…but I’m too busy!
A friend casually asks, “How are you doing?”
Without hesitating, you blurt out: “Busy!”
It seems like these days we’ve all become a little too busy—slightly overwhelmed by the day-to-day struggle of paying bills, checking social media, and managing lives that are too often unnecessarily hectic.
Yes, we make our to-do lists and live and breathe by our gmail accounts, but so much of our life is reaction to interruption. We work long days and too often for too little pay.
With our noses this close to the grindstone, it’s easy to lose track of where all this hard work is taking us.
Your challenge for the day is to take five minutes and visualize where you will be five years from now.
Where will you live?
What will you be doing?
Who will be with you?
How will you feel?
Knowing where you’re going is the first step in getting there.
——
PS: As a part of my big picture goal of illustrating at least 3 times a week, I have been exploring lots of new media. I added a new multipack of watercolor greeting cards to my Etsy Shop. This series includes birds, flowers, and zebras in a beautiful muted color palette.
AIGA Guide to New Orleans
On behalf of the city of New Orleans and design nerds everywhere, I would like to personally say that we are jazzed you’re here!
My name is Justin Shiels and I am a graphic designer, illustrator, and Creative Entrepreneur that made New Orleans home 13 years ago.
So, yes, I evacuated for Hurricane Katrina and came back because I wanted to be a part of rebuilding one of the most magical cities in the world.
My first weekend in New Orleans as a chipper young 18 year old, was of course included a trip to the French Quarter. My roommate and I got beignets from Café Dumond, Hand Grenades from Tropical Isle and…well, you know what happened from there.
But there is so much more to New Orleans than Bourbon Street and Beignets.
New Orleans is one of the world’s most captivating places, home to a unique culture, decadent meals, and the best music.
I will be your unofficial tour guide and provide some insider tips, so you can do New Orleans like a local.
In preparing for my presentation for the AIGA Conference, I took the time to develop a down and dirty list of my favorite places in New Orleans. This was started by my friend Sky McElroy and adapted to include many of my favorites.
***Always updating. Disregard misspellings***
Places to Drink:
- R Bar (Dive and awesome – In the Quarter: off Esplanade, near Frenchman)
- Delachaise (Uptown, right off the Street Car; near Magazine)
- Three Muses (Frenchmen St – great music)
- Bar Tonique (Rampart, some of the best cocktails in the city)
- Carousel Bar (touristy, but nice diversion. Sit at the revolving bar)
- Mimi’s in the Marigny (Saturday & Fri. night especially, late night; dive bar downstairs, party upstairs, they have awesome tapas)
- Kajun’s (karaoke–the natural progression is Kajun’s and then Mimi’s)
- The Saint (not to be confused for The Saint Hotel, they’re in different parts of town; after Mimi’s, late-night especially Thurs-Sat., dive; go once)
- Snake & Jake’s (4AM only, it’s a shack; get the cheese fries)
- Maple Leaf (Tuesday night Jazz)
Places to Eat, Lunch/Dinner:
- Parkway Poboys (lunch, MUST)
- Dat Dog (try the crawfish dog if you’re feeling adventurous)
- Jaques-Imo’s (dinner, MUST)
- Cochon (dinner, dressy) or The Butcher (sandwiches behind Cochon)
- Bacchanal (wine, food, cheese, live music)
- The Joint (Lunch BBQ)
- Green Goddess (best Vegan/veggie goodness)
- Pizza Delicious (nom nom nom)
- Booty’s Street Food (good bar, also has good food to eat)
- Ursa Major (astrology themed restaurant with amazing world cuisine)
- Willie Mae’s Scotch House (this fried chicken is the best in the South)
- Willa Jean’s (great for lunch; fried chicken sandwich is the best)
- Peche (live fire grilled seafood)
- Cane and Table (dinner, MUST)
- St. Roch Market (MUST; Lots of great food options all under one roof)
Places to Eat, Breakfast/Brunch
- Stein’s Deli (like our Russ & Daughters, but…well super NOLA)
- Commander’s Palace (fancy Jazz Brunch)
- Surrey’s Cafe (Magazine St., great for brunch–busy)
- Elizabeth’s (great Sunday brunch – in the Marigny)
- Satsuma’s (coffee, organic juice, and brunch)
- Orange Couch (great coffee and light breakfast)
- Camelia’s Grill (Uptown, diner-style original)
- Ruby Slipper (great local favorite; numerous locations)
Places To Go/Sight-Seeing:
- Jazz Market (OC Haley – Live jazz most nights)
- Frenchmen St. (Jazz/Late Night Revelry)
- Snug Harbour (For Jazz, on Frenchmen St.)
- Magazine St. (shopping)
- St. Charles Ave. Street Car (Uptown) / Garden District
- Oak St. (not really for sight-seeing as for bar hopping)
- Marigny Riverfront Park
- Ogden Museum of Southern Art
- Contemporary Arts Center
- National World War II Museum
- Fulton Alley (Downtown bowling with amazing food and drinks)
- Julia Street Art Walk (First Saturday of the Month)
- St. Claude Art Walk (Second Saturday of the Month)
Venues:
- One Eyed Jacks (Thursday 80s night)
- Gasa Gasa (best small cap room, period)
- Circle Bar (local right of passage)
- Siberia (good dive bar, too–metal and punk shows)
- Hi Ho Lounge (Saturdays from 11pm-3am for Soul Sister)
- The Howlin Wolf (cool stage)
- Tipitina’s Uptown (historic venue)
- Republic (if you’re feeling super clubby)
Gifts and Trinkets
- Red Arrow (Louisiana focused; amazing design)
- Mystic Blue Signs (sign painting on fleek)
- Ogden Museum Gift Shop (Amazing collection of great gifts)
- Grove Street Press (beautiful letterpress cards)
- The Stacks (Inside the Contemporary Arts Center; Best art bookstore in the city)
- Exodus Goods (Solange’s shop; worth the visit)
- Little Flea (Usually third Saturday of the month )
- Box Paper Scissor (Unique gift shop)
- Dirty Coast (Local tshirt shop, great design)
- Funky Monkey (Magazine Street Thrift Shop)
PRESS: 10 Years After Katrina: A Publisher Finds His Passion For New Orleans
This post was written by Andrew Bender and originally featured on Forbes.com
It’s one of America’s great paradoxes: when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans on August 29, 2005, it left behind a level of destruction that still brings pangs of shock and sadness. Yet no other American city I’ve visited continues to inspire more passion – even, yes, love – from its citizens.
On Katrina’s 10th anniversary, I did a series of interviews of New Orleanians who returned after the mandatory evacuation, picked themselves up, dusted themselves off and turned their passion into action, not just to rebuild the city, but to use their diverse talents to make it even better than it was. Here’s one of those stories.
Visit my site for more 10 Years After Katrina stories.
————
Name: Justin Shiels
Age: 30
Hometown: Memphis
What I Do: Chief Creative at This Creative Lab and Founder of goINVADE.com
Justin Shiels, founder of goINVADE, feels that the publication has done what it set out to do. (Image: Trevor Mark Photography)
My Katrina Story: I was a junior at Loyola University, and we had just gotten all these kids through the new student orientation when we started hearing these weird weather reports. I remember a lot of parents asking me “Should we have our kids stay here, or should we take them back with us?”
Every time we’d evacuated prior, we’d been gone for 3 to 5 days, and then we’d come back to the city, just like normal. But of course this time it was very different.
Honestly, I didn’t love New Orleans during my first two years of undergraduate school. I hadn’t really done much exploring. But I remember being in Baton Rouge during the evacuation and seeing all these intense images. It kind of felt that I was losing something that I hadn’t gotten to know well enough.
Eventually I was able to get to Memphis, my hometown, and attended the University of Memphis that semester. We got to come back to Loyola that October to retrieve our stuff from the dorms. Driving into New Orleans, with the city feeling all empty and dead, made me feel a connection to New Orleans that I hadn’t had before. I had a feeling of “I want to be a part of rebuilding this city. I want it to come back to life and be vibrant again.”
What I’m Doing Now: I started goINVADE in 2009, as a sideline. At the time, I was really fortunate to work in an advertising firm on one of the major campaigns for New Orleans Tourism: designing a new logo for the city, a really intense ad campaign, some video production… One of the things that nourished that will for me was the sense that New Orleans wasn’t doing a good job of telling its genuine story, that it’s more than just beignets and Bourbon Street.
So I started a digital publication about people to know, places to go and things to do. It grew and blossomed, and we were able to build our audience to about 10,000 readers a month, profiling a lot of people who never would have gotten media attention otherwise: artists, makers and creative types.
One of the profiles I’m super proud of is Amanda De Leon. She’s a local fashion designer who funded her first line via a Kickstarter campaign. We helped promote her, did a photo story and profiled her work, and she was able to present her work at a New York fashion show. She’s the quintessential example of someone who’s exceptionally talented but not so good at working press. I was just really happy to be a part of telling her story.
Six years later, New Orleans is a very different landscape – and media itself has changed. Many progressive and interesting people, places, and projects are finding their way to larger publications.