La Fleur Qu’on Appelle Souci



  1. Introduction
  2. Part One:  On Capitalism and Schizophrenia
  3. Part Two: On Random Image Generators
  4. Part Three: On Perpetual Stew
  5. Part Four: On Human-Centered Design
  6. Part Five: On the “College of Design High School”
  7. Part Six: On Aimlessness
  8. Part Seven: On Finding Inspiration



















P007 → Finale: On finding Inspiration

“Stop trying. Take long walks. Look at scenery. Doze off at noon. Don't even think about flying. And then, pretty soon, you'll be flying again.”
- Hayao Miyazaki, Kiki's Delivery Service


Doesn’t the style of the painting from Kiki’s Delivery Service look just like Marc Chagall?


The only thing I regret about how I handled my “mental breakdown” (if that is what you would call it?) is not stopping more things, faster. I would wake up for months wishing I had COVID-19 so that I could isolate myself for 2 weeks and finally get a break. Even when I started putting things on pause, dropping out of courses, and hanging out with fewer friends, it wasn’t enough.  During this time, I drove my car to a school parking lot and left it there for days, until the next time I needed to drive and I couldn’t find it.  The car wasn’t at my appartment and I almost called the police to report it stolen because I genuinely had no clue where it went. These are all signs you need rest and relaxation,  ASAP.

If you don’t have humor, what do you have?


Sharon Joines, associate dean, called me as my mom and I were on the way to a mental health urgent care,  trying to learn more about what was wrong with me and how to explain why I was behaving the way I was. During the phone call, she urged me to take a break and told a personal story of when a student of hers got hit by a literal bus and had to drop out of school temporarily. I couldn’t accept her kindness, and I couldn’t accept that I needed to do what that student did, even though I had none of the physical effects.

We must take mental health seriously.

Put everything on pause. Take a breath. Don’t think about design or school or jobs for weeks, maybe even months. (I’m aware this is a suuuuper privileged take, but if this isn’t an option for you, reach out to friends, professors, family, university therapists, etc.)

I feel more myself now than I have for a long time. I feel creatively inspired, I’m networking, and it even feels like my dreams are starting to come true alongside my hard work. Whether you’re fine or you’re recovering from work-a-holic-ness or you want design resources, check out this list of some of my favorite studios, foundries, and designers in the field today.


My Dream Dinner Party (Living and Dead, all people I am inspired by)

  1. Vojtech Marc
  2. Jarrett Fuller (Jarrett, if you’re reading this, I actually had read some of your articles before knowing you, totally accidentally)
  3. Beatriz Colomina
  4. Brian Johnson
  5. Legacy Russell
  6. Simone Weil
  7. Guy Debord
  8. Conner O’Malley
  9. McKenzie Wark
  10. Sarah Bernhardt
  11. Judith Butler
  12. Eliza Lawdley
  13. Christine de Pizan
  14. Monique Wittig
  15. Bladee
  16. David Lynch

Collectives/Studios

  1. Studio Yukiko
  2. Dunne and Raby
  3. Velvetyne
  4. Actual Source
  5. Walker Design Studio
  6. Its Nice That
  7. Ventoline
  8. The Cargo Community
  9. Isometric
  10. Rhizome
  11. Designing Writing
  12. Experimental Jetset
  13. CAMP
  14. Printed Matter
  15. Flaneur Magazine
  16. Polymode
  17. FISK
  18. Verso
  19. Leo de Goede Books
  20. Periphery Books
  21. Contemporary Type
  22. Use and Modify
  23. ABC Dinamo


Archives

  1. The People’s Graphic Design Archive
  2. Marxist Internet Archive
  3. Wayback Machine
  4. Rhizome
  5. Letterform Archive
  6. AIGA Design Archive
  7. Fonts in Use
  8. Digital Commons at RISD
  9. Queering the Map

Designers

  1. Andy Li
  2. Felicité Landrivon
  3. Benoit Bodhuin
  4. Raphael Bastide
  5. Hugo Bernier
  6. Roxanne Maillet
  7. John Provencher
  8. Vanilla Chi
  9. Anne Dauphine Borione
  10. Jiri Mocek
  11. Kristyna Kulikova
  12. Leon Sauterleute
  13. Erik Brandt
  14. Erik Carter
  15. Harrison Kratzer
  16. Darius Ou
  17. Talia Cotton
  18. Randa Haidi
  19. Kari Trail
  20. Hannah Karrabi
  21. Ridge Chin



Random Non-Design Things that Inspire Me (to inspire you to think of your own)

  1. Opera music
  2. Anywhere in Prague
  3. Literary translation
  4. Medieval manuscripts
  5. The life and death of Walter Benjamin and Simone Weil
  6. The discarded-photo-booth-pictures scrapbook in Amélie (the movie)
  7. Memorizing flute pieces
  8. Caffeine
  9. When there is a random chicken bone on the ground
  10. The concept of the rhizome
  11. Ryuchi Sakamoto
  12. Trying to read old French
  13. Interactions with strangers
  14. Desmos graphics


One last note that I feel is my responsibility to say, as this deals with mental health.

I genuinely thought my life was over when I was going through psychosis. But 5 months later, I’m falling in love, getting interviews for dream internships, networking with people who work my dream jobs, and spending quality time with friends to celebrate our upcoming graduation. Do not give up, reach out and rely on those around you, and remember that the world wants you to succeed.





“You win sometimes, you lose sometimes, it’s part of life, ayy. How can I lose when I exist in something I made?”
- Bladee, BBY