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.
Introducing Tiperosity
I’m very excited to share a new startup company/idea I’ve been working on for the last few months. Originally conceived by Nathan Preheim of former MindMixer fame, Tiperosity will be a place for people to get great tips. Everyday know-how for your every day, if you will. Nathan brought me in to do the brand and now the platform is being co-designed and developed with Cody Peterson and Jason Sawyer. And big props to the fabulous Katie Kemerling for coming up with the name. We’ll be sharing more in the months to come. Fun stuff for sure, with just a hint of Sasquatch.
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.
Fins Up
Oddly enough, I watched the Super Bowl this year. And while I’m far more likely to watch Frontline’s League of Denial than a football game of any kind, I did enjoy it. Mostly for one simple reason: Twitter. Twitter makes everything a lot of people tune in to way more fun. Be it a Presidential debate, elections of any kind, or the World-Series. While watching the game, the things I was most compelled to Tweet about were those human-sized Katy Perry sharks. They were awesome and I want one. I think a lot of people do. So if you want to do something nice for someone else, I’d suggest anonymously sending them one human-sized shark suit. Just plop one in a cardboard box and ship away. Imagine the joy the person on the receiving end will have when they open up that bland box and find pure awesomeness inside waiting for them.
Introducing ROTATOR
This is an idea that has been worked on here and there for about a year and half. In practice, there have been two volumes and the core of what ROTATOR could be aligns well with our new coworking space. So now seems a fairly appropriate time to send it out into the world as a real life thing in some sort of official capacity. The matter-of-fact, slightly punk rock version has been published on Medium with a dedicated website coming your way in the next couple months. Being a designer in these modern times, I see it as a natural evolution of a career that ultimately just wants to make interesting things with interesting people.
