I love watching how simple tools have evolved. Some, like the hammer, remain relatively unchanged in form, though you can find a variety of sizes and materials depending on the application. Others, like gloves, have gone through all sorts of iterations in just about every way. When you zoom in on a specific type of glove, like those made for astronauts, you find all of these absurd little ideas and innovations. Space gloves range all the way from a dryer vent hose with fingers back in the Apollo days, to anime takes on something from Transformers. And sometimes, they look like something you might wear in a typical Canadian winter.
I created the space gloves images to support a blog post I was writing about innovation and risk. I think getting people into space with the hope of getting them back alive afterwards is one of the great examples of the intersection of these two things. Working to improve anything is much easier with access to the people who will use it. However, trying to solve problems those users might encounter in a remote, incredibly dangerous, and impossible-to-access environment involves life and death-style risks. A small tweak for you could be the death of those using what you've built. Thankfully, my risk on this project came down to whether I used that blue - orange gradient or not.
Being a visual person, I appreciated having the chance to produce the artwork for that post. I am also excited to give the visuals more importance on the DevFacto blog. But as we ramp up our posting schedule, I do not have the time to create the artwork for every post we publish. We also want the reach and perspectives shared here to have a rich breadth, and I have long shared Hugh McLeod’s belief that business needs more art. So we came up with a wonderful idea: engage the arts community for their visual take on the words we write. Being more connected and supportive in the arts world would be a wonderful thing.
If you have been following along, we have fantastic art from Jeff and Maren, and a host of others upcoming. I cannot wait to stand back from this gallery of ideas and see the visual canvas we have in a year. I’m excited each week to see what new ideas will surface through these collaborations! In this case, Perry Parker took my artwork and recut it. I love the grit!
If you are an artist inspired to contribute art to a blog post for a modest honorarium, please drop us a line here!
About the author
Taylor Reese is our Principal Innovator based in Edmonton, Alberta. His background is in design and facilitation, but he also loves drawing, cycling, and craft beer. He believes the things we build must improve the lives of those who use them. You can follow some of his adventures on instagram @sketchnote.love.
About the artist
Perry Parker is an Edmonton based illustrator/comic artist working traditionally with ink and watercolour and more recently dabbling with digital tools. His most notable work is a graphic novel that was successfully crowd funded: Push/Pull.
Perry writes "I add a lot of blacks to my line work and try not to keep it too clean. And to make it even messier I like to add lots of splatter. I'm definitely inspired by the creator of Hellboy, Mike Mignola."
