a roof over my head and sneakers on my feet.

When I first entered the working world, I got a piece of advice that stuck with me and I often quote, “You either do what you love regardless of the pay, or you do a job you may not like that affords you the ability to do what you love outside of work.” While I would like to tell everyone to do the former, just like in 8th grade, not everybody can be Michael Jordan. Most people are forced into the latter and it takes either high-tolerance to cope or a lot of drive to get into doing something you do love.

The “have-tos”

don’t make relaxing your every day.

Imagine if you could pick out what you would be doing with every single second of every day. Now imagine the opposite. These are the have-tos. It doesn’t mean that you dislike what is being asked of you, it’s just not exactly what you would choose given the choice. Today I had to write a proposal, fix some code, finish a presentation deck, and gather tax documents - I don’t dislike any of these things (well maybe the taxes thing, however that’s another story), but given the choice, I’d probably be on the mountain snowboarding. These are requirements in my life that allow me to put a roof over my head and sneakers on my feet.

What is it that you have to do every day?  Do you like it?

The “want-tos”

There aren’t a lot of pills more bitter than that one - getting ripped off sucks. 

Ask someone what they like to do and the expediency of the answer often says more than the answer itself. Generally speaking, people with passions trend toward “the want-tos,” naturally. Want-tos needs a more definitive explanation. For some, “I want to sit on my ass every day and watch TV” may be a perfectly viable answer. I would argue it’s not. It’s actually sloth, a sin. Being lazy should never be your passion, it will never lead to anything good. I’m not arguing against taking a break in your day to relax and enjoy some form of mindless entertainment - just don’t make relaxing your every day.

The key here is to be doing something that gets you excited and away from the things you have to do. TV is an escape, but it rarely excites, and often depresses. If you feel you do not have any passions - go out and seek new experiences, the world is full of tons of fun stuff. Remember, only the boring really get bored.

The Lucky Ones

Remember the Michael Jordan example from above? Well, there is a higher percentage of people doing what they love for a living than there are Michael Jordans in the world. What you want to do and what you have to do can merge into the same thing. It takes a lot of drive and extra work to make this happen, but in the end, it seems to be more rewarding. However, there are two risks associated with this option.

I wanted to post up on the couch and kill characters in videogames - not good.

Risk #1 - Burning Out - When you like what you are doing, you tend to do a lot of it. I found a passion early on in web development and the internet.  While I think the info addiction will always be there, the web development part I have had points of burnout. Before the ‘08 holiday season, I was tired of everything related to what I had to do and what I wanted to do. For the most part I wanted to post up on the couch and kill monsters in videogames - not good. The best thing to do to get away from burning out is to develop another set of passions that become your new “want-tos.” I like to play music, work in my yard, exercise, and snowboard - all of these things help me walk away from my work.

Remember, only the boring really get bored.

Risk #2 - Hating What You Once Loved - Often times there is something extremely contaminating about money - it can turn things dirty. I’ve heard a ton of stories of high school kids doing a little bit of web design and then getting ripped off by the people that hired them. There aren’t a lot of pills more bitter than that one - getting ripped off sucks. Being professional about what you do can stem that tide - don’t agree to doing something that isn’t fair, collect 50% of whatever up front, and always write it down.

Conclusion

While doing what you love or doing what you need to do to enable the ability to do what you love are both good goals - the former, I would argue, is the only true way to find balance for the majority of people. Only the most steady and disciplined can go to work 40 hours a week at a job they dislike and cope with it - the rest of us end up unhappy or resentful.  Take risks, work hard, develop interests away from what you have to do, and always have outlets. It can be done, it just takes perseverance. How do you find balance?

Note Two: Arms out is the ultimate passion power stance.

How to be inspired

Whether someone decides to take a class or start doing their own research, an initial moment of inspiration is necessary to kick start the process. This post was inspired by an email I woke up to from my sister, essentially saying, “I want to become a web designer.” As her brother, nothing could make me happier.

do I really like this?

I would like to know what inspired her moment. From the outside looking in, I can only guess. Part of it was definitely my influence. In thinking about it closer, her and I are a lot alike in our strengths - if I could be happy and enjoy success in this field, then naturally, she could too. Web design is equal parts aesthetics, organization, and desire. Always learning, always creating. These are strengths and values we share as siblings.

What follows is a rundown of how one can get started in the field. Would love to hear people’s own stories in response.

Step #1 - Owning Your Domain

This may seem like a weird first step to some, but nothing is more thrilling than publishing your first html files to your own site. I think I had three iterations of my first domain, geodigi.com, before I ever did any kind of client work. It’s a person’s first digital sandbox to do whatever they want.

nothing could make me happier.

After receiving the email from my sister, I went and purchased her name domain. Upon presenting this news to her, she thanked me - not knowing what it really meant. In time however, she will come to realize, this is the spot where everything started.

Step #2 - Getting Educated

The field of web design is changing so rapidly, one must stay on it continuously to ever develop a strong knack for providing solutions to people (clients/bosses/friends). It’s all a daunting amount of information at first, but once one gets on top of the pile, it’s just a matter of maintenance.

Coursework

While I praised those who come into the field self-taught, it’s not the only avenue to becoming a web designer - you can take courses. There are pros & cons to doing coursework.

To illustrate my point, my sister decided to enroll in a collegiate level course on the beginnings of HTML & CSS - which in theory, should give her a well-rounded view of the building blocks of the web. Before we sat down and had a screen-sharing session, she was painfully wading through the first few homework assignments. Doubt began creeping into her mind; do I really like this?

We are a passionate bunch

When I finally sat down and looked at what she was doing (she is working on building website for her soon-to-be wedding, college coursework applied to a real life need, smart) she seemed frustrated and kind of bummed out. When I looked at the code, it quickly became obvious the true culprit of her frustrations was the course itself. She was learning late-nineties web development from a lady who obviously doesn’t know what-is-what in the world of web design - this is a common problem in web design courses.

After two short sessions with me showing her how HTML & CSS played together, it clicked. Today she described the process of building her website, “addicting.” How fucking cool is that?

Self-Taught

Google is your friend.

In breaking out self-teaching into its own section, I do it injustice. It really is the catalyst to becoming a professional. If one isn’t willing to put in the hours teaching themselves, then they truly aren’t inspired. You don’t meet a lot of people in the field that gloomily say, “I’m a web designer.” We are a passionate bunch, and in a competitive world, passion is necessary to get ahead. In other words, you should be self-teaching in addition to coursework.

There are so many top ten lists for, “web designer resources,” that one only needs to simply Google it - and oh yea, Google is your friend. “Look it up dear,” is finally the answer to every question.

We are also big fans of Lynda at We the Media.

Step #3 - Get to know your peers

When was the last time you saw a post about, “How to become a shoe designer,” or, “How to become an investment banker?” Ok, there are some out there, but no profession likes to talk about itself like those involved in web design - we are a truly narcissistic industry (I mean that in an endearing way). There is probably a 10-1 ratio of useful web design blogs over just about anything else - it’s our playground, perhaps it’s because we had a head start.

It’s important to find your heroes

As a first step to getting to know your peers, it’s important to seek out those who inspire. Look through some CSS Galleries and identify the designers that really do it for you.

One of the first for me, and I’ve probably mentioned this before, was Jonathan Hicks.  One of his previous sites resonated heavily with me - I pretty much ripped him off on the first version of this site (before I began sort of blogging). It’s important to find your heroes, and with a little bit of internet stalking you can quickly find what they’re into and what they’re not. Follow them on Twitter, subscribe to their blogs, obsessively check their portfolios - do what it takes. Emulate. Emulate. Emulate.

It’s also important to reach out to your local communities - there are always meetups going on, I think here in Portland we are averaging three events a night or something. I wish I could attend more, but sometimes the work gets in the way - you tend to do a lot of what you love.

Conclusion

True criticism is what you should seek. 

Becoming a web designer is a path full of triumphs and frustrations - the most important thing to remember is to keep plugging away, solutions always present themselves. Don’t plan on becoming a web designer overnight, it’s a long process. I didn’t start calling myself a web designer till a good web designer stopped beginning critiques with, “you’re straddling the line between mediocre and really really awful.” True criticism is what you should seek. 

Please share your stories - I would love to hear them.

In this post, I didn’t focus too much on design - my sister is not there yet and this was mainly for her. So sister, hurry up and get Photoshop working for you!

So how does the, “duck & cover,” strategy fit into my bigger broader strategy of doing great work on the web? It doesn’t - it just means that I’m scared. I’ve started countless entries only to have them peter out into random generalizations. None of them have been post worthy, not one. If I’m going to write something, it better be good, or else what’s the point?  The web is already so full of noise.

Truthfully, I’ve been busy.  We the Media is working on some amazing stuff that will be unveiled over the next few months.  We also have new additions to our team which helps us fill out our service offering a little more. I’m learning a ton about process development and motivation. Oh and I am a husband now as well, that took up a lot of time - the following picture by an excellent Portland based photographer, Boone Rodriguez.

This site started as a place to share my thoughts and my work. Increasingly, I’ve been privatizing my thoughts and doing less of the nuts & bolts of web design. That leaves me with tales of management and process - so, I choose to “duck & cover” because I am too chicken to write my thoughts, or too private. Haven’t figured out which.

I’ll try to be better - fielding post topics in the comments.  It has come to this.

Thanks to Mr. Boyd for calling me out.

* Not to be affiliated with those ducks

Before the internet we had TV or magazines to get information about bands. Back then, MTV played music, on television. Hard to imagine such a radical concept now. Anyways, this brings me to the topic of the post - Rolling Stone Magazine. One of the first Rolling Stones I ever picked up was the one showed below. Walking by it in the store, I had to have it. As with most kids, this involved begging and pleading with Mom. Eventually I convinced her of all the reasons it was necessary for me to obtain this magazine and she caved.

This was my first interaction with the magazine which I soon had a yearly subscription to.  I brought it home, read it cover to cover, and trusted its insight on movies, music, and television - culture basically. Part of what made it stand apart from the other was its larger than life format - the magazine was big. I knew when it came in the mail because it stuffed the mailbox.

When I stumbled across this article, courtesy of Mr. Gruber, it made a part of me die inside. They are killing the larger format in favor of streamlining operations. Reading in between the lines, it’s about profit. Which is understandable, but shitty from a brand/aesthetic/nostalgia perspective. And the money quote from, Jann Wenner, the founder of Rolling Stone.

“All you’re getting from that large size is nostalgia.”

Yea, that’s probably right. But for this one-time avid reader, it’s the last of a great standard - the big magazine format.  The background of this website is composed of advertisements from a stack of big magazines. And believe me - the experience of flipping through them is so much better than the throw away small format of today. The big magazine format is the equivalent of vinyl in music.

If I could wish a different fate on the magazine, it would be this: build a better website that has more tie-ins with the magazine. Offset costs of doing the bigger magazine (paper, printing, shipping, etc…) with a better digital presence. And for goodness sakes, put Silver Jackson on the cover.

“Blog on a consistent basis, if it’s one time a week, then make sure you do it…”

In reading that, it seemed easy enough - but nope! Anyhow, it’s retarded for me to even blog about blogging (no offense to the retards who read my blog). I’ve been so busy doing that I haven’t had time to really tell about any of it - so here goes.

Wait! I have to share this video from Home Skillet Fest - I think it’s rad.

Ok, here goes…

Nike

I do a lot of work for Nike, a lot… So much that I have had to build a team of very talented individuals to compensate for my lack of bandwidth. I can’t really say what we are working on currently but I can say what we have worked on in the past.

We launched nikecorre.com about a month ago and sportchangemakers.net a few months before that. Now we are working on managing both of these sites and doing consulting for a few bigger projects (I can’t name them and I won’t!). It’s been an amazing ride working with one of the most globally recognized brands in the world - I truly love it.

The stuff we are working on currently gets me all hyped up - I can’t wait to launch! Of course some of it will be over the course of a month, some of it all the way into January. Seems like awhile, but some of the stuff is really ambitious - we are learning how to, “Just Do It.”

Rahzel Live!

This is a project that came out of left field, but also one I couldn’t refuse. Working with Rahzel to help build him a site where he could manage all his merchandise and digital downloads has been a fun experience - the guy is the KING of beatboxing and I have been a fan since, “If Your Mother Only Knew.” This should drop soon as well.

Home Skillet Fest ‘08

In another life I used to be a commercial fisherman in Alaska and it was around this same time that I co-founded a record label called Home Skillet Records. About three years ago we started throwing an annual music festival in Sitka, Alaska called……Home Skillet Fest (we’re kind of a one-trick pony). We just wrapped up this year’s show and this had to of been my favorite year. We were well organized, we had tons of merchandise, and we put a little money back into the label - that was our goal. If you follow this sob-story of a blog, you may remember my last post that was questioning the whole project. I am over that now - the festival is a great thing and my hometown is truly a special place. 

For the first time I walked away from Home Skillet Fest stoked and ready to build the momentum for next year. It’s turned into a family project for me, with both my parents and older sister helping with the organizing - it made it so much better. In having such a solid team in PDX I was able to call on people to help with design work - which is good because I’m really only decent at web design, the print world is perplexing.

Wrap Up

All in all business is good and growing. Our team is rad. I am getting married in September. My set didn’t suck at Home Skillet Fest. I am running for my health, so I feel better, AND…

…I am more happy now than I have ever been in my life. I think I am ok with that too - it’s ok to be happy for once.

Occasionally, I hit a speed bump. Something that doesn’t feel quite right in my gut, something that brings me to the uncomfortable conclusion, yes, I still have much to learn. Don’t over-extend-promise-deliver, all of these things get you in trouble in one way or another.

“Why Do It?”

Currently I feel over-extended in the planning of Home Skillet Festival. When it was the only thing in my life that I really did for myself (as I was working for someone else), I didn’t question the why do it? But now, with We the Media moving ahead at full steam, I am questioning the why. A music festival in my hometown of Sitka, Alaska where there are multiple bottlenecks - why?

Growing up there, I remember other people tried to do things like Home Skillet Fest and it would only last a couple of years. There was something so sad in the informative moment, “they’re not doing it this year.” All I could think of was, “why?” Now with the third festival right around the corner, all deadlines inching painstakingly closer, I know why.  Because it is fucking hard. It’s not hard in the doing or the known - it’s hard in the unknown.  Will our catalogs be printed in time? Will these tickets sell? Will these artists get on the fucking plane?

Somewhere, instilled deep inside, there is a fire that pushes me through moments like these. Everyone must find their internal burn. You have a choice.

(Holy shit I published this)

(Happy Independence Day)

BarCamp is a (geek) conference built like a wiki, we can have a democratic schedule built on the fly.  Want to discuss a topic?  Any topic at all?  Come to BarCamp and paste your topic and name in one of the many timeslots.  At first I decided to be a fly on the wall and sort of take it all in, but then I changed my mind and decided to join up with Bram Piyoto and be an “assistant” presenter where design meets tech.  Hopefully I come across as being less of a jackass than I really am, here’s to hope.

And then came Sunday, while sitting in on a panel discussing hacking existing Wordpress themes I decided to address a need of how to build a theme from scratch. Because I once wrote a post detailing how to simply build a wordpress theme, I decided to build on the basic idea.  But instead of discussing building Eleven3, I discussed my most recent project, HomeSkillet Records.  As I did it last minute, I had a little tiny room with about 8 guests, it may have been light, but it sure was a captive audience! You’re sort of forced to listen with numbers that small - but I hope it was useful for people.

Mmmm Brain Power

Anytime a bunch of geeks get together there is a lot of brain power getting kicked around, so that’s pretty awesome.  What’s great is the general goodwill everyone has.  People are happy to be here and love a chance to have their thoughts and ideas expressed or learn new ones.  Traditionally, other conferences are a little bit idol worshippy feeling, which is fine (cause I am so into Shaun Inman and Jon Hicks), but this one is the opposite.  There are a few “names” here, but generally speaking everyone here is just here to geek out, prettttty awesome.

I had a blast and met many people who I have seen on Twitter - it’s always good to meet people in real life. I am not a stalker.

More and more I think the response to boredom from many kids in school (from 8th-12th grade) is to gravitate towards computers and the self-taught realm.  I first started playing with Photoshop (at 17), not because I was introduced in a school, but because I was excited about pirating something so expensive.  How many designers started in a similar way? 

I don’t mean to discredit those with big piles of debt, I’m with you.  But I can’t help but be in awe of those who just do it and become self-taught rockstar designers without all the fat.  Thumbs up.  

More and more the internet provides all kinds of free training - for those that seek it. I compare k12 education to my experiences in learning to play the guitar (albeit a little older).  While Django and Robert Johnson are fantastic guitar players, if not the best - I want to “play The Fucking Clash,” - three power chords, I’m good.  A well-rounded education is important, but you also have to serve them up what they want.  Especially when competing with the internet, video games, and broken families.

The web gives us power - those who are willing to sweat and just do - don’t need a college education and they certainly don’t need a resume.

I can’t say I regret college - I had a great time and learned a lot of life skills, but for what I do, I probably would have been better off diving right in.  Now I am a 27-year-old designer watching the big 30 creep closer and closer - at what point am I dated?  Scary stuff!  Thank goodness for We The Media and it’s ever expanding talent pool - I will forever be connected to the talent of youth.

Yesterday was inspiring if anything - thank you to those who I met and spoke with.

I first signed up for Twitter at SXSWi ‘07, as did many others, and I must say it only holds more promise as more and more people adopt it. Upon coming back from SXSWi ‘07 I did a few things - the first was becoming a bit of a Twitter evangelist, I told everyone about it (hi mom!). I also signed up my good friend Brian - who is soon to be the best man in my wedding.

Poor Brian, you see, I didn’t tell him I signed him up - he just started receiving SMS updates every time I twittered. Brian isn’t a geek either, he appreciates technology when it accentuates other parts of his life - and it doesn’t seem to be an end in itself for him. So instead of embracing Twitter, Brian told me, “What the fuck is Twitter Geo? And how do I unsubscribe?” I never told him - he went and figured it out. I guess the 3am twitters about Internet Explorer 6 became too much.

Once he had unsubscribed he would start texting me random moments like, “just saw a slip and fall in the grocery store,” or, “these white people and their bagels.” But never the, “is feeling…” that my twitters tend to lead off with, Brian doesn’t let his guard down. Anyhow, every time he did this I would just respond, “Twitter.” And eventually I think it set in just what Twitter would bring to accentuate his life - a monologue of his inner “B.”

So if you get the chance follow JustB, or JeongSeouk, or JeffReynolds, or J_P_S, or newtypeofjuice, or ldub, or simulacra09, or just follow my whole list - it’s all entertaining and I feel connected to these people even if I don’t see them every day - or every year.

It has been a year, almost to the day, since I first signed up for Twitter. Here I am posting this blog entry (which auto-twitters every time I write a new entry) as my 1000th twitter. With each new friend that signs on it becomes more interesting and valuable. From the ad-hoc organization to the random ramblings of my good friends abroad - I hope I feel the same at two-thousand twitters.

I didn’t really say anything prolific, but I hopefully amused - so hard to do in these 140 character limitation days.

Twitter is a one-to-many short push messaging service to your most loyal, “followers.”

Jeff and I got back to our room and I use the words “passed out” here, although it was somewhere between passing out and going to bed - do you know the difference? Anyhow, the alarm came quickly and we got up, showered, and headed down to the complimentary continental breakfast. We’re staying at the Hampton - shitty wi-fi, fantastic continental, take your pick. One more good thing about the Hampton is it attracts a lot of the industry “rockstars.” Shit, Jeff and I were there, and we’re pretty important. I jest, but the highly talented Shaun Inman was there and I did get to pick up the size medium American Apparel Mint T-shirts he brought. Thank you Shaun - it was an awkward moment, but it was never dull - my name is George.

After all this we made our way to the conference, what follows are my notes from the different panels/presentations, enjoy.

Design is in the Details

Naz Hamid started with many quotes, “Less is more”, and “God is in the details/Design is in the Details” Showed examples of design in details in many fields, cooking, industrial design, etc… Overall I think his presentation was really entry level. I wanted to be blown away and I was just kind of left with a, “well yea…” taste in my mouth. Oh well, not a bad presentation by any means, but definitely light on theory.

The one real world practice I took away was his use of different comps for different components of the site - this is something I will definitely try.

Checklist and Guide

• Experiment - Playing around with things in a few PSD files. Use the source files of the client. Play with color. Logo in one comp, background in another, navigation in another - don’t commit. Then start mashing up.
• Choices - Making choices on client needs, your styles, typefaces, and colors. Pick the things that are simple, most logical choices.
• Stay Consistent - Make sure homepages and subpages reflect eachother. Avoid minutae with clients.
• Completeness - Finish the comp and get it done done.
• Step In, Step Out, Step Back: Balance - Walk away for awhile - take notes when you get back about what is striking you - first impressions.
• Be your own critic - Address the things you may feel the people signing off will have issues with - compromise just a bit, it will go a long way.
• Complexity is Simplicity
• Obsession is Healthy - Dedication to the design, we put in long hours.

Thoughts, Breakthroughs, & Revelations - Let a design sit in your head and think about it. Not Billable Time.

Weird Turn Pro: Crowdsourcing for Creatives

Derek Powazek comes across as very genuine. His presentation was pretty fun and he provided some great examples of the good and bad sides of crowdsourcing. Now following him on twitter - he seems like a seasoned pro of “growing communities.”

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” - Hunter S. Thompsen

Three lies people who don’t get crowdsourcing tell:

• Lie 1: Everyone on the net is an idiot - well they’re are some idiots, but some really smart people doing some really good stuff.
• Lie 2: Good stuff is too hard to find - traditionally has been human editors. It’s gone from traditional, to non-traditional, to moderators. Or it’s computers, text search, and Google. Now the interesting method is the hybrid model, Digg, flickr. Discussing leaderboards and how it encourages users to game the system. Show a random swath of “good results” to avoid the bad results of the game caused by leaderboards.Wisdom of Crowd - Selfish interests that increase the overall good. Says that if we all guessed numbers of beans in a jar, 99% of us would be wrong, but averaged out, we would be 99% right. Simple answers are the correct place for using the wisdom of crowds. Also needs to have diversity of viewpoints. Design for selfishness.Learning from Assignment Zero - Started by Jeff How - “Here everyone, write stories.” Nothing worked because nobody wrote anything. But increase the selfish motivation.

“Using crowdsourcings as a cost-saving measure doesn’t work. Communities must be cultivated, respected, and managed if they are to create economic value.” - Jeff Howe, who coined the term, “Crowdsourcing.”

• Lie 3: You can’t make any money. Threadless example - be the trusted middle man. How do they do it?
  • Contests - Ego, Winning, and Money
  • Fun thing on buyer end - The golden tag on a tshirt, Alumni Club.

Cautionary Tales:

• Yahoo Games Wii Sites: They pulled in flickr feeds tagged, “wii.” Flickr users rebelled and put in tons of “yahoo sucks” type images.
• GM Tahoe Apprentice Campaign: “Hey who wants to help us make a commercial for our SUV.” To make the commercial, all you could do was use their video and pictures and change the text. Chaos insued. “The Earth is now your Bitch”, “MURDER YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY.” They put the participants in a very narrow box. GM was greedy with their content - you couldn’t export it anywhere else, it could only work on the site. But it actually worked - drove more traffic to gm.com than google and yahoo combined.

Community is Grown, Not Built

1. Give people tools they want
2. Trust them to do good
3. Reward Good Contributions
4. Punish bad contributions
5. Expect the unexpected - Flickr Geotagging the word “Fuck” over iceland.

Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Great Design Hurts

And this is where the crappy web connection killed my notes. I guess it isn’t so smart to post notes inside of Wordpress while having an unstable connection. Either way - this panel was great.

First was Michael Lopp from Apple, he’s a product manager and seems to be a damn good one at that. He started off with some keynote issues, which was ironic, being from Apple. He proceeded to talk about Apple building everything like a present. From OSX being inside of their computers being inside of great packaging being sold at a great store being debuted by a great leader - yea, I could listen to someone from Apple talk about this stuff all day. He had some great anecdotes, which I wrote down - but alas they are deleted.

Are you comfortable being an asshole for the integrity of your design?

Then came John Gruber of the Daring Fireball fame. I read his blog pretty frequently and he’s always on point with thoughts on Apple. He continued to talk about the “blood, sweat, and fear” that goes into great design. In the end he stated that it’s ok to be an asshole as a designer - it means your more dedicated to your vision. Thank you John we all need that.

All in all this was a great presentation and I got to sit on the floor the whole time, which means it was a packed house.

A General Theory of Creative Relativity

You know how when you’re watching Die Hard and you just know that everything is going to be ok because badass John McClaine is on the job? You know, the bad guys are toast, he took a beating but won, and the girl who was in his life but couldn’t handle his badassnes when he wasn’t saving the world, comes back into his life? That’s like Jim Coudal - except he’s saving the world from shitty creative work.

“He’s a man’s designer.”

I would work for Jim Coudal, as Jeff said, “He’s a man’s designer.”

He framed his general theory as a spark between the known and the unknown, the variable or the constant - it was slow to start but then once he got going, he was on fire. I must say that his booking the band exercise was perfect for his concept.

At the end of his talk people had a Q/A round - this is where I decided how much of a badass Jim Coudal was. Again, I lost my notes, so I am going from memory. Small teams are better and meetings are bad news. That’s pretty much all I remember - sad.

Conclusion

First day wrapped up and it was unbelievable, each panel progressively better than the last. I must say with this year’s SXSW and the whole working for myself thing - I definitely feel a lot more happier in where I am at, it’s been a great year. I have also learned I need to take more pics at panels, doh!