Not inspired

I got up early to work, and sitting at my desk, very early this morning, I realized nothing was coming. Which is why in a little bit I'm going to go walk around the Botanic Gardens. I need that shift in order to be a better designer today. Sometimes it takes stepping away. Sometimes it's as easy as having a coffee break, reading a story, or talking a walk. I've been lucky to work for people that recognize that. Flat out said, "go to a museum if you need some inspiration." That was in the middle of the day. I've also worked for people that wanted us to be at our desks all the time. If we weren't sitting there, he actually questioned why he was paying us. Recently as part of my thesis, I asked "Where do your best ideas come from?" As you can see, taking that walk might be the best idea I have all all day. Let's hope not.

it's not you, it's me

Marketing. It's all about you.

No, it's not. It's about me. The customer. The client. The consumer. What are you going to do for me? Don't make it about yourself. It's not personal. Except it is.

The man behind the curtain

Guilty. I'm completely guilty. For the past few years I have presented concepts to clients that are to finished. Polished. I didn't let them see the work that went in to coming up with an idea. The sketches. Notes. Doodles and bookmarks both digital and electronic. I presented work that didn't show what went into coming up with an idea.

Why? Probably because I wanted it perfect right from the start. But design itself isn't perfect. It's a process that involves collaboration, listening, refinement. It can be messy and confusing trying to visually communicate someone elses work. And that's why I've changed the way I work. To better help you understand how I got someplace. To be part of the journey. And to understand that the road to get there might be paved with a few rocks, but climbing there is worth it.

your marketing sucks

I joked the other day that I was going to start a blog called "your marketing sucks" and I would point out some things I saw that were just plain awful. And by awful I mean: terribly designed, written poorly, or in the realms of "waste of my time." As a matter of personal philosophy, I don't want to contribute to pushing out any more garbage or noise. And I don't want to give more traction to things that I see that I don't like. It seems like I would be contributing to all the chatter going on. Which is why I've taken a hiatus from social media. Not a huge one by most standards, but for me, a more conscious decision to try to contribute to our culture as something of use. No one cares to see photos of me with my friends except maybe my friend, and that's only if I happen to take a great photo of them. No one wants to see what I've eaten for dinner. Or those drinks I had celebrating my anniversary. I'm sure no one cares if I deem packaging so horribly designed that I stop and decide not to purchase that product. Wait, that might be interesting. So as I navigate new media as the rest of the world does,  I will try to be more mindful of my own contributions. Of what I say, what I share. Because I'd rather say less than say something stupid.

Pay now or pay later. Either way you're going to pay.

The  proliferation of do it yourself websites has made it so that anyone with a computer can create their own. And with some great programs, I've seen some amazing work. For creatives they can give you a framework to showcase your portfolio. For those looking to sell online it's made the transaction process look seamless. However, there are some pit falls to the whole do it yourself idea. One is that you will be spending a huge amount of time learning, building, testing, and figuring out a system that you may abandon in a couple of years based on changing technology and needs. The time spent might have been better off hiring someone while you concentrated on getting new clients, working with current clients, or other ways to sell and market.
If time is money, than without realizing it, the site that didn't cost you any money to create, when translated to your time, just cost you a small fortune.

Just as important as the building the site is what you're putting out there. Are you writing the content yourself? Are you positioning yourself as an expert? Are you connecting to your clients? Their needs? Are you telling them about your services, and how you can help them? Are you hitting on their "pain points" or are you just tooting your own horn? Understanding that it's not about "you", but how you can help "them" is key.

Ok, so you're an expert. Tell me how that came to be. Your education. Your experience. Case Studies. Testimonials. Don't just say it, show it. Prove it. Back it up.

Ponderings from the trenches

As designers, creators, makers and individuals that get to express ideas for a living, whose ideas are we expressing? Are we really coming up with original ideas, or just recycled bits of our own lives that we get to explore? As I move forward in my education and professional career, I’m going to be much more aware of where the work I do is coming from. Perhaps an idea will be formed when I get the chance to remove myself from my surroundings, to not be so influenced. The only problem is, no matter where I go, I take me with.

Your logo is horrible

That's what I'm thinking. In my head, as I look at your company's logo. I'm thinking that the illustration of what is supposed to be an adult and child actually looks like the adult is strangling the kid. I've seem it before. An image meant to convey comfort instead looking like one of those horrible graphics you'd see on the 10 pm news. These are logos created with the right intention gone horribly wrong. Why does this happen? Oh, let me count they ways...
1. A friend did it. And you didn't want to hurt their feelings.
2. You know someone, who did it as a favor. So you don't want to hurt their feelings.
3. Your wife did it, and she studied art 30 years ago. And you don't want to hurt her feelings.

The problem is, you're hurting yourself. Because that logo, that single mark, represents your company. Which is valuable. Big brands know it. They write manuals and style guides about how it's supposed to be used. They understand that it needs to be protected. That it can't show up on an ad on a busy background. Or too close to text. Or distorted.

But the issue is different for smaller businesses. I see it all the time. An emotional attachment to a mark that might be dated, implies an unintended negative connotation. Like strangling. Or death. Or sexual favors.

As designers we understand that different colors, type, styles, and symbols come together to form a concept. It doesn't happen when someone's friend knows someone who likes art. It happens when we research, understand the business, the culture, and the intended audience in order to create the right meaning. Do yourself a favor, and don't let anyone do you a favor.

Things that make me go hmmmmm.

I have a theory: You'll never see a successful company use cheap signs on the corner advertising like a garage sale. I see it all the time: Fitness studios with hand written notes in all caps offering a low monthly fee. Investors promising $8000 a month in flipping houses. It makes me wonder who they're attracting as clients. From those visual cues, I come to my own conclusions. When you see a sign like that, what's yours?

Practice of Looking

I'm reading a really good book right now about how much our own history, culture and experiences really shape how we respond to something visual. What I find to be thought provoking might not be the same for the person who grew up in another country, or even next door. As designers we try to connect you with a visual language that is meant to convey an idea, a thought, an experience. Let's hope you take a moment to really see.

Enough with the yoga

I couldn't help but ask myself "why?" when I saw a commercial last night for the new "Yoga" tablet by Lenova. While I knew they were trying to connect some sort of flexibility with the product, I wondered why they couldn't come up with a better name. There's more ways to say flexible than using the word yoga, which means yoke, as in connection, that connects mind, body and spirit. Yoga is not just about being flexible. And it's not about being materialistic. I can't help but wonder if there was a single practicing yogi involved in the naming process. Because with all the bad press associated with yoga going consumer, articles like this talking about non-attachment, and how the yoga market is still made up mostly of women, I think they should have gone back to their floor cushions and meditated on a new name.

You look like everyone else

I'm a huge fan of not using stock photography. For so many reasons. The first is that one way to set your brand apart from your competitors is by not using the same images. Sounds simple. But with so many stock agencies out there, as well as people not in design or marketing who are pulling images that they have not licensed off the web,  it's become a free for all. Not to mention companies selling logos for $5 (which really isn't an issue for my clients, but it degrades the entire design industry), I'm a huge advocate of working with a professional photographer and creating original work. Of course, anyone with an iphone also thinks they can shoot, but again, that's for another discussion.
This time, let's look at stock photography. Images that you can purchase without restrictions. It's an opportunity for stock agencies to make a lot of money. No restrictions on how an image is used and where it shows up. So let's say you want to do an ad campaign in print. You need a photo of a specific person. A specific gender. Age. Ethnicity. Maybe she needs to be dressed a certain way. She needs to look approachable. Smart. Well, maybe you found her. The problem is, so did 10 other businesses. Look at what can happen when you don't create original content. I suppose it's a lesson in buyer beware. Because you can't be unique if everyone looks the same.

When you don't work with a professional

I'm often asked about spec work, the $99 logos, and the "free websites" out there. It's a whole DIY level of design that I don't even like to address. The same way that looking up a condition on webmd.com doesn't make you a doctor, these sites don't make you a designer. And worse, it cheapens your brand. And I've gone into that on other posts, so I'm not going to do it here. What I am going to do is show you something. A sign I keep passing on my way up to Wisconsin. So full of information that I don't know what to read first. Or what the name of the business even is. So many colors, type, and sizes. There's no order or sense of visual hierarchy. I think the logo might be in the upper left corner. I don't know. Is the name New Economical or is it their key selling point? These are questions that I shouldn't even have. When you're driving down a highway and you have only a couple of seconds to process information, it shouldn't be this hard. Of course, keeping it simple is my motto. Obviously it's not theirs. And I googled them. It's called Asian Gourmet.

Infographics: mind blowing

I just wrapped up another semester in grad school. One of my courses was called Data Visualization. It's the fancy term for what many know as infographics. It's a way of breaking down data that can often be complicated to understand in different ways that can tell a story, create an experience for the user, and connect better to a brand. It's also a way to get your mind blown.

Mind blowing, from the designer's perspective in trying to organize the data. To be able to pull out (and also remove) what isn't necessary. It can feel almost like manipulation, but the reality is that designers are always pulling and adding information to support an idea.

As I studied, researched and learned first hand what made a good infographic, it was also mind blowing in a sense that it was clear that while some of the best ones visually were incredible to look at, I often couldn't understand the information. Over complicated designs, text to small, or to much data, and it felt like I needed someone next to me to explain what I was looking at.

As is the case with most work we do, we're rarely there to explain the rationales behind our work. Sure, we have to sell it, explain it, and sometimes defend it to our clients, but at the end of the day, it needs to work on its own. If you don't get it without us, than it doesn't work. Design is about solving problems, not creating new ones. Otherwise, it's art.


View the series

today's new is really tomorrow's old

Today I spent hours working on course correcting. I went down a path that lead me someplace less than desirable, but had me thinking. How often do we start with good intentions? Ideas that seem great, but lead us to frustration?

No, I'm not talking about design, or process, or even theory. I'm talking about technology. The ever changing/always learning/can we ever stop and take a break/ technology.

Today was the day, that I was going to switch blogging platforms and seamlessly transfer all my content. Except it didn't go that way and the two systems were not compatible. So I had to make a choice: Go with the newer/shinier system and lose years of blogging, or do I try to make more with what I had?

I went with the old. Because in the end, today's new is really tomorrow's old anyway. I spent some time reconfiguring and integrating other features that the older system had recently adopted, and in the end, it still works. Maybe next time I won't be so quick to leave.

City in a garden

Honored to be one of the 12 chosen by the City of Chicago. #cityinagarden

Which came first? Who cares.

It's the age old question, which came first, the chicken or the egg? We have the same run-around in marketing. Content vs. Design. They're both important. But if your content is amazing, informative, and really hits it on the nail, does any of that matter if the design is such a mess that no one takes a look at it to read it? New users to a website only look for seconds at a site before they decide to continue or move on. SECONDS. If they can't find what they're looking for, information is unorganized, there's no visual narrative happening, and you can't engage, then none of it matters. So while content, strategy and positioning all happen before the design process can even begin, it's design that seen first. It's like the chicken or the egg. It doesn't matter which one starts or which one finishes. They need to come together.

Sushi: Should never look yellow

The other day a friend of mine posted some photos while she was out for dinner. The space seemed amazing. So I did what lots of us do, and I went and checked out the place online. While the space was contemporary from the photos, the website looked out of date. Worse, the photos of the food, sushi of all things, had a yellow tint.

We've all seen it. High end places that invest a great deal of money in one aspect of the business, drop the ball in others. When it comes to a brand, it's an experience. And for a restaurant, it's many different sensory touch points that your customers have. Sights/ Sounds/ Tastes/ Smells/The physical space. Which is why marketing a restaurant requires something very important: A professional food photographer. They're the ones that know how to set up a shot, how to make the food look delicious, fresh and appealing. Because while we taste with our mouths, it can start with your eyes. 

Beware

Beware of designers who don't show a portfolio. Know what you're getting into.
Beware of medical advice from someone who isn't medically trained.
Beware of financial advice from someone who isn't financially successful themselves.
Beware of legal advice not from a lawyer.

Beware. Which means be cautious. Be careful. I'm not saying that it takes education and a degree/certification/licensing to do something. I am saying that in each profession, there is someone out there willing to do it for less. Less can mean less money for you. It can also mean less experience on their side. Less training. Less education.

Are you ok with less? Because in the end, it might just end up costing you more.

Does your logo float?

Probably not. I've never seen a logo float. Meaning, it's never out there by itself. It's always in context of something. From a business card to signage, a website to advertising. It's never on it's own. Which is why it's only a piece of the overall brand. And while it's an important visual cue as to the kind of company it represents, it's only a piece of the big picture.

Putting together the pieces

I've recently wrapped up two major projects. And while one was a re brand, meaning the business already existed, and there were elements that we integrated into the new look, the other was a new business venture.

One company deals with diversity in the workplace. The audience is executives and professionals in the diversity arena. The other company works with parents on helping kids who are tracking high on BMI to integrate nutrition, exercise and and behavior modification.

What do these two companies have in common? Nothing.

But they both came to me to help create a brand that would connect with their products and services. And while the results are very different, as they should be, there are some commonalities that you can see. A brand is not a logo. It's only part of the puzzle. A brand is an experience. And today, your clients will experience you company in more ways than over. From digital to print, events, direct mail, advertising online to purchasing an ad in a magazine. So many touch points, and you never know what the first experience will be that someone will be introduced to the business.

Which is why it's so important to be able to see the big picture. I do this by creating brand boards as part of the process. It comes after an extensive discovery and allows clients the opportunity to explore different visual narratives that a brand can take. It isn't until after that has been decided, from a very high level perspective, that we than use that as our guide for creating all the materials. In the end, each client will have a strong visual campaign that can than be applied to any marketing. Remember, it's the message, not the medium.