I hit up the Omaha YP Summit keynote conversation last week. First off, both Shabnam Mogharabi and Baratunde Thurston were fantastic. Hilarious, joyful, tearful, reflective, etc. All sorts of emotions bundled together for quite an inspiring morning. One thing that stood out were a set of questions asked by Baratunde about how Shabnam feels about her work now that she’s over five years into her job at Soul Pancake. What has stayed the same? What has been dropped or failed? What has surprised you most? July will be five years for me of being independent. That will be a good time to put my own answers to those. In the meantime, go here, get inspired.
Mutually Assured Critique
Critique is good. It’s a big part of being a designer. It also can be what makes the job extremely challenging. Like anyone, I do not have all the answers, can be wrong about things,and sometimes need to be pushed to fully realize an idea. So I welcome collaborative working relationships and feedback that moves us all to where the project needs to be. Because I’ve had so many of these solid relationships that have made me a better creative, when the critique comes with large amounts of micromanaging and the digging in of stubborn heals, let’s say I’m less enthused about it.
Every point of change is confrontational. For example, someone says make the logo bigger, someone else says make the logo smaller. And then it’s time to collaborate. No designer worth his or her salt rolls over and just makes the logo bigger. I’ve been thinking of it as “mutually assured critique.” Everyone hears from everyone on the necessary review points of the making. And there is no trump card. That’s how most of my collaborative, successful projects get executed. You could say I’m now just making it official.
Paying Up On Time
Working with a lot of collaborators, bringing them into multiple projects, when it comes to money, I try to pay up in a timely fashion. Usually right away because I want them to know I’m stoked to have them involved and I highly value what they do. If someone has to follow up with me on payment, well, I’d feel terrible. Some kind of “code of the independents” maybe, but knowing payment is definitely not consistent and comes in waves, I act accordingly. The creative industry lives in uncertainty and payment for work shouldn’t have to be part of that uncertainty. Contract or not, handshake or not, perhaps the old wink and a nod, when an invoice gets sent to me, it gets paid. On time. Straight up.
Be Efficient, But...
The more effort I’ve put into honing my design process, efficiency has emerged as an important idea. Both in terms of keeping creativity on track to produce the best outcomes and to make working with nonprofits, who typically have lower budgets, possible. But one thing important to keep in mind when it comes to efficiency is that too much of it, like with most things, isn’t good. Unexpected creativity or some kind of unique truth can’t be arrived at with efficiency alone because with any great quests, there are rabbit holes that bear no fruit, seemingly unproductive daydreaming, and a wasteland of visual debris. With efficiency only there are none of those things. And without stumbling, bumbling, or wrong choices you cannot get to the thing you really need to find.
Crowds
Can you really seek answers from the crowd when you’re looking for expertise? When you’re looking for beauty, do crowds ever do the job? I’m sure they can get lucky from time to time, but is it something to be counted on? Different than crowdfunding or crowdsourcing straightforward tasks, can you crowdsource design? I know you can’t “design by committee” almost so much as to consider it a fact. I have a natural tendency to avoid crowds in general life situations because they drown out the good stuff with unnecessary movement and noise. I have limited interaction with crowds in my professional work, but the times I have experienced crowdsourced design I have always been disappointed. Both because the work produced isn’t very good and I’m left feeling icky. As if the process itself is naturally incapable of ever being something that can firmly be endorsed in any professional capacity.
The Bump In
This is the fifth official week in the new coworking space. From a work standpoint, the transition from working at home has been marked by the inspiration of the physical space, a clearer line of separation between home life and work life, and making projects better by simply talking through things with another designer. There are also the extra benefits of the bump in. Our space is in a neighborhood. It’s part of a vibrant, historic community where running into people out and about is common. I’ve missed that since I left my old agency job in downtown Lincoln. A previous space I worked at a couple years ago on the edge of downtown Omaha felt a little too isolated. But now, the bump in is back. At any of the local lunch spots or people swinging by to see the space, long live the bump in.
Duality
At the end of last year I was talking with a good friend about the intention of this blog and my year of words. The core idea I landed on was that I wanted to paint an honest picture of my experiences with independent design. Both the great and the not-so-great, the really exhilarating and the pains in the asses. All about the duality of this creative thing people get paid to do for a living. Amidst the failed ideas, budget battles, incoming 1099s, and workflow frustrations are the unexpected solutions, clients who brighten your day, apps that make life easier, and the rush of sitting down to make something beautiful. Not too rosy, not too bleak, right in the middle. In no way do I want people to think all is gold and in no way do I want to come off as complaining about stuff. I just want to tell you what I know from first hand experience. Straight up. All in the hopes of learning from successes and failures.
