A vibrant community needs a strong foundation

I’m very happy to announce the launch of the new Omaha Community Foundation website. A fantastic organization deeply rooted in the community, committed to understanding its challenges and opportunities so we can make strategic investments in a future where everyone can thrive.

The site is designed to speak to several difference audiences, to connect the big vision with the day-to-day, and to highlight this community, which we all love, in a very people-centered way. To build the brand, to function across an ever-changing web environment, and to be easily managed by a communications team who doesn’t need to waste time worrying about technology.

Quite proud of the project and the team that made it possible, including Daphne Eck on strategy and writing with web development by Plumb. Photography by Adam Casey, iconography by Andrea Trew.

Good grows here, in the Omaha metro. The Foundation helps make the good as impactful as it can be.

Boulder to be pushed or clay to be molded?

Having lots to do has always been my preference. Sure, I like space to explore and dream in the work day, but I’d rather be slammed than slow. But with that, there can creep in many feelings of being overwhelmed, of weight pressing down on you, of being paralyzed because you aren’t sure where to start. Which is not good. And while the amount of work to be done is very real, a lot of how it gets tackled is up to how how you look at it.

A little momentum can be go. Some minor wins. A few things that get accomplished, however small they may be. The outlook on the day/week/month can then shift. That shift from seeing the amount of work to be done as a huge boulder to be pushed around senselessly to a mound of clay ready to be molded and shaped with your own blood, sweat, and tears, well that can make all the difference in the world.

When the shift happens, no longer are you buried under the weight. Instead you are a master of your own destiny, taking on the work that needs to be done and making sure it gets done right. You are in control, you are not being pummeled, you are ready for all of this, and then some.

I can’t scale for shit

And I don’t really want to. The great divergence from design and start up. I’m just not interested in the start up mentality anymore. I’m not trying to replace myself or the work I do. I like the work. I like the details, the weeds, the pixels, the formalities. And start ups are boring. Taken to the logical conclusion, since most start ups fail anyway, they’re just going to keep trying to scale forever until they’re dead. Sounds exhausting. I’m more interested in the craft.

How things happen now

I’ve spent almost the entirety of my career running with the idea that I’m behind in this profession due to going to the wrong school, working at the wrong job, and living in the wrong place. Because of those cold, hard facts, I had to overcompensate. When I figured out what I was doing, I had to work harder. I needed to put in more time. I took on more projects, with more people, and more commitments. If I was going to make a name for myself in this profession, which is what I came to want, I needed to bust my fucking ass over and over in order to make it so.

And if there was a point I was trying to prove to myself, who is the most important person to being proving this type of point to, I’m saying right here, right now, I’ve proven it. That’s certainly not to say there’s any ending in sight when it comes to the work that I do and who I do it for. But that is to say, I’m over running with the idea that I’m behind. In fact, I’m right where I want to be in this career. Because of that, there’s a slight shifting in how I view the work I do. I know it’s good, I know it matters, and I know it makes a difference. And where I went to school, who I worked for, and where I live is irrelevant.

The shift I’m talking about isn’t changing the idea of what I’m running with. It’s the shift to no longer running. That’s the crucial point. This is a steady state stake in the ground. This is what I do, who I do it for, how it gets done, and where I operate from, both physically and philosophically. And it now happens at a quick, measured pace, from a position of confidence and strength. An understanding of weaknesses and poor fits. Ready to navigate troubled waters in order to get to destinations I see coming into fuller view.

Radio, Radio, Radio

Since I was a young lad, absolutely surrounded by small-town America, the sounds that have come out of the radio have saved me. As the voice of sober reason, knowledge in the form of news and current events. As an entire world all your own can be carved out with the help of a college station. As the source of hopes and dreams in a world that can seem to be losing itself, for when the music hits, I feel no pain at all.

Here it is
Here I am
Turn it up
Fucking loud

No dogs, no ponies, and certainly no Billy McFarlands

I don’t pitch. The collaborators I work with, we don’t pitch. There’s nothing any potential client will be exposed to in a pitch that will be any more valuable than simply reviewing past projects and then having an honest conversation about what working together would look like for the parties involved.

I just don’t like the idea of doing a dog and pony show in order to be “awarded” a project. And I certainly am not going to sell you all your hopes and dreams in a neat little package that contains sun, sand, surf, and beautiful women. This ain’t no Fyre Festival.

When it comes to working with new people on exciting and challenging ideas, I like to think we have a track record of working hard, doing solid work, and delivering on budget and (mostly) on time. In the working world of design I want to operate in, I expect that to be enough.