Getting out of a trap
In your efforts to become a leader in the work that you do, a recent post by Seth Godin, Trapped by the incoming, Seth describes why you have so much work coming your way.
The incoming is coming to you because a while ago, you did something brave and generous and risky.Seth Godin
Leadership should result in more work. As people recognise your leadership abilities the work will also include different forms of work such as mentoring, consulting, advising, which are all part of being recognised as a leader. These new component parts of your workload are great, until it overwhelms you, damages you or even breaks you. The volume of work and its impact is multiplied in a team producing great work.But, if you don't lift your gaze above the work to hand, above the horizon, to focus on what's next, you will ultimately lose your edge. I’ve told my team leaders often enough that next year I don't want them as they are now - that would be a problem. I need them to grow, to be better, and to be better at delivering the benefit of their experience. I need them to be demonstrating their own leadership of their specialism.
If you spend all your time dealing with the incoming, though, you’ll have no time and no energy to create the next thing. Every successful organization that has ultimately faded away via irrelevance has failed for this very reason.Seth Godin
It's important to invest in your team in terms of training, exposure to new things, and experiences that will challenge them and help them to grow. Trapped by the incoming | Seth's Blog I’m also currently reading This is Marketing by Seth and it's prompting lots of ideas and new approaches.
The two most important pages for creators to read
If you are a designer, creator, artist, or maker, these two pages of highlights from the Adobe 99U event are the most important thing for you to do right now. Better than trying to find a new book to read, better than the news, or other blog posts.I’m sure that the content in these two pages will spark an interest, idea, or question that will lead you somewhere good in your life and career.
Go and have a read now, and take notes.I'll be here when you're done.
Our world is
Our world is random and messy. Collecting data ...
Our world is random and messy. Collecting data does not make it more perfect or more controllable.
Giorgia Lupi, Partner & Design Director, Accurat
Introducing the 2019 Adobe Creative Residents
Adobe have recently announced the designers who will take part in the 2019 Creative Residency.
The designer and project that I'm most interested in following is that of Patricia Reiners. Patricia is a Berlin-based UX/UI designer exploring the city of the future and how new technologies like AI, voice control, and augmented reality will change our interfaces and design decisions.
Post-residency, she’d like to work with companies that share her passions for problem-solving and using new technologies to benefit society. You can see some of Patricia’s past work here.
How to Promote Yourself Online When You’re a Total Introvert - Adobe 99U
The design world seems to favour those who develop a strong presence on social media. But what happens when you’re an introverted designer who naturally shies away from self-promotion?
I am an introvert who knows how to be an extrovert. I have done this for so long, so well, that many of my friends, team, and colleagues find it hard to believe. But to recharge, I must have time alone to think, process, and restore.
In Susan Cain’s book, Quiet, I was introduced to ambiverts and ambiversion. An ambivert can show the qualities of both introversion and extroversion, and they can switch to either depending on their mood, context, and goals. Perhaps I am an ambivert?
Being able to switch to extroversion when I need to is a tool I use to get things done and achieve things I don’t know how to accomplish as an introvert. Sometimes the only cost to this for me is feeling drained of energy by being in ‘extrovert mode’. Other times, as well as the drain on my energy, there can also be ‘butterflies’ or nervousness about doing something outside my natural comfort zone.
Adobe’s 99U has a good article about How to Promote Yourself Online When You’re a Total Introvert. They recommend that you carefully choose the platforms you’re active on, seek meaningful interactions, and outline a way to approach social media that is useful for who you are. Well worth a read for those who are not natural extroverts online.
Be more productive: The joy of missing out (JOMO)
I mean, look, real-time communication, for example, is handy sometimes. When there’s really a crisis or whatever and you really need to hash something out, fine. It’s just that when you have to follow a dozen real-time conversations all day long, that’s broken.
Introducing the joy of missing out (JOMO)
Jason Fried, CEO of Basecamp, talks about the benefits of reducing your capacity to be interrupted by not having instant messenger and chat apps turned on.
I mean, look, real-time communication, for example, is handy sometimes. When there’s really a crisis or whatever and you really need to hash something out, fine. It’s just that when you have to follow a dozen real-time conversations all day long, that’s broken. That’s just broken. That’s like, the fear of missing out. We have what we call JOMO, the joy of missing out at Basecamp. We want people to miss out. I want you just to focus on your work. You don’t need to pay attention to a million things that are going on at once, right?
Continual interruptions, no matter the source, have a negative impact your enjoyment of your work and the quality of what you produce.
And something else happens over here and they’ve gotta jump over here. Now they’ve stopped the flow, and they’re over here now responding to something one line at a time coming back, a new …
My experience is that constant interruptions from chat, email, and phone calls prevent you from doing what you are trying to do. It impacts your level of focus and engagement with your work, impacting the quality of what you produce.
In one of my previous roles, I managed a team spread across six time zones. I adjusted my day up and down to connect with each of my team. But most of my day I was the only member of the team working. Wow, did this allow me to produce some great work! I was productive because for 5 to 6 hours of the day there were no emails, chats, or messages. No interruptions! I could start work on my projects or clear ticketed design work from our workflow system.
Let’s just do our best work. We should be doing our best work anyway, so let’s just do that.
I am a big believer in JOMO. It helps my teams and me to produce better work - which is what it's meant to be about anyway.
Robots and coding at the design schools of the future
The Royal College of Art is expanding its curriculum to include more science and technology. Expect other schools to do the same.
The design school of the future is nothing like the one you went to
Reality is
The reality is that most of the time brilliant creations are the result of teams of people struggling awkwardly into the unknown.
Quotes I Like
The reality is that most of the time brilliant creations are the result of teams of people struggling awkwardly into the unknown.
Todd Henry
The future
The future is not some place we are going, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made. And the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination.
Quotes I Like
The future is not some place we are going, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made. And the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination.
John H. Schaar
Think beyond the pixel
This is part three in my series of articles building on the Adobe 99U profile piece on Katie Dill, the Vice President of Design at Lyft. Katie has made a sizeable team of more than 100 designers at Lyft. In the 99U article, they cover what she regards as eight important parts of scaling a design team.
Introduction
This is part three in my series of articles building on the Adobe 99U profile piece on Katie Dill, the Vice President of Design at Lyft. Katie has made a sizeable team of more than 100 designers at Lyft. In the 99U article, they cover what she regards as eight important parts of scaling a design team.
I will post my article on each of the eight points over the coming days. I hope you stick around for all eight as there is much valuable information and benefit. So, let’s continue with the third of Katie’s topics on scaling your team, that of ensuring your team can think beyond the pixel.
3. Look for designers who ‘think beyond the pixel.’
It’s easy for design leaders at tech companies to get swept up in the online experience, but the offline experience is just as important. “Yes, a lot of our work is related to those pixels, but as a customer, your experience of us isn’t just in the app – it’s on a street corner, it’s sitting in the back of a car, it’s riding a bike, it’s talking to someone who moments ago was a stranger,” says Dill. That’s why she looks for designers who pay attention to more than what is on the screen. “Do they think beyond the pixel? Do they think about every moment of the journey and all of the different modalities of that interaction — from a billboard to an app, to a seat cushion, to the person-to-person interaction? That’s what we want.”
I think that there is much complexity hidden in the simple statement of being able to ‘think beyond the pixel’. You cannot be a successful designer if you are not able to think beyond the screen for the projects and art that you’re creating.
What is the message you are trying to convey and to whom are you trying to communicate it? Flight information in airports is shown on large banks of monitors where 95% of the data displayed is useless to everyone who looks at it? Many of those looking at the arrival and departure boards may also be tired, stressed, dealing with early starts or late finishes, or flying with small children or other family members with a world of their own emotions and events. How do you ensure that the customer receives useful information?
Here is a very, VERY, small selection of examples that go beyond the screen that you need to think about how it will impact and interact with the art you are producing.
Are there any trends in your industry, or society in general such as #MeToo, for marketing and communication material? Should you be following these trends, or not? Whatever your choice you need to know why you made that choice.
For projects with physical material as a finished installation, such as for signage and exhibitions, can you visit the location of where the art will be? Alternatively, can you see photos from different angles and times of day? Can you see floorplans of venues? Do these floorplans show who your fellow exhibitors are, and who will be nearby? Where will your work sit and how will the environment around your art impact it or interact with it? Is the impact or interaction good, or bad? Is it something you can leverage and use to your advantage or an unresolved exposure?
For digital art, will it work in all screen sizes, devices, and orientations? Will the audience be able to see your work and interact with it as you intend?
Are you the final decision maker on the presentation of your work? I once met a team of animators at one of the Creative Mornings breakfasts in London. When the group introduced themselves to me, I knew of their latest work. It was great in many respects, but I challenged them over an element of child safety that I felt it had introduced.
The unfortunate team all dropped their heads in frustration. I was not the first to raise this issue. The BBC had shown their series out of order which had caused many issues around child safety as an unintended consequence.
It’s often good to look at things in isolation, or even backwards, from the end to the start, to identify any problems that you can resolve up front.
For presentations and pitches do you know what equipment will be used to present your work? I was once involved with a large Tier 1 corporate pitch where there was a fault with the projection equipment that was to be used by the proposal teams at the customer venue. This fault was only identified during the rehearsal by one of the companies presenting. We were prepared for this and won the work.
Even further, regarding presentations, do you know the room size, the screen size, the audience size? Will it be a darkened room or will the lights be switched on? Will you have access to the internet over their network or will you be relying on a mobile device and signal. What’s the smallest font size you should use? What colours project well and which don’t? Will the audience be seated or standing? Do you know of any colour blindness in any of the key decision makers?
For branding - how will this be applied in the real world. Is the brand image impacted if the customer fails to dedicate the budget to office refurbishment and signage?
Conclusion
The issues above are only the very tip of the iceberg of the problems that you may encounter with work relating to branding, design, graphics, and creative work. Your team must be able to consider the real world application of their work and the impact that external factors can have. You can’t always resolve for these external factors, but being aware of the issues positions you and the customer for how to respond and manage for them. Of course, there are also times where you can leverage these factors for even better results.
I’ll address the next element of building a great team, that of transforming your mission into values that can drive the business, in the following article.
I’m currently based in both London and Berlin and on the lookout for new opportunities. Please (get in touch using the Contact page) if you’d like to discuss more.