Continuing with my thoughts on Austin Kleon's book "Steal Like an Artist", I strongly believe that Austin is right when he talks about being a mashup of what you choose to let in your life. I am totally a sum of the influences that I have let into my life to inspire me. My first influence is my wife. When we were dating I was enamored by her drive and independence. Although it took me way too long to let that inspiration sink in for myself, I strive to be more like her. Another influence is Aaron Draplin. I am currently reading his book "Draplin Design Co. Pretty Much Everything." He has ten pages in his book from people who adore him and why he is the man he is today. They all say around the same things. How hard he worked to get where he is and how hard he still works to this day. He really does have some interesting outlooks on life and I admire him for that.

I am starting to get satisfied with the start of the sum of my influences. I did say the start though, I am not sure that I will ever be completely satisfied with a particular sum of influences. I feel to keep growing in the design field you should keep building on these influences on a daily basis. Ever since I have gone back to school, I have gotten better at the whole research process when working on a project. With the strides I have made during this process it has really shown me what there is out there to inspire us all daily. It is pretty amazing and is something that I am going to keep getting better at to broaden my influences.

Like us all Aaron Draplin has some heroes in his life. In his book he first talks about his cousin Tom Draplin. He explains how Tom always had the coolest sketch books and colored pencils. Even though Tom is an illustrator he has always influenced Aaron. Here are two of his illustrations, the second one being a storyboard in which he does a lot of nowadays.

Another influence is a man by the name of Charles S. Anderson. Aaron is happy to call him a friend and a mentor. You might recognize some of his work.

The last influences of Aaron's that I am going to talk about is actually a type foundry and design studio created by Andy Cruz and Rich Roat. House Industries is the creator of the look of Nickelodeon's TV Land, Ann Taylors clothing tag, and the ever popular sugary breakfast cereal Lucky Charms. Aaron talks in his book on how he showed up at their door and begged them to sell him some of their fonts. Not only did they load him up with "so much cool shit" They made a lifetime fan with their hospitality. Here is a sample of some of their fonts.