Earlier this week I was taking a mandatory inspiration break and watched Kate Bingaman Burt‘s CreativeMornings talk. It was really cool to learn more about Kate’s work and her approach to design. I loved in particular the fact that she never considered herself an illustrator (ironically, I have always considered her an illustrator), until one day she gave herself the project of drawing all of her credit card bills until her debt was paid off. Interestingly enough, that project has influenced so much of her work. In any case, the teacher in her also shared some really interesting examples of other automated projects that designers have challenged themselves with. I was particularly struck by Frank Chimero‘s “The States” project, where he makes each state into something different. I became aware of Frank’s work after his knock out Kickstarter campaign (he raised an extra $100,000!) for a book he’s writing, The Shape of Design, but I can’t believe it’s taken me until now to find this project. Very clever. You can check out more of his work here.

{The States by Frank Chimero}