PROFILE + WORKSHOP // Friday Night: Learn To Make Mistakes With Laurie Rosenwald

"The only way to cure my hiccups is to offer me 20 bucks to hiccup again," says Laurie Rosenwald in a Communication Arts article about her How to Make Mistakes on Purpose workshop, which comes to 3rd Ward tomorrow night. (Reservation required as space is limited, so get on it.)

One of the main premises of Rosenwald's creative approach is that once you start trying, things can actually get a lot harder. "Instead of focusing on a problem to solve it, do something careless, pointless, opposite, random," she says. "Something that has nothing to do with what you're doing or wanting." 

Mistakes are good. That's another key Rosenwald-ism. "It can be a dot, a blog, an object, a word," she says. "The important thing is that the 'mistake' is not carefully chosen. It must be found, and not created with the intention to use it in any particular way."

Rosenwald's got some serious credentials under her belt, so hit the jump for more on why you won't want to miss this.

We can't tell you much about what goes on during a Mistakes on Purpose session, as Rosenwald asks participants to swear "omertà," the mafia code of silence. But, based on the places where she's taught the workshop (SVA, Google, Stockholm Design Lab and many more), it's clearly something of a big deal. Check our previous write-up to hear about the IKEA sheets too.

On her website Rosenwald describes herself as "the world's most commercial artist," and while there's some humorous hyperbole in that statement, she certainly has been commercially successful. Her illustrations have appeared in the New Yorker, New York Times and New York and many other publications, and she's received lots of awards. Her animation work has nominated for an Emmy, and she designed the awesome typeface Loupot. She's even appeared in an episode of The Sopranos.

Rosenwald's not in it just for the money and fame, though. It's more about doing things that haven't been done before, and making things that haven't already been made. Some of those "things" include the award-winning children's book And to Name But Just a Few: Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, the illustrated guidebook/sketchbook New York Notebook and All the Wrong People Have Self-Esteem, an "inappropriate book for young ladies." 

She also recently collaborated with David Sedaris on David's Diary, an app featuring diary entries read by Sedaris and animated by Rosenwald herself. 

-- John Ruscher

WORKSHOP HEADS-UP // "How to Make Mistakes on Purpose" with Laurie Rosenwald Is the Opposite of a Mistake

Courtesy: IKEA

It's a commonly known fact that penicillin, electricity and gravity were all discovered, more or less, by accident. (And in that regard, so were Silly Putty and potato chips.) Designer Laurie Rosenwald can not be credited with inventing any of those things, but she did develop a class called "How to Make Mistakes on Purpose" in order to help you harness your weird foibles and transform them into brilliant inventions. 

Rosenwald's taught this course to everyone from the corporate giants of Google and Starbucks to the creative powerhouses of RISD and SVA. And next week, she brings her mistake-massaging expertise to 3rd Ward.

In case you were wondering why you're staring at a photo of bed sheets up there, it's because IKEA released a line of textiles developed during one of her workshops. Rosenwald promises you don't have to be a designer (or hold some coveted talent) to attend the class. In fact, all she asks is that you remain open to not being good at stuff. 

The class is November 11, 7:30-10:30 p.m. and costs $35. It's being co-hosted by the New York chapter of the Industrial Designers Society of America, so head over to their site to sign up. And strive to be a little less perfect.

--Layla Schlack