15 Years A Designer, Now Working 10–4

New year, new goals. Milestones reached, proclamations announced. Changes afoot, changes made. All this points to an update to the hours I’ll be working. In an effort to cut down on my average of 54 hours per week, I’m changing the hours I’m expecting myself to work. JKDC, now working 10–4 PM CST.

This is the time in my day I’m setting aside for work to happen, Monday thru Friday. Not 8–6, or 9–5, but 10–4. The new standard operating procedure. Of course, special circumstances will arise and some projects will call for work outside of this new range. But as a general rule, this is when you can expect me to be around. 

And what will happen to that time I’m no longer working? More reading, writing, experimenting, and making statements. Something along those lines, I suspect. But more importantly, setting aside extra time for not working will help protect against burnout and allow me to focus on the projects I’m most excited about. At the end of the day, being extra selective has always led me to doing better work.

We’re not put on this Earth to work. While I love the job I’m able to do, I’m much more interested these days in the life outside of it. After 15 years of being a designer, I’m very excited to cut back on the common trope of “Oh man I am SO busy with work! Just busy busy busy!” You know the one. It’s always been lame, and now I’m just over it.

Hope & Happiness

From Tyler Riewer and his friends, the reasons 2017 was actually pretty great on a lot of levels. The Women’s Day March, Master of None Season 2, Dogs on Instagram, Making Your Own Hot Sauce, and so on. Pretty great stuff. Here’s one of mine:

Reading Real Books 
Even though I love the Internet deep down and my work depends on it, I’m also losing my patience with it. Fake news, trolls, the alt-right, relentless ads, how Facebook can be terrible, etc. Give me powerful ideas wrapped up in a tactile object made of paper.

Full List »

Say Anything

Over the break, I did not do any planning, managing, or organizing. I opted to not plan anything that needed to be managed or organized. I didn’t manage anything organized or planned. And I organized nothing that was planned or managed. It was quite liberating. And exactly what was needed.

There is no shortage, it seems, of items to be planned, managed, and organized. But in the last couple weeks, I chose to not do any of it. I feel very fortunate I had the choice to do so. And as a result, I feel centered and recharged, with a certain amount of clarity I was hoping to find over a break that seemed to come at just the right time.

Thank You, We’re Closed

The offices of JKDC and co-working time at Round and Round will be closed starting December 22nd because we’re exhausted. We’ll return January 3rd ready to kick some ass. #BlueWave. Happy Festivus!

The Top 10 Albums of 2017

Music is deeply tied to my work. All day long, while I’m designing, I listen to what I consider to be the best music out there. And for the last few years I pick my Top 10 albums of the year for the KEXP countdown. This year was extra difficult. 

I had a shortlist of about 30 albums. From some of my all-time favorite bands to other artists I heard for the first time this year. It was tough getting it down to only 10.

It’s also worth noting, given the state of America and our insistence on going backwards, the music was a counter. It pushed us forward. It kept us dreaming, hoping, wondering, working. It was full of beauty, hope, outrage, unity, solidarity, and, most of all, truth.  

With that, these are the albums that spoke to me in the year 2017, in no particular order:

Also worth noting, the Arcade Fire Everything Now tour was absolutely incredible. While their album, which I liked very much, didn’t make my Top 10, their Seattle show was probably the best concert I’ve ever been to. And Valerie June on a freezing cold winter’s day in Omaha? I’m in love.

Protect The Vote, Always

Last night Nebraskans for Civic Reform hosted Jason Kander of Let America Vote at Love’s Jazz & Arts Center. An art and activism rally event to raise awareness and support to protect the right to vote in Nebraska.

That means no to any voter ID bill, no to closing down of polling places, no to messing with the right of students to vote, and on and on. Basically it comes down to this. One party is cheating. And the people, ALL people, are fighting back to make sure our democratic process is protected and ALL people are allowed to vote. No tricks, no obstacles, no more cheating.

The art side of the evening took the form of a small collection of posters designed to highlight various barriers to voting in our state; felon disenfranchisement, gerrymandering, voter ID, etc. Posters were designed by Kelsey Scofield, Matt Carlson, Jessica Smolinksi, Jesse Harding, Oxide Design Co., and myself. I did two posters because few things piss me off more than cheating people out of their constitutional right to vote. All money raised from poster sales goes to  Nebraskans for Civic Reform and their efforts to protect the voting rights of all citizens in our state.

Text VRA to 31996 to get involved. 

Voter fraud is not a thing.

View the posters here.