The 100 Thing Challenge
/A lot has changed in the last twelve months. This time last year, I was stuck. I was stuck in unhappy relationships with other people, with my stuff, and most importantly with myself. I decided to start taking steps to better my life. I started by doing something that has been on the forefront of my mind for quite literally my entire life. I adopted a border collie puppy. I knew that it was going to be an inordinate amount of work raising such a high energy & high intelligence dog, especially while going to school and working part time, but I also knew that she would push me to be the best person that I could be. You know the saying, be the person that your dog thinks you are. I spent the few months leading up to my puppy's arrival learning how to run. I ran every day, and I absolutely hated it. Weeks went by, months went by, my pup arrived and we ran every day, and now a year later I feel incomplete without a daily run. She (my dog) has pushed me to be in the best shape of my life. That resonated into every other aspect of my life. I realized that only YOU have the power to change the things that you don't like about yourself, and even more importantly I realized that you don't need to take huge leaps. Small steps all lead up to big goals much more quickly than you realize. The time is going to pass anyway, don't shy away from a dream just because it's going to take a while.
Anyway. The next adventure I started on was clearing my life of people who brought me down. I broke off my relationship with my boyfriend of four years, which meant moving out and leaving behind a lot of stuff. Retrospectively, this was (the best decision I've ever made) the beginning of my break up with stuff as well. I started looking at things with a much more critical eye. Moving into a tiny basement suite from a 3 bedroom house made me really question whether I needed that toaster, that vase, that cute little wicker basket in my life. The answer was usually no. By letting go of stuff, I was unknowingly opening myself up to fulfillment in a whole different way. Positivity started flowing into my life and by embracing change, a slew of opportunities started coming my way, including meeting one of the most inspirational human beings I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. I spent the next 6 months getting rid of over two thirds of my belongings and getting to know this new source of light.
That brings us to today. I am still getting rid of things. I am in the process of moving to a new place, but before I do I am going to pare down all my possessions to one hundred things. The nice thing about this challenge is that you can make your own rules. For example, my library is going to count as a single item. Books are very important to me, but even so, I have slimmed down my collection from three towering bookcases, books shoved in every which way, to one modestly sized bookshelf with room to spare.
What about you? What is your relationship with stuff? How many hours a week do you spend organizing your things, cleaning your house, putting things away and reorganizing? What are your most prized possessions? Do you know where they are, or are they buried among all the rest of your stuff? Even a few hours a week adds up to hundreds of hours per year. What could you do with an extra few weeks of free time every year?
ARTG 480 - Final Project
/This is my final year of the four year graphic design program at Vancouver Island University. One of the fourth year classes is called Final Project - an entire semester devoted to one single project. This is meant to give us an opportunity to find a problem that truly means something to us and flush out if not a solution at least an improvement.
Our proposals for the project are due next week, and I thought I'd post my progress here.
The problem(s):
The Earth is getting smaller. I don't mean it's literally shrinking, but the population is exploding at such an astonishing rate that it is taking a bigger toll on the Earth with each passing second. It is only logical that we are going to exhaust our resources at some point, unless we are actively either sustaining or replenishing.
It is rare to find someone who knows where the things come from that fill their homes, their stomachs, and their lives. Most people have, if anything, a rudimentary understanding of where the stuff that they interact with on a daily basis actually comes from.
Our society is losing touch with what is important in life. They are becoming too attached to things and too disassociated from relationships. People are becoming focused on acquiring material possessions as a measure of self-worth, but they have no idea where these things come from.
The solution:
There isn't any one solution to a problem such as this. But there are steps we can take as individuals to improve upon the world. By living simply, we can take ourselves out of the rat race. Buy less, spend less, lower expenses mean less work and more play. To take it one step further, move into a tiny home. Tiny houses ranging from 100-200 square feet are taking the world by storm. There is a generation of people who want to help the environment, gain their independence, and show their detachment from and ultimately their disapproval of the madness that is broadcast on the news every hour. Moving into a tiny house, off the grid, free of city bills and restrictions, can be an attractive solution to many. Don't believe me? Just go to Pinterest and search "tiny homes."
I'm going to research, explore, promote, design, and focus on the tiny house moment. I'm not entirely sure where it will lead me yet, but my dream involves a poster/ad campaign, branding stuff, some explorations into Google Sketch-Up and architecture, and a whole lot of simple thinking.
“MINIMALISM.
The intentional promotion of our greatest passions and the removal of everything that distracts us from them.”
Aaaand we're done.
/Woohoo! I couldn't be happier with how this project turned out. I took something that genuinely frustrated me, and fixed it. I think that I learned a valuable lesson in regards to picking things where your passion lies - not just in package design class but in every aspect of life. In this project, one of the biggest challenges I faced was relinquishing the design to functionality. I was trying very hard to over design the ink on the packages, when really I just needed to keep it simple, stupid!
