How to Make Mistakes On Purpose

Three generations of humans have now been molded into results-oriented workers who cannot mess up, and therefore may never innovate either. Shared software, skills, and experiences equal no surprises. Surrounded by the unwavering, reliable results made possible by a machine, we all marinate in this ubiquitous cybersauce. Behold! Thousands of shiny new apps, sites, products, and services that look, feel, and are essentially the same. Because computers don't make mistakes.

Chance is the natural foil to the digital. We combine both for originality. This makes for the kind of exciting, hopeful future we want. We embrace technology but need to slap it around a bit to get someplace new.

Human error sparks connections. In a relaxed situation where one's hypercritical demons are AWOL, the snap, crackle, pop of brainstorms happen all around us.

A fresh, colorful guide to discovery, with clearly marked directions and witty prompts, this is a book about living a productive, individualistic life. Whatever your job, it gives you a way to zig while everyone around you can only zag. It will also make you laugh along the way.

“Praise for Laurie Rosenwald:”

"Laurie has the most native talent of anyone I've ever met. Laurie constantly reinvents herself, whereas most people never get invented to begin with. She is a jewel."
--Douglas Coupland, author of Generation X and Girlfriend in a Coma and visual artist
"Laurie's voice is fresh sounding, funny, and completely her own."--David Sedaris
"Playing with the Studio 360 staff for an afternoon under Rosenwald's supervision was like eating a certain candy bar, indescribably delicious. And unlike eating a candy bar, it was sublimely useful."--Kurt Andersen, host of Peabody Award-winning public radio show, Studio 360
"The typography, the illustrations, and the content all form a gorgeously fitting form that is truly unique to [Laurie]. We can discover [her] world, compare it to our own, and grow from it."--Stefan Sagmeister

Laurie Rosenwald is a New York City-based illustrator, artist, designer, and book creator whose work is a mix of collage, drawing, painting, and storytelling. In addition to her many editorial illustrations for a wide variety of publications, Rosenwald has created animation, product design, and leads an ongoing workshop, "How to Make Mistakes on Purpose."

She has designed book jackets as well as books for Vintage, Little Brown, Houghton Mifflin, and Knopf. Her many illustration clients include the New York Times, New York Magazine, The Atlantic, Harper's, the Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, The Believer, The Baffler and countless others.

As a designer, Rosenwald has worked for Ikea, Sony Music, Warner Brothers, Target, the Sundance Channel, Noggin, Bloomingdale's, Barney's, Neiman Marcus, Ogilvy, Jay Walter Thompson, Bravo, Nickelodeon, Conde Nast, and The Whitney Museum.

She is also the author of New York Notebook, All the Wrong People Have Self-Esteem, and And to Name Just a Few: Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue.

Three generations of humans have now been molded into results-oriented workers who cannot mess up, and therefore may never innovate either. Shared software, skills, and experiences equal no surprises. Surrounded by the unwavering, reliable results made possible by a machine, we all marinate in this ubiquitous cybersauce. Behold! Thousands of shiny new apps, sites, products, and services that look, feel, and are essentially the same. Because computers don't make mistakes.Chance is the natural foil to the digital. We combine both for originality. This makes for the kind of exciting, hopeful future we want. We embrace technology but need to slap it around a bit to get someplace new.Human error sparks connections. In a relaxed situation where one's hypercritical demons are AWOL, the snap, crackle, pop of brainstorms happen all around us.A fresh, colorful guide to discovery, with clearly marked directions and witty prompts, this is a book about living a productive, individualistic life. Whatever your job, it gives you a way to zig while everyone around you can only zag. It will also make you laugh along the way.

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