We all make excuses. It's second nature. It's easy. It prevents those embarrassing weaknesses — we humans so miserably hang on to — from showing. In a follow-up to my post on honesty and apologizing in the workplace and with clients, I thought I'd put [ ... ]
How often do you find yourself saying "I'm sorry"? if you're like me, and are married (with kids), you'll find those words coming out of your mouth the moment you wake up (because your wife dreamt that you contacted that girl you dated in college [ ... ]
So you have all the tools necessary to be an effective, even good, designer (aside from the basic skills like being creative, knowing what kerning and baseline and rivers and grids and balance and who's Massimo Vignelli) — you’re confident (but not [ ... ]
Lists are a big deal. Lists about why you should or should purchase, not purchase, consume, toss, recycle, elect, design, redesign, explode or turn into a bacon are an even bigger deal. Everyone has an opinion. While lists soliciting you to adopt the beliefs of [ ... ]
The following was originally published on Church Marketing Sucks; as a five part series titled "5 Tools Church Designers Need" “Hey, I know this is last minute, but we need to get a self-mailer to announce the upcoming _____________, so if [ ... ]
When Apple bought Lala.com and subsequently announced that it would be shutting the site down on May 31st (2010), many people wondered where or how they would have access to a vast array of artists and music they otherwise would have limited access to (any [ ... ]
The following was originally published on Church Marketing Sucks; as a five part series titled "5 Tools Church Designers Need" It seems pretty obvious that people communicate in a way that they understand, but what isn’t obvious is that our communication [ ... ]
The following was originally published on Church Marketing Sucks; as a five part series titled "5 Tools Church Designers Need" Your research is done. You have all the keywords, all the content and criteria. You've sketched and browsed, you've poured through magazines [ ... ]
The following was originally published on Church Marketing Sucks; as a five part series titled "5 Tools Church Designers Need" Without training, education and practice it's hard to have confidence in anything, let alone your job. Without that confidence you will find yourself always [ ... ]
I've never been a fan of the question "What do you see yourself doing in XX years?". It's not because I don't have dreams, plans or ambitions, but because I've lived long enough to know that plans and goals should always be for the short-term, [ ... ]
The following was originally published on Church Marketing Sucks; as a five part series titled "5 Tools Church Designers Need" An Introduction There you are on a slow Monday morning, a freshly brewed mug of coffee, your Pandora station of Explosions In The Sky [ ... ]
Okay, now stop being lazy and click play. I know you just skimmed over it. There are juicy stats in there. It’s worth biting into. Have you watched it now? Good. The video shows a wide variety of statistics based on majority use of technology in [ ... ]
In nearing my 14th year of professional design experience I've come to learn many things (well, ok, maybe just a few things); mnay of which are nothing more than the "live and learn" model of experiences. I'm not vain enough to believe that what I [ ... ]
I hate the word. Hate it. Freelance. I'm not a fan of the term. For me, it implies a certain amount of professional desperation, that one is inexperienced and youthful and doing whatever one can to get paid (anything, any amount, just to make money [ ... ]
Ugh! I use [Time Warner, Bell, Cox, whomever else] for my email and can never get to my friggin’ email when I need it!” Ok. Calm down. I hear you yelling into my ear about how much of a pain it is to deal with your [ ... ]
Graphic design is as much a commodity as it is an elite institution. There are "famous" and heralded celebrities of the design world (David Carson, Paul Rand, MIchael Beruit, Mike Cina, et al), who can do no design wrong; there are those highly respected, academically [ ... ]
There comes a time in all work where you reach a point of exhaustion and apathy -- the "ho-hums" if you will. The once thriving motivation to achieve, develop, challenge and grow dwindles under restrictive timelines, small budgets, nit-picky design tweaks and overall spent creative [ ... ]
You're checking your calendar, its 3 weeks past due. You pick up the phone and call the client and get voicemail. You leave a message, the sort where you hope to sound firm and threatening, but not enough that you damage the fragile ecosystem that [ ... ]
Most people think of two things when they hear the word "creativity", the first is typically associated with an artist (like Picasso or Shakespeare or Beethoven) and the second is, "I'm not creative". Its true that most of us can't be creative in the same [ ... ]
It's been a long time (a long long long time) since I've blogged -- without an excuse (or at least, a good one), I thought it appropriate to tackle the upcoming 2008 Presidential election -- minus the politics -- and focus on the candidate websites, [ ... ]
Yesterday I was shown a most unfortunate and horribly misguided logo "re-branding". Of course, this "new and improved" logo is nothing new to the re-branding urgency that is plaguing corporations throughout the globe. The "re-brand" is often a compliment to 3 factors; a [ ... ]
There are days when you have to reflect, look back, to get motivation and understanding of the designer you are and the designer you want to become. You can substitute any profession, but without knowing where you've come and who you are, the path you [ ... ]
Any good designer will tell you that their designs have no personal attachment to them. This may be partially true. All designers infuse their personality in all their work (unless it happens to not be their work; but that's an entirely different matter). When working [ ... ]
I used to be a member of Sam's Club — not because I valued their service or their products, or even their prices, but mostly because they were less than a mile away. They were inexpensive, and I could get a pool-sized vat of Miracle [ ... ]
As I break more and more into studio photography, I find myself intrigued and attracted to photography in advertising. Particularly the manipulation of the image to deliver a nuanced, polished and often clever concept. The merging of photographic skill and intense (and thorough) Photoshop manipulation [ ... ]
Microsoft revealed its Surface, an immersing, touch-sensitive table-top computer this week. The Surface is supposed to come out in the Fall of 2007. The Surface has reminiscent technologies to those developed by Jeffery Yan(NYU Department of Computer Science) and MERL (Mitsubishi Electronic Research Lab) and [ ... ]
I've been researching the world of self publication and self publication tools/applications (specifically easy means with-which to create a book). iPhoto has a built in function that allows you to easily create a photo book using the photos from your iPhoto albums; simply drag and [ ... ]
AutoDesk — makers of 2D and 3D computer design software — recently concluded and posted the results of a survey called "Design for Living". The survey was done between March 23rd and March 28th -- mainly through email and online forms -- of adults 18 [ ... ]
"Timmy has a boat with a goat in a mote""Timmy has a goat on a boat in a mote" "Timmy is in a boat with a goat" "Timmy has a goat and a boat" "Timmy is a goat with a boat" We've all played the game [ ... ]
Here are some design inspirational links from around the world. Graphic Design Hyperkit is a small London based multi-faceted design studio, run by Tim Balaam and Kate Sclater. Though they're studio is small, their creativity and execution are not. The simplicity of their work is very appealing. This [ ... ]
Most every designer and project manager who has any knowledge of online web tools has heard of Basecamp, and perhaps even the creators of the project management application, 37 Signals. 37 Signals may be responsible for this "Web 2.0" phenomenon that we're now enamored with [ ... ]
I recently posted about the importance of creating a concept that is worth fighting for, with some tips to help in developing a concept. Well, I wanted to go into further detail to how I've approached concepts over the past several years -- a process [ ... ]
Sometimes I wonder what profession I would be in if I were born just a little bit later. For most of my growing up I wanted to be an architect. I drew floor plans in my spare time. When I realized that engineering and math [ ... ]
I frequently read the blog Church Marketing Sucks to get an overall feel for what is "abuzz" in the world of churches, creativity and marketing. I find myself nearly ashamed at what is heralded as "creative" marketing and design within the padded walls of the [ ... ]
I'd like to start a weekly blog where I examine and explore some elements, styles and trends i design today. It's never easy to effectively critique work without all the project limitations, but at best one can evaluate the basic principles employed (or ignored). I recently [ ... ]
My daughter got some playing cards for Christmas — biblical versions of the card games Old Maid and Go Fish (by the way, what is wrong the "secular" version of these games; were the fish too worldy? show too much scale? cursing like sailors? was [ ... ]
Its about growing beards. That's it. For 120 days grow a beard and throughout that time update others on your "growth" by uploading pictures. If I told you that the above has created one of the most successful community groups (I personally) have ever witnessed [ ... ]
There is nothing new under the sun. Inspiration. Imitation. Plagiarism. Deja Vu. Call it what you will, but nothing existing is new. In the broadest of terms, what you say has been said. What you do has been done. What you see has been seen. The [ ... ]
Time to get accessible. That means ALL of you. Yes, you there reading this, bored to tears — you most likely are not accessible. Don't panic, its not life threatening — no medication required. There is a solution; and I'm doing my research. I'm [ ... ]
There is growing divide among web publishers, programmers and designers as to a new standard for which to build a website. On the one side we have the image heavy, Flash induced, motion infused groupie's who swear by the virtues of Actionscript and Coldfusion integration. [ ... ]
In the past months incredible things have been brewing here in Cincinnati. Busy, yes. Stressed, yes. Profitable, no comment. As the work kept coming, the exposure and "good buzz" spread far past my expectations or effort (I just wanted to do the best work possible [ ... ]