note on the images above. They are from a site that Erik and Aaron Carámbula started one night a few years back around 4 AM via iChat, called FriendsofType.com. It’s awesome and you will no doubt get stuck clicking through the pages for a few hours. So be sure to only visit the site when you have at least 10 minutes to spare. Kidding, kinda. The wood one featured above was actually painstakingly carved into wood. Talk about dedication to a craft.

The following two videos are other nuggets of inspiration for me this week. I’m going through a Beethoven phase and believe everyone should be in on it too. It also happens to be fantastic work music. The other is poem by the Austin-based poet, Anis Mojgani, that a friend posted on my Facebook page. I love his message and the almost rap-like style of presentation. I haven’t had a real opportunity to explore his work further, but it is certainly on my list.

Have a great weekend everyone!