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Growing up, improv scared the pants off me. I dreaded the moments where I had to think ‘off the cuff’ or make up a scene in front of the people around me. It was probably my least favourite part of the drama curriculum that I adored throughout my four years of high school. Improvisational theatre (or ‘improv’) is a form of live theatre where everything is made up in the moment including the characters, plot and dialogue, often derived from a single constraint like a short scene description, prop or even just a single word. But that fear that lived in me 20 years ago has quieted as I’ve grown and experienced scarier things than looking goofy on a stage. Improv now excites me from the perspective that it’s a safe space to practice vulnerability and trust in a community of like-minded people. The shared experience of trying and succeeding or trying and failing and picking myself back up again, is crucial to confidence-building and to personal growth. If you’ve never experienced improv, I encourage you to give it a shot. You’ll learn a lot about yourself. Recently, I had the opportunity to participate in an improv workshop with my Interdisciplinary Innovation students. Facilitated by Kevin Frank, the former Artistic Director of The Second City Toronto’s Training Centre, who is also a notable Canadian actor, teacher and creative artist. In this workshop, he led our students through a series of exercises designed to improve their listening and communication skills. One of the most memorable games he had us play was called ‘Imaginary Birthday Party’ conducted in teams of three. The way it worked was this: It was someone on the team’s birthday and they were asked to describe their ideal party. The other two members of the team had to provide feedback about the ideas, however they must always start their feedback with the word ‘no’. It was now the next person on the team’s birthday and they were asked to describe their ideal party. The other two members of the team had to provide feedback about the ideas, however they must always start their feedback with the words ‘yes, but…”. It was now the final person’s birthday and they were asked to describe their ideal party. The other two members of the team had to provide feedback about the ideas, however they must always start their feedback with the words ‘yes, and…”. I caught on quickly to the pattern that would emerge as the game went on. When prompted to reflect, students described the first ‘no’ round as coming up against feelings of defeat, lacking motivation to continue contributing ideas knowing that they would all be shot down. Students described the second ‘yes, but’ round as not as defeating as the first, but still challenging, as every suggestion they made was accepted but had an excuse attached as to why the idea couldn’t be fulfilled. Lastly, students described the final ‘yes, and’ round as containing a whole different energy. Ideas were both accepted (yes) and actively built on (and), the result of which was a variety of new ideas that weren’t explored in the earlier rounds. The moral of the story is this: ‘Yes, and’ is as as helpful a framework in improv as it is in everyday life. By ‘yes anding’ the conversations we have with others everyday, we show that we’re listening and that we care by accepting and building on what was said. And the greatest lesson for me came when Kevin explained that even if we don’t agree with someone’s idea, we can still use this framework of accepting and building. ‘Yes’ allows them to feel heard, while we can use the connector ‘and’ to ask if they’ve considered x option or if they’ve thought about y scenario, for example. — Coming back to my earliest experiences with improv, in this episode, you’ll meet TIm Miller, otherwise known as ‘Mr. Miller’ who is my beloved high school drama teacher. Tim opened my eyes to the world of improv and encouraged my first attempts at the practice. He was a transformative force in my life, both witnessing his take on creative living (dabbling in a little of this and a little of that), as well as from his passion and his efforts and his joy that he brought into the classroom. I learned so much as his student; the lessons learned on the stage, as well as lessons learned backstage through observing Mr. Miller’s approach to life. I’ve sent Tim Christmas cards for years and years and this year I accidentally stumbled on a message he sent me through a social media platform I rarely use. He and I got back in touch after more than a decade and while lots has changed, once we got talking, it was as though nothing had changed. When we hopped on this call, he was a little beardier than I had known him, but otherwise he was exactly as I remember: joyful, creative and unafraid of showing students vulnerability, with a wicked sense of humor and a desire to make the world a better place, one conversation at a time. I am so grateful for all he has done for me and the belief that he’s had in me in my formative years. Let’s get this very special conversation started, one that’s been 20 years in the making. Listening Invitation: The Yes-And framework is foundational in improv and I believe it can also be transformative if we apply its ‘accept and build’ philosophy to our everyday lives. Listening to the world around us is critical, but listening to ourselves – and specifically listening to the positive things we say about ourselves – is just as important. This listening invitation encourages you to ‘yes and’ your work to encourage contentment. It’s human nature to want to improve ourselves. Feedback is an important part of the creative process, however there comes a point when criticism about our own work is no longer helpful or productive. It’s at this point we can choose contentment over judgment. First, choose work that you’ve either completed recently or long ago. This could be any type of creative work, whether a painting, a piece of writing or anything in between. While there are always things that could be improved, I invite you to make one positive statement about your work. For example, you could say that you like the brush strokes. Now say to yourself: “Yes, and...”. Accept your own positive feedback and build on it with another positive statement about the work. Keep ‘Yes And-ing’ your piece of work until you’ve entirely exhausted all possible positive things to say and then move on to another, repeating the process. Being kind, gentle and generous with the compliments you give yourself is an important step to hearing your inherent value and your worth. Focusing on the ‘yes and’s...’ in your work – listening to your positive words about yourself – has powerful and compounding effects. About Our Guest: Timothy Miller is a high school educator of 20 years, focusing on Drama, but also teaching music, history and most recently had the honour of teaching Indigenous Studies. His wife of 27 years and-long suffering adult children tolerate him. But his Great Dane, Winston, thinks he’s pretty cool. He is a huge fan of Film and TV but his true love is Improv. Music: Uptown by Ketsa, licensed with permission from the Independent Music Licensing Collective - imlcollective.uk Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash

Why is it important to dive into this world of listening as it relates to creativity? I believe there are lots of reasons! Listening plugs you into life, into the here and now. Listening to the ambient sounds of the world around us (whether human, animal or machine), our senses become heightened and we can’t help but exist in the present moment. There is no other option. Listening is the ultimate rapport-builder. It’s the fastest way to strengthen any personal or professional relationship. When someone feels truly listened to they open up, connect and allow you into their world. I believe that deeply listening to others is the single most valuable action we can take to improve ourselves, our communities and, by extension, our world. Attentive listening changes the quality of the conversation. There is a difference between hearing someone and listening to someone. When we pair verbal cues (such as summarizing and paraphrasing what was said for clarification) with nonverbal cues (like leaning forward and nodding our head in agreement), we show the speaker we’re attentive and, ultimately, that we care. Active listening allows you to differentiate yourself in teams. When you become a better listener in a world that can’t stop talking, others will take notice. I can assure you that volume and quantity of speaking is not causally related with the quality of ideas generated. Focus on listening in a team environment and I guarantee that you will pick up on things that others miss, which may just be the key to solving whatever problem your team has set out to fix. Listening helps us better communicate > grow > innovate. When we take in new information through listening to others, we ourselves, become better communicators. We learn to pick up on the specific nuanced emotions that lie under someone’s words. This helps us communicate better with others, ultimately helping us grow, which can enable new insights and spark innovation. It’s a skill we use every day but rarely focus on improving. There are a lot of self-help books and books about communication in the world (goodness knows that I probably own half of them!), but I see an unbalanced offering; the scales tipped in favour of improving our outputs, versus how to improve our inputs. After all, listening is half of the equation and some would argue that it’s actually 2/3 of the equation… after all, we have one mouth in two ears. Attention is the currency of the future. Time is the most valuable thing we have in our lives. We are inundated with mountains of text based, video-based and audio-based information on a daily basis. We pay for services like social media through our time and attention. (Their monetization structure works only if people’s eyeballs are locked on their screens.) Giving someone your full attention and listening to what they have to say is one of the most valuable gifts you can give. There are an overwhelming number of upsides to improving our listening skills (and very, very few downsides). Even if there wasn’t this laundry list of reasons why listening matters, we have very little to lose by improving your listening skills and a whole lot to potentially gain. In today’s episode you’ll hear from Kati Mason, who is the senior producer of CBC Morning Live, the morning show on CBC News Network. She’s been in that role for three years - and lead the team through multiple “historic” events such as a pandemic, three federal elections, the death of a monarch, two Olympic Games and a war. Kati’s been waking up dark and early for the morning show for 8 years, but has also had the opportunity to work with the online/social teams, the breaking news desk and the National. She’s also a very important friend to me. We were attached at the hip throughout middle school and she was the maid of honour at my wedding. But Kati’s also a fierce news maven whose work as senior producer on CBC Morning Live has led to award nominations two years in a row. Who is Kati Mason in a nutshell? Listening Invitation: Friends are the best, aren’t they? Here’s today’s invitation to practice your listening skills (and in this case, also connect with an old friend!). Call a friend who you haven’t talked to in a while to ask: “What are your top 3 highlights since we last talked?” Listen way more than you talk. Ask follow up questions. Keep the conversation focused on them. This is one of my favourite conversation starters if I haven’t talked to someone in a while. It helps me get a good understanding of positive or exciting things happening in their life right now and it usually helps us pick back up right from where we left off, however long it’s been. While I know that life isn’t all rainbows and sunshine, by starting a conversation on this note, it brings a great energy. You can get into the heavier stuff later in the conversation. So, what are you waiting for? Go call a friend. Use your texting machine. Like it’s the year 1999. About Our Guest: Kati Mason is the senior producer of CBC Morning Live, the morning show on CBC News Network. She’s been in that role for three years - and lead the team through multiple “historic” events such as a pandemic, three federal elections, the death of a monarch, two Olympic Games and a war. Kati’s been waking up dark and early for the morning show for 8 years, but has also had the opportunity to work with the online/social teams, the breaking news desk and the National. Kati is a limited sports fan (Jays only), dedicated viewer to all things related to the MCU and usually aces the Classics category in Jeopardy. Music (public domain viaFree Music Archive): Chad Crouch - Drawing Mazes Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash

Name: Proxima Nova Release Date: 2005 Designer: Mark Simonson Classification: Geometric Sans Serif Owned By: Mark Simonson Studio Claim to Fame: Replacing Helvetica as the world’s most popular typeface. My name is Zoe Soeiro and today I will be your host on An Incomplete History of Type. The typeface that we are going to be dissecting today is called Proxima Nova and it has quite the history. I’m going to start off with the technical aspects of Proxima nova. It is a geometric sans serif typeface with a total number of 48 fonts in the family. It has become the most popular commercially paid typeface on the web and is used in thousands of websites globally. Proxima Nova has an OpenType format and can be found on applications such as the Adobe Creative Cloud. It can be found in eight different weights including: Thin, Light, Regular, Medium, Semibold, Bold, Extrabold and black. It also contains 3 different widths including: Normal, Condensed, and Extra Condensed. Proxima Nova started out the same way all other typefaces started; as an idea. Mark Simonson started working on various forms of the typeface in 1981 and the initial sketch was originally called Zanzibar, simply because he enjoyed the way that word sounded. The lowercase letters in the original sketch are very similar to the current typeface and it was said that the uppercase letters were developed later on. In 1991 Mark was the art director of Business Ethics magazines where he mainly used the typeface Gill Sans. He liked the way that Gill Sans looked, but longed for something that felt more modern and more plain, but still kept the same geometric look. After searching for a typeface that matched all of these qualities, he began to realize that no such typeface existed. This led Mark to dig up the original Zanzibar sketch, and start designing a typeface of his own. The second sketch that Mark created was named Visigothic because he modelled it after the American Gothic style of typeface. He borrowed many of his design ideas from other typefaces in order to create his design. The general proportions and stroke were modelled after Helvetica and Akzidenz Grotesk, but other details were borrowed from Futura, Kabel, atf gothics, and even the U.S Federal Highway Signage typeface. From all of this borrowing, a hybrid typeface was created that combined modern, even-width proportions, and a geometric appearance. Mark called this typeface Proxima Sans and released it through FontHaus in 1994. It was a family of 6 fonts including - Regular, Medium and black with matching italics. Mark thought that the original name Visigothic sounded too similar to a recently released font at the time called Visigoth. He chose to rename it Proxima Sans because “it was near to other sans serifs in design but also because those letters happened to display some of the distinctive characteristics of the design.” Mark took a break from working on the font after it was released because he recently became a new parent, took on a new full-time job, and didn’t have the greatest sales. But by the early 2000’s he started to get requests to expand the Proxima Sans family. One of those requests was from Rolling Stone magazine who chose Proxima Sans as a part for their redesign in 2003. All of this newfound buzz around Proxima Sans inspired Mark to do some reworking on the typeface and he re-released it as Proxima Nova in 2005. Proxima Nova was an advanced typeface and included advanced typographic features such as "small caps, different figure styles, fractions, and alternate characters, enough to take on the most demanding typographic applications.” Mark went over every character individually and refined all of it. He rebuilt the italics from scratch, redid hinting for better on-screen display, and grew the character set from 245 to 699 characters with the latest version reaching 1435. He scrapped all of the original spacing and kerning, and rebuilt all of it. Since the release of Proxima Nova, it has become extremely popular and has continued to expand in additional languages such as Vietnamese and Greek. A Proxima nova supplemental font has even been created that is a single font file compatible with both Macs and PCs. Proxima Nova is such a strong font because it’s modern, personal, cool and not too much of anything. Proxima combined the strength of modernism that Helvetica offers with the same feeling that Futura gives. When comparing Proxima to Helvetica, it’s important to look at the lowercase letter “i”. The lowercase “i” in Helvetica is dotted with a square, while the lowercase “i” in Proxima Nova is dotted with a circle. This shows the contrast of softness and hardness between the two typefaces. Overall, Proxima Nova has been perfected over the years and is a fan-favourite amongst many brands and users. The simplicity, mixed with its modernism, great screen display, and variety of characters makes it an advanced typographic typeface. Thank you for listening to this episode of An Incomplete History of Type and we hope to see you again next week. References Cowles. (2015, June 9). The single reason why Proxima Nova is the world’s best font. Cowles Media. Retrieved February 25, 2022, from https://cowlesmedia.london/single-reason-proxima-nova-greatest-font-world/ SparxTeam. (2021, May 17). The Story Behind Our Font: Proxima Nova. Sparx Publishing Group. Retrieved February 25, 2022, from https://www.sparxpg.com/blog/the-story-behind-our-font-proxima-nova/ Simonson, M. S. (2017). The Story of Proxima Nova. Mark Simonson. Retrieved February 25, 2022, from https://www.marksimonson.com/assets/content/fonts/ProximaNovaOverview.pdf Simonson, M. S. (2021, May 21). Proxima Nova. Mark Simonson. Retrieved February 25, 2022, from https://www.marksimonson.com/fonts/view/proxima-nova About Our Guest Host: My name is Zoe Soeiro and I recently graduated from Graphic Communications Management with a concentration in Publishing. I have since started working in Public Relations for an advertising agency in Toronto. Typography was my favourite course at Toronto Metropolitan University and I’ve always had a passion for all things type! Music (public domain): TRG Banks - Above the Earth Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash

I’m going to come right out and ask it: Do you consider yourself a good listener? Or perhaps a better place to start is by asking: Do you know what being a good listener looks like, sounds like, feels like? I’ve found it helpful to take a step back and honestly assess my ability to listen to those around me and personally, my success or failure in listening tends to be situational: I find myself focussed and actively paying attention to my students in my classroom and with podcast guests, but I know I could do a better job actively listening to my kids and my close family members. Work: 8 out of 10. Home: 6 out of 10, on average. And while it hurts to admit that rankings out loud, I think it’s an important starting place for this 11-part series all about the intersection of listening and creativity. I’ve been deeply interested in this topic of listening for a couple of years now, as a way to take in more of the world around me and heighten my creative practice. The catalyst was being given the opportunity to co-teach a course in interdisciplinary innovation with friend and colleague, Chris Ambedkar (who’s been on this podcast before). Each time we teach it, we challenge students to listen deeply as one of many ways to collaborate and communicate and ultimately innovate. I began reading a number of books on the subject including We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations that Matter by Celeste Headlee (HED-lee) and You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters by Kate Murphy. I’ve become increasingly aware of the power we have when we listen and perhaps, more importantly, the opportunity to slow down – even for a moment – when we listen, in a world that appears to be forever-more careening faster and faster towards… I don’t know what. Right in the subtitle of author Susan Cain’s incredible book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Won’t Stop Talking is an unmistakable truth. Where has the listening gone? Was it ever here to begin with? And what lies at the intersection of listening and creativity? Each episode in this 11-part series will begin with a piece of information about the what, why, when or where of listening (that I’ve learned while formally and informally studying this topic), followed by the who (the conversation with my guest) and finally the how (an actionable invitation to improve your listening skills, based on the conversation). I’ve had the great pleasure of sitting down with 11 excellent listeners, some of whom I’ve known for more than half my life and others I’ve just met. These individuals work in diverse roles and lived experiences. For example… You’ll hear from a morning TV show producer whose job it is to both listen to her team, as well as listen to the world's news in order to distill it for a Canadian audience. You’ll hear from an improvisational theater expert who explains what we can learn about the power of listening from the stage. You’ll hear from a mediator whose job it is to find creative solutions when groups of people are unable to develop solutions themselves. You’ll hear from a professional jazz vocalist whose job it is to listen deeply to the musicians around her in front of a live audience. You’ll hear from a clinical psychologist – a professional listener – who identifies what it means to actively listen and how we can tap into her techniques. You’ll hear from a former radio show host who embarked on a three-month vow of silence, discovering the truths emerge when our only choice is to listen. You’ll hear from a dog trainer and rehabilitation expert who shares what we can learn from dogs about tuning into subtle energies and non-verbal cues. You’ll hear from a family lawyer who uses listening in high-stakes situations to better understand how to resolve emotional disputes and use listening as a tool to step back and question ‘why’. You’ll hear from an Emmy-award winning creative strategist, author and design educator who teaches his students how to listen between the lines to arrive at creative solutions. You’ll hear from a chiropractor who helps us understand tapping into listening through our bodies, specifically through the act of stretching. And finally, you’ll hear from a music composer who’s calling to create music at the cost of his stable career meant listening to himself, just as much as it requires listening to the music he creates with others. And this is where we begin today. And the music you heard just a few seconds ago, called Peivast Waltz (Pay+vast), is an original composition by today’s guest. Emad Saedi, please tell us a little about yourself... Listening Invitation: Emad’s story reminds me of singer, songwriter, musician, composer, bandleader, and television personality Jon Batiste’s speech at the 2022 Grammy Awards. He said this: “I believe this to my core, there is no best musician, best artist, best dancer, best actor, the creative arts are subjective and they reach people at a point in their lives when they need it most.” I’m so grateful to Emad for sharing his story with us and I was particularly intrigued by his stance on noise pollution in the opportunities that exist in life’s silent moments. So here is my invitation to you to improve your listening skills: seek out silence. It doesn’t have to be for long (however you might find that you want to linger…), but find a spot that’s quiet, like really quiet. Perhaps a quiet corner of a room or even in a closet, sound absorbed by clothing. And sit. And think. And let your mind wander. This is not a meditative practice, per se, but rather a moment of rest for your ears and for your brain in a noisy world. When you emerge from your cocoon of silence, perhaps you’ll discover that everyday noises you experience may sound a little more novel. Stay tuned for the next episode where you’ll hear from Kati Mason, a morning TV show producer at CBC whose job it is to both listen to her team, as well as listen to the world's news in order to distill it for a Canadian audience. About Our Guest: Emad is a classically trained pianist, composer, and sound designer. He is passionate about storytelling with sound and music. Emad composes in various genres and his portfolio contains the soundtrack for podcast, film, video games, as well as classical, pop/rock, and electronic music. You can find Emad on Instagram or Twitter or listen to his music on Spotify, SoundCloud, Apple Music, and other music streaming platforms. https://linktr.ee/emadsaedi Music: Peivast Waltz - Emad Saedi Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash

I started this podcast exactly 28 months ago with a gut feeling, a creative urge and a curiosity about all things podcasting in an industry that is highly visual. I could not have predicted what this would morph into, as well as all of the incredible people I feel privileged to have spoken with, including designers, printers, typographers, artists, activists and so many passionate students. Here’s a quick trip down memory lane. This is from Episode 001 about what this podcast meant to me in November 2019 (and I was so nervous recording it!)… I feel very fortunate to say that this podcast has acted as my umbrella for 2+ years: both helping me weather the storms by remaining my creative go-to in challenging times, as well as housing my collection of multi-disciplinary interests and topics. I still get fireflies in my stomach (like butterflies, but as it relates to falling in love with creative practice) when planning and dreaming and crafting ideas for new episodes. It’s my creative fuel. But this episode isn’t supposed to be a love letter to my podcast, it’s all about DESERT ISLAND TYPEFACES; you know, the one you would choose to use forever-more if stranded on a desert island with only a single font file to use (the horror!). In speaking with many guests over the last 99 episodes, I loved asking them about their desert island typeface choices and hearing all of the different answers and perspectives. Many were practical, text faces with good readability, while others were a little kooky and full of whimsy. Let’s revisit a few of my personal favourite answers to the question ‘if you could choose only one typeface to use for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?’. Here’s Chris Rouleau, graphic designer, letterer and artist, in Episode 020… And let’s hear from Nadine Chahine, one of the world’s foremost experts in Arabic typography, in Episode 044… The incredible Ellen Lupton, writer, curator, educator and designer, in Episode 054… And reaffirming his choice, here’s Chris Rouleau again in Episode 066… Here’s Olivia Kane, graphic designer and podcaster, in Episode 069… And how about Jonathan Valelly, writer, zinester and creative type around town, in Episode 076… And finally, Paul Twa, graphic designer and illustrator, in Episode 095… My sincerest thank you to each and every one of my guests who have generously gifted me with their time, energy and expertise over the last 99 episodes. And this brings us to the very special second part of today’s episode that I can’t wait to share with you. I’ve said time and time again that my desert island typeface (that I use for just about everything) is Proxima Nova. From the mid-2010s onwards, Proxima Nova has become the most popular commercial (paid) font on the web. It now exists as a family of 48 fonts. I’m so excited to introduce the creator, the designer, the mastermind behind Proxima Nova: Mark Simonson, here with us today! "Mark Simonson is a lettering artist and independent type designer based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He is best known as the creator of the typeface Proxima Nova and has over 30 type families in the retail market comprising more than 230 fonts.” Mark began his career in the mid 1970’s as a graphic designer and art director, for magazines, product and collateral design. In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s he became a web designer. Mark became interested in typography in college and he submitted a typeface to the ITC in the late 1970’s but was rejected. When Postscript fonts for Mac became a thing, Mark realized that maybe he didn’t have to go through a publisher and could release it himself. He published a few digital PS fonts in the early-to-mid 1990’s with slow uptake, but when people started selling fonts on the web in the early 2000’s, he jumped on it and things started snowballing. He began working on creating fonts full time around 2005. Mark was so generous with his time and his knowledge. I’m excited for you to hear about his inspirations and his process for designing type. ( I was nervous chatting with such a legend and thank you Mark for making my type dreams come true!) At the end of our conversation, I couldn’t help but ask Mark about his choice for desert island typeface (eep!)... but let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Mark - what is Proxima Nova’s origin story?... Image Above: 1981 sketch of what would become Proxima Nova by Mark Simonson. Image Above: 1990 sketch of what would become Proxima Nova by Mark Simonson. About Our Guest: Mark Simonson is a lettering artist and independent type designer based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He is best known as the creator of the typeface Proxima Nova and has over 30 type families in the retail market comprising more than 230 fonts. Music: Tune 100 by Crowander, licensed with permission from the Independent Music Licensing Collective - imlcollective.uk Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash

We learn our ABCs as preschoolers; we begin to write down our alphabet, combine letters into words into sentences and eventually into stories. When entering into a new industry, it can be like learning a whole new language to understand the technical jargon and specific buzzwords thrown around. The graphic communications industry is no different so let’s pick up where we left off on our journey through the alphabet, using it as a framework to explore the ABCs of GCM. S is for Saddle Stitch A fancy term for ‘industrial stapling’, saddle stitching gets its name from the way paper looks as it travels along the machine. Books are made up of groupings of pages called ‘signatures’ that are brought together in binding equipment (perfect binding and saddle stitching are the two most common book binding techniques). In the case of small booklets destined for the saddle stitcher, folded signatures are loaded into ‘hoppers’. Each signature gets its own hopper; its own cozy spot to hang out before meeting the rest of the signatures in the book. When all signatures are loaded into hoppers and ready to be assembled, the first hopper spits out a signature onto a long, narrow conveyor and the paper looks like a saddle sitting on a horse. (The conveyor is like the horse, itself.) As the signature moves along the conveyor and passes by the next hopper, the next signature in sequence drops down on top of the first signature, like two saddles now stacked on top of one another. The growing booklet moves down the line, adding each signature in succession until, finally, the cover is placed on top. A large coil of metal wire then pierces the spine of the booklet in two or three places. The book is trimmed to its final size with a three-knife trimmer 🔪, which is a huge, scary chopping knife that cuts through paper like a hot knife through butter. Lastly, the final stapled booklet is spit out the back of the machine. As the old saying goes: save a horse, ride a saddle stitcher. 🏇 T is for Trim size Trim size is simply the final size of a printed document. It’s called ‘trim size’ because it is quite literally the final size after trimming excess paper off of a document before it’s shipped to a customer. Trim size is often described in inches because the printing and design industries in North America don’t believe in the metric system 🙄 and sometimes trim sizes are quite odd. For example, a 5” x 8” printed product is manufactured, but often so is a 5 7/16” x 7 7/8” printed piece. If you were to measure some of the books on your bookshelf you would probably find that most of them err on the side of weird dimensions versus whole numbers or a half numbers. This usually has to do with maximizing the project for the press it will be printed on, as well as the size/width of the paper used. Also remember that if you are designing a project for print you will also likely have to build bleed allowance into the digital file. Bleed allowance is typically an additional 1/8” that extends beyond the trim size. It’s there so that elements on the page (like a graphic element or a photo) that’s designed to extend all the way to the edge of the printed page will actually look that way in the final piece. You can think about bleed in the same way that you might think about making a sandwich. 🥪 Picture bleed as the crust of the sandwich. You’re going to spread 🍴 whatever filling is inside the sandwich all the way to the crust but it’s not going be perfect, neat and tidy all the way around. However, when you cut the crust off on all four sides, you’re left with a neat and tidy sandwich with filling all the way to the edges. This is exactly how and why bleed works in print. Add some additional size to the digital file, print the larger size, and then cut that bleed area off so that the job is in its final trim size and looks neat and tidy. And now you’re left with your beautiful, yummy printed piece. U is for UV Coating Coating is applied to a printed piece for a number of reasons: for protection, for visual appeal and impact, and/or for increased tactility. There are three commonly used types of coating: aqueous (AQ), lamination (a subcategory of coating) and ultraviolet (UV) coating. AQ coating is often applied in-line on press, typically flooding the whole sheet after printing with a low-sheen protective top coat. It’s like a clear coat of nail polish applied on top of pretty painted nails. Lamination is not a liquid coating at all, but a film of protective plastic applied on top of printed work. Books are often laminated (in either gloss or matte finish), as lamination provides the most protection of all three options. UV coating is (in my humble opinion) the most fun of the coating options. UV coating is the party girl 💃🏼 of the three with wild and wacky possibilities for the final result. UV coating is a liquid coating similar to AQ, however it’s formulated to dry instantly when hit with UV light💡. This provides the opportunity to apply UV coating only to specific places on a design (ex: to the title of a book or creating a realistic ‘wet look’💧on packaging). This opens up a world of possibility to the visual impact and increased tactility, activating both visual and touch sensory experiences. UV coating is similar to getting your nails painted at a salon that uses UV-curable polish to dry your nails instantly under UV light. (If you’re into that sort of thing. 💅🏻) V is Virgin Paper 📄 Log made it through the wilderness It was about to be chewed Didn’t know what a Fourdrinier was Until the pulp stewed. It was beat Incomplete It was sad, optical brighteners made it blue But you made it peel Yeah, rolled onto a reel Calendared and new (Hoo) Like a virgin [paper] Touched for the very first time Like a virgin [paper] Feel the warm sheets Or rewind. The paper making process is quite extraordinary. I had the opportunity to visit a paper mill when in Corner Brook, Newfoundland a number of years ago and the entire operation is SUPER-SIZED. As I entered the building wearing full protective gear and climbed tall industrial staircase, I saw the front end of the paper-making process laid out before me. Massive logs 🪵 were transported from the yard to wood chipping machines that looked like huge dryer drums, churning and chewing up entire trees 🌳. The view was made more dramatic by my vantage point: through metal grates below my feet as I walked across a long metal walkway, two storeys above said ominous scene. 😳Needless to say, I survived the experience and I was forever grateful to the paper mill for giving me an insiders’ look. This mill produced virgin paper, which is paper produced with material sourced entirely from natural resources (trees) versus sourced from recycled paper sources. The raw materials for virgin paper is often sourced from sustainable forests, the most well-known certification being FSC (Forest Stewardship Council). Others include AFF (Ancient Forest Friendly) and SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative). These environmental stamps of approval communicate that “no old growth trees were harmed in the making of this book and more trees were planted in its place.” Paper with some amount of recycled content is another popular option that may contain recycled fibres from two categories: pre-consumer waste and post-consumer waste. ♻️ Pre-consumer waste means that the paper or wood products contained in the paper did not reach the customer before being recycled. Off-cut wood chips from sawmills or huge bales of scrap offcuts from printing companies are shipped back to the paper manufacturer, re-pulped, and made into pre-consumer recycled paper. Post-consumer waste refers to paper made with materials that have been used and then discarded by the consumer through a municipal recycling program (curb-side pickup) and then shipped back to be transformed into new paper. But no matter how eco-friendly we want to be as a society, we can’t rely solely on 100% recycled paper. Paper fibres break down each time they’re recycled and these fibres can only be recycled an equivalent of about 7 times before they become too short and too weak. W is for Watermark 📄 For many the term ‘watermark’ is synonymous with digital watermarks; markings overlaid on top of creative works and other digital documents as protection from being used without permission. Stock photography sites are common examples. These lightened marks can be any size, shape or imagery. Like many terms in the digital world that come from traditional communication (think: ‘scroll’ or ‘tablet’), ‘watermark’ is no different. In paper making, watermarks are distinct areas of a sheet with greater translucency that come into full view when held up to light, often a recycled symbol or a company logo. Watermarks are also part of many countries’ printed currency, stamps and passports, helping to ensure enhanced security that’s difficult for forgers to replicate. How are watermarks made? They’re impressed into the paper during the paper making process and their origin dates back to Italy as early as the year 1282. More modern watermarks (modern, as in 1826) are created using a metal embossed image (dandy roll or a cylinder would watermark) that is impressed into paper when it’s still pulpy. This changes the thickness of a sheet in a specific area, allowing light to pass through more easily. So while digital watermarks can be created on-the-fly, paper watermarks are anything but spontaneous. X is for x-height In typography, the x-height (also called ‘waistline’) is defined as the height of the lowercase letters, from the baseline to the to the top of the lowercase letters, minus the ascenders. It’s the height of the lowercase ’x’. Curved lowercase letters (a, c, o, etc.) tend to be a smidgen taller than the x-height as their rounded tops overshoot the x-height to provide the same visual proportions as their straight-edged lowercase counterparts. Typically, the larger the x-height, the more readable the typeface. However, like most instances in typography (and in life), a fine balance is best. The Goldilocks Principle should taken into consideration: not too big, not too small, juuuuuuuuuuust right. A medium-sitting x-height means that the letterforms will be recognizable and understandable for most reading the text. This is important for accessibility considerations and choosing letterforms that will be quickly recognized by the most individuals. Mama Bear knows best. Y is for Yellow Yellow is sunny. Yellow is bright. Yellow is happy. It’s one of four process colours that help transform an image into over 1 million possible printed colours. Here are a few more fun facts about the brightest colour of the fab four: It’s sandwiched between orange and green on the visible spectrum of light (aka the rainbow) The word ‘yellow’ originated from the Old English word ‘geolu’ Yellow often indicates caution because it’s easily visible: yellow street signs or a yellow card in soccer This same cautionary phenomenon is present in nature: for example, bees and wasps are yellow that is a warning for other animals to stay away Yellow is said to have a stimulating effect on the mind Yellow is a theme in many popular songs: Coldplay’s massive hit “Yellow” helped the band achieve world-wide fame in 2000, The Beatles’ released the quirky track “Yellow Submarine” in 1966 and Wiz Khalifa’s “Black and Yellow” released in 2010 was nominated for a Grammy Award What can I say? They call me mellow yellow. Z is for Zip File 📁 A ‘zip’ or compressed file is commonly used to include multiple files within a folder, into a single file. This not only takes up less space, but it also assists in situations where a series of files or a folder need to be sent by email or to a digital drop box, but where only a single file can be uploaded. A zip file is kind of like Cinderella - lots of hard work housed within her world. 🧹 She wants to travel to the ball, but she’s not allowed. A fairy godmother 🧚‍♀️appears and, just like magic, zips her up into a beautiful little file. If the fairy godmother is a Mac user 💻, she right clicks the folder and selects ‘Compress’, creating a single ‘.zip’ file that can be transferred or sent like any other single file can. But the magic can’t last forever. At midnight (or when you receive a zip file that you want to ‘unzip’) the magic runs out. When on the receiving end, simply double click the little file and, just like Cinderella, it turns back into a working folder of files. 📂 If the story teaches us anything, it’s that one day her prints will come. 📑👰🏼‍ &: Ampersand There you have it: the ABCs of GCM! Today we come to the last letter of the alphabet, ampersand. This 27th character had its 15 minutes of fame as part of the alphabet in the 1800’s, with school children commonly reciting a poem called ‘Apple Pie ABC’ to learn their alphabet. Here’s our little version: A is for Author’s Alterations B is for Barcode C is for Creative Cloud D is for Descender E is for Endpapers F is for Fifth Colour G is for Grain H is for Hickeys I is for Imposition J is for Justified K is for Kilobyte L is for Leading M is for Makeready N is for Newsprint O is for Offset P is for PPI Q is for Quire R is for Ream S is for Saddle Stitch T is for Trim Size U is for UV Coating V is for Virgin Paper W is for Watermark X, Y, Z and ampersand, all wished for a piece [of paper] in hand. Sound Effect (public domain via Freesound): InspectorJ - Kids Playing Music (public domain via Free Music Archive): John Bartmann (in order of appearance in episode) Hopeful Start Iyanetha Let’s Hit the Bar Fridge Back on the Wagon Jazzy Detective Mellow Cafe Vibe 8-Bit Kung Fu It Was Another Time Weird Science Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash

We learn our ABCs as preschoolers; we begin to write down our alphabet, combine letters into words into sentences and eventually into stories. When entering into a new industry, it can be like learning a whole new language to understand the technical jargon and specific buzzwords thrown around. The graphic communications industry is no different so let’s pick up where we left off on our journey through the alphabet, using it as a framework to explore the ABCs of GCM. J is for Justified Cry me a river. Cry me a river. In 2002 Justin Timberlake cried a river. While most listeners believed that JT’s smash hit was about his breakup with Britney, I knew the real truth. It’s typography, b*tch. After all, Cry Me a River was released on his album, Justified. It’s as clear as black text on white paper. For anyone utterly confused (which is fair), ‘justified’ is a form of text alignment. And rivers are unsightly white spaces running vertically down blocks of justified text because of issues with spacing. And designers cry about this problem. Justification happens when text extends to both the right and left sides of a column. In trying to achieve such typographic gymnastics, sometimes unsightly word spaces appear in blocks of justified text. When these larger-than-normal word spaces combine with other larger-than-normal word spaces throughout a block a text, ‘rivers’ result. And they are unsightly typographic no-no’s if we can avoid them. But how do we avoid such unsightly white spaces that impact the overall colour of a page layout? There are a few solutions. Increase the column width so that the software (such as Adobe InDesign, for example) has more to work with in spacing out characters across a line. Make the size of the type smaller, which is in essence allowing for the same additional type of graphic freedom as suggested above. Use a more condensed version of your typeface, which, again will aid in much the same way as suggestions 1 and 2 above. Remember, however, that it’s a bad idea to condense the type yourself. Instead choose a member of a font family that is designed to be condensed. Increase the default amount of hyphenation allowable. Mr. Gutenberg was notorious for going buck wild with hyphens (almost 1/3 of all lines within the Gutenberg Bible are hyphenated) and people rant and rave about the overall quality and type colour established on his pages Choose to left align the text instead, creating a ragged right side and eliminating all occurrences of the larger-than-normal word spaces Whatever river-reducing method you choose... You don’t have to say, what you did I already know, I found out from Kim (from the art department) Now there’s just no chance With u and e There'll never be Don't it make you mad about it? Oh! The damage is done, so I guess I be retrieving (the previous version of my file...) (Just call me @WeirdAl of the type world) K is for kB = kilobyte A kilobyte (kB) is a measurement of computer hard drive storage and computer memory storage. While a kB once represented 1000 bytes, it’s more commonly used to represent 1024 bytes today. 1 B (byte) 1000 kB (kilobyte) 1000^2 MB (megabyte) 1000^3 GB (gigabyte) 1000^4 TB (terabyte) 1000^5 PB (petabyte) 1000^6 EB (exabyte) 1000^7 ZB (zettabyte) 1000^8 YB (yottabyte) What does 1 kB represent in everyday data storage? Approximately half a page of Roman alphabetic text (1 byte per letter) A short email In 1956, IBM launched the world’s very first computer. It filled an entire room, the disk drive weighed a (literal) ton, it cost $35,000 per year to operate and stored 5 MB of data. Today, you can buy any number of USB storage devices, available everywhere, even at local corner stores. They fit in the palm of your hand, weigh around 20 grams, they cost under $10 and store around 64 GB of data. What could only be described as ‘science fiction’ less than 70 years ago is now a commonplace, everyday convenience that continues to shape our world. Just think where we’ll be 70 years from now… I’ll be transposing this text straight from my brain (no typing required) on my disposable computer, from the passenger seat of my self-driving hover car on the way to the hologram repair shop. L is for Leading Leading (pronounced ‘ledding’, not ‘leeding’) is a term used to describe the space between lines of text, also referred to as line spacing. It’s measured from the baseline of one line of text to the baseline of the text above. The term leading has roots in the first printing process (letterpress) commercialized by Mr. Gutenberg almost 500 years ago. Rectangular blocks of lead were inserted between lines of text to provide breathing space and enhance readability. Today, adjusting leading no longer requires physical blocks of anything and it can be manipulated at the click of a button. Leading can be adjusted in professional page layout software like Adobe InDesign, as well as word processing software like Microsoft Word and Google Docs. Default leading is typically set to 120% of the size type you’re working with and it provides for excellent readability. So when working with 10 pt type, 12 pts of leading is standard. Adding more lead will provide an airier feel to the document, while removing lead will make the text feel more compact and create a darker document ‘colour’ overall. If the amount of leading is equivalent to the size of type you’re using (often used when stacking capital letters on top of one another), this is known as set solid. M is for Makeready Making a list, checking it twice, going to find out what’s sheeted and what we’ll splice. In professional printing just “pressing print” is not a thing. The concept of makeready (which includes running through a checklist of items to get a job up and running), comes into play in the press room. Makeready activities include things like: Reading instructions for a job Gathering materials such as the required ink, paper, printing plates Setting up the feeder and delivery units of the press Preliminary printing to ensure all plates are in register with one another and high-quality colour is achieved (multiple ‘pulls’ and fine adjustments required) Makeready represents the fixed costs associated with printing. Whether printing 300 copies or 300,000 copies, the set up is roughly the same. Therefore, the costs associated with makeready are divided amongst the number of copies printed. If the makeready costs equivalent of $500 in time and materials, that value is distributed over the total copies printed, increasing the overall cost per piece. Fewer copies means that each will have proportionately more cost applied per piece. That $500 makeready costs $1.66 per piece for 300 copies printed, but just a fraction of a penny per piece with 300,000 copies printed. Makeready is neither good nor bad; it’s just part of the process of offset printing. For this reason, it makes a lot more sense to use offset printing when high quantities are required. N is for Newsprint Newsprint is a relatively low quality, absorbent stock used for low cost printing projects that don’t have to last a long time. Although wide newspaper circulation is a thing of the past, newsprint paper provides an interesting material science issue, one to which an elegant solution was found in the world of typography. PROBLEM: Because of its porous nature, small type doesn’t work well on newsprint. The issue is magnified when printing important numbers in the financial pages, where readers rely on the accuracy of the data. But when dot gain occurs, 6’s turn into 8’s and 1’s turn into 7’s. Dot gain is the spreading of growth of ink beyond where it was originally intended and is amplified with highly porus paper. If not actively compensated for in premedia, as well as on press, dot gain can run rampant, causing letters to fill it and images to print darker than intended. SOLUTION: Enter Retina. A typeface designed by Hoefler & Frere-Jones for very small sizes. “Retina was originally designed in MicroPlus size for the financial pages of the Wall Street Journal. Printers understand that numbers appearing at 5.5 points on newsprint is a dangerous combination. Small “ink wells” (notches strategically set into the characters) may look strange at larger sizes but they are an ingenious proactive design feature that helps printed ink complete each letter beautifully. After its successes on the printed page, it was time for Retina to hit the big screen and the typeface was reworked without the notches and using more conventional proportions for headlines and larger text sizes. Retina has been revered as a milestone in type design and has been acquired by The Museum of Modern Art for its Architecture and Design Collection.” (A Tale of Two Typefaces, Diana Varma for Graphic Arts Magazine) Leave it to modern type designers to solve a printing problem hundreds of years in the making. O is for Offset Offset printing is like a relay race. The grippers are the runners. The paper is the baton. The printing units are the water stations throughout the race route. A series of grippers (little claws) are strategically placed through the press. Each sheet of paper is pulled into the press by these grippers and transferred at high speed HORIZONTALLY through the press, always handed off from one set of grippers to the next. There’s never a time when the sheet isn’t held. But there are other helpers that make the race happen. There are the hydration stations along the race route, handing out water as the racers go by. Enter: the printing units. Each colour requires its own printing unit and there are three main cylinders integral to the smooth image transfer that happens on an offset press. (Also, the term ‘offset printing’ comes from a very practical place. Offsetting is what the image is doing as it moves VERTICALLY down a printing unit.) Plate cylinder. 🍽 This thin aluminum material is wrapped around the plate cylinder and contains the RIGHT READING view of the image printed. Blanket cylinder. 🛏 Smooth rubberized material (the blanket) is wrapped around this cylinder. It sits below and touches the plate cylinder. The WRONG READING version (mirror image) of the image exists here. Impression cylinder. 📜This hard metal cylinder sit below and comes into contact with the blanket cylinder. It provides the squeeze needed for the image to transfer to the paper. Paper travels between the blanket and impression cylinders and when the inked-up image finally hits the paper, it’s RIGHT READING again. The two systems (horizontal paper travel and vertical image transfer) work together to win the race and look good doing it. P is for PPI (Pixels Per Inch) In the graphic communications industry there’s no shortage of ‘P words’ to choose from: points to picas, page count to pagination, perfecting, proofs, and presses (oh my!). Let’s focus on a very important indicator of quality that can make or break an image: PPI (Pixels Per Inch). PPI describes the detail of an image at a specific size. Images are made up of pixels. Pixels are teeny tiny squares 🟨 of digital colour information. When sitting in a grid beside many thousands or millions of other pixels (all made up of their own colours) these tiny digital mosaics look like continuous tone images. But pixel-based images can’t be increased in size forever and ever without beginning to look pixelated. Here’s how @explaineracademy describes this phenomenon (and it’s brilliant): Digital image = knitted blanket 🛏 Pixels = yarn 🧶 When the blanket was made, it was created using a specific amount of yarn. In its original, intended size, it looks good. It’s tightly knit, warm and fuzzy. As you begin to stretch the blanket, the fibres separate and become more like a net. You can see the individual grid that makes up the blanket and it no longer functions as intended. Similarly, when a digital photograph is resized, there are only a finite number of pixels available. Pixels aren’t added as you resize; instead each square of colour gets bigger until you can see each of the individual pixels. In regards to designing for printed output, the partner-in-crime opposite to raster images are vector images. Vector images are made up of lines - mathematical curves that are resolution-independent, meaning that they can be resized up without any concern for loss of quality. Fonts are vector files and so are digital illustrations created in @illustrator. Typically, for high quality professional printed output, a raster image must be 300 ppi in its final size on screen in order to look high quality in print. If you increase the size of the image, the size of each individual pixel will increase proportionally with it. That’s because raster images are resolution dependent - they are made up of a fixed or finite number of pixels depending on how many pixels were in the original file. The number of pixels in a photograph is the direct result of the device that was used to capture the image. A 24 MP camera 📸 will produce an image with a greater amount of colour information - more pixels - than a 4 MP camera, for example. So grab a cozy blanket and get busy resizing images in @photoshop. Q is for Quire An individual piece of paper is called a sheet and a ‘quire’ is the smallest unit to measure a grouping of identical sheets of paper (25 sheets). It’s not a commonly used term but here’s a rundown of what various groups of sheets are called: 25 sheets = 1 quire 500 sheets = 20 quires = 1 ream 1000 sheets = 40 quires = 2 reams = 1 bundle 5000 sheets = 200 quires = 10 reams = 5 bundles = 1 bale So if you need new ways to describe quantities of paper, now you’ve got it! R is for Ream A ream of paper is defined as 500 identical sheets. When you buy paper for your printer, it typically comes in a ream. However, diving down the deep hole that is the Internet led me to learn that there’s a long history of the ream. Apparently, the 500-sheet ream has only been that way since the late 20th Century. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Here are some other ways that the ream has historically been defined: 472 sheets – Mill ream 480 sheets – Short ream 500 sheets – also called Long ream 504 sheets – Stationer's ream 516 sheets – Printer's ream or Perfect ream If you need new ways to describe a single quantity of paper, now you’ve got it! And a shoutout to my colleague with a great name, Reem El Asaleh. :) There are more ABCs of GCM to come in the next episode so stay tuned… Sound Effect (public domain via Freesound): InspectorJ - Kids Playing Mattskydoodle - Censor Music (public domain via Free Music Archive): John Bartmann (in order of appearance in episode) Chill and Grill Stowaway Cheeky Buggers Rubiks Cube Old Road to Town Fancy A Stroll Smooth Criminal Somewhere Nice Mad Hatter Tea Party Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash

We learn our ABCs as preschoolers; we begin to write down our alphabet, combine letters into words into sentences and eventually into stories. When entering into a new industry, it can be like learning a whole new language to understand the technical jargon and specific buzzwords thrown around. The graphic communications industry is no different so I would like to take a stroll through the alphabet that we all know and love, using it as a framework to explore the ABCs of GCM. This series is split into 3 episodes that I’m hoping will help explain key concepts in digestible ways. Let’s start with the letter A. A is for Author’s Alterations . Author’s alterations or ‘AA’ is a term commonly used in the printing and publishing industries when changes are made into the production of a publication (when its already at the printer). Any and all changes should be made before final files are sent to the printer, however if changes must be made afterwards and they are signed off by the client (typically when they receives the proofs that mockup what the publication will look like when it’s printed), these are referred to as AA’s and it’s the client who pays. This usually includes the cost to have a designer make the changes and any costs that the printer will incur to reprocess the file and produce another final proof. . The alternative to AA’s are PE’s (printer’s error) when a change or issue has accidentally been made by the printer and it went undetected by those responsible for checking the files throughout production. PE’s are paid for by the printer. . What if no one will take the blame? It all comes back to the final, signed off proof. Whether digital or physical, a proof is a legal document that will resolve the issue of whether changes to be made are AA’s or PE’s. . When I worked in sales in the book printing industry, I had a press operator call me from the shop floor to let me know that he found an error (as sheets were printed at a whopping speed of 18,000 sheets per hour! Gah!). “This is a reprint and I think someone forgot to update the copyright page.” Yikes. “Stop the press!” (I actually got to say this - what a dream!) I immediately (nervously) called the client to let them know what was going on. I was terrified that we had missed this error and/or somehow swapped out the old files for the new ones, so I frantically worked to track down the proofs with my client on the other end of the line. After some back and forth it was discovered that it was their error. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t catch it until it was already on press, but the client was so thankful that we called then instead of after the book was already printed, bound, and shipped. . Lesson learned: it’s EVERYONE’s job to check and recheck and recheck again as the job moves through production and it pays to ask questions if something doesn’t look quite right. B is for Bar Code A bar code is a common part of our every day lives - just open your snack cupboard and look to any packaging to find one. Bar codes look simple, however they have done amazing things to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the goods in our lives. As a designer, there are couple of things to keep in mind. First, bar codes don’t have to exist as a black mark on a white background. If you want to get more creative with a bar code, you can, in fact, change the colour of either the bar code itself or the background. However, there must be sufficient contrast between the two in order for the scanning equipment to read the bar code. You should be very cautious working with a barcode that’s more than one colour, but if you do change the colour, ENSURE that you’re not using more than two process colours. In other words, pick any two and no more: cyan, magenta, yellow, black. When I worked in industry, we printed a barcode that wouldn’t scan but looking at it with our naked eyes, we couldn’t understand the problem. It looked like a black bar code on a white background. What the heck?! When we took a closer look with a loupe, we discovered that the bar code was actually a four-colour black - made up of cyan, magenta, yellow AND black. The slight and natural misregistration that occurred on press was imperceptible to our naked eyes but not to the scanning equipment at the bookstore checkout. The slightly misaligned yellow peeked out from underneath the skinny black bars causing contrast issues and therefore scanning issues. Secondly, a word of caution that ‘FPO’ (For Position Only) placeholder bar codes are often used in book, magazine and packaging design if the actual bar code hasn’t been finalized yet. This is usually a low resolution bar code that has the letters FPO watermarked through it. This must be swapped out with the actual bar code before moving into print production. There’s an urban print legend that goes something like this: A high-end, well-know perfume brand was redesigning their packaging and the designer was working with an FPO barcode. The file was finalized with the FPO by mistake and somehow slipped into the printer’s hands without anyone noticing. You can imagine what happened next… the job continued through production… printing… binding and finishing… packaging the product…shipping to a distribution centre… shipping to store shelves… uh oh. As the story goes, a non-suspecting customer picked up the perfume, walked over to the cashier ready to make their purchase. When the cashier tried to scan the bar code it wouldn’t work and there were no numbers to key in either because it was A FAKE BAR CODE. Needless to say, the customer didn’t leave the store smelling sweetly that day. And nor did the brand owner. Rumour has it, this little faux pas cost close to $250,000 to fix, undoing and redoing the process that had just been completed by the printer and packager. Who had to foot the bill? It’s said that the client and printer split the costs 50/50 because there were so many opportunities for it to have been caught throughout production, but it just never was… or not that anyone’s owning up to anyway. C is for Creative Cloud The Adobe Creative Cloud is a magical thing. This powerful software collection allows designers to create professional documents for both print and digital output. In the printing industry specifically, we rely on Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe InDesign to do the heavy lifting. But what’s the best practice for using these software applications to make a professional publication? When do I use each one? I mean, I can draw vector illustrations in Illustrator AND InDesign, and I can apply text in all three... what’s a girl to do?! Here’s a quick 3-step process: Do any and all photo editing in Photoshop. This includes resizing photos so that they are in the desired FINAL SIZE in their CORRECT RESOLUTION (typically 300 ppi for professional print production). This is a better idea than resizing on the fly in InDesign because you’ll be messing with resolution to the detriment of your final print quality and/or your InDesign file size will be much larger than it needs to be. Photos saved out of Photoshop will be bitmap, pixel-based images ready for final placement in InDesign. Do any and all vector and illustrative work in Adobe Illustrator. This includes creating/working with logos. Maintain the ability to resize the artwork later on by saving files as .eps files, keeping them in their native .ai format or saving them as .pdf files (which can be reopened and fully edited in Illustrator because PDF’s preserve the vectors). Take all finalized text, finalized photos and finalized illustrations from their respective homes and bring them all together in InDesign. InDesign is powerful page layout software that can do a lot more than page layout (i.e. in it you can resize photos and create vector art), however it’s a much cleaner workflow for everyone working on the files if images and illustrations were created/modified in the software that best suits each purpose. Next check, double check and triple check the technical construction of the file (ex: correct document size, bleed allowance, no weird text reflow issues, etc.) using manual and automated preflighting tools built into InDesign. Finally, export as a high-quality PDF (for professional print production) and your file is ready to be printed! There’s a lot to be learned when it comes to creating high quality files for print - both in the quality of the design aesthetic and the technical execution of the design. D is for Descender Little g and little j, hip hop hooray! Little p and q, I see you. Little y oh why, oh me oh my. Bad lyrics aside, lowercase letters (also called minuscules) have all the fun. They’re able to stretch up high with their ascenders (sometimes even above the cap height) and reach down low below the baseline with their descenders, playfully extending a stem down to tickle the tops of letters on the line below. When it comes to play, no letter does it better than g... Gadzooks! G-whiz! Gloriously goofy is the gleeful g. Sometimes it loops, sometimes it scoops! But, consider yourself warned. While descenders have all the fun, they can also be tricky to use in certain situations, namely vertical text placement, as well as tight vertical line spacing - also called leading. Letterforms, hooray! (I could do this all day!) E is for Endpapers Endpapers are the under-rated, often overlooked link that brings a casebound book together. Literally acting as the bridge between the hard cover and book block of text pages, these two hard working pieces of paper hold it all together. They’re glued to the inside of the front case, as well as along the inner edge of the first text page. The same is repeated after the final text page of the book. However, they’re often a missed opportunity. The front endpaper is the very first thing readers see when they open a book, yet most endpapers aren’t printed. Some use different coloured paper to add visual interest, but many are the same colour paper as the rest of the text. The exception is in children’s books, where endpapers are typically printed with all kinds of fun and wacky designs, adding to the overall artistry of the book. It’s all in the details. F is for Fifth Colour Warning: Content contains dorky print metaphors and bad jokes related to 90’s girl bands. You’ve been warned. What’s the name of the Spice Girls’ book printing cover band? The SPLICE Girls! Hit song: 2 become 1. (You’re welcome.) Conventional printing technologies use a four-colour printing process of cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink (CMYK). Each of these four colours occupies one “unit” or “tower” on an offset printing press. A printing plate must be made for each of the four colours and each plate contains teeny tiny dots in specific locations, one for each colour. When they’re printed on top of one another, the colours brought back together and the full-colour image is printed. With these four simple colours used in different sizes and overlaid on top of one another, printers can replicate about a million colours on press. Impressive! I’ll compare it to when the Spice Girls were in their glory, disbanded for a while (each went their own separate way on the printing plate), but then came back together to put on over-priced-but-totally-worth-it performances. And much like the Spice Girls, the show can go on with only four members (CMYK), but doesn’t it add another element when there’s five members? Enter the fifth colour in printing, otherwise known as the Geri Halliwell of print. The term ‘fifth colour’ has a variety of meanings, three of which I’ll explain here: Pantone Spot Colour - Above and beyond the four process colours, there’s an entire library dedicated to specific-coloured inks. Pantone colours exist to print brand colours with one variable (a single ink colour), versus trying to replicate it using two or more variables (CMYK). Pantone colours aren’t printed in every job because it’s not necessary; most of the Pantone colours can be replicated using CMYK inks and adding a Pantone colour adds cost to a job. They’re used when achieving a specific colour is critical and when work is printed on various materials to maintain consistency, for example. They’re also used when wanting to print unique inks that aren’t achievable with CMYK, like fluorescent and metallic colours. Varnish and Spot Varnish - Some offset or digital presses have a fifth unit, which allows the printing of a varnish, or coating, over top of the entire press sheet. While the varnish itself is colourless, it changes the look and feel of the piece through changing it’s sheen. Spot varnish may also be used to add interest, depth and a tactile feel to a printed piece. Spot varnish is just that: typically high-gloss or matte varnish is applied only to specific spots, or areas, on the printed page to make them pop. Paper - While most printing is done on white paper so that the beauty of the colours can take centre stage, using coloured paper (even if that just means a different shade of white) is another variable to change the overall look of the printed colours. I’ll stop right now, thank you very much. G is for Grain This is the story of how paper is made. Two pieces of paper slip between the sheets… no that’s not it. The paperback stork comes to visit… that’s not it either. Oh right, sheets of paper are made via HUGE rolls on a gigantic machine called a Fourdrinier. When paper is made, a massive gloopy slurry of fibres and water are laid out onto a giant wire conveyor belt. As the almost-paper travels along this huge conveyor, water drains from the slurry. As a natural part of this process, the fibres contained in the slurry begin to align themselves in the direction of travel (the long part of the fibre parallel to the long part of the conveyor). Therefore, early in it’s life in the paper womb, on that giant Fourdrinier paper-making machine, grain direction is established. Grain direction refers to this aligning of paper fibres, and although we can’t see the grain with our naked eye, this invisible force established early on in the process affects how the paper is best printed, how it should be bound, and ultimately, how it will behave when it grows up and enters the real world as a finished product. Imagine paper fibres like grains of rice, all facing the same direction. As moisture hits the rice (in the form of dampness in the printing process or relative humidity in the air), the rice expands width-wise. The same thing happens with paper fibres; they expand across the grain. The wetter they get, the wider they get. This will then affect the width of the sheet and cause unwanted curl during or after a pressrun. Furthermore, grain direction impacts a paper’s ability to be folded cleanly. If you imagine the rice again, folding between the grains of rice (versus trying to fold across the grains of rice) will provide a much cleaner fold. Another way to imagine paper grain with a snack you may have in your kitchen right now is with Truscuits. These wheaty treats have a distinct grain that makes it so they break apart cleanly in one direction (with the grain) and with jagged edges (across the grain), making them the perfect snack to ponder this paper predicament. Finally, grain direction is relative. If the length of the fibres of any given sheet align with the short side of the sheet, that paper is “grain short”. Conversely, if that same sheet was cut in half and all of a sudden the fibres of the sheet align with the long side now, that exact same piece of paper is considered “grain long”. So just like the rest of us, paper can have an identity crisis during their awkward teen years. H is for Hickeys Hickeys are pesky little marks that show up between the sheets. Press sheets, that is. Hickeys look like tiny, unwanted donuts on the final printed piece. They’re caused by specs of dirt and debris on the printing plate (like dried ink) that subsequently become inked up and then printed. The solution? Wash the plate. Wipe it clean to remove debris and then get back up and running hickey-free. In extreme cases, the entire press might need to be washed up and new, fresh, crust-free ink applied, for example. So hide those hickeys the next time you’re printing 50 shades of greyscale... I is for Imposition “Is it worth it? Let me work it I put my thing down, flip it and reverse it.” Missy knows what she’s talking about when it comes to imposition. Imposition is the arrangement of pages on a digital file or printing plate so that when the brochure, book or magazine is printed and folded, all pages will be in correct sequential order in the final product. All is to say, spoiler alert: your favourite book wasn’t printed sheet-by-sheet starting on page 1. Very often, for book and magazine printing, sheets are laid out in multiples of 8 - sometimes 8, 16 or 32 pages on a single side of a large sheet that will then be folded down into a signature (chunk of the book). Many signatures together make up a book. This is often why there are blank pages at the end of books, to make the number of total pages a multiple of 8 to accommodate the imposition. How does Milly Elliot fit into it? Well, there are three main imposition styles established in the premedita department: sheet wise, work and turn and work and tumble. Sheetwise: the plates used on the front side are different than the backside. Work and turn: the same plates are used for front and back and the press sheet is sent through the press twice, flipping the sheet over for the second pass but maintaining the same gripper edge. Work and tumble: the same plates are used for front and back and the press sheet is sent through the press twice, flipping the sheet over for the second pass the gripper edge changes for backside. It’s a little more complicated that this, but you get the idea. Anyhoo, Missy and I both agree that work and tumble has all the fun. “To my fellas, I like the way you work that. To my ladies, you sure know how to work that” There are more ABCs of GCM to come in the next episode so stay tuned… Sound Effect (public domain via Freesound): InspectorJ - Kids Playing Music (public domain via Free Music Archive): John Bartmann (in order of appearance in episode) Kiddie Theif Oopsie-Doodle Grassroots Programming Jailbreak Whispers Bumping Into Each Other Bouncy Gypsy Beats Back to Basics Cuban Heat Crazy Balloons Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo byAlex onUnsplash

In this last episode of this three-part miniseries all about big emotions in creative living, I sit down with Lisa Anchin, children’s book author and illustrator. Several months ago I was at my local library with my kids after it had fully re-opened, closed for years because of the pandemic. Get me in the picture book section of a library and I am like a kid in a candy store, picking up and leafing through everything I can get my hands on. I love children’s books for many reasons and one of which Is that they are a fun and accessible entry point into exploring deep and challenging topics. I love using them in my university classroom for exactly this purpose. During this particular visit to the library, I was deep into planning my forthcoming Domestika course about boosting creative confidence and I was trying to figure out how to incorporate kids’ books into the lessons. I was browsing through the stack and came across a number of books that happened to directly relate to the topic of creative confidence. One in particular that stood out was called The Paper Bird and it was a newly released book; I may have actually been the first person to read this particular copy at my library. As I read and read the story resonated deeply. It’s about a little girl who is passionate about expressing herself creatively, but when the other kids laugh at her work she feels discouraged and has self-doubt to the point that colour begins to fade from her life, eventually resulting in a greyscale world. It’s through a moment of solitude and the gritty act of creating that colour re-enters her world. So after checking it out of the library, I did what I know how to do best and I reached out to the author, Lisa Anchin, to thank her for the work she had created and to ask her if she’d like to chat and be part of the series. And as for incorporating kids books into the Domestika of course, I decided to include a resource containing a list of children’s books that focus on various topics in the emotional realities of creative living, for students who are young or students who are young at heart. I’ve included the same resource in the show notes for today’s episode. In this conversation, you will hear Lisa talk about how the final story of The Paper Bird is very different from her original idea (7 years and 17 drafts in the making!). Lisa sheds light on how book making is a hugely collaborative process and the way she works with her publishing team. Lisa speaks to the role that self-doubt plays in her creative process and her approach to break out of the cycle of self-doubt (hint: make more stuff!). Lisa ends this episode by reading The Paper Bird and purely by coincidence, actual birds arrived as she began reciting her story and offered their sing-song gifts to the recording. Magical! Enjoy! A spread from The Paper Bird, as well as in-progress images. :) Children's Books Exploring Creative Confidence Resource (from Diana's soon-to-be-release Domestika course about creative confidence) About Our Guest: Lisa Anchin (she/her) has been drawing since she could hold a pencil and making up stories since she could speak. She received her BA from Smith College and took a long circuitous route to an MFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York. She is often holed up in her studio stringing words together and compulsively doodling, but she also loves meeting other kidlit folks and volunteers as the Illustration Coordinator for SCBWI’s Metro NY Chapter. She is the author/illustrator of THE LITTLE GREEN GIRL (Dial Books for Young Readers 2019), a 2020 Crystal Kite award winner, and THE PAPER BIRD (Dial Books for Young Readers 2022). She is the illustrator of THE POLIO PIONEER (Knopf Books for Young Readers 2020), a Sydney Taylor 2021 Notable Book; A PENGUIN NAMED PATIENCE by Suzanne Lewis (Sleeping Bear Press 2015); and I WILL LOVE YOU by Alyssa Satin Capucilli (Scholastic 2017). Lisa lives in Brooklyn with her husband, two daughters, and two studio cats. Lisa also blogs on Notable19s and KidLitArtists, home of the SCBWI LA Illustration Portfolio Mentorship Program Winners. Music: You Vintage by Ketsa, licensed with permission from the Independent Music Licensing Collective - imlcollective.uk Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash

I Didn’t Do The Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt. When I first heard of this book by author Madeleine Dore, the title immediately grabbed my attention. (Kudos to Madeleine and her publishing team for grabbing the attention of the target audience!) I downloaded the audiobook so I could walk and listen. I recognize the irony in trying to be as productive as possible while listening to a book to overcome productivity guilt, but here we are… And as a bonus bit of irony, it took me nearly twice as long as the 7-hour listening time to get through it because I kept pausing and rewinding 30 seconds to re-listen and really take in what Madeleine was saying. There were so many things that resonated with me directly, from page 1 onwards. Something that I am very excited for (but also incredibly nervous about) is carving out the month of July just for family. That means no work, no thinking about work, no thinking about thinking about work. It’s going to be a stretch for me, but the busyness and chaos that has rained in everyone’s lives the last two years has taken its toll on me. If you’re intrigued and you’d like to hear more about my ‘why’ and ‘how’ for rest this summer, continue listening after today’s interview (that’s why this episode is longer than usual). I’m so excited to share today’s conversation with you. After finishing her book, I reached out on a whim to Madeleine, thanking her for writing such a poignant work and asking her if she’d like to come on the podcast and chat with a like-minded soul who is trying to not do all the things today. I was delighted when she agreed. The conversation you’re about to hear took place in late March of this year. The time between when it was originally recorded and now when it’s released has been about three months; an entire spring season. I love the fact that there has been this gap from recording to production, editing and release. It’s giving me some time to be able to reflect on the conversation, as well as think about what it means to me in this slowed down season of spring, transitioning into summer. Back in late March 2022 I was doing all the things today. In our conversation, Madeleine and I discuss why ‘perfection’ is a flawed concept (and what’s better than striving for perfection), the importance of taking productivity down off its pedestal, the bright side of not completing your to do list, the importance of being curious to question where our productivity guilt comes from, as well as broadening the measure of a day to celebrate the variances there within (as well as the variances within ourselves). Madeleine provides insight on the daunting nature of ‘space’ that rest affords us, practical tips for living presently in our days, the ways Madeleine chooses to measure her days beyond ‘being productive’, why the very ‘quantifiable’ measure of productivity is actually an imperfect metric too and what the term ‘precrastination’ means. Phew! I really appreciate all that Madeleine’s work has opened my eyes to and if you’ve ever felt stuck on the world’s ‘hamster wheel’, going through the motions and being productive without really stopping to consider the bigger picture, this episode is for you. Episode bonus material: My journey to rest. Throughout the month of May, as my schedule began opening and breathing space settled around me, one of the greatest gifts the world offered me was stopping to smell the flowers. Literally. Our local plant life invited me to slow down during the mid-May cherry blossom bloom, the maturation of spectacularly fragrant lilacs and the dripping scented blooms on the Solomon’s seals that sit adjacent to my front porch, greeting me each time I walked past them. Their scents remind me to enjoy their beauty and mystery and wonder for the short time that they’re here. They invite me to stop my forward momentum, engage my senses and slow my busy mind. And everything I’m reading and watching these days seems to be pointing in this similar direction: rest. For example, earlier this year I watched a TEDx talk entitled The real reason we are tired and what to do about it by physician Saundra Dalton-Smith. In it, she identifies seven types of rest, which was a revolutionary concept for me; to learn that rest is not synonymous with sleep and that there are six additional types of rest we can tap into: Physical (sleep, etc.) Mental (slowing our busy minds) Sensory (removing excess stimuli) Social (connection with others) Emotional (embracing authenticity in ourselves) Spiritual (religion, community, nature) Creative (creative strategy or creative outputs) It feels really important to me for a medical professional to identify these different types of rest, providing additional options to rejuvenate when I get the recommended number of hours of sleep, but still don’t feel rested. To continue my exploration of rest, I’ve just finished reading the book Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing and Underliving by Celeste Headlee and it has been an incredible resource to understand the systemic and societal factors that drive our efficiency-focused culture. Five stars. Two thumbs up. I 100% recommend it. Now I love being efficient and I love being productive and I love what I do. But without the balance of adequate rest or the unhealthy, compulsive need to feel that my worth is tied to my to do list, is when efficiency is no longer a helpful means to an end. Within the conclusion of her book, Celeste shares these summative insights: “We can develop new habits that better suit our innate need to belong, our thirst for companionship, and our ability to imagine incredible things through a focused mind… Human beings are social animals who are at their best when they connect with one another. Collaboration is our superpower. Perhaps we can create a culture in which relationships are prioritized instead of productivity.” I love that in our conversation, Madeleine spoke directly to this desire to make connection a new goal post for success. In working on this podcast, one of my favourite things is connecting with others who are outside of my established social circle. Actively expanding my circle for personal development, rather than for any type of strategic or ego-driven reason as it relates to the podcast, feels really great and authentic and right. For me, this podcast is the means and not the end. It’s the conduit through which I’m fortunate enough to have these conversations. I’m going to continue exploring connection as part of my restful journey this summer. Circling back, Celeste finishes her earlier thought by saying this: “Human beings have a great capacity for joy. I would love to see us make joy a goal.” And it was concept of joy that helped me better understand my own why’s for taking on new passion projects, adjacent to my day-job. Something clicked for me when listening to episode 48 of Glennon Doyle’s podcast We Can Do Hard Things. Vulnerability researcher Brené Brown said something that I felt compelled to immediately jot down. When she was asked about her thoughts on taking on opportunities versus when to say no because we have enough, she suggested asking yourself the following questions: Do I want to do it? Is there joy in it? Or do I just want to prove that I can do it? Bingo. While I love what I do, I can think of having said yes to things that certainly weren’t rooted in intrinsic joy, but rather extrinsic stubbornness; proving that I could do something. And as the universe would have it, Brene’s words and work continue to align with my increasing capacity for rest. On May 8, 2022, the one and only Brené Brown shared a blog post she wrote called “Creating Space”. In it, she describes the space that is required between stimulus and response for our growth and freedom. She says: “I try to keep that space wedged open with my sobriety, sleep, prayer, working out, practicing curiosity, therapy, and intentional breathing — to name a few.” Brené then describes the way in which the last the last couple of years have been hard and she feels the space closing in again. As she explains it: “…the pause is suffering…”. Her solution? Commit to a 3-month sabbatical: “To reinvest in that space, I’ve decided to take a sabbatical this summer. I’ve never done it before, and just the thought of taking off 14 weeks is anxiety-producing for someone who can struggle to take a week off.” I hear this, deeply. And (as I’m learning) I don’t need anyone’s permission to take a break, but if there ever was permission to be had, I see Brene’s initiative as exactly that and it landed on my radar a few weeks after my commitment to take my own summer sabbatical. She’s leading the way and teaching through example that our hustle culture must strike a balance between doing meaningful work, while remaining open to the space required to take notice of the greater meaning that life as humans affords us. And in all of this, I acknowledge my privilege — my massive, unusual, without a doubt privilege — that I can even fathom taking the month of July for my family and I. I know that this is not a luxury that’s not available to everyone. I really hope this episode is not perceived as a prescriptive “do this” or “don’t do that” of how to embrace rest, but rather a discourse about the nature of unhealthy work culture, which, in my case, is very much self-imposed. More and more, I find that I’m so focussed on the metaphorical trees in my work life that I rarely zoom out to take a notice of the entire forest around me. And what a shame it is to be so engrossed with the everyday to-do’s that I fail to notice the everyday ta-da’s. So this July I vow to zoom out, to see the forest and to marvel at the ta-da’s. I haven’t taken a break like in as long as I can remember; maybe never in my adult working life, since I was 16 years old lifeguarding at the pool. I’ve always been a constant state of motion, forward movement, improvement but I need to carve out the necessary time for rest, rejuvenation, rejoicing. And that is what I hope for this July. I’m going into it with no expectations. My only criteria being that I take full advantage of slowing down and actively focussing on things other than work-work. Even though I love my work-work. And I think this is why it scares me so much. Because I know who I am when I’m working. I know what will punctuate my days and I know that through the doing is where my new ideas come from. So slowing down or stopping means uncertainty, fear, the unknown as to who I will be without my work-work and I have no idea if I can actually slow down my brain. I fear getting it to stop and I fear if I do, it will never get up to speed again. The other day a friend shared a video with me that beautifully articulated all of this, using flowers as metaphor, which I think beautifully brings us back to where this bonus episode material started. Emmy-award winning producer and host Jenny Mai Jenkins shared this idea in a recent interview: “If a flower doesn’t bloom, do you blame the flower or do you blame its environment? Right. So imagine, if this plant didn’t bloom are you going to, blame the plant? Or are you going to check the soil? Are you going to check the light? Are you going to check the air around it, the humidity? Because that’s the reason why the plant grows, right? So we are that flower. If we’re not growing or we’re not sprouting or blooming the right way, what’s your environment?” In short, I’m changing my environment so that I may continue to evolve and grow and thrive for myself and for my family. Finally, here’s what my out of office will say for the month of July: Subject: Out of Office I am out of office (including the portable one I carry with me) and returning on August 1, 2022 with NO access to email. If you need to reach someone regarding GCM undergraduate program, please contact Xxxx Xxxx in the front office in my absence. If you need to reach out to someone regarding the Graphic Communications Certificate through The Chang School, please reach out to Xxxx Xxxx. If the matter is time-sensitive or an emergency, I can be reached at XXX.XXX.XXXX. Cheers to summer! Diana Here’s what my out of office might say if it were socially acceptable to include an emotional and poetic account of my inner monologue as an out of office auto reply: Subject: OoO: Stepping off the treadmill to take a breath Thank you for your email but I wish to inform you that it will be a while before I get back to you. My tech and I are taking a break. Boundaries are hard, especially with an ever present supercomputer humming, dinging and pinging in my pocket. It’s hard for my brain not to synchronize with the speed and working hours of my devices when we’re so intimately connected. So I will stop trying to try and remove temptation instead. The Cult of Efficiency, paired with my black belt in strategic productivity that I’ve been diligently working towards my entire adult life, keeps me lingering in the past and planning for the future. Rarely is there an opportunity to stop in the present. Like, really stop. Do nothing. Take a breath. But if I ever do get a chance to take a breath, it’s scary, it’s uncomfortable, it’s unfamiliar and all of a sudden that treadmill of work looks a lot easier to focus on than the winding, unfamiliar path that’s yet to be travelled in every other facet of my life. So I focus on the conveyor belt underneath my feet and the mileage ticking upward in front of me, stoically pushing forward without question so as not to face the friction, the discomfort, the fear. But I have to step off the treadmill. There’s no other option. I must try to actively quash the Fear for the life changing possibilities present in Love. Choosing Love over Fear every day, every hour, every minute is the only path forward. I know this in theory, but it remains at arms length, seemingly impossible to practice in reality. But I must try. I must try to choose Love over and over and over again because Love is not default. Love is a choice. Love is a choice that I am making this summer when I detach my psyche from my devices and live out my analog existence with fewer distractions, more focussed attention on relationships and a choice to move through my days with the connecting energy of Love. I will be powering down, stepping off the treadmill and taking a deep breath as I head out into the unknown with the people I care about most. I choose Love by stepping out into the unknown where I will be able to stop becoming and just be for a moment. Here’s to long summer days made so through novelty of experience and intentionality. Diana Curious Human Today is June 30, 2022. And in just a few hours it will be July 1. See you in August. About Our Guest: Madeleine Dore is a writer and interviewer exploring how we can broaden the definition of a day well spent. As a labour of love, Madeleine spent over five years asking creative thinkers how they navigate their days on her popular blog Extraordinary Routines and podcast Routines & Ruts. The lessons culminated in her first book, I Didn’t Do The Thing Today. Music: You Vintage by Ketsa, licensed with permission from the Independent Music Licensing Collective - imlcollective.uk Where the Sun Set by Ketsa, licensed with permission from the Independent Music Licensing Collective - imlcollective.uk Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash

Stories connect us, they inspire us, they communicate our values to the world. Stories allow us to empathize with thoughts and actions different from our own. Stories allow us to learn from one another, helping us understand how and why others feel the way they do, broadening our own perspectives in the process. And while storytelling is an age-old tradition, storytelling with impact isn’t easy. The most powerful storytellers (both inherently gifted storytellers, as well as those who’ve studied and practiced) understand story structure, how to anchor their story on a problem, use descriptive language to convey emotion, and hand pick the right facts to guide the audience from the first word to their final destination. Storytellers are sculptors: they carve away the excess to create something beautiful. One of my personal favourite storytelling platforms is Humans of New York. This hugely popular blog-turned-publishing venture features portraits of strangers who share intimate stories of strength, addiction, redemption, regret, and love. I believe that creator, Brandon Stanton, does an incredible job of telling others’ stories in a focused, meaningful way that evokes such vulnerability and raw emotion that you can’t help but feel moved and connected to the people in them. In an interview with The Profile, Brandon said this: “The way I describe it is that 99% of life being lived has nothing to do with politics or crime, yet that's all we read about in the media. If you stop people one-on-one and ask them: "What are you thinking about all day long?" There's very similar themes in those answers. We're mostly worried about our families — our son's drug addiction, our father's illness, our wife's struggles with alcohol. On the flip side, there's our daughter's graduation, the person we met and are wildly in love with — these are the stories that represent the life being lived.” I share the brilliance of Humans of New York in a class I co-teach about Interdisciplinary Innovation and, in fact, this storytelling platform is the inspiration for a powerful assignment my students undertake to tell their own stories of transformation, practicing vulnerability and trust with virtual classmates they’ve just met. And it’s in this class in Fall 2020 where I met today’s guest, Micha. Micha Powell is a 27-year-old Olympian, public speaker, model, and producer. The Montreal native earned her bachelor's degree in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Maryland where she was captain of the track and field team and still holds four school records. Micha recently earned her master's at Ryerson University in Digital Media and is expanding her skillset as Partnerships Manager for the start-up company B-Line analytics. Micha has always been an active child and you could say it’s in her genes having two Olympic parents. She hopes to follow in her parent's footsteps and cement her place in track and field history. Micha is a true gem who is kind and genuine and radiates positivity. She is a storyteller and a creative soul, as well as a powerhouse of an athlete and I’m so excited for you to hear our conversation focused on the practice of storytelling and athletics. In our conversation and through the power of story, Micha helps us understand the emotional rollercoaster of elite-level competition as a track and field athlete. You’ll also hear about Micha’s podcast, People Behind the Performance, and why she felt compelled to create it. You’ll hear Micha talk about her incredible Mom, her thoughts on the link between creativity and athletics, and… you’ll hear Diana cry (in the best way possible). --- Micha's proudest People Behind the Performance episode with Moh Ahmed: In our final episode of the season, Olympian Moh Ahmed gets candid about his immigrant roots, the lessons he's learned through life and racing, and setting a North American 5000m record during the global pandemic. About Our Guest: Micha Powell is a 27-year-old Olympian, public speaker, model, and producer. The Montreal native earned her bachelor's degree in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Maryland where she was captain of the track and field team and still holds four school records. Micha recently earned her master's at Ryerson University in Digital Media and is expanding her skillset as Partnerships Manager for the start-up company B-Line analytics. Micha has always been an active child and you could say it’s in her genes having two Olympic parents. She hopes to follow in her parent's footsteps and cement her place in track and field history. Twitter: https://twitter.com/micha_powell Instagram: @michajadapowell Music (public domain via Free Music Archive): Jahzzar - Lift Off Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash

Name: Geometos Neue Release Date: 2017 Designers: Depak Dogra Classification: Sans Serif Owned By: Graphite Claim to Fame: Futuristic design About Our Guest Host: My name is Andres O'Brien Ramirez, I am a forth year student at TMU studying graphic communications management, I moved 6 years ago from Venezuela and I love design, videography, photography and marketing, currently doing my third year internship and I can’t wait to start my professional career. Music (public domain): TRG Banks - Above the Earth Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash