Workshopping the Workshop

What makes a good workshop experience? I’ve participated in some solid workshops. I’ve helped facilitate ones as well. Thinking about how to appropriately structure a workshop is an interesting design problem. As of now, I feel like I can get behind the following items as positive aspects of a workshop:

• The facilitator establishes the tone. And holds it.
• With the tone set, everyone can then start together from a common understanding of the problem the participants are trying to solve.
• Time is used in a variety of ways. There is listening and talking, sitting and standing. We work together and we work alone. We discuss, present, and get feedback.
• There is a diversity of attendees. (race, gender, age, sexuality, background, occupation, and so on) 
• Approaches are arrived at together.
• Everyone leaves with clearly defined action items.

I haven’t formally been trained in facilitation. I’ve dabbled. But it is something I’m becoming more interested in and see as part of a secondary set of skills I would like to continue to hone. To me, it fits nicely into the tools needed to be a graphic designer today. I would say more so than learning to code. To make ideas happen, from concept through to execution, knowing you’ll most likely need collaborators along the way, anything you can do to enhance your skills as a communicator of ideas is a good thing.

Do Not Think You Know Best

Because you don’t. A topic in a couple places of Michael Bierut’s presentation last week was a challenge to the notion that designers always know best. They know the best type, the best visual, and the best overall solution to the problem. This can be the case, but not always. Michael Bierut has experienced this. I’ve experienced this. Many times. The client or another collaborator brings the solution. It’s not uncommon. And you, the designer, need to be listening enough to recognize and grab hold as needed.

Everything Needs Effort

A big push. A heave. A dig-in-your-heals-and-muster-your-will effort to move the idea up the mountain. The execution. There is no shortage of ideas. No shortage of good ideas even. There is, however, a shortage of people putting in the time needed to make good ideas happen. This has been said before. I just want to say it again here. 

To go further, ideas need collaborators. Rarely do great ideas become reality by the force of one person alone. And sometimes you need a way to prioritize what you’re working on. I know I use this method. It goes as follows:

Of the array of projects moving forward, there are always potentials on the backburner. The things that could get worked on. To help prioritize which ones do get worked on, when there’s a lack of collaborators, that can be a signal that says your time is better spent elsewhere. A project where others are involved and on it gets the love. A project that’s alone in the wilderness, starts and then stalls, or goes through periods of radio silence does not. Don’t sweat it and keep the focus on the things that stand the best chance of becoming reality. 

This isn’t a 100% black and white approach to execution. Few things are. But it can be a helpful guide.

It’s not you, it’s me. I just don’t like your ideas.

In the to and fro of constant collaboration, you will not always mesh well with others. You shouldn’t. If you did, you’re probably a little too weak in the knees. But you work through it. You listen, speak, compromise, switch things up, go down different paths, and arrive at something everyone can get behind. After all, this is no place for ideologues. They’re the worst.

When the Internet doesn’t follow you into the restroom

Upon landing in Anchorage, it became clear that my phone couldn’t handle it. Too far north. Too surrounded by big beautiful mountains. When I go into a restroom to pee, while using the urinal, I often check social media or email. I mean, why not? Businesses put ads in that space your face stares at for a reason. But now, not having Internet on my phone, I was forced to pee in peace. Probably a good thing.

We Review Student Portfolios Very Well

We get in there. We mix it up. We make it happen. We tell you what you need to know. We tell you what we think. We tell it like it is. We tell you what’s working. We tell you what isn’t good. We tell you what you need to focus on. We assume you want to keep learning. We assume you want feedback. We assume you will keep pushing things. We know what’s good. We know what can be better. We know what isn’t going to fly. We review with the notion that you want to live and work as a designer today. We act accordingly. We expect you, young student, to do so as well. For More on the We »

What I know now vs. what I knew then

This may seemed contrived. I do think I’m far too young to have this sort of wishy-washy BS of a post come through my blogroll as something I’d put out there into the professional design world. If I only knew then what I know now as an idea has always annoyed me. It seems over-used and not all that compelling.

However, something keeps coming up in how I think about design that’s different to how I used to think about it. Now, versus then, I know how to get things done. That’s big. Without that, you need more time, more help, account service, more money, salesmen, more options, project management, and so on. Without knowing how to get things done you are lost in a wilderness of either endless creativity or endless revision. 

I know how to get things done. And I’m confident in that. Probably the biggest difference from young Justin to older Justin. Having gotten better at getting things done over the years has meant the difference between just carrying on and actually completing something. Once complete, it’s then on to the next.