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.
One Person Stands Up For Justice
A powerful tool for advocating change, quite possibly the purest form of communication, the poster, will be up on display this April at the Bancroft building in South Omaha. Specifically, 44 posters by Nebraska designers for Nebraska Appleseed, a non-profit, nonpartisan public interest law firm that works for equal justice and full opportunity for all Nebraskans. Over the last four years at their annual community awards event called the Good Apple Awards, these prints, hand-pulled by Screen Ink in Lincoln, have been used to help tell the story of Appleseed and the people the organization helps. As well as to inspire others to stand up for justice in their own communities.
These posters, at 18x24 inches, are small when compared to the daunting challenges of reducing poverty, creating welcoming communities for everyone, or expanding access to health care. But they are a reminder that it only takes one person. One person is all that's needed to write a letter, to call a Senator, to march for opportunity, to rally for equality. One person is all that's needed to say no to discrimination, oppression, and indifference. To stand up for justice, it only takes one person.
One seemingly small act, when taken together, can lead to profound, positive change in the places we all call home. These posters as a collection are positive, uplifting and hopeful. They're an example of the roll-up-our-sleeves work ethic of the people in our state who donate time and talent to help an organization make change by doing the one thing that designers know best how to do — move people to action.
A big thank you to AIGA Nebraska for making this show possible. Entry is free with all proceeds from poster sales going directly to Nebraska Appleseed.
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.
Making
Inspired creation left and right is a fleeting thing. Longevity in the process is harder. Practicing certainly helps the conditioning of the mind to body making relationship. It can be kindred spirits to athletics, while mentally guiding the physical to reach an outcome but knowing that how you get there is really more important.
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.
