Meditations On Design

Designer John Wheatman has narrowed his design philosophy into 21 ideas you can incorporate in your own home whatever the size or budget.

In need of advice? Just want to sound off? Opening this volume is like grabbing lunch with a fellow designer to commiserate or celebrate. In its pages, noteworthy designers, both past and present, working in fields ranging from graphic design, fashion, architecture, typography, illustration, and industry product design, sound off on every topic, including deadlines, inspiration, competition, rules, respect, education, and handling criticism and life as a creative soul -- all with a certain amount of irreverence. Their thoughts are boiled down into succinct quotable quotes and one-liners that exemplify their character and demonstrate their philosophy on the world. Enjoy reading sound bites from everyone from Frank Gehry, David Carson, and Charles and Ray Eames to Frank Lloyd Wright, Paul Rand, Stefan Sagmeister, and Saul Bass.

The need to reflect, contemplate, and concentrate is an essential counterpoint to the rush of daily life and its surface details. This has been recognized since ancient times, and meditation in one form or another has been practiced through the centuries and across cultures, for reasons both sacred and mundane. In the modern world the motivations are more likely to be personal than religious, but the same dynamics apply in calming and focusing the mind. A prerequisite is the right physical space-somewhere to help set one's frame of mind and to hold back the distractions of the outside. Specifically for the purpose of meditation, the examples are from sources as varied and fascinating as contemporary Japanese tea-ceremony rooms, minimalist Western architecture, idiosyncratic chapels, artists' and writers' workspaces, and portable tented structures. The principles are all applicable to modern living, whether permanent or temporary, at home or in beautiful natural settings.With its crisp photography and inventive design, Meditative Spaces will appeal to a variety of readers, from architecture enthusiasts to those with an interest in Japanese style to anyone looking to find-and celebrate-serenity in today's hectic and rapidly paced world.

I believe in you. You have a great destiny. You are meant for great

Relax. Think thoughts! Enjoy a pleasant trip through this most fun period of pattern design while you subtly arrange your thoughts. It could happen. Over 45 pages to color. All original designs. Various skill levels.

A complete guide to creating planetary yantras to access their healing and centering benefits • Provides easy-to-follow instructions to create the yantras • Serves as an introduction to active meditation, which focuses the mind while the body is engaged in a meditative activity The tantric art of drawing or painting the nine designs known as yantras is an ancient practice of active meditation that releases positive healing and centering effects. Each of the nine designs corresponds to one of the nine qualities of body and mind essential to well-being: radiance, nourishment, passion, intellect, expansion, bliss, organization, uniqueness, and spirituality. From the basic elements of the square, the circle, and the triangle, dynamic visual meditations unfold as the practitioner works clockwise from the outer elements inward toward the central point of stillness, or bindu, the source of happiness within. An accompanying mantra is recited while preparing each yantra to fully engage the senses in the meditative process. Creating the design that “speaks” most to the practitioner enables its unique healing quality to be transmitted. For example, working on the yantra named “Radiance” cultivates optimism and the self-confidence to succeed in one’s endeavors, while “radiating,” or imparting, one’s inner light to others. This workbook provides an important resource for active meditation, a practice revered for its effectiveness in revealing the spiritual underpinnings of everyday life. The active participation of the body in meditation while creating the nine planetary yantras raises to the level of spiritual ritual the practitioner’s intention toward wakefulness and gives access to profound states of healing integration.