#oh and the challenge rules did say no stealing artwork

[pineappleudh]

*You shouldn't have done that.

@floofanflurr

Stumbled across this DTIYS and decided to give it a go, with some creative liberties obviously.

It was really fun, ive never drawn in the undertale battle style before so i was surprised at how easy it felt, granted it still took a little while but nowhere near as long as i expected.

So, uhh, yeah. Papyrus is cool, challenge was fun, hope you enjoy.

[9w1ft]

feels a little early to be writing a year-in review but i find myself in a quiet moment so i thought i’d tap a few things out

in 2019, in all facets of my life, i faced a challenge of some sort and i surprised myself as i held my ground more often than ran away, which felt new. what *also* felt new was this sense of ease i began having professionally, when it came to conceptualizing and making decisions. sorta feels like a lot of things are crystallizing.

in terms of life on here, i didn’t have TSL for the majority of the year (anybody out there remember TSL?!) so i busied myself with crafting fun memories on my own. there were spans of weeks where i’d just get on a tear and run into one new thing after the other and it was all really just fantastic. i gave myself permission to indulge in the most decadent of things and to follow the most mercurial of assumptions to places i thought closed off.

i’m pretty sure i’ve smiled and laughed more over this year than i ever have in my entire life. no joke.

here are some kaylorverse moments that brought me joy in 2019:

it’s nice to have a friend

2018 was my first year being a kaylor and i just sort of was moreover on the contributor or commenter side of things so 2019 was interesting in that when taylor really leaned into the gay imagery leading up to album release, i started getting newer people sending me stuff! and asking me my takes on things! and like, my words suddenly had weight for some reason? it felt weird but i truly enjoyed getting to talk with so many different people and hear their ideas and laugh and such. that was markedly different from last year. from within this, 79-swift reached out to me with the eye theory, the most beautiful and rare of observations by a singularly lovely individual that i have dedicated my life to protecting and promoting. and i feel like i’ve gotten to know many people i knew through 2018 more deeply and have come to accept the role i play, lean in to it, and formulate my own truth of the matter, and that sort of heightened perspective on it has been a blessing and i’m so thankful for this strange sense of camaraderie that has formed with many of you? thank you??? and my conviction, and my wishes, for the girls to find happiness have only strengthened this year... im committed to seeing this through whether people like it or not!! harumph!

block ‘em

i also started proactively curating my experience.. that’s right! i began blocking trolls with reckless abandon, and i turned anons off! 😂 and damn it’s so much more worthwhile of a time on here when you set aside people that only want to ruin your day.

i got over my fear of eyeballs!!

😂 no seriously, body horror and in particular eyes out of context was actually sort of a thing that previously creeped me out BUT LOOK AT ME NOW. i’m gonna do my best not to rehash the eye theory, please read the post and recall the number of times i filipped out 😂 each and every one is precious to me

also

geeking out with bert and ernie gifs with kaylorfossil and making empsmd-blog drop her debit card need a mention.

the ME! music playlist.

i fell in love with so many songs and like, running into eye motifs in so many of the songs, lyrically and visually, was the most hilarious thing. but really just a lot of the songs really tapped at my soul with an ice pick and i even went to go see The Japanese House live in Osaka which was transcendental and i’m just so thankful for having taylor introduce Good At Falling to me because it was a *necessary* album.

i made and collected stuff

i made and amassed many artifacts that one day i can look back on and remember what a wild ride it has been. some favorites are my procuring of the pixel art heart ring from the ME! mv (a nod to my tsl days..), as well as the evil eye ring.. i didn’t physically make this but the eye theory made the taydar podcast and there’s nothing i enjoy more in this world than making someone giggle and i just love that the episode exists. making that kaylor straw was 👌 working on a mock-up of the golden locket has been very satisfying. i started incorporating fun kaylor winks into my artwork as well which was fun, and i also commissioned a collage from the very talented and lovely valheria and i couldn’t have asked for anything better 🥰

wildin in the TS7 tag was the best.

i made this observation that there’s this type of cocoon that looks like a cobra, which transforms into a butterfly over a period of 13 days, and like, the post got so many notes and i just had a lot of swiftie eyeballs all of a sudden on my blog which led to some hilarity. but honestly i just love geeking out over theories and it’s fun to get to do that as fans of taylor at large. things felt warm and effervescent.

my newspaper subscription

i subscribe to the TTB Times and let me just say the submissions and anons this year were overwhelmingly a delight to read through every day. also like, we did get cued in to stuff before album release and i am just thankful that there are people out there both who want to give us that and people who work to help them give us that. thank you ttb for moderating your blog (my newspaper of choice) however it is that you do and to everyone that contributed to her blog.

the whole lead up to the ME! video release

so glorious... but particular the hour before. i was rushing to pick up my kid from school and suddenly i kept getting messages from people that taylor was covering her face and framing her eyes, and i was like oh please yeah sure BUT THEN when the snake in the video had a blank eye like i don’t think you guys understand i had to wait at a bus stop and exchange pleasantries with the other moms but it was a *five alarm fire* in my mind

cause shade never made anybody less gay

stealing away to listen to YNTCD for the first time and hearing Taylor Alison Swift use the word gay in a released song for the first time was a transcendental moment

karlie’s hand in the YNTCD mv.

‘nuff said

daisies. daisies everywhere.

taylor said daisy kaylor rights, and she said it everywhere. *everywhere*. cannot, will not, get over how blessed we are.

gay gay gay gay gay.... taylor’s

sorry not sorry that wiz khalifa collab with elohim on her track FYM was ethereal and i still hope it’s a part of the preshow playlist for Lover Fest

clue hunting in klossy videos and karlie ads

call me a corporate shill all you want like, there’s always a little something in there and i also enjoy the little flickers of goofy karlie that jump out from time to time. and i know this is not the case for everyone but post eyepocalypse, karlie leaning in, winking that eye of hers time and time again was just pique comedy for me and it always made me chuckle. the brands karlie has repped have been really laying it on thick too and it’s been a joy to see. when taylor does it with her music it’s art, and for me karlie’s media presence is a form of art too 😌

oh kaptain my kaptain

kimby liked a comment of mine on her insta which was a distinct honor and privilege 😌 and really she was dropping clues left and right through spring up until she got her snazzy new job and things calmed down 🥰 of which i am so proud talk about an on brand job! also partially clearing the air about my TSL theory and the lead up to clearing that air was quite fulfilling for me and i am forever grateful for the time we shared. and to this point, the seesters in general (and kurt omg) have been quite active all year and we don’t deserve it but they’ve stuck around and it’s been calming.

album cover art release on the livestream

LIKE I HAVE NEVER IN MY LIFE NEVER HAD A FOURTH WALL BROKEN SO DULY

i love you forever, thank you for everything

when taylor came to visit tokyo this year i was basically reenacting the swamp scene from OOTW trying to get a ticket to the secret event... i listened to ME! on LINE MUSIC for over 2000 plays, i bought multiple CD’s, it was such an ordeal and then to not have a ticket after all but still putting on my thinking cap and managing to figure out where the event was while i was at disney sea and literally running from disney sea to the venue in high heels with The Man playing on my phone was oscar-worthy and actually *being correct* and the moment i knew i was correct and how i knew i was correct was so amazing 😉 and i play by the rules so i didn’t try to get in without a ticket and i didn’t lurk. but just to have figured it out and validated it was such a thrill. seeing her on TV live was amazing as well ///

lost in japan, reprise

oh and, last year for rep tour there was this theory i had which didn’t pan out but it had to do with the clues i thought shawn mendes was dropping through autumn 2018 and anyway that’s a story for another day but as i was bopping around town, looking for lockets, staying in rooms i have no business being in, drinking lots of whisky...just to know that while i was doing *everything but* successfully meeting taylor, she literally phoned shawn and had him record lines for that eye theory remix like, i will never ever, like, guys. guys. 😂 it’s too perfect for words. the world is weird like that sometimes.

Lover

and omg Lover the album? i absolutely love lover and i loves that honeymoon period of theorizing and parallel unearthing that we did and i love how slightly creepy-cute it is and i love the whole wabi-sabi thing going on and i absolutely love every song on the album, every one, they all have so much meaning to me... and each one is teeming with little blips and bloops and sound samples and seconds of silence and i love all the brass instruments and so many lush moments... i guess my shortlist (in no particular order) would be the archer, lover, i think he knows, daylight, cruel summer, false god, cornelia street, ME! (yea i really like me 🥰). and to think about everything that went in to the album and the thrill of what it might have been and the vastness of what we don’t know, but like, the weight of that potential?? it’s like this vast pastel and black abyss of drowsy and deep feelings and i love every inch of it. it’s a vibe that reflects so much of what this year has been for me and i’m happy to have existed in this time to have had it with me.

jesus this has gotten too long, and i still have like 24 more things to write out but um, basically, as i’m sure you’ve been able to assume? i wanted to say that despite 2019 being somewhat of a slasher film affair for our fandom, i still had a goddamn great time this year and i hope everyone can find some good memories and relive them as well 🥰

[mihaithedesigner-blog]

In the past, my design process was tightly connected to being inspired by different things. Whenever I had to create a design about a certain topic, I would immediately investigate strictly that topic. The boundaries were quite limited and I would obey to them. So, for example, if I had to design a book cover about the end of the world, I would research possible ways for the complete destruction of our planet. I would then continue depicting that idea as a design, in an obvious manner. ‘People have to understand the content of the book just by seeing the cover’ is something I would have said to myself a few years ago.

This technique is as popular between designers as it is wrong. It struck me only when I was learning more about Chip Kidd, famous book cover designer, and his past experiences. In one of his talks, he explained how in his first day of graphic design training at Penn State University, the teacher came into the room and drew a picture of an apple and wrote the word “Apple” underneath. The teacher said “OK. Lesson one. Listen up.” He covered up the picture and said “you either say this,” and then he covered up the word, “or you show this. But you don’t show both the apple and the word <<apple>> at the same time. This is treating your audience like a moron. And they deserve better”. It was then when I understood that my ways were undeveloped and I was creating artwork that underestimated the audience and did not engage the problem of reader interactivity, probably one of the most important matters in book cover design.

Now, this applies to all areas of graphic design, be it poster design or the branding for your sister’s DIY blog. You must consider the user and make him think. This means, in other words, to use your creativity. We, graphic designers, are valued for our most treasured skill: creative thinking. It is a shame not to use this skill and to simply replicate to the works of others. “Good artists copy. Great artists steal.” It was said by Steve Jobs, Pablo Picasso and many other successful people, in a form or another. Stealing in this instance refers to learning, associating from the truly good works of art and to use that knowledge for the future. Copying implies the superficial reproduction of past work, leaving no piece of genuine originality left for the future. It’s like a child that asks “why?” and receives the answer from the parent, but grows old only to ask the very same question, not ever learning from the past.

In a 2016 talk, Stefan Sagmeister, renowned graphic designer, exemplified one of his best creative thinking methods. When designing, for example, a book on creativity, most people would take a stash of other books about creativity and would remain stuck under that manta of reproducible artwork. Instead, what he always does, solves the design problem by thinking about a matter completely different. Think of the glass of water next to you. Interrogate its properties and apply the knowledge to your problem. Maybe you can make the book cover transparent, maybe you can make all the pages transparent, maybe you make the pages so thin you create an amazingly dense book, much like the bible. It is impressive how for a book about creativity, he started from a glass of water and he ended up thinking about the holy bible, ending up with a handful of original ideas. Now that is creative thinking.

Or lateral-thinking. Now that is lateral-thinking. What, you thought Sagmeister was the ultimate inventor of creative thinking? This thinking process was promulgated in 1967 by Edward de Bono. In his concept, lateral thinking is solving problems through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning that is not immediately obvious and involving ideas that may not be obtainable by using traditional step-by-step logic. In short, lateral thinking is when a person moves from one known idea to a new one, using creative non-traditional methods. This chain of concepts can be shorter or longer, depending on the circumstance of its use.

Lateral-thinking is not a new concept. Even Edward de Bono acknowledges that by citing as an example the Judgment of Solomon, a story from the Hebrew Bible (1 Kings 3:16-28). In this story, two mothers living in the same house, each mother of an infant son, came to King Solomon of Israel. One of the babies had died, and each claimed the remaining boy as her own. Calling for a sword, Solomon declared his judgment: the baby will be cut in two and each woman will receive half. One of the mothers thought the ruling was fair, but the other begged Solomon: “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it”. The king declared the second woman the true mother, as a mother would give up her baby if that meant saving its life. Lateral-thinking 950 BCE style.

As a conclusion, I could continue explaining how the discovery of fire was creative thinking but I hope you are as convinced as I am in the utility of this technique. I must now perfect my own personal creative thinking methods in resolving both graphic design and everyday challenges, as it pushes the boundaries of human abilities further away and promotes core values of our human existence.

That will only take me a lifetime.