The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Live Now: Existential Affirmation by Design

We were first moved by the contagious positivity behind the Live Now project more than a year ago, when it was a lovely website and growing community of designers and illustrators with a shared commitment to spreading messages of strength and hope. Today we’re thrilled that the movement has taken the form of a book, a kind of collector’s object of optimism.

Live Now gathers 85 of the project’s participants in print form, with a different page for each heartening design. Like the recently featured Everything Is Going To Be OK, Live Now‘s messages exhort the viewer to find the positive in the present moment – something much more attainable when you’re looking at such a beautiful reminder.

‘Live Humbly’ by Mikey Burton
‘Harmony’ by Eric Smith
‘Friendship’ by Emil Kozak

Eric Smith first founded Live Now following a diagnosis of cancer, and what started as a personal project of resilience grew organically into a “movement of happiness.” Today, Smith practices art direction, design, and illustration via his studio, IDRAWALLDAY, and continues to collaborate with a host of creative partners.

The basis of our message is that happiness is here for everyone—that there is a bigger picture for your life, and a will for each one of us. Do the people in your life “feel” your love? Do we inspire happiness in everyone around us? That’s our plan. ~ Eric Smith

‘You’re Going Places’ by Ed Nacional
‘Overflowing Optimism’ by Chad Kouri
‘Break Your Routine’ by Mikey Burton

Rip out a life-affirming lesson from Live Now and share it with someone you love. Like the sentiments that inspired them, we guarantee that what you just gave away, you’ll more than gain in spirit.

Kirstin Butler is writing an adaptation of Gogol for the Google era called Dead SULs, but when not working spends far, far too much time on Twitter. She currently lives in Cambridge, MA.


Published May 20, 2011

https://www.themarginalian.org/2011/05/20/live-now/

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