I believe one of the best things about managing people is that we can influence lives in a positive way. That’s basically what a manager is about. When I can do that, I am very happy. _Arsene Wenger
I want to cease this opportunity to wish Arsene Wenger a happy birthday. You have been one of the greatest managers the English Premier League has ever seen. You helped change it’s history and arguably the way modern football is perceived and played. You are one of the greatest Arsenal manager of all time, and many will agree that you are the greatest. You made history going an entire season with a team that was unbeaten thus garnering worldwide recognition and tagged The Invincibles.
I have been a huge admirer of your works, your ethos, and how you exude class. Your quotes are gold especially for me being a sucker for one. How about this for a start…
“A football team is like a beautiful woman. When you do not tell her, she forgets she is beautiful.”
Your sense of humour is epic. There is no denying that the English media miss all that you brought to the table, your constant battle zipping your elongated and oversized coat at most match days thus giving the viewers a bucket full of laughter, montages of gold footage, your press conferences, your banter with other rival managers but above all your incredible intelligence of the ‘beautiful game’ and life itself.
I came across a talk ‘Perception is the root of all evil by Deji Akingbaje on TEDxMHK. He used the term ‘be the verb, not the noun’ which segued to the point he was making. This led me to another of his talk with the title ‘Be the Verb, Not the Noun. In this talk he clearly stated why ‘Be the verb, not the noun’ formulates his strong philosophy. We become imprisoned by the nouns we choose to define ourselves, and as a result, limiting ourselves and our creativity by this association. Be the verb, not the noun applies to race, nationality, gender, age, religion, social statues, career specialization, etc.
In terms of career specialization, I identify myself as a graphic designer. By so doing, I have come to the realization that, not only do I feel a sense of entrapment, I feel like it limits my innate gift to perform, to paint, draw, act, podcast, take photos, write and so on. These things I have mentioned are also labelled as nouns in career specialization, how ironic. Think about it, a painter, an artist, an illustrator, a photographer, a writer, — you get the point.
The message is to break out from ‘the shackles of human expression’ as Deji puts it. I feel more emboldened when I say ‘hey! I paint, draw, design, rap (maybe), act, podcast, blog, etc’, without using ‘hierarchical nouns’ in this context as described by Deji. There is no limit to what we can do. We become more proactive when we begin to see ourselves as verbs. We feel miserable to some extend doing the things we have limited ourselves to over and over again. We fall short of realizing our full potential by labelling ourselves as common nouns. Being the verb allows us the power to harness our innate ability to experiment, explore, create, express of geniuses guided by the actions of our instincts, our essence and passion.
I will leave you with this quote from Deji on his view on ‘be the verb’.
“If common sense tells us now that living with passion is the key to leading a successful life, why are so many of us still miserable? Why do we still struggle to live out loud as inventors and pioneers of our creative process? Why do hierarchies, racism and hate even still exist? — what I discovered on my journey is what I now believe to be ‘the shackles of human expression’. For as long as we continue to define ourselves as nouns, — race, nationality, gender, age, religion, career specialization, social statues, — we will never live to our fullest potential.”
Dear ZedTears. Happiness is a choice, not a result. _Ralph Marston
“Happiness is a choice, not a result. Nothing will make you happy until you choose to be happy. No person will make you happy unless you decide to be happy. Your happiness will not come to you. It can only come from you.” _Ralph Marston
Gretchen Rubin is a Four-time New York Times bestselling author, speaker and podcaster. She is the creator of the Four Tendencies framework, exploring happiness and good habits.
Hello ZedTears. Thank you from the bottom of my heart
Corita Kent. Corita 100. mock up
I haven’t been as active posting blogs or wonderful quotes on my site lately. I am in the process of moving home so it is physically tasking coupled with work and family activities. Although, I still do come across many inspiring quotes that I would have loved to design and post here but obviously things get overtaken by events.
I will love to share in depth why I do what I do, why I love to design quotes and why I use a degree of expressive typography in a subsequent post. But for now let me share my process of how I come across quotes. Leonardo Da Vinci once said that “learning never exhaust the mind”. My approach to learning lead to my path in Graphic Design. The first day I heard of the term ‘Graphic Design’ was the day I pick up the phone and called a few universities if they had vacancy so I could enrol. Thanks to my business partner at the time who mentioned it in conversation and thanks to UEL that had vacancy for me to start a new chapter in my life’s storybook. Learning is never too much in my opinion, we’ll keep learning and discovering new things until we cease to exist.
I try to pay attention to things that I read, watch or listen to. This approach often or most time lead to discovery and a wealth of knowledge. The quotes I post have come as a result. Some quotes posted have also come from some blogs read and from some amazing bloggers on this platform. I wasn’t aware of this platform until I shared my first post. By this I mean a channel where a community of great minds and awesome individuals shared great posts and contents. Sincerely speaking, when I shared my first post it was at the beginning of March 2018. My intention was to have a portfolio website displaying some of the works I had done and something extra that I could share my thoughts and my design process.
Enough of the blah blah blah! Not so long ago, I designed and posted a series of quotes on Corita Kent when she was mentioned in a YouTube video I was watching. I did a research on her and was blown away by this incredible woman, her works, her powerful and inspirational words. I was truly inspired. I could see why Brian Collins mentioned her in that video and why she is an inspiration to many designers, artists, painters, writers, you name it.
Recently, I have started posting on instagram, and shared these quote series there. The quotes had many likes and some comments too to my astonishment. I was discovering another world. The quotes were liked by Designspiration, Corita Art Center and more.
Last week I had a direct message from Corita Art Center based in Los Angeles, CA. saying how they loved my artwork and will like me to submit the artwork as they were celebrating Corita’s 100th birthday anniversary. The artwork is considered for the #coritaartcontest #coritainspired, #corita100. Needless to say how humbled I was by this very kind gesture and for the work to be recognized. This is an indication that some things we put out or share could mean a great deal to others.
I wanted to share why I do what I do in a subsequent post but I might as well spill the beans on why I design quotes. I design quotes because I am inspired by the powerful words (I hope someone else shares my sentiment). I also design quotes because it lets me experiment with type and typography (as a graphic designer). I see typeface(s) as image(s). I design quote because it gives me so much joy in doing so. I design quotes as it has become somewhat of a hobby. I design quotes because I love quotes period.
The reason for the Corita Kent’s quotes was not to gain praises or recognition, it was for the reasons stated above. Words cannot fully express how grateful I am for the likes and recognition though, for the readers of my blogs and for the followers too. Without you I wouldn’t be wholeheartedly enjoying this process, and wanting to post more content.
I will be sharing my design process on how I created the Corita Kent artwork in a later post.
I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to Corita Art Center, and to the wonderful community of readers and followers of creatives.
Design, Art/Creative direction, Illustration, Mock up, Post
By Philip Abang
“Big results require big ambitions.” _Heraclitus
Philip Abang 