The illustrator and graphic designer captures the joy, frustration, and humor of daily life with smart, whimsical sketches

I'm a really big Christoph Niemann fan, so I was thrilled to see him speak last month at Creative Mornings, the fantastic breakfast lecture series by my lovely studiomate Tina (a.k.a. Swiss Miss), dubbed "TED for the rest of us." Charming, irreverent, and self-deprecating as ever, Christoph dances across everything from finding happiness at work to what it takes to have a good idea to the myth of "talent" to how to overcome writer's block.

"Creativity is like chasing chickens." ~ Christoph Niemann

I found this visual breakdown of Christoph's daily routine, tongue-in-cheek as it may be, quite interesting:

Here's an unwitting wink at RSA's animated version of Steven Johnson's insights on where good ideas come from, also echoing my favorite TED talk, Elizabeth Gilbert's.

And something reminiscent of Scott Belsky philosophy on making ideas happen:

Watch, laugh, nod knowingly, and marvel at Christoph's fantastic signature brand of wit, humor, and simple, raw human truth:

2011/04 Christoph Niemann from CreativeMornings on Vimeo.

(Imagine my terror when Christoph hit it out of the ballpark the way he did, given I was the speaker for the following Creative Mornings—what a tough act to follow!)

"In order to have creativity, you have to allow for dead ends to happen." ~ Christoph Niemann

See more of Christoph's brilliant work on his site and grab some of his utterly wonderful children's books for your favorite tiny humans and their parents.

This post also appears on Brain Pickings.
Images: Christoph Niemann