Friday, December 7, 2012

ThinkKit D7 - Tattoos and Dreams: Curating Idea Boards

Today's challenge is to create an idea board that answers this question, "What do you want your life (or your kitchen, your job, your x) to look like?"  An inspiration board (or idea board or mood board) is like   returning to your elementary school self in that you collect different pictures and what not that describe whatever it is you are tasked with defining.  It's actually a pretty decent exercise in the world of user experience web design, i.e. my day job.  So, this shouldn't be too bad, right?

I started down a route that would have been time consuming and somewhat stressful as I didn't have enough time in the day to assemble pictures that would do a decent job representing some part of my life I hadn't yet even decided on. I thought to myself, wouldn't be cool and convenient if I could do this online?  Wouldn't it be nice if I could pin things in one place that interest me?  Shouldn't there be a website for that?  Then I remembered I dabble with Pinterest.  I can say that I was an early adopter to Pinterest, but I felt like a fish out of water.  Instead of recipe ideas, wedding dress pictures, and home decorating ideas, I was curating boards dedicated to giant ancient robot gods from Marvel Comics, Star Wars, space, and the nearly worn out theme that is steampunk.  That's since changed, but that's beside the point.  So, I revisited my old Pinterest account and lo and behold, my ThinkKit challenge was already answered.     

Visualizing My Dreams


Source: 
fc07.deviantart.net via Jon on Pinterest
When I do remember my dreams, they are rather mundane or scripts from bad sci-fi or fantasy stories. There was also a run of zombie dreams for awhile, all cliche really.  I don't have nightmares (knock on wood) or any real sex dreams.  Sometimes, I'll dream myself into a situation that my brain apparently doesn't agree with.  So, my mind will hit the rewind and repeat the scene and try to come to a different outcome.  I must be really unimaginative at this point in the night because I always dream the same outcome.  It's kind of weird, really.  I'll remember repeating the same scene a half a dozen times before waking up or abandoning the scene.  Sometimes, I do dream really cool and original ideas that I've drafted into some short stories.  Who knows if they'll ever see the light of day.

So, why not try and visualize something different?  Why not try and mold my dreams into a some amalgamation of images collected here?  I collected these images because they are haunting and surreal.  They feel transcendental and partially representative of what I envision beyond the veil.


Visualizing My Physical Self

Source: guyletatooer.com via Jon on Pinterest
Yes, I'm tattooed.  Yes, they are not small.  Yes, they are out of view in the corporate setting that's been my life for over ten years.  And yes, I know that by blogging about it, the cat is out of the bag.  Not really though as I go to the gym in my building and C-level execs down to the helper monkeys get to see me in my hairy, tattooed, naked glory.  I actually really enjoy being tattooed.  I can't explain and don't want to, but I will tell you this - it's not about being cool or original.  With that being said, I've got another Pinterest board where I've collected tattoos that I like and aim to serve as inspiration for my next tattoo from this guy.  He's an ex-Voluta artist now at the Firefly collective, who is fantastic and recently worked on my leg.  Of course not everything on here is something I want to get tattooed.  And most certainly, I'm not getting my neck or hand tattooed.  That's not my thing.  But there are a lot of cool ideas here that could end up adorning my body here in the near future.

Wow, I'm sharing an awful lot here.   Thanks, ThinkKit?


1 comment:

  1. So you're thinking of getting your first tattoo. Well, you're not alone. Tattoos are more popular than ever. And getting a new tattoo seems to be on our minds more than ever. On a recent trip to the beach, it seemed as if over half the sun worshipers were showing a bit of skin art somewhere on their bodies.
    butterfly tattoos meaning

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