My Card. My Work.

I ran into this post on Facebook and thought I would share it. The source is listed at the end. Someone should inform Chris from FreelancerReview.net that he did get a link back with his trackback/perm link. Maybe he’s one of those “New Designers”

The words graphic designer, architect, or industrial designer stick in my throat. This inadequate set of terms reveals only partially the still undefined nature of the designer. —Alvin Lustig

At the dawn of 2010, a new breed of freelance designer is emerging. It’s a designer who does more than *gasp* simply design things. This is a change driven not only by necessity but also by a desire to gain relevance and influence in today’s increasingly globalized and ever more connected world. Opportunities that were out of reach just a few years ago are now becoming accessible and those who fail to embrace them will certainly be left in the dust.

So what are the characteristics of a “New Designer”? To understand the New Designer, we’ll first need to define the Old, which is very easily done. The Old Designer does one thing – design. They may be good at it or bad at it, but their primary job and source of income is design. Sound familiar? A New Designer goes beyond one simple skill set. While being a great designer is the cornerstone of a New Designer, I’ve identified 3 key skills that New Designers also possess.

 

They Have Influence

First, and foremost, a New Designer possesses influence. Old Designers have extremely limited influence; they influence clients by doing great work and maybe influence the design community if their work is good enough to imitate. New Designers are also bloggers and authors whose opinions and insights are absorbed throughout the community. Through blogging, the New Designer increases their audience and importance as people subscribe not only to their RSS feed, but also to their unique train of thought. When people are willing to pay for your knowledge in the form of buying your books (or ebooks) you have gained a whole new level of authority and relevance. New Designers especially make good use of gaining and seeding knowledge on Twitter. In turn, being more influential can have an impact on your original design business and increase the level of demand for your services if that’s what you are after.

 

They Are Business People and Entrepreneurs

Old Designers don’t know much about running a business, or just know the basics. They just want to design. But to be a freelance designer, you must have a business that is sustainable. New Designers recognize that customer service, marketing, using solid contracts, cash flow, profit and loss statements and networking are important. They also recognize that there’s more to it than that. They are already planning for retirement and have a solid health insurance plan. Importantly, they recognize the fact that every single freelancer is also an entrepreneur, and being such, they tend to also develop profitable side projects that bring in additional income. For some this may include blogging and for others it may include developing Web and/or iPhone apps, all of which increase their influence and their bottom line.

 

They Are Well Informed and Adaptable

Old Designers are stuck in their ways. New Designers are constantly consuming the latest news, learning new techniques and reading the latest books. As business people, they know that to tread water is to eventually tire and drown and to stay afloat they must continue moving in a new direction. New Designers are learning to design for new mediums, such as mobile phone specific ads, apps and sites. They are increasingly crossing over into the world of programming, going beyond simple HTML and CSS to at least get a basic understanding of how J-Query, Ruby and Ajax work.

 SOURCE: FreelancerReview.net 

Ok this article got me going a little

“Old Designers have extremely limited influence”

I disagree. Having a blog that post how-to’s and links to other design articles and writing your opinion about random design stuff means nothing. There are lots of trendy design bloggers that get a lot of traffic and followers but when looking at their work its nothing but low grade junior level if that. Oh but they have followers on Twitter and to their RSS feed. Let’s face it. Clients care about the following:

Your Work

Your Process

Your Team

Your Quote

It doesn’t matter how many people follow you or inflate your ego if your work sucks you’re not going to get the work. Designers Old/New influence other designers and trends from the work they produce. The awards they earn with successful campaigns. One Show, Hatch Awards, Logo books,  by as simple as picking up a publication and viewing ads and products by walking down the street looking at everything around you. You’re influenced from everything visual and how you interact with everyday things. Being influenced from some no name (before he/she blogged) you’re missing out on a lot.

Designers need to keep up with technology. There was a time when Creative/Art Directors wouldn’t even turn on a computer. They would sketch out a design and hand it off to a designer to create. You need to change with the times.

“Old Designers don’t know much about running a business,”

I disagree. Old designers have built strong successful businesses. Not as a “Freelancer” but as a design agency. Successful businesses are not run by one creative. They are from a team.

“… They just want to design.”

 Isn’t that what you want to do as a designer? Hire someone to handle the day-to-day business. Hire a project Manager, a developer, others that will make your business successful and focus on what you do best DESIGN!

“They are increasingly crossing over into the world of programming, going beyond simple HTML and CSS to at least get a basic understanding of how J-Query, Ruby and Ajax work.”

Sure you can dabble in both development and design (visual) but will you be great in both? NO!!  There are companies that look for an all in one person to do it all. Why? to save money. Will they get the best person? Most likely they will not. They get someone that they will use and abuse. Sticking by what you do best regardless if you “Think” you will lose work from it would be the best way to go. I don’t program even though I was a computer science major. I design and not a developer. for the past 15 years never had a problem getting work. Get your niche and stick with it. You should ask yourself this. Are you trying to find a full-time job or build up your client base? Which is it?

“…they recognize the fact that every single freelancer is also an entrepreneur, and being such, they tend to also develop profitable side projects that bring in additional income. For some this may include blogging and for others it may include developing Web and/or iPhone apps, all of which increase their influence and their bottom line.”

This is pure comedy. I don’t know to laugh or ask if you’re joking. Sure go blog get traffic and make some money. How can that be compared to developing and/or iPhone apps? This article is all over the place. Part of it seems more about getting people to read your blog with the “Stick with us” The otherpart seems like a new designer bashing the ones that paved the road.

Being a designer you should be able to design in all mediums and for all types of businesses. Regardless for what the target audience is. You should be flexible and be willing to work with the worst of them and the best of them.

You should be able to wear multiple hats. Think beyond just design. Marketing plays a huge part when designing along with branding and how to use technology and social media to help make your design/campaign sucessful.

 THANK YOU AUGUS T DE LOS REYES  FROM POSTING THIS ON FACEBOOK.

–Tom

as a means to bring innovation + improvement to your organization … do this :]

completely erase all that you know about your company and its online presence ( real world presence as well … any of it, just wipe that slate clean ) … take a quick look at what your company’s site is doing from a generalist’s perspective …

then

more importantly

look at the 3 top competitors ‘out there’

right?

and THEN

here’s the kicker

pretend you are a brand new, bleeding edge, low finance, start-up … maybe get together with a small group and all pretend with this scenario in mind, because this sh!t, this is what is actually happening ‘out there’ on a daily basis now that the technology is SO readily available + easy to use … so …

pretend you’re a brand new start up, no funding or anything yet, right? but pretend your objective as this new start up is to completely topple the company you’re @ … basically, think like the enemy ( because, believe me, they’re out there + ready to strike ) … and don’t put any limits on what you’re actively brainstorming about … pretend like you’ll just fnckin’ figure it all out as you go … there are no technical limitations, no preconceived notions, none of the typical hang-ups or politics that typically come along with any established organization

and so, then … like use big paper, crayons, markers, scissors, tape, glue, pencils, pens, paint, wood, clay, cement, shoelaces, coffecans, spare computer parts, trash, whatever it takes to make those ideas come flyin’ out at you and your team to stay loose + creative

big words

big ideas

picture, lots of drawings + pictures … sketches … simple sketches … rough sketches

get all that sh!t out … really be devious, like you’re going to tear down the walls of the building you’re probably ‘ideating’ in ( boy, i fr!kken HATE that word ), but just be destructive … be disruptive … own some innovation, aight?

after like 3 or more hours of this … take digital photos of everything you did … its just amazing stuff, ain’t it? i mean, some of it is crap, i’m sure … but you have a LOT of ideas up there + now its going to be a matter of documenting, basically translating what you have up there in analog format to something more virtual and easily manipulated

photos, more photos please

if at all possible, take photos of the actual sessions to capture the spirit and energy of the active idea outletting

take all the big paper, all the big ideas to a place to examine, interpret, document, organize, refine, etcetera

do this every 4 months

i bet you’ll come up with some pretty interesting, innovative concepts … @ least half a dozen that will add amazing value to the scope of what your company can do …

that is, if they let you ;]

Just got back from the July 2009 Refresh Boston down @ The Cambridge Microsoft Labs offices in Kendall last nite … and boy are my arms tired ;]

But seriously folks, Marc Amos of Boston Web Studio out of Beverly, Massachusetts put together and presented this amazing walkthrough of all the latest CSS 2.1 & CSS 3.0 coolness ‘out there’ … the take-away, make sure you check cross-browser compatibility for the property or class you’re implementing … not all a these things are exactly playing nicely just yet, but it looks like we’re gettin’ there … many amazing new concepts to explore ( some of which almost seem like they would have logically been ready half a decade or so already ).

Thanks to Marc, Sharon, Refresh Boston and the many, many sponsors and affiliate organizations for another amazing networking + industry-specific, knowledge-sharing event … nice!

Syfy.com

Back in March Sci Fi announced they are re-branding and changing its name to SyFy. Landor Associates was the branding firm hired by Sc Fi. They can’t take credit for the whole project though…

Yes, we worked with the SciFi Channel, and it hired us to consult on the project. However, Syfy was a name generated internally and pre-tested at the channel before our involvement, 

 Yes Sci Fi paid a large sum of money for the name SyFy to Michael Hinman. Was it was worth it? Um, Nope!

 My question to Landor is…

 Can you guys at least take credit for designing a god awful looking web site?

Come on now are you joking me? This has to be one of the worst re-branding site designs I’ve seen in a long time. I thought re-branding brings out better and more creative designs not the other way around. Maybe you didn’t do it or maybe you will try to pass blame for this as well.

SyFy Imagine Greater? No I cannot for the life of me imagine the re branding being great!

Earlier today I was on FFFFound and stumbled across an illustration DeadArtsPublishing by Aaron Horkey. Who’s Aaron Horkey? Aaron Horkey is well known in the gig-poster world, however for those of us who don’t constantly check OMG Posters , or has seen his killer skate board graphics or even his sneaker design he is by far inspirational to all. Horkey is known for his highly detailed illustrations and hand lettering. The attention to detail is incredible. Where can you find his work? His silk screens are highly sought after, which seems to only be available on ebay.

So check out some of his illustrations and let me know if he inspires you.

Have you heard of Flash Catalyst yet? aka Thermo. I wanted to put a list together of some demos to give you an idea of how cool this is.  I’ve been using FC for a little while now and love it. Yes I have some minor issues that I raised during the beta pre-release. The main one is for us Fireworks users we have an extra step to do. We need to export as FXG format. Other than that it’s a pretty smooth transition into FC.

I would take a look at some of the demos below and download the public beta that’s out. GET IT RIGHT HERE!

Adobe® Flash® Catalyst™ is a new professional interaction design tool for rapidly creating user interfaces without coding.

• Transform artwork created in Adobe Photoshop® and Adobe Illustrator® into functional user interfaces.

• Create interactive prototypes with the ability to leverage them in the final product

• Publish a finished project as a SWF file ready for distribution

• Work more efficiently with developers who use Adobe Flash Builder™ 4 to create rich Internet applications (RIAs). Designers use Flash Catalyst to create the functional user experience then provide the project file to developers who use Flash Builder to add functionality and integrate with servers and services

Some links to get to know FC a little more.

Adobe Flash Catalyst Thermo Team

Mark Anders’ FITC Session on Flash Catalyst

InsideRIA – Flash Catalyst Beta 1 Demo

Lynda.com-FC Beta Review

Flash Catalyst Beta 1 demo in 4 minutes

I hope you find this interesting enough to download it and give it a try.

-Tom

Jun 12th in Inspiration by Emil

Interview with Psdtuts+ and Vectortuts+ Editor Sean Hodge – Psdtuts+.

I’m originally from Oregon. I went to college and spent quite a few years in Connecticut. During that time I traveled a bit as well, mostly Northern Europe, and I’ve made it over the border to Canada. I have a degree in History, though I took a slew of graphic design classes, and some at the graduate level. I lived in Venezuela for a couple years recently, which is where my wife is from. I visited some Caribbean islands off Venezuela’s coast as well, Aruba for example. I only recently moved to Florida in January of this year. I’m still filling my apartment with new furniture from Ikea.

Great interview brought to you by PsdTuts

I thought this was a pretty interesting.

-Tom

Throw Yo Dishes in the air and clean em like you just don’t care. Kitchen Ka-Ka-Karma.

Thanks AdFreak

Teo Skaffa’s art is mainly based around cat bitches with pointy tits. Always stick thin and ugly these cat women often smoke like bandits and show too much skin. People love Skaffa’s work because it appeals to the deviant art demographic of 16 year old girls who want to be ugly cat bitches. Skaffa thinks 90% of the world’s human population is barely sentient.

Skaffa should be big in japan, but isn’t. –Teo Skaffa. “pulled from his Behance About Us”

Check his work!!!

TeoSkaffa

MySpace

FlickR

Behance

..:: Designers’ Talk on LinkedIn ::..

Fred Showker, Editor and Publisher of DTG, recently posted the following question in the Designers’ Talk Discussions section of LinkedIn:

My question: WHAT is DESIGN?

So many readers often write to ask about becoming a design professional. Many ask “What is Design” or “What is Graphic Design?”

Among the established definitions you’ll find that just about anyone you ask — you’ll get a different answer. So, in the May issue of DTG we’ll be asking …

WHAT IS DESIGN?

My studies at The Dynamic Media Institute at MassArt bring up many questions about design, media, communication and creativity. The question What is design? seemed to perfectly resonate with recent thoughts and discourse with the fantastic community engaged in these discussions at DMI.

Here is my response:

WHAT is DESIGN? What an excellent question. And what an important question to ask ourselves on a daily basis.

Here is my quick interpretation of design …

First of all, I think of the word design as more of a verb than a noun. An active process. A process that can contain elements of expression, research, planning, thinking, doing, conversing … but design is best when there is a lot of active exploration, research and process behind the end result.

As a second notion to consider … here is a layman’s linguistic deconstruction of the word as interpreted by someone personally and professionally involved with design for a decade or more. So here is my breakdown by syllable …

The ‘de’ part of DESIGN … ‘de’ reminds me of the word ‘di’ in Italian, both in phonetic | aural similarity and in direct translation of meaning … ‘de’ = ‘of’ in English.

The ’sign’ part of DESIGN … ’sign’ is the root of the word ’significance’.

Literally translated DESIGN means ‘of significance’. More importantly, the interpretation I come away with is something more like the infinitive ‘to bring significance’. I think of it as a process where the designer brings meaning … actually brings something significant to the world. Or at the very least to a certain targeted audience.

So … in the end, we not only need to ask from day to day the all-important question ‘WHAT is DESIGN?’, but we also need to continually update and define ‘WHAT is the role of a DESIGNER?’ … the answers to both of these questions are shifting and changing more and more often in these times, due in part to the speedy development of new technologies and also immensely influenced by a confluence of so many eclectic fields coming together to define and design new significance, new meaning, new thought, and new methods of communication.

View the original LinkedIn Answers question and responses here: http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=92232&discussionID=2742196&commentID=3023128&goback=.hom.anh_92232#commentID_3023128

On April 30 they launched the first Playground competition “How to imagine time in the future”. Request an invitation to join us, upload your “realisation” of time and you could win either $20,000 towards tuition fees or project funding if you’re a student, or an inspirational trip to the likes of Freeze London or Art Basel Miami if you’re a seasoned creative pro.

You can enter work in the field of any of the following creative disciplines:

• Music
• Film
• Print design
• 2D animation
• 3D animation
• Motion design
• Illustration
• Fashion

For more information, take a look at the competition terms & conditions