11.10: Lynda.com presentation

David Lye - hello design
- "Do good work and everything else happens"
- Learn new things every day, stay small
- "Design is design" - have built every studio since hello began
- Things we've learned:
   - MAKE USEFUL THINGS
   - IF YOU'VE NEVER DONE IT BEFORE, EVEN BETTER
   - SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO FLY UNDER THE RADAR
   - ALWAYS BRING IDEAS TO THE TABLE
   - MAKE THINGS, EVEN IF YOU AREN'T GETTING PAID TO
   - TELL STORIES WORTH SHARING
      - Share positive experiences, pass on culture

Yolanda Santosa
- Life is surrounded by brands
- Branding & motion graphics - both tell stories
- People <3 personality, not business
- Brand & design should collaborate with business from the beginning
- Surround yourself with food people who share your vision

Chris Do
1. Options
2. Downward pressure - budget stressed thin
3. Chain reaction - tell better stories, audience engagement
- own your content, put yourself in there
- "Above all, try something" 
- Casey Nayaset (?) #makeitcount
   - Be the author of the content
- Content trumps style
- Easy to get seduced by visual - you can be more successful with great content/story
- Story: subjective expectation vs. cruel reality
- Blue ocean strategy - you look in other areas besides what's immediately around you
- "how do you sound to others"
- "How do you make people feel"
- "The tangible results that you provide"

- "Why" before the "What" & "How"
- Clients expect great thinking - connecting dots that they can't see yet
   - Reveal what's authentic and real

YES MAN |-----------------spectrum------------------| PRIMADONNA

- What are you listening to? What are they telling you
- Need to find filet - everything must go through to remain true to brand
- You should know how your work is going to be measured before you start

Ron Miriello

- Like sex ed - there's nothing quite like it...
- School could be a place to hide
- Design doesn't work like other professions - education doesn't necessarily equal pay
- Reputation around you is the best credibility you could have 
   - Get the ends of the circle to connect
- What you do wins out over what you say
- Get involved in things beyond commerce 
- Don't give the work away, but do try to deliver
- Craft + innovation = MAGIC
- Work in the space of their mind & combine it with the "making:
- *how to apply what you're doing* don't have to be the best
- Modern craftsman > Brilliant craftsman
- Doesn't have to be 100% home made
- Move past the "object," the "thing," but it's still design 
- Less execution of design more thinking for people
- "You gotta go through the RIGOR"
- "Failure isn't as painful as you make it out to be"
- "It takes more than you think to kill you"
- We create magic on a schedule
- Guild system - that's where you get the wisdom
- It's a numbers game - be able to go through iterations quickly, efficiently
- Not luck, it's how much you want it.
- Endurance > talent
- Design doesn't have to be your whole life - you don't have to bleed Helvetica :)
- Born curious - keep protecting to keep your passion alive
- Identify design in other ways than the typical - manifests itself in random ways
- Try to see something in yourself that is slightly different than others 
   - Keep in touch with your creativity

Mth Degree

- Come to agency for objective view of their problems
- *designers are problem solvers*
- Leads all strategy, executive creative director - not involved in dat to day communication
- You have to identify the right problems to solve
- Strategy - getting to the right questions
- Samsung, LG, sony electronics
   - Corporate is complex
   - Have to understand nuances of cultures
CORE VALUES
   - Confidence: deeply held beliefes you can navigate and align
   - Creativity
-Purpose for existing, mission, vision, core values
- Culture = Remarkable work
- Collaborative conversations
- Prospect: good client knows their purpose - they are in it for more than just the money
   - clear goals - "what does success look like?"
      - Question drifts towards conversation

*Push yourself into scary situations - have to think your way through them-

- Partnership - not the kid table at Thankksgiving
   - Mutual respect, trust, communication

- Clear contract - scope of work, defined outcome, budget, timeframe
   - First 5 minutes - "What's your budget?"
      - Price vs. value - should be about value, not price - must define value well

- 20+ people
   - Defines scope > account team (proposal) > CD + Account (creative brief) > Creative team (distributed) 6-8 people on a campaign
- 2 internal presentations before client sees anything - practice the why behind the work
   - Conversation always about strategy!
   - Setup > delivery > wrap up
   - Rehearsed, everyone knows their parts
- The "WHY!" - you're not presenting the design work, you're presenting the strategy behind
   - All work should have a why behind it...
   - Don't forget about the audience!
      - Everything should be intentional
      - Make a picture of their world - emotional
- EMOTION, not intellect, moves people

- You don't hire a portfolio you hire a person!
   - Thinking + work + presentation > how will you fit into the already existing process?
- LOVING decisions > FEARFUL decisions
- A career isn't magic, it's hard work + time.
- A mindset shift from design to business
   - Craftsman > artist > business person
   - Taking people's money for value
- All business is made up.. make your own business decisions
- *design your career speech*
- "My new design project is the company
- Design skills without the aesthetic = strategy
- Active listening defines your work
- Time management - block out bit size pieces

*DISCIPLINE & PERSISTENCE*
- Innovation + marketing = profitable business
   - Innovation - ideas for a product that somebody needs
   - Marketing - telling the right people about it
   - Storytellers

- Don't be afraid to be audacious
- Richard Flores - Rise of the Creative Class
- Boundary sentences "define" brand

Sign Age Tour

Square Peg Packaging tour

- Packaging starts from the inside out
- Clients are agencies, freelance, in-house
- Solve the design problem before you get on the computer so you can spend time making it pretty!
- What environment will pallet be displayed in? Think about shoppers
- Sloppy production costs delays of time
- Don't look at size of order, look at the customer
- G7 printing profiles
- Make it fun, keep it real, be passionate
- Put the project before the design 
- If you're great at what you do, the money and jobs will follow.

10/15 : Quinn Aquent & Vitamin T

-Aquent: 20+ years - big companies
    -Vitamin T - small to mid-size
What clients are looking for:
-Potential empoyers (clients)
-Temp, contract; "employee of aquent"
-Opportunity + Skill-matching!
-Understands what clients need

-Titles can vary from company to company
-Designers as problem solvers
   -Problem/Action/Result models in an interview (how will they solve my problems?)
      -Doesn't always have to be quantifiable
-VP levels want excitement

In a portfolio
- Love diversity, but be open with what your strengths are
- Tell a story with the portfolio - your 2 successes you're most proud of
   - Role, why are you proud of it?

*One-page resume*
   - Freelance - description / clients
- "I don't understand what the designer did on that project"
- Challenged & how you overcame them
   - Turn you challenges into an example of how we can count on you

- Banner ads, catalogs, brochures...

*Print production managers * - big in SD
* Email design and development*
*Lynda.com interactive/coding vids.*

- Mobile & UX designers
   - Don't have to be a web person to design moble
- Offices all over the U.S... if you're traveling let them know!
- Maternity leave calls!
- Placed for 90 days, then hired (hopefully)
- Design skills and languages
- Elligible for benefits!!
- It's ok to just show a few pieces
- PROBLEM/ACTION/RESULT - even for fictitious projects
- Might understand more abou the job in interview - highlight certain things
- Can usually get in contact with client, not just send it into "the abyss"

Thought you all might find this interesting...

It's a space very similar to the one planned for the IDEA district: http://coop.onedesigncompany.com/

Check it out!