"Break Out of Those Silos"

Great short video with John Jay of Wieden+Kennedy.

I really love when people put an emphasis on empathy in design. I believe that trait is so very valuable in what we do. Understanding the client, the users, the people we collaborate with, etc. can make a huge difference in coming up with a successful design solution.

Designers and Startups

This recent shift in my career path occurred due to participating in an event called Startup Weekend. There will be a future post detailing my experiences, but really, this is what opened my eyes to the world of startups. Before that weekend in October, I didn't know much (or anything) about that domain, aside from what I saw in The Social Network. Geeks working 23 hours a day and eventually making bajillions of dollars.

I soon realized that startups are actually a really neat opportunity for a designer. Think about it. You're branding a company. You're creating a product. It all moves at a super fast pace, but the possibilities are so open. There are very few limits. And it's great timing for me to explore this because one of the current trends in startups is designer founders.

The Fast Company article, "Silicon Valley’s New Secret Weapon: Designers Who Found Startups", explains it all really well.

As the consumer tech market becomes more crowded, brands and experience design--not just technical capabilities--are becoming critical to success.

There is an influx of people churning out product after product right now. Everyone wants to be the new [insert social media fad here]. And good design will be what helps distinguish one product from the next. If the Startup Weekend I attended is any indication, there are not very many designers involved. Good for me. That makes me a hot commodity. :)

Enrique Allen sums up the article with this:

In the wake of Steve Jobs’s example, it’s obvious that designer founders should be champions of the user experience. They’re the ones who stand with one foot in the world of technology and the other in the world of people, bringing the two together.

The more I read about designers in the startup world, the more I feel that it might be the right place for me (for now). It's definitely something I'll continue exploring.

Airbnb Infographic

I had only heard of Airbnb, a service connecting travelers with private parties who have a spare room/space to rent, very recently. But I must have been living under a rock. They are celebrating 5 million nights booked and just released a drool-worthy infographic documenting their global growth.

[ click to view entire graphic ]

It's such a clean, simple, and interesting solution for displaying fairly standard data. I've actually been researching infographics lately for a project I'm working on. Visualizing has some great stuff, and I've always loved the ones in GOOD. I'm going to make something like this someday. And it might just track my personal junk food consumption over the course of a year, but if it looks good, who cares?

Color: A Color Matching Game

The fine folks over at Method of Action who brought you such design-related distractions as Kern Type: A Kerning Game, have created a new obsession for you color lovers out there. Color: A Color Matching Game

I will play this game until I get a perfect score. Color Theory was one of my favorite courses in college. I didn't even mind paying a hundred bucks for a package of Color-aid Paper as long as it meant I could cut it up and make awesome art with it. (I think I still have a stack of that paper at home.) I once made a mosaic cheeseburger out of little bits of gray paper torn from magazines as an exercise in value. How that skill has not landed me a kick ass job in the field of design I will never understand.

A New Blog, A New Life

I started my first blog in November of 2004 as a way to stay in touch with my "internet friends," who were fellow designers that I had met on a forum. Dorky, I know. Since then, I've gone through a few different blogs, most notably, Operation NICE, which encourages individuals to be proactively nice. So what would compel me, you ask, to begin yet another?

A few months ago, my entire outlook on my career in the world of design shifted. I never quite knew what I wanted to be when I grow up (don't worry, I don't actually plan on ever growing up), and I am inching closer and closer to my ten year anniversary as the in-house creative services manager for a pharmaceutical management company. I got bored even writing that, so I apologize to those reading it. I had this fear of taking on freelance work. I lacked any confidence in my skillz (always with a 'z'). I had limited interactive experience but was feeling drained working on print projects. Not only was my creative muscle atrophying, but I was losing all passion for the field of design as a whole. Then October 2011 happened. And things changed.

For the sake of keeping this post length reasonable, I won't get into it now. There will be future posts for that. But let's just say that one event led me to one person which led me to new insights, and now I feel as if I didn't just take a left at a fork in the road, I went off the trail completely. I'm in the brush. It's thrilling, and a bit scary, but yeah, mostly thrilling.

So I'm on this quest. I'm discovering that I'm enjoying the world of startups. I'm having a blast learning more about UX and UI design. And I'm not letting trepidation stand in the way of my success anymore. This blog will document that quest and also serve as a place for me to geek out about the things that excite me.

Let's see how it goes.