The Ideal Creative Workflow...

Unfortunately real life is not always this simple.

Referrals, Partnerships & Foosball

Last night I attended Design Unplugged, a panel discussion, hosted by the Charlotte chapter of AIGA, at the photography studio of Mike Carroll.

The 6 people on the panel were owners of the following design studios here in Charlotte: Chris Bradle of Eye Design Studio, Steven Oster of Bright Yellow Jacket, James Sack of carbonhouse, John Petrafiesa of MODE, Banks Wilson of Studio Banks & Amanda Altman of A3 Design.

The panel was asked a variety of questions such as "How to manage business vs creative?" The book "The Business Side of Creativity" was recommended but it was also noted that there is no silver bullet, no easy way to make a business work. You need drive, ambition and balance. It was also suggested that while you can launch out on your own with no experience, it is best to learn from someone. 

Whether you go through the ranks and pay your dues at a company or find a mentor in areas that you are weak, you need someone who will guide you and be willing to teach you.

The 3 major points I took away from this discussion was the importance of referrals, partnerships and foosball. When you are building a new business or starting out a freelancer you really need to do a good job for your clients. If you do this, referrals will build the business.

The point that surprised me the most was the need for partnerships. It seems that larger agencies form the goal of crushing their competition whereas these smaller design studios are more interested in collaborating with their competition. If you stay small you are able to keep your hand in the creative side of the business and collaborating opens doors to bigger clients and projects. Chris Bradle said that you should "Always say yes to a project, then figure it out." You shouldn't let the fact that you are a small company keep you from big projects.

How do you keep your employees motivated? How do you keep the creativity flowing? Banks Wilson said, "Foosball." You need to have fun and love your work. If you love your work it won't feel like work. Another panelist commented that "If you NEED to motivate someone, you should fire them." In a creative environment you need passionate and self-motivated people.

Brown

I.D. magazine's March/April 2007 issue has an article entitled, "What Can Brown Do For You?" The article discusses Microsoft's use of brown last fall when it released its new product, the Zune (new challenger to Apple's iPod). 

 

Don't get me wrong, I love the color brown. I am a big fan of neutral colors. I also love bright colors. I have a hard time relating the color brown with technology. I think it is sometimes good to bring back certain colors, but the color should feel like it belongs in 1977 NOT in 2007.

Lists

I am a creative type. In general that means that I am free flowing and when ideas pop into my brain I run with them. But there is this part of me that is extremely meticulous. One might even venture to say compulsive. Here’s the thing: I love lists and there are parts of my life in which I cannot function without a list. 

Grocery shopping is one of those areas. I plan out my meals for the week. I compose a list of grocery items I will need from the store. To my husband’s annoyance, I will ONLY buy what is on my list. I go through the store methodically. And then when I go to check out I organize my items on the conveyor belt as to how I think they should be put in the bag. Whether the items go into the bag in the right way is up to the cashier. Seven times out of ten, the cashier bags it wrong (at least according to my standards).

It is particularly frustrating when I go to all of this effort and they combine items in strange ways such as vegetables with frozen foods or worse bread or eggs with something heavy! It really makes me mad if they overload my bags and the bags break before I can get them from my car to my kitchen.

You may be asking yourself, “What does this tirade have to do with design?” Well there is a connection. Designers have to be creative, but they also have to plan. If there is no plan things that do not belong together get lumped together to form a disaster.

Logos and images must match what the text is saying. If you just throw a bunch of random information on a page it would equal disaster.

Sure there are moments of pure creativity but those moments are best used in conjunction with a plan - a way to organize your ideas and thoughts. Don’t be fooled into thinking that being creative and creative license gives you a free pass to not think.

What is Graphic Design?

With the current availability of computers and software, there are a lot of people who have begun to consider themselves to be designers. While it is wonderful that more people have these opportunities, it should be noted that graphic design is a process that should be taken seriously. 

Graphic design is more than just slapping something together for a brochure or presentation. When used correctly, graphic design should cause someone to think. It should evoke emotion. It should make you want to act.

Paint with More Colors

I don’t claim to know much about music. Actually beyond my personal music collection and preferences I know very little. However I do know a lot about design and I can recognize good design in its various formats.

 

Awhile ago Ethos3 worked on a marketing piece for O’brien Amps. What struck me about this company is that they perceived a problem in the design in existing amps and they set about to create an amp that would meet their needs and desires. “…there are a bunch of great amps out there, but they all made me feel like a painter with only two colors on the palette. It's the in-betweens that matter, the tones that you just can't get to with a channel switching amp. The in-betweens allow you to truly express yourself,” - Tim O'Brien.

Tim knew there had to be a way to create a great product out of something that had been around for a while. He wanted to be able to express himself musically with a simplified amp that would give him more control and allow him to paint with more colors. To me good design is all about simplifying and making things more beautiful and easier to use.