Design Feaster: Blog of Design Feast

Design Writer Caroline Tiger: Passion for Design, Prose, and Philadelphia

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:38:00 +0000

Caroline Tiger is a journalist who is fascinated with design. Among her many design-writing activities, she is a contributing editor to Contract Design magazine. Her immersion in two worlds—journalism and design, particularly rooted in Philadelphia—and blending them into coherent stories compelled me to interview her. Here she elaborates on her journey toward becoming a design writer, an emerging role in our creative culture:

Where are you from?
I grew up in northern New Jersey, and I’ve lived in Philadelphia for almost 20 years.

What Is Philadelphia design?: A postcard announcing a blog series on local design

You work in the area of “design journalism.”
What is a “design journalist”?
Is this the same as “design writer”?
It’s pretty much the same thing. I use “writer,” because I also write books, develop book proposals, and perform other editorial tasks, such as writing the occasional whitepaper, crafting journalistic content for design clients’websites, and developing and editing special publications.

Objectorialist: A blog that looks at objects either designed, made, or found in Philly—an exercise in analyzing the city’s design profile

The Winterhouse Institute formerly held a competition for
design writing. How is design writing different from
other kinds of writing?
In 2012, I participated in the School of Visual Arts’ D-Crit Summer Intensive. The fall, prior to that program, I attended D-Crit’s Open House and heard Massimo Vignelli speak. I learned about the Call for Criticism he wrote in 1983 that argued for more thoughtful writing about design (kind of like the dialogue that had already evolved around architecture). Since reading that article, I frequently go back to it and particularly to the following quote as a guiding principle for design writing:

“The main function of criticism is not that of providing flattering or denigrating reviews but that of providing creative interpretations of the work, period or theory being analyzed. Out of those creative interpretations a new light is cast on the objects, and new nuances and reflections are brought to our notice.”

Note: Criticism doesn’t mean critical in the negative sense—it’s more about a thoughtful, contextual consideration of design, be it product design, interaction design, graphic design, etc.

When did you start your fascination with design?
How did you turn this fascination into a long-term passion?
Objects were cherished in the house where I grew up, and they were assigned a power I didn’t quite understand at the time. I think that’s where the fascination started. My grandmother was a talented interior designer, and my parents have always collected art and antiques. So there was this recognition of the history, craftsmanship, and meaning of objects from the very beginning. As far as writing about design, that began a few years out of college when I was on staff at Philadelphia magazine. I was assigned a lot of shelter, i.e. “house and home” pieces, and the design seed grew from there. It’s taken a while for it to evolve into my currently all-design-all-the-time career, but it’s where I was always headed.

A design map of Philly that Caroline Tiger wrote for the New York Times’ T Design magazine

A piece that Caroline Tiger wrote for Entrepreneur Magazine on design trends influencing business

How did you steer your career path as a journalist
toward writing about design-related topics?
When I started in magazines, I wanted to be an investigative reporter, but I learned very quickly I didn’t like asking people tough questions. I wrote as a generalist, because my general curiosity seemed to defy specialization. I wrote a lot of profiles and went through a travel writing phase—I went to France. A lot. As my interest in design grew, I started writing about it from every angle (profiles of designers, design travel, business stories with a design angle), and editors started thinking of me for design assignments. Eventually, it became all I was pitching and writing. It helps that I live in Philadelphia where there’s significant design heritage and a growing design scene. I’ve written many thousands of words about Philadelphia design!

Are there desgn writers you look up to? Who?
So many. Alice Rawsthorn, Ralph Caplan, Karrie Jacobs, Justin Davidson, Paola Antonelli, Inga Saffron, Alina Wheeler, Alexandra Lange. And many more.

Are there design-related topics that you particularly
enjoy working on? Why?
Right now, I’m working as a content strategist at Bresslergroup, an industrial and interaction design firm in Philadelphia, to launch their blog, social media strategy, and websites around their areas of expertise. I’ve been interviewing designers for a long time about inspiration and process, but I’m enjoying seeing how that works from the inside. Right now, I’m also really interested in experience design. And one of my ongoing topics is regional design and exploring how regional design identities are formed and how they evolve.

Writer Alissa Walker wrote an article called
“Women in Industrial Design: Where My Ladies At?”
Where are the Ladies in Design/Development/Strategy at?
I’m pretty new to content strategy, but one thing I loved about it right away is the good number of women leading the industry.

What is your definition of bad design?
Design that neither functions nor inspires.

You participated in the Design Writing and
Research Summer Intensive at the School of Visual Arts,
New York City. What is this? How was this experience?
What particularly did you discover/learn/relearn?
Yes! I attended the inaugural summer intensive. The experience is a design writer and design junkie’s dream. I got to work with writers I’d long admired, like Karrie Jacobs and Jennifer Kabat. Frankly, I had been cyber-stalking D-Crit since first hearing about them. I was very excited about this program that seemed to validate what I was trying to do in my own writing. The intensive expanded my vision of what design writing can be. And two weeks to work on writing for myself and not for an editor—and to get feedback from the likes of Alice Twemlow and Steven Heller—was the ultimate luxury.

What sources do you recommend for people
to become better writers?
If you can do D-Crit’s MFA program or summer intensive, don’t hesitate. But taking time out for school is difficult and if you can’t swing that, the best thing to do is read read read. D-Crit’s website has a terrific reading list for people who want to familiarize themselves with great design writing. Design Observer is another website to find design writing worth emulating. I keep a Pinterest board of design writing I like.

How does time factor into your work?
I need more of it. There’s so much to read, write, and publish. I think Lena Dunham recently tweeted a proposal to add one day to the week that’s reserved for reading. If I were to run for President, that would be my platform.

Was there a part of your work that was particularly
trying and how did you deal with it?
The point at which you’ve done your reporting, gathered your research, and you’re sitting and staring at a blank screen and a blinking cursor is always the most trying part. My advice to people is to just start typing—throw up on the page—and worry about cleaning it up later.

What tools do you use and recommend to work on ideas
and make them grow, to collaborate and get things done?
To be honest, I haven’t settled on a great tool. I’ve tried a few digital tools for organizing thoughts and notes, but I always go back to jotting in Staples notebooks and keeping running lists of ideas and to-dos using the Stickies application. I do use Harvest for tracking time and creating invoices for freelance projects. For projects where I’m collaborating with others, I’ve used Google Docs. Since writing a story on the Action Mill, a design firm in Philly who work partly on workplace efficiency and time management issues, I’ve kept a streamlined to-do list with three categories: backlog, doing, and done. I like the challenge of editing the “doing” list down to a minimum of four to five things and also seeing what I’ve done and what’s on deck.

How do you stay creative?
What are some of your sources of motivation/inspiration?
Talking to designers about their work is really inspiring as is changing my setting. I’m motivated by learning new things, building something that’ll have a positive impact, and collaborating with people who are generous in spirit.

What is your advice to people who aspire
to be a creative practitioner?
This is so corny, but go with your passion. Also, find mentors who have designed careers you admire and who conduct themselves in a manner you admire. Lastly, if you have an idea that seems crazy, find a collaborator who’s just as crazy as you are.

What is your advice to people who aspire
to be a design journalist/writer?
It’s discouraging to be a journalist right now. I’ve experienced the industry’s implosion, and it hasn’t been pretty. The good news is, there are so many more ways to be a writer now than there ever were before. That said, Do Not Write For Free—unless it’s on your own site or blog.

You proactively participate in design-related activities
in Philadelphia. How did you start your involvement?
Why do you do it?
A few years ago, I started feeling the itch to expand my observer/commentator/writer role by participating in shaping Philadelphia’s design scene in a more direct way. Philadelphia has been a presence in my work all along. I adore this city, and I want everyone else to recognize its design assets, too. At some point, writing about it became, well, not enough. Also, when I started I was one of very few people writing about Philadelphia and design. Now there are scores are wonderful, amazing bloggers and journalists discovering and covering the beat. So it seemed like a good time to venture into the next chapter.

Co-curators Royce Epstein (left) and Caroline Tiger (right) in front of “Mod Plaid” Textile by Dorothy Cosonas of Knoll and Indigo Pomegranate Wallpaper by Liz Galbraith of Galbraith & Paul; Photograph by Ryan Collerd

A view of the Four Corners exhibit. In the foreground is a Bench Dog Design table surrounded by chairs by six different designers; and pendant lamps by MIO. The photograph is from Chris Crisman’s Steelworker series; Photograph by Ryan Collerd

The Four Corners exhibition catalog, designed by Nicole Lavelle; Photograph by Ryan Collerd

What were some design-related events in Philadelphia
that you contributed your efforts to? What are some
upcoming events?
I co-curated Four Corners: Design from Philly Surrounds an exhibition of regional design, for last fall’s DesignPhiladelphia. The owners of Minima, a beautiful two-story contemporary design store in Old City, were incredibly generous to let us take over most of their second floor. My co-curator was the amazing Royce Epstein; and one of my D-Crit classmates, Nicole Lavelle, designed our catalog. It was exhilarating to gather all these local designers and manufacturers—we had about 50 objects and pieces of art in all—in one space and to juxtapose them with each other so pieces by masters like Nakashima and Esherick were in conversation with current designs by Emeco and Toby Mcqueston, who makes chairs from recycled skateboard decks.

Last year’s Collab Journal, featuring 2012’s Design Excellence Award winners, Paula Scher and Seymour Chwast. Caroline Tiger is excited to edit Collab’s 2013 Journal

A few months ago I joined Collab, a group of 12 design professionals who volunteer to support the modern and contemporary design collections at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. There’s actually no other group like ours at any museum around the world. Collab was established a little over 40 years ago and is partly responsible for the Philadelphia Museum of Art having one of the best and largest modern design collections in the country. Our job is to fundraise to support exhibitions and new acquisitions, and to organize events and programming that educate and promote design. Every fall we give out a Design Excellence Award, and the recipient designs an exhibition about his or her work. I couldn’t be more thrilled about this fall’s recipient: Marc Newson. In November, he’ll be in Philly to receive the award, give a lecture, and celebrate the opening of his exhibition. There’s also an annual student competition that will be Newson-themed this year. You can like our Facebook page to keep up to date on Newson and all the other events coming up.

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Unless otherwise noted, all images courtesy of Caroline Tiger.

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Read previous Interview:
Blogger Angela Wang on Working those Writing Muscles

99U Conference 2013: Reimagined

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Tue, 07 May 2013 02:13:00 +0000

Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center.
Source: hahatango at Flickr under a Creative Commons License

New York City, 2013: The 99U Conference, invented by Behance and dedicated to “making ideas happen”, was held on May 2 and 3. For the fifth year, attendees arrived to be inspired to see their ideas through to execution. I attended, online, by way of the Twitter hashtag #99conf.

In addition to the conference’s tagline of “1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration”, two quotes from speaker A. J. Jacobs, journalist and author, particularly piqued my attention and reflection:

“If you pretend to be a better person, you will eventually become a better person. It’s the art of self delusion!”
“Sometimes to make miracles happen, you just have to dive in.”

With these in mind, 99U’s annual gathering, influenced by the proactive Tweets (Thanks to all who shared!), compelled me to fantasize a different recap of the event:

Highlights

Source: Cea. at Flickr under a Creative Commons License

Inventor Thomas Edison took the stage of Alice Tully Hall. He opened by invoking the mission of the conference: “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.” This phrase was originally spoken in 1903, a major year of firsts: first teddy bear, first flight by Orville Wright, first box of Crayola crayons sold for 5 cents.

Edison’s ratio of inspiration and perspiration was fiercely applied. On a large screen behind him, Edison projected his to-do list, which he simply called “Things doing and to be done”. A few items from the list: “Cotton Picker”, “Deaf Apparatus”, “Artificial Cable”, and more. As he does every time he kicks off the 99U conference, he emphasized that there was much more to be done.

Source: The Henry Ford at Flickr under a Creative Commons License

Echoing the emphasis on prototyping at the pre-conference session (one of many) at IDEO, Edison advised, “To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.”

Edison also highlighted his workspace, or “workroom” (above) as he put it. He advised others not to use a clock. He said, “I owe my success to the fact that I never had a clock in my workroom. Seventy-five of us worked twenty hours every day and slept only four hours—and thrived on it.”

Viewing the clock as a distraction is one thing. Defying sleep is another. Edison shared what worked with him.

He concluded his talk with more urgency: “Restlessness is discontent—and discontent is the first necessity of progress.”

The 99U conference started with a timeless jolt of electricity.

Source: twm1340 at Flickr under a Creative Commons License

Comedian Groucho Marx graced the stage with his trademark look and captivated us with his verbal repartee. During his speech, he offered this twofer of a zinger: “The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” Pretending is power, positively speaking, where fakery is not fuckery.

Anne Sullivan Memorial, Agawam, Massachusetts.
Source: WoofBC at Flickr under a Creative Commons License

Teacher Anne Sullivan embodied Edison’s persistence and Marx’s improvisation as she shared memories of her experiences as a teacher to Helen Keller. Over 49 years, Sullivan worked closely with Keller and taught her how to sense and process the world. Each day was an education focused upon the needs of one. Each day she strived for a miracle—a version of one. Sullivan supremely demonstrated the improv technique of “Yes, And… .” Standing ovation for the “Miracle Worker”.

Here’s to having fun putting restlessness to work. For the better.

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Big thanks to Behance and 99U teams for making their annual conference happen.

• • •

Read related posts:

What Designer Jen Marquez Learned at Moxie Conference 2013
Marketing Strategist Seijen Takamura’s Take on PSFK Conference 2010

Interview with Blogger Angela Wang on Working those Writing Muscles

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Fri, 03 May 2013 17:56:00 +0000

To complement her passionate takes on blogging that appeared in the Blogger’s Quest(ionnaire), Angela Wang, of American Taitai, shared her thoughts on the challenge and satisfaction of writing.

Highlights

Define writing
“A 2D representation of a 3D or 4D world …
like a verbal photograph or video.”

Practice writing
“It’s more of the willingness to practice and hone the ability.”

Pursue a path to writing
“The beginning: narrator has lost something (the problem); the middle where narrator struggles to tries to find a resolution to the problem (development); and the end where the narrator has ‘solved’ the problem, and is a different person.”

Full Interview

Download the transcript (compressed PDF) to read more of our live chat session.

• • •

Photo courtesy of Angela Wang.

• • •

Read previous Interview:
What Designer Jen Marquez Learned at Moxie Conference 2013

What Designer Jen Marquez Learned at Moxie Conference 2013 in Chicago

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Wed, 01 May 2013 12:30:00 +0000

Jen Marquez is a graphic designer, currently based in Chicago. In addition to attending Chicago CreativeMornings, she went to experience MoxieCon (identity and program design below), a day-long series of “practical talks and workshops on the business side of design and technology” founded by all-female collaborative Quite Strong.

The second annual gathering took place at coworking and startup space 1871 (below), located within the Merchandise Mart, a commercial center in Chicago’s downtown area.

Piccadilly notebook and Pilot Vball pen

Highlights

We had a spirited conversation, done via a live chat session, about her experience of MoxieCon. A few insights related by Jen:

Relentlessly pursue your vision of work
“One of the thoughts that resonated most with me was something designer and artist Elle Luna said during her talk, ‘You can do the job you can, or you can do the job you must.’”

Criticize to teach
“Magazine journalist Ann Friedman spoke about people who are giving rational, thoughtful critique, and those who exist simply to demean your work without providing any positive purpose.”

Risks are unavoidable
“Rob Loukotka, a designer, artist, and illustrator, talked about challenging yourself if what you’re doing now is your dream job, and taking the risks to get there.”

Full Interview

Download the transcript (compressed PDF) to read more of our live chat session.

• • •

Photos courtesy of Jen Marquez.

• • •

Read related Interview:
Marketing Strategist Seijen Takamura’s Take on PSFK Conference 2010

• • •

Read previous Interview:
Design Strategist Diana Cheng of Jump Associates

Chicago CreativeMornings #17 with Photographer Paul Octavious on The Future

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 06:38:00 +0000

April 2013: The fourth Chicago CreativeMornings of the year (and the seventeenth held in The City That Works) was held with Paul Octavious, a self-taught photographer whose images possess a visual composition of warmth and wit.

Octavious seeks and seizes fascination with anything that piques his curiosity. He turns objects into set pieces, transforming ordinary scenes into extraordinary moments. Likewise, he photographs a wide range of symbols, the kind that suggest “The future starts now” as futurist and Worldchanging co-founder Alex Steffen put it.

Highlights

With energetic delight, Paul shared his thoughts and stories on The Future—CreativeMorning’s global theme for April 2013.

Paul’s gloriously blunt sentiments bring to mind a more tempered observation made about Albert Einstein’s ambition: “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” Of course, the popular Latin phrase “Carpe diem” is a cliché. But who cares? It’s long been a motivator. Clichés stick because they offer a version of truth that is held dear, close to the chest. Paul holds his work close to himself.

His iterative effort, with each photograph and series, incrementally steers forward. It’s a steady rally to a future that’s scary, yet with manageable fear that makes achieving the beautiful worthwhile, every time, without loss of learning.

Thrift stores, in particular, fascinate Paul. They’re the kind of places that celebrate what is past, but not necessarily passé. Paul finds the present in things writ large with past tense.

Raun Meyn, Chicago-based founder of custom framing gallery and furniture-making studio FoundRe, spoke at March 2013’s Chicago CreativeMornings set to the theme of Reuse. Raun proudly expressed, “I love the character of old stuff.” Turning a lens—in Paul’s case, in more ways than one—to focus on what came before facilitates storytelling. Octavious described his intensive look at objects from all sides and angles, whether they focused on books, cameras with wings, or vinyl records. To him, objects are not flat—he animates them. Paul related a way to make art, to make a story, in order to feel human: imbue objects with character.

This may sound counterintuitive or even controversial at first. But it’s not: it’s a direct and immediate way to make something. Similar to Chicago-based webapp maker 37signals’ “We don’t make wireframes.” 37signals, whose co-founder Jason Fried spoke at Chicago CreativeMornings #2, goes forward and codes their software vision so that they can nimbly react and refine it. Paul, to me, is sketching. It just doesn’t comply with the typical definition of marks on paper. Rather, the sketching happens in his head: he envisions what he wants and makes it so. Paul’s sensibility is like that of a writer-director who plays the story and the filming of it—all in her/his head. Whatever method is put to use from one’s toolkit, the intent is the goal: a beautiful result.

To-Dos

Face the fucking scary future and make it fucking beautiful.

Photo by Nate Burgos. View more.

• • •

Octavious’s approach reminded me of Kenyan Lewis, featured by Michael Williams at his blog A Continuous Lean. Kenyan specializes in making signs and interior design, in addition to collecting props! I strongly feel that Octavious and Lewis would be fast friends.

I’m also reminded of a delightful trip to Augusta, Georgia, which included a visit to an antique store.

• • •

Big thanks to: SapientNitro for sponsoring and hosting Chicago CreativeMornings #17; to organizers Kim Eertmoed and Kyle Knoll of Knoed Creative, who spoke at Chicago CreativeMornings #7, videographer Erick De La Rosa, photographers Matt Soria and Neftali Morales, and all of the Chicago CreativeMornings crew for their great work on making CreativeMornings happen in Chicago.

• • •

Typeface of quote is Futura designed by Paul Renner in 1927.

• • •

Read about Chicago CreativeMornings #16 with FoundRe’s Raun Meyn on Reusing.

• • •

2011 was Chicago CreativeMornings’ most excellent debut year. Download the collection of insights.

Blogger’s Quest(ionnaire): Angela Wang of American Taitai

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 02:26:00 +0000

Angela Wang writes about a variety of topics, from food to TV shows to trips, at her blog American Taitai. These are topics that directly relate to the experience of everyday life. Angela’s basis of which is Seattle. Her posts deliver a meaningful viewpoint of the everyday experience, which sounds ordinary but is endowed with extraordinary properties to potentially sense and express. Angela explores these properties through blogging. She can be found on Twitter: @americantaitai.

Why did you create a web site of regular entries?
I’ve always been interested in reading and writing. But while the whole blogging movement was taking off in the US in 2007-ish, I was living abroad in Hong Kong working at an investment bank, and I didn’t know a single person who blogged. So I kind of missed the whole “blogging revolution” boat. But after I got married and moved back to Seattle, I wanted to try my hand at something I had never done before, and so I decided to start blogging in 2012 after taking a memoir writing class at the UW. I had accumulated a fair bit of material that I never intended to publish, but I thought that blogging would push me to at least write more consistently through the week. It’s now turned into a 1x/week blog (which I know is quite infrequent, by blogger standards) but I try to publish longer posts (1,000–1,200 words) that are either amusing observations (to me), or that answer an un-answerable question. I had thought of the title of my blog when I was still living and working in Hong Kong, as everyone there knows what a “taitai” is. But an American Taitai is quite different, and while life is certainly somewhat less glamorous, it’s been no less interesting, especially living in a dynamic city like Seattle. I thought the idea was worth exploring and what initially started out, as a compare/contrast between HK and Seattle, has turned into something a little different and much more observational.

What web-based solution did you select and why?
I decided to use WordPress.com because it was easy to set up, and I liked the look and layout. I’m not super tech-savvy and so the more customizable WordPress.org site was beyond my skills. I’m also on Tumblr as well, but mostly to follow other sites, as WP is able to push my posts to my Tumbr site simultaneously.

“Procrastinator’s Productivity Chart”—later blogged about in “Procrastinator's Dilemma”

“Where things stand now” as I don’t do an entry every day. It’s kind of sporadic.

What is your definition of a good blog
and what are three good blogs that you frequently visit?
My basic definition of a good blog is one where I find good writing and where I’m able to immediately strike a chord of identification. A simple test for me is where my first gut response reading a blog post is either:

“Me too!” or
“Wow, I never thought of this, but this (idea, observation, theory) totally makes sense!” or
“I love this voice!” or a combination of any or all of the three. I follow Jen Brown’s Expat Lingo because her blog falls primarily into category 1 for me, and I love her sharp and humorous observational voice and re-living the expat life through her eyes in Hong Kong. I also follow Scott Berkun because I’m always learning something new from him. His blog falls into the 2nd category for me. His writing is so clean and crisp, and the topics he writes about are often quite complex and difficult to grasp (philosophy, creative thinking, management), and so that’s a feat that I really admire. Another blog that I’ve just recently found (and have quickly fallen in love with) is The Epicurean Dealmaker, which falls primarily into category 3) for me. Simply hilarious because ted’s voice is like no other. If you want a glimpse into in investment banking + philosophy + humor, ted is a must read.

How do you create content for your blog?
I keep a running list of topics, but sometimes I post about funny things that happen to me during the week or recent news events that affect me and seem to be more compelling relative to my list. Generally my blog posts don’t follow the news cycle, but once in awhile a bigger story or event (usually a tragedy) compels me to talk about that topic instead of my normal “mundane” observational stuff. And regarding everyday life, I’ve always wondered why certain things seem to be the case (why the Chinese food in Seattle is so mediocre, why some of us procrastinate and yet still get stuff done, why do we buy stuff on sale, and what is popularity, and the link between perception and acceptance as a kid vs. as an adult) and so my blog allows me the space to explore some of the possibilities, especially in answering an unanswerable question in everyday life. I also have quite a few links to certain TED Talks that I think do a terrific job of answering a lot of my “why” questions, and so that’s been a great learning tool and resource as well.

Combination of my to-do list and a running list of blogging ideas

How do you stay organized and motivated
to contribute to your blog?
I’m pretty old-school, and so I don’t use digital note-taking programs, or Siri + Notepad on my iPhone, but I guess I should. I used to write things down on various scraps of paper (and I still do), but I’ve been trying to be more organized and to keep the scribblings into one single notebook (which I talk a little bit about here) but carrying around a huge notebook is sometimes a little awkward, and so I try to remember a topic when I’m out or scribble it down on a scrap of paper and then copy it into my notebook when I get home. I’m always on the hunt for good topics, and the quirks of living in an eclectic city like Seattle fills many posts. I also find that the rhythm of writing, editing, and posting is quite satisfying in itself, irrespective of how many hits or readers I might have, and so I try to stick to the 1x/week bar, which (again) is pretty low. But you have to start somewhere, and writing is something that I enjoy and have more time for now, and so I’d like to keep it up.

Another thing that helps me to organize: the Evernote Web Clipper, which saves webpages into a virtual notebook. I find it really helpful for keeping research and other virtual stuff organized. I use the free version, and it suits me just fine.

For those aspiring to make a web site composed of
regular thoughts and/or images, what is your advice?
I’d say to start reading a lot. And not necessarily books, but find blogs that you enjoy reading and ask yourself why you like them. Then I’d encourage you to think about your handle and blog name. After you’ve got that down, you should just do it! Sign up on WordPress.com or Blogspot for free and dive in. For me, it took the longest time to find the right “look” via a free “theme” that I liked. But once that was squared away, the rest was pretty easy. It also helped that I had at least 3–4 pieces/posts ready to go at the outset, because you want to build a steady rhythm for yourself in posting. Trying for consistency was my goal, and 1x/week seemed reasonable to me, so setting a reachable goal was important. I haven’t been successful in posting every single week this past year that I’ve been blogging, but I have been successful in establishing a regular cadence of blogging that is achievable for me, which was my goal this first year.

What is your quest in blogging?
My quest is simply to get better at writing. For me, the blog is a powerful tool in tackling my own unanswerable questions and for answering the why questions. Finding and identifying with something beautiful (or funny or informative) in our everyday lives is an achievable goal that ultimately makes us all feel less alone. This powerful sense of connection and the “me too” moment is why I write.

• • •

Photos courtesy of Angela Wang.

• • •

Typeface of quote is Futura designed by Paul Renner in 1927.

• • •

Read previous Blogger’s Quest(ionnaire)
with Alex Guyot of The Axx

Blogger’s Quest(ionnaire): Alex Guyot of The Axx

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 16:41:00 +0000

It was a link, at the popular website Daring Fireball, to one of his blog posts, “On Teens and iPhones”, that I discovered Alex Guyot who writes about mostly-Apple technology at his blog The Axx. His diligent and thoughtful writing is apparent. He can be found on Twitter: @The_Axx.

Why did you create a web site of regular entries?
I started a blogging website for a few reasons. I had been following technology news with interest for quite some time, and I felt I was developing a good enough base of knowledge on the subject that my own thoughts and opinions might be of interest to others. This was magnified because there are not very many bloggers of my age out there, and I felt that a teenage perspective was something that could benefit the tech industry. I also found inspiration in John Gruber’s website, Daring Fireball. I really liked the “link blog” style, and I thought that a combination between linking to important news with a few short comments and writing my own longer posts was a really cool type of blog to run. I mostly was feeling that I had a ton of ideas and thoughts about technology inside, and I really needed a place to put them all. Due to all the things I mentioned above, a blog seemed like it would be the best place to do that.

What web-based solution did you select and why?
I selected Squarespace as my blogging solution. I had first learned of Squarespace because it was sponsoring Daring Fireball and many other tech sites I visited frequently. After looking into it more, I found I really liked the design tools and that the templates automatically supported a responsive design. (I ended up disabling that feature due to a few issues I found with it, but it was a big factor that helped originally did draw me to the service.) I also liked Squarespace’s great support of markdown across all its pages, as that is my favorite format to type posts in.

What is your definition of a good blog
and what are three good blogs that you frequently visit?
My definition of a good blog is one in which the author is honest and sincere, and simply wants to give his or her opinions in hopes that others can enjoy them and benefit from them. I think blogs that are simply people spewing out posts with the intention of angering others, or posts that really have no particular purpose, are a waste.

Three good blogs I visit frequently are Daring Fireball, The Loop, and A Very Nice Website. All three are technology blogs, which mainly just link to other sources with big news stories, but give their opinions alongside these links as well. Then every once in a while they write long posts of their own. All of them only exist to spread interesting news and serve new insights that people may consider to expand their knowledge of a subject. That’s the type of blog that I admire, and strive to create.

How do you create content for your blog?
I write all the content for my blog on my iPad in the app Drafts. I have been using an iPad as my computer for years, so I can type on the on-screen keyboard just as fast as I can on a physical keyboard. I also love the UI and UX in Drafts, and the lack of advanced multitasking on iOS helps me to concentrate without getting distracted by other windows and alerts bouncing around and trying to steal my attention. I write all my content in Markdown and use the official Squarespace app to post it to my site.

How do you stay organized and motivated
to contribute to your blog?
I stay organized by keeping to the same routine of keeping up with news and testing out all kinds of apps. My motivation comes completely naturally, because any time I see a big piece of news or really enjoy a new app or update, I immediately feel urged to get my thoughts about them out for others to read and enjoy. I can’t quite explain it, I just like the thought of my insights being interesting to others, and very much enjoy feeling like I am contributing something to the world.

For those aspiring to make a web site composed
of regular thoughts and/or images, what is your advice?
My advice is simply to stop aspiring and get it done. I spent months imagining starting a blog but not actually following through with it. Now all those months are just wasted time, and I regret not starting my website sooner. I encourage others not to make that mistake. If this is your goal, then I can’t tell you how fulfilling it is to just jump right in and start doing something you love.

What is your quest in blogging?
My quest in blogging, as somewhat stated above, is simply to provide my own insights that others will find interesting. As a fairly young blogger, I think I wield a perspective that many older bloggers are not able to see. I really want others to be able to benefit from that perspective, and enjoy the things I have to say. I want people to be able to synthesize my thoughts and insights with those of other bloggers in the tech industry, and ultimately come to a deeper understanding of the subjects which we are writing about.

• • •

Photo courtesy of Alex Guyot.

• • •

Typeface of quote is Futura designed by Paul Renner in 1927.

• • •

Read previous Blogger’s Quest(ionnaire)
with Leslie Camacho of Adventure.lc

Creative Role: The Detailer

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 00:56:00 +0000

People admire the thoughtful consideration of details found in an object—when they do notice them. Whether it’s the typographic detail of a book or the architectural detail of a building. Even if a detail’s existence is essentially “non-functional,” it still attracts admiration. Consider Google’s speed of display, the soft concrete of Tadao Ando’s Conference Pavilion on the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany, or the instrumental textures of mandolin and violin in music from Swedish indie pop band Fanfarlo.

Some details are actually implicit or even invisible, such as those found in a thoughtfully crafted product or service. Or even a window—as found in the August 2010 issue of Dwell magazine, featuring a home in Emigration Canyon, Utah, designed by owner/architect John Sparano. It prompted the following from one detail-minded reader:

“I have a question about … its mitered fixed glass window. The intersection of the panes of glass is almost invisible! Is it possible single glazing was used in this great detail? How did the architect do it?”

Sparano cherished the reader’s discovery and explained:

“I’m really thrilled that someone noticed that detail. I marvel at it every time I walk into my daughter’s room. The entire L-shape window is double glazed. We worked with a Salt Lake City glazier that used UV-bonding technology to invisibly weld together the four pieces of glass that came together at that corner. I’m told that UV bonding is the method they use to attach glass for aquariums, among other things. Typical gaskets were used at the other edges. Once the L-shape glass was assembled it was inserted into the L-shape wood frame, delivered to the site and installed in one piece.”

Details orient the quality of work and its reception, and ultimately set an object apart from others. In the above example: who knew that the same method used in making aquariums can be equally applied to houses? The source to stir details can be from anywhere.

Tap into your inner detailer.

• • •

This is the ninth piece of a series focused on the lively cast of characters whose roles make the play of Creativity. In case you missed the previous Creative Role, meet the Compromiser.

• • •

Typographic illustration, tailormade for this series, was done by Shawn Hazen. Read his Designer’s Quest(ionnaire).

• • •

Old Practices Renewed: Neoteric Design’s Colophons and Apprenticeships

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Photograph by Giuseppe Quattrone at Flickr under a Creative Commons license

This is a shout-out to Neoteric Design, an interactive firm(1) in Chicago, for persisting two traditional practices:

On their website, I noticed, with delight, a term usually associated with books: colophon. The first use of the word dates to 1501, within decades after the invention of printing in 1450. A colophon gives details about an object’s production, typically for printed matter. A book’s colophon, for example, reveals aspects such as the date of publication, typefaces, and technical details. These same aspects were shared by Neoteric Design online. In a romantic sense, a colophon is a link (pun surely intended) to the past. In a practical sense, a colophon provides insight into techniques.

Another invention from the Middle Ages that Neoteric Design has placed into the spotlight is apprenticeship. This is a spin on internship, but not a superficial one. That the apprentice documents the experience is a concrete sign that training is done in a thoughtful and organized manner, like the relationship of a master craftsperson to a pupil. Rigorously conducted, an apprenticeship informs and shapes aspiration.

It’s refreshing to see certain practices, with old roots, become revived with relevance. Colophons and apprenticeships insert a welcomed wonder of the romantic into our modern world.

(1) To be more exact, Neoteric Design describes their approach to web design and development as “craft-driven,” another contemporary ode to the romantic.

• • •

This blog post was lovingly made with 37signals’ Writeboards.

Never stop making

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 14:58:00 +0000

Photograph by mstephens7 at Flickr under a Creative Commons license

Pablo Picasso, 25.10.1881–8.4.1973

For the second time, I saw “Picasso and Chicago” at The Art Institute of Chicago(1). I returned to take in the second half of the exhibition. More than 250 objects—drawings, paintings, prints, sculpture—were displayed. This is but a portion of Picasso’s immense portfolio of artistic works. The show was organized in historical phases: Picasso’s Blue Period, Red Period, War (Spanish Civil War, World War I, World War II), through to his latter years. In each phase, including the spaces in between, Picasso kept exploring his creativity, regardless which context was placed upon him.

The insistence to keep making is absolutely necessary. Because there’s movement in making. It offers comfort and represents empowerment. Restlessness is a rash.

I sense that Picasso found refuge in the movements of painting, sculpture, printmaking and ceramics, even drawing with light.

Roger Ebert, 6/18/1942–4/4/2013

Photograph by Chicago Man at Flickr under a Creative Commons license

The day before I returned to the “Picasso and Chicago” exhibit, film critic Roger Ebert passed away. At a high level, his own personal phases were Newspaper, TV, Internet, Cancer. His official website, which was redesigned, features:

5,500+ movie reviews
700+ essays, interviews, and film festival articles
2,300+ Answer Man questions and answers
600+ Ebert’s Little Movie Glossary entries
400+ Critical Debates

These impressive stats are only through 2004(2). Until the end of his enduring fight with cancer, Ebert kept publishing film reviews, his last one done for To the Wonder, in addition to essays, collections, interviews, profiles, and more. In the introduction to a commemorative article called Roger Ebert: More Than A Thumbs-Up, Thumbs-Down Guy by Kenneth Turan, one fact stood out the most: “he never stopped writing.” In each phase, he kept making, no matter what context was set upon him.

With Ebert, I feel that he found refuge in the movements of cinema, journalism, blogging, and tweeting.

More than their respective disciplines, Ebert and Picasso strived to pursue their art. Times changed. Though they moved from place to place, from situation to situation, they remained stubbornly dedicated to their art. Self-fulfillment demands practice. They persisted to serve themselves as a basis to keep drawing, to keep painting, to keep writing—to never stop making.

(1) February 20, 2013–Sunday, May 12, 2013
(2) Stats from former version of RogerEbert.com

• • •

Typeface of quote is Akzidenz Grotesk, originally released by the Berthold Type Foundry in 1896.

• • •

This blog post was lovingly made with Editorially.

Interface Details: Berger & Föhr’s Ambiance, Simple Focus’ Retro, Big Bite Creative’s Whimsy

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:51:00 +0000

These are websites, at the time of their discovery, with parts of their interface design that connect with enduring qualities:

Ambiance

Berger & Föhr, a graphic design studio run by Todd Berger and Lucian Föhr in Boulder, Colorado, display their projects in a strong, photographic way. For example, their identity design for Justin Horacek, maker of handcrafted heirloom-quality furniture, is put into the client’s inspirational context: composed primarily of wood, with a textured and sanded form, and photographed by Jamie Kripke and Sam Campbell. Ambiance improves the reception of Horacek’s business communication.

Retro Style

Design firm Simple Focus, in Germantown, Tennessee, simply incorporates radio buttons of Apple’s Mac OS Aqua version (2000) as part of their website’s navigation. You don’t need to be a user-interface nerd to appreciate this touch, but if you are, it’s a pleasant recognition.

Whimsy

One of the special features, to me, of letterpress printing studio Paperwheel Press in Portola Valley, California, is their rocket—located in their website’s footer. Click it and lift-off shoots you back to the top of the web page. Thanks to Big Bite Creative in Middlesbrough, England, for bringing in an element of the fantastic—because rocket ships are—to an interface.

• • •

Read previous Interface Details: Feature Creep’s Kick-Ass Statement, Atto Partners’s Lists, Happy Cog’s Gratitude

Strategy & Design: Diana Cheng of Jump Associates

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 12:35:00 +0000

Diana Cheng is a strategist at Jump Associates. Before joining the San Mateo-based office of this consultancy, she was a strategist at Google. She is a graduate of the Master of Design program at the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology. We discussed what strategy is and its connection with design.

Highlights

Defining Strategy
“Strategy is about making decisions on how to achieve a desired future state, both for what to do and what not to do.”

Defining Innovation
“Innovation means creating something completely new, or simply figuring out a new way to use some things already in existence.”

Relating Strategy and Design
“Strategy and design are about doing and creating things that will move us from what is, to what might be.”

Full Interview

Download the transcript (compressed PDF) to read more of our live chat session.

• • •

Photo courtesy of Diana Cheng.

• • •

Read previous Interview:
Brooke Condolora: Illustrator & Quiet Adventurer of Idle Mouse

Chicago CreativeMornings #16 with FoundRe’s Raun Meyn on Reusing

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 22:39:00 +0000

March 2013: The third Chicago CreativeMornings (and the sixteenth held in The City That Works) kicked off with Raun Meyn, who founded and owns FoundRe, a Chicago-based “custom framing gallery and furniture-making studio that specializes in using reclaimed building material.”

Raun finds and re-finds inspiration in the old and dilapidated, which offer prime opportunities to Reuse, CreativeMorning’s global theme for March 2013. He shared his story of “pursuing his bliss.”(1)

Highlights

Raun proactively scouts for discarded raw materials. His custom framing service has access to “over ten thousand feet of material to choose from in stock at all times” and is acquired at local sources within Chicago and surrounding areas. The value of adjacency is demonstrated here.

Another celebrated value: by-products. Jason Fried, who co-founded 37signals and spoke at the second Chicago CreativeMornings, emphasized the importance of not only spotting opportunities to make by-products, but also selling them! As Jason put it, “When you make something you make something else. … Observant and creative entrepreneurs spot these by-products and see opportunities.”

Raun’s confession of continual learning echoes that of sculptor, painter, and poet Michelangelo who said, “Ancora Imparo.” One of the translations is “Still I learn!” Reinforced with each CreativeMorning event, learning—and its counterpoint in relearning—is what essentially makes life worth living.

Raun has an old soul’s fondness for the colors and textures of objects, which reveal a unique patina that only history affords. Coinciding with the search of the new are yearnings for things that are no longer used or even abandoned. In addition to reclaiming discarded materials for their custom frames and furniture, FoundRe also collects vintage items. The historical record plays on, particularly when it informs a way of seeing that Raun cherishes.

To-Dos

Get local. Keep learning. Explore the tremendous range of “old stuff”: classic, vintage, retro, midcentury, and more.

(1) Based on the statement by mythologist Joseph Campbell, born March 26, 1904: “Follow your bliss.”

Photo by Nate Burgos. View more.

• • •

Raun’s talk reminded me of a delightful trip to Augusta, Georgia. This happened to include a visit to an antique store.

• • •

Big thanks to: Design Cloud for sponsoring and hosting Chicago CreativeMornings #16; to organizers Kim Eertmoed and Kyle Knoll of Knoed Creative (who spoke at Chicago CreativeMornings #7), videographers Chris Gallevo and Brian Wong, Isaac Stein for greeting, and the rest of the Chicago CreativeMornings crew for their great work on making CreativeMornings happen in Chicago; to Open Books for accepting donated materials in the spirit of CreativeMornings global March 2013 theme of Reuse.

• • •

Typeface of quotes is called Trixie designed by Erik Van Blokland in 1991. It’s inspired by an old typewriter, which was used to capture the variable quality of typewritten letters.

• • •

Read about Chicago CreativeMornings #15 with Plural Design on Being Weird.

• • •

2011 was Chicago CreativeMornings’ most excellent debut year. Download the collection of insights.

Brooke Condolora: Illustrator & Quiet Adventurer of Idle Mouse

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:18:00 +0000

Brooke in her workspace featuring the “Look Closer” pennant by Always With Honor

In addition to running her own illustration and design studio, Brooke Condolora created Idle Mouse, which features her products “to encourage people to use their hands for creating, to live well, and to love others.” She is also half of Brain&Brain, an independent-game design studio. We had a fun conversation, done via a live chat session.

Highlights

Moving away from doing work for clients
“I’m very blessed to have a husband who supports me in all of this. Right now, he works full-time at a job he enjoys, and that's really how I was able to quit when I did.”

Making products to sell
“I love getting to send packages off across the world, and I love hearing how people are using what I make.”

Live/Work Mini Prints available at Brooke’s store Idle Mouse

Cure for Clicking Notebook available at Idle Mouse

Receiving appreciation
“Swissmiss helped me get Idle Mouse off the ground by featuring it on her blog right after I launched!”

Not letting gender be an obstacle
“… it doesn’t matter what gender you are. You just do good work, because you love it.”

Striving to get better
“… learn well, work hard, and develop your ability to produce ideas. A great book on that is A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young.”

Brooke lives and works in Alameda, an island near San Francisco. Photograph taken with a Diana.

Full Interview

Download the transcript (compressed PDF) to find out what tools Brooke uses to visualize her ideas and get things done, why she calls herself a “Quiet Adventurer,” and more.

• • •

All images courtesy of Brooke Condolora.

• • •

Read previous Interview:
User Experience Designer Amy Marquez: Family, Improv, Empathy

Blogger’s Quest(ionnaire): Leslie Camacho of Adventure.lc

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 13:00:00 +0000

It was from reading one of his compelling posts about writing that I discovered Leslie Camacho, a proud parent, husband, nerd, and business starter. He blogs at Adventure.lc, because, from author G. K. Chesterton, “An adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered.” As Leslie put it, his blog is “a place where I write and curate posts about things I love in an attempt to gain a grand theory of everything… or at least pull a better espresso shot.” He can be found on Twitter: @AdventureLC.

Why did you create a web site of regular entries?
I believe in the act of writing. I believe that doing it publicly helps me grow. I believe that when I grow I help others succeed. Helping others succeed is my life’s work. A web site of regular entries is a logical way to practice my beliefs.

What web-based solution did you select and why?
EllisLab’s ExpressionEngine. I spent the last ten years growing EllisLab (I was EllisLab’s CEO), making ExpressionEngine, the CMS that web professionals need. I’m no longer with EllisLab, but my belief, trust, and love of ExpressionEngine, the team that makes it, and the amazing #eecms community hasn’t changed.

I also dabble with Jack McDade’s Statamic because it’s like ExpressionEngine in a flat-file system and Jack comes from the #eecms community. I want to support people who break out and do their own thing too.

What is your definition of a good blog
and what are three good blogs that you frequently visit?
A good blog is entertaining, informative, or educational. It’s typically a mix of all three. A great blog changes the way you look at the world. Here are three great blogs—The Great Discontent, Penelope Trunk, Rands in Repose—and one great comic, Penny Arcade.

How do you create content for your blog?
I write every single day on my private 750Words.com account. This daily discipline surfaces what matters to me and also what I find most enjoyable. I take the best of that and turn those words into blog posts.

I also find that I write best when I’m responding to something, so I will often pose a question or start with a quote that causes a passionate reaction. Then I free write on that subject which tells me if I have something substantial or entertaining to say or not.

How do you stay organized and motivated
to contribute to your blog?
I use Omnifocus, Pinboard, and Google Docs to keep me organized. My family keeps me motivated. I am a better person when I write, and when my own self-improvement isn’t motivating enough, knowing my family needs me at my best keeps me going.

For those aspiring to make a web site composed
of regular thoughts and/or images, what is your advice?
Write more than you read—and you should be reading a lot. The discipline of daily writing is the single most helpful thing you can do if you intend to contribute to the web on a consistent basis.

What is your quest in blogging?
I believe in the act of writing. My quest is simply to write, level up my skills, and occasionally roll a twenty, get a critical hit, and slay my dragons.

• • •

Photo courtesy of Leslie Camacho.

• • •

Update, 3-18-2013: Big thanks to Leslie, who, after the posting of this Blogger’s Quest(ionnaire), quickly and generously offered more recommendations of bloggers, whose writings relate to design, creativity, business.

• • •

Read previous Blogger’s Quest(ionnaire)
with Amy Marquez’s Attention to The In-House Designer

Enthusiasm Made Real: Swissmiss’ Keynote at South by Southwest 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 05:07:00 +0000

To put a spin on Tina Roth Eisenberg’s invention of CreativeMornings, her 2pm CST Keynote address at the SXSW Interactive festival was a CreativeAfternoon, which consisted of an amazing collective wave from stage left to stage right where Tina stood (above).

By her tenacious examples of creativity, Tina reminded everyone to relentlessly pursue their dreams. Swissmiss emphasized:

Enthusiasm is essentially a feeling. Tina’s take on enthusiasm, evidenced by her shared personal stories, is about uncovering desires and committing to them in a way that ultimately defines one’s life. This is enthusiasm as perseverance. Being honest to yourself. For satisfaction to be long-standing, enthusiasm, by Tina’s efforts, provokes people to steer and stay the path toward that preferred version of their livelihood—all the worthwhile to reach.

Money was the February 2013 global theme of CreativeMornings. Tina chooses gathering experiences over money, every time. Experience the experience and repeat. Cumulative experience brings greater dimension, and is something that the one-note nature of money can’t capture. In his book Anything You Want, self-starter and author Derek Sivers said it plainly, “Business is not about money. It’s about making dreams come true for others and for yourself.”

Tina’s coworking space, Studiomates, harnesses the iterative power of likemindedness. Browsing its website, one gleans a diverse group of people, representing a diverse range of creative disciplines and projects—all wrapped with the shared attitude of making great things. Likemindedness naturally sparks camaraderie in a space intended to nurture collaboration. Likemindedness likewise induced positive by-products, such as Dropmark, Brooklyn Beta, and Editorially, among many others. The common connection across them is Studiomates. Likemindedness is the foundation for realizing, as Tina encouraged, “real connections.”

• • •

Big thanks to SXSW Interactive and Oracle for live-streaming Swissmiss’ Keynote. It allowed me to participate in the wave, virtually, and take notes.

• • •

This was my first piece and entry into using Draft, a writing and collaborative app created by Nathan Kontny. I’m having a great experience using it because it allows me to see my thoughts, one sentence after another, with true ease. Looking forward to using Editorially.

• • •

Typeface of quotes is called Massive designed by Chicago-based Shawn Hazen, who also makes wonderfully bold typographic illustrations for Design Feast series Creative Roles.

Photos by Nate Burgos

User Experience Designer Amy Marquez: Family, Improv, Empathy

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 03:29:00 +0000

Photograph by Oksana Karle of Karle Design & Photography

Complementing her Blogger’s Quest(ionnaire), Amy Marquez (with family above) generously expands on thoughts about her discipline of user experience design, from good examples to tools. She also shares her passion for improv and her take on women in design and technology.

Where are you from?
San Antonio, TX > Studio City, CA > Huntington Beach, CA > Phoenix, AZ > San Antonio, TX—So, San Antonio, with about a 9-year break to explore the Southwest.

What does design—the noun and verb—mean to you?
Design, the noun, is the structural foundation and aesthetic decoration of a particular thing. I think of the overall term “design” like I would think about the architecture of the Florence Cathedral. Beautiful on the surface, but incredibly complex underneath.

To design (verb) is to consider all the disparate elements of something and bring them together in a way that is easily comprehended and utilized. For me, it’s as much an exercise in logic as it is a creative endeavor.

As a user experience designer, what is user experience design,
and when did you think it became visible as a discipline?
At the heart of it, user experience design is the act of telling an aesthetically pleasing story. If your story rambles or is unclear, your user gets lost and your experience has failed. If the aesthetics of your story are jarring, it’s an unappealing story.

UX design has been around for a while, but I think it’s visibility skyrocketed when Apple launched the iPad. Suddenly everyone was talking about “intuitive user experience” with the iPad. Executives started saying “we need to have a good user experience”, whether or not they knew what that meant.

When did you start your focus on user experience design?
How did you turn this focus into your current career path?
My experience with design started in the theater. I have a BA and MA in theater and did a lot of set design and makeup design, along with designing programs and posters for shows.

But my fascination with layout started with a part-time job at The Battalion, the Texas A&M University school newspaper. I did some of the advertising layout for the paper.

In the late 1990s, I moved to the Los Angeles area to pursue a job in the entertainment industry. While working for a special effects company on some simple photographic enhancements, I was tasked to learn about this “web” thing and help the company build a web presence. From the first HTML tutorial I took, I was hooked. From that time forward, the only jobs I took were UX design related.

Sticker from Redbubble—How Amy feels with the right tools

Are there user experience designers/design groups
you look up to? Who?
I absolutely love the design and usability professionals who write and present for UIE. I organize the training for my design team, and we always enjoy their virtual seminars. And anyone who’s seen Jared Spool speak at a conference can vouch not just for the quality of information in his presentations, but for how dynamic and interesting Jared is to listen to. I also enjoy Cennydd Bowles’ blog posts. He covers some of my favorite topics.

What are examples of good user experience design and why?
Good user experience design takes content and context into mind across channels (a channel being a delivery method to the user—like mobile, tablet, web, etc.). I talk about a great example of this in an opinion piece I wrote for .net Magazine. I know holding Amazon up as a bastion for excellent experience design is a little cliché, but it’s absolutely valid. On each platform they deliver to—web, mobile web, iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle, etc.—they know exactly what their customer’s priorities are in each setting and design to that.

Another part of good UX design is making the content the star, not the designer. When a design is simple and clear and stunning, and the product and content is front and center (see heymosaic.com for one of my personal favorite examples), and can still employ the latest design trends and techniques, I’m impressed. It’s really a difficult balancing act to make a usable, beautiful design without crossing over into showboating.

What sources do you recommend to learn
about user experience design?
Every book that A Book Apart offers should be at the top of the reading list. Designing for Emotion by Aaron Walter is one of my favorites. Another great book for beginning designers is 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People by Susan Weinschenk. It’s very much about the psychology of why people see things the way they do. It’s also a fast read and is formatted so that it’s in easily digestible chunks.

You have experience in the theater and keep up your passion
with improvisational comedy. How do these disciplines
influence your design work?
I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to be able to think on my toes at any given moment. Improv really puts your brain in hyper-drive. I feel more inspired and innovative in brainstorming sessions because of the work I do with improvisational comedy. It just exercises “outside the box” thinking and helps me bring that into my work.

There was a period of about 4 years that I didn’t do improv because I was raising two toddlers. When I returned to the stage, I felt like my brain was in a sludgy fog in comparison with the other performers. But after just a few weeks back in the saddle, the quickness returned.

It also forces me to keep up with current events. You have to know what’s going on in the world so you can poke fun at it. I read most of my news on Flipboard, so I can keep my design and tech-related reading and current events reading in the same place.

How do you manage being both a full-time designer and
a proactive improvisational comedian, in addition to
being both a wife and mother? Because there are a lot of people
out there who have passions outside their day job.
I get that question a lot. People ask me how I have the energy to do it all. Most days it doesn’t really seem like too much to me. It’s all about knowing what your priorities are. And what’s great about that is that my family, design and improv are all passions of mine. I get to make my favorite things my top priorities. I think there are a lot of people who don’t have a chance to do that in their daily grind.

I do have to be very careful and pay attention to keeping balance. I spend as much time with my kids as I can. I sit down with them and help with homework, I present at Career Day, we go to museums, the zoo, the beach, as often as we can. Sometimes the house is a little messier than what I’d like. Like many working moms, I’ve had to learn what I can let go of until the weekend.

But that’s also where having an amazing husband comes in. The rule for dinner time is whoever gets home first cooks. So, if I’m running late at work, he gets dinner going. (And he’s a fantastic cook!) If I have an evening improv show to get to after dinner, he makes sure the kids get bathed and put to bed. And if I’m away at a conference, he does it all. We truly are partners in our relationship, and that’s what makes it all work.

Writer Alissa Walker wrote an article called “Women in Industrial
Design: Where My Ladies At?” Where are the Ladies in
Design/Development/Building/Strategy at?
This is a really important topic to me. I’ve seen a little growth in the number of women in design and development, but not nearly as much as there ought to be.

One recent article in Forbes magazine suggests that the reason that there aren’t more women in tech is that “We simply do not have enough women choosing tech careers.” The author says that women seem to be uninformed about the variety of tech jobs out there. As much as we like to ignore gender bias, most girls are still raised to believe that nurturing careers like nursing and teaching (noble in and of themselves) are the best for women, and that tech jobs are boring and left-brained only. There needs to be more done at a grassroots level to educate young girls and women entering into college about their choices.

That being said, there are some amazing prominent women in user experience design. Karen McGrane, Whitney Hess, Sarah Parmenter, Kim Goodwin, Dana Chisnell, to name just a few.

What is your definition of bad design?
Bad design is usually a sign that the design team neglected to consider use cases and left out usability testing.

If the users eye doesn’t know where to go on a page (no visual hierarchy), you’ve lost them. Poor navigation, unclear calls to action, elements not behaving as the user expects them to, lack of content prioritization or cohesiveness in messaging—these are all hallmarks of bad design. The average person doesn’t realize that content is a huge part of design.

Bad design is also not taking context into account. There’s this trend of a pretense at responsive design by basically reformatting a business‘ website and throwing it all, kitchen sink and all, on the mobile version. This ignores the context, the environment in which the user is accessing a business’ website.

Amy’s home set-up. Originally a Windows user, but as Amy put it, “Once I went Mac, I never went back.”

How does time factor into your work?
It depends on the projects. Right now I’m working on a large-scale project where we have a fair amount of time to conduct research, do mind mapping, build out use cases and hold design studios. It’s fantastic. I really enjoy working this way.

Other times, I get projects with a due date of “yesterday!” and it’s a big rush with lots of overtime to get everything done. I work well with tight deadlines, too. Though it’s always nice to have a pace set that doesn’t require too much overtime.

Regardless of the speed of the effort, it’s really important for me to work closely with my project team and keep our priorities aligned. That helps to set expectations and keep timelines on track.

How do you handle disagreements while you’re working?
Part of being a UX designer is being a really good listener. When there are disagreements, I listen carefully to what is being said and restate my understanding of what was said. Often times, we’re saying the same thing—working towards the same goal—but just expressing ourselves differently.

Was there a part of your work that was particularly trying,
and how did you deal with it?
Early on in my career I worked for a .com startup. The executive management apparently had very questionable ethics and asked me to do things with design that I felt was plagiarism. I dealt with it by being up front with my manager about the situation and telling her that I would not do what the execs were asking. She went to bat for me, but was told to follow orders. I turned in my resignation and started looking for other opportunities.

What tools do you use and recommend to work on ideas
and make them grow, to collaborate and get things done?
My best tool is empathy. After establishing that, sketching with a variety of pens on paper is a really great way to start working out design concepts. I highly recommend conducting mind mapping sessions and design studios. It’s like organized brainstorming that ends with a really good idea of where the project or design is going.

After the paper sketching, I usually move straight into Photoshop. I really like the look and feel of Balsamiq because you can give the business an idea of what the design will be without setting anything in stone. But I find that I personally work faster in Photoshop. I’ve just been using it for so long that it’s my go-to tool.

Outside a corporate setting, I’ve found Google Docs and Google Drive to be great ways to collaborate and share with others.

You definitely stay creative through your improv work.
Are there other sources of motivation/inspiration
that you tap into?
My children are a constant source of inspiration and motivation. They are such brilliant young things. The way they look at the world fascinates me. Sometimes if I’m working on a project at home, I’ll ask their opinion on a design element or iconography and they’ll come up with amazing insights.

I’ve also started writing quite a bit. I started a blog in September 2012, and have published three articles for .net Magazine and UX Booth. My mom was a prolific freelance writer—I learned quite a bit from her. It’s comforting to me to have writing as another outlet. I feel like I have a connection with her even though she’s gone.

What is your advice to people who aspire
to be a creative practitioner?
That’s the key word right there—practitioner. It’s all about practice and sticking with it. If you enjoy something—whether it’s drawing, photography, designing—do it. And keep doing it. And don’t stop doing it. Learn everything you can about it. Read books, read websites and blogs, read magazines. And while your learning, practice what you’ve learned.

And never let anyone tell you that you can’t be or do something. The only person that gets to set your limits is you.

What is your advice to people who aspire
to be a user experience designer?
If you want to be a user experience designer, you have to start with a rudimentary understanding of what your own design skills are. If you’re serious about design, you’re going to need some good software, too. You don’t absolutely have to have the entire Adobe Creative Suite, but Adobe Photoshop is still one of the most widely used graphics programs out there. For learning code, you can use SublimeText 2. It’s a great program and only costs $70.

If you haven’t already, take some beginning graphic design courses and HTML courses. You can do this online at Lynda.com or Treehouse.com. Or there are free tutorials out there as well.

And find a mentor. Connect with local UX professionals if you can.

How does San Antonio contribute to your work? And what
makes it special for startups/business/creativity-at-large?
I moved back to San Antonio about five years ago when my mother became very ill. After a prolonged battle with heart disease and other complications, she passed away this past October (2012).

Coming back to San Antonio as an adult (when I left I was in my 20s, and I still felt like a kid) gave me a whole new appreciation for the city.

You may be familiar with the Austin slogan “Keep Austin Weird”. The San Antonio slogan is “Keep San Antonio Lame”. Well, as a married adult with two young children, lame is awesome. The schools are good, the neighborhoods are nice, and San Antonio is one of those cities that has never really suffered when the economy is suffering. When the housing bubble burst, San Antonio was basically unaffected by it.

It’s a stable environment to raise a family in. It has power house large companies and industries (health care, tourism, military, insurance, financial, petroleum) that provide constant job opportunities.

Where I think it could improve is in the creativity. San Antonio isn’t a city that has a booming arts or music scene like Austin does. It’s a much slower-paced city. I think some people refer to it as the biggest small town in Texas. The official population is about 1.5 million. But it still feels like small town America. What that means for the creative industries is that there’s not as much patronage of the arts here.

• • •

All images courtesy of Amy Marquez.

• • •

Typeface of quotations is Cooper Black (1922) designed by Oswald Bruce Cooper in Chicago.

• • •

Read the Blogger’s Quest(ionnaire) with Amy Marquez.

• • •

Read previous Interview:Service Designer Meredith DeZutter: Interconnectedness in Health Care and Beyond

Blogger’s Quest(ionnaire): Amy Marquez’s Attention to The In-House Designer

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:54:00 +0000

Amy Marquez is a senior user experience designer in San Antonio, Texas. Through her blog, she champions the in-house designer. She can be found on Twitter: @amymarquez.

Why did you create a web site of regular entries?
I feel like the in-house (corporate) design teams are a really under-represented population within user experience design. One way to become more visible is to put your thoughts out there, both on a blog and in articles for professional publications. It felt like it was just time for me to start speaking up.

What web-based solution did you select and why?
I chose WordPress. I’ve had prior experience with it and am comfortable with PHP, so modifying templates is easy.

What is your definition of a good blog
and what are three good blogs that you frequently visit?
A good blog covers timely topics and offers wisdom in a relatively short (1000 words or less) format. It’s one that’s open to conversation and is willing to listen to and consider differing points of view. The three blogs I most frequently visit are A List Apart, Brainsparks and Luke Wroblewski’s blog.

How do you create content for your blog?
I work in a very stream-of-consciousness sort of way. If I see something that inspires or infuriates me or strikes me as a topic work discussing, I write about it.

How do you stay organized and motivated
to contribute to your blog?
I keep a lot of notes. I have reminders and notes on my phone. Since they all sync up with my other devices, I have access to them at all times. I also keep some Stickies on my iMac to remind me of what topics are in my queue. I’m motivated to contribute because I really enjoy it. And I’m getting great feedback on my posts.

For those aspiring to make a web site composed
of regular thoughts and/or images, what is your advice?
Have a defined focus. It’s o.k. to stray from it once in a while, but know the primary focus of your blog. Read other blogs in your field, and keep up with the daily news on your subject. Understand what others are talking about. If you have something to contribute to the conversation that’s more than a tweet can handle, write it in your blog.

What is your quest in blogging?
I want to share my ideas on what’s going on in the world of UX design, and I want people to comment and give me feedback. I like it when I have an opposing opinion in the comments. It forces me to step back from my own position and really think through where the other person is coming from. And I really want people to understand that in-house designers are out there and are contributing to the greater UX community.

• • •

Photo courtesy of Amy Marquez.

• • •

Read previous Blogger’s Quest(ionnaire)
with Jeannette Ordas of food blog Everybody Likes Sandwiches.

Infographics inspired by Derek Sivers’ Book “Anything You Want”

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 18:18:00 +0000

Derek Sivers’ first book Anything You Want is compact like one of his TED Talks(1). In it, he relates experiences and lessons learned while founding CD Baby—an online CD store for independent musicians. I’m enjoying this emerging pattern of business books written with the reader clearly in mind: brief, plainspoken tone, and nothing like an MBA-speak presentation.

The poet J. D. McClatchy said, “Novelists want to flood, poets want to distill.” Brevity is therapy when it particularly comes to business books. I gravitate to this deliberate short form, like Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk, REWORK by Jason Fried and David David Heinemeier Hansson of 37signals(2), Evil Plans: Having Fund on the Road to World Domination by Hugh Macleod. Sivers uses a distilled approach that I greatly appreciate. One clear advantage to reading an entire book in one sitting is the ability to easily revisit the parts you highlight and reread them, or even the entire book, again in the same sitting. Another advantage is the ability to extend the book into a project. In this case, the project was playing with some of the Sivers’ quotes and turning them into high-level infographics.

Infographic 1: What business is and is not

Sivers offers a good reminder (one of many in his book): making something—whether it winds up as a business or not—must be done for emotion, not money. To paraphrase author Besa Kosova, this practice helps relieve stress even if, as the phrase goes, it ultimately can’t buy happiness. Here’s the initial sketch:

A digital iteration of Sivers’ really simple breakdown in defining a business:

Infographic 2: Execution never gets old

Ideas only have color, shape, volume, and visibility, when they’re made real. What’s imagined rests on paper, on the surface of your mind. And it can stay there indefinitely. In making an idea real, passion is never overrated. Here’s the initial sketch:

A digital iteration of Derek’s repeated emphasis to escape flatland:

Infographic 3: Your business, your universe

The author Mark Twain gave great startup advice: “Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.” A universe exists on a lot of matter and energy, space and time. It’s a demanding thing, like one’s livelihood; a process of world-making. Here’s the initial sketch:

A digital iteration of Sivers’ call to create your own version of the cosmos:

Sivers ends Anything You Want with a section called “You make a perfect world.” The last statement: “Whatever you make, it’s your creation, so make it your personal dream come true.”

• • •

See Infographics inspired by Richard Florida’s Book The Rise of the Creative Class.

(1) One of my favorite TED Talks is Derek Sivers’ Weird, or just different?—wisdom in less than three minutes.

(2) 37signals’ new book is REMOTE: Office Not Required.

Service Designer Meredith DeZutter: Interconnectedness in Health Care and Beyond

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 19:08:00 +0000

Meredith DeZutter is a service designer at the Center for Innovation (CFI) at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. With the increasing visibility of “service design” in these data-intensive times, Meredith shares her thoughts on this holistic discipline dedicated to the informed creation of meaningful experiences for customers, especially in the critical area of health care:

Where are you from?
I grew up in Media, PA, a suburb outside Philadelphia. I went to college at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburg, worked in Chicago, and now live in Minnesota. Over the past couple decades it seems I am slowly migrating west.

What does design—the noun and verb—mean to you?
I think of design as the dynamic act of creating something new that has value to the people it was designed for.

As a service designer, what is service design,
and when did it become more visible as a discipline?
From my perspective, service design is exploring the interconnectedness of people, workflows, tools, and products to create systems, offerings, interactions, and experiences. I believe this discipline has been around for some time; however, I am new to the field and perhaps not the best historian. I came to service design from product development. A few years back, I was excited by the transformational shift I was seeing in design that moved past product and wanted to connect this more strongly to my work.

When did you start your focus on service design?
How did you turn this focus into your current career path?
As mentioned above, a couple years ago, I purposefully looked for opportunities to move away from product development and work more broadly in health care, specifically in hospitals and clinics, as I was fascinated by their complexity and how significantly they were in need of change. At the time, I was not looking to become a service designer; I just desperately wanted someone to let me dive into the health care system and affect change. I was fortunate to get hired by Mayo Clinic in their Center for Innovation (CFI) to do just that, and it was at this time, I started to appreciate my new role.

Inside the Center for Innovation at Mayo Clinic

Are there service designers/design groups you look up to? Who?
There are many leading design consultancies and service design groups who seem doing interesting work, especially in the UK and Europe, though the US is catching up quickly. It is interesting to see designers working on complex systems and services within so many industries such as finance, telecom, government public services, and so on. From a distance I admire the work of Livework, Engine Service Design, Design Continuum, Mad*Pow, and Adaptive Path, among others. I hope to continue to follow their work more closely in the future.

What is your current work in service design
as it pertains to health care?
Health care today, as alluded to in a previous question, is a complex, broken system with no one—patients, providers, hospitals, payers—happy with the current system. Since I began in the CFI, my work has primarily been a project that, at its core, is focused on aligning the costs of care with the financial realities of the near future. From another perspective, this could simply be a cost-cutting exercise where we engage in value-stream mapping, identify waste, and make the system more efficient; however, this approach does not represent service design. When we began this work, we took a different approach. We did significant research within the Clinic to understand key challenges as well as what works well in our system, essentially what we value and want to keep. From the research, we identified different patient types and did in-depth home visits to understand their past, present, and future health care needs, and how the current system supports or does not support their behaviors, goals, motivations, and emotional needs.

This work is still ongoing, but one of the key learnings from our efforts is that the current system has standardized in ways that variance and patient complexity are not fully captured at the beginning of the process; therefore, as patients and providers move through the system, disconnects and frustrations snowball, leaving many feeling that the service provided was not optimal.

If we look at the system differently, based on our key insights, we could redesign the service of providing health care to include more time and effort upfront to “know the patient” and understand their needs from a medical, psycho-social perspective, as well as the different attitudes and beliefs they will bring to the experience. These moments of previous perceived waste become the foundation for both an efficient system, but, of equal importance, one that is more aligned with the needs of the patient and has provided greater opportunities for initial patient engagement that we hope will continue and grow stronger throughout the journey.

To me, if we are able to implement some of this work, this represents an elegant solution that represents good service design as there is no compromise, both patients and our institution benefit from the service design perspective and process being applied to Mayo Clinic.

What sources do you recommend to learn about service design?
The Service Design Network is a great organization. This group offers a great starting point for a beginner hoping to learn more about what service design is, but also provide a great journal and conference that appeal to designers of any level.

What is “user research”? What is its relationship
with “design research”?
When I began my career, I had the title “user researcher,” which, at the time, was a relatively new discipline in design consultancies. During my time in product development, we did generative research to understand users before designing a product or service, and then evaluative research to understand how to iterate on a design. In this process, we typically had separate teams, a research and design team that would hand-off findings and ideas to one another.

At CFI, this distinction does not exist, we do what I would describe as design research, in that it is a continual, seamless process that weaves throughout the work. Very few days go by where I am not working with people who will interact or use a service and actively trying to bring their voice and thoughts into the process of design.

When does user research become a part
of your process/workflow and why?
As mentioned above, I see design research is a constant; it goes through the whole process starting with framing a problem, all the way through implementation.

What methods do you use to help analyze user research?
The methods I use are somewhat laborious, I believe in typing up notes from observations and compiling raw data while it is fresh. I do this to archive what we have seen, but I also find the process of compiling to be a moment when I start to understand major themes that are emerging. In addition to themes, I am a big fan of journey mapping—when I first started in research and design this was more of a way to capture workflows but journey maps can be richer—they describe process but also add additional perspectives such as interactions, connections, emotions, tools, etc. I find these very valuable in seeing a bigger picture, and aligning teams around how we are going to innovate moving forward.

How do you have user research inform your/your team’s work
and not have it get stale?
As part of our process, we engage in an activity that we call experimentation, where we are trying to understand an idea in context with the full system to understand benefits, as well as unintended consequences of the idea. We go through different stages of experimentation; some beginning work can be done in a lo-fi paper prototype method or even done through simulation. These experiments we quickly iterate, because we are trying to weed out ideas that are not appropriate quickly. As we continue to hone an idea, we may move into a working prototype to test proof-of-concept. Following these iterations, we will get more and more resolution on experimentation until we have a design that could be diffused into the practice. With this process, it is hard for the user research to get stale, as it is the starting point for continued experimentation and future learning.

Writer Alissa Walker wrote an article called “Women in Industrial Design: Where My Ladies At?” Where are the Ladies in Design/Development/Building/Strategy at?
Throughout my career, I have seen many talented female designers, who have to push themselves harder to be recognized in comparison to their male counterparts. I believe this will change as a new generation of women designers, who aren’t aware it is a male-dominated culture, become leaders in their organizations and start their own companies. I agree with the author, it is up to us to write our own future and to make it okay to be a woman in design. I have recently been very interested in the perspective Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, has in how women can be successful in the workplace and balance a career and family.

What is your definition of bad design?
I am far from qualified to criticize the work of others and there are so many ways individuals may define good and bad design based on what they value. I will say that I value design that strives to embrace complexity by not hiding it from people, but by making complexity transparent yet approachable.

How does time factor into your work?
The work at the Center for Innovation ranges from small projects to truly transformational shifts in health care that span multiple years. While multi-year projects may seem slow, Mayo Clinic is a large organization within a larger complex health care system. Change in this industry happens slowly, and understanding any potential solution within such a complex system takes time. Honestly, everyday feels like we are a year or more behind where we should be, and we need to work harder.

How do you handle disagreements while you’re working?
As designers, we are trained to understand critique and to continuously question ideas; however, there can be disagreements working outside the CFI as it is hard to keep a group of people, with different backgrounds, expectations and training, to align around a new service or system change over a period of time. One way we have learned to mitigate disagreements before they happen is to set a strong foundation of understanding of why we are doing the work, what our goals are, and how we will do it. While this may seem obvious, it is something that we try not to forget, and make sure it is visible and understandable throughout the process.

Was there a part of your work that was particularly trying,
and how did you deal with it?
Many people can be threatened by the idea that your work will change their job, even if you engage in co-creating solutions. Over my career, I have known this, but honestly did not fully understand why some people resist change until I had a conversation with my mother a couple years ago. She is trained as a RN, worked as a surgical nurse for over 25 years and was dismayed by the introduction of the EMR (Electronic Medial Records) into her hospital. While I and her managers told her all the benefits it would provide, all she could see was that a job in which she was recognized as an expert was now going to require her to relearn, or learn for the first time, skills that she was uncomfortable with.

From this conversation, I now have more empathy that for people. Change is hard, sometimes very hard. What I try to do now when working with groups that are apprehensive is to start small; there is no need to solve all problems at one time. Adoption of new ideas can start slowly, and you need to give people the time and space to embrace change.

What tools do you use and recommend to work on ideas
and make them grow, to collaborate and get things done?
My favorite tools are a pen, a piece of paper, and a group of engaged people. In my work, I am constantly working and interacting with clinicians, care teams, administrators, other designers, and having group conversations that sometimes flow seamlessly or sometimes erratically from idea to idea. I have found that if we draw, write, sketch during the conversations, there is significant value to capturing ideas real time, often to share and focus conversation.

Much of our work involves teams and sketching new ideas and iterations

How do you stay creative? What are some of your sources
of motivation/inspiration?
Being a designer embedded into Mayo Clinic has many advantages, and one is that I work in the building where patients are seen by their providers for a wide range of conditions, everything from a routine check-up of a person with diabetes to a person with cancer or someone who has just had a life-saving transplant.

This environment is inspiring as you see the impact of what you’re doing and why you’re doing it throughout the day. In a course of our work, we have formalized moments were we sit-in on patient appointments or do “patient tracers,” an activity where we will follow a patient throughout their journey; however, anytime I want, especially if I am not feeling inspired or creative, I can go to sit in a waiting room, or the cafeteria, or the pharmacy and just immerse myself. This always provides a new perspective, and I go back to work refreshed and reminded that what we are trying to do will greatly impact so many people.

Being embedded in the clinic offers the advantage of seeing and interacting with the people for whom we are designing

What is your advice to people who aspire
to be a creative practitioner?
Go for it. There are so many different opportunities to utilize creativity that don’t immediately come to mind. When I went to school, I was a mediocre industrial designer (at best), but stuck with it and realized creativity is not a skill, such as form development or rendering, rather it is a way of thinking or a way of approaching a problem.

What is your advice to people who aspire
to be a service designer?
Check out many of the good schools who have developed a service design program into their curriculum, and then during summers, intern at different places. There are so many different kinds of service design work in different industries, and interning will provide a lens into what type of work is meaningful to the individual.

Service Jam

How does Minnesota contribute to your work? And what
makes it special for startups/business/creativity-at-large?
Mayo Clinic is in Rochester, Minnesota, which is approximately 80 miles from Minneapolis/St. Paul, and has a small, but dedicated and growing arts community, along with some great restaurants. For service design, Minneapolis is (for the first time I believe) a regional host for the Global Service Jam, an event where design professionals from all over the globe meet in over 100 host cities and, in less than 48 hours, develop a prototype of a new service. This year, one of my colleagues has been involved in the organization of the event, and many in my group are attending and playing different roles.

• • •

All images courtesy of Meredith DeZutter.

• • •

Typeface of quotations is Cooper Black (1922) designed by Oswald Bruce Cooper in Chicago.

• • •

Read previous Interview:Thoughts on Mentorship by Designer Jason Early, Mentor at The Starter League

Blogger’s Quest(ionnaire): Jeannette Ordas of food blog Everybody Likes Sandwiches

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 13:54:00 +0000

Jeannette Ordas is a web designer, illustrator and co-founder, with her husband, of Matchbox Creative, a small web development and design studio based in Vancouver, BC. Adjacent to her business, she blogs at Everybody Likes Sandwiches, where she shares her experiences and recipes making great meals, “not just sandwiches.” She can be found on Twitter: @kickpleat (Why kickpleat?).

Why did you create a web site of regular entries?
I used to publish my own ’zine (a folded and stapled little number) that was full of personal stories along with music reviews and recipes. So when I stumbled upon Chocolate & Zucchini, it opened my eyeballs to a whole new medium. Originally, I started my food blog, Everybody Likes Sandwiches, as a way to help keep me inspired in the kitchen, so I wouldn’t get bored with eating the same thing over and over. But as I found my voice and niche—creating fresh food simply, I discovered a whole community of enthusiastic readers.

What web-based solution did you select and why?
When I first started blogging in 2005, I used Blogger, because it seemed like the easiest platform, so that I could start up immediately. After a few years, I realized its limitations and made the move to WordPress.

What is your definition of a good blog
and what are three good blogs that you frequently visit?
For me a good blog can mean different things, it can be loaded with photos, if I’m looking for design inspiration, or just swooning over pretty objects. But I also like finding a connection with a blogger in terms of the stories they share. Print & Pattern is a great blog to see what’s going on in the world of surface design and illustration. A Sweet Spoonful has thoughtful writing and great recipes. Past Tense Vancouver helps me see the history in the shiny new city I call home (workspace below).

How do you create content for your blog?
With a food blog, it’s easy. I make a meal. I don’t set out to create a certain recipe for the blog, but if it’s a successful meal, then I want to share it with others. Making a meal is a creative process, but it’s more than that. A taste of something or a smell can open up a flood of memories that can take you back to a certain time or place. A meal can be the best story to tell.

How do you stay organized and motivated
to contribute to your blog?
Well, I don’t always succeed. Sometimes it’s difficult to write a post when I’ve got work piled up and other things that need to get done, but I always go back to blogging. I love how there’s such a great food blogging community, and I have some very dedicated and enthusiastic readers, so receiving comments and emails are always a great motivator that I’m doing something right.

For those aspiring to make a web site composed
of regular thoughts and/or images, what is your advice?
Write about something that makes you happy. If you feel passionate about something, your readers will feel it too. Also, you have to realize that you aren’t in a bubble—connect with other bloggers by leaving comments or getting together for meet-ups.

What is your quest in blogging?
To grow and become a stronger writer and work harder at taking better photos. I also want to show people that you don’t need fussy ingredients or complicated directions to make a great meal.

• • •

Photos courtesy of Jeannette Ordas.

• • •

Read previous Blogger’s Quest(ionnaire)
with Signal Tower’s Sam Solomon.

Chicago CreativeMornings #15 with Plural Design on Being Weird

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 16:20:00 +0000

This year’s 2nd Chicago CreativeMornings (and the 15th one in that city) kicked off with Jeremiah Chiu and Renata Graw (above top), founders of the Chicago-based creative studio Plural Design, held at the Chicago location of international architectural firm Gensler. They shared their fondness for being weird, along with their pursuit of meaningful projects, not money—CreativeMorning’s theme for February 2013.

Highlights

It’s been advised countless times to never start anything only for the money. Graphic Designer Scott Reinhard, who spoke at the 13th Chicago CreativeMornings, emphasized his priority to “really learn the content you’re working with.” Graphic Designer and Illustrator Mike McQuade, who spoke at the 9th Chicago CreativeMornings, emphasized the intensive process of taking an editorial illustration from start to delivery. All the presenters at Chicago CreativeMornings persistently practice the belief that intangible rewards outweigh what’s easily judged as the most important thing (i.e., money).

A common attribute of all Chicago CreativeMornings speakers is their support of the small. Jason Fried, who co-founded 37signals and spoke at the 2nd Chicago CreativeMornings, defends smallness: “Why the impetus to keep growing?” This is in respect to both profits and staff. Designer Laura Kalbag, who answered Design Feast’s Designer’s Quest(ionnaire), extends the value of small:

“I work from home in a small house in Reigate, Surrey. In fact, everything I do is pretty small.

I like to keep my business small because I want to keep the quality high and the communication tight.
I work mostly with small businesses, startups and individuals because I value close working relationships and informal processes.
I keep projects small, to suit small budgets. If a project is huge, I like to break it into smaller manageable segments, so that we don’t forget the little things when worrying about the big things.”

“Weird” here essentially means taking risks, which creativity demands. It’s about harnessing imagination with what feels uncomfortable, even counterintuitive. Never easy. Timely that the 15th Chicago CreativeMornings coincided with the birthday of Edward Gorey, an illustrator who sought the peculiar as a direct influence in his work: “My mission in life is to make everybody as uneasy as possible. I think we should all be as uneasy as possible, because that’s what the world is like.” Weirdness can be a source of fascination to help feed how work is imagined and expressed.

To-Dos

Meaning, not money. Embrace small. And keep it weird.

Photos by Nate Burgos. View more.

• • •

Big thanks to: Gensler for sponsoring and hosting Chicago CreativeMornings #15; to organizers Kim Eertmoed and Kyle Knoll of Knoed Creative (who spoke at Chicago CreativeMornings #7), videographers Chris Gallevo and Erick De La Rosa, Isaac Stein for greeting, and the rest of the Chicago CreativeMornings crew for their great work on making CreativeMornings happen in Chicago.

• • •

Typeface of quotes is called Massive designed by Shawn Hazen, who also makes wonderfully bold typographic illustrations for Design Feast series Creative Roles.

• • •

Read about Chicago CreativeMornings #14 with Nick Campbell on Seeking and Seizing Happiness.

• • •

2011 was Chicago CreativeMornings’ most excellent debut year. Download the collection of insights.

A Twitter Tale of Why Attribution Matters

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:26:00 +0000

One huge benefit of Twitter is the streaming capacity of tweets, especially during live events. Conference attendees can rely on a conference hashtag to appropriately tag their tweets for broadcasting clips of speakers and happenings. I’m not condoning passing up a conference to experience in person (but then again, it can be a plus to bypass huge crowds).

The annual conference of the IxDA (Interaction Design Association) was held in Toronto this year. I was browsing tweets streaming with the hashtag #IxD13. Quotables displayed from presentations. One such item was tweeted by Designer Carl Duffield:

An eloquent statement, which I wanted to RT (retweet), but wasn’t sure who said it: Carl himself or someone else? I reached out to Carl, who kindly and generously mined the source. The quote was from the presentation Setting Course – Design Research to Experience Roadmap by Brian Winters and Jason Ulaszek of Manifest Digital in Chicago.

I commend Carl for not dismissing the quote’s credit and taking the time to locate the source—long after his tweet’s publication in the Twitterverse. As he put it in our email exchange: “Lesson definitely learned to pull together my notes (where things were actually attributed) into my tweets.”

Attribution is a very big deal, not only within the context of interaction design, but all disciplines. Conferences—IxD, TED, et al.—are a particular wellspring in which attribution can be practiced. Because it takes work, attribution doesn’t align to the instant impulse of tweeting. While properly acknowledging who said what or what was made does affect timing, it doesn’t make what was shared less timely. All the more reason to be mindful of the originator, who provided the tweetable moment in the first place. This is why I admire initiatives like The Curator’s Code by Maria Popova of Brain Pickings, who said it well: “Keep the rabbit hole of the Internet open by honoring discovery.”

Give credit.

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Related: Design Feast uses The Curator’s Code. Read the past blog post about using it in tweets.

Discovered via @workisnotajob, another tale of attribution between author Paulo Coelho and product maker Holstee.

Blogger’s Quest(ionnaire): Sam Solomon of startups-focused blog Signal Tower

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Sam Solomon is a designer, writer and entrepreneur in Atlanta, Georgia. Startups, design and education are the main topics he blogs about at Signal Tower, where he also interviews people engaging the startup life. He can be found on Twitter: @SignalTower.

Why did you create a web site of regular entries?
Writing helps me organize my thoughts, and makes me a better communicator. My most recent blog, Signal Tower, gives me a way to connect to those in the startup and design community.

What web-based solution did you select and why?
Nothing beats WordPress when it comes to customization and community. I highly recommend it for serious bloggers.

What is your definition of a good blog?
The best blogs focus on content with high utility. Think about the type of articles you save. There is a good chance that it shows you how to do something. For example, I’m trying to learn JavaScript right now, so a good portion of my bookmarks are dedicated to tutorials.

What are three good blogs that you frequently visit?
Signal vs. Noise – Design and business insights from 37signals.
The Industry – Design news and insights.
A List Apart – The blog for people who build websites.

How do you create content for your blog?
I use the inverted pyramid for news, and like to post my interviews in question answer format.

Many of my other articles start as a list. I tend to pick one item from that list and start writing about it, then jump into the next item. This gives me a clear idea path to the end of the article.

How do you stay organized and motivated
to contribute to your blog?
Write when you are inspired. If I am inspired to write something, I’ll start working immediately. As a result, I’ll put together an article that is interesting, faster than I would have otherwise.

For those aspiring to make a web site composed
of regular thoughts and/or images, what is your advice?
The only way to get better at writing is to write. Unfortunately, you won’t be inspired all the time. I suggest setting a low goal, say one 200-word post a few days a week.

What is your quest in blogging?
It’s funny, I would say to become a better writer. However, the more I write, the more critical I am of my own work. I’d say that my quest is to help and encourage entrepreneurs and designers.

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Portrait courtesy of Sam Solomon.

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Blogger Sam Solomon joined The Starter League, a Chicago-based school that gives training to code, design and ship software. Hands-on mentorship is also a part of this school’s experience. Read the Interview with Jason Early, a mentor at The Starter League.

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Read previous Blogger’s Quest(ionnaire)
with The Contextual Life’s Gabrielle Gantz.

Lessons packed in a tweet: Swissmiss’ wake-up call

noreply@blogger.com (Nate Burgos) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:52:00 +0000

Tina Roth Eisenberg, a.k.a. Swissmiss, recently tweeted:

Tina’s critique affected me, because I was a regular practitioner of hashtagging—often very visibly:

Sensible reminders, such as Eisenberg’s on hashtags, have a knock-knock effect, bursting a bubble and ushering in a renewed perspective. Her call to keep hashtags at a minimum was a welcomed slap to simplify. Since then, my tweets are mostly hashtag-free:

The difference is evident. There are advantages to using fewer hashtags:

freeing up characters within the 140-character limit, which translates into a more informed tweet
devoting less time to converting word(s) into hashtags, which then translates into more time composing the tweet

But this hashtag behavior speaks to larger lessons, easier said than practiced, around clarity and moderation, in particular.

Clarity

A tweet (or anything else that enables social-media linkage) loaded with hashtags, looks and feels loaded. So easy, even tempting, to make something bloated and distracting. It’s much harder to make something (a scientific equation, software, etc.) lean, where form and function don’t distract from understanding and using.

Moderation

Inserting a tweet with multiple hashtags not only obscures the message, it can give the impression of self-absorption. Hashtags were made to increase the reach of sharing, thereby extending the tweet’s shelf-life. But excessive hashtags add weight. Over-embellishing something makes the experience feel thick and heavy—complicated. And self-absorption notably creeps into communication. One’s over-engineered message, tweeted or otherwise, is not the center of the universe.

Striving for clarity in how one talks and writes, and moderating parts of one’s life to facilitate comfort resulting from clarity, remain steadfast goals.

Thank you, Swissmiss, for helping reset priorities!

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Related to the Twitterverse, read about Using The Curator’s Code.