Inspired By #92
Hello! Welcome to issue #92 of Inspired By, a monthly(-ish) newsletter from your friendly neighbourhood designer JPKoudstaal. 😘
Here are some of the things I came across the last few weeks that inspired me:
🥾 The Long Way Home
Titouan Le Roux, a 25-year-old French filmmaker, solo hiked the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) — 4,270 kilometers in 165 days.
I’ve watched a lot of hiking videos over the last few year and this one stands out from the rest. The cinematography is stunning, especially knowing he filmed this completely by himself. While I didn’t care so much for the poetic narration, the visuals are stunning. 😍
Checkout his instagram stories and his 19-part blog too. He’ll be hiking the Continental Divide Trail (4,873 km) next, looking forward to the sequel!
It made me re-watch “Wild” this weekend, the memoir of Cheryl Strayed hiking on the PCT, directed by Jean-Marc Vallée. It resonated more deeply this time, with Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern delivering powerful performances.
The book and film’s release coincided with a surge in PCT permit applications, jumping from 1,879 in 2013 to 7,852 in 2022. Hope it doesn’t get ruined by popularity. 😕
Harmen Hoek also released another video, this time he hiked the John Muir Trail, which is mostly part of the PCT, in 21 days. Makes me dream of doing a thru-hike someday.
🙌🏻 Building your designs
From David Hoang’s latest newsletter:
“At its core, design is taking an idea and making it tangible. Building your designs is a continuation and extension of that tangibility. Ignore the question of whether designers should code and look this way:
Designers build.”
Read more (and subscribe) 👇🏻
Building your designs - by David Hoang - Proof of Concept
Issue 181: A better focus than, "should designers code?"
🚌 The ‘Into the Wild’ Bus Has Another Story to Tell
If you’ve read Into the Wild or seen the movie, you’ll know about the magic bus. The bus where Chris McCandless spent his final days captured the imagination of people all over the world and inspired hundreds of seekers to make dangerous treks to reach it.
Now a dedicated team of curators in Alaska have given it new life as a fascinating exhibit (opening in 2025) — one that tells the story not just of McCandless, but of modern Alaska.
Read the extensive article here or listen to the 30min podcast.
The ‘Into the Wild’ Bus is Now in a Museum
The rusty coach where Chris McCandless spent his final days captured the imagination of people all over the world and inspired hundreds of seekers to make dangerous treks to reach it. Now a dedicated team of curators in Alaska have given it new life as a fascinating exhibit—one that tells the story not just of McCandless, but of modern Alaska.
🧱 Chonk
Jason Santa Maria released his first font recently called Chonk: a heavy display sans that likes to take up space. He was inspired from playing with his kids’ Play-Doh extruder, and seeing how much clay they could cram into the molds. Happy to use it in this issues header. 😊
Chonk
Chonk is a heavy display sans that likes to take up space. It’s best used in moderation, when you want to be LOUD. The inspiration came from playing with my kids’ Play-Doh extruder, and seeing how much clay we could cram into the molds. I wanted to make a typeface that tried to expand to fill its container in the same way, which is why there’s a slight convex touch to the verticals: the whitespace pushes out, while the letters push back.The character set is limited right now, but I’d like to kee...
⚖️ The Rebalancing of Design Management
This one goes out to all the design managers out there:
“Design management needs to swing the pendulum back a bit. We need to get off the bench and take on a little more of that old Creative Director energy: get in the details, push our teams to take one more pass at things, try something totally weird that probably won't work, challenge and inspire their peers in engineering and product.”
—Cap Watkins, Sr. Product Design Director at Lattice.
Read more 👇🏻
https://capwatkins.com/blog/the-rebalancing-of-management/🥰 On The Roam
Jason Momoa is such a loving and passionate man, what an inspiration! “On the roam” is his new HBO Max series where he travels across the US in search of art, adventure and friendship.
Episode 2 features photographer Todd Hido and it’s a must-watch, even if photography isn’t your thing. Momoa’s passion is contagious, making every episode fun, no matter the topic.
🧭 The Lost City of Z
After reading The Wager and Killers of the Flower Moon, I wanted to read more by David Grann, so I picked up The Lost City of Z.
I remember watching the movie in 2016 and liking it, but the book offers much more! David Grann did extensive research and writes in detail about Fawcett’s life, his expeditions, the history of the Amazon, and the author’s own journey into the rain forest. Truly loved everything about it.
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann | Goodreads
A grand mystery reaching back centuries. A sensational …
🪐 Cosmos
This platform is an alternative to Pinterest for creatives. A beautiful UI with an interesting onboarding flow and lots of moody photography. And they share an interesting way to bookmark from iOS apps that I didn’t see before.
Reminded me of the good old days where I would browse FFFFound for cool images and inspiration.
It’s still private beta, but I’ve got three invites to share, so if you want in, go for it. (via Marten Kuipers)
Welcome to Cosmos
A Pinterest alternative for creatives.
✌🏻 And that’s it. Thanks for reading and see you next time! 👋🏻