The Dot & The Line is a classic cartoon. It’s touching, smart and gorgeous. I was searching for good screenshots of scenes from the cartoon so I could ruthlessly steal from color choices because I’m a designer and that’s what I do, and couldn’t find any good ones. So below are screenshots of some of my favorite scenes from the cartoon.

A note on orange: Fizzle was the first identity I’ve built with orange as the main color. Turns out orange is an insane color… the hardest I’ve worked with to date. Put it with black and it’s halloween. The line between neon and mustard is wildly thin. It’s a hard color to work with. Most of the shots below have some sort of orange in it because I’m always curious about how others use orange.

Geometries: Now begins a series of wonderful geometric shapes. This is the line discovering what he can do.

Closeness: I love this little sequence showing the cuddling of the dot and the line. She moves close, slides up and around him, and as she does the yellow square changes color… super sexy.

The best for last: And finally, my absolute favorite shot is this one.

Why are you hiding your joke from the audience? Don’t worry about feeding them your punch line a little bit stronger.”

Stephen Colbert, around 13m in

I find myself worrying about making the thing better. I’ve avoided any marketing efforts for Fizzle because I don’t think it’s ready yet.

I do so unconsciously. The thought will never naturally cross my mind to start pushing to get more people in. This is something my partner had to bring up to me.

It’s not ready. There are pieces missing that complete the intelligence of the thing. There are bits that, once created and installed, will make illuminate the artistry of the whole thing.

This is what it’s like to make a thing. A product. A website. A song. To be the kind of person who makes something, who has taste, who wants to please and impress people.

We all sound like this. Every one of us who’s making the thing.

We all struggle with this. Every one of us.

In this phenomenal interview with Stephen Colbert, Stephen shows us how he obsessed over making the joke better, making the punchline stronger, more of a payoff.

And then a mentor said the quote above. Get to the punchline. Cook faster. Don’t worry about making it a little bit stronger.

“A little bit stronger…” That’s where you get lost. Making things a little bit better, a little more flair, a bit more humanity, a little bit stronger.

Fizzle is already an amazing product. Raving fans, people using it to grow businesses that have been stale for years, people inside are reclaiming their creativity and hope, fizzlers are growing so much more confident and comfortable in their own skin as they make their things.

It’s already a good. Acknowledge that. Throw a little party in yourself. Celebrate it. Mark it on the calendar. Put a flag in the ground. Give yourself an honest pat on the back and one of those 100 Grand candy bars.

You’ve done something. You have. Draw up a thoughtful conclusion and end that chapter well before moving on to the next chapter.

Because I’m starting to worry that you’ll never be satisfied with the things you make.

And if they never feel good enough, you have to create your own milestones and throw your own lil’ parties.

I realized I would show up for rehearsal at anytime, day or night; and I’ll stay for as long as it takes to get it right. And I thought: wow, I’d be really dumb not to pay attention to how hard I’m willing to work on that more than anything else. I’m eager for how hard the work is.”

Stephen Colbert, around 17:40 in

…tech history is full of dead companies that had mediocre product but great lock-ins. Eventually, the lock-in always goes away”

Ben Evans

What matters is that you do good work. What matters is that you produce things that are true and will stand. What matters is that the Flaming Lips’s new album is ravishing and I’ve listened to it a thousand times already, sometimes for days on end, and it enriches me and makes me want to save people. What matters is that it will stand forever, long after any narrow-hearted curmudgeons have forgotten their appearance on goddamn 90210. What matters is not the perception, nor the fashion, not who’s up and who’s down, but what someone has done and if they meant it. What matters is that you want to see and make and do, on as grand a scale as you want, regardless of what the tiny voices of tiny people say. Do not be critics, you people, I beg you. I was a critic and I wish I could take it all back because it came from a smelly and ignorant place in me, and spoke with a voice that was all rage and envy. Do not dismiss a book until you have written one, and do not dismiss a movie until you have made one, and do not dismiss a person until you have met them. It is a fuckload of work to be open-minded and generous and understanding and forgiving and accepting, but Christ, that is what matters. What matters is saying yes.”

Dave Eggers (emphasis added)

Dave Eggers was asked about selling out. His response (reprinted here) is long and windy and ends up being deeply rewarding… like everything I’ve ever read from the guy.

I come from a culture of sell-out seekers. We longed to write off anyone that smelled like money or main stream success.

I see now 2 things:

1. I wanted what I listened to to be cool because of what it said about me. It had little to do with the insights or spirit or heroics of the artists I was championing… it had a lot to do with my identity issues.

2. I said money and success but what I meant was greed. This is something Dan Harmon helped me understand in his (absolutely fucking stellar) XOXO talk. Success (financial or artistic or main stream) is not greed. Greed is something real and dangerous and terrible, but don’t make the mistake of equating it with success.