Some one-step how-to spot illustrations done for Canadian Family magazine’s Summer 2010 issue; How to eat the whole lobster, How to whistle with a blade of grass, How to make a jumpsie rope and How to raise an astronomer. Thanks to AD Colleen Nicholson who made this project a summer breeze.

I’ve always been into music but only recently picked up a guitar and started to learn to play. I had seen guitar tablature (or “tabs”) before, but only knew it as some sort of esoteric shorthand musical notation encoded in monospaced gibberish; a specialized language for people who had studied music and practiced guitar to some degree.

When I started browsing for the best approach to learning guitar, the first page of every book, the first image on every site, the first video in every tutorial, was always an image like this:

Whether it takes the form of a drawing or marked-up photograph, this image is the standard starting point for learning to play guitar. Ignoring all other elements, the title and the image of the hand alone clearly communicate “to do this, do this.” To play the G chord, place fingers 1, 2 and 3 on strings A, E and e, in positions (frets) 2, 3 and 3, respectively.

The chord chart to the left abstracts this fingering map, representing the fingers, strings and frets in a simpler, more condensed form. It’s understood that these two images represent the same thing,”to do this, do this,” but without the fingering map the chord chart would mean nothing to the uninitiated.

The tablature (or “tabs”) on the right further abstract and condense the concept. We are presented with a column of our six strings with numbers representing the position (or frets) our fingers need to be in. The specific finger we use for each string/fret is taken for granted and omitted.

Whatever form it takes, this image is a technical illustration. It decrypts esoteric, specialized knowledge into general knowledge that any person could interpret and employ. With one image, I went from looking at a bunch of lines and numbers to music.

Done is the engine of more. A selection of productivity mantras illustrated, after Bre Pettis and Kio Stark’s Cult of Done Manifesto.

For the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things. Garage tinkerers and basement inventors are pushing innovation forward.

If you can’t open it, you don’t own it. Mister Jalopy proposed an Owner’s Bill of Rights, a maker’s memorandum requesting repairability for the products around us. It became a manifesto for the maker community, a modus operandi for open sourcers and forward-thinking manufacturers.

Make Magazine Vol 20.

Way back in 2005, Mister Jalopy proposed an Owner’s Bill of Rights, a maker’s memorandum requesting repairability for the products around us. It became a manifesto for the maker community, a modus operandi for open sourcers and forward-thinking manufacturers.

I’m not the most capable maker – maybe only a tinkerer. But if something breaks I jump at the chance to take it apart, see how it works and try my best to repair it (what’s the worst that can happen?). If the repair is a success, I’ve saved the world from having to produce another widget.

Repairability equals sustainability. That’s what I like about this manifesto. And that’s why I’ve illustrated it.

Update: The illustrated Maker’s Bill of Rights appears in volume 20, the current issue of Make: Magazine. In stores now!

Maker Faire was a blast! Lots of amazing things to see and do. I saw some great presentations, inventions, projects and kits and even did some tinkering of my own. When I got back, I was inspired to do a DIY spot illustration series to capture the energy and creativity of everything I saw.

This weekend I’m headed to San Francisco for Maker Faire, the world’s largest DIY arts & technology festival. Looking forward to seeing Bre Pettis & MakerBot and Jared Boone & the Make:TV crew and their Episode Dispensor, both projects I helped out with some design & illustration work.

Hope to meet a lot of people, learn a thing or two, and get my hands dirty!

After seeing my Cult of Done Poster, compulsive Maker extraordinaire Bre Pettis asked me to collaborate on MakerBot, a low-cost, modular, open-source 3D rapid prototyping printer kit. The build-it-yourself robot prints physical objects designed in 3D software using extruded molten plastic. Builders are encouraged to share the objects they design via Thingiverse and even contribute to the development and improvement of MakerBot itself!

My contribution to the project was of course the visuals. Together we developed an identity and imagery for MakerBot – a bold, playful retro-futuristic reality where a lunar office worker can email his son at home on Earth a toy he designed, and his son can remix and share it with friends.

To learn more, check out MakerBot Industries.

Made a couple additions to the site: An illustration of Boston Dynamics robotic mule, BigDog, and a spot illustration for Canadian Woodworking Magazine. Also made some minor layout changes and major backend changes that should improve the efficiency of the site.