Thank you for smoking. You subsidize my art.

If you find yourself in Sacramento in July, Abby VanCannon, Victoria Montgomery, and I will be proving the theory that artists are hoarders — this is just a sneak peak. Gallery 21 Ten. Go see it.

Index cards, tape and type are calling my name and this time the theme is contrasts.

Continuing my exploration of words, type, faces and tape.

I’ve been invited by my alma mater to give an artist lecture on Friday, September 7.

While I feel extremely honored, it made me question what it is that I’m doing that caused them to ask me to address a group of students getting ready to enter the world of graphic design. Looking back to my very first typography course at Kansas State University and tracing that to the work I’m doing today was enlightening to say the least.

So I’ve decided to appropriately title my lecture, “What am I doing?” Here’s the summary:

“We tend to ask ourselves this question too often — or not nearly enough. It’s an uncomplicated question with a complicated answer. In this presentation, Brooke Francesi will disclose her obsession with documenting feet, nonsensical word poems, and magazine cut-outs. She’ll invite you to challenge what it means to fail and discuss how one simple question can impact the creative process.”

Thanks to Vince Francesi, Hunter Stark, and Victoria Montgomery for their contribution.

How did I get from this, to this, to this?

Failing means you’re actually doing something.

Living in a highly walkable city without a car means I walk. A lot.

Given the choice to walk a mile or take public transit, 9 times out of 10 I’ll choose to walk. There’s nothing like immersing yourself the beautiful, crazy, enchanting streets of San Francisco. That’s why I’ve decided to start a series on feet.

Feet are a grossly under appreciated part of the body. Especially mine. I can count the number of times on one finger I’ve gotten a pedicure, so it’s time they get some love.

This series will introduce you to the places my feet go and other feet they meet. Feet portraits if you will. Some people take pictures of food. I take pictures of feet. There’s more to come. Enjoy.

Feet Portraits
My Feet series will introduce you to the places my feet go and other feet they meet. Some people take pictures of food. I take pictures of feet. There’s more to come. Enjoy.

Word Poem #2: An experiment in human typography

These word poems are part of my Human Typography Experiment. An effort to revitalize appreciation for the ordinary.

Many of you may already know my husband is a software developer, and a good one at that. But you may not know that he’s also quite an innovator and thinker. Not only does he spend his days at Apple writing code that looks like Greek to most of the world, he’s constantly thinking of new ideas.

The other night I caught him sketching on his iPad and begged him to send me a screenshot. The elements all tie together very nicely, plus I love merging science, math, and design — the results are always gorgeous.

If you’ve ever moved any sort of distance, you know that living in a new area means you have to find new hang-out spots, and of course, new places to buy groceries. Thankfully, my husband has been living in Silicon Valley for over a month already and has an affinity for a supermarket called Lucky.

Earlier this week, we were picking up a few last minute dinner items and noticed a 2 for 1 hummus sale. Yes please! At the checkout, I noticed that rather than simply crediting the price of the second container of hummus, it said 100% off. From a marketing perspective, I think that is absolute genius.

Seeing 100% off on my receipt got me thinking. What if Lucky were to create a smart phone app that capitalized on its name?

Here’s how it would work:
When you get to the store (or before), open the app and tap the “I’m feeling lucky button”. In turn, you receive a coupon or discount for a particular item. Fairly simple. However, there is another twist.

Once you’ve been through the checkout and have your grocery receipt, you scan a barcode at the bottom of the receipt which holds all of the information about the items you purchased during your trip. This does a couple of things:

1. It tells Lucky what you’re buying and how often
2. It allows them to give you coupons that are more in line with the items you purchase on a regular basis.
3. You keep coming back because you’re receiving coupons for things you actually use (rather than getting a coupon for $3.00 off canned cat food when you have a dog)

So there you go Lucky. Free idea.