This has been a pretty exciting time in our household. A few months after the release of his D*I*Y Planner Hipster PDA Edition to rave reviews, Doug –with the help of dedicated friends from around the world– launched DIYPlanner.com on Saturday. This illustration, which graces the front page, is a play on Escher’s well-known drawing by award-winning artist, Brad Reid. Brad, who is a life-long friend of my husband, also happens to be an art school buddy of mine, and is our baby Conor’s godfather. A brilliant painter (one of my favourite pieces is here), Brad has (like me) put his work in oil on the back burner, but whereas I’ve started to explore egg tempera he is experimenting in digital work. He recently set up a blog, but hasn’t yet settled on a name for it.
I am so proud of Doug, and with good reason. DIYPlanner.com is about much more than productivity and the ever growing-list of beautiful template designs being offered free to the world under the Creative Commons licence. It is a community site to meet the growing needs of the “back to paper movement,” with a daily blog with great writers from different fields and a guest poster once a week. It is a place where right and left brain thinkers meet. I dashed off a 14-point post on nurturing creative energy in the Arts and Illustration forum. Feel free to jump in!
This site is not just for organizational geeks and the technically minded: things have become much more accessible (yes, mom this means you too!), and the site is even including material on journalling, scrapbooking, mind-mapping, and other topics that might benefit creative people. Template submissions from more artists and designers are definitely encouraged! The “official kits” have been downloaded about 400,000 times to date, and the daily hits are 20,000 and climbing, so you can be assured of a lot of interest… promotion and a great way to help out people in need of advice and guidance — what more could you want?
