Profound Ongoing Change…

August 29th, 2009

We all see profound ongoing change all around us and with this constant change we are seeing the opportunity to recreate the world as we would like to see it. Each of us now has unprecedented power to connect, share, solve problems with people and groups we would never have had access. In fact, we might never have known existed. We’re finding that by cooperating, connecting, and supporting others we can actually transcend the old, tired, competitive mindset that thrives on scarcity and want.

The illusion we’ve been seduced into believing is that we don’t need anything but grit and determination to succeed over others is crumbling. It’s becoming clear that we’re all dependent upon the success of others as much as our own. We’ve always been, but we’re coming back to the reality that we’re in this together and we need each other to meet and transcend unprecedented challenges. We are learning that we must rise to these challenges together. Each of us is struggling with new technologies while finding that we now have access to the entire information world and it’s shared creativity.

Corporations that owe nothing to their workers, vendors, the environment, customers, and even their very own board of directors are no longer sustainable. Huge conglomerates that are responsive to no-one but their shareholders are tumbling and scrambling to keep up instead of being able to dominate us. Previously their power has been built upon scale and their ability to control the images we see through mass media. Those entities that can connect directly to their customers by meeting their unique needs will survive. Many will not and will not be replaced, but will disintegrate. Many, many unique networks of people will find new ways to meet their own needs while helping others meet theirs.

This is an exciting and sometimes scary time, as all times of great change can be. The difference— is that we’re moving into a time of virtually constant change in which the ability to adapt and embrace the new and untried will be an asset. The scale and speed of change are reversing direction. Scale is being lowered and broadened while the rate of revision is increasing. This requires us to be willing to take more risks and accept more failures. Yet the size of the risks will be smaller and the time needed to judge the resulting successes or failures will grow ever shorter. In essence the playing field has been leveled in unprecedented ways.

Forward thinking companies and individuals are putting problems out into the cloud and inviting anyone interested to participate and contribute their own ideas, thoughts, creativity, and wisdom. They are learning that by locking their ideas away and waiting for solutions from within will mean that innovation will likely pass them by and opportunities will be lost rather than protected.

This is bad news for those unwilling to let go of past success models and good for those formerly locked out of power and opportunity. There is no formula that can be locked in for very long. Each of us must choose whether to see these changes as an opportunity or a threat. One way produces pain and suffering the other produces possibility. It’s a choice that we will all be called upon to make on a daily basis.

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We’re ALL creative…

March 12th, 2009

We all need to be “Shovel Ready” as the dominant phrase in our culture suggests. We are living in a time where possibilities and fear abound and we must learn to embrace that kind of ambiguity without becoming paralyzed. AND, we must not succumb to the temptation to hold tight to the known, comfortable and safe ways of the past. Embracing the future will require creativity and cooperation. We ALL have creativity. We create businesses, families, relationships and rockets to the moon, but may not realize the amount of creativity that we use and have available to us.

Your business probably has greatness lying untapped, often just below the surface. Creativity doesn’t mean making something that doesn’t exist suddenly appear. That’s the realm of magic. That’s an illusion.

What creative people do is to look more closely at what already exists and figure out how to manifest, or bring those inherent qualities to the surface. We often recombine existing elements into new compounds. We combine ideas that by themselves show little merit.

A perfect metaphor is that we polish rough stones into gems. We help to reveal what’s already there. It’s our ability to refine, define, redefine those essential qualities that only you can bring to the marketplace of ideas, services, and products. This isn’t easy work and it requires a collaborative spirit and a willingness to commit to achieving a truly magnificent result.

Our graphic design clients commit to achieving the seemingly impossible without knowing exactly how to do that in the beginning. Our mission is to partner with businesses that are no longer willing to be common and ordinary and help them become extraordinary. We help them express their inherent creativity so that their value is apparent to their clients or customers.

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Levels of Communication

February 5th, 2009

I believe that the best communication happens when the it proceeds from simple and easily accessible to greater levels of detail and technical depth.

I was just reading an explanation of a new technology which while very well written, started in a friendly and inviting style, but by the third paragraph had descended into jargon. This level of industry jargon probably made a lot of sense to it’s intended primary audience, but left me wanting to know more and unsure that I wanted to wade through to the end. The general subject was possibly interesting to me in an ancillary way and may or may not have been worth my struggle to understand.

I see the same thing everywhere I turn. In our increasingly complex and specialized world it’s ever more difficult to cross a specialty boundary far enough to know if there might be valuable information buried there. While I’m a graphic designer by training, my main interest is in communication, which is usually the primary goal of good design. So, if the text that’s usually part of that communication, excludes even some of it’s audience even the best graphics are of little value. My chosen profession also requires me to be aware of many different industries and concepts outside of my specialty. I think we all face the need for this kind of broader knowledge to some extent. I also think that it is important for a person or company to understand the value of including a wider audience in any publicly accessible forum. If your audience is entirely known the need for this is much less, but still might improve communication in many cases. One to one communication or a limited staff memo are examples where the audience is entirely controlled and known.

Some will say that they have a specific target audience in mind and have no concern whether anyone else understands. While that is quite understandable in the most narrowly defined context, if the context in is any way larger as on a website or even an industry specific white paper, making information easily digestible by a variety of people will represent your brand—whether personal or corporate—in a more positive and open way. This makes people feel included and attracts a positive association with you and your company, products and services.

My approach with written copy is to encapsulate the conclusions and primary message in an introductory paragraph or two that includes very little of the supporting evidence that will follow. Those readers who are easily able to understand the technical aspects will find what they’re looking for as they continue. Those who are uninterested can make an informed choice not to pursue the subject after having gained some basic general understanding of the subjects covered. Still others in between can choose to read on even though difficult. They might set it aside for a better time to focus on the more technical aspects, or they might make an informed judgement as to whether the material should be passed to persons to whom it is more relevant.

In all cases communication is more complete and its value increases for everyone and the opportunity for a wider response increases.

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We Must Embrace Change

January 30th, 2009

One of the most profound things we are all learning is that we must not only accept change, we actually need to embrace it and use it effectively to achieve our goals and maintain our personal values. Things have always changed, but the pace of change is causing most of us a great deal of anxiety in one form or another. One of the things we must cope with is the feeling of loss of control and our individual ability to “keep up”.

We’re all feeling overwhelmed because the illusion of control that we once could maintain relatively easily, can now more clearly be seen as just that, the illusion of control.

The best example of this is the weather and natural disasters. If you’ve ever lived in a snowy climate, you’re probably aware that no matter how much we feel “ready for anything” Mother Nature can reassert dominance over us literally any time she wants. We can have snow plows and salt trucks and engine warmers and mittens and snow boots to cope with much of what comes. But, a large storm seems to render all that we can muster, at least temporarily, useless.

An earthquake, tornado, or hurricane can render our strongest fortresses into dust almost instantly. And no matter how many times we’ve been humbled by these awesome powers, we continue to quickly forget and again believe ourselves to be invincible.

No matter how much we try to keep up with technology and the pace of modern life, it’s impossible to grasp the majority of it, as we once seemed able. Even if you can catch up, tomorrow’s advances will send us back to a figurative kindergarten where the learning curve starts all over again.

Should we just give up? Some will say yes, and already have. Those of us who do will be dragged into the future as victims of change. Those who believe that they can know and master every new device and technology are doomed to frustration and inevitable isolation, in my view.

The way forward, I believe is to embrace change at whatever rate fits for you, BUT, allow others to be allies and confidants. Create open and honest relationships knowing that for every thing that you don’t know there is definitely someone who does. Probably that person is within your immediate circle or within their circle of friends and associates.

The key to embracing the change we’re experiencing is to accept our limitations, AND to open ourselves to relationships of all kinds with all kinds of people. We must accept our strengths, share our knowledge and expertise with others. Possibly the hardest for many to embrace the willingness to ask for and accept help from others. Relationship is the key to embracing and coping with change. Relationship is by definition one thing we must do together.

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Scope Creep—a natural thing.

January 22nd, 2009

Scope creep is when a project starts to grow beyond its original scope or projected definitions of what is possible within the original financial limitations. It is almost always a factor and will cost your client or your company money if not managed. It can be a good thing if it is addressed directly and not ignored. It occurs to me that one of the basic concepts we need to embrace is that of redefining limiting factors as opportunities rather than obstacles. It can mean an opportunity to address an oversight or include a feature that would cost far more if postponed. A rational choice can be made by the client whether to increase the scope and budget of the project or stay with the original limitations. If not addressed directly it will resurface, often indirectly, and usually not in a pleasant way.

I just read an article that asserts that scope creep rather than being an evil to avoid might just be the natural order of the creative process. Sometimes our clients may not know exactly what they want and therefore can’t define it until they see it or see it done wrong. That isn’t a fault on their part. It’s normal when we are exposed to possibilities we haven’t previously considered. It’s a synergy created when people collaborate. As designers we might have experience that help us avoid obvious design pitfalls, but we too, are often surprised by the discrepancy between a great sounding idea and the reality of ink on paper or pixels on a monitor. Most bad ideas die on the sketchpad where they should. and never make it to a mockup phase or even to the computer. Bad ideas are like lies, or vampires. The don’t do well in the light. Designers help bring them out. The positive side is that along with the bad ideas good ideas also emerge. The process can be arduous, but very satisfying.

One of the best ways we handle this normal tendency for projects to expand is to welcome it. Another is to create inexpensive, disposable prototypes sufficient to find flaws or limitations or problems quickly. This in order to ferret out errors or objections early, when the cost of changes are minimized. Mockups, models, plans, drafts, focus groups, performance tests and pilot projects are all examples of this intensive process. It may be a little easier to comprehend design costs for a building or an airplane, but the same principles apply to a brochure that costs thousands of dollars to produce. Especially when it can’t be mailed because it violated postal regulations that weren’t considered. This is where much of the value of good graphic design resides. The design of a website may be a bit more forgiving because it’s often easier to implement changes or corrections, but it also could be months or years before you learn that one quarter of your potential customers couldn’t find the “buy” button on a critical page.

By definition, creation means bringing new things to life. It’s natural that we might discover new possibilities in the process or that we might kindle new creative fires in our clients. It’s what we were hired to do! So why would we be surprised when a project seems to take on a life of it’s own? Yet we often are. We’re perfectly content with eliminating bad ideas, but sometimes we have to allow for discoveries and we might even have to be willing to set aside good ideas. Mostly we have to look at those good ideas, acknowledge them and allow our clients to decide if they want to expand the budget a bit or return to the original proposal for right now. Part of our job as designers is to manage the creative process for our clients. Our clients can often be very creative people, but we’re the ones who are charged with separating the bad from the good, or the good from the very good, and making clear decisions which continue moving us ahead to completion. After all, it is also true that they are paying us to complete the project.

Another concept that is useful is that of managing the creative process by defining the goal of the project, AND the goal of each particular phase. When that goal is reached that phase should be considered “frozen” and thus can’t be revisited without incurring additional cost—both in money and time. There will always be the possibility that something can be made sightly better, but remember the adage that, “The perfect is the enemy of the good”. It is also the enemy of the budget.

Violating this rule puts a project in extreme jeopardy by putting the process into a tailspin where it is as likely to be going backward or sideways, as it is to continue moving forward. Revisiting decisions that have already been made opens the possibility (likelihood, in my experience) of covering the same territory again, and again, usually with little or no gain, indeed, often producing negative results, sending us back re-cover ground already traversed.

A key function of a creative director or designer is to make sure the project and creative process continues forward and produces the desired results. If a project never ends, it will never reach its goal and may never produce any value whatsoever. By acknowledging the tendency for projects to expand we regain control both for ourselves as designers and for our clients. We put them in the position of making informed decisions with predictable consequences. That’s what we want for ourselves as creative people and more importantly it’s what we want for our clients. It’s one of the ways we can help to create win-win outcomes for all.

We are then able to utilize the natural tendency for projects to succumb to scope creep to remind us of our need to be aware and vigilant and to communicate the dangers when we are deviating from our original mission. Rather than fearing and resisting change, we need to acknowledge it and plan ahead for it. Thus scope creep becomes a friend rather than an evil to be feared or a foe to be opposed. That is a good thing in my view.

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