It happens every-so-often, in between periods of firing on all cylinders. The times when projects move along at good clips, ideas come together with standard execution, the work is extra good, and the people are extra happy aren’t constant. They can’t be. It would be awesome if that was the case. But in a profession of the subjective, where uncertainty, change, and newness are normal, the good times are balanced by the less good times. It can be labeled as being well worn. Or maybe worn out. When ideas don’t come together and require extra elbow grease. When communication is way off. When the ideas aren’t really there and the people aren’t all that stoked. Sometimes that happens. And because we are professional makers, we keep going. We push through. We do the job and we deliver. Because that’s what people who design for a living do.
Write out your principles on paper
Before I set out on my own almost five years ago, I sat down and wrote out a list of 11 points. They framed how I was going to pursue my independent design. I shared them last week on a panel discussion. Today I’m adding another, as a shoutout to the strange folks I get to work with often in my day-to-day. They bring me much joy and make it all worth it, especially during tax time.
I want to do work that:
- is part of things,
- experiments,
- delights,
- is optimistic,
- gives a damn,
- is community-minded,
- moves people to action,
- points us in a direction,
- picks a side / annoys certain people,
- makes things better,
- has heart,
- is free to be weird,
The Simplicity Trap
I love keeping it simple. Beautiful, delightful, memorable simplicity is one of my favorite things when it comes to design. As the client list grows and project variety changes, how I talk about the design work continues to be very important. The simplicity frame is always part of the conversation but it can become a crutch. The thing easy to fall back on as to why a certain direction is the way to go. I’m increasingly placing simple lower and lower on the list of attributes for an execution. One reason is I see simplicity as often misunderstood. The essence of simplicity I do think is right on but the word itself has been significantly weakened when it comes to design and too often a justification for the boring and uninspired.
Please note: This critique is from a working designer who thinks simplicity needs to be brought back down to be an equal player with inspiring, beautiful, and unique. And in this case, no, simplicity doesn’t inherently mean inspiring, beautiful, or unique.
Five Year Questions
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.
