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Select Collection will merge with Design Biography to form a journal of sorts of my thoughts about design and inspiration.

Beyond Yourself

If you are thinking big picture, you realize your work goes beyond yourself. You realize the things you create and contribute affect others. When you do this, consider someone besides yourself. Consider how you build your file. Consider how you name your layers. Consider what you name your work.

You just may make someone’s 2 AM Sunday morning better.

If you want to make something of yourself, make something. Yves Behar speaks at the 99% Conference in NY 2011.

Convince Yourself

Belief is powerful. Just as important as it is to understand you can be wrong, designers shouldn’t be afraid to be right.

Lately I have felt like my decisions and opinions have been correct. I know this can lead to over-confidence, but I think it can be more dangerous as a designer to have too many self-doubts than belief in their own logic and intuition.

Taking a stand involves risk, and all the great ventures need it.

Peter Moore

1. A design’s job is to push things as far as you can. It is NOT your job to figure out what marketing wants or thinks.
2. The really special ventures require massive risk.
3. Today’s industry is dominated by lowest-common-denominator-thinking.

Many of Peter Moore’s views I agreed with. He described art as communicating ideas and design as problem-solving. He believes design isn’t art, and art isn’t design; they should be mutually exclusive.

This is where I’m unsure. I agree with his assignments of their roles, art and design, but I’m beginning to think design is by nature an artistic process. In solving a problem, we communicate an idea—the idea being a solution. These answers can be elegant or clumsy. In either case, there is no denying that an emotion is evoked from the final product similar to the way a painting or sculpture or song can strike someone experiencing it.

He also stated everything is vanilla. Lowest-common-denominator thinking is the type of thinking where everyone involved in a decision-making process looks for the most acceptable solution to a problem amongst the group. This is a watered-down answer because it never lies on one side or the other to avoid controversy. It is the least risky way to make a choice.

When I see hybrids and cultures blending, I imagine a giant vat of multi-colored vanilla ice cream. The reason we’ve come to this isn’t the internet or sharing of ideas. I think that merely accelerates it.

What really brings you to a state of “vanilla” is when you base all your decisions as a brand off profits instead of passion.

Design Centralization

Apple’s stock continues to dominate. Since the start of the year, AAPL has gone from 400 to $550 (+37%). It’s March 1st, 2012. They’ve been on a roll since 2005, but these past two months have been a huge spike in their stock price.

Companies everywhere have been taking notice. Design leaders are looking for a unifying language to their products. This isn’t a new concept; Apple’s blueprint seems to follow Dieter Rams’s “Ten Principles for Good Design” verbatim. But somehow Apple has done it in a way that reaches people deeper than any other product company has ever managed to do so.

There is a certain feel to Apple products. Blindfolded, you can run your fingers along them and tell whether they from Apple or not. When you see a new Apple product, it feels simultaneously unexpected and familiar. Coating both of those emotions is a feeling of delight from whomever is experiencing it. That said, I doubt there are thousands of exploratory design sketches to create this feel. Apple has honed in on who they are and what they are trying to do.

In my own job, we are looking to unify products both laterally and vertically. Products vertically link to a top seeded product—one which will usually have advertising behind it, and differ by retail price. They tend to look the same. We also create lateral links with tend to feel the same. This has a lot to do with the design language per year. When successful, the entire product line feels like it fits a brand. We want it to resonate with the users of our products. When done poorly, it looks like we make the same stuff in different colors.

This is an extremely difficult balance. It’s a struggle between conformity and individuality. Each product offered needs it’s own identity, but figuring out how different this identity can and should be is the great challenge to every designer. This search for “individualized conformity” tends to be foreign to any designer whose first job is corporate. Some designers thrive on this notion while others reject it and ultimately leave.

The other aspect becoming more prevalent in our industry is getting closer to market. Companies want to produce things faster so they can capitalize on trends (which are also faster). One way to achieve this is to leave the seed products to a small handful of designers and hiring a large number of supporting designers to build the rest of the product family underneath these seeds. Sadly, a product manager explained our product strategy quite ineloquently to the design team—“We will put the big rocks into our jar first, and then we will fill in the rest with pebbles and sand.” We had three original products, and seventeen take downs or cheaper versions of these products below.

Isolated Development

The need for originality grows everyday. Good ideas catch on fast. The internet spreads ideas so quickly and so far that it’s nearly impossible to figure out the origin of an idea. A kid in San Paolo can know what a kid in Shinjuku or Williamsburg is wearing the same day they get dressed in the morning.

Sites like Tumblr spread these trends faster than ever because everyone is a style/art/design reporter. No one needs to wait for Satorialist or Coolhunting to report what’s cool. The day something notable happens is also the same day someone starts a project to one-up that idea. Sometimes this accelerates progress, but it has also increased the number of imitators and self-promoting thieves (some of whom don’t even realize they are unoriginal). Finding an origin becomes disorienting and tedious.

Typically, trading ideas is considered a positive process equated to mixing different genes to create a more “evolved” idea. The danger of the internet is that it sees no boundaries (outside of censorship). Without isolation and boundaries, this homogenization of cultures can seem a little bland at times.

I find myself speaking to designers who miss the days the world had secrets. Isolation developed trends unique to the people who made them authentic. Different regions of the world surprised each other, but surprises today are almost impossible with the amount of iPhones snapping photos they shouldn’t have taken and posting them on the web.

Inspiration has evolved. It comes pre-packaged like freeze-dried ramen. I like instant stuff once in a while, but it’s no replacement for the real thing. Companies have looked to control inspiration by collecting their own and hiring people to present it to designers. The new challenge is to find inspiration others overlook. It’s not about fancy photos or fast cars anymore. Sometimes it’s the lack of an “inspired” story that I find original today.

Trends die faster too. I think KK put it best, “the new trend is to not follow trends.” I think he’s right.

In Between

As a designer you float. You’re constantly in the middle of things—between Marketing & Development, history & the future, Concept A & Concept B, the consumer & your ego, your inner voice & comments from others…

 A dangerous ingredient added to this state of mind is wishy washy direction or leadership. When decisions aren’t committed, everyone ends up with doubts. Subordinates question their superiors and also lose sight of what the true goal is. In this type of climate, designers with strong design convictions may help save companies from their own mistakes. At the same time, they are the most frustrated when direction changes. As with any business, a certain amount of direction changing is necessary to keep up with active markets.

Understanding when you need to be stubborn or flexible depends on a number of factors assessing risk vs. reward. Under all cases, designers should state their cases as to why they are right—“right” meaning logical in their own design decisions from both a design & business point of view.

So, Tell Us a Little Bit about Yourself

Lately I’ve been interviewing lots of candidates. Interviews can be scary. The interviewer is trying to find out things about the candidate that don’t show up in a portfolio. Remember that.

Decide what you aren’t showing and let it show in the interview. Show your passion, unless you have none. Don’t let your interview be too much about talking. Hopefully your work can speak for itself. There’s nothing more disappointing than an interviewee who speaks a great game but shows up with no proof. Give insights you found that you may have not specified in the portfolio. Tell the interviewee things you found interesting. Prepare yourself with what questions you think you may be asked. It’s always more impressive when a candidate can seemingly think on his/her feet.

Don’t try to conjure up ways to be charming. This will almost always come off as insincere. As cliche as it is, be yourself. Most hiring managers are looking for chemistry within their team.

Make a list of your strengths, and make it a point to show that during the interview. The point of the interview is to show why you should be hired. You are obviously there for your skills shown so believe in that. Respect everyone in the room. All your actions are being observed.

Find out about your interviewee. You need to like the job offered. You may be walking into a horrible situation. Show that you care about the conditions you work in.

If it doesn’t work out there are always more interviews. Don’t let yourself be defeated by defeat.

One Man Army

The recession acted like a cataclysmic event that changed the entire employment ecosystem. It forced many extremely able workers out of their jobs. It made those who were left after company-wide “reorganizations” evolve.

Companies wanted to do more with less. Designers were forced to take on more roles than they were used to doing. Product designers began working on their own logos and graphics. Graphic designers began working on doing orthographic drawings. New skills are picked up during these times. Though many complained about workloads, the designers left at companies became better creatives by doing more than they thought they were capable of.

When I visited New York, I saw some bands play. Each group was small, either two or three members. They made the most of their instruments, and listening to their music didn’t make you feel like anything was missing. Even music seems affected by the loss of jobs. Multi-talented, jack-of-all-trades people are in demand.

Every seemingly negative situation can be an opportunity. The most accomplished graphic slash product designer I’ve ever met told me he never likes to fall back to habits that feel easy. Once he felt like he had explored much of what he wanted from graphic design he wanted to work on products. Moving into product design forced him to think differently and gave him a unique perspective from other trained product designers since he had a different background. He never stayed stagnant in what he was learning. I think this is a great trait for all creative people.

Traction

Yesterday I attended Senior Thesis reviews at the University of Cincinnati. The main reason I went was to see the Tread Project presentation.

http://treadproject.org/

Three UC Seniors started a class in a neighboring low-income high school to see if design could make a positive impact on their lives. They taught 25 students about the basics of product design from inspiration to ideation and visual communication.

Professionals from all the largest companies wanted to help. There is a growing social conscience amongst designers at corporations. This is a good thing.

I think more corporations need to offer charitable creative outlets for their designers because designers are increasingly less interested in mass-producing “things.” I find myself feeling worse about my role in the world and consumption/consumerism. I think something like a 2- or 3-week long “donation” of designers per year would help us feel better about our respective companies and how we use our minds.

The biggest takeaway I had from the Tread Project was how small actions can ripple through people and make a positive change. There’s no reason we can’t set up a Design Tutoring session with our own local high schools.

Cultivating Ideas

I’ve heard several takes on how designers should treat ideas. In It’s Not How Good You Are But How Good You Want To Be, the author says you should share your ideas whenever possible—to let go of them easily so you are forced to come up with more ideas.

While I don’t think designers should hoard ideas like precious secrets, I do think there is worth in cultivating ideas to a point where they are ready to live on their own. I think of ideas like plants. Some ideas are more fragile than others and require a nursery to get them in the right shape before they can be sold or planted outside.

If you don’t spend enough time on your ideas by yourself, sometimes prematurely sharing them can leave them susceptible to cynics and doubters. Tossing out shallow ideas can sometimes turn others off from listening to you anymore. I’ve seen this happen. If a designer never feels comfortable sharing ideas, that probably means there is something wrong with the atmosphere of the studio—a lack of trust with teammates.

Spending time with your inner thoughts is not a bad thing. It can give you confidence in them. As a team, ideas can get better once they are unveiled. This is the kind of chemistry you want in a team or studio.

“Leaders can let you fail and yet not let you be a failure.”

TED.com:

Four-star general Stanley McChrystal shares what he learned about leadership over his decades in the military. How can you build a sense of shared purpose among people of many ages and skill sets? By listening and learning — and addressing the possibility of failure.

The best way to learn is to understand why you failed. When designers are micromanaged, the privilege of failing is taken away. He or she will disassociate from the project and, ultimately, the final product suffers.

The quote by General McChrystal above reminds me of the style of management that I learned the most under. I started my professional career with two other young, naive designers. Our manager guided us, but let us try all sorts of methods for designing, presenting, and collaborating. We discussed why certain approaches didn’t work, and we built a rapport with one another that still lasts today.

The most frustrating feeling a designer experiences is failure after never being given a chance to fail.

(Source: ted.com)

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Lamborghini Sesto Elemento

I gave up around 2 AM trying to figure out a top view of a product I was working on. It was one of those moments when I had looked at it too much and had too many directions in my head from managers, marketing, and myself.

I had lost confidence in myself and what I should do. I emailed a talented and passionate Spanish colleague asking him for advice. He never seemed to lack confidence. He told me this:

The fact that you doubt yourself sometimes only shows that you are aware of your work, that you can get a perspective on your own design. Most people can’t. That’s what makes you get better and work harder.

Personally, I take the Italian approach to design. I don’t try to figure out what other people like. I can only do what I like because I only know me.

Sometimes you need to block out all the noise around you concerning something you are designing. You are the chief designer meaning you are the most invested. No one will understand the intimacy you have with the design, but everyone will have an opinion.

Overhearing our conversation, an equally-talented Japanese designer added, “You can make okay things when you listen to everyone, but great designs only happen when you listen to yourself.”

I think these are thoughts every designer should remember whenever in doubt.

Why Does This Exist?

Designers need to ask this more often. Whenever I work on a project, I ask myself this question. I wish I had great answers for everything I’ve worked on, but it’s not always the case. This is the most dangerous effect designers have on the world—creating things that do not need to be created.

This site will log the thoughts I have about design and what I’m learning. I keep various sketchbooks with ideas jotted down, but this makes so much more sense.

I would consider myself a mid-level designer. I have only worked within corporate design so most of the things I’ve learned pertain to a single environment, though I hope some of the lesson can help designers in any situation. I’ve learned about a lot of things that work and don’t work; but I feel like I have much more to learn about leadership, conviction, and creativity. This tumblr will explore that.