Take time to notice something.

I think this can go back to the old simple saying of "stop and smell the roses."

Most of us can lead some pretty hectic lives. Work, family, commuting, friends, hobbies and the countless things that can go on within each of these areas and combinations of said variables. That in of itself can produce some crazy moments in our lives. Often these moments end up more like spans of time, much to are chagrin.

So while we hop between these different variables we already have little time to smell the roses already. We are doing something unprecedented in human history. We are able to fill these spaces...these pauses in our day with more stuff. All thanks to technology, more specifically the mobile device.

Let me say this. This blog is not a "Technology is ruining us and making us worse people. Smash your iphone immediately and go live out in a forest and be one with nature" type of articles. I love technology and it is amazing. It often gets hated on and falsely blamed for things that are simply out if its control or even more simply. It is the future...and people are scared of a future that is different then their present.

We are constantly inundating ourselves with more stuff. These small pauses in our lives are being filled with surfing the web, connecting, sharing etc etc. Now this is all good and bad. Again...maybe this is the wave of the future. Maybe people are evolving and peoples brains 50 yrs in the future are different then ours currently.

But as of now. I do believe these breaks in life are very important. I am convinced that these pauses are when we have our best moments. We tend to notice things a lot better when our attention is not somewhere else. Maybe it is a book idea, new painting perspective, an improvement to a system, invention, music etc. It is funny, how often do we have some kind of great idea or perceived great idea while we are taking a nice hot shower. Why? Because we are having a break! Our mind gets to wonder and take advantage of having nothing to do.

We should try our best to not fill all the pauses in our day. You never know when your first or next big idea will come to you. It would be a shame if you missed out because you were trying to fill a boredom gap in the day.

Stop and smell the roses...enjoy the pauses and notice something.

Why is tomorrow better than today?

The topic of seizing the day, of taking advantage of the hear and now, to be about the current moment, to do whatever it is you want to do. Is a topic in business and life in general that is beaten to death. Clouded with fake motivation, inspiration and a crap facade of spontaneous wannabes that leads to wheel spinning.

Now I am not going to say there is no merit to this thesis. That would just be silly. There is tons of truth to be learned from concept of "doing" and a lot of people could benefit from hearing a message like this.

Often a lot of us get in a rut, stuck in some kind of grind. Every now and then we get an idea. Maybe it can improve your job, start a business, write a book, a piece of music/art, a non profit organization, a trend, a app etc etc. You know...those ideas you get in the shower while you are thinking about how life has lead you to this current moment in time.

Often these ideas are gone as quickly as we are finished drying off from our shower. But why? Now, I get that not all ideas should not be acted upon. With a little research and know how, we can find out which ideas just should be scrapped.

This is where the action of doing is so important. For a litany of reason we as people do not like to "do" of our own accord. We like to listen to someone else tell us what to do and leave it at that.

So by all means. If you are able to, take full advantage of that idea. Grab it by the horns and do something with it. The important part to take away here is...do it till you succeed or fail. Don't just do it and stop or constantly put it on the back-burner. Do it and do it till you can say, "Well that was a shit,ok or amazing idea." That way you can bury it forever or grow it into something amazing.

Here lies the constant battle we do with ourselves and our lives. Is this idea good? What would so-and-so think about this? What if I fail? What if i succeed? What if I never finish? Can I afford it? Do I need help? The list seems endless. We are often our own worse enemies and shoot down ourselves before the plan gets a chance to start. Audit yourself and be real about what you can and cannot do in order to figure out the best plan of attack.

You cannot change what you have done and the future is not promise. All we have is the here and now.

Just enough is more.

Everyone has heard the old say, "Less is more.". There are some amazing truths and things to take away from that statement. Not just as creatives but as people in general.

Now as much as I tend to lean in agreement with that statement. Since there is a beauty, a refinement and elegance of designs that are simple. Showing ultimate refinement and control over computational elements. Apple being a quintessential example of how simplicity and restraint is used boldly and elegantly at the same time to communicate effectively. That thesis is pervasive in everything they create.

After reading an essay by the great Milton Glaser. He is quoted as saying, "Just enough is more." He understands that not every solution out there requires the bare minimum of elements. There seems to be a misunderstanding that just because something is"busy" it does not mean that it cannot show refinement, elegance or restraint.

Sometimes you need to open the flood gates open more. The voice and the message is what is important, what is trying to be ultimately communicated. Communication is not always clear, it is often noisy, cluttered and disorganized. Rough around the edges...often having a hand crafted appeal that makes communication so individual. (Why I think hand lettering and styles as such are growing in popularity.)

It only makes sense that some people will have different voices and in need of having to say their message differently. People often have a hard time disseminating aesthetics elements from gestalt principles. For example, lets look at a grunge or punk band. Aesthetically speaking, they will look as such. Loud typography, tons of texture, clashing colors/patterns...this type of look often doesn't please the vast majority of people (which is good). It is lacking the restraint and refinement of Apple. Often times, these aesthetics are still well designed, great organization, hierarchy of computational elements and communicates very effectively. But....what if they still broke those base guides?

Then maybe that message isn't for you. I believe it is very ok to understand who you are trying to talk to and communicate with them how they like to be. It is expected as such in marketing 101 kind of way.

After all, who decides what is good and bad design? We create and build something that fits the need. They public/consumer gets to decide what is good regardless of "our good tastes."

Use enough elements to say what you have to say, not the minimum amount...just enough.

Perfectionism is killing you.

I always thought that with my creative projects that I was a "perfectionist". That everything had to be just right in order for me to call the project finished. Embracing it as some kind of quirky creative character flaw that seems to follow most people in this community.

As I started growing in my understanding of self, I found out that this perfectionism was killing my growth and was simply an excuse to not ever finish work and start more.

Perfectionism is fear.

I will draw this example to show you what I mean. Let us take a fine art piece I begin working on. I start getting to the fine tuning end of the project, the final details so to speak. I used to not be able to stop picking at it and call it "done". Tons of creative artists never "finish" projects. When you call a project finished, that means that it is open to review...open to criticism. Most of our egos are pretty fragile and we like to keep it as safe as possible.

By not ever finishing anything and when we run into criticism, we can simply say, "Well it isnt finished yet...." This protects our ego's from the stones of opinion that get tossed at our work. Work that often we pour differentiated levels of ourselves into. The ol' blood, sweat and tears.

We want to take this thing that we have created and protect it...protecting ourselves from the reality of what other people think.

This inability to deal with 3rd part influences or criticism keeps our growth at bay, from truly tapping into something great that we have to offer our community.

It is our duty to finish our work, whatever it may be. Mark it and label it as finished, that way we can send it off into the world for further review. Maybe everyone hates it but then again..what if they don't? Often times, the success is more daunting than the failure, since failure is often expected and success isn't.

Finishing work lets you get started on more and repeat the cycle. Increasing your chance of finding something that is worth doing, something that matters.

Stop making it perfect and finish it.

Creative services taboo topics and a thank you.

The secret is knowing your worth.

Something that always seemed to be a taboo topic in anything creative was the topic of business/money. I grew up around artist, mostly fine artists and a lot of my influences come from that community. It is all too common to hear about people "selling out"...you know...god forbid you get a job and pay your bills or put yourself in a better position for the future.

For some reason, you can only get paid for your art if people want to collect it/buy it.

But as soon as you collect a paycheck...that is frowned upon.

Now we have to make a living somehow and I can understand to a point about "selling out". But we have to take another look at this. Especially for those of us who work more with businesses, companies, organizations and people outside of our community.

Never in my entire career as an "artist/designer" was I ever taught about the business of design. It was one of those things I had to learn on my own. In college I did not have to take one business class nor was I pushed to take any. It was always about my studio time and humanities etc. God forbid I learn how to earn a living.

So after school I was flying by the seat of my pants. Trying to work on establishing my career. I started getting some work and I had no idea how to price my work. Fine art or design. The hardest part was finding out my worth. Charge too much or too little and you can not get a job, just the same...you do not want to charge too little and try to scrape together a million clients to pay the bills.

Now I started to slowly to put things together and make something of myself through much trial and error.

I found a resource that I wish I had found in college. I stumbled across a youtube channel called "The futur" @thefuturishere

their youtube channel

Created by:

These guys break down the business of design and creative services. Learned some new tricks and tips myself. I cannot thank these guys enough for what they do and the value they are bringing to the taboo topic of money.

Anyone who is in school for creative services, wants to be or is...needs to give some of their videos a look. You wont regret it.

Learning how to make a living should not be kept a secret and TheFutur is paving the way and dropping knowledge bombs the entire way.

How can I help you?

A question that not enough working people (especially in business) sincerely ask. With no intention of getting something out of the ask. Purely asking because you are trying to help someone, to care about someone else rather than getting something for yourself.

You can often just feel it or hear the intention of the question when it is asked out of kindness versus any other reason...most of the reasons are rooted in reciprocating or making a sale etc. One of my biggest pet peeves is walking into a store and someone asking me this question. Most companies force their employees to say it. You cannot hide genuine kindness. The fakeness or sale at the end of the conversation slithers its way past their teeth and rolls off the tongue and just simmers in my ears. I HATE it.

Designers are often in a pretty awesome position because when people come to you for work or in general...they already are in need of something. But what about others, when is the last time that you asked across the aisle to maybe someone who cannot afford your services and is struggle with solutions if they need help? The bottom line and power of the dollar is what drives us into just worrying about ourselves.

It is amazing to see that when we start to care about each other, things just get better...the bottom line included. People are drawn to it. We want someone...hell, we need someone to care about us. We are social creatures and we spend about a third of our lives at work around other people. So to be around others who are not faking it who are genuine in their intent is an amazing thing.

When we patronize other companies just how much better would everyone's experience be if we could care about one another. Not because you are a customer or employee...but because you are another human and so are they.

How can I help you?

 

Self improvement is a life long journey that requires daily labor.

Every creative person has some kind of process they go through when they start doing a project. Some are super organized others are utter chaos. Most of us seem to fall in the middle somewhere when it comes to the process.

One thing that would help me become a better designer is organizing my chaos better and having a more direct plan of attack. Documenting how I got to where I ended up and my reasoning as to why I made certain decisions along the way. It is helpful to document this for future employers, clients or even just self criticism in hopes of self refinement

I tend to start on paper, lots of sketches, wire-frames, ligatures or whatever it may be that I am working on. Lists, maybe some words, phrases etc that will be helpful in my development. I do tend to get distracted a little bit at this point. Using your hands to create allows for so many different looks, the possibilities are endless. So to go off on tangents and exploring looks that upon a stricter self criticism would prove to be pointless, can certainly be a better usage of your time. So make sure you audit yourself to know where you can be most and least productive at teach stage of development.

Just the same when I get to a computer...I try to be almost too thorough. Exploring typefaces that often have no business even being explored. Just to say I was thorough in my exploration. Again wasting time in favor of finding some pile of gold in a giant pile of garbage.

When I finally have a typeface or look decided this is where I really start to make some moves. I find that I can make different ligatures, spacing, angles, cuts etc etc to quickly develop a mark or layout into something that by this part only needs refinement.

So somewhere from the beginning to the middle is in need of refinement. I tend to get a bit scattered brained in my direction, the scope is a bit too wide. If I could become a bit more organized in my process, I could do better and faster work.

between each of these steps I tend to just toss my process out. Old sketches, or major breakthrough. I will delete the beginning stuff simply because it does not look good in favor of the finished product that looks great. Which ultimately ignores how you got there. Sometimes the process is the most important part.

Self audit yourself and process. To each their own but knowing your strengths and weaknesses is great insight. It is not wise to recognize character flaws and issues and just ignore them...or worse...except them simply as what makes you unique.

Self improvement is a life long journey that requires daily labor.

 

Where is your audiences attention.

If there is one thing I have learned from working with teams of people throughout different companies is that there tends to be a some kind of disconnect between the marketing team and the desired audience that said company wants (granted that is their job to solve that gap.)

I find that the first people to pick up on this are the designers. Why, I am not too sure. Maybe understanding the subtleties of the story being told gives them a better insight into why the company is not getting the attention they want.

Also why I think that it is not unheard of for designers and marketers to jump between those two professions often. Some find they get one side or the other better.

A short story/example.

It was not a rare thing for me to work with a company that needed some work done on the aesthetic side of things and worked with the marketing team. Their audience was the early 20's to around 45yr old age group. Great, solid demographic to market to.

The very first thing they wanted to do was do a direct mail blast, some other printed publications and some direct email marketing campaigns.

What?!?! Blew my mind. Even though I would get paid regardless.

Anytime someone hands me a piece of paper, a brochure, information, card, or mails me something...and I did not ask for it. The first thing I do is toss it right in the trash.

I did not ask for this, I did not want it, you are selling me something or a service that I also do not want or have no need for.

Right in the trash with you.

Just the same with email campaigns. If I do not shop or use your service regularly, there is a maybe 5% chance I open it....maybeeeee 5%. That small chance I do....even a smaller chance of me clicking a link or following through on anything in the email.

Cut it out.

I fall into that demographic stated early. My attention is not on print media and good luck with email. My attention is on my phone and social media apps. That is where you have your best luck reaching me. Other then that, I do not want to marketed at.

It is like walking into a store and a sale rep coming right up to you asking you what you want, if you want to try anything and starts trying to sell me stuff.

The chance of me coming back to your store after that is low.

Understand where attention is and how to best use it.

So instead of that company wasting money on me redesigning print material, I helped them understand where their audiences attention is and helped to design digital ads for different platforms that would better reach who they want.

Design and tell your story where people are actually listening.

 

A web design/marketing trend that is insufferable.

Can we pleaseeeee stop having pop-ups as soon as you enter the website.

"Join our mailing list."

"Do you want *insert offer*"

"10% off all orders today!"

"Sign-up to see rest of article."

etc, etc etc,

The very first thing I look for when surfing the web and visiting sites, is that little X that closes that pop-up box.

I cannot be the only one. I often do not even read what it's saying, I go straight to closing it.

Stop advertising to me!! Please just stop.

I do not watch your commercials anymore, I do not read your print ads, I do not read that email (unless it is from a place I spend money at a lot), I do not read that banner ad...and no I don't click it. For the love of all that is holy, just stop tossing ads at my face.

If you use ads, pop-ups, sign up windows...the chance of you getting my email drops automatically to almost zero because I am so annoyed. Especially on mobile. The limited real-estate and the possibility to miss-tap the close X....super annoying.

I will drop your site like a bad habit and get that content/value somewhere else if you constantly ask me for info or try to sell me something etc.

The amount of times I just close my browser tab if I enter a site that has a splash page pop-up has got to be 80%.

Does this tactic work for getting emails? Even if you are getting emails...are they just peoples "spam" email that they never check? If they are legit emails...are they even opening them? The vast majority of users are turning into me, they are tired of being undauntedly marketed to.

So instead of constantly asking for shit, how about you provide me with a reason to give you my actual email or a reason to not just exit your site immediately.

Prove your worth to the consumer.

A favorite designer of mine.

Massimo Vignelli is in my list of top 5 designers, easily.

Now, I know...that is like saying, basketball players have a lot to learn from Magic Johnson. Obviously they are great and recognized as such. But it would be a huge misstep to not acknowledge the influence that they have had on not just my development but on the entire craft itself.

When I was younger, still in high school. Like most designers, I did not understand the full implications of typography and how powerful it is. I readily skipped over it in favor of illustration every time. I watched a well known film "Helvetica" which gave a discussion of not just the specific typeset and its history. But also addressed designers who did and did not use it, their work and the importance of type in design.

The film (at the time) seemed a bit boring, was type really that important?

This was the start of need to learn all about type. I got into college and started my design studies and I did not know where to start learning about type. With the help and direction of some awesome professors I dove headfirst. Low and behold, in my first type class we watched the same film "Helvetica". It was that much more interesting at that point in my life. Such a great film and only gets better. (I may watched it probably 2 more times throughout my life.)

In that film Vignelli had a huge part in the narrative. He is considered to be THE best designer for Helvetica usage. His designs showed the entire breadth of creativity and type usage. Even though he considered only about maybe 5 types were worthy of any usage at all. And he seemed to mostly use 3.

The usage of white space, scale, color, type/layout.....was just amazing, groundbreaking and ultimately legendary.

He was able to communicate so many different things while showing such restraint all whilecreating some dynamic iconic designs.

I refer back to his work time and time again in order to better my own type setting skills. To try and learn from one of the very best is always a great way to learn.

If you are already very familiar with his work.....then go back to it...take notes...study it, if you somehow aren't....do the same.

Be organized.

This is a short and sweet tip for any designer out there.

Be more organized with your designs. 

Be able to use grids, proper alignments, rulers etc to properly compose whatever you are designing is of the utmost importance. We often rely too much on our eye to make these judgment calls. As good as some of our eyes are, being able to make pixel perfect decisions with grid lends itself to super well organized and balanced aesthetics. 

This is super important in typography. Learning how to properly set tools is the foundation for learning and applying all other gestalt theories. I am still working on my typesetting skills myself and when they progress my eye for everything else increases and I make better choices with composition.

Design is quickly becoming integral to UX/UI. They need to learn how to work hand in hand. A flashy webpage or a slick product does not mean a lot if the user experience or interface is terrible. So designing with the user in mind is of the utmost importance. 

Where it all started.

Everyone at some point ends up asking me where it all started with my passion for art and design.

It was my grandmother.

She loved art...especially oil painting. It was her hobby that she spent years developing. Taking classes, practicing, reading books and continually learning. Even till she was into her 90's!

From a young age, grandma loved to share her art with me. It was something fun to do with her and bond over. We did not live super close so I always would draw things and mail them to her religiously, showing her how much I have learned and how much better I had gotten.

She was the first one to tell me that I would grow up to be an artist of some sorts.

The never ending support she gave me to do what I loved to do is what really stoked the flames. At a young age I found myself in love with art and doing it now for myself.

She was always sending me old boxes of art history books, photos of her work (or actual work) art contests to try and of course materials to practice with. She continued to support me till the day she passed away.

If it was not for her, I have no idea what I would be doing now. Not one clue. It seemed like I knew that I was suppose to be doing this since day one.

Thank you gram' for everything. I love you very much.

 

Oh for fonts sake!

Now, do not misunderstand what I am about to say. So let me say this before we get started here....

There are tons of terrible fonts....a lot. But who gets to decided what is good and bad? Who are the gate keepers that decide what looks good and what is crap or passe?

There are some well known and great designers who use fonts that I would never think would be acceptable by mainstream designers. Other times I am like...."Ok, looks great but can we use something other than the same old 5 fonts?"

Good type setting seems to be slowly dying off and is being overlooked (super guilty, I am trying to step my game up here).

I understand that communication is key and that a font can say volumes with its kerning, tracking, density, serifs etc. So the importance of type choice is obviously super important.

What helps me stay sane is the notion that a character does not sit on or over the plane. But instead it sits inside the plane and the relationship between other characters and the space it is occupying is of the utmost importance. This fine dance we do with grids, spacing and composition can sometimes be exhausting.

At the end of the day though, is our ability to pick a good type just the result of trends? Does a trend make something good? Well of course not. Are some types timeless? Some would ague yes. Others would argue they have lives, to be born and die themselves.

Maybe there is something more I am missing. Maybe they are more like tools, thousands to choose from. Making the choice up to me (us) to choose which tool communicates the best.

But boy that leaves me still wanting though.

Make better Photoshop selections.

One thing that has really pushed my photo editing and manipulation game to the next level is my ability to select exactly what I want and need.

Those little "marching ants" is what is keep you back from some exemplary work. Even with the best typographical, composition, color theory and illustration skills. If you are making crap selections for your photography then it will painfully show through.

A lot of young designers do not put enough practice into selections simply because it is hard and tedious. Do not get me wrong, it sure can be. Understanding photo resolution, how the selection lines interact with the pixels, how to adjust your feathering, which tools are used to create the best selections needs etc. It can be pretty daunting for a newbie, let alone someone who has been at it for awhile. But with many hours of practice it is well worth the pay off.

The basic selection tools are a great way to get started. Practicing with how everything interacts with one another will help you build a quality foundation. Just getting good at those is an accomplishment.

If you want to step up your game you can learn how to use layer masks. I used masks for awhile but I found it bothersome and lacking the exactitude that I wanted and needed. At least for my liking. So i ditched that for the tried and true pen tool.

Being able to control exactly where the pen line goes has helped me create perfect selections for any type of editing need.

I cannot stress taking the time to learn the pen tool, how to use the anchors and get your ants marching just right.

But maybe you like the other tools better, maybe you have a way that is different then my own. That is wonderful. Whatever you find yourself enjoying the most is the best tool for the job.

Make amazing selections and do some beautiful edits.

The lost art of drawing.

Before anyone gets too upset, just hear me out. I came from a fine art background so I am trying to be as unbiased as possible. I'll will let you be the judge of that.

Let me say this first.

So for the most part I have always been able to draw or use whatever is in hand to illustrate. With more years under my belt I have grown my skills and have gotten to a point where I feel comfortable being able to draw well...anything and do it well.

I believe this gives you a bit of an advantage when it comes to design. There seems to be no better way to understand the concept of form and space then trying to recreate that object on a plane. For example, being able to study how the human body is put together, how the skin sits on the muscles and gets wrinkled at curtains places and proper proportionality of anatomy.

All of these observations take place in the eye and brain. Taking mental notes trying to learn. But ask someone who cannot draw to visually show that information they just learned. Even if they spent an hour studying just the eye, they would only show a poor representation of what they had just studied.

Why? Do we forget what an eye looks like? Well of course not. But we have not practiced the forms. Many of us have to learn by doing, especially something that relies heavily on observation. We have to use our hand to practice laying down lines over and over again till we start to build whatever we are observing on the paper.

This repetitive practice of using these physical motor patterns and nerves firing help us learn these forms in a better fashion. That is why the vast majority of designers who have a background in illustration have awesome understanding of the basic gestalt theories already. Why? Because they have to, it they didn't then they would most likely not be very good illustrators.

Practice recreating forms and experimenting with space and volume. Teaching your eye not to just obverse but to be able to reproduce it down these physical pathways. Eyes have terrible memory so it is up to us to ingrain the motor pattern so that our brains are more in tune with this fine detail and level of observing.

I took a summer art class when I was younger and my teacher said,"Drawing is 90% observing." Which makes sense. Look carefully and thoroughly so you can properly understand the shape in front of you.

Draw more, people.

 

 

 

Teaching as a way to learn.

One of my favorite ways to learn anything I find myself not doing as much as I should.

Teach someone who wants to learn what you know.

Every time I give someone Photoshop lessons I find myself constantly reminding and remembering tricks, tips, even basic fundamentals that I often overlook. The ability to take what is in your head and put it in a way someone else can understand, is one of the best ways that I can think of for ingraining information.

I will use my Photoshop example.

When I am working by myself on a project you sometimes enter this autopilot mode...where you just go through the motions, plugging away at keys and clicking the mouse till something resembling progress shows up your screen. When people have watched me work some describe it as almost robotic. Knowing what each key does, the fastest way to do things, running scripts etc etc.

While all of these things are good, I often find myself getting ahead of myself. Skipping steps or moving things around or even adding things that shouldn't even be there in the first place.

Breaking something down as complicated as Photoshop into small understandable bits helps me constantly ingrain better habits. A couple things that I am always relearning each time I give lessons.

  • Do not just rush into the program with an idea to begin with, start with paper and create lots of ideas.
  • Be organized! Label your layers, put them in proper groups and order so you know exactly what each layer is for.
  • They give you an awesome grid for a reason. Use it to balance designs. (I find myself taking for granted my eye instead of using grids) Which ends up taking less time and is often better balanced anyway.
  • Use more shortcut keys, learn them all.
  • Ctr+S saves lives, tap it more.
  • Make a back up.
  • Make a back up to the back up.
  • No not on a thumb drive.
  • Rulers are your friends
  • Keep originals of photography and of large edits.
  • Learn the pen tool, practice and master it.

These are only a small list of the things that constantly go through my mind. This is just the technical stuff too. This doesn't even touch on the the basic and fundamental design Gestalt theory.

Whether you are learning a sport, a program, a new skill anything at all. Trying and teach whatever you have learned to someone else. It will only make you stronger at that skill.