everyone should take hiatus

i couldn’t agree more.

what motivates you?

when times are financially tough, as they’ve been for the past couple of years, your motives for starting a business, growing a business, or working for someone else’s company become increasingly apparent. if your motives for any of the above is to make tons of cash, go on sweet vacations, have a gold-plated ipad, or become famous, you’ll find yourself becoming frustrated and bitter (which, ironically, leads to making poor business decisions) when you’re not accomplishing those goals. however, if your overall purpose is to improve a group of people’s existence, positively affect the environment, or generally make the world a better place, then you’ll only become more passionate, sincere, and driven because all of a sudden, when you or your business is making less money, it’s not just effecting you, it’s negatively effecting an entire group of people or the planet.

a while ago, we decided to use our resources to help take down modern day slave trading by partnering with International Justice Mission. so when business is slow and our cash flow decreases, we don’t get upset because we’ve got to cancel a weekend vacation in tahiti, we work harder knowing that there is a group of people scattered all around the world that continues to suffer. when our business does well, we work harder knowing that we’re making a larger positive impact. our success is directly tied to their success.

detaching personal wealth and ego from your work can be the best thing for your career and/or business. try it. decide to make positive change and see what happens. the world will thank you for it.

5 great resources for creative entrepreneurs

a lot of my time lately has spent thinking about how awesome these following sites/companies are. often, the only time organizations get any kind of review or mention is when people have a beef. so, i like to make an effort from time to time to shine a light on groups that are getting some good stuff done.

1. the behance network. twitter; @behance
if the behance network was useful before, it’s even better now that it has made some nice updates. among my favorites are;

• the ability to add folks to your inner circle OR follow them (twitter style). i don’t want to have everyone and their mom in my inner circle, but there are some killer designers out there that i want to keep tabs on.
• better compatibility with twitter. new projects can be automatically posted to twitter upon publishing
• overall more intuitive UI

2. cloud app. twitter; @getcloudapp
one of the most useful internet services i’ve come across in a while. it runs in the background on your mac. you can set it up to automatically upload screen shots when you create them. you can also push any file from you finder, any song from itunes or any photo from iphoto (as well as a few other things) simple by highlighting the item and executing a lickety-split keystroke. cloud app then automatically pastes a url for the file to your clipboard. it’s perfect for sharing concepts and revisions with collaborators and clients.

3. drop box. twitter; @dropbox
also a file sharing/collaboration service, but different from cloud app in some key ways. drop box is essentially on online file folder. the nice thing is that it looks and acts just like any folder in your finder would, but all the files are online. so, you can access them from anywhere, and that is handy-dandy if anything ever was. the free account is 2GB with paid accounts coming with more space. however, you can earn 250MB for each referral that opens an account (up to 3 extra GB. i’m at 4.5GB total).

4. mint.com. twitter; @mint
mint.com has single-handedly changed the way i think about finances. really, what good is all that pretty design that you make if you can’t seem to hang on the paycheck for more than a week? mint.com keeps you in check with budget planning tools, spending notifications and more.

5. ally bank. twitter; @allybank
probably the only bank i’ve ever really loved. ally has interest checking, no penalty CDs, reimburses all ATM fees that you incur (which was the deal maker for me) and is one of the few companies that uses the color purple well (no reference to the color purple of oprah winfrey fame).

a short lesson

as dailey’s business partner, i’ve left the blogging to him. but recently, i came across a subject that we need to be clear about. with his blessing, i’ll continue. it’s a small clarification with big ramifications: lfb does not do branding. we design identities associated to brands — we’re in the business of making companies look good. we use design to beautifully and effectively articulate a brand, but it’s not the brand itself. allow me to explain.

this past week, i ordered a new pair of soccer shoes to wear during my weekly saturday scrimmages. they’re adidas copa mundial cleats, and they’re awesome. having worn this specific line of soccer cleat for the past 15 years or so, i’ve wondered upon occasion why these cleats, and so many other good products made by adidas, seem to be less popular than other athletic companies’ sports wear.

as i was trying on my right shoe, i saw the answer to my question stamped on the insole (see the pic). it says “the brand with the three stripes.” if the powers that be at adidas see their brand as “three stripes” then i’m afraid their future is bleak and their competition need not worry.

their logo may be three stripes, but their brand is not what they say it is; it’s what i say it is and what you say it is. the coalescence of every experience i’ve had related to adidas and the thought that results in a second’s time is what their brand is to me. each person has different experiences that informs their thought of adidas, and as a result, the adidas brand varies from person to person.

i’m sure this blog post is going to make its way to the head of adidas’ marketing and design department, so i’ll give a simple two-step plan of action:

1) immediately stop printing anything that says “brand” because chances are high the sentence it’s being used in is a false statement.

2) spend your resources giving customers a great experience that leads them to think happy thoughts when they see the three stripes logo.

the future is bright for companies focused on giving their market enjoyable experiences through exceptional design, customer service, value, and expertise. it’s not so bright for companies telling the market how to perceive their brand.

not all free fonts are created evil

“the most striking result of this survey is that the respondents overwhelming reject free fonts.”

i pulled this quote from a recent type survey preview i received in an email from gdusa magazine. it’s true, the vast majority of free fonts are chock full o’ wonky kerning, unpolished letterforms and are lacking certain essential characters.

but being the bargain hunter that i am, i do enjoy a good, well-crafted free font find (on a side note, i also find pleasure in finding that magical article of clothing among the heaps of rubbish in second hand stores).

so, i want to share with you two free fonts that i love and use. the first is liberation serif. i know i’ve mentioned this before, but it’s such a great font for body copy, that i feel compelled to continue to plug it.

the second is pastelaria by eduardo recife, who is the creator of the much over-used and maligned porcelain font. i think pastelaria is a beautiful geometric that is great for headlines and limited copy. not good for continuous though. however, i think it’s been overshadowed by the lust for grunge fonts (and here i would like to encourage you not to use grunge fonts, but to set your type and then distress it yourself if that’s what your going for. when you set to characters next to each other that are distressed exactly the same, it looks weird).

i also came across this cache of free vintage fonts, but i would caution you to be wise about which ones you choose. some of them are not all that great, and the ones that are useful i would encourage you to use like you would use spices in cooking. because let’s face it, a cumin-chili-pepper casserole would be downright nasty.

something to be said for print

the demise of print is topic that has had at least somewhat broad discussion among graphic designers since the web continues to grow and grow. yes, print is shrinking/will shrink more in it’s use, but it’s not going away, and i think we may even see a digital “backlash” to a certain extent. following are several reasons i take this position;

print is tactile, and this will actually become more valuable the less common print is. this is not to be confused with “touchable,” at least as i’m defining the terms. the iphone and ipad are touchable, but they lack the texture, the feel of smooth, or linen, matte or glossy that print gives.

print is now visually unexpected and delightful, looking at the reflected light of print rather than the projected light of digital. i noticed this about myself even recently when i got a final printed piece back from the vendor. i had been working a lot on the computer, and the matte, reflected light of the postcard surprised me. the quality of it made me actively think.

print also exists in physical space. i guess so does your computer or mobile device, but the content doesn’t. i think this give print a feeling of groundedness that digital lacks.

print is not being replaced by digital, but taking on a different role. true, it will no longer be the primary source of content delivery, but rather is/will be used to evoke certain emotions and engage senses that digital cannot. really to give a feeling that digital cannot.

so, couple the best things about print with the best things about digital to to create enjoyable experiences, and to foster connectedness and increased interactivity between humans beings. it’s how your using mediums to help people that matters.

speaking (or writing) in definite terms

as i progress in my career as a graphic designer, and into adulthood in general, speaking in definite terms, which i will break down into two categories of absolutes and imperatives, has become essential to the way i work, and really the way i live. now, that being said, to be able to communicate as such, i must have confidence in my work to begin with, but communicating in definite terms is cyclical in that it actually increases my own confidence in my work, as well as those i’m communicating to. my clients and collaborators need to be confident that the design that they’re getting from me is top-notch, and the most appropriate for their project.

speaking in absolutes means to declare that something is what it is independent of opinion. it is again important though, that you have solid reasons for your absolute statements. for example, rather than saying something like, “i think this version has better rhythm,” say “this version has better rhythm BECAUSE…” this will force you to be deliberate about your design decision making, and it will also demonstrate to those with whom you’re working that you have thought about what you’ve done, and made deliberate, definite decisions.

speaking in imperatives means to give a specific call to action. if you head up a team, will you get more results if say, “someone should get a quote from the vendor for…” or “bob, please call the vendor today and get a quote.”? or if you want to meet up with someone, will that meeting more likely happen if you say “i would love to meet with you sometime,” or if you say, “let’s meet. how does monday lunch work for you?”

i think that while there are a good many things in life and in graphic design that are relative, relativism has done us a great disservice in many ways. it’s made us all so sensitive that we don’t see great ideas happen for fear of stepping on someone’s toes or offending someone’s delicate sensibilities. i’m not advocating being rude or pushy by any means. i am, however, advocating knowing that you’re ideas are good, and you’re reasoning is solid, and having and expressing confidence in your process. you’ll go much further.