Upon deciding to pursue a creative career path, I started encountering the following concept A LOT, from my peers, colleagues, teachers, mentors, heroes:

We creatives are visual thinkers. 

I remember hearing a professor say this to me when I was a college freshman, sitting in an intro level Computer Graphics class.  It made my stomach drop. I wasn’t a visual thinker! I thought in words all the time! I LOVED to read, and didn’t need pictures to enjoy novels… My inner monologue was definitely word-based, not picture based. Temple Grandin talks about the amazing ways in which visual thinkers are able to process and experience the world and how that helps them come up with the most fantastic visual solutions to problems of all kinds.

Would I ever be worth anything as a designer, if I didn’t identify as a visual thinker?

Here’s the thing. Some people are born visual thinkers. Some people are born verbal thinkers. And most people are born somewhere in the middle. Your VISUAL THINKING cortex (I’m a scientist, you guys) is a muscle. The more you exercise it, the more it will grow.

Visual Kelsey Brain has been growing over the past several years. In fact, I think it’s crowding out Verbal Kelsey Brain. These days, I can’t tell someone how to spell a word unless I trace it in the air in front of my face like  a Scripps kid. If something’s not in chart form…. I need it to be. But all for the ultimate mission of being a better visual communicator.

So I’ll keep exercising this muscle. I’ll never be a Temple Grandin, not even close. But in striving to learn to think visually, “we creatives” (I’m comfortable saying this now), DO need to be visual thinkers. It’s just a matter of process, time, and growth.

First, let me say- I have neglected to post a pattern for Pattern Fridays this week! I was not intending on slipping up this much, of course. In fact, I’ve had a hard time setting aside time for patterns since my mind has been so occupied with children’s work! I’m finishing up the MCAD Children’s Book Illustration class I’ve been taking this week (taught by the lovely and talented Carrie Hartman, and by the way, I recommend this class times one billion to anyone interested in narrative illustration). And I’m starting to put together a children’s-specific portfolio. So patterns, needless to say, have taken the back burner. But there’s no reason I can’t spend a few weeks on children’s-oriented pattern work. So I will HOPEFULLY be posting some kid friendly pattern designs this week. Fingers crossed- and maybe I can still keep up in the grand scheme of things.

Now, enough about me. Let’s talk about these immaculate place settings and accessories by Back Bay Pottery Studio. Back Bay Pottery is headed up by Christine Silbaugh and produces all kinds of handcrafted jewelry, notions, home accessories, and MY personal favorite, place settings and dishware. We have a couple of handmade pottery pieces in our cabinets, and they are predictably the ones we reach for anytime they’re available (aka clean). There’s a peaceful energy in handmade pottery, and it’s amazing to be able to access that in the use of everyday functional objects. I know Boyfriend and I would both LOVE to be able to add more handcrafted pottery to our collection, and someday when it’s within our budget I am sure we will. In the meantime, I’ll fawn over these from a distance. Mint/aqua glaze, and the dotted embellishments, plus a sturdy construction and cool shapes… makes for an incredible aesthetic that would completely make a gorgeous table.