Me: “What?”

Jay: “A Harvard Business School professor did a study on the impact of really tight deadlines on the creative process. Now what does that make you think of?”

He pulled up the transcript right then and there as we sat on a bench at Lexington Middle School, waiting on our daughter who was ever-so busy socializing at the Spring Arts Festival. I scanned it to confirm someone had actually studied this dynamic, and sure enough there it was.

Teresa Amabile, a contributor to NPR’s Marketplace on workplace performance and the author of The Progress Principle, shared some research findings that were frankly not all that surprising in the general work world. For example, she cited that professionals in her study indicated they were 45 percent less likely to come up with a new idea or solve a complex problem on a tight deadline.

Grace under pressure?

(By the way, does that mean they are 55 percent MORE likely to be creative? Isn’t that pretty good?) But I digress.

What caught my eye was this: “We did find some creativity under high pressure, but the enabling circumstances are rare in most workplaces. People have to feel that they are on a mission to tackle something crucial — and they have to be protected from interruptions and extraneous demands.”

Let’s see: A 24-hour work marathon during which a company closes for business and releases its staff to develop marketing strategies and creative deliverables for nonprofit organizations. Might that constitute a higher sense of purpose? Perhaps even generate national, award-winning creative work? Check. Check.

So I’m off to find my soul sister Teresa (she even spells it right, it’s so karma) and load her up with some CreateAthon ammo. I’d love to have a cup of coffee or a good email over her comment that “the most important (thing in motivating people) in making progress is meaningful work.”

Purpose always produces.

Wouldn’t it be cool if we CreateAthon-ers ended up in a Harvard study to help prove her thesis true? Then again, we already know it is.

Recommend a good read…

Cathy Monetti

Nightwoods, by Charles Frasier
(my current Favorite Book of All Times)

Teresa Coles

11/22/63, by Stephen King
A page turner I’m only about a third of the way through; definitely need some quality beach time to soak it all in!

Kevin Archie

A Moment in the Sun, by John Sayles
An ambitious historical novel chronicling the events that marked the turn of the 20th century, this book is a beautifully written masterpiece whose numerous characters intertwine almost as ornately as the words on its cover.

Jody Piland
Cash Mob Boosts Newton Hardware House
I think this is a really cool idea. It’s like a flash mob, but instead of dancing, large groups come to a small business and spend at least $20.

Will Weatherly

The Reason For God, by Tim Keller

Kevin Smith

Old School, by Tobias Wolff

Julie Turner

The Hunger Games trilogy
1. Perfect beach read
2. Book > Movie


Ryon Edwards

Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson

The house was a traditional, tiny downtown starter home owned at one point by someone who was quite a gardener. In the time between her and when John purchased the home, the yard and plantings overgrew. Beneath all the tangles and years of neglect, all that beauty was still there, waiting to be rediscovered.

Area by area, we hacked out the clingy vines and cut the wild weedy trees. We pulled out years of thick English ivy. One by one I learned what lived there and how it needed to be cared for. By the time we moved a few years later, I handed the new owner a thick manual of plant placement diagrams, pruning instructions and details of improvements we’d made. It was no Biltmore Estate by any means, but I think we managed to recapture some of the yard’s original beauty. While the new homeowner managed to destroy most of that work within a year, my green education stuck.

My green thumb had finally taken root.

Three years ago, I decided to graduate from a mildly successful jalapeno plant grower to a full-blown raised bed gardener. My neighbor, who is an accomplished gardener, cheered me through all my fears and insecurities and shared more know-how than a pile of books. I still remember the excitement of seeing tiny starts of romaine lettuce and thinking ‘I could grow lettuce at home!’ I wasn’t thinking at all about the superior taste of homegrown veggies nor was I thinking I’d get much more than a salad or two. I ended up getting weeks and weeks of crisp lettuce that made store-bought lettuce taste like sawdust. So now I am completely spoiled.

My first garden did fine for a complete amateur. My second spring garden did much better, which led to a summer and winter garden that year, too. Now in my third year of gardening, it’s safe to say I am always growing something.

All my life I’d thought my parents had some classical training. How were they able to amble through a yard and identify almost everything? How did they know where to cut, when to plant and if something was dead or dormant?

It turns out, there’s no big secret to cultivating a yard or a garden. You just stick your hands in the dirt and give it your best shot.

I think we’ve been afraid to do things ourselves for too long. What if I fail? What if it doesn’t work? I don’t know how to do that. But these days, fear is giving way to something better, something brighter.

Consumers of the new economy have a rekindled sense of DIY. They are seekers, and learners. They collaborate, cultivate and share. It may be something as simple as learning to garden or joining forces with a friend to form a new company. There’s an exciting fearlessness that’s refreshing after the drought of a recession.

Consider the explosive growth of the digital scrapbooking site, Pinterest. While primarily used by young women, it’s growing by never-before seen leaps and bounds. It’s even managed to sneak its way up in usage right behind Tumblr and Facebook.

The new reality is that nothing is out of reach in the minds of today’s consumers. Trying and faltering is no longer a failure. It’s how we learn.

Being afraid to try is the new failure.

Converge SE attracts the design-conscious and the technically-savvy crowd from all over the country from a wide range of industries: education, government, small business, corporate, solo designers, and more. Experts and industry thought leaders conducted workshops and presentations that focused on topics ranging from the practical to the philosophical. Creativity, emerging technology discussions and the encouragement to push the boundaries of web design were common themes this year.

For the workshops, there were four different tracts attendees could participate in: Design; Development; Front-End Development; Marketing and Mobile. I participated in most of the Design workshops which covered everything from typography to design process to prototyping. I also participated in a lecture by J Cornelius who talked about the benefits of using HTML 5 markup language and why it’s so awesome.

And speaking of awesome, Leslie Jensen-Inman from UT-Chatanooga kicked us off Friday morning with an inspirational talk and encouraged everyone to follow their passion and to simply “make awesomeness.” Last year, Leslie spoke at Converge SE and discussed her involvement in CreateAthon On Campus at UT-C and how powerful the experience was for her and her students. Pretty cool to hear about the impact CreateAthon is making in other parts of the country. Yeah, shout out to CreateAthon!

A few notes and sidebars from some of the other speakers that I found interesting:

• From J Cornelius, a software/web developer:

- “IE7 is the new IE6″ (IE6 is a developers’ worst nightmare)

- 4.8 billion people have never seen the web

- HTML5 gives us the ability to do amazing things. Check out www.thisshell.com to see what’s possible.

- In the end, it’s our job {as web designers} to create an “experience” online.

- And lastly, J suggested that we “Go build some cool stuff.”

• Chandler Van De Water discussed typography and how he uses software to create original typeface designs. SIDEBAR: I won a typeface creation app for drawing a lowercase R! I’ll be using it to experiment with a new type family soon!

• Giovanno DiFeterici talked about historical and contemporary art and the psychology behind it. He discussed the importance of collaboration and talked about the process of creating the artwork for this year’s ConvergeSE marketing materials (which is amazing).

• Bermon Painter showed how he successfully eliminates wireframes and excessive documentation and jumps right into rapid prototyping by using sketches and actual content (as opposed to greek copy).

On Saturday, we heard from nine or ten more speakers who discussed topics ranging from mobile testing, building online communities and the importance of customer service, simplicity in design, coding for CSS, importance of social groupings and identity, design process and much more.

Overall, a great conference and a great venue to meet new people and to learn more about web design and development. Way to go Converge SE — I’ll be back next year!

So much to love.

Still my commitment to Instagram goes deeper. This free little download has changed everything about the way I look at the world around me. Partly because it’s just fun to keep an eye out for an interesting something that might make a swell photo. But also because I am wildly inspired by the images that are delivered to me, right there in my Instagram feed. There is something fascinating about seeing ordinary, daily life transformed into magical crops, viewed through someone else’s life lens.

For example:

from Riggs Partners Design Director Ryon Edwards

from my friend, Karen Dukes

from my daughter, Eliza Ellis

What a gift it is to see the world differently; to be more aware simply because you are looking. 

Today is a great day to look around. Look for light and shapes and texture and color. Snap a shot or two and see if your view of the world doesn’t open up just a bit.

Beauty is all around us, every moment.

Just look.

Benefits are great, but selling is not OK.

People don’t like salesmen. That’s because people believe that good salesmen pitch and charm people into buying. While actually untrue of the best salespeople, “an Eskimo buying ice” is perception.

One technique taught by the consultants at Sandler Training is disarming honesty. Disarming honesty throws prospects off balance, and makes them feel in control. The same technique can work in marketing. Esurance uses the technique beautifully in their recent commercial about savings.

Our business is all about closing the gap between perception and reality. Here are three steps to accomplish this effectively:

1. Most importantly, don’t lead with the “sell.”
2. Empathize with your audience’s insight by using disarming honesty to create a problem.
3. Demonstrate how your product or service solves the problem.

The worst mistake many marketers make is trying to sell by confronting a perceived negative consumer perception up front. Oldsmobile’s famous failure: “We’re not your father Oldsmobile” comes to mind. With a more informed and demanding consumer than ever, it’s time to let candor take the lead.

If you could “back” a project on Kickstarter, which one would it be and why?

Julie Turner
I am going to help fund this one about a group of volunteers who are “trespassing” to take care of the old Detroit Tigers Stadium. The field is all that’s left of the once-hallowed stadium and they refuse to let it get wild and abandoned. Go Navin Fields Grounds Crew!

Kevin Archie
I recently backed Snapstagram, which takes your Instagram photos and turns them into high-quality 4″ by 4″ prints, delivered right to your (or a friend’s) door. I love this project because I completely agree that “it’s time we start getting back to seeing how special a photograph is. A place, a moment, frozen in time.”

Kevin Smith
Quench Artspace — Quench combines contemporary art, a cool gallery space and the need to revitalize an historic New England village. Outstanding fun, and a cool logo.

Teresa Coles
It will be CreateAthon, the newly formed nonprofit that will be building capacity to help CreateAthon grow across the US!

Ryon Edwards
过去的四年里，我们跟随两名中国公民记者——27岁的佐拉和57岁的老虎庙——穿梭于中国大陆等地区，探访了这个飞速发展的国家里那些被遗忘的村庄和城市里被边缘化的群体。本片已从最初的一个小项目发展到如今这个超过600小时原始影音材料的庞大制作。 访问到的地区包括北京、广州、重庆、西安、武汉、台北，布加勒斯特（罗马尼亚），以及无数中国农村偏远城市。

 
Kickstarter is a website that helps turn dreams into realities by connecting people with new ideas to those willing to support them financially. Check out their site to see which project you would back — and then do it!

Last week I bought an axe.

I am no woodsman — though I’d like to be — and I have never cut down a tree. I can’t grow a beard and I only own one flannel shirt (it was on sale at Urban Outfitters). So when I found myself on the Best Made website drooling over hand-painted, individually numbered, luxury axes, I couldn’t help but wonder why. I’m not one to pine over petty lumberjack paraphernalia so I’m not exactly sure how this came to be. Perhaps it was the annual camping trip I’ve taken with friends for the past several years that got my, pardon the expression, fires burning. But that can’t be the reason because despite my boy scout efforts to always be prepared, I never go looking for camping materials more than a day in advance. So I’m left with one conclusion: beautiful design.

Not only is the Best Made website simple and easy to navigate — with sparse typography and all products placed against a stark white background — but the products themselves, aside from being handmade works of art, are utilitarian in nature. Axes that actually cut down trees. Scissors that could last a lifetime. They even sell tweezers designed by an industrial machinist. There are brilliantly curated books, maps turned into art, and even custom-made maple syrup. From the elegant tags that speak to the history of the company to the Best Made packaging tape used on the box, every detail is meticulously considered.

When I delved further into the Best Made brand, I was not surprised to find that their founder, Peter Buchanan-Smith, was a graphic designer. Best Made, through simple design and an awareness of its core values (courage, compassion, grace, fortitude) has successfully made a tool once exclusive to woodsmen and loggers into a work of art coveted by nerdy designers like me, who will use it once, maybe twice, for fear of scuffing the logo. In this way, we see that design can be used as a tool to reveal new interests to an audience formerly uninterested.

A company designated as a B-Corp operates in a legal structure that acknowledges and rewards an organization’s impact on societal issues as well as bottom-line performance. So a company doesn’t have to be all about making money. Nor does it have to be all about doing good, and never making any money. It can do both, peacefully coexisting in a way that gives companies, their stockholders and their employees the opportunity to do business in a way that upholds a set of shared values. All of which makes for a more productive and meaningful work experience.

Some folks believe this new corporate structure has the potential to create an entirely new sector on the economy that can use the power of business to solve critical issues in the world. Count me among them.

So it was with much delight that I read about South Carolina lawmakers coming together in a bipartisan manner to bring this new business model to our state. If passed, South Carolina would be recognized as an early adopter of B-Corp legislation (only seven states in the US have enacted B-Corp laws thus far), another great demonstration of the Palmetto State’s advanced, pro-business climate.

If you’re not familiar with the B-Corp movement, take a moment and watch this TED video from B-Corp founder Jay Coen Gilbert. It may just change the way you think about business, for good.

Jay Coen Gilbert on B-Corp and the Evolution of Capitalism

It’s spring break for some students this week — what would you do if you had the week off?

Jody Piland
I would be relaxing on a cruise in the Caribbean.

Cathy Monetti
lie on a beach. any beach.

Julie Turner
I would plan to do nothing at all and then within two hours have a long list of projects to do.

Kevin Archie
I would go out into some woods with some friends and watch the sun rise and swim in a river and cook food over a fire and percolate hot black coffee and not check email or Facebook or Twitter but read a book and follow a trail and stare at the sky until the sun turned into the moon.

Teresa Coles
I would be parked at Edisto with everyone else in Lexington County who’s there, including my daughter!

Will Weatherly
Sleep late (9am), then go play outside (rollerblade, mountain bike, tennis, soccer).

 What would you do?