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ECR Interviews: Yan Bleney

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 18:41:23 +0000

ECR: You sometimes do test shoots for models. How do you know when a model has something special ?

Yan: The first thing which draws my attention is the glance of the model. The way she moves, the way she looks at me. Everything is in the intensity. Even if she does not know how to take a pose, if she communicates a message, I know we shall make a beautiful picture.

ECR: What does a good photographer do to make a model better?

Yan: He always keeps the model comfortable and relaxed. He always keeps strong verbal contact with her and a good rhythm.

ECR: What inspired you to take this path, and not, say, portraits or landscapes or street shots?

Yan: I have always been someone with a strong visual sense. I am often told in my private life that I observe things and people a lot. I think that becoming a photographer was the most obvious things to do for me. To capture and freeze my perception of the world surrounding me.

ECR: Has there been a moment in your life that changed everything for you? What was it?

Yan: I moved to Paris in July 2006. I spent my last seven years there, and just came back to Canada five months ago. While in Paris, I discovered and fell in love with the French fashion industry.

ECR: Tell us your favourite fashion photography campaigns of all time and why.

Yan: That’s a good one. There’s so many. I would say the last one to draw my attention is the Mulberry F/W 2013 Campaign. This campaign brought out the child in me.

ECR: Why is fashion important?

Yan: Clothes bring an additional dimension to the picture, and allows one to create a set of ideas. This is a universe which allows several people who work together to bring their own vision to the final image.

ECR: Name something that people do that's a crime for you.

Yan: HDR everywhere!

ECR: Finish these sentences:

You won't survive in this business unless… you can continue to imagine and create your own vision.

And I can't shoot unless… I've had my first two coffees.

And in the future, I hope to… continue to become better.

Yan Bleney's Online Portfolio on 4ormat.

The Dangers of Writing Off Millennials

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 19:05:55 +0000

During the recent US federal election, speech after speech cranked up the blustery rhetoric and indignation with words like “youth”, “hope”, and “future” - all wrung for their optimism. But this next generation might need a bit of help if they’re going to live up to our high expectations.

Young Canadians suffer less acutely from the financial problems facing their southern neighbours, but still their horizons are cloudy. With a youth unemployment rate floating around 14% earlier this year, one can't help but wonder how many of those young men and women could be future creative forces in marketing or design agencies. How many innovative freelancers are we losing due to a lack of meaningful, sustainable opportunities in creative industries?

End Internship Mentality

There are likely many companies out there treating interns with the utmost respect, and maybe even providing enviable career opportunities afterwards. Unfortunately, there are too many out there abusing this cheap labour model, and all the unfulfilled promises are taking their toll. Both sides of the labour equation need to put an end to this internship mentality and begin applying real value to work. Paying dues is one thing – paying nothing is short-sighted.

The most talented young photographers, copywriters, and designers are racing each other to the bottom in hopes someone will open a door to a brighter future that may never come. Work-hungry graduates are constantly encouraged to do everything they can to stand out from the pack, and then they're rewarded with less than a living wage – if anything at all. Through freebie assignments and meaningless positions, today's businesses are contributing to the already cynical nature of twenty-somethings who are desperate to pay off the massive debt loads they just incurred trying to be as talented and employable as possible.

And then, where do the dozens of promising wannabe creatives go when they aren't the ones selected to work for free? With fewer and fewer avenues to break in, young people are forced to kick off a streak of “in the meantime” jobs that can quite easily turn into unwanted, unrewarding career paths. As more senior members of the creative community know, responsibilities increase with age, and that means it's more difficult to find a way out of a career path (though not impossible). So starting off on the right foot can make all the difference.

It's easy to sympathize with an employer's point of view here: times are tough and the budgets for breaking in young people just don't exist in today's traditional office environment. But maybe it's time for more employers to consider breaking with tradition to create paying stepping-stone opportunities for newbies?

Revise the 9-to-5

I'm not the first person to say traditional office environments are arcane and out-of-step with modern demands on productivity. We wait for meetings to begin and then wait for them to end. We drag ourselves out of bed for uneventful mornings that bleed into frantic afternoons and late evenings. We're shoehorned into a daily schedule that's become irrelevant, inconvenient, and wasteful.

If more workplaces better utilized tools like Skype, offsite network access, Google Docs, and email, productivity would likely increase with savings. We could start chipping away at the costs of operating a “normal” office and start opening up possibilities for more junior-level part-time positions and short-to-medium contracts. A more flexible business offers the ability to create and take advantage of people with unique talents.

There are a lot of plusses in maintaining the traditional full-time world, but without a substantial increase in stepping-stone positions, the creative industry will remain out of reach to many talented youth today.

Teach Them How to Fish

Perhaps the best way to harness the potential of youth is to teach them how to start a creative enterprise on their own. There are educational programs out there with this aim, though few are designed with craft-centric entrepreneurs in mind. This is where our community can step up and provide the resources and mentorship necessary for young creatives gutsy enough to band together to try setting the world on fire.

It's too big of a job to be left solely to educational institutions. Today's senior creatives and established agencies need to directly invest in the next generation – and expect nothing in return but the satisfaction of sharing valuable information with men and women that aren't getting the same opportunities older generations once had.

If we're ever going to truly emerge from this economic downturn, it'll have to come through flipping a switch between insulating businesses from harm and opening them up to the kind of change and energy that young people bring.

ECR Interviews: Flavien Prioreau

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 18:49:50 +0000

ECR: When you take a portrait, what are you trying to find?

Flavien: My initial work with the model consists in finding where his or her sensuality lies. Then, if the person gives more of himself, I am able to catch a piece of his internal world, as if, through his gaze, one of his more intimate secrets were delivered to me.

ECR: You say you've been taking pictures since you were four. Who gave you the camera, and do you still have the photos?

Flavien: When I was fourteen my father gave me his Olympus M1, that’s when I started to take pictures. But I think that I always looked at the world through the filter of images, isolating what attracted my eyes – a character, a light – and then taking it apart and possessing it (like Henri Cartier Bresson said “we steal to give").

ECR: What was your childhood like?

Flavien: I was quite unruly, but I had a certain charm that excused my mischievousness.

ECR: Describe some of the biggest misconceptions about Paris.

Flavien: This city appears very open, modern, but in fact is quite intolerant. People look at each other and fear difference. This is even more obvious when you observe the possibility of freedom of expression, fashion-wise , or anything else, in capitals like New York or London.

ECR: We love your portraits of the people on the subway. What were you trying to say?

Flavien: I like the fact that the subway is ordinary. It’s anti-glamour, a place where everyone crosses paths, side by side, in the middle of their own day. At this moment, I can capture their intimate thoughts, immortalize an instant that is basic, ephemeral, and without aesthetic value, and give it artistic resonance.

ECR: If you have any, what are your philosophies on the following: food, photography, life?

Flavien: To take pleasure!

ECR: Name your three favourite pieces of art and why.

Flavien: Among so many others: "Morning Sun" by Edward Hopper; "Bergstrom over Paris, 1970s" by Helmut Newton; and "Stephanie Seymour" by Richard Avedon are the works of art that moves me the most, speaks to me… "We can’t explain sensibility."

ECR: What do you think your work says about you?

Flavien: The fact that I’m instinctive is likely to show through, and sensitive also, I hope.

ECR: What’s your favourite escape?

Flavien: Listening to music.

ECR: Congratulations! You were just featured in a campaign for Samsung. What have been some other career highlights?

Flavien: I’m doing the Bonbon cover, a French monthly magazine with a circulation of 300,000 and a few other projects, but, having just got back from New York, I’m working on a series I shot there, something more personal that I’d like to exhibit.

Flavien Prioreau's Online Portfolio on 4ormat.

ECR Interviews: Kara Baird

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 17:51:35 +0000

ECR: As a photographer, how do you think you could improve?

Kara: I would generally consider myself a perfectionist, which frustratingly, tends to get in the way of my proliferation of work. I often stew over an idea for too long trying to perfect it in my mind before I even touch a camera. I definitely need to embrace the ‘Just Do It’ attitude a little more. Ultimately the more you do something the more there is opportunity for improvement.

ECR: And what makes you an individual in this field?

Kara: There are so many fantastic photographers and creatives out there it is really hard sometimes to believe that you can truly be an individual. For me, it would probably be my cross-disciplinary interest and experience in filmmaking, advertising, design and photography. I am certainly not a purist; I happily use multiple frames, mediums, post-production effects and design elements to create a single image.

I love the idea of creating a moment that never existed or playing with the concept of time in an image. I have created photographs by compositing together 20min exposures captured on film with frames of suspended motion captured in a split second using digital flash photography.

ECR: You're from Australia, a country with a vibrant creative culture. What about your work is distinctly Australian?

Kara: I would never have looked at my work and defined it as Australian but I am aware that I have an interest in domesticity and the everyday, so the Australian landscape and society is bound to be reflected in what I create.

Aesthetically the light is different here, certainly in comparison to places like the UK or Europe. There is a real saturation and contrast in our light and I think that colour saturation and contrast unconsciously imbues itself in some of my images.

ECR: If you could relive the last ten years, what would you change?

Kara: Sometimes I feel that my indecisiveness to narrow down one direction to focus my career, education or energy on has left me treading water and from time to time that leaves me frustrated. I see friends who have steadily ascended in their particular field and I often envy their single-minded focus. However there is an increasing interest commercially in Australia for those people who have a broad skill set.

Photographers are becoming filmmakers, filmmakers are becoming photographers, and in many instances both are becoming the producers of their own work.

ECR: Where is the most inspiring place you have ever been?

Kara: I’ve been to many beautiful places across Europe and the UK and next year I will (fingers crossed) add America to that list, but home is still the loveliest place to me.

ECR: What's your favourite photograph of all time, and why? Yours, or somebody else's.

Kara: There’s absolutely no way that I could narrow it down to one photograph let alone one photographer. Some of the photographers whose work I admire include Gregory Crewdson, Alec Soth, Petrina Hicks, Tierney Gearon, David LaChapelle, Jeff Bark, Taryn Simon, Todd Hido, Kevin Cooley, Julia Fullerton-Batten, Carl Kleiner, Robyn Stacey and the list goes on. The people on this list are there because I have a common interest in theme, subject, and style or because I have an emotional connection to their images.

ECR: What's consuming you lately? An idea, a book, a hobby...

Kara: Cooking. When I watch or experience the food of great cooks I appreciate the creativity in it and so it frustrates me that I currently approach it in such a sterile way. I don’t feel confident enough to experiment without the training wheels of a cookbook. I hope one day to build up the ability to improvise in my cooking although if you were to ask my boyfriend those days seem distant!

ECR: You do a lot of still life, and even some very “still” portraits. Do you have any idea why this is?

Kara: The stillness that you see in my images is probably due to the fact I generally steer towards the staged, partly due to my interest in narrative film, design and artifice, and partly because I am a perfectionist with a desire to control every element in the outcome of a project. My background in television commercial production means that I often go into things with a fair amount of planning and detail.

In that respect the genre of still life is very attractive to me because it is something I can do on my own in my house and I have the time required to make sure everything is perfect.

ECR: How did you start with this light photography technique, and are you interested in exploring that further?

Kara: Painting with light is a fairly well known photographic technique that is taught by most photographic educational institutions as an elementary skill. Painting with light is where you utilize a light source, most commonly a torch and in essence “paint” light in front of the lens to create an image. I wanted to build on this technique by employing Photoshop to merge a large number of ‘painting with light’ frames together.

The idea was to create a bouquet of flowers out of different shapes and colours I’d captured on my camera using a torch, coloured gels, and gobos/cookie cutters. I then constructed a bouquet of flowers out of 60 or so frames. Whilst I might categorize the resulting image as a photograph merely because I used a camera as part of the process many would suggest it is possibly more illustrative.

ECR: You have several qualifications, all in design and the arts. Was there ever a point where you considered a non-creative career path? If so, what would it be?

Kara: For the past five years I have worked in various production roles on television commercials and I do still currently work as a freelance production manager whilst also photo assisting, video editing and creating my own personal work.

Whilst making commercials can be creative, your role within production is predominantly a logistical one. Having said that, whilst I may not be fulfilling a creative role all the time I am often around creative people and these relationships often inspire me in my own creative development.

A number of people have commented to me that you are either a creative or a producer, you can’t seemingly wear both hats and I’ve always found that suggestion rather odd. The elements I believe make a good creative include a unique point-of-view, passion, technique, collaboration and pragmatism. Being a problem-solver is important in so many fields and the creative fields are no different.

Pragmatism doesn’t always equate to compromise and the reason to employ pragmatism isn’t always budgetary. It is about finding the best way to achieve the desired outcome and sometimes the way you arrive at a destination can be more pertinent to the outcome then you may expect.

I have worked with a number of creatives in production support roles, who I think, have failed to see the value in having ‘a producers hat’ by understanding the various ways to reach the same outcome, how to reach it logistically and what to do should an obstacle or diversion arise. There is also something to be said for having an understanding of basic business skills whilst pursuing a creative career.

And if I had my time over again perhaps I would have chosen law. I have an embarrassing fetish for the TV show ‘Law & Order’ and a morbid fascination with crime.

Kara's Online Portfolio on 4ormat

ECR Interviews: Wenzel Templeton

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 18:44:34 +0000

ECR: So “Wenzel” is quite an unusual name. Where does it come from?

Wenzel: Actually, I've learned it's not as unusual as one would think. It's no Bob but it's apparently quite common in Germany, and I once read somewhere there are a few thousand Wenzels in the US, as well. Still, I've yet to meet another Wenzel, myself.

But in the spirit of full disclosure I’ll admit to you it is in fact a pseudonym in homage to one of my idols David Jones who traded his name in for the much more enigmatic David Bowie. Sure, it may have been to avoid confusion with the guy in The Monkeys, but I still thought it was very cool back when I was a young struggling musician of twenty years. I had this reoccurring dream as a child, one where it was sort of a take on the German fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, and in that dream my name was always “Wenzel” for some reason (perhaps because it was German sounding and it's a German fairy tale?).

My pseudonym was born easily from that dream, as if it were meant to be. I contemplated changing it back to my given name for a minute, but almost fifteen years of band-mates, friends, and a marriage and divorce later, it became apparent I was past the point of no return, and I was destined to be “Wenzel” forever.

I can't pull back the curtain entirely and reveal to you my true identity, but I'll give you (and your readers) a little hint: my mother originally named me after the “outspoken Beatle.”

ECR: As a photographer, are you a fan of taking more photos, or fewer? Do you get “the shot” every single time?

Wenzel: Fewer.

Well, it's come full circle. When I first began building a portfolio a couple of years ago, I was shooting and posting almost everything I saw, and every object or shape was “art” through the camera to me. From a little stick on the sidewalk, to an ugly dumpster, I must have had a thousand photos of crows and pigeons and I swore every shot I took was golden to me. “I'm a damned genius!” I thought (haha).

My photography completely took a turn however with me discovering lights and modifiers for the first time. From that first day-for-night photograph I became totally obsessed with controlling/creating light and manipulating environments to recreate images and ideas from past written stories, illustrations, and childhood influences I'd archived in my journals and mind/imagination. From that point on, all my street photography began to look like boring vacation photos to me.

With that turn, nowadays I rarely shoot sans intention and the magic captures are much more few and far between, and less and less of anything I do makes its way on to my portfolio. Sort of backwards I know, but once I had created something that fulfilled a grander vision, those sticks on sidewalks and bird photos just didn't turn me on anymore. To be honest, I'm a little sad that I use my camera less casually in general, but it's just the way it is now.

I suppose that could also come full circle as well, we’ll see. I'm feeling a little inspired lately with the leap in cell phone camera technology – it's making it hard to resist shooting those “crows and dumpsters,” but I expect my portfolio to be virtually “crow free” by this time next year. I'm planning some bigger story shoots, hopefully refining my portfolio, and slowly nudging out the older, less ambitious stuff.

ECR: You're obviously a fan of the zombie genre. What would you do if a zombie apocalypse hit?

Wenzel: The zombies I’ve met are big hams (and model time-for-print, by the way). So, relying heavily on the stereotype that zombies are brainless idiots, I'd probably offer them free headshots, and while they’re distracted have my assistant dole out some real shots to the head.

ECR: You can obviously draw, looking at your “digistrations.” It's unusual to see somebody so adept in two different mediums. Where did you learn to draw? Which came first?

Wenzel: I think all the flavours and colours of art are without medium. Only the tools to create them change. I believe if one is inclined to create art by any tool, whether it be voice, pencil, camera, or trumpet, crossing over into other artistic mediums should come pretty naturally.

It’s finding the time to spend mastering the new tools that's the trick. Drawing definitely came first to me (after fingerpainting) because the pencil found its way into my hands the earliest, but it's also become my least practised and most taken for granted of the few mediums I've explored. I used to be much better at it.

I was an art student and musician as a child, but if cameras, film, and developing were affordable and easily attainable as a kid (in the '70s and '80s) I'm positive it would have been added to my repertoire back then. These kids today just don't know how lucky they are to have all the new creative tools at their disposal – it's mind-blowing really. [he says in “old-man voice”]

ECR: Tell us the story behind the photo narrative “Hobo Holiday.” Where did the idea come from? Have you ever fantasized about riding the rails?

Wenzel: Well, I live in the city (Vancouver) now but I grew up by “the rails” in a place very much like that Britannia Beach shoot location. I often dreamt of riding the rails out of that little one horse town I grew up in (Goldstream, BC, Canada), so that childhood imagery may very well have been subconscious fodder for that shoot. In fact I'm sure it was, now that I think about it.

My good friend Shawn (the hobo), inspired the character for that shoot before it was even conceived. Shawn's not a real hobo but he's quite a unique guy and genius musician (with a great beard I swear he can grow in about three days).

Shawn really lives life on his own terms, as outside of conventional modern society and “the system” as one possibly can, while still actually living in it out of necessity. We met on a movie set years ago and I always knew I wanted collaborate on a shoot with him.

I really believe that if the subject projects, or relates to, the character of a concept, it lends tremendously to the authentication of the final result, and to the character/subject embodying the spirit of the story. So yeah, Shawn's not an actual hobo, but that is really “him” shining through in that shoot. And that's where the idea was born.

ECR: When you're not creating, what are you consuming? (I.e. social media, icecream, cigarettes, oxygen...)

Wenzel: Mantra: Coffee, coffee, movies, music, exercise, repeat.

ECR: In your opinion, what's the most important issue facing humanity right now?

Wenzel: Well, I read somewhere there’s an impending bacon shortage…

ECR: You like to explore themes. Are there some bubbling in your brain right now? Can we expect to see any new ones soon?

Wenzel: Yes, always, and hopefully many!

I've really enjoyed shooting outdoors, but unfortunately it takes the planets to align to do so. Being a bit of a mad scientist I have to admit I'm not the most efficient manager of time, people, and orchestrating my efforts. I'm now in the process of planning some interior concepts and photographic illusions. After all, I do live in Vancouver where it rains just a little bit, so shooting outdoors all the time just isn’t practical. I intend to focus the most on my stories going forward, but I’d like to move the themes in a much stronger, thought provoking (dare I say shocking?) direction.

ECR: If you could be remembered for one photograph, which one would it be, and why?

Wenzel: I haven't taken it yet.

But one of my favourite photographs (so far) is one I call “the searcher” (fifth image in, on my website's home page). I love it because I happened to have my camera on a tripod in front of a San Francisco church one evening when a little old woman wearing an oversized suit jacket wandered perfectly center frame and stood almost completely still for an eight second exposure.

Being a bit of a control freak who generally plots out and premeditates everything (nowadays), it truly was a great, spontaneous, storytelling capture for me. The little old woman truly elevated what was bound to be an average photograph and made it more profound and interesting. I also got some wonderful colours and light artifacts from the passing cars etc. over the long exposure. I didn't really need to do any post to that photo, since it was so good out-of-camera.

ECR: Have you had mentors in your life? What are the best three things that they taught you?

Wenzel: No real mentors, no. I didn't know my father (that's an entirely different interview), but I was inspired by my idols, and they became sort of allegorical or figurative mentors to me. Artists such as David Bowie, Salvador Dali, Man Ray, Helmut Newton, and Michel Gondry taught me to trust that there are absolutely no creative or commercial limitations or rules one should ever obey, or let constrain them, while creating.

The likes of John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, and Woody Allen taught me just how powerful it can be to reveal, and even broadcast, one's flaws through their work. That true art comes from the inside out, and anything but that honesty will most likely ring insincere or hollow, especially over time. Lastly, I'd say from all those artists (and many more) whom I've admired, I’ve learned to always dare to be different and hold on to your individuality. In other words, “always pose to the flash of your own camera,” so to speak.

Wenzel's Online Portfolio on 4ormat.

ECR Interviews: Anthony Peters

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 21:29:07 +0000

ECR: Tell us what the name "Imeus Design" means and where it came from.

Anthony: In the early noughties I co-ran a record label named Manna Records with two of my closest friends, I also made electronic music for the label under the name Imeus. I used to compose the tunes digitally then would take it to the band and we would convert it to organic instrumentation. The name came about as a description of that process and it’s as simple as I /ME /US.

We closed the label after 6 years of fun and I decided to carry the name over for my design studio, with the hope that the ethos of collaboration would also be transferred. The downside to the name is that many people mispronounce it, the upside is that it populates really well in search engines….

ECR: When did you discover pop art?

Anthony: In secondary school my core interests were English and Art, everything else was just white noise, my art teacher was a bit of a renegade (aren’t they always?) and every lesson was illuminating. Being 13/14 and getting introduced to artists like Matisse, Magritte, Picasso, Van Gogh and Pollock just blew my mind… Then we got to Warhol and Richard Hamilton and the content and aesthetic became so much accessible, I felt like it was something I could do myself!

ECR: How has pop art changed since the 1960s, when Andy Warhol was alive?

Anthony: To me Andy Warhol is a bit of an odd-one-out within Pop Art. His works weren’t ever really put into a deeper context, they were simply a mirror in the most literal way. Much of the work is just appropriation of popular imagery, don’t get me wrong, it looks great but he was only marginally the author of the work. My favorite Pop Artists had something deeper coursing through the ink or oil. Mel Ramos and Klaus Oldenberg brought the humour.

Rosenquist, Caulfield and Lichtenstein brought an amazing painterly aesthetic mixed with an obvious leaning towards abstraction. Lastly Wesselman and Polke brought a deeper narrative, these two are without question my favorite pop artists. Polke in particular has an underlying political context which makes his work a critique of the consumerist west instead of championing the plastic pop culture.

So in my opinion it’s hard to trace how Pop Art has changed overall but different factions gave way to Fluxus, Conceptualism and eventually the kind of Post Modernism picked up by Artists such as Damien Hirst, Jake and Dino’s Chapman and Ron Mueck.

The only true exponent of pure Pop Art in Contemporary art has to be Koons, whose work follows Warhol’s mantra to glorious technicolour effect.

Aside from its influence in art I feel that the obsession with multiples and screen prints within graphic design and illustration has descended from those Warhol ideas, and the bright, block colour graphics we now see everywhere are very much the lovechild of Pop Art and mid century designers such as Saul Bass and Paul Rand!

ECR: You recently had a show called “Head To Toe” at Unlimited Editions in Brighton. How did it go? What was the show about?

Anthony: The Head To Toe show was a chance for me to indulge my love of educational literature from my childhood, such as the Ladybird educational books with the beautiful Swiss sans serif typography and wonderful illustrations and diagrams. Its been an Idea bouncing around in my head for years so when www.unlimitededitions.co.uk asked me to do a show I knew the time had come to finally use the ideas!

So the show contained a collection of works based loosely around human biology / anatomy and I best described it as Damien Hirst channeled through Hanna Barbera… Not sure it quite hit the greatness of either but I was very pleased with the end results. The Private view was packed and the work was well received by all who attended, which is all I could ask for really! Its on until the 17th of November so people still have a chance to catch it!

ECR: What was the funniest reaction to the show?

Anthony: I seem to have a few pieces related to boobies, they certainly seemed to get a funny reception, we are all children at heart I guess and all love to snigger at something a little bit rude!

ECR: It looks like you get all the fun commissions. Which one has been the most fun though?

Anthony: I really enjoyed making my 3D cardboard illustrations for HSBC Liquid Magazine, really satisfying just having a pile of coloured card, a gluestick, a scalpel and sketch pad and creating these amazing ‘things’. The subject matter was quite dry but I was so happy with the results, and it was great fun to art direct the photoshoot by the wonderful Simon Lee from Impact Creative Photography.

ECR: How would a client describe you?

Anthony: Inconsistant. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes frustrating. Enthusiastic and Passionate.

ECR: You’re in an elevator with your dream client. Who is it, and how would you pitch them in 30 seconds or less?

Anthony: Can I have two answers?

In reality it would be John Dyer from Domino Records and I would pitch ideas for sleeve design and campaigns for artists like Four Tet, Animal Collective, Hot Chip and Dan Deacon. I met him at a low key music industry talk in a Farringdon pub once, such a friendly and brilliant guy. Then I used to bump into him on the train into London regularly. (We lived near each other in Hertfordshire) I wished I had dropped a few more hints at the time as Domino is my favourite Record Label.

In a dream world it would be Buckminster Fuller and I would discuss the idea of creating an eco friendly society with geodesic domes and self managed people. A new country free from greed, corruption and power hungry maniacs… Everything would be localized including produce, leadership and building materials… I did mention this is a dream world…

ECR: Your kid (imagined or real) tells you she wants to be a designer. What advice do you have for her?

Anthony: My son is 5 and tells people that he is an Artist and Graphic Designer, I have been teaching him to use a Wacom and we draw together a lot. He gets frustrated that things aren’t perfect first time he attempts them and I always tell him to be patient and to keep trying, practice practice practice.

My long term advice would be:

A. Don’t copy, you will always get found out and it’s way more satisfying to work out a visual problem in your own way.

B. Do it because you love it, start this way and add in hard work and determination and you cant really fail.

ECR: If you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing? Why?

Anthony: When I was a kid I always wanted to be an architect or an archaeologist (guess I didn’t get further than A in the career dictionary). If I wasn’t doing this I would love to be an architect, but specializing in architecture for a sustainable future.

Anthony's Online Portfolio on 4ormat.

ECR Interviews: Jessica Bogart

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 21:38:33 +0000

ECR: Strategic Design is a very contemporary field marrying left and right-brain problem-solving approaches. What path led you to this career?

Jessica: I became a designer pretty much on a whim. I started doodling band logos in high school and someone told me to look into graphic design. I didn't really know what that meant but decided it was for me and 4 years later, graduated from University of Delaware with a degree in Visual Communications: Graphic Design.

When I was preparing my first resume and portfolio, I dubbed myself a Strategic Designer - at that point, I'd never heard the term. I felt Graphic Designer just didn't capture what I was about as a visual thinker. What interested me in design in the first place was the ability to solve not only visual problems, but business problems.

Maybe it's because I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs, but I have always loved that place where design and business meet. For me, the best way to solve say, a marketing challenge or a branding challenge is through a strong strategic insight - what makes this brand different than its competitors? How can it visually stand out in a cluttered/new/undiscovered market? etc. Before I start any project, I need a strategy. This to me is what drives my creative direction and serves as my inspiration.

ECR: Much of the work you showcase in your portfolio exudes a sense of humour and whimsy. Is this a strategic decision, or does it stem from your personality, or both?

Jessica: I'd say that is more of a reflection of my personality. I try not to take things too seriously and in my designs, I like to really play and have fun. Nothing makes me happier than to put a smile on someone's face. I mean, I welded a 7.5 foot "Giggle" for goodness sakes! In all honesty, it is probably less of a strategic decision than it is just the types of projects I enjoy working on.

ECR: Your Malaria Safe campaign for Cannes Young Lions involves a wide spectrum of technologies. What creative vision inspired you to weave together so many elements?

Jessica: This was such a fun project! It starts as a national competition. The winner is sent to the Cannes advertising festival to compete with the international winners. At the time I was working in Advertising. As an Art Director, I was meant to choose the Art Direction category. However, my work partner (Einav Jacubovich) and I felt just print/TV/web executions were too limiting and we wanted to take on something bigger. So we chose the "Media" category. The assignment was to devise a media plan to sell "Malaria Safe" bracelets to U.S Soccer fans. Because of our art direction background, we not only created our plan but we created a strategy and execution.

A lot of the fun with project stemmed from our being able to create a campaign that is pretty much the definition of who we are as marketers and creatives. I worked for a while at a digital agency - something that frustrated me during my time there was that technology and media were never being used to their fullest potential. We are fortunate enough to live in an incredible technology revolution and from a marketing standpoint, we have such an amazing opportunity to shape the technology to create really innovative campaigns. This project was my chance to take my gloves off and really work to shape technology to drive a strong, strategic campaign.

ECR: You're about to launch your first iPad app, Hansel & Gretel: Lost. How did it come about?

Jessica: Hansel & Gretel: Lost has been a passion project for my cousin and I, ever since the iPad first came out. We thought the iPad was a total game-changer, and so we started brainstorming, "What can we do with an iPad that we could never do before?" After we went through a number of other ideas, we landed on children's books.

The iPad just brings stories to life in such a new and interesting way. Children get to drive the story and become fully immersed in the storytelling, as they tap, swipe and pinch our characters. We added sounds, music, narration and interactivity that had never been possible before. And we thought it'd be a ton of fun - which is why we formed our company, PB&J Publishing. As you mentioned before, humor and whimsy are a big part of my inspiration. This became the perfect outlet for me to be playful while at the same time really push technology to produce a new and fun experience.

ECR: Hansel and Gretel: Lost isn't the first product you've designed with a younger audience in mind. How does developing for children differ than for adults?

Jessica: I love designing for kids. I can break out my bright color palette and fun typefaces and have a ball! For my project "PLAYdough" I conceptualized a kid's Italian restaurant where the menu is a game and kids can drag their chosen items to their plate and "design" their own meal. I love creating experiences where kids can be involved in their own decisions - helps teach kids to take ownership and understand their own taste. As a kinaesthetic learner myself, I find that doing things is the best way for me to absorb information. That's what inspired me to create this restaurant concept and for my app, Hansel & Gretel: Lost.

What is great about the app is that it was designed with two key things in mind: experience and aesthetic. When we started working on the app, the one thing that I knew is that I wanted it to be as interactive as possible. From an experiential standpoint, I wanted to allow the child to be as involved in the story as possible and be able to bring the page to life with that tap of their finger. So when we wrote the story, we wrote it around what can be done on the page.

From a design standpoint, I just had fun. I found our unbelievable illustrator, Alvaro Pantoja Busch, who has such a whimsical and fun style (I mean seriously, his characters just melt your heart with cuteness!). Font choice for me was very important. It kills me when I see a children's book where the designer puts so much love into the illustrations yet there is a boring font and the copy is just pushed off to the side in an isolated negative space. I wanted each page to feel like a complete composition, type and image come together for one visual story. Just because it is for kids, doesn't mean the type doesn't need to be gorgeous too.

Maybe it's because we are still all kids at heart or maybe it is the magic of the iPad and the newness of the functionality, but I find that adults love playing with this app almost as much as kids. Designing this app, I felt like I was designing for myself 20 years ago. What would I want to do? What is fun and unexpected to me? It was really about channeling my inner child and designing for her. I think that's what I love most about designing for kids - I get to design for the kid inside of me and make her happy. And hopefully, I get to make other kids happy at the same time!

ECR: Adapting a classic fairy-tale for modern audiences requires some innovation to pull off in a creative way. What steps did you take in this direction?

Jessica: We've been doing testing with our app, and we've been thrilled with how much people enjoy it. I think it's a combination of gorgeous design, fun interactivity and a compelling story - all for an affordable price (under $5). The combination makes for an incredible immersive experience - both for kids and playful adults.

In total, the app contains 21 fully-interactive pages and over 60 points of interactivity. Readers can flick breadcrumbs to help Hansel make a trail, drag candy off of the witch's house to feed the kids and swipe Gretel to defeat the witch with a might kick. The app also integrates mini-games, such as hide-and-seek, to create an immersive and engaging experience.

We also updated Grimm’s story so that it would be more inspiring to little girls. In our story, Gretel is the heroine. She transforms from a scared little girl who follows her brother everywhere, to the savior who outsmarts the witch and frees Hansel. I personally relate very closely to this version of Gretel.

ECR: How are platforms like the iPad helping to change parental views of games as being viable sources of educational content?

Jessica: That's something that's really cool to watch actually. Gaming has this stigma of turning people's brain into mush. But that's changing quickly. We're seeing all sorts of innovative companies using touch devices to improve education. There's just something about the combination of the interactivity, the animation, the sounds, the multimedia experience that makes learning incredibly engaging for kids on the iPad.

Like let's say a kid is figuring out the answer to 2+2. It's going to be much more rewarding if Dora the Explorer jumps up and down and says, "Great Job!" and they get 10 points closer to being a Math Master. And because the iPad's so mobile, kids can play and learn wherever they go while Mom's preoccupied. It's really cool, and really exciting to be a part of.

ECR: You showcase your Remnants installation piece on your portfolio which while high-concept, remains very accessible.

Have the fine arts influenced much of your work, and how have you kept this influence within grasp of the layman?

Jessica: This particular piece is unique to the work I tend to do. It was an idea in my head that I needed to purge out - it was actually a rather strange sensation. I became fascinated with idea of imposed space through shadows. I would never consider myself a high-concept artist, I leave that to the professionals.

As a creative, I am always a student and strive to learn from artists and creative thinkers every day, in any medium or industry. You really can never know where your next great idea can come from. This is an interesting question because I would say my audience is the "layman". I am a marketer by trade and therefore, the average consumer is my viewer and while I am sure to pull inspiration from fine arts, if I do my job right, I can translate that in a manner that can speak to the everyday consumer.

ECR: Alongside your own work, you provide visitors to your portfolio with a reading list of books that have influenced you over the years.
If you had to pick just one to suggest to anyone interested in Strategic Design specifically, which would it be and why?

Jessica: I am a straight up nerd. I blame this on my parents for being entrepreneurs. There are three major categories to the books I read.

1) Start-up stories - I am obsessed with learning how someone can take a single idea and grow it to a business that can change the world impact lives daily (Richard Branson is my absolute hero!).

2) Psychology books - I love understanding what makes us tick, why do we behave the way we do? As a marketer, that is key because you can predict human behavior or trends but as a human myself (at least I'm 76% sure of this), it's just plain fascinating.

3) Creative process books - every creative has their own habits and behaviors. Some help creativity thrive and others falter. I love learning from the creative greats, the wisdom they choose to pass down to help inspire my creative process. All three of these categories inspires the type of work I love to do.

So here are my top recommendations from each of the categories in respective order: 1) Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson (my love - seriously, lets date!), 2) Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini, PH.D. 3) Change By Design by the amazing Tim Brown of Ideo

ECR: When speaking about yourself, you mention that you aim to create a more integrated relationship between brands and consumers. What do you mean by this?

Jessica: Like I mentioned before, new technology is awarding us the opportunity to market in a way never before seen. Brands don't need to be these distant conglomerates anymore. As a matter of fact, the ones who do will wind up losing in the long run. Social media is obviously the first thought to come to mind. But it's not enough to have a twitter account, facebook page and pinterest. It's how you use these channels of communication. Are you saying things that are interesting?

Are you giving your customers things they care about that show you care about them? And what happens when you take it off-line? What kind of branded experiences can be created that connect with your customer? Marketing is not only on TV, print or radio anymore. Media is the new marketer's playground, it's just a matter of learning how to play!

Jessica's Online Portfolio on 4ormat

PB&J Publishing

Hansel and Gretel: Lost on iTunes

ECR Interviews: Nick Aitken

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 17:15:27 +0000

ECR: You've said, "I want to capture history and everything beautiful to me, so when I'm gone my work and vision will somehow remain."

If people were to find your work 100 years from now, what would you like them to know about the time you lived in?

Nick: When I said that originally I was thinking and realizing how much photography has changed since I started dabbling in it (I have some black and white prints I did way back in high school that are like vintage prints today), so when I really got into photography it would be around this digital revolution of change.

Really utilizing natural light and mixing unnatural parts, making changes in how I will shoot knowing what my post production will also accomplish allow me to create. This will be changing I'm sure with technology.

ECR: We were extremely surprised to learn that you have only been shooting professionally for a few years: before that you were a stylist for 16 years, and before that, a model.

Did you learn photography by osmosis, from all that time on sets or ...?

Nick: Haha, um well I suppose part of it. I always have just done what I love and I'm still doing some of those things. I take what I know from past experience and try to keep growing. Photography is just on my path of life, I'm sure it will always be a part of me.

ECR: What's the best advice you've ever been given regarding your craft?

Nick: Actually people ask me this question often believe it or not, and the first thing that comes to mind for me is just do what you love. If you do what you love other things in life happen naturally and you are a happier person I believe.

ECR: Do you enjoy the fashion world, or do you need to take a break from it? What's more important: confidence, or humility in this environment?

Nick: I love shooting fashion: I've been fascinated with it my whole life. I need a break from time to time yes, but I keep going back in for more. I think confidence is something that you get with experience, so I believe that to be very important, and I also think humility is a hard one for most people myself included, so sometimes I can be humble and other times I can hang it on the coat rack at the front door on my way out.

ECR: What kept you interested in styling for 16 years? Why the sudden break to photography as your new career? Was there a "moment"?

Nick: There is actually a person out there in this world named Nick that does more than one career. I still style and I love it. It pays the bills, there's never been a moment of clarity for me to move into just photography, I love both and still do both.

ECR: Tell us about a time when the worst thing that could've happened turned into the best thing that could've happened.

Nick: The worst thing that could ever happen to me hasn't happened yet unfortunately, I know that's a bummer to hear, and for me to answer cause I know it's still coming. I guess with this knowledge I have now it can prepare me to see some growth hopefully and also not be afraid of looking into the future.

ECR: Since you're a former model, what makes a good model, in your opinion? How much of it is the look, and how much of it is talent? What exactly is talent, when it comes to a model?

Nick: A good model to me is one that is healthy in her mind and her body and being able to show different sides of herself or himself to the audience that can sell a product.

Confidence and knowing one's body and features and being open to new ideas, trying new things, and not being a complainer is the best heaven sent-model. Talent is is either something someone is born with, or they can also work really hard and become whomever they want to be.

ECR: San Francisco is small, but is also the home of choice for a lot of globally respected creative artists.

Would you or would you not recommend it as a place to live for creatives? What would they get out of it that they couldn't find anywhere else?

Nick: SF is awesome, it's like living in a post card. I wish more creatives and more talent was in SF to be honest. So pack your bags, and join the party. It's a beautiful place to be in and around, the people are amazing, most of them really do care, but try real hard to act like they don't. Over all it's a great experience visually and emotionally.

ECR: If you had an unlimited budget and could shoot anybody, alive or dead, who would it be, and what would you do?

Nick: I would have loved to have shot Elvis Presley, I mean lets be honest, he was amazing and who wouldn't want to be able to shoot him when all the ladies were crazed over him. I also loved his crazy outfits with the sparkles and collars.

ECR: Tell us your number-one attribute, as a creative.

Nick: My number one attribute as a creative probably is determination. And I do like to have Fun.

Nick Aitken's Online Portfolio on 4ormat

ECR Interviews: Adam Garelick

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 15:15:50 +0000

ECR: There's not a single colour photo that we can find from you. When did you start shooting only in black and white, and why?

Adam: I've been shooting exclusively in black and white since 2008. I like it for its minimalism. It's subtle and understated. It doesn't overwhelm or scream out for attention. But that's not to say that black and white marginalizes its subject. I think it does just the opposite. It poses less of a distraction, and communicates to the viewer only what is essential about a subject. It makes the subject more accessible.

ECR: Are you shooting digital or film? What’s your reasoning? If you shoot film, do you develop them yourself? Why/why not?

Adam: I shoot film. I'm using a Hasselblad from the 1960's. I guess you could say I have fully embraced the 20th Century.

I enjoy the process of using film. I like selecting films and developers. And I feel a tangible connection to my work when I develop it myself. I could probably produce a lot more work if I photographed digitally. But I don't see film as a limitation. It just forces me to be more selective.

Digital media has allowed us to create and consume imagery at a stunning pace. This has tremendous benefits, of course. But it also means that our relationship to imagery today is more superficial. We blog photos, reblog them, like them, heart them, tweet them. I think we devalue photographs when our relationship to them is so fleeting. We become desensitized to the important stories they tell. We have more images to consider, but less reason to consider any one image.

ECR: You photograph a lot in New York City; how do you approach a subject like New York that has been photographed so much, and which is so familiar?
What is different about the way you see New York, to the way everybody else shows it?

Adam: I've lived in New York for ten years now. I have a familiarity and comfort with my surroundings that is invaluable as a photographer. I photograph late at night, in all sorts of conditions, throughout the year. So I would say my impression of New York is a bit different than the person who comes here to photograph for a week or two. I've had the chance to explore Manhattan and all of its electric energy. But now, I try to capture what lies beneath the energy. That's why most of my cityscapes are devoid of people. I try to capture moments of solitude. And they exist, even here.

ECR: You photographed at the Occupy demonstrations last year. What was the atmosphere like? Were you afraid of being arrested?

What do you think about all of the documentarians who were arrested whilst documenting the demonstrations?

Adam: I photographed the Occupy Wall Street protests in Zuccotti Park. I was struck by the presence of so many disparate political and social interests, united because they felt marginalized by today’s political process. I photographed at the early stages of the movement, before there was any real physical conflict or violence. Tensions grew only after the protesters were forced to leave the Park after several months. But I wasn’t all that interested in photographing the physical confrontations that ensued. While I understood the protesters’ frustrations, it seemed counterproductive to try to shut down bridges and attack police officers. For me, the real story is why the Occupy Movement has failed to coalesce into a meaningful political establishment.

I didn’t witness any arrests firsthand, so I can’t speak to the specifics of what happened. But I will say that I can’t think of a city that is more accommodating to alternative political and social discourse than New York. All one has to do is walk through Union Square or Washington Square Park to witness the First Amendment in action. That’s not to say that authorities here don’t cross the line on occasion. But as a photographer, and as a citizen, I’ve never felt restricted in enjoying my freedoms.

ECR: Architecture photography forms a large and very impactful chunk of your folio. What is the fascination for you?

Adam: I've been fortunate to live in one of the most architecturally significant cities in the world, and I'm still in awe of the buildings around me. I view architecture as a beautiful synthesis of science and art. I think there is something inviting about a structure where form and function blend together seamlessly. It creates a balance and harmony that is elusive in other aspects of city life.

I'm also fascinated by the way in which a city expresses itself through its architecture. Urban structures represent a community's lasting, definitive statement about itself. Just as individuals have style and fashion, a city has its architecture.

ECR: Does the architecture of any other world cities call out to you to be photographed? Do you have any plans to travel soon?

Adam: Absolutely. Among the places I'd like to visit are China, Japan and Russia. I think that a nation's architecture speaks to both its history and its aspirations. We can learn a great deal from what a community chooses to build. Take, for example, the Freedom Tower, or the Burj Dubai, or the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge, the longest bridge in the world. These structures are architectural masterpieces, but they also are social and political statements as well. Architecture is an indispensable way to understand the culture in which it exists.

ECR: Did you study photography, or are you self-taught? What are some of the mistakes you learned from on your creative journey?

Adam: I took an introductory class in high school where I learned basic darkroom technique. Since then I am self-taught. But to be fair, I have benefited enormously from the wealth of photographic knowledge that is available on the internet. Today, photographers have so many resources available to them that didn't exist fifteen years ago – I'm not sure that any of us can honestly consider ourselves to be self-taught.

I've certainly learned a lot during my creative journey. But I don't necessarily look at anything in my photographic career as a mistake. For me, photography is personal because it is self-directed. I have unfettered creative freedom, and I photograph what is meaningful to me in the moment. My approach to photography has certainly evolved, and I have improved both technically and aesthetically, but I don't look back at my past work with regrets. Each photograph lays a foundation for the next one.

ECR: Are you from an artistic family, or not? How has this influenced you?

Adam: Several members of my family were painters, and my grandfather was a photographer. But I think my pursuit of photography is not so much based on artistry as it is curiosity. I've always thought that curiosity is a prerequisite for any successful photographer. After all, if you're not intrigued by your surroundings, then why lift the camera to document it? Fortunately, I come from an intensely curious family. My father is an engineer and has always had an appreciation for architecture and civil engineering. I suppose some of that has rubbed off on me. My camera is simply the tool through which I explore my curiosity.

ECR: What is your favourite photo you've ever taken, and why? Tell us the story behind it.

Adam: I’ve been working on a new project recently, http://www.newyorkstreetportraits.com, in which I approach people on the streets of New York and ask permission to take their portrait. One image is of a man named Joe whom I met in SoHo. He is well-dressed, confident, and I think he embodies the ambitions possessed by so many in this city.

I’ve approached hundreds of people for the project, and most are willing to participate. This is a completely new direction for my photography, with unique challenges, and it has given me the chance to meet new and interesting people along the way.

ECR: On your blog, you sometimes take an example of a picture you like and then you manage to explain it in such an accessible and fascinating way.

What is your favourite photo of all time, and would you mind explaining why you like it for us?

Adam: There is a photograph by Robert Frank that appeared in his book, The Americans. It was taken in New Orleans in 1955, a decade after America had won a war in the name of democracy, but before it had confronted its own deep-seeded prejudices. The particular image I find so intriguing is straightforward. It depicts people looking out the windows of a trolley. It is an ordinary moment. But it suggests a dark reality that existed back then, and which has no place in a nation truly dedicated to freedom and equality.

It is interesting to note that the people on the trolley appear in descending social order – white man, white woman, white boy, white girl, black man, black woman. Their seating order may have been coincidental, but their social order was not. Their places in society were the result of institutionalized discrimination – white over black, male over female.

The riders gaze out the window. The white man and woman seem self-assured, but suspicious of the camera, perhaps resistant to having their photograph taken. But then consider the African-American man. He appears restless, and helpless, as he faces the world outside. He almost seems to be pleading with the photographer, or perhaps with the world as a whole, for something that he does not have.

The photograph captures Americans in transit. But their destination is more than a trolley stop. They are on their way toward a future in which their race and their sex will not dictate their place in society. This is the genius of Robert Frank. He captured provocative moments of a nation as it struggled to achieve its ideal.

Adam Garelick's Online Portfolio on 4ormat.

ECR Interviews: Mike Raven

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 18:24:48 +0000

ECR: You’re from Plymouth, a city of 258,000 in the south of England and roughly 300 kilometres from London. Most photographers would think heading to London is the natural choice; what are your reasons for staying in Plymouth and what don’t we know?

How does Plymouth city influence your photography? Are there days when you wish you lived somewhere else?

Mike: The reason I'm based in Plymouth is because I'm studying here. I've recently finished my Foundation Degree and I am carrying on with my last year to graduate with a BA(Hons), I originally was going to move away but because of reasons beyond my control I ended up staying so it's not so much that I've actively chosen to stay here. However saying that, I do like it, you have a mix of the sea and the city and theres a great community of artists down here, the College of Art here in plymouth is producing some really great young professionals.

I wouldn't say the city influences my photography that much. A a lot of my work is influenced by fashion and fashion portraiture / imagery. There aren't a lot of 'Fashion' related things going on down in Plymouth, which is actually why I decided to start FACTION Magazine. However the people here have influenced my imagery. I have a friend who models for me all the time and he always has loads of ideas on what we should be doing next and we push each other which is great.

ECR: You’re the editor of FACTION, which says that “the south-west has some of the best talent to offer.” Tell us more about FACTION and how the magazine came to be.

How has the reception been so far? What have you learned running the magazine?

Mike: I started FACTION because I was really bored of not having a local magazine that catered for people like my friends and I who like fashion, culture and the arts. As we're not based in london, there was nothing telling us what was on in the south-west or even showing off local artists who are making a living out of their passions. I knew so many talented people who because of their location or circumstances never really had the chance to have their work seen.

I had worked a at a few magazines up in London and thought it can't be that hard so I decided to give it a go. After roping in two of my close friends who really connected with the idea, FACTION is now in its second online issue and will (fingers crossed) be going to print for issue three. We've had a great response from everyone that's been reading and we've found out about so many great local artists who had never really had the chance to have their work showcased. It's going really well.

You do a lot of fashion photography, specifically brands that epitomize the cutting edge of British fashion. What is your relationship like with fashion, personally? Who are the most interesting designers in England right now? Why?

Mike: My work is certainly influenced by fashion imagery and some great photographers, and I've been lucky enough to shoot for some emerging designers that are really great at what they do. However I never really call myself a fashion photographer, I'm nowhere near that, yet. Which is a good thing; I've got a lot to prove to myself. I think I connect with the fashion side of my imagery because I am genuinely interested in fashion, that being another reason I created FACTION.

The most interesting designers? I'm really interested in Katie Eary at the moment! I'd love to shoot a campaign for her! I love the way each collection of hers is described as a story, and the clothes are really amazing! I love most things with prints on them, so her last collection was great for me. Also, the imagery side of the brand is really eye-catching. Her latest campaign was this really beautiful mix of colour and black and white portraits in a collage. I thought it was great.

ECR: Your work features an equal number of female and male models. How do you find your models, and what do you look for? Have you ever approached somebody in the street or a club? Is there anybody you would like to shoot? Why?

Recently my work has been very male focused. A lot of my models are street cast, friends of friends etc. In my personal work I never use agency models just because I'm not in London. It's always interesting approaching someone on the street having to explain your a photographer and asking if they'll model for you without sounding too creepy but it normally works out fine! Pretty much all the shoots for FACTION have been cast that way actually.

Theres a few people I'd love to shoot! Boy George would be one, I can imagine he'd be lots of fun to work with, and one model I have always wanted to shoot since seeing him is River Viiperi, he's such a great model. He's just done all the Versace for H&M campaigns.

ECR: Most of your work is shot in a studio. What is it about the studio that you prefer for making images? If you could go anywhere for an on-location shoot, where would that be and why?

Mike: I began shooting in the studio around 4 years ago and just fell in love with it, a lot of other photographers I knew at the time were always out on location while I was locked inside in the dark! I think for me the studio can be much harder to create a vision or a story out of a plain white space, some may say that makes it easier but when I shoot editorials I want them to have a narrative and I like the challenge of creating that from nothing and adding various things into the scene to create something which is totally mine in the end.

I like technology as well so maybe it's having lots of lights and my laptop around that make me feel a little more comfortable? I never really got the hang of film either!

ECR: Many of your most memorable shoots feature striking make-up which transcends the functional into the realm of fine art.

Is this your art direction and vision, or are you collaborating with certain make-up artists on a shared vision? What is your fascination with this kind of bodily adornment?

Mike: A recent project I shot called 'Electric Youth' features only the model I talked about earlier - Haydn - and we spent about 4 months I think in a studio setup shooting various things. Some of it was shot on location but I always have a lot more fun in the studio. The body adornment ideas started with the diamond skull idea I had. I worked closely with Megan Chamberlaine a close friend of mine who is a make-up artist to create that.

It only took 7 hours to get on his face! That was my first attempt at something like that and now its like I've opened up a huge box of ideas I can't wait to try out. Anything is possible if you really want to do it so I just plan to try everything out! The UV images I shot recently for FACTION were another idea I had that I always wanted to try out. I wouldn't say it's so much of a fascination but I love the what it can add to the imagery, its fun and can look great so why not?

It's strange you say fine art because I never intended for my imagery to go that way. I've started playing with film recently and the more I try to work with the two mediums side by side the more I feel myself conceptualizing my work, and it seems to become more 'fine art-y'. I'm just trying to push what I had done before to the next stage.

ECR: A few years ago, taking pictures with your phone would have been considered beneath most professional photographers, but now most embrace it as just another communication tool.

What are your thoughts on Instagram, and how do you approach it? Has using Instagram actually taught you anything about photography?

I think Instagram is great, but I only really use it for taking snaps - I haven't yet used it for an actual shoot - but it's a great way to get really good looking images fast! Again it's the technology thing so I'm sold straight away. Actually FACTION recently interviewed a photographer who only uses Instagram for his work and his images are really great.

That changed my view on modern photography. Camera phones are great and everyone can use their phone and start creating images when before they had no other means to, Instagram just adds that extra element of fun to it which I think helps people to become a little more creative. Which is great.

ECR: How did you go from being an amateur photographer to a professional today? What has the journey been like to get here? Can you remember the first time you ever took a picture?

Mike: Well I never really know when you consider yourself a professional? I'm still studying even though I'm freelancing, so when I finally graduate and start working full time maybe thats when I'll start to think about that!

I've been working in photography for 2 years now and am actually making money for myself which is great, and when I first picked up a camera I never thought I'd be able to do that. Yes, I can remember. I was about 15 I think when I started regularly taking photos of my friends and making them model for me. I can remember the first images I shot and I thought: "I really like this, maybe I should try this out", in my back garden, I set a tripod up and shot loads of images of myself walking around the garden and made some strange photoshopped image of them all merged together. Looking back now it was terrible but it got me interested enough to stick at it.

ECR: What are some mistakes you made that you learned from? What would you warn other young photographers about that they should know?

Mike: I wouldn't necessarily say mistakes, but I realized things never happen on their own. You have to be proactive if you want to compete against everyone else. There are so many people in the same boat all wanting the same thing so you have to push to get where you want to be. Actually, always get it in writing! Thats a piece of advice!

ECR: If you had an unlimited budget, and could shoot anybody living or dead, who would it be and what would you do?

Mike: It wouldn't so much be about a huge budget but I'd make some crazy photographic essay remake of the film 'My Own Private Idaho' with River Phoenix. Travelling across the whole of America in a Ford Mustang or something. He was such a talented young actor and he had a great face!

ECR: Can you share some of your professional goals? For example, where you would like to see FACTION in the next few years, which designers would you like to work with, where you would most like to travel and shoot, etc.

Mike: I'd love to see FACTION grow, it's still very early days but I want to see it in print and I'd love to get a lot more people involved with it.

With my personal work I want to work with great stylists and magazines, I'd like to shoot some editorials for magazines such as Arena Homme + and ODDA etc. I'd love to work with brands like Dsquared2 and Raf Simons, that would be amazing!

I've got a few plans for a couple of new projects, a lot of film and collaborations with make-up artists and designers, I've just got to make the time to do it now!

Mike Raven's Online Portfolio on 4ormat.

4ormat Loves CreativeMornings

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 16:59:06 +0000

CreativeMornings is a global, monthly breakfast lecture series for creative types. Started by Tina Roth Eisenberg (@swissmiss) to provide a more accessible event than traditional, large-scale conferences, the CreativeMornings series has grown from an event in four cities to a worldwide phenomenon. Each month, in venues ranging from pubs to lecture halls, selected speakers share their knowledge and experience with countless attendees free of charge. Lectures such as Mike Monteiro’s now-famous “F*ck You, Pay Me” have garnered over 500,000 views and have really struck a chord amongst creative professionals everywhere.

The 4ormat team has been in attendance at a number of CreativeMornings events in Toronto and has walked away both inspired and impressed with the wealth of knowledge provided. At its heart, we share a common goal: to help creative individuals grow in their respective fields by providing professional tools and accessible content. It is no wonder that, when Tina and her team launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to create a sustainable, online archive, we jumped at the chance to be a Gold Level Backer and help put the project over its $35,000 funding goal.

We are incredibly excited to be a part of this project that will further CreativeMorning's reach and share its wealth of content with everyone on the Internet. If you haven’t heard about CreativeMornings — or have and would like to help — please visit the Kickstarter Project. We encourage everyone with an interest in creative inspiration to contribute. Establishing a comprehensive video archive of CreativeMornings lectures will serve as an enduring resource for the creative community for years to come.

- The Team at 4ormat

Rethinking Your Career Arc

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 17:18:43 +0000

ECR contributor Sean Minogue uses The Atlantic writer Anne-Marie Slaughter's article "Why Women Still Can't Have it All" as a springboard to investigate contemporary discourse on achieving work-life balance.

It's a luxury to be making a living in a field you love. Not everyone has the opportunities, luck, or even talent to survive in a creative capacity today. All honeymoons must end, though, and that’s when you realize how spending so much time chasing your passion adversely affects your non-work life. As an adult with adult-sized responsibilities – and maybe even a kid or two – it can seem like a huge risk to consciously step back from your "lucky" career’s ascent in order to focus more on the people around you. But is it, really?

The Atlantic recently published an article by Anne-Marie Slaughter titled "Why Women Still Can’t Have It All." While this piece has become a flashpoint for an important debate about career-minded women who don’t want to sacrifice spending meaningful time with their families, it’s also a lengthy reflection on work-life balance in a high-stakes world. Slaughter is no stranger to the stress of ambition, having served as Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. State Department from 2009 to 2011 and currently working as a professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Clearly, in Slaughter’s case, we’re dealing with serious overachiever territory. Few people, female or male, can do what she has done so far in her career. While she's not a freelance designer hustling day-to-day to pay off a credit card ravaged by Apple products, the principle of one of her points is still worth some thought: If the labour market’s demographics, in-demand positions, and traditional vertical structures have all changed dramatically in the last 50 years, then why do we still think a proper career path should have an unerring upward curve?

Prioritize Your Life & Craft Over The Climb

For people like Slaughter, the climb up the ladder is a career-affirming fight that offers personal satisfaction – or it used to, anyway. Some parts of that ladder still exist in creative industries, but generally speaking, the drive to work hard now is less about advancement of title and more about evolution of craft. The better you are, the more you should earn working on bigger projects with higher stakes.

The crux of her article boils down to a conflict of priorities, one of which has long been undervalued in our society: the art of raising children. However, this conflict should really only exist if you value advancement above all else. For freelancers, the pressure to always be climbing, always be moving forward, is one that's self-inflicted. As someone who's committed themselves to bucking the norms of the full-time office environment, you’ve already taken a step back and made a statement that you want to shape your life in your own way. So maybe we should just acknowledge that freelancing is a move towards prioritizing personal enjoyment over professional growth.

According to Slaughter, the real problem here is the public perception of the traditional career arc:

"Slowing down the rate of promotions, taking time out periodically, pursuing an alternative path during crucial parenting or parent-care years – all have to become more visible and more noticeably accepted as a pause rather than an opt-out."

Changing this perception begins with looking inward at our own gut reactions that prevent us from chasing those risky opportunities that might allow for more time to be less obviously productive. Freelancing should, ideally, allow for a more flexible schedule, but that freedom also carries with it an innate, emotionally draining struggle to build and satisfy a roster of clients.

The World Will Not Forget You

The toughest part to reigning in your ambition is reprogramming your brain to let those chances for advancement slip by (when you've decided the time is right, of course). We've trained ourselves to always answer the door when opportunity knocks, and for the sake of self-preservation, that's not a bad thing. That special kind of guilt that comes when you're not always working to your absolute limit can be a powerful motivator and often results in some positive career moves. It's also a great way to ensure you miss out on all the barbecues, dance recitals, concerts, and heart-to-hearts that are happening all around you.

Your career doesn't have to be at odds with your personal life if you’re willing to accept that terrible sinking feeling that comes when you realize the industry is moving on without you. It is – even right now while you're reading this article. But so is everything else in your life. So accept it and move on. Be ready to jump in and out of a quickly moving current, and make allowances for re-education when necessary.

You’ll never kick yourself for saying “no, thanks” if you're standing by your choice to enjoy family and friends and put their needs on par with your career's. It takes a lot of guts, but investing in your personal world will always pay out.

The New Black: Why Having Your Work Ripped Is Great For Business

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 18:40:35 +0000

ECR Contributor Erika Jarvis investigates the phenomenon of extensive copying within the fashion industry, where garments and designs are not protected by copyright laws. Surprisingly, this atmosphere of open-faced imitation has helped to foster the careers of various designers rather than hinder them.

At a charity event held in New York late last year, the guest of honour, American designer Ralph Lauren, was interviewed on stage by the television icon, Oprah Winfrey. Perched on opposing chairs on a vast, polished stage at The Lincoln Centre, and in the company of celebrities like Barbara Walters and Michael J. Fox (who had paid tens of thousands of dollars to be there), she asked him a simple question that came with a surprising answer.

"How do you keep reinventing?"

"You copy," he answered, honestly. "Forty-five years of copying, that’s why I’m here."

The Piracy Paradox

In a paper titled The Piracy Paradox: Innovation and Intellectual Property in Fashion Design, professors at the University of Virginia and UCLA, Chris Sprigman and Kal Raustiaula, explored the so-called paradox of endless creativity in fashion despite the lack of intellectual property protection, and a culture of constant borrowing.

"The fashion industry itself is surprisingly quiescent on the subject of copying," they wrote in their paper, published in 2006. "Fashion firms take steps to protect the value of their trademarked brands, but appear to accept appropriation of their original designs as a fact of life. Design copying is widely accepted, occasionally complained about, but more often celebrated as 'homage' rather than attacked as 'piracy.'"

Sprigman and Raustiaula's argument is that copying—while frustrating—isn't just good for creativity, it's surprisingly good for business.

Copyright (Or The Lack Thereof) In Fashion

It's been over 70 years since the design of a garment could be protected under copyright laws in North America. It comes from the rule that denies copyright protection to so-called "useful articles . . . in which creative expression is compounded with practical utility (Sprigman and Raustiaula, 2006)."

The subject has been revisited recently thanks to the lawsuit brought against French fashion house, Louis Vuitton, regarding a pair of heels featuring a bright red sole—shorthand in the fashion world for the designer shoe brand, Louboutin to any fashionista worth her salt. The judge in the case ruled against Louboutin however, saying that, "because in the fashion industry colour serves ornamental and aesthetic functions vital to robust competition, the court finds that Louboutin is unlikely to be able to prove that its red outsole brand is entitled to trademark protection."

Compared to music, movies, and publishing, copyright in the fashion industry is almost non-existent* because it applies to a class of items that serve a basic, utilitarian function. Every person needs clothes for very practical reasons, and yet we all own far more than we'll ever wear. Many times we'll send a shirt to Goodwill for the simple reason that we don't think it looks good anymore. Why is this? Sprigman and Raustiaula say it's because of copying.

Copying Is Great For Business

The Piracy Paradox says that copying starts a process called induced obsolescence, that is, making things unfashionable so people feel the need to go out and buy more.

The designs sent down the runways by high fashion brands each season are drafted by the best in the world, and are deliberately priced to be affordable only for an elite group. With no copyright to protect them however, these designs can be legally borrowed or replicated by mainstream retailers like H&M, who take these looks and produce a more affordable version for the average consumer.

What happens next is "anathema to the fashion conscious," according to Sprigman and Raustiaula. Once these trends hit the mainstream, fashion-savvy early adopters promptly drop the current look to move on to something new and more exclusive, kicking off a new cycle of innovation in the process.

Technically, there's nothing wrong with the old style, but it's abandoned, Sprigson and Raustiaula say, because most clothes are purchased for what they call their "positional value." This is their ability to send a message about the wearer's status. So apart from loving clothes for their aesthetic value, it could be argued that what fashionistas really want at the end of the day is to establish their position at the front of the pack.

"The fashion cycle is driven faster ... by widespread design copying, because copying erodes the positional qualities of fashion goods. Designers in turn respond to this obsolescence with new designs. In short, piracy paradoxically benefits designers by inducing more rapid turnover and additional sales (Sprigson and Raustiaula, 2006)."

Copying And What You Do

Induced obsolescence and the free-for-all in fashion may have some implications for other creative fields, in which copying is considerably less tolerated. We're more likely to say ideas were "stolen" rather than copied, and that's because we do feel robbed, thinking that somebody else is enjoying the fruits of our labour, minus the mental expenditure it took us to get there. Perhaps it's time to consider though whether our work has in fact been stolen, or whether it has a role to play in a larger trend cycle, as in fashion.

Copying As Status

If, like a fashion brand, you have built a name for yourself with an extremely distinctive look or feel—think Yayoi Kusama, The Weeknd or Aerosyn-Lex—and you see your Doppelgänger doing their best imitation of you, before reaching for your lawyer's phone number, consider the article cited by Sprigman and Raustiala called Shopping For Gucci on Canal Street, by Jonathan Barnett.

"The introduction of copies, provided they are visibly imperfect, may increase the snob premium that elite consumers are willing to pay for a luxury fashion good. Second, the introduction of copies may lead non-elite consumers to adjust upward their estimate of the status benefits to be gained by acquiring the relevant good, thereby possibly translating into purchases of the original." (Barnett, 2005, cited by Sprigman and Raustiaula, 2006).

If your style is clearly recognizable in the work of somebody else, it can give your work a kind of prestige rather than taking away from it. Imitation—although irritating—is the sincerest form of flattery, and if anything, validates how good your creative choices are. And although it may feel that way, rather than steal your thunder, being copied just tends to make the admiring plagiarist seem a little lost in comparison.

People selling exact reproductions of your work should be stopped in their tracks, but drafting a cease-and-desist letter to a college kid who idolizes you just looks miserly.

Whose Idea Is It Anyway?

There's a chance that elements of your work feel fresh and new because, like the fashionista, you're an early adopter. So you see similar themes starting to appear in the work of other people. Problem is, it's not quite distinctive enough or you're not well enough established to have people trace it back to you. Ego check: perhaps it's time to consider whether this really is just yours, or whether you're in tune with a brand new fashion trend.

It's a common occurrence in fields like advertising or street art to see similar themes crop up around the same time, in the work of people who've never even heard of each other. A prime example is Banksy, who was an early adopter of the stencil art form, and among other things is known for his quirky stencilled rats. He claims he had no idea when he started doing them of the existence of Blek Le Rat, the French stencil artist whose motif is also the city rodent, but who pre-dates Banksy by a decade.

Rather than get worked up about it, seeing people copy your work is your sign to make like a fashionista and move on to the next fresh thing. Those who consistently abandon that which has become in style gain a reputation as leaders and tastemakers, and that, for a creative artist, is always good for business.

*It's probably useful to note that brand logos such as the Chanel linked C's or the Versace Medusa head are completely protected under trademark copyright laws, and it's one reason why so many luxury items have made their logos an integral feature of many of their designs. Consider the world-famous LV-studded luggage: knockoffs on places like Canal Street featuring the LV logo do infringe on a brand's copyright and are illegal. But the inability to patent anything further—like a cut or colour—is why there is so much copying in fashion, with some brands producing exact replicas of another brand's design with no consequences at all.

ECR Interviews: Nirrimi Firebrace

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 16:03:00 +0000

Nirimmi Firebrace is an immensely talented young fashion photographer and ECR had the good fortune to get in a short interview with her in between her busy schedule of travelling, shooting and being a mother to her daughter, Alba.

ECR: Your photography has become recognizable for your distinct style, yet it is the product of you and your lover working closely together. Can you describe that process? What is it like to meet and collaborate with someone who shares your artistic vision?

Nirrimi: I fell in love with M. when I was 14, around the time I seriously began photographing. I was his muse and he was my idol, so I guess our style kind of intermingled in the same way we did. These days I usually photograph while M. films, it's become second nature for us to work seamlessly with one another.

ECR: You have worked with a variety of clients ranging from indie artists such as Bic Runga to international brands such as Diesel. Do you find yourself tailoring your photographic approach for different clients?

Nirrimi: When clients hire me, I try to keep in mind that they are hiring me because they like the way I shoot. So I try to unite their essence with my own personal style.

ECR: This past summer you travelled across Europe with the Billabong team to shoot their campaign. How did you find the prolonged period of interaction between you and your team/models to impact your photography?

Nirrimi: I believe the best images come from a real connection. Through adventuring and photographing the models they became friends, so I could photograph honest, intimate moments in a way only a friend could.

ECR: The title of your blog, “the road is home”, reveals a lot about your work, in which the concept of wanderlust is central. How has traveling has impacted your creative process?

Nirrimi: Travelling is so constant and wonderfully chaotic, it doesn't allow me the time to feel stuck or uninspired. When I'm travelling I feel truly alive and that feeling motivates me more than anything.

ECR: From reading “the road is home” it is clear that you have a talent for both visuals and prose. How do you feel the ability to express yourself in pictures and words has helped you develop as an artist?

Nirrimi: As a photographer I think of myself as a kind of storyteller, but imagery can be a rather vague way to tell a story. So I write and keep a blog to fulfil my need to express myself fully. sometimes an image may inspire a story, or a story an image.

ECR: As a reflection upon your professional career beginning at an early age, what do you feel are the benefits of your precocious nature? Where do you see yourself in another 10 years?

Nirrimi: When I first began photography I had no influence from magazines, blogs or other imagery. I was from a small town and I didn't know any photographers. It helped me to develop my own style entirely. If I started later in life I wouldn't have had the opportunity to begin from a clean slate.

In ten years we will own a home by the water, be self-sufficient, buy a camper-van to travel the country, have a beautiful growing family and an exhibition now and then to pay for overseas adventures.

ECR: Congratulations on the recent birth of your daughter Alba. What lessons of creative wisdom would you wish to impart to her?

Nirrimi: To create for herself not others and to not be afraid of life. She has a wise soul and is her own person already, I can imagine she will have a lot to teach me.

The Pros and Cons of Drinking the Kool-Aid

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 15:14:46 +0000

As a creative in an office environment, it is often easiest to bite one's tongue rather than voice a critical opinion and rock the boat. ECR contributing writer Sean Minogue points out that - like in Jonestown - always following the leader can lead one down a grisly path.

Unwavering dedication to your team is admirable, but can it go too far?

In an office environment, "drinking the Kool-Aid" means blindly towing the company line no matter what comes your way. The phrase is inspired by an ill-fated cult from the 1970s whose members met their collective end by drinking cyanide-laced cocktails served up by their leader. It's become a cynical joke about flipping off the switch on your critical thinking – which, as a creative professional, should be the most powerful weapon in your arsenal.

Someone needs to be the voice saying "yes, but..." or "no" when a project is going off the rails. Ideally, this is a quality shared by everyone on your team. In reality, however, there are few who are comfortable with being the squeaky wheel – especially during hectic work periods. Add to that a growing general anxiety about job security and the hordes of hungry, underemployed artists out there who would be more than happy to have the opportunities you've got.

Is it better to just keep quiet?

The Benefits of Always Saying 'Yes'

The creative world is a lot more competitive now than it's ever been, and that means smooth collaboration between all stakeholders is a must. Once a project is in motion, too many questions will slow things down and frustrate everyone around you. One way or another, every problem will have to be solved, so you might as well get on with it.

Being known as the hotshot who always says "yes" and delivers the goods is in the best interests of your career. People will want to work with you, and gaining this trust will likely lead to more work in the future. Your ideal career path doesn't necessarily begin with a solid five-year plan, but with a positive attitude each day. It's tough as hell, but the benefits extend far beyond your work life.

If being a team player doesn't come naturally to you, then you can always try to find your own way to strongly believe in what you're doing. Establish why you're here and nail down your motivation for getting out of bed in the morning. Is it solely to shape your portfolio? Are you working towards a higher pay grade or a promotion? Narrowing down a tangible personal goal will allow you to brush off the daily drama and retain your sanity, which is particularly helpful if you're in the kind of office environment where politics can be the main cause of project hiccups.

Speaking Up and Standing Out

Creativity is all about making choices. You consider, plan, reassess, and revise all the time. At each point, you're exercising your critical thinking muscles. There's joy in connecting the dots and creating a vision or a solution others weren't able to see before. That's why you got on this path in the first place, right?

But it is tough to remain committed to unconventional methods, not to mention your own individual growth, when all the competing cooks in your kitchen are serving up tight deadlines and budget figures. Being too agreeable in service of your team can result in taking on more than you can handle and, even worse, stagnating creatively. Keeping quiet results in a buildup of stress that will definitely take its toll on you, one way or another. So you should always consider how to pick your battles – and that comes from establishing a strong, independent voice.

It is empowering to recognize the value of asserting your right to say "why" and to question how things are being done. Keep an eye on how much "Kool-Aid" you're drinking: When is the last time you (tactfully) contradicted someone in a meeting? Are you staying awake at night worrying about problems that don't directly involve you? How much of your day is devoted to active thinking that doesn't relate to your work?

Serenity Now

It's like the old saying goes: accept the things you can't change, have the courage to change the things you can, and be wise enough to know the difference.

This isn't an argument for an emotional firewall between your work and life; for most of us, they're one in the same. Of course you should care about what you do and let your emotions affect your choices. It's all about striving to nurture your critical thinking and having the tact to know when the time is right to rock the boat.

There are a lot of shades of grey between being the unquestioning cult member and the difficult naysayer. Explore where you fit in. Exercising your independent voice on a daily basis will give you the confidence to push back during the times when it really matters. Your teammates will respect you more and you'll give yourself the breathing space necessary to evolve in your career.

Sole Trader: The Social Pitfalls of Working Alone

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 16:24:09 +0000

ECR contributor Erika Jarvis delves into the social morass of freelance work, providing insightful tips to avoid the personal decay that can stem from working in isolation.

In an article titled "The End Of The Job," this January Maclean's reported that we are undergoing a dramatic shift to "a freelance economy where work is farmed out on a piecemeal, as-needed basis." With companies too skittish or just plain stingy to hire full-time employees (who come with expensive "unnecessaries," like benefits and paid leave), they say the ranks of freelancers have swollen to an all-time high.

As one of the first to make "freelance" a fairly common prefix to its job titles, the creative industry may be one of the hardest hit. With many creatives picking up what they can in this wild-west-style economy, it's quite possible that there are more lone rangers than ever before. This is not necessarily a terrible thing. Many creatives work well at a distance and alone; it can open up a kind of mental space not so easily accessible among the distractions of a busy office. However, if the popularity of the recently-viral "Freelance Fred" is anything to go by (a photo-based meme which shows a dour-looking man sitting on a sofa with his laptop, accompanied by digs at his personal habits), then there are others who have experienced the strange transformation that can happen when one works alone.

In the midst of working furiously on their projects, the lone freelancer may not notice the insidious social kinks that can creep up with only their house-plants to judge them. Before long, you're clipping your toenails on conference calls, guffawing into a trough of coleslaw at lolcatz.com while your personal grooming resembles that of Tom Hanks in Castaway (but with more food in your beard).

Whether you're new to working alone, or a veteran hardened by years of the freelance battle, here are some of our favorite techniques for halting the social atrophy that can happen when you're indulged in as much alone time as anybody could possibly wish for.

Pack A Lunch

With nobody to give you cut-eye for eating stinky Chinese leftovers at your desk, the lines between eating and work spaces are usually the first to blur for the lone freelancer. This is the beginning of a very slippery slope, which usually ends up leading straight to the fridge whenever a job gets particularly boring or tough.

In her blog "Adventures in Teleworking", author Telework Chick advises you to pack a lunch for the day to take away the temptation for unstructured snacking from the fridge. As she likes to put it, "If it works at the office, it can work at home, too."

Further separate your workspace from your daily caloric intake by eating at preset times, and in a space designed for dining, like the kitchen, or by going to the park down the street—just like you would do on a normal office day.

Get Dressed

There's a reason they say to "dress for success," and not just because it rhymes. When you shower and dress as you would for a normal day at the office, you're sending a message to your subconscious that you're serious about what you do, even if "work" today will take place on the back patio and you can sing along to Bon Iver without the risk of anybody strangling you.

Without all of the social and professional cues that come from working in a shared space, getting dressed like a functioning human being is one of the most important battlegrounds to hold if you want to remain acting like one.

Get Out Much?

We can only reminisce about the days when "remember when" was the lowest form of conversation. Nowadays things seen on the Internet are the new social low, and when you work alone, before you know it every conversation opens with, "Hey, have you seen that new cat video...? "

When you're not surrounded by a wide variety of people, you need to get out there and have some real, human experiences — at least once a week — if possible. Meetup.com is a goldmine both for events that allow you to network within your industry, as well as pushing you right out of it. Sure you may not be into Warhammer per se, but attending one of their conventions has got to stock your conversation bank with something more pithy than the latest from the "going viral" thread on Buzzfeed.

Get A Dog

Getting a dog is a big responsibility, financially and emotionally, but it makes for better company than the mould growing in your old coffee cups, as well as naturally inviting casual socialization and small talk with other dog owners in your neighborhood—the closest perhaps to what you might get from working in a busy office space. If you get a high energy breed, you'll also be required to get up and leave your desk every couple of hours, which is something your OH&S Department could only applaud (that's you, by the way).

Clean Up

Speaking of mouldy coffee cups, slobs are rarely tolerated in shared office spaces, and we don't recommend it for working alone either. Sure, it's ultimately a personal preference, but just like getting dressed properly, keeping your desk in a respectable state is all part of telling your subconscious that you still care about what you do. Just like that saying, "A clear desk is a sign of a clear mind," taking the time to clean up after yourself every day is a regular part of being a functioning human being—and it just smells a lot better.

Working alone can be extremely gratifying, but obviously comes with its own set of difficulties. What kind of things keep you sane when you have mostly yourself for company?

ECR Interviews: Chris Judge

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 18:05:08 +0000

Irish Illustrator Chris Judge took time out of his busy schedule to do this interview with ECR. He shared his thoughts on the emergence of children's content on platforms like the iPad, his experience as an illustration educator, and the importance of finding one's work / life balance amidst a hectic schedule.

ECR: When working with art directors and other creatives at the decision-making phase of a project, do you find yourself bringing a lot of your own suggestions to the table, or do you find instead that concepts tend to be fairly fleshed-out by the time you get involved?

Chris: I guess every project is different so it's hard to gauge how much of my own input I would have in general. That's also the fun part of it too. I have been freelance for about 10 years but it's really only in the last 2-3 years that clients have been coming to me for my work specifically rather than giving me a brief with samples of other peoples work as a reference (I would then invariably have to fight my corner to do the projects in my own style). I really enjoy working on the process with agencies rather than coming in at the end of a project as one of the last components.

ECR: You've just released an iPad app - The Alphabeast. What was the vision behind creating the app? Why did you decide to venture into this space?

Chris: My brother Simon and a mutual friend James Kelleher came to me with the idea for the Alphabeast app and I was immediately excited about the project. I really loved that it was an ABC flashcard app which meant I could explore more of the world I had created in the book The Lonely Beast. James had noticed how friends kids had adapted to the touch screens of smart phones and tablets so quickly and how they could work as a great learning tool so that was a huge incentive too.

ECR: For The Alphabeast, how did your workflow differ as compared to working with print/publishing houses?

Chris: The workflow for this was actually great fun. Myself, Simon and James sat around a table laughing our heads off coming up with ideas for each letter. Most of the suggestions were completely daft so it took a while to edit them down. Once we knew what each letter was we then had to figure out what bits needed to animate and what bits would be interactive. It was similar to working with my publisher in a way as there is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing with ideas and concepts which I find a great help.

ECR: While your focus is illustration, you have an educational background in design as well. Working on The Alphabeast, how much input did you have in the interface design, and what was working with interactive elements on the iPad like for you?

Chris: Yes I studied graphic design in college which has been a great help with my illustration work, especially when working with other designers in ad agencies etc. James Kelleher is a fantastic designer so I was more than happy for him to design the interface. I really like that it fits in with the design of the book but has it's own personality. Working with the interactive elements was so much fun, stuff like: Me: 'Hey can we have his bow-tie spin around with a whizzy noise?', James and Simon: "Sure no problem!"

ECR: Branching out from printed children's books to e-books and applications, do you see the climate changing with regard to parents attitudes towards introducing their children to technology from a young age?

Chris: I think it is an inevitable and natural evolution and I for one am very excited about it and really want to embrace it. I think there are lots of people worried about digital publishing and technology taking over regular books and education but I think they will end up working in tandem with each other as the dust settles. It will be very exciting to see how it all evolves during the next decade.

ECR: With two books in print, an iPad app in the App Store and your usual illustration work, how do you balance your time between personal and client projects? How do you make decisions as to which to focus on more?

Chris: It can be quite difficult at times but my main focus for now is the commercial work. When I don't have projects on I love jumping over to the book and app projects though, but I mostly work on those in the evenings outside of work hours. I'm hoping that someday I'll find a balance for both soon so that I can have my evenings and weekends free!

ECR: Your contribution towards Lisa Hannigan's "Safe Travel (Don't Die)" music video shows that you're more than capable of executing your ideas across mediums.

Would you agree that your visual imagination and mind's eye are the limiting factors for any project, more-so than your familiarity with the modalities of whatever medium your working in?

Chris: My girlfriend Cliona O'Flaherty (also a 4ormat user!) is a photographer and has just started making videos and short films. She is very conscious of having narrative in anything she makes, still photography and more recently film making, so I was really excited about collaborating on the Lisa Hannigan video. I have always loved making comics and making my picture books so it felt like a very natural progression telling a story on film. I really enjoyed working on it but it was a monumental amount of work!

ECR: You've succeeded at making The Lonely Beast character highly memorable and brand-worthy. Was this something you considered at the outset of working on the book, or was it a fortunate coincidence?

Chris: I have been drawing all sorts of characters over the years, one of which was the Beast character (who I used to draw mainly over photographs) and when I went to make my first picture book he really stood out as a character with a sad or poignant story to tell. I don't think I could sit down and try to deliberately create a brand worthy character though. I think there is a lot of luck when it comes to characters becoming popular.

ECR: You work out of an illustration studio space instead of from your home. What prompted this decision, and how have you found it's helped the work/life balance?

Chris: I used to work at home for years. I think every freelancer starts out working in a spare bedroom but there came a time when being at home was driving me nuts. Some people can find the balance working and living at home but I really need a space to work and a separate space to live. Being able to lock to door in the evening and cycle home is very important to me psychologically.

ECR: As an illustration instructor you help people by passing on skills and know-how. What advice would you give to those just getting started in the field, having the benefit of your experience behind you?

Chris: I have been teaching evening classes for the last 2 years or so and I really love it. I am part of Illustrators Ireland which is a group of about 60 professional illustrators in Ireland. When I was starting out they were a huge help and incredibly generous with advice and tips so I am more than happy to help younger illustrators starting out if I can. The classes I teach are a great way for me to pass on a bit of the knowledge I have learned over the years. It also makes me realize how many brilliant illustrators there are emerging in Dublin which is great.

Chris's Online Portfolio on 4ormat

Project Management Tools for Freelancers

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 17:48:51 +0000

As a freelancer working on contract or for yourself, many of the conventional organizational and time-management structures one finds in an office setting are absent. Meetings are often conducted over Skype and tend to be brief check-ins rather than detailed planning sessions, and the independent nature of the freelance lifestyle means you may not have accountable team members. In the absence of a group environment, project management tools may never enter the freelancer’s workflow - but they should.

Modern project management tools are designed not only for large organizations or teams working on complex, multi-tiered projects. These tools serve to maintain order and enhance productivity by breaking down a project into individual tasks whose progress can be tracked, and the responsibility for which assigned to the appropriate people. By dividing projects into chunks of work based on the nature of each task and associating due-dates for the tasks themselves, reasonable estimations can be made regarding the completion of the project as a whole.

By using project management tools as a freelancer, you’ll enhance your reputation as being organized, timely and accurate.

Asana

Asana is a web-app project management tool currently available for free. It features an email-based invitation system for your team members or anyone you’d like to be able to oversee your work and its status. Asana revolves around the concept of projects and tasks: you create projects in the master workspace area, and then further subdivide these projects into tasks. This is great for freelancers working for multiple clients: each project in the master workspace can be attributed to a different client, and you can invite people to oversee your work. Each project exists independently from others, which means your contact at Acme Co. won’t see what you’re doing for another client if you don’t want them to.

For each project, you can create priority headings and tags. Priority headings let you establish the importance of different tasks relative to each other, while tags let you separate different kinds of work for the same project. If you’re a photographer doing a fashion shoot, you could have priority headings like "Week Before" "Night Before" "Day of" and "Week After". Combining these with tags such as "Gear Preparation" "Editing" "Shooting" and "Client Care" you can start to see how you should be budgeting your time.

When creating a task, you can choose the person you’d like to assign the task to, as well as any followers you’d like to see updates on the status of the task. As a freelancer this is especially valuable, as you are actually adding a level of accountability your clients may not even expect. Your client can feel a sense of security seeing that work is being done, and you gain the benefit of being able to more easily communicate snags in the road or slowdowns resulting from an individual task in the broader scope of the project.

Asana features keyboard command shortcuts as well as extensive tutorials, which are a welcome addition considering the scope of the app itself.

Flow

Like Asana, Flow is project management software designed for both individuals and teams. It offers a 14-day free trial, and costs $9.99/mth thereafter. Featuring an iPhone and OSX desktop app, Flow aims to reside on all of your devices so that you can update and track tasks any time, any place.

Flow has two unique features - their Concierge service and email integration. Flow’s Concierge offers (for an additional monthly rate) the ability to complete a number of "lower level" tasks outside of the parent organization. For freelancers, this may be well worth the money - you gain the benefit of a limited-use personal assistant. Tasks like making appointments, doing simple research and making calls can be assigned to your Concierge - from any of the web, desktop or mobile apps.

Email integration lets you send an email to tasks@getflow.com with special markup in the subject line to do things like assign a task to a person, workgroup or project. This is a great feature for those times when for whatever reason you aren’t able to use the available applications themselves. When creating tasks in-app, you can also add file attachments which is a great feature.

Dropbox

Dropbox is an essential tool for file management, offering a free 5GB account to new users as well as paid accounts with larger storage allotments. Dropbox is cross-platform and includes mobile and desktop apps for iPhone, Android, Mac and PC.

Cloud-based storage is invaluable for anyone who needs to move large files around on any regular basis, and Dropbox enhances this through the integration of their apps with the host device. With the desktop app, any changes made including the addition and removal of files to or from a folder are tracked and can generate a notification. Folders can be shared with other Dropbox users, and individual links to files can be sent to non-Dropbox users as well.

Integrating Dropbox links with project management tools like Asana or Flow allows you to have a streamlined workflow where every aspect of a project is tracked and its resources made available from any location.

Any freelancer can take advantage of these tools and combine them with workflow ideologies like the scrum method for top-to-bottom organization.

You won’t be hearing "I needed that yesterday" or "I didn’t get that email" again.

ECR Interviews: Nicole S. Young

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 17:40:25 +0000

Nicole S. Young is a photographer, photography writer and blogger, as well as an accredited Photoshop professional. Her blog is a source of inspiration for many, and ECR had the opportunity to catch up with her to discuss the current state of Photoshop, the value of Google+ for photographers and more.

ECR: As an accredited Photoshop professional you help photographers with the post-production side of their craft. As a published photography writer you provide insight into the shooting process.

Being so well versed in both aspects of the art, how much influence does understanding of one have in the techniques developed for the other?

Nicole: My knowledge of Photoshop is a huge advantage when I'm photographing an image. It helps me realize how difficult things can be to correct if I made a mistake, or how I can blend images together to get a better photograph in the long run.

When I'm photographing people for my stock portfolio I know that it's in my best interest to hire a makeup artist, even for basic cover-up, so that I have less cloning and touch-up work to do in Photoshop. It also makes me realize how important it is to light my subject properly, since adding too much "fill light" in Lightroom or Photoshop can destroy the pixels and also add artifacting.

ECR: With features like adaptive wide-angle lens correction making their way into the latest Photoshop releases, do you think the ages-old "get it right the first time" mentality is starting to show some cracks?

Nicole: I'm still very old-school when it comes to photography and I think it has to do with vision more than just making the image perfect. One of my favorite lenses is my 24mm tilt-shift lens, and when I use it for landscapes I typically just use the shift function to correct for distortion. I could probably do this in Photoshop with the lens correction filter, and sometimes I still have to fix it a little bit, but there's something I enjoy about getting it right in-camera.

With that said, I definitely think that we have more leeway with our images than when we had to use film, so it's possible that the "get it right in camera" mentality is just shifting to a different level. Photoshop is a wonderful tool, and I use it all the time, but I don't think that any type of post-processing is a replacement for bad photography. I still use those features, but not out of laziness, just out of necessity because I either made a mistake while creating the image or I am being an artist on my computer and want to stylize the photograph.

ECR: The latest iteration of Photoshop also includes built-in video editing capabilities. With the increasing prevalence of HDSLR cameras and their use for commercial video applications, do you foresee a future where products like Photoshop and Premiere are merged?

Nicole: I doubt we'll ever see them as one merged product (at least not with Adobe). The video capabilities in Photoshop are improved, but still limited, and video and still are still two very separate entities. Plus, it's in Adobe's best fiscal interests to keep the products separated. I think it's great to have the video features in Photoshop, since not everyone can afford a higher-end product like Premiere Pro to do simple edits, but it's more of a "stepping stone" than an end product for videographers.

ECR: Professionally you have a highly diverse repertoire: writing a blog, publishing books, selling stock photos and providing help-desk expertise for Photoshop.

Did your multidisciplinary nature always encourage you to seek out new skill-sets, or is this something you started to develop once you entered your professional life?

Nicole: I think I've always had the skill-sets I use in my profession. I've been artistic my whole life, and discovered photography as my "medium" in high school. I enjoyed writing when I was younger as well, but never really considered myself good enough to write a book ... I guess that writing a blog and knowing my subject really well helped with that. I've definitely learned some new skills since becoming a photographer, mostly on the side of business and social media interaction.

ECR: Google+ has been lambasted as a useless social network for the layperson, yet has managed to find cachet with photographers.

What is it about the network that appeals so strongly, and how have you been finding the connections you make have translated into meaningful real-world experiences?

Nicole: Google+ has a beautiful layout for photographs, which is why the photography community has flocked to it as a social network. In the (almost) year it's been online I've met so many people who are now a part of my daily life, and I've met several of them in-person. In May of this year there was the first ever "Google+ Photographer's Conference" which was a very big success and a LOT of fun.

I also think that people who see it as "useless" may not realize how powerful it can be. It's all connected to the Google "universe", and since Google now has personalized searches the people that you follow on Google+ are very likely to show up in your top search results. In my opinion, that in itself is at least a reason to give it a chance.

ECR: You were recently given the opportunity to test out the new Google Glass project and gave a glowing review. Do privacy issues with this kind of "shoot anywhere" product bother you at all?

Nicole: I'm sure that there will be concerns of people worried that people with these devices will be photographing people without their consent. The thing is, it already happens all the time. Those issues don't bother me, I guess as a photographer myself I understand that if I'm in the public then I've lost all expectation for privacy.

However, people who embrace the device will realize that it's perfect for day-to-day moments, like teaching your kid to walk for the first time or recording moments with friends that just can't be easily captured with a hand-held device. It opens up a lot of doors and I'm very excited for the product to be released.

ECR: You released a tutorial on creating cinemagrams in one of your latest blog posts; what do you think the future is for this trend, and do you think it will develop past where it's currently at (i.e. something of a novelty)?

Nicole: I could see something like this on billboards, or in interactive magazines (the kinds you find on tablets like iPads, etc.). For me it's really just a novelty, something fun to play around with and share on my blog but I think it has potential, especially for advertising companies.

ECR: As you progress in your career, where do you see yourself moving forward? For those not yet as established as yourself, what advice can you give to the aspiring photographer / photography writer?

Nicole: I always see myself doing what I'm doing now: photography and writing books. In the future, hopefully not too far away, I'd like to start expanding what I already do in the form of workshops and teaching. My specialty is food photography, so I would love to do small workshops on that, and I also love teaching about Photoshop on my blog and can see that growing in my future as well. For those wanting to make a career in photography or writing, I think that the best thing they can do is practice their craft everyday.

That could mean writing in a blog, becoming active on social media, or creating photographs that challenge your current skill level. With the rise of self-published eBooks that's also a way for photographers, particularly writers, to find an outlet for their skills. Overall, though, whatever you do I think it's best for people to be authentic which is something I try to do everyday. We respond more positively to people who are true to themselves, and not just trying to sell something or be some "fake" persona.

You can see more of Nicole's photos, writing and tutorials on her blog.

Free to Fail: The Pitfalls of Working Pro-Bono

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 16:26:20 +0000

Today's creative freelancer has to run an increasingly complicated gauntlet in order to receive work. You need a top-notch portfolio, a social media presence, and an extensive professional network just to source contacts. The existence of Dribbble and Pinterest make your prospective clients more indecisive than ever. Media convergence means you need to be able to work in a multidisciplinary fashion regardless of your training or educational background.

This all combines to make the appeal of working for free considerably higher than it used to be for many freelancers. It presents the opportunity to get your "foot in the door" and build your rolodex. An indecisive client will typically be happy with whatever output they get when they've paid nothing for it. You can test your skill level when you're working outside of your normal comfort zone, without risk to your client's pocketbook.

Don't do it.

While all of the above may be true, there is a slippery slope to be aware of when working pro-bono. One of the most obvious, yet still overlooked aspect of this practice is the free vs. cheap threshold. When there is literally no expense most people will not think twice to obtain your services. This comes as a double-edged sword; as soon as you start to charge, you present your prospective client with what now constitutes a very high percentage increase from your original price.

When your client compares you to another contractor with similar prices, there is a subconscious valuation that takes place: you've raised your prices for a familiar product, while your competition is charging the same rate for something new. This already provides disincentive to retain your services vs. obtaining someone else's. Further, your competition may well be evaluated as being of fundamentally higher quality, as the work your competitor is offering already comes with a price-tag.

As a creative working for free, you also serve to reduce the perceived value of the kind of work you provide. Once a client has received good quality work for free, it becomes much harder for them to accept the idea of having to pay for more work of the same quality. This then creates a trend of bargain-hunting amongst clients, where the ideal price to pay for anything is zero. The net effect is that you and your competition are forced to lower billing rates across the board. And then this happens.

Crowdsourcing: just say no.

Crowdsourcing is - and should be - a dirty word in many creative communities. As the practice becomes increasingly popular it's important to realize that at the end of the day this is just a fancy term for finding free, willing labour. While many organizations don’t have the resources available to pay for your work, those that do will still try and get it for free in many cases. These are the kinds of companies you need to keep an eye out for, and who tend to use the term crowdsourcing itself as a way to distract from their end goals.

Contests are another related scheme for many companies to obtain reams of creative work for free. If you read the fine print, you'll often notice some very glaring points like: "Acme Co. shall be granted the exclusive right to redistribute, reprint or reuse all submitted material in perpetuity without reimbursement." This kind of practice is more common than you might think, so make sure to read through contest rules carefully before entering.

Ask, and ye shall receive.

We're all becoming increasingly shy when it comes to asking for what we want and deserve. Much of this phenomena is based on the perception of competition; in an ever-more competitive marketplace, many feel that asking for less will be a faster path to receiving work. This practice can initiate a downward spiral which is best avoided. Lowering your own expectations will decrease your confidence and self-worth, not to mention your quality of life.

To see the clear benefits of asking for what you want, we can look to the following anecdote. Having received an interview for a high-end position, a job applicant walked in with confidence, and when asked for his salary expectations asked for exactly what he wanted and then some. The applicant walked out of the interview with a six-figure salary and benefits aplenty. While this won't always work, the moral of the story is that as the expression goes "you miss 100% of the shots you don't take." If you choose to work for free, you may well be turning down money that was budgeted just for a new hire. That limo in the parking lot? It had your name on the plates.

When free is fair.

While it's bad form to work for free when there could be money on the table, there are situations where it's a reasonable practice. Chief amongst these is charity; many not-for-profit organizations really don't have the funds available to pay you, and contrary to for-profit businesses, would really love to if they could. If you're looking to expand your portfolio or professional network, consider these organizations first. You'll be giving back to the community, and you'll find that the kind of response you'll get to your work will be filled with earnest praise.

You can reference the work you've done for charitable organizations when applying for other work, and quote the pricing you would have charged them. This may seem a little unscrupulous at first, but in reality you're adding value to both yourself and the organization. If you think the work you do is worth compensation, but this organization was unable to pay you and you still did it, there must be something of merit about that organization that led you to do that kind of quality work for free.

If you're going to work for free, make free work for you.

ECR Interviews: Colin Lenton

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 20:45:47 +0000

ECR had the opportunity to interview Philadelphia photographer Colin Lenton, who's portrait and photojournalism work has yielded steady clientele and critical praise. Colin gave us great answers to questions ranging from the nature of finding one's life/work balance; to the techniques involved to create fantastic natural-looking portraits.

ECR: Portraiture comprises a significant portion of your body of work; what led you to develop this particular aspect of your craft to the degree that you have? Was this a consideration for you when seeking out studio space?

Colin: My initial interest in photography began with documentary photography, and I intended to pursue a career as a newspaper photographer. It was while I was studying documentary, and doing internships at newspapers, I realized that I had a strong interest in meeting the people that I was photographing. Because of the staged nature of portraits, this style of photography sometimes felt at odds with what I needed to do at the paper.

Never the less, there will always be a need for portraits in news publications and of course I had to shoot my fair share of them. As I continued to work, my passion for doing portraits sub-consciously resulted in them being my best work, and in turn I started to get hired by magazines to shoot environmental portraits while I was still an undergraduate at Temple University in Philly.

By the time I was ready to graduate from school, I had a small but growing freelance base comprised of a few trade magazines and newspapers and I decided that then was as good a time as any to give running my own business a shot.

My portraiture didn't really factor into my decision to get studio space much because most of my work is location based. Even today, with my studio, 95% of my work is on location, and 90% of that isn't even in Pennsylvania, let alone Philadelphia. I spend a decent amount of time on the road.

ECR: As a freelancer, how has having your own studio space available to you impacted your work habits? Do you find that you use your studio as "home-base" for your projects which take place elsewhere?

Colin: Having my studio space has made me much more productive. When I started my business in college, I shared a big house with some college buddies and I rented the entire top floor. I had my own office in the house which was nice, but after college I downsized to save some money and I rented a room that was honestly, only about 45-55 sq ft.

In that tiny room I slept, watched television, and worked way more hours than anyone ever should. I did eventually move into a larger house where I had an office again, but this time I was truly sick of living and working in the same place. I'm not a home body, so I tend to get cabin fever really quickly.

My studio partner and I signed the lease on our studio almost two years ago after an instant message conversation took place, in which one of us ( I won't say whom) was still in our pajamas at 7pm - from the day before. We realized that we would be much more productive if we had an office space that was separate from our homes. An added bonus is that we now have a better work life balance. I think our friends and family appreciate that.

ECR: Your "NOLA" series focuses on children in public schools in New Orleans. Being a resident of Philadelphia, how did you find the conditions in public schools in New Orleans compared to your hometown? How did the environment influence your shoot?

Colin: I love the NOLA series ! Those are photos that I've shot for this wonderful organization called Rethink (Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools), Rethink is one of my first, and best clients. I've been shooting for them each summer since I was in school. I'll be honest, I wish that I knew more about Philadelphia's school system, but I did not move to this city until I was college aged and at present I don't have any close friends with children who are school aged yet here.

From an outsiders perspective, my guess is that they face similar challenges in that both are urban schools facing very real budget problems - but I really couldn't speak to anything specific.

The goal of the Rethinkers is to get the REAL experts on what the schools are like - the students - to address their experiences and their ideas for reform. So far I've watched some of the brightest middle schoolers and high schoolers tackle everything from bathrooms, to cafeteria conditions, to discipline issues. Pretty heavy hitting stuff for 7th graders.

I was concerned with two things when I was that age - mountain bikes, and making out with girls; so these kids really impress me. It's also worth noting that they get together during their summer months, when most kids are fooling around playing video games and hanging out at a pool somewhere.

ECR: Outside of your photography business, you also teach journalism at Temple University. How much is your photographic practice informed by journalism, and vice versa with regard to your teaching?

Colin: I'd say that my photographic practice is most influenced by journalism in my reluctance to photoshop things in order to conceal reality. I'm certainly not anti-photoshop, and I retouch many of my photos (some of them considerably). I just don't like it to be over done. For example, I don't mind photoshopping out a pimple or temporary blemishes, but I would hesitate to remove beauty marks , or freckles and I don't enjoy having to photoshop people to appear thinner.

I think that there is a beauty in reality and overly plastic looking people don't look real to me. I also tend to prefer real "moments" over staged ones, and prefer shooting actual people as opposed to models. My teaching is informed in large part by my experience as a freelance business owner. I think many of the students could be entrepreneurial journalists going forward, and I try to instill a certain business skill set in them in every class.

ECR: Whether documentary, portrait or editorial, people comprise the bulk of your subject matter. When working with your subjects, how do you encourage a natural, relaxed reaction while taking someone's photograph?

Colin: A HUGE part of getting great photos is having your subjects relax in front of the camera. Not coincidentally, creating a comforting and relaxing shooting environment is also a huge key to getting hired again and again. Even though I do a lot of corporate work, and our shoots take place during the workday, often at or near our subject's workplace, I try to make it feel as if the photoshoot is an escape from the office.

I tell my clients that a scheduling a shoot with me should feel like scheduling a day of hooky. At the end of a shoot, if the subject and client don't want to go grab dinner or a beer with me - I've done something wrong.

ECR: Much of your location photography has the appearance of being shot with available light; is this in fact the case, or do you achieve this natural look by artificial means?

Colin: We almost never shoot only available light on location. I'm glad that you think they are though, because I don't want my lighting to be obvious. Normally we try very carefully to balance our light with the ambient light on location. We use the light to add shape and character to the images without being distracting.

A photo director that I interned under, Mark Pynes at the Harrisburg Patriot-News, told me once that the difference between a professional photographer using flash, and an amateur photographer, was that when the pro uses the flash, you can't necessarily tell from just looking at the image.

He told me this because I was under the impression that all of my favorite photographers were never using flash, and he told me - correctly - that this wasn't the case. He encouraged me to get my first off camera strobe, and it is because of him that I began teaching myself lighting. I've included a behind the scenes grab [above] from a recent shoot in Ft. Collins, CO so that you can see a typical lighting setup for a remote location shoot. In this shot, you can see we have two lights. We used the larger "soft lighter" umbrella as a key light, and used the ring flash (held by my smiling assistant) non traditionally off camera as fill.

Both are alien bees and are powered by portable lithium batteries. So , basically a typical setup for me includes a key light and a fill light. The fill light is normally 1-2 stops under our key, and our key light is normally 2 stops above ambient.

ECR: Where does post-production factor into your workflow? How much time do you spend editing your shoots after you've taken the photos?

Colin: Our post production workflow is fairly simple. On site we either shoot tethered directly onto a laptop and an external drive, or we back the cards up as we go along. We don't leave set until we have at least 3 copies of the image. Generally the cards that we shot on, and two hard drives.

Once we get back into the studio, we import all of the photos into our Lightroom library, which we have organized by year and date. Files and folders are named with a 4 digit number that corresponds to the month and year, and a short word that identifies the subject matter. Just for example a photo shot today for land rover would be organized into a folder and given a filename of 0612rover.

I go through the images and make my first edit of selects and prepare a web gallery using an online proofing tool to share with the client. While choosing my selects, I normally check for focus and edit out any blinks or obviously horrible photos, and then do some minor levels adjustments all in Lightroom.

Once the client has made their selections, I send the photos off to my retoucher and studio partner, Nell Hoving. Nell does the final edits and any extensive photoshopping and prepares the files for final delivery.

Retouching needs really depend on the client, but my general preference is "less is more."

Philadelphia photographer Colin M. Lenton's portfolio on 4ormat.

ECR Interviews: This is Them

Wed, 23 May 2012 16:21:23 +0000

ECR talks shop with Amsterdam-come-New Zealand graphic design shop This Is Them; wherein the duo of Klaasz and Floor speak about their design experience, affinity for working with cultural products, and the special place music finds in their work.

ECR: Your work spans a variety of mediums - posters, album covers, t-shirts, brochures - as graphic designers, what foundation allows you to cross mediums with such facility?

This is Them: I think that when you've developed a strong identity the individual designs for different media kind of flow from that. Also we tend to love the diversity different media have to offer, we would find it pretty boring if we'd have to stick to one medium. Or one style for that matter.

ECR: Much of the material in your portfolio is presented in both Dutch and English simultaneously. What kinds of challenges are involved when your client requires a dual language product?

This is Them: Actually it doesn't happen too often a client requires a dual language product, though we are currently working on a magazine that features both Spanish and English texts. I guess as long as you speak the language it's not a problem at all, it's just a matter of balancing the lay-out. It becomes trickier when you have to design something in say Chinese and you haven't got a clue what the text is about; but we're still waiting for those kind of challenges.

ECR: Music and Live Events seem to be a recurring source of work for you. How much is this your own personal choice, versus being sought out by music / event clients because of your prior experience?

This is Them: It has everything to do with personal choice. We love music and cultural events and when you spend a lot of time in that scene, like we did in Amsterdam, then that's where the majority of your networking happens. I guess it also helps when your clients can tell you're really into whatever it is they need to promote, affinity is very important. We really enjoy working for cultural events as we usually get a lot of creative freedom with those kind of jobs and get to make what we feel works best.

ECR: Your portfolio prominently features a Pantone grid rendering of your own photo. Beyond it's uniqueness, a strong sense of color mastery is evident throughout your design oeuvre. How much of this is based on education, and how much stems from your own intuition?

This is Them: I think it's intuition mostly, we both love outspoken colors and how they reflect on the elements around them, whether it's a brightly painted wall or some detail within an identity. Our schooldays were mostly focused on developing conceptual thinking, aesthetics seemed to be less important. Obviously there are heaps of influences that contribute to use or preference for certain colors but I don't think it's something we're deliberately trying to pick up.

ECR: Klaasz; your work with motion graphics is rhythmic and intrinsically tied to time. How much of this is based on a relationship with music, and how much comes from a more cinematic understanding of pace? Working with Ableton Live, how have you been able to use tools like Max or the Launchpad to enhance your performance?

Klaasz: I have worked as an editor for a while, before I started making motion graphics so taking sound and time into account was already a habit. I tend to use After Effects to produce my visuals which I mix live during visual performances using VDMX, a video-mixer and various midi controllers. I tend to use the launchpad when I'm dj-ing or making music while mixing visuals at the same time- this hasn't happened too much in public yet but I am enjoying those jam-sessions. Keen to try Max 4 Live at some stage- it looks very interesting.

ECR: Floor; being a photographer yourself, how do you find working with other people's photographs for a design piece? Do you gain any advantage through a familiarity with the processes involved in making the image that another designer might not have?

Floor: I don't consider myself to be a Photographer with a capital P. I love making photos but I don't think I have any special technical skills there. I do have a talent for knowing which photo's will work best within a certain design and I get very excited when we get to work with good quality photography- it just lifts the entire design to a higher level.

ECR: Being a design studio for projects aimed at mass-marketing like posters, what kind of responses do you get to your work from end-viewers as opposed to the original client? Do you enjoy the wider exposure that you garner from these kind of public pieces?

This is Them: Usually it's the client who tell us they're happy as their target group is reached in the way the had hoped for. Sometimes we get positive responses from the end-viewers directly and that can be very rewarding. A couple of years ago we did this poster for a festival and teens from all over Holland loved it so much, they kept ringing us for copies to put up on the bedroom walls. We were quite surprised and stoked about that.

Klaasz and Floor's Online Portfolio on 4ormat.

ECR Interviews: Nordem Hirst

Wed, 16 May 2012 19:25:36 +0000

In this live interview conducted May 03, 2012, ExploreCreateRepeat sat down with Toronto fashion designer Nordem Hirst to talk about education, entrepreneurship and the evolving role of social media in the fashion industry.

ECR: To start off, you were taking Computer Science at The University of Waterloo, how did you choose to make that shift from a well-established, reputable computer science program amongst the best known in Canada.

Nordem: It’s a guaranteed position at companies like Microsoft, Amazon, whatever...

ECR: Right, you’re in this field, you’re in school - what is it that comes into your head, to then say you’re going to make this very substantial shift to not just fashion school, but to pursue a career in fashion on the whole.

Nordem: Well, here’s the thing, I was twenty or twenty-one years old, but essentially I realized if I want to change, it’s easier to make the change now than rather than finish the degree and then go to another school for two years. Because finishing a degree is very draining at the end of the day because it only get’s harder. And I just feel like my passion isn’t there. So at that time, you know how University is about exploring your interests and trying different things; which I did and I realized that Fashion really interests me more than ever.

So I decided to make the change.

ECR: You say to yourself alright, “I’m going to jump into fashion”, what thread did you decide to follow? You obviously went to Toronto’s George Brown College, how did you come to that decision? Was it based on research that you’d performed, friends you had in the program?

Nordem: I actually really didn’t know anyone in fashion at that point, I just really don’t know, but I ran into it, and I knew if I ran into it I’d start knowing people. Deciding to go to George Brown was a strategic move, because first of all I can’t read and I can’t write, I can’t do university because university focuses on too much of that, which isn’t necessary for Fashion Design. As long as I can read email, reply to email, and maintain my public relations, doing my marketing, that’s good enough to me. I don’t need to be able to write an essay to run a business.

In this industry, nobody cares if you have a diploma or a degree, so why would I spend that $6,500 extra into a program from a university that’s not necessarily going to benefit me in terms of getting a job or starting a business.

As a result I decided to go to college, tuition is only $3500 a year, spending as much for a two year program as I would for one year somewhere else. You might get more internship opportunities, but since I’m good at networking, I can cover that on my own. So it’s mostly a practical and financial choice.

ECR: Since you have been in both the university environment and the college environment, relate your experience; you managed to get the best of both worlds so to speak. University and what it has to offer and college and what it has to offer, what would you say that you have as an advantage that someone who only went through one program or another might not have?

Nordem: Ok, the main thing about university is that it teaches you how to figure things out. So once you go through university you can kind of be independently working on a project or something that you don’t need too much guidance to finish what you have to do because that’s part of your university training. Not to mention, I went to Computer Science and the whole thing about Computer Science is problem solving. I learned a lot of problem solving strategies and a lot of problem solving techniques that I can actually apply, and it’s actually very useful to apply this knowledge when I’m doing fashion.

And in college it's more hands on, its solid, about how to execute the actual designs. College doesn’t teach design at all, but it taught me how things are done. When I can design, I can just get things done and design is a kind of thing that at the end of the day, in real-life industry, design is more like what things people want. It’s not what you want. Design school is sometimes more about what you want and not what the client wants. So it’s different angles. I am not so upset that I didn’t actually learn any design in college, which yes, it does put me into a disadvantage because I had to learn design on my own, but it certainly saves me time and money. I can learn it through the industry, through consultations in the industry, through talking to other people and figuring things out.

What I’m selling right now is basically a plain design that people can wear from day to night, it’s not even something that’s just crazy on the runway. So it’s very different from what design school would teach and what I would actually do in the industry I think.

ECR: That sort of idea, that you’re learning something both practical but then having to bring yourself to it is a really common theme you end up hearing from a lot of people who are in the creative arts generally. They sort of felt they already had the inspiration or they already had the passion for whatever it is they’re actually creating, and it was more about the business skills, the marketing, the branding that they had to sort of incorporate. With that, right now your flagship product is The Shirt.

You’ve made a pretty conscious decision, and I have to ask, if this is inspired at all with what you’ve learned through both your network and through your education, whether you’ve consciously narrowed your market to sort of fill a niche. The Shirt is clearly targeted towards men of a narrow frame, you know, with a certain sort of build, with a certain sort of idea of what they might be looking for, and I think that speaks to exactly what you’re describing in terms of looking for what your client’s trying to get out of you as opposed to you creating something and putting it out into the world and hoping people look for it.

Nordem: So, in terms of those fancy garments on the runway, it’s for marketing, it’s not for generating profit, but to generate profit, I need those flashy things on the runway to generate attention and for people to notice me, for people to still remember me, to refresh everyone’s mind that I’m in the industry so to speak.

But The Shirt, I wouldn’t say I’m narrowing down my market, I’d say I picked the market that’s not satisfied by the current industry offering. Because I personally couldn’t find a shirt, and many people like me couldn’t find a shirt. The first shirt that I sold, about two weeks ago, he’s coming back to me already to ask about other colours, because it was that good that he wore it for two weeks and he felt like he wanted other colours.

And I mean, people who haven’t found a shirt that fit them well, someone like me, someone like you, someone like my first customer, we all have the same problem. And I realized, the more I do research, the more I figure out there are way more people than I expected having this problem, like way more. Therefore it becomes intuitive that there’s a market because if I can satisfy every one of these people who are looking for a shirt that will fit them right, and they couldn’t find them, and now I’m here, and they will gladly come to try on my shirt, and once they try it they will know that they can always trust me on buying shirts, and they will always buy from me.

So just narrowing down to one product is strategic, because I can focus in on just selling this product, and make this product famous as a representation of me. Just like underwear with Calvin Klein and ties with Ralph Lauren, as the polo shirt to Lacoste. Lacoste makes polo shirts perfectly, everyone knows it. Everyone knows underwear with Calvin Klein, ties with Ralph Lauren, that’s how Ralph Lauren started the business.

Why can’t I just make The Shirt as a thing that’s going to be something special? There are many different underwear around, but Calvin Klein managed to make something special out of their material. I’ve made something special because I cut it differently and I have a specific market, and it’s a strategic move and focus on one thing instead of being scattered and nothing gets sold.

As a sole proprietor, I only have one person to work on every single different aspect, like marketing, like branding, like sourcing pattern-making, sample-making, production management, show production, photo-shoot production, lookbook, which is part of marketing, and sales. So how am I supposed to have one person do all of these? I really have to narrow down to one thing that can be on the rack and keep on selling non-stop after doing the marketing. So right now the product is ready, I’ve launched the product, now all I have to do is sales and marketing, sales and marketing, sales and marketing, to the point where everyone wants to try it.

Well not everyone, but my target market; once they try it they know how good it is, they’ll want to buy it even if they don’t have money right now, but maybe in two years, they’ll have more money and come back to buy it. So right now it’s just a waiting game and a marketing game. And that will make my life easier, to just focus on one thing and really make it famous and really make it famous and really make a name with it. And then branch out to something different.

And this is kind of like a reverse of what usually a fashion house would do. Like fashion houses, like the biggest fashion house McQueen, he does all the fabulous, fancy things on the runway and then tones it down to sell something that people can actually wear. But I go from the other way, I focus on the necessity, make sure my customers are happy and make sure it’s a simple shirt but it looks super good.

And that’s the purpose of the runway show, because essentially I’m just showing ten shirts on the runway, but each shirt looks fantastically amazing on the body, so people think that it’s a basic shirt, but to just wear The Shirt magically you would look so much better. Focus on one thing instead of focusing on thirty different products in one season.

ECR: That neatly leads into the next question, which is that you clearly have to strike a balance between what you’re going to be putting on the runway and as you say, that tends to be your marketing material, that’s how you’re garnering attention, but then you have to be able to lead people into this necessity. How do you find that balance, and what strategies do you employ to lead people from that runway material which may not be designed for everyday-wear, to then this everyday material that you do have?

Nordem: Here’s the thing: for a photographer, you only need that one shot to make you famous. For a fashion designer, you actually just need that one thing that makes you famous. I’m not talking about The Shirt, but one fantastic look that people will remember you for. And if that’s the case, I just need that one shot. So, one fancy look, two fancy looks, three fancy looks a season for marketing and promotion and make it like a limited run, so make it special, make those fantastic garments special, as a limited run, will generate interest.

People will just want to buy the limited run and I still don’t lose the point that I’m mostly selling The Shirt, does that make sense? Make things limited run I can break even with those limited run garments. Like for example this show, I would definitely make my capes limited run, make one of my coats limited run.

Outside of that, I’d just say, once it’s sold out it’s sold out, but you can still buy The Shirt.

ECR: That serves then as that introduction, people who are interested in that marketed, limited run, they get to see that quality, they get to see that innovation.

Nordem: They get to see what the designer is capable of, but at the same time it doesn’t hurt the business of focusing on The Shirt. That’s why I had a show with coats and capes with The Shirt, so those things will generate a lot of fantastic things, and people will understand that yes it’s a shirt, but you can wear a shirt on many different occasions with many different garments, and you can look so good with it. And that’s my sole purpose with my show that I just finished.

ECR: You also raise the point there that when you’re putting on a show, when you’re creating a lookbook, you have to work with other professionals in the field - how do you find those relationships are generated, and how do you end up keeping them? With your photographers, with your models, with your makeup artists. Your job is to help people look amazing, how do they help you make sure that your work is presented as best as possible?

Nordem: Well they’re my friends, just make friends with them and be a good person, be a smart person and be a sincere person. Smart people will know what’s bullshit, so you be smart, and you will know the smart people who can do the good job. So I make sure that I network with people who are solid, and when I do my management, I do my management through Facebook. I send messages, I do my castings, I have a list of people. I have a list for male models, I have a list of female models, for makeup artists, for photographers.

So when I need someone, I send a group of people a message saying I’m looking for this for this project. I make sure that I’ll explain this is what you can get out of it. So for example for the video, it’d be good exposure for someone waiting for exposure in the industry.

It makes people want to help me and I can help them get to somewhere, because I’m essentially showing things with their work and I do spread out their names.

ECR: Social media has now become central not only to how you’re promoting yourself but even how you conduct business. So this is something that’s a fairly recent phenomenon, how would you say that’s impacted the industry on the whole?

Nordem: In this creative industry everyone uses Facebook a lot, and it’s just easier because it’s getting to the point where people check their Facebook more than their email, a lot of people. A lot of people don’t feel like replying to their emails but they’ll reply on Facebook.

So you see that Facebook is much more important in this kind of fashion industry, just because everyone already sets up their events, finds their contacts that way. So now more than ever, Facebook, social media, you’re using it for your real business, not just on the side or for marketing.

ECR: I think that wraps us up, unless there’s anything else you want to add?

Nordem: I think that’s good, thanks again Stefan.

Nordem Hirst's online portfolio on 4ormat

Getting The Most Out Of Your Summer Interns

Tue, 08 May 2012 16:15:22 +0000

Like the hordes of students now hunting for a summer job, you were once a fresh-faced youth looking for a chance. You had talent, you had desire, and you had drive. Maybe you were given a shot, or maybe you weren’t. Either way, you’ve made it now and you know how valuable an opportunity can be. Isn’t it time you gave someone a chance - and improved yourself and your business at the same time?

Why hire an intern?

There are lots of reasons to hire an intern - some better than others. Some see internships as free or inexpensive labour. Others see them as cheap ways to fill in for vacationing employees. A thoughtless few even see interns as the perfect candidates for carrying out the lowly tasks that no one else wants to take on. These probably aren’t the best reasons for hiring an intern and, in some places, are even illegal practices.

So why should you hire an intern? For starters, when used properly, an intern really can provide you with extra help. They also provide an energy you might not otherwise get from your employees (or even yourself) and are immediately placed in your “potential future employees” file - fully trained and ready to start.

Search smart

Ready to land a stellar intern? A student or recent grad who can inject some energy into your operation, who brings a new perspective to your work, who is eager to show off his/her talents? Start by aiming high. You’re not just looking for a warm body, you’re looking for someone with a passion for what you do, the capacity to learn the ropes and the dedication and reliability to stick with it. You may consider working with a local college or university to develop an internship program that allows you to target high achievers. Build a strong enough program and students will soon be coming to you, meaning you spend less time beating the bushes for candidates.

Mix up your management style

Once you’ve hired an intern or two, know that you’re going to have to manage them differently than you manage full-time, permanent employees. They may have limited confidence and experience, and their time with you is probably limited to a school semester or a timeframe outlined in a contract. Spend more time with them than you do regular employees, and be sure to intervene and provide feedback as soon as poor (or exceptional) work is brought to your attention.

Learn from them

One of the benefits to hiring interns, even if it is often overlooked, is their ability to mentor senior staff in certain areas. It may come as a shock to some, but interns can teach permanent staff about a number of things. They include:

Working in an intergenerational workplace
Using social media
The benefits of mobile communications
Transparency in personal and professional life
How to have fun at work
Adaptability
Thinking big
Building relationships

Encourage your staff to ask interns for assistance at appropriate times. This not only helps senior staff learn new things, but also builds trust and makes interns feel like valued members of your team.

Give ‘em a chance

Taking on interns is not, however, all about what they can do for you. They need to get something out of the experience too (especially if they’re not making much/any money). Give them a chance to get their hands dirty on a project. Let them show off their photography prowess, their design skills or their writing talents. You might be pleasantly surprised, and you also give them a chance to build a meaningful portfolio of work - something they absolutely need to start their careers.

Keep them around

Remember that “potential future employees” file? Start developing it, even if you can’t keep any interns on right away. A good way to stay connected with your crop of young up-and-comers is through a professional social networking site like LinkedIn. Not only does it allow you to keep track of your roster of potential candidates, it also provides a means for you to publicly show your appreciation for their good work. When you’ve got an open spot, you’ll know exactly who’s available to fill it and how to contact him/her.

Go forth and hire!

The decision to introduce a young, inexperienced, temporary employee to your business can be a difficult one that shouldn’t be made in haste. Interns can bring a lot to the table if you’re prepared to work with them and create an atmosphere in which their skills are nurtured, but they also require a great deal of your time and energy. If you’re prepared to invest that time and energy, the payoff can be valuable in the long run.

Social Promotion for Your Photography Business

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:56:32 +0000

In the age of Instagram, everyone with a Facebook account and an iPhone thinks they’re a photographer. If you’re a professional photographer using social media for self-promotion, you will have to work a bit harder and smarter to differentiate yourself.

Here are a few ways to get the most out of your social media experience:

Facebook

Facebook is by far the most popular social networking site on the Internet. As a result, it can be a photographer’s best friend or worst enemy.

Facebook can sometimes make you too accessible. It’s important to keep your brand separate from your personal Facebook page; no client or business contact wants to read about your pet schnauzer. A lot of people already undervalue the cost of professional photography, so if potential Facebook clients begin to consider you a friend, they might be less willing to pay full price for your services.

Be sure to post your best work frequently. If you post great work people will share it with others. But if you post all your work, all the time, people may unlike your page or consider your posts spam.

Facebook’s tagging feature is a helpful way to avoid over-posting. When a client posts work you’ve done for them, be sure to tag yourself. Not only will this provide potential clients with an immediate means of contacting you, it also posts the photo to your page, without you having to post it yourself. If someone likes or comments on one of your photos it shows up on their timeline, exposing your photo to everyone on their friend list.

Replying to comments and likes is a good way to keep people engaged in your work. If you notice your photos aren’t receiving likes it may be time reevaluate the kind of content you’re posting.

Twitter

While Twitter started out as a just a simple way to send short bursts of text, it’s evolved into a vibrant social network where you can easily share photos and video.

Twitter is a useful way to promote your photography because it gives you access to a huge variety of people. Anytime someone clicks on your Twitter profile the very first thing they’ll see is your picture, a brief bio, and a link. Since Twitter lends itself to browsing profiles, this can lead to a lot more people seeing your portfolio. Professionals, influencers, and brand representatives are often more likely to follow someone on Twitter than add or follow them on Facebook.

Most people consider posting a retweet to be pretty low-stakes. While people on Facebook will debate whether or not to share a photo on their page, on Twitter if someone likes it they just have to click one button to send your picture to everyone who follows them. Retweeting other artists you like is a good policy as they might respond in kind, but you want to be judicious about it.

One downside to Twitter is that people have to click to see your photos, so they won’t automatically show up on their timeline. This is why it’s important for your profile picture and background image to reflect your work. While followers have the ability to click the link to your photo and see all the other photos you’ve tweeted, Twitter’s built-in image gallery is not very eye-catching or user-friendly. A way to get around this is by posting links to individual pages in your online portfolio. If someone retweets your post it will allow others to discover your entire body of work.

Twitter moves quickly. This can be a good and bad thing. One one hand, it’s incredibly unlikely that your post will still be on anyone’s feed within an hour of you posting it. On the other, you can post a lot more without people complaining about you clogging their feed. On Facebook, if you post one picture per hour, people will get annoyed quickly. On Twitter it won’t even faze them.

Finally, there are a number of useful third-party clients, such as CoTweet, HootSuite, and SocialBro, which can help manage your tweets, recommend people to follow, and even notify you of the best time to post.

Tumblr

Though it was originally derided as a haven for hipsters posting pictures of things they ate, Tumblr has joined the mainstream to become an extremely popular destination for both blogging and image sharing.

A lot image-sharing sites tend to use pictures without linking to the source, but that happens far less frequently on Tumblr due to a key feature: the re-blog button. If someone likes a photograph you’ve taken, they have the option of re-blogging it to their followers. Once it’s been re-blogged, it provides a link back to your own Tumblr, which will let people view both your contact information and other photos you’ve taken.

Tumblr also allows you to add descriptive tags to your posts. This means that if you tag the contents of your photo (“fashion,” “nature,” “sports,” etc), your image will pop up in searches regardless of whether or not it’s been re-blogged.

Pinterest is the fastest-growing social media site on the web right now. It’s like a more visual version of Tumblr, since it has no integrated blogging platform.

In many ways, Pinterest is an online dream board. If someone likes a picture, video or link, they can pin it to their board for their friends to see. Their friends then have the option to like or re-pin that picture. Of course, all those pictures can be linked back directly to your portfolio.

It’s worth noting that Pinterest is geared towards women, who comprise 83% of its users. Currently, the most popular category on Pinterest is weddings. While some people use it to plan their dream wedding, a lot of people are using it as a part of their planning process.

For photographers, Pinterest has one main advantage over Tumblr: Tumblr uses a timeline, so once a certain number of posts is reached your picture is pushed off the main page. On Pinterest, once a picture has been pinned to a board it stays there until it’s removed, giving more people the opportunity to see it.

Flickr

Launched in 2004, Flickr remains one of the most popular photo-sharing sites on the Internet. While it is primarily used for simple hosting, Flickr does have some built-in components that can be used to promote your work. For example, it allows people to leave comments and create albums of photos they like, while linking back to your page.

Flickr gives you the option of releasing your images under a variety of common usage licenses, or as “All rights reserved.” It even includes the option of selling your work as stock photography through Getty Images. As a result, many bloggers use Flickr to find images to accompany their posts. While there are some unscrupulous types who won’t necessarily link back to your work, established bloggers know better. A shot used on a popular blog can lead to a lot more people noticing you.

Flickr also includes a number of privacy controls. So if you’re working on a photo for someone, but would like their input before you publish it, you can restrict it to their eyes only rather than posting it work publicly. You can also prevent people from downloading your images, an option often employed by professional photographers who choose Flickr as a platform.

Google Plus

A common joke is that, despite its popularity, no one really uses Google+. While they have over 100 million users, the average user spends approximately three minutes per month on Google’s social network. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be used to promote your work, especially with its recent, more visually pleasing redesign.

Google+ allows you to add people to different “circles,” which are categories of people or interests. By adding interesting and talented photographers to your photography circle, you can see one another’s work, trade tips, and receive valuable feedback. If you’re looking for some great people to add, this link can help get you started.

Because it’s owned by Google, chances are your account will show up near the top of Google’s results if someone is searches for your name. Inundating your Google+ timeline with examples of your work means that people will eventually see it and, hopefully, start to follow your posts. They may serve as a nice diversion for all the techy discourse currently dominating the service.

StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon is a bit different from the other services on this list, because it isn’t a website in the traditional sense; it’s every website.

StumbleUpon is a toolbar at the top of your browser window that will lead you to different websites, pictures, and videos that you can then like or dislike. Based on your votes, StumbleUpon will recommend links tailored to your specific interests.

StumbleUpon is addictive, but it's not immediately obvious how to use it for self-promotion. First, you have to submit your work. Once you’ve signed in, click on Profile. This is located underneath the link to change your settings (or you can just click here).

From here it’s very straightforward. You can link to individual images or your entire portfolio, with an option to assign them to categories of your choosing.

Unless your picture is of a cute animal, your best bet is to choose the Photography category, since more people follow that than specific subcategories. You can also add your subcategories to the tag area. After that, your portfolio does all the work for you; the more people who like your work, the more other people will be directed to it.

LinkedIn might not be an efficient vehicle for getting your portfolio out there, but it can definitely help you to get more paid work. LinkedIn allows people to see your credentials as well as your business connections, which helps photographers differentiate themselves from hobbyists.

The authority conveyed by a complete, well thought-out LinkedIn profile will give people that much more reason to acknowledge the value of your work.

In Conclusion...

The options for self-promotion through social media might seem overwhelming, but remember that no one can appreciate your work if they can’t discover it.

Many of these services (like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr) have built-in apps that allow you to sync all of your accounts, letting you post on multiple platforms at once. Alternatively, you can tailor each post to suit the tone of the individual platform. Experiment to see which avenues work best for you, or try to juggle them all.

Either way, the result will be more exposure — and more potential clients — for the work you’ve done.

Google Photography Prize Announces Finalists

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:12:55 +0000

The Google Photography Prize has announced it's top ten finalists with their grand prize winner to be determined on April 24th. With categories ranging from fashion to food, entrants were allowed to submit up to eight photographs. These ten finalists will have their work displayed at the Saatchi Gallery in London coinciding with the 'Out of Focus: Photography' exhibition. The grand prize winner will receive a photography travel package alongside an established photography coach.

With over 20,000 submissions, Google has highlighted their Google+ platform throughout the contest as a way for photographers to connect across the globe. With a Google+ Page dedicated to the contest, photographers staged hangouts, posted images, and expanded their personal circles at the same time.

Check out the finalists as well as the top one-hundred shortlist, prizes, and more at the Google Photography Prize main site.

*Image by finalist Adi Sason

"It's over in terms of film."

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 21:06:27 +0000

With a career spanning over 25 years, 50 feature length films as well as commercials and music videos, Phedon Papamichael is an award winning director of photography.

This interview focuses on the notion that contemporary high-end camera systems from the likes of RED and ALEXA, combined with the HDSLR revolution will spell the end of 35mm. Papamichael simultaneously warns that the availability of technology may threaten the craft.

"I'm really worried about the classic storytelling style," he says, "People need to watch Bergman movies.. Kurosawa movies.. David Lean movies."

A compelling read for anyone with an interest in cinematography and the current state of filmmaking.

Phedon Papamichael's Interview on Momentum Blog

ECR Interviews: Edward Linsmier

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 18:12:08 +0000

Edward Linsmier is a multidisciplinary photographer whose work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Stern Magazine amongst others. With a background in photojournalism and documentary photography, Linsmier expounds on everything from his special relationship with Haiti to the observer / participant nature of capturing images.

ECR: Having majored in photojournalism, you clearly had a strong inclination toward image arts when you entered university. What brought you to that choice in the first place?

Edward: Sometime in early high school I was wandering around a bookstore and saw James Nachtwey's Inferno and it blew me away. Growing up in the 90's, I had heard about AIDS and wars and famines but I never really understood or saw the events through the eyes of the people enduring these tragedies. The statistics became faces and it all became real. I realized the advantages I had in life and how lucky I was.

I was a pretty self-centered kid and this book opened my eyes to the world around me. That was a turning point. Photojournalism gave me a sense of purpose- I wanted the opportunity to open people's eyes to what was happening in the world around them.

ECR: Your photoessays are exemplary of the form with clear thesis, expository and conclusive statements. How much of this is achieved through editing a shoot post-fact, and how much is achieved through rigorous planning and pre-conceptualization?

Edward: Great question. Examples of each method come to mind. The methamphetamine work I did was very calculated in that after researching as much as possible, I came up with a shot list of ways I could illustrate the issue and prioritized that list. Shooting that story was a full-time job for me for a few months and I would edit and update the shot list as I went along.

It was extremely helpful in providing me with clear-cut goals but at the same time, I had to roll with what situations I was presented with. So, there were some pictures that I made that I am very proud of because they are story-telling moments that I worked very hard for and there are also photographs I love that I made as the result of being in the right place at the right time.

My Haiti work comes to mind when I think of editing a shoot post-fact. Although I was working on specific story-lines, each move was carefully planned and thought out as to what I believed would contribute to the essay. But, I always wanted to edit them all into a single, cohesiveI storyline and it has proven to be exceptionally difficult. I'm not saying that you can't edit an amazing story after-the-fact but I highly recommend planning and coming up with a shot list.

ECR: With your roots in black and white documentary photography, how much of a creative adjustment is required of you when shooting a glossy commercial spread?

Edward: Although it is a different mindset, it comes down to having a love of the creative processes in producing any type of photography. This was something I had to come to terms with about five years ago. I was very focused on studying documentary photography while I was in college. I didn't spend much time in the studio or in business classes.

For some time after university, I was used to working in very dramatic and sometimes high-energy documentary situations where I felt very much at home- I felt that it was something I excelled at. I assumed that because I was good at one type of photography that that talent would carry-over into studio work and portraiture, etc. I continued to expect to produce work of a certain level and I became increasingly let down. Something finally clicked and I realized I had to revert to the fundamentals and learn how to do a lot of things the correct way, starting from the ground up.

Another photographer recently called me the Swiss Army knife of photographers. I got that reputation because it's very rare that I turn down an assignment and I try very hard to excel at every assignment no matter what it is. Also, being freelance can be financially challenging so having such a breadth of experience, from documentary to commercial spreads, enables me to diversify my client base. In my opinion this has been one of the reasons I have been able to survive in this economic downturn.

ECR: The journalistic aspect of your craft sees you having to engage subjects with intensely emotional content. Do you find yourself more inclined to compartmentalize or sympathize, and how does this impact your output?

Edward: I spent a lot of time getting to know myself and my true motivations for that type of work so it is something I don't waiver on anymore. After the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, a young woman named Fabienne was shot and killed quite close to myself and a handful of other photographers. We photographed her as she lay dead and others continued to loot around her and we even photographed a young boy who came up and literally pried the money out of her lifeless hand. We photographed her father as he came and lifted her onto his shoulders and cried out.

At no point in time did he motion to us to stop photographing or signal that we were unwelcome. A short time after this, a blog called Prison Photography published accounts of the girl's death and interviewed several of the photographers. A photograph surfaced of us photographing the lifeless Fabienne. Several commenters were quick to judge us and call us vultures and said that we were trying to capitalize on Fabienne's death. A very talented colleague of mine was exceptionally hurt by this and I understand why. But in my mind, it would have disrespectful to Fabienne to not document the end of her life as best as we possibly could. We put ourselves there with cameras and it became our responsibility.

It would have belittled the pain and suffering of her family to not show to the best of our ability what they went through because of her passing. We were there as journalists and we needed to do our jobs and I, for one, was very proud of every photographer there that day. I saw none of them acting in a disrespectful or exploitative manner- we were all trying to deal with what we were seeing. In that moment, I think we were trying to walk the line of compartmentalizing enough so we could perform our jobs as best as possible but sympathizing enough to channel the gravity of situation into meaningful photographs.

ECR: Your series "I Miss You, Pompano" and "Methamphetamines" represent opposite ends of the American experience. What role does photography play in representing issues of social justice?

Edward: Viewing photographs can often be an individual's first exposure to another lifestyle or culture and hopefully those photographs are responsible representations of the subject matter. Pictures can either begin to build a bridge to education, understanding and acceptance or they can be used as propaganda to do the complete opposite. In my opinion, that is why the most successful photographs are the ones that are compassionate, while still being objective.

ECR: In following the developments in Haiti, how did your personal relationship with the country influence your decision to persist in chronicling the progress of its people?

Edward: I didn't have a choice but to continue to document the country. After everything I have experienced there, Haiti has a permanent place in my heart. I have immense respect and a love for the people of Haiti. It is a land of extremes and life there is lived in a very raw way. There are few comforts and people make do with what they have, they are survivors. My relationship with the country evolved as I realized Haiti was showing me lessons about myself and life and all I had to do was listen. I was reacting to Haiti.

You can't drive around Port au Prince and not experience a visceral reaction. You cannot witness what happens in Haiti and not feel something in return. The mistake most people make is to react with pity that some are forced to live the way they do. Haitians don't need pity- they are incredibly strong. I grew to love that and I grew to love the country.

ECR: Where do you position yourself as a photographer on the observer / participant spectrum? When shooting a story like "Fabienne", did you find yourself at odds with your photojournalistic discipline in having to stay apart from the story?

I think the theory I personally subscribe to is to just trying to be a good person first. I have missed pictures because I felt like otherwise making them would have been inappropriate at the time- but I know lots of photographers that have been in that situation. I definitely try to err on the side of being an observer but sometimes the situation dictates that you have a more active role.

I was photographing an elderly woman on the side of a mountain in Haiti after the earthquake and she was by herself. It was unclear if her children had escaped Port au Prince or been killed during the earthquake. She was moving small pieces of concrete from the mounds and mounds of rubble that used to be her home. There were mounds and piles that made the work seem endless and almost futile. It was nearly overwhelming for me to see her charge through such intense labor with no end in sight.

I made a few pictures then I spent the next while helping her remove the mangled concrete pieces that covered a stairway so she could access a doorway to an underside of the house- it was unclear if that part of the house was damaged as it was built into the hillside. Her spirit was unbelievable. So yeah, I could have made a few more frames if I had remained more of an "observer" but as a person it's hard to see these types of things and not feel affected and want to help in any little way possible. My only regret is that I wasn't able to stay and help longer.

ECR: You speak fondly of your editors at various publications. How much do you agree with the idea that freelancers choose their clients as much as clients choose their freelancers?

Edward: That is a wonderful way to put it. Some editors gravitate toward your work and are very encouraging and then also there are the editors who are looking for something different. The longer I have been at this the more selective I have been able to become in what assignments I accept- but that is a true luxury and is often far from the norm.

When I turn down a job it is usually because of absurdly low rates or rights grabs. It's an added bonus when you can work with an editor that is personable and really believes in you and your work. Editors can also bounce around from publication to publication so it's important to keep up a professional relationship and stay in touch with them regardless of where they are.

ECR: Your portfolio exhibits considerable restraint in its use of captions; where present, they stick to the facts. When out of your own hands, how do you feel about captions being used with your images?

Edward: I haven't met a colleague who hasn't poured their heart and soul into writing amazing, fact and quote filled captions only to see them cut down to half a sentence or changed completely in print. Captions can be crucial to understanding the context of the photograph but ultimately, the picture should be able to speak for itself.

ECR: Which of the myriad of awards you have won for your work makes you the proudest?

Edward: I worked very hard for quite some time on the Meth story so when that won first place for picture stories from the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, that meant the world to me. And honestly, at that point in my career I needed the validation. Contests are a tricky thing, they can be wonderful if you are winning, but at the same time they can have a very degrading consequence on how your view yourself and your work if you get too caught up in them and you aren't winning.

There is so much amazing work being done out there so I try not to get caught up in contests. Some years I don't even enter them. I am making a living at freelancing full-time and I get so much satisfaction from that. So every time I get a job I try to use that as positive reinforcement instead of focusing on some award I didn't win.

Edward Linsmier's Online Portfolio on 4ormat.

Sunshine: A Glimpse At A Modern Day "Mad Man"

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:43:52 +0000

This short documentary by Doug Nichol is a tongue-in-cheek look into the practice of international business concerning major brands and differing cultural ideologies. Following an American advertising producer on his quest to sell McDonald's in Shanghai, the short is encapsulated in the quote "they've traded in Mao for Ronald McDonald."

Shot on a Canon 5D, this piece is a great example of the kind of results achievable on pro-sumer HDSLR cameras. All of the location sound was captured in-camera, with a Sound Devices 702 recorder used for the interview components. Sunshine was an official selection for the True/False Film Festival, DOCNYC, Mill Valley Film Festival, Palm Springs, LA Shorts Fest and many others.

Sunshine from American Buffalo on Vimeo.

ECR Interviews: Sara Collaton

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:08:21 +0000

ECR: You describe photography as being your life's passion. How did you come into the practice to begin with?

Sara: I didn’t even consider taking up photography until I dropped out of art school. I had spent 10 years planning to have drawing or animation in my life until a teacher told me I’d have no chance at a career. Horrible words to tell a student but without that I never would have picked up my father’s Canon AE-1 and began experimenting with another artistic outlet.

That was over 10 years ago but it wasn’t until 4 years ago that I purchased my first DSLR, wanting to take the photography more seriously. At the time there was never any goal to become a photographer; I just wanted more control over my camera and its manual settings than any point and shoot I had been using in the mean time.

3 years back, Ben Folds gave me my first break in shooting a concert for him in New York. Having been a fan of his music for years, I couldn’t say no despite having no idea what I was doing, and never having shot a concert before in a large stadium. Coming back to Toronto and knowing all the musician friends I knew and concerts I’d attend, I wondered why I had never thought of combining the two earlier.

ECR: Outside of film and photography, what other artists inspire you?

Sara: Possibly my biggest source of inspiration comes from music. It’s what started my relationship with the camera and got me into photography. Because I never studied photography, I don’t have a large reference to draw upon when it comes to ‘the greats’. Music has always been very important in my life. I’ve never been great with words, music has always been an easier way to better represent how I feel or what I wanted to say. Some of my favourites range from Tom Waits, Ludovico Einaudi, Cut Copy, Explosions in the Sky and the Black Keys.

ECR: Within an urban context, your work eschews an intuitive familiarity with the elements of city living that will resonate with the viewer. Do you find your shooting approach changes when in a rural setting or in nature?

Sara: I don’t really change my style when I’m out shooting. My work is candid which means looking for that special moment no matter what my surrounding looks like. I guess there’s a bit more planning involved when I’m shooting nature because I’m taking my time getting to that location while living downtown. In the city you’re moving around at a much faster pace so it’s nice to be able to slow down once in a while.

ECR: Toronto and its unique points of cultural reference figure heavily in your work. Aside from it being your place of residence, how does shooting in Toronto differ for you as compared to other urban centres?

Sara: That’s a tough one to answer because my style doesn’t change between cities I shoot in. Sometimes it’s a challenge finding interesting things in places you pass by every day. You get used to your routine and you miss those little things that make the city special. It’s frustrating when that occurs because I know I photographed only a fraction of this beautiful city. Taking a break, finding a new route or observing how others see the city is usually enough to bring the excitement back.

ECR: Your concert photography spans the range from Alice in Chains to Zeus at venues of a coinciding span of scale. How much does the music, performance and venue impact your photography at a show?

Sara: The greatest part about concert photography is you never know what to expect. Having shot over 250 bands and close to 30 venues makes for a diverse portfolio. The challenge for some has become what I find it quite comfortable. Not being able to direct the light or bands means I can actually slow down my shooting now (the standards with concert shooting is first three songs, no flash then you must leave). Waiting for those moments that will keep my portfolio fresh and hopefully portray the energy I felt from that night - whether it was from the band, audience or both.

ECR: In your "Mobile" series you use preset filters and lens effects unabashedly. How do you feel about the "Retro Filter Phenomenon" and its impact on the casual viewer from your perspective as a professional photographer?

Sara: I enjoy playing with all the different apps that are available for the mobile phones. When using my DSLR, I keep the editing minimal and prefer to have my photographs remind me of what I actually saw rather than create a new reality. The mobile photography allows me to be more creative and playful with my work and it’s a great way to see subjects differently outside of my editing suite I use once home.

ECR: What is that one piece of your kit that you absolutely could not do without, and what makes it stand out for you?

Sara: I have a new love for lighting. Having shot candid photography for years made me quite comfortable working with whatever lights were supplied - usually natural. A few months ago I purchased the Rotolight Interview Kit and have thoroughly enjoyed incorporating their lights into my photography. They can create the perfect catch light while also allowing me to be more creative with their gels.

ECR: With an ever-changing technological landscape, do you feel like the craft of photography is under any threat from the increasing saturation of the so-called "pro-sumer" market?

Sara: With high end cameras becoming affordable for the hobbyists out there, it can be a challenge to break that financial threshold of actually getting paid properly for high quality work. Photographers that are starting out will too often undercharge in order to get that client or build their portfolio. It’s difficult to charge what you’re worth when there’s always someone willing to do it cheaper.

It’s sad but I believe this challenge exists in all the artistic fields. Having a name that’s known obviously helps. Being active on social networks has helped me a great deal and truthfully, I love communicating, sharing and helping others that are starting out or have questions. Skill and ability will always trump gear and equipment. At the end of the day I focus on producing a quality of work that will keep people interested and have them coming back for more.

ECR: Which resonates more for you and why: "Get it right the first time" or "We can fix it in post."?

Sara: I’m a big believer in getting it right the first time. I’d rather master a camera’s settings than be skilled in a program like Photoshop. Working with the challenges of camera settings, inconsistent lighting or the environment make me better prepared each and every time I want to return to that style of shooting. Using Lightroom doesn’t make me a better photographer, it allows me fine tune those adjustments.

Sara's Online Portfolio on 4ormat

Smithsonian Announces 9th Annual Photo Contest Finalists

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 17:23:37 +0000

Now in its ninth year, the Smithsonian Annual Photo Contest has announced this year's finalists after reviewing submissions from more than 13,000 applicants. Categories include photo-manipulation, Americana, the natural world, people, and travel. The Reader's Choice Award is determined through an online vote, with voting closing March 30th, 2012. A user may vote for one photo per day.

For those interested in next years contest, submissions are being accepted until November 30th, 2012.

Framing the Aisle: Tips for Wedding Photographers

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 18:47:02 +0000

You’re a great photographer. You see the world through a lens. You have a keen eye for detail, make people comfortable in their own skin, and can turn the seemingly ordinary into the visually extraordinary. You’ve decided to take those skills down the aisle.

Wedding photography is no ordinary job. Clients are nearly universally stressed, there is zero room for error, and everyone with a digital camera thinks they can do the job just as effectively as a professional. So how do you set yourself apart? How do you ensure that you’re the one called when it comes time to plan the big day? How do you make sure the couple spreads the word about your superior talent?

Building a brand

Everyone has a brand. From the kid on the corner selling lemonade to the world’s largest corporations. The trick is to make yours connect with the right people: the soon-to-be brides and grooms. With today’s technology there’s no reason for this to be difficult.

It has been written about to death: use social media tools strategically, not only to build your brand, but to market yourself and connect directly with potential clients. Online portfolio sites, blogs, Twitter, YouTube, and the ubiquitous Facebook are all competitive weapons in the arsenal of the wedding photographer. Keep in mind that these free or inexpensive tools are available to everyone, so be sure to add flair and differentiate your online presence. Play up whatever it is about your style that makes you unique and remember that, as a photographer, you have plenty of examples of your interesting work. Show it off!

Clients and contracts

Once you begin working with clients, be prepared to deal with their emotions and stress. They are about to go through one of the most stressful periods in their lives and you are being paid to document every part of it. Be as understanding, empathetic, and reassuring as possible while maintaining your integrity and professionalism. Above all else, protect yourself (and your clients) from the get-go with a contract. The agreement should cover things like: your rate; the amount of time you’re expected to shoot; cost of overtime; date, time, and location of the wedding; payment terms; transportation; insurance; and ownership/usage rights. Unlike most business transactions, these clients are buying memories rather than products, so it’s important to set expectations well in advance to avoid disappointment and disagreement.

Equipment: It’s not how big it is, it’s how you use it

It goes without saying that to produce quality work you need quality equipment. Studies show that camera malfunction rates decrease as price increases, though that’s no reason to go overboard. Choose equipment that can handle your working conditions without becoming obtrusive. Base your decisions on experience, but be prepared for the unexpected. You may be faced with restrictions on your movement during the ceremony, be asked to avoid flash photography, or even fall into a fountain. All of these things will have an impact on the type of gear you pack: telephoto lenses, tripods, or an extra pair of pants. Do your homework ahead of time and know what equipment to have on-hand the day of the shoot.

Etiquette on the big day

So your clients are set, your equipment is ready to go, and the day is finally upon you. Shoot away, right? Maybe. Where, what and who you shoot is really up to the clients. Some may give you complete access, while others may prefer privacy at certain points during the day. Wedding plans usually follow a tight schedule; get your hands on it ahead of time to plan things out.

It is also important to blend in with the clients’ guests as much as possible to establish trust with those you will be shooting. Tips include wearing your camera as much as possible (so that people get used to you carrying it), mingling with guests so they become comfortable with your presence, and never forcing the issue with someone who simply doesn’t want their photo taken. When grandma says no, she means it.

Above all else, let the couple guide you. Remember that your role is to document and tell the story of the day to the best of your ability.

Redundancy, redundancy

There is no room for error when it comes to shooting a wedding. Shots have to be perfect, the important people - whoever they are - need to be captured, and there are absolutely no do-overs. Sure, getting it right relies mainly on your skill, but even the best photographers in the world can lose shots when hard drives crash, computer cords fail, or compact flash cards are (gasp!) lost. So remember: redundancy is key when it comes to wedding photos. Back up your shots as soon as possible and keep files in multiple places.

That’s a wrap

Unless you manage to convince your clients otherwise, post-wedding activities for the photographer typically don’t include a honeymoon. They do include post-production work; the amount of which will depend on your style, the number of shots taken, and what results you wish to achieve for each photo.

This is also the time during which you want to maximize your word-of-mouth marketing. Consider offering a discount for those referred to you by your clients. Post watermarked images online so guests can easily share examples of your work. Make sure to target well-connected people in your networks with your message of unmatched wedding photography skill. Tactics abound for word of mouth marketing, but start with being honest about your abilities.

What’s next?

Documenting a wedding requires you to be the eye of the storm, remaining composed in the midst of the chaos and emotion around you. If you take the time to prepare appropriately, craft a contract, and ensure redundancy in your equipment, you’ll create a story for your clients which reads picture-perfect from beginning to end.

The Guggenheim Reveals 2012-2013 Schedule

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 21:40:03 +0000

The Guggenheim has announced their Schedule of Exhibitions through Spring 2013. Representing a diverse range of curatorial selections, the schedule including offerings from Picasso, Dijkstra and Kandinsky. With a mobile laboratory courtesy of BMW Labs and an introspective look at Gutai, "the most influential artists’ collective and artistic movement in postwar Japan and among the most important international avant-garde movements of the 1950s and 1960s", the lineup is sure to excite throughout the year.

2012 World Press Photo Awards

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:10:52 +0000

Amsterdam-based World Press Photo has announced the results of the 2012 World Press Photo Awards. 2011 was witness to the Arab Spring, the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, and widespread Occupy movement protests. There’s no lack of breathtaking subject matter in the candidate photos.

The winner of Photo of the Year was Samuel Aranda, on assignment in Yemen for the New York Times. While covering protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, he captured a moment of compassion as a woman in a burqa consoles her wounded relative as he takes refuge in a mosque used as a field hospital.

You can see all the results here. Congratulations to all the winners!

ECR Interviews: Caitlin Cronenberg

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:11:04 +0000

ECR: Photography has come to be your chosen form practice. Tell us a little about yourself and how you found it/it found you.

Caitlin: When I was a kid I thought I was either going to be a pastry chef or Skimbleshanks the Railway cat in Cats on Broadway. As I grew up I would look at photography books and I started to play around with an old camera that my parents had lying around, and something about it just felt right, but it was just a hobby. It wasn’t until I had nearly completed 4 years of fashion design school that I realized I would much rather pursue a career in photography. I got a job at a small news magazine and the rest is history… Well, more like Chapter 1 in a hopefully long history book.

ECR: Much of your output has been contextualized within the form of the book or curated exhibit, suggesting a more fine arts approach to image making. What do these formats allow you to explore, and what affordances are available here outside of more commercially driven ventures?

Caitlin: I feel lucky that I have had a chance to explore different types of artistic outputs at this point in my career. I have self-published a book, curated an exhibit and worked for many publications that I respect. But I think part of the reason I like to explore different ventures is so I can figure out where I feel the most comfortable and what feels the most “me”. I never saw myself taking a fine arts approach to my work, I always wanted to shoot for magazines rather than have exhibits, but why not do both? I love experimenting and I will try anything once to see if it fits.

Every kind of work has its challenges. Working on a very commercial project with lots of input from other people can be great sometimes because you are able to just focus on your technique without really having a chance to focus on the creative, because in that instance, it is somebody else’s job.

On the other hand, working on my own projects, when I have complete creative control, I am able to let my imagination run wild and create something I didn’t even know I could create. Some things can’t be conceived of ahead of time. Even though I like to be in control, I feel like I can still let my work happen organically. The key for me is to always try to make the work feel like mine, whether it is more commercial or personal.

ECR: For your The Endings project you explore “moments surrounding the end of romantic relationships” through photography as short stories. How did this project come about, and what led you to this area of investigation?

Caitlin: I had originally had an idea to take to a photo series of a woman breaking up with the camera. I starting to brainstorm and expand on the idea with my creative partner, Jessica Ennis, and it grew into The Endings. We felt that it was a topic that would evoke a lot of emotion, and that sort of emotion is something that a lot of people can relate to. We wanted the images to really make the viewer feel for the subjects and understand what they are going through.

ECR: Did your decision to use actresses as subjects and protagonists within the work require a different approach within your methodology?

Caitlin: There is not a big difference between shooting an actress and shooting anybody else, at least in terms of my method. Every shoot comes together the same way. You have your subject and your concept, then you plan the rest of the shoot around that. The great thing about having a film or theatre actress as your subject is that they are used to improvising and coming up with new creative ideas that work to enhance the original concept of the shoot. In The Endings we have specifically made a point of collaborating with our subjects so they can get a feel for and help develop the character they are playing. It makes for a very exciting shoot.

ECR: What possibilities were opened up – creatively, theoretically, formally – working on a project such as this?

Caitlin: This project is still just in the early stages, it will be a long process and I don’t feel like I can pin down anything that has opened up for me having worked on it thus far. As with all shoots, it is a great way to develop a personal style and just shoot more, which is the most important thing. Just keep shooting.

ECR: I see on your website for The Endings project you are calling for story submissions. Have you explored any submissions to date, and if so, what have been some of the creative benefits integrating written content authored from public sources? Have any challenges arisen by working co-creatively with submitted content?

Caitlin: The Endings is a book of short stories but there is no text, it is only photographs. In asking for submissions we are looking for ideas and moments that people have experienced that we might be able to draw from, either literally or as inspiration for stories. It is unlikely that we would take somebody’s story and recreate it frame by frame, but by having people share even moments from their lives, we are able to create deeper characters and work towards evoking the reaction we are looking for.

ECR: Are there any new additions to your gear that you have been experimenting with lately?

Caitlin: I haven’t had time to experiment at all lately, but I did get an amazing rolling camera bag that fits into all overhead compartments. That and my portable tablet are the items I never leave home without. I’m all set to retouch in any airport in the world.

ECR: Where do you see photography moving in the future? How do you envision your own practice evolving?

Caitlin: All technology is always evolving all around me, and that is just fine. I am not a technology junkie at all, I just want a camera I know how to use. I am hopeless with stats and comparisons and technical jargon, so I just always make sure I have a camera I can use and rely on, and away I go. I think it is amazing when people take fantastic portraits with their phones or build their own pinhole cameras, but I might not be one of those people, and I’m comfortable with that.

ECR: Has photography provided you with any memorable life lessons?

Caitlin: I haven’t had any one crazy moment or story that stands out, yet. I’m sure it will happen at some point, and hopefully I’ll be ready. There have been days I am minding my own business at home in Toronto and the next thing I know I’m on a flight to LA, only to return 24 hours later. Every shoot provides a lesson in one-way or another, whether you realize it at the time or not.

ECR: Do you have any advice for others?

Caitlin: Sleep when you can, and always make sure your batteries are charged.

Caitlin Cronenberg on 4ormat The Endings project on 4ormat

Tablets For Presentations: A Tabula Rasa

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:41:03 +0000

As a creative professional your portfolio is your greatest advocate. No matter how lengthy your resume or the praises sung of you in letters of reference, your client or future employer is as interested in your work as they are in you, if not more. This is a fact of life most of us have taken for granted. We have all worked hard to make sure we put our best work forward, creating portfolios which represent the breadth and depth of our projects.

The ubiquitous "big black bag" is the conventional presentation tool for the visual artist; it serves to transport whatever different media you require in the original format and dimensions your work was created in. While this is a tried and true method, the introduction of tablets like the iPad have added a new class of tool to your repertoire.

Follow your own lead.

One of the most useful aspects of tablets as presentation tools is their ability to display the same online portfolio that your client has already viewed (you do have an online portfolio, right?). This consistency does two things for your client: it establishes that the work they have already seen is 'canon' and, on a more basic level, serves to refresh their memory as to what it was about your work that enticed them in the first place.

While we'd all like to think that our work is sufficiently unique to be unforgettable, repetition is one of the most effective methods of encouraging recognition. When you are repeating not only the work at hand but also the surrounding presentation context of your online portfolio, it becomes hard for your viewer to ignore those subconscious queues. With the time and effort you have already spent crafting your online presence, a tablet provides the benefit of putting this work at your clients fingertips.

Another advantage of preserving the framework in which your work is presented is that you can update your portfolio, say, the day before your interview, without it being jarringly obvious that the work is totally different than that which has been seen before. This is to your benefit; we all tend to favour our latest efforts and feel they are the most representative of our current state of mind and creative direction.

Bring the gallery with you.

Simply bringing your work arranged as it may be in print-portfolios only serves to display the work itself. Think of your online portfolio as a personal gallery space with you as the sole exhibitor. A tablet allows you to place this gallery in the hands of your audience. This grants your presentation a sense of intimacy and exclusivity above and beyond conventional methods. By bringing the gallery with you, you appear not only as creator but also as curator. This sets you apart from your peers; there is a clear benefit to any prospective employer, client, or collaborator in seeing that you know your own strengths.

How big is your "big black bag"? Regardless of your answer, the average gallery—no matter how small—is going to have an inordinately larger amount of space available on its walls than the most monolithic of carrying cases. Consider this: with a tablet you can deliver a concise message, but still take as much work with you as you want. This gives you tremendous flexibility if a client wants to further explore your body of work.

Multi-media, multi-message.

Marshall McLuhan famously stated that "the medium is the message", implying that the capability of a medium to convey a message is reliant on the type of information it transmits. As such, a book is restricted to text and images; audio recordings to spoken words and musical information; and so on.

In this regard, the tablet has a unique ability to convey information across the multimedia spectrum in an elegant and streamlined fashion. The more media, the more messages and the more of a story you can tell to your clients. This is especially valuable if your chosen medium happens to involve audio or video; the tablet, with its hands-on interactivity, lets your client control playback and volume settings for themselves.

Ultimately the presence of a tablet at your next presentation or meeting will yield a more consistent, personal, and versatile experience than either your big black bag or a conventional laptop. So start fresh and give yourself a blank slate.

ECR Interviews: JD Howell

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:58:34 +0000

ECR: Tell us a bit about yourself and what the practice of photography means to you?

JD: During my studio arts training it was all about painting and illustration of the human form and in a highly realized style. My biggest challenge was the lengthy processes involved and I was yearning to capture the same impact and emotion but more immediately. Around 2004 I started borrowing a friend's camera and taking lengthy, slightly intoxicated, bike rides around town documenting urban settings. I knew that I wanted to capture real people in real places in a pretty way.

ECR: What themes, issues, or concepts are you most interested in exploring through your work?

JD: I am very much interested in the beauty within the mundane, how light and texture provoke mood. I also draw a lot from past experiences and interpersonal relationships in the hope that I can address some sort of similar being in all of us. Lately it's been all about nudes and walking that thin, blurry line between erotic and innocent, of course tasteful (ahem). I do still shoot a fair bit of portraiture, or what I like to call the candid portrait, which for me is about setting them up then distracting the hell out of them and then snagging that composed but real moment. Definitely not contrived or stiff.

ECR: Beyond the process of capturing, framing, and contextualizing, you are adding additional layers to your images. What has the addition of projection, cast light, and shadow brought to your work?

JD: With my nudes I have been lighting the subjects with projections and working in further distortion with a miniature mirror alongside the lens. Makes for some pretty psychedelic, happy accidents. I recently built a rig that harnesses an iPad to my leg so I can manipulate the projected image with my left hand while I shoot with my right.

ECR: Do you differentiate your personal work from your more commercial work in terms of methods, processes, and approach? Is one an extension of the other? Do each bring insight to your practice overall that provoke deeper questions and investigation?

JD: I think every shoot is a completely unique bag of tricks. I definitely approach a paid job differently simply because there are usually other cooks in the kitchen lending their two cents but there is also a certain level of professionalism that is expected from them and client. When I was starting out I art directed with/was mentored by a veteran shooter who had this beautiful balance of “quirky + expert” that worked well to disarm and reassure everyone on set.

I know I am always gaining new interaction tactics from all the talent, be it makeup, set designers, or art directors. There is often a buffer of personal shoots in between commercial work where I can cleanse pallet and dabble with new approaches both technically and with the subject. I definitely look forward to learning more from others on the set both technically but also who they are as people.

ECR: How would you define the role of photography within the broader context of contemporary culture?

JD: I have recently started traveling to the not-so-popular US states looking for random adventure and documenting the unexpected in the day-to-day as I go. I recently spent NYE in Oklahoma with the Flaming Lips + Yoko Ono and it presented a plethora of random, not-so-exciting happenings combined with once-in-a-lifetime events, both of which made for incredible photos from a journalistic stand point. We also got to spend a few days with Wayne Coyne and the incredible team supporting him (biker gang loyalty), documenting the typical everyday stuff.

After editing the photos it dawned on me that I could totally transform the story/message, even within the mundane shots, to say something completely different than what was really going on. Photography was once the truth-teller and with it came a great responsibility. With so many blog/news sites we are exposed to so much more photography, which then changes the context of the shot even further.

We now see tumblr sites feeding incredible National Geographic-esque war shots taken by some student in their backyard, and these shots are then fed to Huffington Post and shared on millions of Facebook pages. That clutter makes my job - turning the mundane into the extraordinary - all the more challenging and, at the same time, important.

ECR: The human figure occupies a major place within your work? What is your interest in its exploration, and what are you attempting to reveal?

JD: I like a shot that is technically sound and composed as though it were set up but capturing it in a natural off the cuff candid way. I also like seeing the human form appear natural and relaxed in a setting that is completely foreign and possibly unsettling. I try to create this juxtaposition through projection of texture and foreign objects onto the subject and their background. I can have them completely naked and totally relaxed and display a train wreck or some entangled grid work that completely changes the tone.

ECR: In terms of gear, what are you currently using and experimenting with?

JD: These days it's the 1Ds and 5D MKII. I shoot predominantly with a manual Zeiss Plannar T 50mm and 35mm L 1.4. As mentioned above I rig an iPad to an HD projector and an old half rusted hand held mirror for reflection work.

ECR: In your opinion, where is photography moving in the future? How do you see your own practice evolving? Do you have any thoughts on how the image (or its role) might change?

JD: I heard something last year about Adobe's Light Field project and it being able to capture all depths of field in one snap and then the accompanying software allows you to edit what is in focus in post. I get this is taking technology to the next level but what will this mean for current photographers if anyone can just hold up a camera and push the button and decide later what its about?

I am not saying this is a good or bad thing I am just curious if all images will start to look the same and what will this do for craftsmanship. I am quite interested in advancing the moving portrait not unlike the cinemagraphs surfacing in the last year. I love the idea of something that appears static at first glance but demands a longer look simply because its moving.

ECR: Has photography provided you with any memorable life lessons?

JD: There have been a few models lately who have canceled the day of the shoot and it left me quite high and dry. I don't think that is very cool, I find it incredibly irresponsible and ultimately it only comes back to haunt them. What I did learn was to keep my cool and not allow any of it to shed negativity on my day - after all it's just camera equipment and rental space. Ultimately I got a free day out of it which led me to meet up with some folks I wouldn't have run into if I had been shooting. You always have to find the glass half full I guess.

ECR: Do you have any advice for others?

JD: Yes: treat your subjects with care. Don't lose sight of the fact that they are people and not props. Treat them with respect and be on time for them! You will get far more out of them in the shots which will make your life easier and the shoot more rewarding. Subjects talk and that is your best form of advertisement.

JD's Online Portfolio on 4ormat

Deconstructing Constructive Criticism

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:27:03 +0000

“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” - Sir Winston Churchill

It can be a painful process: working hard to do the best you can, submitting your work for approval, and listening as your project is picked apart by someone else. But Winston Churchill, who knew a thing or two about being criticized (he did spend some time in the "political wilderness", after all), was right; like pain, criticism draws our attention to things that might require improvement. It helps us see our bad habits and our imperfections. It is the necessary feedback mechanism that, while sometimes harsh, helps us get better at the things we do.

That is, if you get the right kind and are able to deal with it. Some criticism ("Matt Terry's latest article on ECR sucks!") is too vague. Other criticism ("Matt Terry's latest article on ECR should have been in the form of a video blog post shot as a film noir!") suggest improvements that aren't feasible or even warranted under the circumstances. So what exactly is constructive criticism?

Constructive criticism's focus is on improving rather than attacking an individual, team, or methods. It also takes into account the possibility of a mistaken perspective on the part of the critic (so no hard feelings about the film noir thing, OK?).

You can recognize constructive feedback because it tends to be delivered in the form of a verbal sandwich, with positive comments taking the place of bread and constructive comments taking the place of meat. An example: “You know Steve, you always take your photos from just the right angle. You might want to watch your lighting, but overall your work is great.”

For the creative professional, criticism can come from many people and take many forms: meetings with clients, feedback from peers (solicited or otherwise), an email from your boss or comments left on your personal blog or website.

Recognizing constructive feedback is one thing, but what do you do when you receive it?

For starters, understand that criticism isn’t about you as a person, but about your work or the process you undertake to produce it. Don’t get defensive or brush it off but really listen to what’s being said to you. Take some time to think about the comments and figure out what you can learn from them. If it’s legitimate criticism, find out how you can apply the feedback in the future. This will not only make you better at what you do, but will show others that you’re comfortable and confident with your skills.

Criticism also gives you valuable insights and new perspectives on the work you do. You might be an expert photographer, designer, or writer, but your work can surely benefit from the unique life experiences and ideas of someone else.

Above all, value the fact that someone took the time to help you out. After all, the flip side to accepting constructive criticism is remaining blissfully unaware that you could be doing better, or worse, that you’re doing something outright wrong.

If you manage a team or work with collaborators, you’ll eventually find yourself needing to provide criticism. Learning how to deliver it can help you learn to better accept it yourself. Some best practices:

Be as specific as possible about the issues of concern
Show the benefits of improving
Use positive language in describing your concerns
Be brief
Diffuse potential anger
Allow for improvement by addressing issues as they occur, rather than letting them compound into a great problem

Being criticized (constructively or otherwise) isn’t always fun. A quick glimpse through the history books, however, shows that even the world’s most talented, artistic, and skilled people had their critics: one of Mozart’s compositions was criticized for being “too strongly spiced”; playwright George Bernard Shaw slammed Charles Dickens’ book Hard Times, calling one character "a mere figment of middle-class imagination; and English artist and critic Roger Fry concluded that “[Pablo Picasso’s] interpretation of vision is rarely profound”.

These comments may be harsh, but they certainly don’t take away from the legacies of those they were directed toward. Keep that in mind the next time someone shares their thoughts on your work and use the feedback to make yourself even better at everything you do.

Multidisciplinary You

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:35:43 +0000

It has been said that there will never be another Da Vinci; we've pushed the limits of human knowledge to such an extent that most new discoveries are made in highly specific areas in equally specific fields. True as this may be, we have also learned to limit ourselves by thinking it is better to be a master of one profession than a tinkerer in many.

Da Vinci may have been a genius, but the greatest fuel for his inventions and contributions to science was curiosity and a willingness to try. By opening yourself up to learning a radically different skill you'll find that you'll develop ways of thinking and problem solving approaches you may never otherwise have considered; it's time to multi-discipline yourself!

That thing you've always wanted to try: try it!

As we progress in our professional careers, we tend to specialize as a way to differentiate ourselves from our competition. The very nature of contemporary job titles says a great deal about our obsession with specialization - User Experience Designer, High-Fashion Photographer, Graphic-Novel Illustrator - and so on.

Think back if you can about what you wanted to be when you grew up as a child. I suspect you'll not find your 5-year-old self spouting off about how you wanted to pursue a career as a "Mobile Web Application Front-End Developer" (unless you were ahead of the curve - in which case - kudos!). Sure, it might be a little impractical to rewrite your resume to submit to NASA, and "Robocop" might not be a real job (yet...), but somewhere along the line you might have wanted to be a dancer, a singer, or a writer. There's no time like the present.

Be professional about it.

We all have hobbies; you may already play in a band for fun after work or take a pottery class. There is a culturally endemic fear of taking our hobbies to the next level. It is this fear which will prevent you from opening your horizons and realizing new potential. Think about your current career; at some point, you started learning skills which gave you a leg up over your competition and got you the position you have now. These skills were invariably the result of hard work and applying yourself to the best of your ability.

There's nothing wrong with doing something "just for fun"; if we didn't we'd collapse from the stress of exerting ourselves 24/7. But if you pick something to give more than a casual amount of time to, and to really invest yourself in, you'll quickly see one of the greatest virtues of being multidisciplinary: you'll become passionate about your new effort and make progress at an accelerated rate.

Being professional about something outside of your career can be difficult: you won't be earning a pay-cheque, you won't have your regular network to rely upon, and you won't have a set schedule to follow.

The trick? Change those things. If you want to get serious about your new passion, don’t be afraid to charge for your work. You’ll take more pride in it and, besides, it’s a bad practice to get in the habit of working for free. Just because you're a solo, aspiring guitarist doesn't mean you have to play the lonely blues - get out to open-mic nights, find local artists associations, and schmooze at industry events; you might be surprised at who you rub elbows with. You already calendar-ize your work, your gym routine, and your meals; make sure to budget an hour a day for your new passion for sculpture.

By the same token, avoid negative behaviours which would be considered unprofessional in a work environment. Don't miss your deadlines, anger your peers, or exaggerate your accomplishments; you'll torpedo your own success.

Bridge the gaps.

Da Vinci made amazing discoveries and is revered as a polymath because he took ideas from one field and applied them to another. If you start doing the same then you'll have some revelations of your own.

The first step to making these connections is simultaneous exposure. If you're an illustrator trying to take dancing more seriously then start sketching dancers. If you're a musician taking up welding then make sure to listen to songs you know and love while you put acetylene to copper. The idea behind this principle is that you can leverage the parts of your brain you have already developed and let them start working with the new stimulus.

It will be a gradual transition, but over time you'll start to think of the angles involved in your dance positions in terms of the familiarity you already have from drawing. You may find the sounds of putting a hot torch to metal inspire your next techno track.

Beyond this passive phase, start actively trying to connect the disciplines you're developing. At the end of the week make a quick table with two columns. Write the name of each field at the top of each column and jot ten things you've learned about each for the rows. Draw a line between concepts you relate - don't worry about what "makes sense" - the purpose of this exercise is for you to discover your own thought process. At the end of the month look back and review your weekly cross-associations; you'll start to notice patterns and over time these will become more concrete. You're well on your way to multidisciplinary problem solving.

The more the merrier.

The title of this article isn't "Bi-disciplinary You" for a reason: the more differing skills you develop, the more cross-associations and unique approaches to problem solving you can use in everyday life. The old adage "jack of all trades, master of none" has in modern times been used as a disparaging comment. Ignore that sentiment and enjoy the benefits of your new skills; you might just show the old-hats a thing or two.

ECR Interviews: Terry Ratzlaff

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 18:04:10 +0000

ECR: Can you tell us about your interest in photography and why you have chosen it as a means of practice?

Terry: When I was in high school my brother gave me an Andre Kertesz book, "his life and his work," for my birthday. I had never seen anything like it. Since then, my perception of the world has never been the same. I quickly began documenting my life on the daily. Everything from my friends, to the random people I'd meet, and to the places I would go. It hasn't stopped since. A day without photography isn't much of a day, so being a photographer at this point in my life just makes sense.

ECR: What is the one thing you most enjoy about image-making?

Terry: I really enjoy the spontaneity. Some days I have no idea what I'll create, and other days I know exactly what I'll create. Life is full of surprises and it helps to keep me on my toes.

ECR: Images of snowboarding and street culture appear to be celebrated themes that appear throughout your body of work. What attracts you to these activities and phenomena?

Terry: I've always been a firm believer in doing what you love and it will love you back, and I think my images speak just that. Snowboarding has been a passion for most of my life, so choosing it as a focal point just seemed natural.

But even before I began photographing snowboarding, I was wandering cities with my camera, mostly Denver, documenting my journey along the way, and soon I became very fascinated with the raw interaction of human nature and its surroundings. These days, the majority of my snowboarding work takes place in urban settings and I feel have merged my two favourite subjects into one.

ECR: How would you define the role of photography within the broader context of contemporary culture?

Terry: I feel that as a society we depend on photography to help maintain balance and order everyday. From the newspapers we read on the daily, to the billboards you pass everyday in your car, to your hipstamtic apps on your phone, to checking your Facebook and twitter, to the traffic cameras in use at almost every intersection. Whether you realize it or not, photography effects the way we live our lives on a daily basis. But at the same time I think as a society we take the accessibility of photography for granted.

ECR: There is a significant portion of your portfolio devoted to polaroid image production. What is your interest here and how has it contributed to your growth as a photographer?

Terry: Photography is not just a job, it's self expression and it's what I love to do. With that being said, there is something about a polaroid that I find to be personally rewarding. I feel that Polaroids have contributed to my appreciation for seeing life how it really is, unedited, and about the moments.

ECR: Are there any new additions to your gear that you have been experimenting with lately?

Terry: I've always enjoyed shooting Polaroids and film, but in the last couple months I've become more obsessed than ever. I now carry a second backpack filled only with analog cameras. In it I carry a Polaroid Spectra, a classic Polaroid 600, a Polaroid Land Camera as well as a Canon AE-1 35mm camera. This bag has helped bring me back to my roots of photography.

It's very refreshing to pull this bag out and switch things up a bit on shoots. But I love my digital bag as well, in it contains a Canon 7D with a variety of lenses. Two Elinchrom Ranger light packs with three heads, along with a Nissin Speed light, accompanied by a bunch of Pocket Wizard's. This bag has been years in the making and I'm very pleased on where I am at with it.

ECR: What are some of the challenges of shooting off-set that you enjoy solving?

Terry: There's nothing like shooting snowboarding. There are so many variables that come into play while working in the winter; extreme cold, heavy moisture, dangerous roads and not to mention, avalanches. All of these come in to play throughout a season. Being prepared is a must and protecting yourself and your equipment are key.

One of the most common difficulties I face while working is gear malfunctions. There is nothing like working in zero degree weather at midnight while it's snowing, with hi winds and everybody is ready to go and your flashes won't fire. The only way to find a solution for this is to be prepared for the worst, which means learning from experience.

ECR: Have you experienced any memorable life lessons through photography that has changed the way you see the world around you?

Terry: I feel photography has helped me appreciate the little things in life, and enjoy the moments that go unnoticed everyday. Like when your walking down the street and everyone is passing you by consumed on their phones, you notice the way the light reflects and catches your eye and you stop to think, "that was such a beautiful moment," and no one noticed but you. Photography has helped me preserve moments like these and has allowed me to be more grateful for life.

ECR: In your opinion, where is photography moving in the future? How do you see your own practice evolving?

Terry: I've never been on top of the latest and greatest gear to come out. I'm usually a couple years behind on the advancements and I believe it's not what new gear you have that make's great images, but instead It's how you use your old gear that makes great images.

In the future, i see technology reaching heights that we never thought possible. So many megapixels, so many frames per second, it's going to be insane, but theres still a feel to shooting film, that technology will never be able to recreate. In the end those who practice film, will be the ones who hold the future of photography in their hands.

ECR: What life lessons would you like to leave for others?

Terry: In the words of Henri Cartier- Bresson "Photography has not changed since its origin except in its technical aspects, which for me are not important."

To me this means, a good image is a good image no matter the camera Don't get caught up in the technological hype, instead get caught up in the moment.

Terry's Online Portfolio on 4ormat

ECR Interviews: Pierre dal Corso

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:34:41 +0000

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ECR: Tell us a bit about yourself and what the practice of photography means to you?

Pierre: I was born in France in 1977. I've been studying art history and photography, and then assisted photographers between Paris and New York. I started to work on my portfolio three years ago, and I've been lucky enough to make it for a living since then. This is priceless.

ECR: What are you attempting to reveal through your work?

Pierre: Well, difficult to say. I guess that's the best way of expressing myself so talking about it is not the easiest for me. But there are a few subjects coming back and forth. My love for colour, my attraction for deep blacks, a certain statuesque aestheticism and of course the female body. I'm no artist or psychologist or feminist, these are just photographs, but as far as I can, I'm trying to put my models forward, give them some kind of strength and pride, even if nudity involved. I like them powerful.

ECR: How important are lighting techniques and dramatic effects for achieving emotive connotation in your chosen subjects?

Pierre: It really depends on my mood, what the subjects inspire in me. I'm not a great story teller, I try to focus more on the different aspects of the character I want to put forward. Im using any tools available to amplify the vision I have.

ECR: Do you invest time working on your images in post production? If so, how does this aspect feed into your process?

Pierre: Post production is a part of the whole process for me. I do everything myself. This is where I finalize the pictures and make them real. It can be very minimal. I can also spend a couple of days to do colour correction on a single picture. But I never expect this part of the job to save my pictures. I always know before shooting how much retouching will be part of it. I hate overly retouched pictures. I love skin and always try to keep this not-so-perfect charming touch. I love life.

ECR: How do you define photography, and where do you situate your work within the practice?

Pierre: I'm a photographer. I don't really see myself as an artist or anything like that. Im thankful for getting paid for what I like. I've never been after big money jobs. I try to keep it real to what it means to me, work on my imagery and try to get clients to see it; and eventually love it enough to book me.

ECR: What tools of the trade are you currently using and experimenting with?

Pierre: I'm not so much into equipment. I just need basic tools. Only shooting digital though for a matter of efficiency. No point for me to shoot film. At the moment I'm doing everything with my Canon MarkIII and 100mm macro lens.

ECR: Do you have any important life lessons learned through photography that you could share?

Pierre: Don't take yourself too seriously. There is always something to learn from others.

ECR: How do you foresee photography evolving in the future?

Pierre: I don't know; I cant really predict anything. Everything is getting very commercial and photography has to fit the market and its needs. Which is not the brightest future we can hope for...

ECR: Do you have any important lessons for others?

Pierre: Fight for what you believe in. Be polite. Keep it real.

Pierre Dal Corso - Online Portfolio on 4ormat

ECR Interviews: Cristina Viscu

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:33:51 +0000

ECR: How did you arrive at photography?

Cristina: My mother gave me her old DSLR when I was thirteen. Since then DSLRs, polaroids, medium formats, 35mm's, home made cameras, cheap plastic Walmart cameras and metal Soviet beauties haven't left my hands. But it wasn't until the day I that I started taking myself seriously with photography that I truly became part of the photography world.

ECR: What is it about photography that drives your obsession to produce images?

Cristina: People. Nothing brings me more joy than seeing the person you have photographed glow when they look at their photographs. It doesn't make me feel good because I have shot it, but because I've contributed to boosting someone else's self esteem, or made someone feel better, prettier, smarter, taller, that I was able to capture their nature and their emotions.

ECR: Fashion seems to occupy a significant portion of your work output. What allowances and opportunities does fashion photography provide you as an image-maker?

Cristina: It provides a very high standard that I constantly look up to, as there are hundreds of thousands of talented people in the industry, each with their own unique vision. With the increased availability of technology, more and more young adults are entering the industry, which makes it more challenging and competitive day to day. Fashion is such fast paced environment that you have to constantly keep yourself in the loop, produce images and keep yourself informed.

ECR: Do you operate around a tightly-honed methodology, or does every project necessitate a different approach?

Cristina: There is really no methodology. A lot of my work is driven by my emotions and the emotions of the person in front of the lens. About 80% of the time I don't know what my images will look like, it's almost like a mystery, just like the magic of black and white photography and life: you never know what you're going to get.

The thing that stays consistent in my work is the use of overexposed lighting, and an often shallow depth of field. Every shoot is a new experiment for me and my style, as I seem to be in a constant search. I do have my favourite lenses and quirky little objects around me that I like to experiment with.

ECR: Beyond intent, do you consider your personal work operating on different levels than your project-based work? Do you make distinctions between your personal work from that produced for clients?

Cristina: I have a lot more freedom with my personal projects. It allows me to be more playful and experiment with my style, my lighting, cope with unpredictable weather, scout places throughout the shoot, get to know the person I am shooting better, and establish a connection with them. I gain full control of the situation and I am capable of changing it at any moment. Personal work comes through me, it is a projection of my mood. Sometimes blurry pictures for when I feel confused and lost, overexposed when happy, etc. It is almost like human handwriting: when you're pissed; you write big and bold, when upset; tiny and in black and so on.

Shooting for a client comes with a lot more restraint unless they're giving you full control over the creative process. There is a lot more planning involved in commercial work and therefore it is less flexible to make changes.

ECR: What equipment do you use consistently? Are there any new additions to your gear that you have been experimenting with lately?

Cristina: I shoot with a 7D and mostly a 50mm lens, along with its buddies : 85mm, 28mm, 28-70, etc. My equipment gemstone is my Canon FD 28mm lens that I bought a while ago and had to purchase a lens mount converter for. Since it is a film camera lens, it often gives photographs unpredictable outcomes: it catches rainbows in the frames, gets some of the most beautiful light flares, and has plenty of focus issues. I absolutely adore it.

ECR: What are some of the challenges inherent to making images that you enjoy solving most?

Cristina: The content of the work is a constant struggle. Anybody can take a photograph of another person; we do it every day on our iPhones, Photobooths, iPads and iPods, but how does one take a portrait further than the two dimensional representation of another human being? How do you evoke emotions in people and not leave them indifferent? That's the struggle.

ECR: Have you experienced any memorable life lessons through photography that has changed the way you see the world around you?

Cristina: One time I deleted 40GB of photographs and… just moved on. Because about two years before that I experienced a zen moment with a film camera. I shot 8 rolls of black and white film for a final project, only to find out that my shutter was defected. So I went out and got another 10 rolls of film and shot again. And you know what? Those photographs were the best thing I've shot up to that point, and it was life's way of telling me that sometimes you have to fail to learn new things.

ECR: Where do you see photography moving in the future? How do you see your own practice evolving?

Cristina: I hate seeing the art of film and black and white photography fade. The pace that the world is moving in doesn't always add to the quality of the images produced, but rather to the quantity which satisfies our immediate needs. I hope the quality and the content of my work will continue to resonate with people and bring more joy and light into their lives than anything else.

ECR: Is there any advice that you would like to leave for others?

Cristina: "A professional [photographer] is an amateur who didn't quit "- Richard Bach.

Cristina Viscu on 4ormat

Correct Use of Social Media for Freelancers

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:32:35 +0000

The rise of social media has changed the way freelancers work in ways unimaginable only a few years ago. No longer limited to cold calls, word-of-mouth and expensive paid advertising, freelancers now have an extensive suite of tools at their disposal to not only let potential clients know that they exist, but to help them find advice and mentors, perform research for their work and even become more productive. Perhaps most importantly, social media tools have effectively levelled the playing field for those who rely on themselves for work, often allowing them to legitimately compete with the world's largest corporations.

Whether you're new to the freelance scene or are an established contractor, now is the time to develop a social media strategy to help you rise to the top and stay there. Here's how to do it.

It's called social networking, after all

Nobody denies the importance of networking to finding freelance jobs - so why not take those real world social skills online? Established creatives will remind you that you're already connected to hundreds of people on sites like Facebook and Twitter, and at least some of them are probably looking for someone like you, or know someone who is. Use those existing networks to your advantage.

You can also increase your chances of landing paying gigs by being strategic about the networking sites you use. According to LinkedIn expert Lewis Howes, nearly half of that site's users are "decision-makers" who typically make more money than the average Facebook or Twitter user, making the site a great (and free) database of potential clients.

Twitter has its own advantages, including being a great place for conversation. Use it to engage your audience with opinions, discussion and free advice - and yes, even self-promotion, but keep it to a minimum or risk alienating potential contacts.

Facebook offers benefits as well, not least of which is its size: nearly one billion people use the site, and half of the site’s users log on on any given day, making it the most popular social network on the planet. Often written off as a time waster, Facebook offers a number of options for professional networking, including its groups feature, which allows you to connect with potential clients or collaborators.

Before you start making connections on Facebook, however, ensure your profile is prepared. Use the site's lists feature to divide contacts into friends, colleagues, professional connections and so on, and be sure to take a look at what privacy settings are applied to things such as photos and videos you post and location check-ins you make.

Build a brand, become an expert

The sheer number of social publishing tools available to individuals today means it's easier than ever to become a legitimate content producer. Combine that with the massive number of networking sites at your disposal and you've got the means to build a personal brand that can transform you from a small-time contractor to a recognized expert in your field.

Consider blogging about your craft as a way to both build a network of potential colleagues and clients and establish yourself as the go-to person in your field. Many photographers, illustrators and other graphic artists find Tumblr to be a great way to blog, and serves to compliment their online portfolio. Offer free advice to demonstrate your expertise in a given area and show that you're a helpful resource. You can also use your blog to show off previous work and keep others up-to-date on what you're currently working on or would like to be working on.

Your blog's reach may initially be limited, but your established social networks can be leveraged to amplify that reach. Post content to a Facebook fan page and your Twitter and Linkedin accounts. Keep in mind that some social networks have niche users: video producers should consider distribution channels such as YouTube and Vimeo, and designers and photographers might consider Tumblr as a venue for their content, in addition to keeping an online portfolio.

Most importantly, don't forget to engage with your audience once it's in place. There's no sense in using social media if you aren't prepared to harness it to its fullest extent. Engage in dialogue with followers, fans and commenters, and be prepared to accept their praise and criticism.

Be forewarned, however, that developing, publishing and spreading content takes time and patience. A solid brand is not developed overnight, but grown over time.

Get productive

The social world offers countless opportunities for increased productivity. In fact, the struggle is often in narrowing the many tools available for the job down to the best rather than in finding one at all.

Google offers a number of tools that freelance creatives may find useful, including Google Docs, Hangouts (through Google+ and used most notably by the Dalai Lama), Google Maps and Google Calendar.

Maps and Calendar, two of Google's better-known products, offer much more than what they are traditionally used for: maps can be used to keep track of international clients, shoot locations and, with the help of its API, even explore works of art. Calendar, though basic in nature, provides a broad suite of tools to manage client meetings, keep track of deadlines and connect to co-workers or employees.

Docs - essentially a word processor in the cloud - includes a social dimension in its ability to link multiple users working on one document. Changes are stored and can be reverted to, and users can leave comments without altering the document itself. Docs can be kept private or can be published to the web.

Google+'s Hangouts feature, essentially a video chat service similar to Skype, allows users to share a number of experiences together, including watching YouTube videos. Hangouts' one drawback is that all collaborators must have a Google+ account, not something everyone has or is prepared to get.

Tools are also available to help you keep track of who’s talking about you, and help you find out who on Twitter is looking to hire someone like you. If you use Twitter to showcase your work, you might also want to check out Tweet Reach to better understand how far links to your work travel. Don’t forget that Facebook also offers the ability to search public posts.

Where to find help

The web is awash with advice on building your brand online, connecting with audiences and marketing yourself using social media, but not all of them are helpful. There are, however, a number of resources worth checking out. Some of our favourites include:

Mashable, one of the world's largest and most-visited websites, Mashable reports on social media, tech, mobile and online business trends and offers how-tos on everything from setting up a Facebook fan page to drafting a corporate social media strategy.

The Social Media Marketing Blog, written by Ford’s Scott Monty, offers insight into the convergence of marketing, advertising and PR on the web.

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The Designed Life

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:31:41 +0000

The most significant choices in our lives involve where we live, who we live with, and how we spend our time. Though external constraints influence our decisions (income, illness, family, love), we may easily say that life is designed, that it is in fact quite deliberate; decisions we make today reflect our values and interests, incrementally shaping a larger picture of how others perceive us. Significantly, this too is what we designers set out to accomplish for our clients. But what happens when we apply design thinking to our own lives?

Be your own client

A designer's designed life is something to behold. Charles and Ray Eames, among other designer couples, spring to mind because their whole lives centered around their craft. It bound together their relationship, careers and family. When career and life blend in such a harmonious way, they become one in the same: Life is design, and design is life. Each informs the other.

It is certainly possible to take a designed life to the extreme, to become too reliant on gadgets or obscenely focused on design minutiae, but design principles applied to lifestyle can help make a designer more effective. A designer, for example, is like a composition. A well-balanced composition is more effective, as is a well-balanced designer a stronger force. Here are some other ways to achieve an improved lifestyle through design methodologies.

Set the brief

In design, as in life, we begin with other people making most of our decisions for us. Parents decide what we eat, touch and do. In a design career the equivalent is the creative director or boss writing the brief that outlines project constraints and goals. Then as careers progress and responsibility increases, the designer begins to write their own project brief. The brief becomes more important than ever because the designer now has ownership over their creative work.

This ownership is important because it signifies a shift from dependent to independent. Designers who have a greater investment in the outcome will work harder and usually more efficiently, often having a more enjoyable time doing it.

Setting life goals, much like setting clear and measurable design objectives, means writing that initial project brief. What problem are you trying to solve? What are the constraints to work within? How will you overcome them? Applying foresight and planning and asking the appropriate questions is a common design strategy, but it can also help us figure out what we really want our lives to stand for. What is the big picture? What do you want out of life? Do you want to write a book, to put a dent in poverty, to start your own company or to make family a priority? Write this brief to make your goals more visible and attainable.

Collaborate wisely

I'm a firm believer that the best things in life are the results of collaborations, whether they are iPhone apps or children. Working well with someone else exposes you to new ways of thinking and new ideas, as well as new networks, all of which can streamline and boost a career.

On the other hand, jumping into mismatched collaborations is harmful. Working in an office culture that doesn't suit you, with a business partner whose work habits are destructive for your own, or designing for clients you don't believe in are all examples of mismatched collaborations. How you spend your time, and who you spend time doing business with, is a huge part of daily life. Ultimately it will reflect who you are outside the nine to five.

Thank your critics

While a creative's ability to keep doing what they're doing often hinges upon ignoring critics, the critics aren't necessarily all bad or all wrong. Sometimes they are worth listening to. After all, the role of a critic is to encourage reflection. That moment of pause – a moment you may not have taken without prompting – is invaluable. A critic has engaged with your work the way a friend engages with your life, revealing an opportunity for growth in your work or in your life that can be difficult to see for yourself.

In defense of sleep

Young designers want to know how to fit it all in, and the going advice is more often than not, "Don't sleep." A good night's rest has become a personal indulgence. But being able to juggle different sets of projects, information, or people includes taking care of yourself. Sleep is vital to healthy living. Sacrifices must certainly be weighed and measured, but I've seen employees passed over for promotions for working all the time, instead of being praised for it. Time-management, organization and prioritization demonstrate a greater maturity than showing up at work bleary-eyed.

Quality assurance

The end of a lengthy project often brings about a recap of lessons learned. This kind of review rarely happens in the literal sense for life's milestones except in private journals (when was the last time you reviewed a wedding with your peers, weighing successes against failures?).

Self-aware folks do mull over life experiences, but how we judge these experiences can be tricky. The quality of a designed end-product is often measured by what we can see, touch, or hear, but the value of what we do outside of work is much more ethereal. To combat this, determine a set of standards for what is important to you. Is it money, experience, spiritual or emotional satisfaction?

As designers, we are expected to know our clients' businesses and products thoroughly, but ultimately, we are our own product and we have an obligation to know ourselves well. Being clear about our values and beliefs contributes to this self-awareness and creates measurable constraints by which we value our success.

When you think you're done...

I think of my grandparents' lives as masterpieces. Though their careers had nothing to do with design, their lives were industrious, deliberate, passionate and most certainly designed. They actively pursued all of the above characteristics: balance, drive, community, humility, self-awareness and quality. In addition to this, whatever their hardships, they simply kept going. If we set our minds to our goals with passion and perseverance, we will shape the world around us.

Why design your life?

The great question of Why brings us back to the initial appeal of design. What drew us into this craft in the first place? Boiled down, I believe we designers love figuring out how things work. Designers are tinkerers, experimenters and makers, exploring the world through visual ephemera, translating and making sense out of some things, injecting mystery and intrigue into others. Through figuring out how things work, we hope it make them better, to improve the quality of life. By consistently applying design principles to our own lives, we have infinitely more potential to reflect this value.

SEO for Creative Professionals

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:30:09 +0000

You know that you're the best at whatever you do - writing, photography, design, etc. - and everyone should want to hire you. But can they find you? While the realities of the 21st century mean you may not have a physical location for your business, you should certainly have an online property. Just as you probably wouldn't want your coffee shop tucked away in a nondescript location with little visibility, you don't want your digital presence hidden - which is why it's so important to ensure your website is optimized for search engines and user experience.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

A search engine works by "crawling" and indexing web pages and using an algorithm (and sometimes human input) to determine a site's quality and authority. Based on this, the engine assigns a ranking to the pages it has indexed, which users see after typing keywords into the engine. Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the process of making a website more visible in these "organic" (unpaid) search results. The process usually involves techniques such as allowing a page to be found by search engines in the first place, editing code (especially in page content, title and headers) and promoting links.

Paid search results, on the other hand, function more like targeted advertisements. The most well-known type of paid search result, Google's AdWords, usually consist of 25 character headlines and two text lines of 35 characters each. Advertisers select the keywords they'd like to trigger their ads to be shown, as well as the maximum amount of money they're willing to pay per click on their ad. When a user searches on Google, the ads are displayed as "sponsored links" on the right side of the screen and above the main search results. Click-through rates for the first three AdWords ads displayed range from about eight per cent to two and a half per cent.

Why is it important?

At its most basic, SEO can help ensure that your website ranks high in search listings for keywords relevant to the work you do. That can mean higher site traffic and more business coming your way. And since most people don't even look at (let alone click) links after the first three results, it's incredibly important to ensure your site ranks as high as possible.

Luckily, creative professionals have a few advantages in the area, including familiarity with the importance of digital marketing and the ability to market themselves as individuals - namely, utilizing noncompetitive URLs based on their names (i.e. "www.johndoe.com" or "janedoephotography.com").

DIY SEO

Professional SEO services are readily available to both evaluate and optimize your site, but there's a lot that you can do yourself. Of utmost importance is the ability for search engines to "crawl" and index your page. If your page is inaccessible, it won't show up in organic rankings. Relevant keywords should also be used both throughout your page's text as well as in its page title, the place search engines consider to be the most important in associating a website with a topic. You should also consider the following:

Use appropriate keywords - "graphic designer", "professional writer", "wedding photographer" - that potential clients are likely to type into a search engine at least four or five times throughout your page...
...But avoid "keyword stuffing", or the practice of repeated use of a particular word or phrase in an effort to produce better search results. Writing "Looking for a graphic designer? I'm a graphic designer who does great graphic design!" in the body of your page can negatively impact your rankings and takes away from the user experience - not to mention makes you appear unprofessional.
Place a relevant keyword - like one of those used above - at the front of your page's title tag.
Use a keyword in the URL of your site - but just like in the site's body, using it repeatedly could negatively impact your rankings.
Use static URLs (though Google says it has made progress in its ability to index pages with dynamic URLs), or rewrite your URLs so that they reflect page content: http://4ormat.com/ecr/creative-workspace instead of http://code.google.com/p/google-checkout-php-sample-code/issues/detail?id=31
Avoid duplicating content without adding value. If you're going to use the same content as another site on the web, be sure to add something new and original to it. This allows you to avoid potential penalization by search engines and gives visitors a reason to go to your site in the first place.
Avoid having an excessive number of outbound links. Linking to other relevant sites is a good thing, but linking to the nearest 100 businesses may appear suspicious to search engines and gives away too much of your "link juice."

You may also consider using a search engine submission tool to flag your site to search engines. Although the world's four largest search engines - Google, Yahoo!, Bing and Ask.com - do have the ability to discover new pages on their own, it doesn't hurt to give them a heads up about yours. Be patient, however, as Google can take some time to incorporate your site into its results.

Social sharing and the future of SEO

Relevant keywords, a strong URL, just the right number of external links - perfect, right? Garnering traffic from the web has traditionally been accomplished through ranking high in organic search results, but social sharing is playing an increasingly important role in helping potential customers and clients find the sites they're looking for. The recent launch of social networking site Google+ has resulted in increased usage of the +1 sharing button, and Facebook shares have been found to indirectly boost Google search rankings. Twitter also carries weight in the world of SEO by helping to send traffic to your site, increasing important usage data used by search engines to determine the quality of web pages. In short, there's a great deal to gain by spreading the word about your site via social networks. But where to begin?

Start by optimizing your site for social sharing. Consider adding sharing buttons to popular social networks, or a multipurpose button such as the AddThis share bar, which allows users to share content to more than 300 online services. Facebook is by far the most popular social networking site on the planet, so chances are the audiences you want to reach can be found there. It's worth your time to, at the very least, include some of Facebook's social plugins on your site.

If you're already active in the social space, you'll want to leverage your existing profiles to drive traffic to your site. This allows you to tap the networks you've already developed and helps increase your site's relevance, since your older, regularly updated social profiles are considered to have more authority by search engines.

Of course, none of this will matter if the content of your site is uninteresting or irrelevant. Where appropriate, use interesting and catchy headlines, provide free, useful content to potential clients and keep the amount of copy on your pages to a minimum. If your content is good enough to share visitors will share it, and you'll be able to sit back and relax, knowing you didn't have to spend a dime on marketing.

Where to begin?

There are plenty of resources available online to help you optimize your website or hire someone to do it for you. It's also well worth your time to read Google's Webmaster Central Blog, dedicated to SEO news, and also to familiarize yourself with search engines popular in countries you may want to target, such as China's Baidu, which receives more than 50 per cent of the country's 4.02 billion searches each quarter.

SEO is important in ensuring your digital property can be found by potential clients, but the most important web strategy you can have will always be developing high quality content for your site. Without it SEO won't mean much, and those who initially find your site will quickly find someone else to do the work you know you can do best.

Recommended resources

The Beginners Guide to SEO

Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO (Blog by a Google engineer)

Search Engine Roundtable

ECR Interviews: Benjamin Kwan

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 16:39:57 +0000

ECR: What brought you to photography?

Benjamin: I am a self-taught fashion and commercial photographer from Vancouver. My interest in photography started while traveling in Japan many years ago. At that time, I took pictures because I wanted to share my travels with friends. As my interest grew, I moved into fashion photography. Though the Vancouver market is small, I have been very fortunate to work with many talented local artists who inspire me.

ECR: As a photographer who seems comfortable working both in studio and on location, do you have a preference?

Benjamin: Even though Vancouver is known for its constant rain, I actually enjoy shooting on location much more. I find that it helps to enhance the mood and vibe of many shoots. Not only that, when I find an interesting location, it helps inspire a story. For example, my series "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" came about after a visit to my local community garden. In a city increasingly invaded by concrete, there are still pockets of paradise out there. I was struck by how beautiful a once bare plot of land had become after a small group of locals nurtured it with their love of the community and the passion of their own art form... gardening. The series appeared in "Chew", a South African fashion and lifestyle magazine.

ECR: Have you developed and honed a methodology within your craft, or do you experiment with equipment and process for each project?

Benjamin: I think I definitely have a certain style. I don't like overdoing things. Clean and simple is what I lean towards artistically. More and more, I find that new photographers are trying to do too much to grab the attention of the viewer. Instead of impressing them, I find that by complicating matters it detracts from their art and the story.

That being said, from time to time, I do try to experiment with different processing and lighting styles based on what I've learned and other photographers who inspire me. I'm always looking to grow artistically. To venture outside my comfort zone often helps keep me excited about photography. For example, earlier this year I shot a simple studio series. After reviewing the film, it struck me to merge the art world with the photography world. The result was a series called "We all Dream in Colour." The editorial was featured in Cellardoor, a fashion magazine out of the UK.

ECR: In looking through your online portfolio, I see that the models within your work are almost exclusively female. Has this been the product of a conscious decision to work within the feminine cosmetics and fashion industries?

Benjamin: I definitely work exclusively with female models. However, it hasn't been a conscious decision to do so. It's more a result of the absence of interesting ideas that inspire me to shoot a series around them. That being said, I wouldn't rule out shooting any male models in the future. I like letting things grow organically. If I try to force an idea I think it'll do more harm than good.

ECR: In the late 1960's, Guy Debord stated that western cultural life was one lived in and through the image. Where do you locate the role of photography within contemporary culture?

Benjamin: I think Mr. Debord hit the nail on the head. Photography continues to be an important medium that helps document important moments in everyone's life, whether it be the trivial or life changing. It goes from the individual level to something more global. Photography has become more democratised. Couple with social media, photography not only has helped changed the world, but help how we understand the world around us. In my eyes, a still picture taken with a camera remains far more powerful.

It resonates more strongly. It speaks to a person on an intimate human level. For example, "Tank Man" or the "Unknown Rebel" from 1989's Tiananmen Square. Seeing the image of a single man standing in front of rows of tanks was so haunting. Such a striking image remains in our consciousness.

ECR: What is your current obsession with your chosen form of practice? Where do you see photography moving in the future?

Benjamin: Even though I own a couple of higher end digital SLRs and have the wildly popular Hipstamatic on my iPhone, I find that I never grow tired of shooting in film. It's the unexpected result that comes from shooting with my old-school medium format Mamiya that is the payoff of payoffs. It never fails to surprise when I see it come back from the lab. Despite the wide availability of the digital medium, I really hope that everyone gets the opportunity to experience shooting in 35mm. It teaches you a lot.

Benjamin Kwan on 4ormat

ECR Interviews: Greta Rybus

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:16:04 +0000

ECR: Tell us a little about yourself.

Greta: I like to think that I am collecting homes. I mainly grew up in Boise, Idaho, but spent my babyhood in the Netherlands and teen years in rural Japan. For the last five years, I lived in Missoula, Montana and spent this summer in Berlin, Germany. I just relocated to Portland, Maine. Along the way, I picked up a fondness for the ocean and the mountains, a constellation of remarkable friends and degrees in Cultural Anthropology and Photojournalism.

ECR: Why photography?

Greta: I always, always wanted to be a photographer, since I was little. Photographing is truly one of the few things that really makes me feel like myself. I really love to talk to people and so I consider photography to be a means of creating and preserving a unique type of dialogue. I usually feel like my photographs have achieved their purpose when they have the feeling of a great conversation.

ECR: What is the most difficult part of being a photographer?

Greta: Sometimes, the best part of being a photographer is the struggle! Doing creative work challenges yourself to face your own inadequacies and embrace your skills, to constantly evolve, to think about how your images will be perceived and how you want them to be perceived. However, my own greatest obstacle is figuring out how to “make it” as a young photographer in a world with so much extraordinary competition and such minimal support. I may not have “made it” yet, but I think it requires learning when to compromise and when to hold fast to your own vision.

ECR: What is your photography setup?

Greta: To be honest, the less gear I have, the better I feel when I am shooting. I feel like multiple lenses and lights usually create a barrier between the people I photograph and myself. I like image-making to be a simple process. However, I love my little kit: Canon 5D Mark ii and my 24-70mm 2.8 lens and 580 EX Speedlite flash!

ECR: What is the most important lesson you’ve learned in photography?

Greta: I think I learn a lesson every time I photograph. But lately, I have realized how much intuition and trust factor into my own process of photographing. Photography is like a little conversation between the brain and the heart. I have learned how to use all my gear and expose correctly and efficiently and now I’m learning to rely on my gut to give me the rest: telling me what composition fits best, navigating the social aspect of photographing people and making editorial decisions.

ECR: What are your thoughts on the future of photography?

Greta: I started teaching photography a few years ago, to kids and adults. I think photography can be a conduit and catalyst for some really amazing things. For example, it is a remarkable tool for community outreach, introspection and therapy. I think that as an industry, we are just beginning to shake it up a bit, to publish conceptual photography in editorial publications, to discover social media’s capability to create art or promote change and to learn the value of a nontraditional photograph or photographer. I’m really excited to see what will happen!

ECR: Lessons for others?

Greta: In a letter to his son, George Rodgers, a founder of Magnum Photos and British photojournalist wrote, wrote: “good photography is based on truth and integrity… let your picture composition be honest, pure, strong and well-defined. It is a matter of design, and the less complicated of a design, the more pleasing it is to the eye.” I think this is the best advice about photography, mainly because I think it says so much about how to create meaningful imagery. And, although he is writing about composition, I believe the same could be said about approaching and portraying your subject with honest and pure intentions.

Greta Rybus on 4ormat

Designers That Write

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:39:25 +0000

Design and writing are communication mediums, and both usually have restraints: a client asks a designer to solve a specific problem and writers use a voice and length appropriate to a publication. Successful design and writing move people to action or to understanding. In process, both design and writing are crafts of refinement, the results of a thousand decisions made one after another. With so much in common why don't more designers write? Why don't all designers write?

One reasonable explanation is that, for designers, writing is an additional, difficult skill-set that takes time to master. And while design and writing share parallel processes and objectives, being good at one does not guarantee success at the other. However, so many of our favorite designers of both the old and new guards - Paul Rand, Victor J. Papanek, Michael Beirut, Ellen Lupton and Frank Chimero - do excel at both written and graphic communication. One marvels at how design heroes and heroines can be so accomplished at such separate and equally demanding disciplines.

Furthermore, most of these design icons are also educators. Do writing, design, and teaching mutually inform one another? My resounding answer: Yes! Each of these expressive endeavors has the capacity to make us better at what we do, a truism that can be boiled down to a few shared attributes.

Clarity of thought

Analyzing each word and sentence in a written statement for meaning and flow helps clarify an idea. Writers look to word placement, accuracy and brevity to expose gaps in logic. Similarly, writing about design (or thinking about design as a writer would) can expose aesthetic weaknesses. In the same way that misplaced or wrong words detract from written communication, gratuitous design elements detract from a design message. While there is a fine line between simplification and reductionism, the removal of inadequate or redundant parts usually makes for better, more focused end-products.

Connections to others

Solid design, writing and teaching often need research and community to succeed. In writing, fact-checking and interviews necessitate reaching out to people. Design research allows designers to better understand who they are designing for. Teaching requires buy-in from students in order to be effective. Although creativity is often considered a solitary affair, the industries driven by creativity are more conducive to those who are able to elicit responses from others.

Content independence

Whether writing copy for websites or creating graphics for an article, versatility in content-production frees the creator from relying on other experts. The maker's message originates from a single source and is seamless. Knowing what makes good writing, or good design, is also a valuable service to offer clients.

Ongoing education

Writing and design, though less formal than standing in front of a blackboard, are methods of teaching; they impart ideas. An ability to cogently express ideas and processes requires a thorough knowledge of the material, so that striving to explain is also striving to understand. Learning through teaching is widely considered one of the best ways to assimilate new knowledge.

Storytelling

My cousin, an actor, believes the secret to persuasion is making others care about a cause and that this is done through effective storytelling. Stories, and the way we tell them, certainly engage (or disengage) our audience. It is why as designers we create user personas, why as writers we strive to create believable characters, and why as teachers we attempt to tell anecdotes to which students can relate. The best teachers, designers, and writers will all be interested in how to better tell stories no matter the medium.

Credibility

Creativity charms the businessperson when it is replicable. Writing about or teaching creative process lends credibility to an otherwise amorphous process. A list of publications, educational institutions, or conferences is like building a résumé of past employers; it lends credence to a creative's expertise by demonstrating they understand and are in control of their process.

Opportunities

Writing, particularly, delivers unexpected opportunities. For me, interviewing established designers has made them more approachable at conferences, business leaders featured in articles have extended speaking invitations, and some articles have even resulted in direct job offers from someone who read them. What I have learned as I gain further experience as both a designer and a writer is that opportunities are boundless when you include others in your career.

Where to begin?

While the reasons for crossing disciplines are plenty, how to do it may be less clear. Immersing oneself in the craft of stringing words together is actually step two; step one is recognizing there is a whole new industry to learn. Have the humility to seek writing advice no matter what stage you are at in your cross-disciplinary writing career. Here are some of my favorite writing tips I continuously look back at:

Don't be afraid to start at the beginning, even to unlearn bad habits if necessary. Writing tips for web designers
Read, not just non-fiction, but anything you can get your hands on. Read, read, read.
If your writing bores you, it probably bores others too. Tell a story. Make it interesting.
Delve deep into your subject matter. Expose the inner workings, not just the surface questions.
Don't over-explain. Trust your reader.
Join a writers group. This not only has taught me much about writing, but is an excellent motivator for consistent writing.
Don't merely write, edit until you can no longer lift a finger. Editing tips for designers.
If all else fails, take a class. Discipline can be key in learning to write effectively.

Inspirational cross-disciplinary leaders

Another way to embark on one of the many available paths is to follow in other designers' and writers' footsteps. Look at how inspirational figures have approached their careers. More specifically, notice how these people have not let their job titles limit their aspirations.

Alissa Walker, contributing editor at GOOD magazine and FastCo Design, speaker, and writer
Christopher Simmons, graphic designer, writer, educator and principal creative director at MINE
Elliot Jay Stocks, designer, illustrator, speaker and author
Eric Karjaluoto, writer, speaker and Creative Director at smashLAB
Erin Kissane, New York City-based content strategist and writer
Ethan Marcotte, designer, developer, speaker, and author of Responsive Web Design
Francisco Inchauste, designer, writer and UX specialist
Frank Chimero, designer, writer and educator; "he makes pictures about words and words about pictures."
Helen Walters, New York City-based business and design journalist
Paul Ford, author, programmer, and editor specializing in long-form writing

What good will writing do?

Eric Karjaluoto wisely wrote, "I spend a large part of my day either writing briefs, rationales, proposals, general correspondence, or even copy for one of our projects. I will likely never be a writer, but at very least, I am not afraid of using language as my work demands."

As you learn to write, it will become evident that these new skills will augment your professional design career. You will ask tough questions about design to expose its inner workings and this, whether you decide to teach or not, will expand your understanding of design. Being able to communicate your desired message is a skill strengthened by mastery of these related disciplines, and from students to senior designers to creative directors, every designer benefits from knowing how to write.

Microproductivity: Not a Second Wasted

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:59:32 +0000

When the clock strikes 5:00, or 6:00, or 11:30 - whenever it happens to be that you deem your work day over, relief is often had through disconnecting - from your workplace, your clients or from whatever project is occupying your thoughts. This can be harder in practice than in concept - looming deadlines, demanding or irate customers, and one's own perfectionist tendencies can mean the work day never really ends.

Paradoxically, one of the best ways to stop the constant preoccupation with work is to keep at it - filling our downtime with easily accomplish-able yet rewarding tasks. This has become vastly more feasible with the advent of smartphones and tablets, and the ubiquitous presence of the laptop for most professionals.

The key to microproductivity is to eliminate the goal-setting, task-list mentality that we typically employ to keep on top of our workload. Microproductivity instead holds that getting anything done is better than getting nothing done. Don't plan to finish a major task in an unrealistic time-frame - the point of the practice is to squeeze productivity out of whatever time you have.

Instead, consider some of the following points for staying productive on the go - you'll find that nagging anxiety at the back of your mind will fade as you know you're doing the most you can.

Identify true downtime.

True downtime is any time where you're waiting for some prerequisite event to resolve in order for you to progress with whatever it is you want to do. The length of these waiting periods then determine what kind of small tasks you might be able to accomplish reasonably before your wait is over.

We encounter these periods of true downtime every day - the queue at the grocer, the elevator ride or the wait for the subway. Periods such as these already see us turning to our phones - checking the time, or to see if we've got a new text message from last night's date. These are the ideal times to get microproductive; rather than pushing through yet another level of Angry Birds, get something - anything - done instead.

You can do a lot in 30 seconds.

The smallest periods of downtime are the most lucrative from a productivity perspective - they happen with great frequency, adding up to a substantial amount time on the whole. However, since that sum-total time is divided into such small increments, it is important to use those increments for tasks which are realistically accomplish-able within them. Here are a few examples of 30 second tasks:

Sort your email. Individual messages may vary wildly in length, meaning you might not be able to read a long proposal; but a quick glance at the subjects will let you sort them meaningfully so you can respond appropriately later.

If you're using Gmail, setup labels for different task groupings. The more detailed you get here, the more useful to your workflow. If you're an editor, labels like "Rough Draft" "Final Review" and "Pre-Press" are examples of ways to tag your mail so that you can respond to it later. A designer might benefit simply from tagging the extensions of different attached filetypes - ".psd" ".css" ".ai" - from your teammates.
Set Alarms. Every day has it's own schedule, no matter how typically consistent your routine is. Use your elevator ride to set an alarm for when you want to start your lunch, and one 10 minutes before you want to return from it. Those "I lost track of the time" answers when you're arriving late for a meeting will be a thing of the past.

Further, you can time your tasks to ensure you're on top of things. Again, as with your inbox, you don't have to set every alarm you'll need for the day in 30 seconds - just thinking of and setting a few will make your day easier.
Take a "Note to Self". Considering most cellular phones, intelligent or otherwise, have some kind of audio recording capacity, why waste time trying to type out a note to yourself when you could record your own voice? It may seem awkward at first, but as you get into the habit, you'll quickly see that 30 seconds of audio will tend to contain more information - and more coherently - then your hurried touch-screen or predictive text memorandums. You'll spend less time trying to decipher your own shorthand, and more time re-connecting with your Eureka moments.
Update Your Project Status. Whether it's using project management software, a shared google calendar or an email list, quickly checking in with your team to let them know where you're at with your task list is really valuable, and takes next to no time to do.
Prune Your Contacts. Over the course of a given week, the number of people we communicate with in our professional lives can often lead to our having hundreds or thousands of contacts in our various lists. While retaining this information can be useful for repeat business, oftentimes this can lead to substantial bloat - when you have five different John Smiths and you only ever talk to one, consider eliminating a few of the others. The old fashioned Rolodex had one advantage over the cell phone- you had to be choosier about whom you put in there.
Give out your card. Just because you're not in a professional setting doesn't mean you don't have a professional opportunity in front of you - one of the best things you can do to promote yourself remains the tried and tested approach of giving out your card. Start thinking of it when you're out and about on your daily errands - you'll start to see opportunities you may have been ignoring.

Introducing yourself and giving your card to your butcher may well result in his giving you a call to redesign his signage, build him a website or get in touch with his sister who's a major player at a local design firm. That 30 second handshake and card exchange can have huge payoffs down the road.

Ultimately, you'll start to figure out how best to use your downtime to stay productive your way. The above examples hint at just a few of the activities that can be accomplished in a negligible amount of time - as you add your own, you'll find the rewards increase exponentially.

So the next time you're on the escalator, in a line-up or waiting for the train - think about being microproductive - your inner taskmaster will thank you.

School's Out. Learn it yourself.

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 18:00:12 +0000

You're never done learning. It may sound like a disheartening fact, but it can be a powerful mantra. Here are a few simple ways to integrate lifelong learning into your routine. With these habits in place, you really can learn something new every day!

L-I-Y: Learn it yourself

You don't have to sign up for continuing education courses or a new degree program to access new ideas and concepts. Some of the best learning is self-directed, especially as an established professional. Over time, the evolution of our daily work exposes areas where we might need to brush up on a skill or investigate a new trend. Self-directed learning is a manageable way to stay on top of developments in your field, expand your knowledge in other areas, or even find inspiration for your creative and professional work.

Go surfing

It's a big ol' world wide web, so find ways to make it manageable. Choose a handful of credible, quality, comprehensive blogs that you check often for news and information. You're more likely to retain what you learn if you can connect the information to a gap in your own knowledge, so don't feel like you have to read every tip, list, trick or tutorial out there. In fact, stay away from preachy tutorial blogs altogether. The best blogs feature conceptual, theoretical articles from multiple contributors.

Here are some of our favourites at ECR:

For web design and development: Smashing Magazine
Sample blog post title:"My favourite programming mistakes"
For writing, communication and social media: Ragan.com
Sample blog post title: "Craft a killer headline for Twitter"
For architecture and visual inspiration: Dezeen
Sample blog post title: "Alarming cantilevers"
For interior design enthusiasts: FresHome
Sample blog post title: "Spacious apartment featuring a basketball court"
For graphic design, web design and blog culture: InspiredM
Sample blog post title: "How to organize web development projects like a pro"
For professional photography: New York Times Lens
Sample blog post title: "Empathetic portraits of a segregated nation"

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the expanse of news stories, Tweets and posts, there are several websites that make it their mission to help you sort through the reams of information available online. Try Readability, Flipboard, strawberryj.am, delicious, Float or Google Reader.

Moderate your online browsing by budgeting and focusing your time. Limit yourself to an hour, 30 minutes, or even just a quick 10-minute break each day to skim your favourite sites and pick out stories that interest you. You'll feel in touch with what's happening out in the world and in control of what's happening at your desk.

Go searching

Step away from the computer and take a trip back in time to the bookstore. Lifelong learning doesn't always have to be about staying on top of endless waves of new knowledge. Never forget the value of a good used bookstore. You can find classic conceptual works, amazing graphic and fine arts books and maybe even an unintentionally inspiring old novel – all at a discount! There are interesting lessons to be learned from old, or even outdated, books (and maybe you slept through one or two of them when you were actually in school). In this rapidly-changing world in which we live, it's important to take time to meditate on the past.

Learning Nicely With Others

You can only learn so much from blogs and books. Learning isn't just about ingesting information; the best part of learning is interacting. Whether it's asking questions, engaging in debate, listening to advice or offering your own expertise, engaging with others is a key component to lifelong learning.

Bonjour, mes amis

If you want to know more about something, chances are you have a friend who can teach you. Take advantage of the array of skills and knowledge in your network of friends and don't limit yourself to learning skills pertinent to your field. Maybe you have a friend who can speak another language, or is knowledgeable in etiquette, or perhaps excels at a particular sport. You never know when it might come in handy to know how to say "where's the bathroom" in French, or which fork is for dessert, or how to play golf. And don't forget to share your unique expertise with your friends in return.

Community connection

For new graduates in particular, it's important to find ways to connect with a professional community. Whether it's through an association, collective, guild or group, you'll benefit from exposure to others in your chosen field - fellow newbies and seasoned pros alike. Many organizations offer a full schedule of social events and professional development programming. If mixers and forced social interaction isn't your bag, then go online. Engage with colleagues on professional associations' online forums in your specialization. You can subscribe to the organization's magazine or e-newsletter for a regular dose of industry news and information.

These professional organizations are great examples of vibrant networks you can join:

However you choose to engage in a professional community, it's an indispensable resource for lifelong learning.

Alma matters

The only impression you might have of your alumni association is that they keep asking for your money, but these associations are an excellent resource. Most alumni associations have ongoing programming for grads, from social and networking events to lecture series. Getting involved with your alumni association is a learning opportunity that might not immediately spring to mind, but it can be an excellent way to connect with colleagues in your field, learn about new developments or even share your own expertise as a guest speaker.

Learn lifelong and prosper

Lifelong learning is about more than just staying in the know. If you engage in active learning throughout your life, you are giving your brain a daily work-out - exercising your memory, critical thinking and creativity. And just like an active lifestyle, active learning gives you a sense of control over your life and makes you feel healthy and happy.

And it's fun. (I promise.)

Stop Doing the Thing that Makes You Powerless

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:35:13 +0000

There is one thing, one very important concept, that drives many of our professional decisions. It is not usually embraced by those at the top of the corporate ladder or those at the forefront of innovation but rather by the huge workforce somewhere in the middle. It pulls us to a screeching halt, puts others before ourselves (not always a bad thing), and is the source of an internal tug-of-war between Do and Don't Do. It keeps us in the same place, reluctant to learn, change, or take risks. That thing is Permission. And it should be abolished.

What Permission does

Permission, or formal consent, is in place to protect something. It is a force of authority in our lives from the very beginning, whether we need need it to leave class to go potty or to install software. Its objectives – arguably its only justifiable purposes – are to serve people and assets, saving us from the likes of classroom interruptions or malicious programs. Used well, Permission creates boundaries that allow groups of people to work together and is a check against an abuse of power or influence.

Maybe because I am a freelancer, or because I grew up with laissez-faire parents, I generally loathe Permission. It does have reasonable applications: for example it will always be necessary to ask before posting client work to Dribbble or adding subscribers to a newsletter. These checks are good and respect privacy. But Permission is also a demon of a thing. It gets hardwired into our thinking in a way that is difficult to shake, and if we must ask for it too often, we begin to perceive boundaries that aren't really there.

You've probably experienced this – designers back away from risky designs that don't mold to the current trend, developers avoid new (or old) technologies, or business owners neglect pitching to different industries because they assume they won't get the work. In these instances, we've told ourselves we need peer approval, or Permission, to do what we would really like to do.

How often have you stopped yourself from doing something because you assumed the answer would be No?

Permission's assumptions

The very act of asking Permission implies vulnerability, especially when the outcome is something we care about. Asking Permission can mean:

"I respect your opinion,"
"I need your approval," or
"I don't want responsibility."

Of these implications, only one honors the entrepreneurial spirit, and that is the first – "I respect your opinion." This message solicits meaningful collaboration between equals whereas the others simply reinforce a hierarchy, and hierarchy is notorious for stifling innovation.

"IT companies that require innovation to survive tend to have the flattest possible organizational structures because they know that hierarchies dampen creativity. The rest of us want innovation, but not that much. It’s disruptive, unpredictable and doesn’t fit our carefully crafted organizational chart and agreed business processes."- Steve Waldegrave, Australian Government

Permission exerts power in the guise of "fairness" or "stability," which I place inside quotes because these ideas are illusory, especially in an entrepreneurial world that favors self-motivation. A variety of factors go into approval processes that are biased, factors like agency and individual goals, available resources, or even a person's subjective likability. Stability too is an elusive concept. As I once heard a business-owner say, full-timers tend to believe their jobs are more stable than freelancers' jobs, but many businesses live paycheck to paycheck.

Let's look at what happens given the response to a request for Permission. If we get a Yes – Perfect. Green light. Whoosh. If we get a No – Silence. What next? Plan B?

Regardless of whether Permission is granted or denied, truly determined folks will find a way to execute their ideas no matter what. What if Airbnb, now valued at over $1 billion, had waited for Permission from investors to begin working on the idea they believed in? What if every iPhone app developer waited for Permission from their boss to work on their idea? I think it is safe to say that many of our favourite businesses and applications would not exist.

Suffice to say, Permission-based bureaucracy is outdated, and it stifles the ideas of respectful, decent folks who take Permission seriously. There is in fact a better way. And it's going to sound ridiculously simple.

An artful avoidance

The simple answer? Don't ask for Permission. Individuals must run fast and furiously with their innovative ideas. Those waiting for someone else's approval will be left behind.

These are a few strategies to artfully avoid Permission:

Work on your own time via your own resources.
Keep ideas quiet until you have something to show.
Figure out a way your project will benefit others. This justifies avoidance.
Claim ignorance (which only works for so long).
Ask forgiveness – trite, but true, and often easier than getting Permission.

And if you've hit a creative block, here are a few applications of artful avoidance:

Learn new and different skill sets. Follow your interests, not your job title.
Hold a meeting or gathering – a scrum, meet up, or collaboration – without someone telling you to do so.
Find time to push your boundaries, ie. read tutorials and get involved in events outside of work.
Don't wait for capital to start working on a good idea. If capital is necessary, embrace the Kickstarter mentality and raise it yourself.
Start doing the work you want to do. You don't necessarily need a client to begin designing or building the type of projects you want to build. Write your own brief.

Unreasonable ways to avoid Permission – must they be said? – are to steal material or to disrespect other people's ideas and opinions. And sometimes, despite my renegade bent, it is necessary to navigate the world of bosses, colleagues, and other responsibilities. In these cases give Permission a lowercase p, and perhaps even rename it Backing, Support, or Reinforcement, which are truer reflections of a well-intentioned Permission system.

Why you won't fail

The point of shirking Permission is, paradoxically, to allow ourselves to do the things we've been neglecting. When the onus is on us to self-start, we not only gain reputations as people who take initiative, but we also learn and grow faster than those waiting in the wings. Embarking upon new endeavours is a healthy way to learn, and learning is the ultimate objective. Give yourself Permission to start taking risks now, and that will be the real success.

The Art of Personal Networking

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:24:54 +0000

Face-to-face communication is the most natural and powerful form of interaction. Knowing how to meet, influence, and connect with people is a crucial skill in any time or place. By following these simple networking tips you'll be able to unlock the opportunities and experiences that only other people can offer you.

Know why networking is important.

Ask any successful person how they got to their position and you'll find they've had help from other people. As much as we'd like to think that our talent or creativity will lead directly to the good life, no one can make it alone. Without the right guidance and connections you could be the world's smartest person and still end up as a doorman at a bar.

All of the world's knowledge, money, and fame is contained within the people you see around you every day. Networking is about forming connections with people so that you can get more of whatever you're looking for, directly or indirectly. It's about seeing the value in other people.

Give your tongue a workout.

The most important part of networking is conversation. Even if you're not a master of charisma, you can still learn to become an effective and persuasive communicator through study and practice.

Start random conversations with people around you, or get more serious by trying Toastmasters, an organization dedicated to helping people become effective speakers through group practice and feedback. Any method of getting yourself used to awkwardness, criticism, embarrassment, and even rejection is good for you.

Study human interaction.

Maybe you'd prefer to ease your way into the whole "speaking" thing. Numerous self-help books are available, and many really can help. Perhaps the all-time most popular is How to Win Friends and Influence People, a simple and enjoyable guide to conversation that memorably teaches essentials like "smile" and "be a listener, not just a talker." Public speaking books like In the Spotlight are also good - but remember that networking is about two-way conversation, not giving speeches.

Get the knack of the nonverbal.

There's much more to conversation than just spoken words. Nonverbal cues like gestures, expressions, eye contact and posture all play huge roles. There's a lot to master, but these five guidelines are key:

Make eye contact. It shows you're paying attention, confident, and not hiding anything.
Give firm, warm handshakes. People make judgments based on handshakes. A vice-like grip is overbearing; a limp touch can seem weak. A good handshake is firm, confident, warm, and dry - nobody likes sweaty or clammy hands.
Direct your body forward. Directly face the person you're talking to. If you're sitting, lean a bit forward. This conveys full interest and attention. It shows you care.
Perfect your posture. Good posture is associated with confidence, status, and attentiveness. Stand up straight; slouching makes you seem tired or bored.
Use your hands. Hand gestures reinforce and emphasize what you're saying. But don't cross your arms: you'll appear standoffish, defensive or angry - even if it's just because the air conditioning is cranked too high.

Network selectively.

Your time is limited; focus your efforts. Seek out individuals and groups you stand to gain from, whether it's to learn to learn a new skill or find a job opportunity. Your goal is to connect with people who can recognize your value and talent, so look for shared interests, backgrounds, and qualities. But don't be too narrow-minded; the best encounters often happen by chance.

Be there.

Place yourself in situations that have the sort of people you want to interact with and where it's socially acceptable to strike up a conversation. Organizations, clubs, and interest groups are a great place to network. If you're trying to land a job as a photographer: join an industry group, photo club, or artists' collective. If you need help finding the right spots then don't be afraid to ask; asking questions is a good way to network.

Let others know who you are.

People need to know and remember you before they'll give you what you're looking for. The more memorable and approachable you can make yourself the better, so find ways to be unique and stand out without being odd.

One trick is to always wear a name tag. When people know your name they're more likely to talk to and remember you.

Be a friend.

Friendship and kindness will almost always take you farther than the alternatives. It's simple, really: people like doing things for people they like. Be enthusiastic and proactive about starting conversations and you'll be off to a good start. Many people are shy, but they appreciate someone who takes the initiative to approach them.

Next, be a good listener. Ask questions about neutral topics - their hometown, hobbies, hot spots in the city - and try your best to genuinely care about other people and their interests. There's no better way to make a person feel important than to care about what they think. Everyone is good or interesting in some way, so focus on the positives; where appropriate, compliment them. When you get the other person talking you can find the mutual interests and experiences that form valuable bonds.

Go offline and get out there.

While e-mail and the latest social web sites are nice modes of interaction, real-world interpersonal skills are timelessly relevant. Looking for a job? Over 70% are found through networking among people we know in everyday life, like friends and family. Looking for a friend? You might find one while networking; strong friendships are a healthy side-effect of making contact. Jane Howard once said, "Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one." It's crucial advice for success - both in business and in life.

Maintenance: the Creative Process Needs to be Taken Care Of

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 18:42:14 +0000

As creative people, our ability to create is our asset, it makes us who we are and affects how we see the world. To be able to create on-demand however, can be a grueling process day in and day out, that over time it begins to wear on us, and affects our ability to do so. Creatives like to think that the ability to create will always be there, because it tends to come from a desire and passion to come up with new and exciting solutions to problems. However, in an age where more is always asked, steps taken to maintain and take care of the creative soul ensures a more sustainable creative future.

Internalizing Structure

The word “structure” does not usually attract enthusiasm because it is a word associated with rigidity, rules and discipline. However, structure can also take the form of habits, mindsets and attitudes. As creativity is about extending the boundaries of what is known and experienced, committing to challenging routine pushes creative growth and predictable patterns. Internalizing practices so that it is rote by nature and is automatic drains less from our limited supply of will and discipline.

Extend what you know

Moving from the information age to the conceptual one has not slowed down the torrent of new information available. Knowing a little about everything is beneficial in that you never know when that piece of information will be helpful. A new project may benefit from the new piece of insight recently acquired, or light may be shed on a discussion topic with a new contact. Talking to people and bouncing off ideas with them may also expose an approach previously not considered.

Attending talks and lectures exposes one to new perspectives, and so does reading about everything from business trends to happenings around the city. Podcasts and watching documentaries can also contribute to staying curious to the world around you and trying to understand the world to the best of your abilities. In seeking things that challenge and make an impression on you, personal growth is achieved and through this, intelligence that feeds back to the mind which is asked to generate ideas on-demand.

Disengage—All in Moderation

Disengaging offers the opportunity to see things in a different mindset and in returning to work, engagement that is more efficient. We tend to understand that the creative process requires time to synthesize our ideas together so we lock our minds into our work, become over-connected and determined to see immediate progression in the project even when things are not working out at the moment. In situations like these, emotional states become high and our work can stand to suffer from our overly anxious mindset.

Letting go resets the mental state and allows for a fresh take on things that may not have been considered. Because we become less exclusive to the project, we become more inclusive to the things around us, and open to more inspiration.

Cross Pollination

Disengaging and a healthy commitment to it ensures that progress is made in other aspects of life. Living up to commitments and ambitions to taking a cooking course, volunteering in other parts of the world or simply trying out a new restaurant each month are opportunities for personal growth and may find their ways to inform and influence future work. In interspersing a year of time off every seven years, Stefan Sagmeister’s personal projects during the time off have fed back into the productivity of his design firm. It is also known that employees at Google receive time to pursue their own personal projects, and this time has led to the creation of Google Reader, Google Maps and other projects that can be found at http://www.googlelabs.com. Disengaging may also refuel aspects of your creative passion that may have been dimmed with working with clients.

Protect your Assets

Everyone has their own unique processes to do what they need to do to create and there exists no single one-way to preserving a process. Rather, guarding one’s ability to create is being self-aware, and mindful of where you are and where you want to go—a structuring mechanism in and of itself. In pursuing activities and practices that we enjoy, that impress on us and challenge us, they add growth to our experiences and what we have to draw upon to ensure a more sustainable creative career.

Tackling Creative Roadblocks

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 13:36:14 +0000

Your deadline is looming. You need to deliver a tangible solution — something worthy of your considerable talents. But you find yourself devoid of ideas. Your mind is a total blank, and you’re losing motivation. It’s every creative professional’s nightmare.

Relax. Take a deep breath. You can get through these creative roadblocks by using some tried and true methods.

Change your environment

If your creative juices have frozen solid, you might need a vacation from your mental climate. Go somewhere different; explore new places with your eyes and your mind wide open. Stuck somewhere busy? Go somewhere private and calm. Alone in a quiet room? Get out among the hustle and bustle of life outdoors.

Stimulating, changing environments forge new mental connections. It gets neurons firing, and more neurons means more ideas. Even the act of moving has benefits…which leads us to our next method.

Get your blood pumping

You won’t get far if your mind is half asleep. Jump-start your system by doing something physical: Jog in place, go for a run, jump up and down — anything to get your body moving and your heart pumping. Exercise awakens the mind and releases both stimulating and stress-relieving chemicals — exactly what you need to break free of your creative bind.

Leave yourself no other choice

"Procrastination" may as well be a dirty word. It’s all too easy to get caught up in distractions and work on anything but what you should be doing.

What’s the solution? Make an effort to remove all distractions, giving yourself no other choice than to fully devote yourself to your work. The great poet and playwright Victor Hugo would agree: he would write naked and have his valet hide his clothes so he couldn’t sneak outside. Sometimes it takes radical solutions to force you to focus.

Try being hyperproductive

A common sticking point is the inability to start starting, often because of indecision and anxiety about picking the right path. Get around this by being “hyperproductive.” Set crazy goals for producing ideas, mock-ups or sketches, and give yourself so little time that you can let go of prejudging your approaches.

You’ll find that if you produce lots of random things, there will be gems in the mix — or at least ideas you can expand on.

Seek inspiration in other people and online tools

Inspiration is rarely born in a vacuum; many great ideas blossom from someone else’s seeds. If your creative garden is barren, look to the people and the world around you for insight.

Fortunately, it’s never been easier: the Web puts the world at your fingertips. Social bookmarking, interest communities and online portfolios are great glimpses into other minds. Don’t be afraid to directly approach other creatives whose work you admire — they may be able to provide that final push you were looking for.

Quit trying so hard

The prolific genius Isaac Asimov was never short of ideas: he authored hundreds of brilliant works in his lifetime, including the famous I, Robot series. What was his secret? Simple: he didn’t try too hard.

Asimov was a believer in what he called the "Eureka Phenomenon": inspiration will find you when you aren’t looking for it. Your mind can figure things out for itself, so don’t stress. If there’s time, sleep on it. If you’re like most people, you could probably use some rest!

Go with the flow

Creativity comes and goes. Don’t get too upset if those rough days don’t end up as well as you’d hoped — focus on getting through them, and know that even the worst moments will pass. If you trust in your abilities and use these techniques, what were previously roadblocks will eventually seem like minor speed bumps.

Finding And Keeping a Mentor

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:59:08 +0000

Along with food and lodging, an apprentice historically received the skills they needed to prosper in their careers through a close working relationship with a Master, an experienced tradesman or tradeswoman. In return Masters received inexpensive and reliable labor from their apprentice.

The modern mentor and protégé relationship does not have such strict guiding principles nor as clear a compensation. This lack of structure both enables and overwhelms young designers as they step into new careers. The fact remains, however, we do need help navigating our working lives. We all do.

Enlisting the support of a mentor is fortunately not out of reach, but it requires the tenacious ability to pitch yourself – and keep pitching yourself– even when you aren't sure what value you have to offer.

Why have a mentor? Who should have one?

“Mentors will help you become a better designer. They will look at your work and spot the problems immediately. You can learn a lot from those who have been in the field longer than you, and they will help you navigate the corporate culture.” Diane Cherie, user experience designer.

Having someone to look up to and offer guidance can help a mentee do three main things:

Establish career direction
Improve a lackluster portfolio
Get through a slump

Such a relationship is not only good for the one being mentored, but also for the mentor.

“At every stage, there are new things to learn (from preparing files for print to preparing RFPs), new people to respond to (from creative directors to clients) and new challenges to face (from running out of adhesive spray before a presentation to having to lay off an employee).” Armin Vit, designer, speaker, and writer.

Most experienced designers will already be familiar with the benefits of sharing their wisdom, but it doesn't hurt to engage a potential mentor by clearly demonstrating the benefits of their interaction with you. A mentee provides a mentor the opportunity to:

Learn through teaching
Give back to a community that helped them
Bolster a reputation

So how does a young designer go about forming this kind of valuable relationship? It can be tricky, but with some effort and a little common sense, it is far from impossible.

Engaging a potential mentor

The design world is brimming with people to admire, but it is difficult to find a mentor that will pay attention to you. Those who are successful enough to warrant admiration often prioritize work opportunities over anonymous requests for help, and while mentors are uniquely charitable folks, they are busy. To begin a meaningful conversation with someone you respect, first figure out what you have to offer.

Think of an interesting way to engage in conversation. You can you offer to publish an interview, write an article, or give them something that they may not have or be able to get – could be a link relevant to their business, a case of local beer, or a plate of your grandmother's top secret, homemade cinnamon buns. It could also be as simple as attending one of their events and meeting them in person. Be creative.

Take care with your introductory message. Keep your message short and to the point. Write no less than three revisions. Keep in mind that professionalism will outweigh cleverness, because no matter how original you think your message is, it's been done before.
Seek mentors who are already actively involved in providing feedback and direction. Successfully engaging a mentor greatly depends on the mentor's preexisting willingness to engage. You can't tweet at someone and expect they will critique your work, but if you build up a relationship over time your chances are much higher. Use design communities to find these people.
Write your questions down so you know exactly what you are aiming to accomplish. Do you want to know which conferences you should attend? Or how to gain a loyal following for your work? Maybe you want to know how to deal with a difficult boss? A clear line of questioning demonstrates your intelligence and commitment to a successful career.
If a mentor says no, look elsewhere. Don't waste your time or other people's time by persisting when your message isn't welcome. Also, don't take negative feedback personally. Just keep looking.

Many young designers hesitate to reach out to others for the same reason we stay in jobs we don't like or hang on to dreams without acting on them – fear. Fear is the greatest enemy in our personal careers. But really, what have you got to lose by trying? A bit of face? Is that all?

A much better question, because it isn't fear-based, is this: What have you got to gain? In my experience I've been thanked for taking a chance and reaching out to other professionals, which is worth considering the next time you stop yourself from taking a risk.

Unspoken rules

It can take a mistake to learn that certain behavior is inappropriate or unwanted, and by the time that mistake is made clear, it is too late to redeem the relationship. Professionals can be fickle. Many of the following tips are common-sense, but are worth sharing with designers who are just starting out.

Don't:

Don't send unnecessary correspondence, ie. too many thank you notes or more than one follow-up email. Write or call when there is substance.
Don't use a mentor to get a job. Make sure you're looking for help for the right reasons, not just to take advantage of someone else's connections.
Don't take a mentor's advice over your own gut instinct. The exercise of having a mentor is meant to develop your own expertise. Sometimes you have to trust yourself.

Do:

Be genuine. Relate to others' interests but maintain what makes you unique, as well. Impressing someone is never worth giving up your passion for heavy metal or beat poetry, and in fact your forthrightness about what you love is more admirable.
Care passionately about what connects you to your potential mentor. It make be book cover design. It might be typography. This too should be genuine.
Practice courtesy, politeness, and thoughtfulness.
Pass it on. Show others the kindness you've received.

(Re)define your mentor

Mentors do not have to fall under the traditional apprenticeship model. Inspiration and guidance are found in many different places, so finding the advice you need may be as simple as shifting your understanding of what a mentor is. You may find the following 'mentors' already present in your career.

Local mentor: This can be someone you can call or email at short notice to grab a coffee; you would normally chitchat, but you also share mutual respect, and the opportunity is there to have a professional conversation.
Email mentor: Email is more intimate than online design communities because it solicits a single focused response as opposed to broadcasting to a group. This might be someone you send screenshots or links to for a quick opinion of your work.
Ghost mentor: You may follow someone who doesn't know they are mentoring you. Perhaps you peruse their work and read their blog, getting tips that are nonspecific to you but helpful nevertheless.
Mentor network: Many people together can influence decisions you make in your career. A mentor network could be a group of conference-goers, a critique group, a network of employees or friends on Twitter.
Career mentor: You wouldn't send this person your portfolio, but you might ask them for tips on interviewing or what your next career move could be. These people don't necessarily have anything to do with design and could be a parent, a business leader, or a more experienced team leader at another company.

If you see the relationships you already have as opportunities to learn from other skilled professionals, you'll find yourself with more mentors than you probably want.

Can friends be mentors?

Professional mentor relationships will naturally mimic the reception you might have in real world situations, and they offer you feedback without getting too personal. Nevertheless, friends can also prove valuable confidantes when it comes to sensitive issues like inner office politics, salaries, or potential moves. The drawback of friend-mentors is that peers tend to be more competitive with one another, which can put your friendship at risk.

“The closer two people are in age, in background, in process of identification, the more there's a danger of envy.” Alain de Botton, writer and speaker.

A mentor-friend relationship is a lot like working for friends – sometimes it turns out okay, and sometimes it doesn't. There is no definitive guideline and you'll have to determine what works for you. A good rule of thumb is to surround yourself with people you respect who are smarter than you, and you will find your design improving naturally, mentor or not.

The modern mentor

There is always something new to learn. Technology, trends, and accessibility to design tools mean that a design education is never over.

“No matter what state of your career you are in, there is always a better place to be—that is, if you are even somewhat ambitious—and it is not uncommon for that next place to require some sacrifices and hardships.”Armit Vit

In traditional apprenticeships, it was no doubt reassuring to know that Masters shielded inexperienced artisans from obvious mistakes, but today's mentor relationship has become much more complex, and in a way, more distant. The modern mentor no longer protects but guides their protégé, and the most a mentee can hope for is a clearer idea of their own priorities and goals.

As designers grow and mature, their questions will take on different shapes and so too will their answers. Goals will shift, and mentees will by necessity swap out old mentors for new ones, accumulating several guides over their career. The best mentors will always be the ones encouraging an individual to find their footing so they too can someday share their wisdom with another mentee
in need.

Further resources

Time Management for Creative Minds

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 20:03:18 +0000

If you’ve ever missed a deadline or had to pull a red-eyed all-nighter, you’ve probably wished there were more hours in a day. While you can’t pull a Superman and slow the Earth’s rotation, you can learn to use your time more effectively. With good time management skills you do what you must do and have more time left for what you choose to do.

There are a number of prepackaged time management systems out there, combinations of strategies, tools and tips designed to help you organize and maximize your time. Ironically, you could spend a lot of time just studying the many systems available. Perhaps the most popular and time-tested is the aptly named Getting Things Done (GTD) system. GTD emphasizes perspective: keeping track of things by writing, categorizing and prioritizing notes, schedules, and to-do lists. Then, the system urges you to concentrate on the things you can actually do at any moment. For instance, if you happen to be at work and you don’t have time to do your laundry. It also keeps you on top of your schedule by developing good organizational habits — a key strategy of other systems like Autofocus.

Formal systems are nice, but you can learn many of their teachings on your own and for free. By looking at what they have in common you can become a true master of your calendar by understanding their fundamentals.

Admit it: you're only human.

At its core, time management involves coping with your humanity. Our brains have evolved for survival, so we tend to focus on basic, short-term things like food, self-protection, and sex. Modern things like ten-hour workdays, college courses, and dentist appointments are far more complicated and persistent than basic needs and pleasures. The result is that we are horrible at setting priorities and sticking to tasks. Once you admit you’re only human you can begin the process of self-improvement.

Elephants never forget, but you do.

How many times have you forgotten something you knew about long in advance? Your memory is far from perfect. Common time management strategies involve aiding your feeble memory by recording things and reviewing them regularly. Write everything down using old tools like notebooks and day planners — or newer ones like Things (Mac), Remember the Milk (web, mobile), or Google Calendar and Tasks (web). Use them often. You can’t manage what you’ve already forgotten about.

Everything in its right place.

Once you’ve learned to keep track of the things that use up your time you then have to categorize them. A popular method is to divide things into short, medium, and long terms. It’s obvious that a project due tomorrow is short-term and “become rich and famous” is long-term, but it’s not always obvious that long-term goals are made up of shorter-term actions like “put ten dollars in the bank.” Put all of your to-dos — and the components that make them — on your lists, sorting them from short-term to long-term. Update them regularly. If you use a calendar program then set them to recur on a regular schedule so you can automatically remind yourself to back up your photos or wish your great aunt a happy birthday.

Prioritize your life.

Doing things in the right order and at the right time is the key to having more time. Prioritizing can be difficult, but it’s something you can learn to do well. First, focus only on the short term — that’s what you’ll be living in, after all. Next, ask yourself three questions: “Do I need to do this?” “Do I want to do this?” and “Can I do this?” Weigh the consequences of each choice. What you can do comes first, along with the needs. And always put what you want to do ahead of things you don’t. Those will become needs soon enough, if they’re important to you.

Don’t let yourself procrastinate.

Your careful planning will mean nothing if you don’t actually get things done. Procrastination is perhaps the biggest obstacle between you and effectively managed time. Everyone gets distracted, overwhelmed, or evasive; you’re no exception.

Learn to recognize the times and situations in which you procrastinate and then plan against yourself. In Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus knew he’d be tempted by the beautiful sirens, so he had his crew-mates tie him up. Perhaps a more modern, passive-aggressive equivalent would be productivity software that forces you to stay on task, like OmmWritter, Writer or Concentrate (Mac) and Dark Room or StopDistractions (PC). There’s also the cross-platform Freedom, which actually disables the internet for up to eight hours at a time. This may be overkill, but sometimes you need extreme solutions to avoid the alluring siren call of YouTube videos and Twitter updates.

Develop a routine.

Time management requires an ongoing commitment. You need to follow the steps every day and the best way to accomplish that is with a routine. Set aside times and places to do the important things and make them rituals. Every day at breakfast carefully review and prioritize your to-do list. Every night before bed categorize your notes and prepare the next day’s schedule. Every Saturday or Sunday review and update your medium-term goals. Every first of the month review and update your long-term goals.

Get into the habit of getting things done. It might sound like a drag, but it can leave you with more time to do the fun stuff — which should be a part of your schedule as well. Recent studies show that brief mental breaks can actually improve performance. Account for them, but don’t let them overwhelm you. An excellent method of self-imposing breaks is the popular (and free) Pomodoro Technique, which some productivity pundits swear by.

Time to get started.

What do you want to do? Nurture your talents, or develop your portfolio? Work fewer hours, or track down new clients? Party all night, or get some much-needed rest? It’s up to you, but now’s the time to make a choice.

Everyone’s time is worth managing. Get started and stick with the methods that fit your unique personality and life — you’ll realize success in terms of getting more done, having more free time, or a combination of both.

An Inspired Design Practice (Without Design)

Mon, 02 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Go pick up a paintbrush – or a pencil or a camera. Do anything with your hands that isn't typing or clicking. The computer's limits on dexterity are also limits of creativity, and for people whose eyes have long glazed over, switching up the tools of the trade is not only a pleasant change of scenery but is crucial to improving the quality of design work. Here's how, and why, to step out of a routine and into something new.

Why Go Analog?

Taking on creative challenges outside of an office environment reinforces the idea that we are ever-expanding our skill-sets and worldly knowledge. An openness to learning new things (whether that is how to code or how to take great photographs) makes you an easier colleague to work with; shared interests help people understand one another's perspectives. Doing just one activity off of the computer will help you grow, and balance, your role as a designer or as a business. It will also inspire in unexpected ways – and this is perhaps the most rewarding achievement.

Personal Benefits – Become a better designer

Avoid the limitations of a job title

“Ignore all job titles, including your own job title of course, and that's most important, whether it's a job you're trying to get or a job you think you already have, the best thing to do is ignore all these labels people are trying to put upon you.”—Alyssa Walker via HumblePied

This is one of the best things about being a designer – the promise of stepping into many different shoes. We get to imagine how an artist might approach a problem, or a scientist, or a teenager, or a grandparent. With each new project we get to work in industries wildly different from our own. Trying something new can remove us from the rut we get stuck in by doing the same things day after day. It can also lead to more interesting work.

Fine-tune a forgotten skill

Many designers come from a fine arts background. Return to those roots and remember the value of getting muddy or paint all over your clothes. Play helps us combine different ideas, which Steven Johnson says in Where Good Ideas Come From is the key to helping us innovate; combining mediums and skill-sets is a similar endeavor. Also, returning to the origins of why you became passionate about this field in the first place can jolt you out of a creative block and reinvigorate your work.

Practice original thinking

Making exceptional work often requires a change in defining what we do. If you are a web designer, does that mean you have to sit behind a computer to design? The most creative problem solvers tend to carry their problems with them, meaning they have the Eureka moment that brings two disparate ideas together when they are in the shower or car or somewhere away from their desk, not busy “at work”. This idea is not a new one; many of history's famous artists seemed to dip in and out of other fields. Examples include writers who painted, like Kurt Vonnegut, Tennessee Williams, and Jorge Luis Borges, actors who sing, like Jamie Foxx, Juliette Lewis, Gwyneth Paltrow, or designers who write, like Michael Bierut, Frank Chimero, and Ellen Lupton.

As Vonnegut said, “I’m not an artist, you know, but I also recommend that people practice art, no matter how badly because it's known to make a soul grow.”

Business Benefits – Meet people and improve your business

Expand service offerings

“Some people tell young practitioners to avoid style so they can grow. The market says illustrators should have a style so clients can minimize risk and predict what they will get. Other people say no style is a style. How do we reconcile those differences? We don’t worry about it.”—Frank Chimero

While many people prefer specialization over diversification, others believe it doesn't hurt creativity to try new things. As Chimero says, don't worry about what other people think; do what works for you. If you choose to grow an expertise in an area outside your main interests, it might even sneak its way into your business offerings. For example, you may take a photography class then before long are taking professional product photos for a client's website. Stranger things have happened.

Source of discovery

New clients or jobs can come from anywhere – from someone you bump into at the grocery store to the uncle of someone you sat next to in class. Even if it is not obvious at first, trying new things and being open to new people could translate to unexpected business connections.

Increased productivity

It may seem counterintuitive that stepping away from your day-to-day work will make you more productive, but it remains true. Often we chip away at a problem without taking time to look at what's been done. The self-reflection part of a creative process is a necessary aspect of criticism and ensures a project is on track toward established goals. Stepping away from a repetitive process allows you to critique your work from another perspective. This is refreshing, and allows you to redefine your goals and keep making progress.

Find Direction

Participating in activities outside of work will help motivate you in your design practice or business, or at least will reveal what you'd rather be doing. It is difficult to know what to want out of a career, especially for young designers, and these outside endeavors will help establish a personal direction.

Here are some ways to embrace the analog side of creativity, to help you find that direction.

Take a class. Any class. What have you been wanting to learn?
If there aren't classes offered where you are, create your own. Form a writers, readers, knitters, photography, film, drawing, or craft group with friends.
Read outside your comfort zone. Choose the unfamiliar fiction or nonfiction novel, local author or someone from another culture, or read outside your genre. There's always a new poet, graphic artist, or playwright to discover.
Play. Choose an animal or child as your play partner. They'll love it.
Instead of drawing your thoughts, write them. Instead of writing your thoughts, draw them.

Whatever personal project you take on, try really hard to finish it. Reflecting on what you've accomplished will reinforce positive associations from your experience or help you learn from mistakes for next time. Remind yourself that anything is possible. This is absolutely the key to staying inspired at work.

Want a creative workspace? Take Plato's Advice

Sun, 24 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

“Then beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity...”—Plato

You may find certain questions running through your head when moving in to a particular workspace for the first time: Is the space quiet enough? Does it contain everything I need? Does it inspire me to take my work to new levels or does it bore me to tears? The task can be daunting, but you can learn a thing or two about office organization from the creative pros who have come before you.

Depending on the type of work you do, you could spend anywhere from a few hours to most of your day working in one area, so it should be as conducive to creativity as possible. But how do you create a workspace that brings out the best in you?

Keep it simple, but not boring

By taking Plato's advice, for starters. He may seem like an unlikely source of inspiration for the modern professional, but the classical Greek philosopher was on to something with his line about simplicity, written in The Republic. Creative space, be it within the confines of a cubicle or the four walls of a home office, has to be relatively simple. It should certainly contain the items essential for you to perform your work - a computer, a printer, reference books, even your lucky bobble-head – but shouldn’t be overly-cluttered. We practice these methods in our office while working on 4ormat.

Make it your home

That said, minimalism can be taken too far. If one lesson can be gleaned from the offices of some of the most intelligent, creative people in the world, it's that if you want to get the most out of yourself, your workspace should feel like your home. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple and a man recognized as one of the most innovative on the planet, could have a super-modern office space filled with futuristic gadgets – but he doesn't. His home office is warm and inviting. The world's most famous theoretical physicist, Albert Einstein, certainly kept a homey, if extremely untidy, office, and one of the most prolific writers in modern history, Stephen King, keeps both a couch and a television in his business office. The point? If your space is comfortable you'll be able to maximize your creativity and put clients at ease.

Know what your space says about you

Whether it’s your boss or your clients, at some point you’ll have visitors to your workspace, which means that you should be concerned about what message that space sends to others. Are the clients you meet influenced by how you keep your office? Is your boss? A recent study of human resources managers found that more than 80 per cent of respondents were at least somewhat affected by the appearance of an employee's workspace. The lesson: the perception of professionalism can be just as important as the trait itself, and while having items scattered across your desk may not mean you're scatterbrained, visitors may subconsciously think so.

Shake things up

Even if you have a great home office, studio or traditional workspace, it doesn't hurt to change things up now and again. Take a page from the book by artists such as Monet and van Gogh, who painted “en plein air”, and head outside now and again. A change of scenery can be a great way to get out of a rut, and if you work in a northern climate, getting out-of-doors during the winter work day is also a good way to ensure you don’t feel the effects of seasonal affective disorder, which include anxiety, irritability and difficulty concentrating - none of which are particularly desired by the creative professional.

Remember that it's about you

Plato’s advice may make a great deal of sense, but you have the final say as to what sort of space you choose to work in. Your workspace, be it the home office, the park bench office, or the office office, needs to serve your needs. You need to be able to be free-thinking, focused and productive in it. Keeping things simple, decluttering and taking a few trips outside are great pieces of advice, but at the end of the day your workspace simply needs to allow you to do what you do best. Whether that space is modern, minimal, playful, messy or in your basement is up to you. Remember: it's not where you work, it's what you do while you're there.

Making it as a Creative Freelancer: Online Portfolio Tools You Need to Use

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

You’re creative. You’re talented. You want the world to see who you are and what you can do. But the world’s a big place, and it’s hard to stand out. If people can’t see your work, they won’t come knocking at your door. You need people to see what you’re all about, and that requires a strong, professional presence on the web. Luckily, there are online tools that can help you do that successfully.

You need an online portfolio It should be easy to find, easy to browse, and easy on the eyes. It should also be easy for you — to set up, update, and customize without taking up too much of your time. It’s easy enough to upload some images to a popular photo site like Flickr, but do you really want your gallery to look like 30 million others? Software packages like WordPress can be tweaked to look pretty, but do you have the time and know-how to maintain your own web server, configure PHP files and learn an elaborate content management system?

Embrace the new Luckily, the web is changing. New tools are being created that eliminate the trade-off between capability and ease of use. In other words, you don’t need to be a certified geek to pull off a great online portfolio. One service to consider is 4ormat, which gives you a slick portfolio instantly, and lets you customize the look and feel with just a few clicks. It’s also optimized to look great on mobile devices like cell phones or tablets, so you can show off your work wherever you go. 4ormat even lets you connect your portfolio to your own domain, if you happen to have one.

Manage your résumé Especially if you’re looking for long-term work or contracts with larger agencies. First, make sure it’s accurate, readable and convincing. Liberate it from typos and punctuation errors. Then, make sure people can find it quickly. To do that, make sure it’s available on your site in “plain text” format so that it’s easily indexed by search engines. Job search sites like Monster and CareerBuilder post your résumé this way, as does the aforementioned portfolio site 4ormat. This can also be done with WordPress, but it’s a bit trickier. You should also convert your résumé to PDF, an almost universally accepted document format. PC users can do this for free using software like CutePDF Writer and on a Mac you can simply use the Print to PDF feature.

Use social networking to your advantage If you don’t have one already, put up a Facebook page with examples of your work. But you should also consider building a profile on other popular sites. LinkedIn caters to a more business-minded audience, so it’s key to developing your professional reputation. Twitter lets you post frequent, short updates for people to follow, letting you connect with potential buyers, collaborators and mentors. You can also “follow” the posts of other people, keeping you updated on the latest insights, trends and opportunities in your field. Whichever sites you use, make sure to include some form of contact info, and always link back to your online portfolio.

Help people find you Submit your portfolio site to search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. Search engine optimization, or SEO, will help your site show up in searches. Many free guides exist, but there are a couple of obvious techniques. Use metatags and keywords that relate to the subject — yourself — and to your work on every page you create, so people can find it easily. Link to your portfolio wherever appropriate and try to get others to link to it, too.

Manage your rep Now that you have an online presence, it’s important to maintain a consistent and professional identity. You also need to stay active — in the social world, the key is to “just show up.” Do one thing daily to promote yourself and your work, but don’t spam. Forge beneficial relationships by communicating with people in a style reflective of your personality and values. And remember: what you put online can stay there forever, for anyone to see. Your reputation is as valuable as your work, so make sure both are at their best.

Finally, motivate yourself. The web has some amazingly powerful tools, but the rest is up to you!