RegardingDesign

Style is not WHAT you do… It's HOW you do it

Being a creative bloke–doing design and loving fashion, like I do–I run into conversations on "style" almost daily. As is my usual, that got me to thinking on "style" and what it actually means in practice. (I say in practice because dictionary definitions are often too clinical to make any practical sense given the situation, place or time you're in.)

It's my opinion that most view style as an absolute–a hard-lined definitive that allows for no flexibility or movement. We define our clothing as a style. We define our artwork as a style. We even define the foods we eat in terms of a favorite "kind." But I have a thought; Perhaps style is not the end result of what we do but how we go about the act of "doing."

For instance, in my oft talked about and cherished sneaker collection, there are many "styles" of shoes, so to look at them as a collection it would prove difficult to say that I have a style. However, my collection methods do give rise to the idea that I have a process to the actual collecting of said sneakers. I base my acquisitions on factors such as availability to mass audiences, the method and wardrobe with which I will wear them, the venues that I foresee myself rocking them in, and even the seasonal weather in my area. My collection is diverse, but my collection criteria is most certainly my style. For those who have seen me in my various pairs of customs, most have agreed, "Steve, that's totally your style," even given the completely different physical shapes and designs of the shoes. Why? Because it's not what I am rocking, but rather the way I consistently rock it.

From a both a creative and life standpoint, in our attempts to shake definition and be free of labels that hold us to any one thing, we tend to give ourselves definition and attach labels holding us to something else. We escape boxes by jumping into other boxes. If we must apply definition, pay particular attention to how we move more so than the direction we are pointing. How you move may offer flexibility in both journey and destination that a straight, aimed, defined, blocked path may not.

Source: http://rdqlus.blogspot.com/2009/09/style-is-not-what-you-do-its-how-you-do.html

Get a Life

Starting your own business can be an all-consuming affair, especially in the first year when you've had so much to do to get up and running and then to keep up with that first influx of work. There were undoubtedly many nights and weekends devoted to your new baby, your business. In the process, there are friends who have gone uncontacted, books left unread, sock drawers left unsorted, and relatives who've had real babies.

Think back to the days when you left work at someone else's office at the end of the day or week. Did you have a hobby? What about that macrame class you've always wanted to take? That girl you met and never got around to asking out? That new coffee shop you still haven't tried? If you have some downtime, your best first step might be to look in the mirror and reacquaint yourself with the person you find there.

How to Keep Your Clients Honest

Always remember the cliché: "This isn't personal; it's business." This isn't offered as an excuse to treat your clients poorly or let them rough you up. It's just that business, even creative business, is conducted more effectively if you keep the relationship very professional. While you may become friendly with your clients, they are not your childhood pals. And even though a friend may become a client, when it comes to the work, treat them like a client first, and a pal only after the paperwork is done and the sign offs are completed.

Here are a few details you should get straight with your client -- and down on paper -- before you begin any project:

• Overall budget for the project
• Billing expectations, as in hourly or project basis
• Payment schedule
• Delivery schedule, as in what phases have to be complete and to whom by when
• Final deliverable -- are you expected to show concepts only or deliver production-quality files?
• Subcontractors -- are you using them, or expected to use your client's? If so, how will they be paid, and by whom, and how much, and is there a markup?

Turn Down the Volume to Turn Up the Pricing

When you become a freelancer, you won't be able to handle massive volumes of work. You can't take on everyone who knocks at your design door or every little project that comes along. The good news is that if you assign proper market value to your creative work, this will allow you to make the revenue you need and not nickel-and-dime yourself to the poorhouse or to freelance death.

If you lower the volume of the work that you are handling, you can pay more attention to the projects at hand and, naturally, the quality of each project goes up. The better the quality of your work, the more you can charge, so you'll have to do fewer projects to make the same amount.

This approach also bolsters the industry at the grassroots level. There is usually plenty of work to go around in any city or town if there's not one shop greedily gobbling up everything in sight, offering bargain basement prices, and turning out low-quality work that drags the value of the entire design industry down.

Take a Spot on the Couch for Some "Identity Therapy"

For a long time, I've had a particular way of getting the info I need from my clients to do the best work possible for them, but it lacked a few key points. So over the years, I've asked and borrowed and tweaked my process until it finally was far more useful than it had ever been. But… it wasn't fully ready yet. Then my good friend, and a client of mine, Jeni Herberger said something that caught my ear. "This was like therapy! You told me some things I didn't like and may not have wanted to hear but I came around. Yeah, it's therapy!"

And so came the name of the process: "Identity Therapy" it shall be!

My "Identity Therapy" process is simply my old trusty creative brief that I turned into a process and an actual product that the client takes active part in, and then ultimately owns and stands behind. Because of client buy-in and ownership, many traditional designer/client potholes are held to a more scientific method and less to the whims of either party, vastly reducing the traditional friction that comes with it all.

The tangible result of the "Identity Therapy" is an actual document of info that becomes the initial "brand story" and culture which many small start-up businesses never get because they come rushing in asking "Can you design me a logo?" Yeah, but I'd rather give you a full identity and brand. So in essence, it's a slimmed-down, candid, straightforward way to get the info I need to do my work, all while giving the client a seat at the table, holding them accountable in a gentle but honest way, and then rewarding them with the brand story that you built together.

Truth is, I developed this process working in corporate life to stop the ages-old tug-of-war over ownership of the creative process between the internal clients (other silos & departments) and the marketing/creative department. I kept refining it over years and years and started to call it "Identity Therapy" because clients really got into it and had a story to tell, so I'd just sit and listen.

Source: http://rdqlus.blogspot.com/2009/07/take-spot-on-rdqlus-couch-for-some.html

Constant Motivation and The Myth of Inspiration

Lately, I've been going over a few things in my head that just don't make good sense, and those who know me know that when something doesn't make good sense to me my head becomes almost gridlocked until the thought is fully figured or abjectly dismissed. Well, just such a thing has happened because I've recently encountered lot of talk of "inspiration" recently. I think inspiration is a good thing—scratch that, a great thing—for most humans on this planet. Note that I said "most." For a select few, inspiration is damn-near mythical.

For any who call themselves "creatives," a need for inspiration would signal a very bad thing. It would be an admission that creativity itself does indeed have an end point. A measurable fail point. That's a rather dire thought for me. In my head, that's what didn't make sense; in a not-so round about way, that is the blatant, almost purposeful ignoring of Life itself. With all of the natural miracles and everyday occurrences that we seem to take so blindly for granted an inch from our faces every minute of every day, many have simply become dead to the very details. At the end of inspiration, sits the admission that we have run dry of Life. Well I say damn that! Straight up. Now believe me, I'm not at all saying that inspiration is not needed for some, even many. What I am saying is that for us—the creatives of the world—there should not come an easy concession to being uninspired. We artists, creatives, keepers of great imaginations and innovative thinkers are the inspiration for others. We can't lack what we are at our core. That is complete self-denial and that ain't at all good.

What the real issue is "motivation." The very word by definition means "to move." If that's true, then we simply need to be almost physically moved. It's not even a spiritual thing most times. It's pure, grade-A lazy. We have grown complacent for the moving of one's own self to get out there and explore and find, to think and do our works. We can search for many excuses to say why that is; fast food mentality, technology, economics, social issues… To all of this I simply I say "lazy." We don't become uninspired. For the so-called creative-minded, it's more along the lines of becoming unmotivated.

Listen, this life is a big one. This ball of dirt we spin on, while socially smaller do to the means by which we connect, is still a worthy, lovely, gargantuan place full of the biggest wonders and the most fantastic details. If you can't find the motivation to get out there and explore things that fuel you to go and be inspiring, then I fear you are might be poser. A fake "creative", simply acting out a role. If it is that easy for you to run dry of that motivation, you may not be a creative person. Nothing wrong with that admission, but in my mind, creatives are the source, not the needy. But if you truly believe that you are a creative by nature, then yours is not the task to find inspiration. Yours is the task to find the constant, perpetual motivation to be inspiring to the world around you.

I humbly offer that I am not immune to the mental and verbal vomit that has found me spouting "I just want to be inspired," but it was hearing those words come out of my mouth one day that jolted me this momentary epiphany. Life itself is motivation enough for me. Life is the massive Rubbermaid™ into which I put all my toys. I go back to that container every morning and search for the toy, the plaything that fits my mood and my day and gives me the appropriate little spark, that motivation to go in a certain direction and do what I do. I'm not saying we don't run dry. I'm not at all implying that we don't need a little push or a hand up out of the mire that bogs us down and dulls our view. But don't ever attribute that to being uninspired. You just need help in the motivation department. You just need the muck cleaned off your windshield so you can again see that amazing road you are traveling on.

Again, let me say that for the average person the word "inspiration" is perfectly fine. But we are not average. We are creatives. I truly believe that most are looking to us to be inspired. And to that end, we are inspiring to others. We just need the motivation to keep being that which we already are. Remember, we are the source that supplies those in need. You are inspiring already, so I'll just leave with you the best of luck on staying constantly motivated.

 

Source: http://rdqlus.blogspot.com/2009/08/constant-motivation-and-myth-of.html

Solutions in our Subcultures

I was having a discussion yesterday with Donovan Beery and Nate Voss of 36point and the subject of discussion got me to thinking about something I've given a lot of thought over the past few years.

The way I figure it, your subculture is the key. The tint that colors your take on the world at large. Because at the core, it's 'subculture' that moves us, shapes us, teaches us the skillset that we operate with and in the end gives us our set of beliefs and our personal standard download of "right & wrong" answers.

There are very simple examples (among many others) of how our cultures filter down to us personally. For instance:

[global > regional > national > regional > state > local > neighborhood > household] or [economic > social > neighborhood > familial > personal]

It's a big world but it's made of millions of small ones. We are all a part of highly functional subcultures operating within the boundaries of that big picture. Our subcultures define choices, actions, personalities, styles and more. In each level there are things learned, habits created, walls built, and opinions formed. It begs the questions; What are your subcultures? How have they influenced the way you make choices? And have you even stopped to glance back at what subcultures you may have come from or are currently a part of? From the clothes you wear, to the groceries you buy, to the jokes you tell and laugh at, to the channels you watch on TV and the media you consume… subculture has done this to you.

In a creative sense, this is the conversation I would much rather have. Keep your creative brief. Well, I'll still need that, but it's are merely a list of simple questions to which a client will give conditioned responses. I'd rather know the conditions that shaped the responses in many cases, over the responses themselves. If I know where a client is coming from and what makes them tick just a bit, I can anticipate how to better serve the functional needs of that client.

As I dig for the subculture links that I need, the creative briefing process it does kind of turn into a mini therapy session… have I told you about that yet? ;-)

Source: http://rdqlus.blogspot.com/2009/08/solutions-in-our-subcultures.html

Save a tree: Print on something else

When we think of printers, we usually also think of paper. Or maybe the occasional apparel item. But there are many vendors that specialize in printing and producing promotional marketing goods. While many see this type of vendor as producing nothing more than trinkets, their offerings have grown to include a surprising range.

Sure, there are typical things such as pens, T-shirts, and key chains. But now you're just as likely to find custom-printed briefcases, sunglasses, banners, and even camping tents. You can print, embroider, etch, or apply vinyl to almost anything. Clients will appreciate your ability to think outside the box and provide a unique set of products featuring this logo.

Welcome back to high school.

“Many clients like to see that the creative people they’re working with have received recognition by other entities. Credibility comes from having other recognizable clients, but it also comes in the form of awards. It’s a good idea to enter design competitions. Many clients view these awards as a kind of honor roll that proves you know what you’re doing. With this kind of recognition, you will be able to begin building a great network and attracting more clients.”
- Seth Cheeks, CheekyDSN

Sad but true, it’s just like high school out here sometimes – once the “cool” kids give you their stamp of approval, everyone else decides they can like you too. How many times has the simple kiss of a pretty girl turned a frog into a prince? Winning some awards is like getting that coveted smooch. The other story line in this fairy tale is that everyone likes to feel that they’ve discovered the next hip thing. And that may be you. A client who thinks he or she has been smart enough to find you before you were recognized will be happy to brag about you (and by association, themselves) once you’ve gotten some awards. Once they tell their friends, these folks might become your clients.

Get Published!

Breakthrough brochure design can make an event, service, or product a winner. Rockport Publishers would like to celebrate your winning graphic design style in the latest volume of the best in the business, The Best of Brochure Design 11. Send your most creative examples of graphic design for brochures, pamphlets, corporate annual reports, and product booklets no later than September 1, 2009. Click here for more details!