Creative work is tough. Best to go in with a sober, open mind and not be blinded by high aspirations. I think I've said before on this site, I used to get more excited at the beginning of a project. Now I get more excited in the middle, when the work is happening and it isn't just talk. Some people do like the talk, just how it is. That is a needed part of any creative project, it’s just not where I like to be. Ask questions, think critically, and do not get whisked away by utopian visions. Instead, take those visions and figure out how to make them a reality. After all, for any creative, that is the job.
Standard Turnarounds
As projects have gotten bigger and more complicated in the last couple of years, there’s been more time spent thinking about standard ways to go about things. Even with the many variables any design project may have, I like to have standard responses when asked, especially in regard to budgets and timelines.
In response to fairly common requests, here’s where we’re at with standard turnarounds, taking into account current workloads:
- Website Design & Development: 3 Months
- Branding Process: 6–8 Weeks
- Request for Proposal: 5–7 Days
- Email Response: within 24–48 Hours
What were your first seven jobs?
This question has been floating around the Internet for a little while now. It’s a very telling bit of information in the history of a person. Sometimes the shitty jobs of my youth come back to me. Not in a nostalgic, American Beauty sort of way. It’s more “sure, it was formative but I don’t ever want to do that again.” Probably why I work so hard at being a designer, at least partly.
So here’s my list. From the top:
- Mower of Lawns (in the neighborhood)
- Shelf Stocker + Truck Unloader + Maintenance Kid (high school)
- Bean Buggy Weed Sprayer (summers)
- Mower of Green Space + Weed Eater of Ditches (trailer parks)
- Telephone Survey Conductor (on campus)
- House Painter (the crew I was on also roofed 1 house, then school started back up, thank God, because roofing is fucking hard)
- Ice Cream Server + Sandwich Maker (joint operation)
A few more things like that and then my college education paid off and I began my career as a graphic designer. When the clients get challenging or the work seems overwhelming, sometimes I think back to those simpler times. Unloading that truck of BBQ sauce with the ones in the back having spilled all over. Staring at rows and rows of beans for miles and miles. Weed eating ditches for hours on end. Talking to students on the phone about their drug use for hours on end. Painting houses white for hours on end. Making ice cream cones and sandwiches for college students, most times while hung over. And there was the time I got heat stroke while roofing and somehow made it to McDonalds where I just sat in the air conditioning with an extra large orange juice trying to keep it together.
Those were the days. How’s that for Oh the way things used to be...
Find Your Medium
Wherever it is you need to be in order to create, get there. Is it in the sound? Is it in the ink? Is it in the pixels? Is it in the whirling mess of ideation and execution? In the words? In the image? In the composition or the construction? In the humor? In the wit? In the irony or the satire? Creation or destruction? Regimented or loose? Process or flow? Do you document? Do you mobilize? Do you inspire? Wherever it is, get there. This way, that way, just get there.
When. It’s. Over.
Lessons Learned Via The Postmortem
When a project wraps, especially bigger ones, it’s important to give it an honest assessment. Look back on what went down and how that jives with what was expected at the outset. Did the budget hold, was the timeline adequate, were expectations met, and did opportunities get seized. There’s so much optimism when a project kicks off but it’s almost impossible for it to go 100% smooth. Just not how life works. You can always learn from what went wrong. You know, make lemonade outta those lemons.
- Example #1: A loose branding process ends up directionless and frustrating. Better establish a consistent process that works for you and is always adhered to, in all cases, always.
- Example #2: The website scope gets creeped on and then creeped on some more. Next time you better be a stickler for the features agreed upon in the beginning. Make it clear there will be no additional features without having to then increase the budget.
- Example #3: A website feature in the initial requirements is built but after launch isn’t used. Get better at discussing what features entail, how they work, and what’s required to make sure they’re effective after launched.
- Example #4: You just aren’t able to give a client what he/she wants. Best to become a mind-reader.
These are just a few. You get the idea. The design process is fluid. It isn’t perfect. But more often than not, when it’s respected, it delivers. And it can always be improved upon. Keep at it and keep fighting the good fight.
Waste Not
I don’t like wasting time. I don’t like wasting ideas. I don’t like wasting paper. I don’t like wasting battery life. I don’t like wasting energy. I don’t like wasting pens. I don’t like wasting emails. I don’t like wasting goodwill. I don’t like wasting feedback. I don’t like wasting passion. I don’t like wasting opportunities. I don’t like wasting money. Limited resources and constrained budgets make you efficient, and that's honestly how I like to work. Waste not, want not. Make shit happen, not make more shit.
A really good thing about going out on my own
I make the decisions. There’s no excuses for those. I can’t blame anybody else. I take accountability for the good and the bad and I proceed accordingly. If I take on a project that ends up not being a good fit, those decisions are my decisions. I live with them, and I adjust.
The creative industry, I think in general, is a sensitive industry. It imagines, creates, believes, and strives for always doing better. But it also can take things too personally. It can whine too much. It can want things to be perfect when they just aren’t. And it can deflect blame. It was the client, or the budget, or the timeline. Nope. Bullshit, bulltshit, and bullshit. At least, it is when you work for yourself.
When you do that, you better work out who you work with for how much and in what amount of time. Those are all your decisions. You collaborate, but at any time, you can say no. And if you don’t, then you better be ready to see it through. No stop-shorts or cop-outs. It’s on, all the way to the end.
Doing that makes you a better designer and a better problem solver. The world definitely needs more of those. It needs less whiners, bitchers, and jerks. Decide where you stand and then act accordingly.
