So…wedding season can be a blast! I celebrated my own this summer and it was just that. The wedding market is a huge one for sure. I have been commissioned on several occasions to design wedding invitations, and I must warn you of the dangers of this particular field. Most people, by nature, are relatively civil about everything, except when it comes to one’s wedding! I, myself, did not go down the bride-zilla path, but many unfortunate souls do tend to waver. I guess its because we implant in our heads that a wedding is supposed to be a certain way and everything is supposed to be perfect (Even though reality never seems to mirror that). Now I believe that wedding invitations can be quite fun to design, especially when you get to take creative reign. But let me warn you that they are never as easy as you may think, mostly because of the bride-zilla syndrome.

I was lucky to design for a couple of different people who did not go down that path too much, but it is a lot of stress on you, the designer, as well as on the one you are designing for. If you plan to do a “favor” for a friend to design their invites, just remember that in the end (with luck) they will be happy and you will have a really nice portfolio piece out of the deal. Plus you don’t have to spend any extra $$ on a gift, as your services would probably cost more than you would spend on one in the first place. But remember if you do decide to do wedding invitations, make sure that you either charge for your time OR remember that your friends are still your friends even if they drive you up the wall with minute changes left and right!

Good luck to you all and congrats on getting through the process with your head still in tact!

I had never heard of this term “crowdsourcing” before until a colleague mentioned it to me a couple of months ago, which raised a lot of questions about the value placed on quality design. In the many years that I have been working as a designer, one of the biggest things that I have and will always pride myself on is my ability to produce high quality results for each and every client, giving them something more unique and trying to push the realms of design forward, rather than standing still or doing what has already been done. I follow a process, have personal relationships with my clients, and strive to give them the best possible results for their dollar. I have never been one to try to whip up something quickly and without following a specific process, just for an easy dollar. Nor have I done this for free.

Crowdsourcing is a means for people to attain a lot of design work for very little costs. From a designers-perspective, it feels wrong and cheap. If you are a neophyte at design or a recent grad student, it can offer a lot of good opportunities to gain experience and build your portfolio. That being said, it also teaches young designers that it is okay to work for free unless your designs are picked. It also works against the design process, and these newbys are learning bad examples of producing design. It means that as time goes on, the quality of design may not be so innovative as it once was. With technological advances, and things being more accessible to the masses, it makes it difficult for those of us ‘true’ designers to compete in this economy. The design-world is a funny one in that it is totally speculative – someone may say one design is amazing while someone else may think a totally different way. Who is to say who is right and who is wrong.

I believe that spec design is causing a shift in the population’s point of view about the value of good design vs. mediocre design. If you know anything about the design process, you will know that spec-design does not follow that process. It does not encourage breakthrough new design ideas or a community working for the betterment of the company, rather it pins designers against each other in order to win the prize (even if that prize is only a couple hundred dollars for hours and hours of time and energy). The demand for low-end design continues to increase due to the unfortunate downturn of the economy and more and more people who are actually quite talented and can afford to earn a decent living without taking this route are working for free out of desperation. But that raises a big question; Do you really think you are getting great results from a desperate designer? Do you really think these people care enough about you and your company to give you something amazing, or just something passable?

I have also found with crowdsourcing leads to other problems like design-poaching, which is where someone steals someone else’s creative design ideas and reformat’s them as their own. To a point, this type of thing has gone on for many years, but with spec-design it is quite literally right out in the open. One example that recently occurred to me was when I tried spec-design myself just as an experiment. I found a company willing to pay a bit more for a nice website, and opted into the contest. I found that the designs prior to mine were pretty poor and not very unique amongst themselves. When I posted my design, within about 8 hours, there were about 10 other submissions that pretty much took the work that I had created and reformatted it as their own. It feels unfair that someone else can take advantage of this space, and more-so that a designer would want to do this? But like I said, its about making money not making something amazing.

In the end, a lot of the general population can’t really tell the difference between mediocre and amazing design…in their minds it isn’t that big a leap. In a quality designer’s mind, it is astronomical. It also helps to create a population that will not be educated around good design and what that means, rather a way to exploit creative people for their resources. This leaves a designer with a few options. You can choose to take the low-road and attempt the spec-design path, or you can choose to deny it, ignore it, fight against it. A lot of world-renowned ‘design’ organizations like AIGA stand against spec-design. I think that there is still a community that desires quality and personal relationships for their business, and I can only hope, for those of us who are designers pushing the boundaries of what has been done into new plains, that we can continue to be valued and appreciated for our hard work and paid for it.

I want to ask you, would you go to work every day and spend hours and hours doing something, with only a slight chance of being paid for that work, as if in competition? It feels almost as low as sweatshop labor, and is this really something that the design community is supporting? I, for one, can not do what I do best knowing that it will be taken for granted.

Every so often I need to clean house. I think its important to purge ourselves of the unnecessary “stuff” that piles up over time. Its amazing how refreshing it can be to let go of it. I like to do this to my work space as well as my living space, as it tends to yield similar results.

This week, I found myself buried in a ton of stuff from old jobs and unfinished projects all the way back to my college days. At first I took a strict approach to throw out everything I haven’t used or seen in the last 6 months. It was going well, but then I started to get into my old papers from college and reading through some of my sketch books. I forgot how much I really enjoyed things like Art History and Photography. I took a Surrealism class in college which was the very first time I actually cared about art history for more than “interesting art.” Something about the meaning behind the work and the troublesome woes that surrealistic artists expressed made sense to me. I had always been a fan of Salvadore Dali, but did not really understand the meaning behind the craziness in his work. I thought, when I took the class, that I would write my term proejct about Dali.

I found a small sketchbook that I dedicated to this term project, which included a series of different writings, photographs, sketches and ideas. I forgot that I even had it, but I started to flip through the pages and was really inspired, again by the work and poetry from the time period. Hans Bellemer was the German artist whome I wrote about (surrealistic).

I have tons and tons of photos of his classic mutated “dolls” which were essentially an expression of his hatred of the fascist Nazi regime. I ended up writing a short book inspired by Bellmer, as well as a series of different art pieces with oil, craypas and watercolor. I also wrote a couple of poems which turned into a song that I have yet to finish, but am excited to get to work on it again.

Most importantly, I was really excited to find something NEW in my sea of OLD. It was rewarding to spend time and look through some of the clutter, even though most of it was rubbish. It was great to remind myself of old inspirations, and perhaps revitilize them into new ones.

I’m really excited to embark on a brand new year. This week is my 1 year anniversary of my decision to be my own boss, and run my own company full-time. It was an interesting year full of ups and downs, and mostly learning experiences. I found new strengths that I never knew I possessed, as well as many new challenges along the way. I took my time and slowed down. I reflected and rebooted. Mostly, I never let myself get too overwhelmed. I decided that it was most important to try to take my craft to a higher level, than ever before.

In the web-space, I especially developed my understanding of the content management system in regards to functionality and design. I think its so great that the web is finally catching up to the depth and dimension of print-design. It is extremely exciting to be at the forefront of the ever-expanding web-world, and I hope that the momentum continues. I have various interesting projects down the pipeline, and I look forward to working on them, and sharing them in this space in this new year. I can’t wait to see what else is in store this year and I hope it is a wealth of new beginnings and experiences that enhance my creativity and ability.

People often ask me how I manage to run my own company. I have been operating under the same principals since the beginning of my professional career (many years ago). Time and time again, I have seen “design” companies (small and large) struggle to keep their clients happy. What I realized is that the most important principals of good business are the reason that so many other companies round on failure; because they do not operate in that way.

The most important principal is communication. Communication with your client is the only way that you can have success with them. When you fail to let them know what you are doing with their investment, they will quickly believe the absolute worst in the situation. If you do not have an answer to a question, be honest with them. If you are struggling with a problem and find that you do not know how to solve it, tell them about it. Don’t pretend to know everything or have all of the answers, because that is just silly and unrealistic. Wouldn’t you rather work with someone who was completely honest with you than someone who was “taking you for a ride?”

The second rule of good business is to follow through with what you say you are going to do. If you make a promise that you will fulfill whatever need is being asked of you, make sure that you do exactly that. Don’t say you are going to do something, and then leave it to be forgotten, or try to wrangle your way out of it through ‘technicalities.’ Help your clients to understand exactly what it is you will do for them, and let them question everything, so that you are both on the exact same page moving forward.

The third main principal of good business is to maintain the highest quality service and production that you can. The more time and energy that you put forth in your projects for clients, the more you will be rewarded in the end. Its not just about making good money, although that can be a great motivator. It should not matter whether a project is a huge whale or a tiny fish, the quality needs to stay on point. You will not only gain a great portfolio piece for your collection, but you will gain a fan of you and your work, which leads to referrals, more business and more money.

If you can stick with these simple rules, you will find so much more success with your professional career – whether you work for yourself or for a large company.