Beginners by Director/Graphic Designer Mike Mills


I went to see the film Beginners last night.

Was attracted to the film initially because of this great lettering in the poster (which I suspected was done by one of my all time fave illustrators Eric Hanson.)

Turns out it was done by the writer/director of the film Mike Mills who began his career as a graphic designer. (!) Mike graduated from Cooper Union and then went on to work at M + Co. with Tibor Kalman. Coincidenza.

The film is very autobiographical with Ewan McGregor playing the main character of Oliver who - yes - works as a graphic designer. (yay)
I adored the drawings in the film which were all done by Mike Mills.

Below Oliver sketches "A History of Ex-girlfriends". Adorable.


Love the Princess Leia hairdo and Mill's broken line.

I think this ex girlfriend did alotta drugs.



Was excited to discover that a book has been published with the drawings from the film.
Add to cart. :-)

This Poster is from an earlier film by Mike Mills Thumbsucker.
Isn't it great?
ps. I am honking.

The film was wonderful in many ways - the performances of Christopher Plummer + Ewan McGregor are note perfect + heartbreaking... but for me Mill's entirely fresh + inventive direction is the big deal of this movie. For insight into it you can read a great interview with the director on the AIGA website here.
Strongly recommended - especially if you're designer/ illustrator sort.

ps. Fun fact: Michael Mills is married to Miranda July.
I think that = Mr. + Mrs. Quirky USA.

"You can't do this work if you can't be alone" -Lourdes Sanchez

I had a long chat with Lourdes tonight - in part to ask her a bunch more questions for her upcoming feature in uppercase magazine. She explained that when she decided to leave the fashion industry and go out on her own she rented a tiny studio in the East Village and worked steadily for 2 years until she had created her own collection. It brought me right back to my days years ago when I squirreled myself away in the OCAD library many late nights in order to build up my first portfolio. In connection with this... when I asked her what advice she would give an aspiring textile designer she said "You better be ok with solitude-- because you can't do this work if you can't be alone".

I acutely agree.

Some thoughts on good Bios

The top 20 twitter post got me thinking about writing bios in general.
I have collected great bios for a while now. Here are two faves:

Simon Collison: Author + Web designer: kept alive by tea and roll ups.
Mr. Fogey: Black sheep, Bon vivant, Failed mercenary in Africa

Have noticed some connecting threads:
1. All are funny
2. All don't take themselves too seriously
 ie. none contain the words Innovative, Creative, Strategic, Extensive experience or claim to Push the envelope or Supersede your expectations - Barf!

Put another way... these bios follow the age old writing advice to Show don't Tell.

ps. This ability to be more self deprecating + a bit opaque seems to come most easily to the Brits. It's a skill I hope more writers + art directors in North American will adopt as I'm getting a bit weary of unimaginative + "Trying too hard" company descriptions.
I'll get off my soapbox now.

Operation Tea towel!


Food quotations Linen Tea towel

Some process shots:

Inking the screen


and Ta - da!

I also printed the image on large 24 X 36 paper.
I like the combo of very dense writing contrasted with lots of white space on all 4 sides.

Please note: The tea towel is just a protype - not yet available!
The prints are artist's proofs. I will have a full edition + pricing by next week.
Please email me at alanna(dot)cavanagh(at)gmail(dot)com if interested in either item.

ps. Must be mentioned... The linen tea towel samples were sewn by Alexis DaSilva - Powell and she did an amazing job.