The Swiss Army Knife Approach...

I've started to notice a trend that is rising up within the graphic design community. No longer is it enough to be just a designer. You have to have something else going for you as well. I'm not sure if it is because the pay isn't there (I don't think that's the case... we get paid pretty good for just drawing) but more and more I am noticing designers entering the field with multiple disciplines. Sometimes the fields or interests compliment each other and sometimes they are completely opposite. Personally, I'm of the mindset that the more you know the better off you are. So who's to say you can't have a biology degree and still be a designer; Margo Chase (Who Are We - Part: 2) did it and she is one of the most respected designers in America today. Other designers like Randy J Hunt (Who Are We - Part: 10) are pushing the envelope by being a business man, designer, and basically a social worker (I'm not sure how to categorize his efforts in helping the less fortunate) . People like this are perfect examples of why you should not just take a 9-5 and be happy doing just that. Stretch yourself.

We are designers. We live in a world that revolves around marketing, advertising, and sales. We understand the angles and know what the consumer is thinking. So lets apply what we know to ourselves. Ask yourself, would you want to buy a pocketknife with only one blade or ten? I know, it depends on what you're using this knife for but work with me here. Most people would see the ten bladed pocketknife, snatch it up, and probably pay more for it. Same applies for designers or any professional for that matter. If you are able to accomplish what three people can, you're an extremely marketable individual and pretty valuable as well.

So when it comes to competing in today’s emerging design community, you cannot be caught sitting on the sidelines. There are too many people out there wanting to know more and do more. You cannot afford to be left behind. As young designers, this is a golden opportunity. We are not stuck in a rut, having mastered only one aspect of an expanding field. Branching out is not a goal we must set for ourselves to stay current. We are already there. We are free to experience every option, learning as we go, and applying those experiences to better our career and ourselves. Dare to push yourself and expand you capabilities. Ultimately, you will be the one who benefits from it.

Who Are We (Part:14)...

It's that time of the week again. I've had a little time this weekend to look around for great designers and I think I've stumbled upon an amazing woman who has contributed a great deal to our profession. Debbie Millman is that woman and this week's addition to my weekly post Who Are We. She is a Managing Partner and President of the Design Division at Sterling Brands, one of the leading brand identity firms in the country. This probably means that she is no longer getting her hands dirty in Illustrator or Photoshop like so many of us designer pawns but she has put in the time and her involvement in the graphic design community speaks for it's self.

She has invested over 25 years in the design community and now heads up a brand identity firm with clients like AOL, Burger King, Citigroup, Miller, NBA, Sony, and Valvoline. This is all very impressive but I think the reason why I'm glad to be highlighting Debbie Millman is because of her blog. Yes Debbie blogs just like yours truly. To be honest with you, Debbie's blog is much better than mine. She is so well respected by designers around the globe that she is fortunate enough to be able to sit down with other designers and conduct an actual interview. These sessions are called Design Matters and she does this live every Friday from 3-4 pm (eastern). She has interviewed nearly everyone that I have highlighted. I only offer an overview of who these people are, and then you have to go out and research more yourself. Debbie gives you the opportunity to hear what these designer greats are thinking. She can ask the questions that everyone wants to know, dig deeper and further into the graphic design elite, and expose some of their tricks and secrets.

Some of her comments out side of the interviews are a great read as well. They are reflections on the design/marketing/advertising world and everything else. I haven't had a lot of time to really dive deep into her blog but from what I have seen, I'm extremely interested and impressed. Let me know what you think. I'm always looking for feedback on my choices for Who Are We. If you have any suggestions on who I should highlight next, I'd love to hear them. You never know, you could see them up here sometime soon.

Spotlight Search: Design Inspiration...

Wouldn't it be great if when you hit that inevitable mind block during a project you could hit a couple keys and search for inspiration. Most designers after being in the real world for a while build up a bunch of prior concepts that they can return to for help in tearing down the walls of a mind block. Maybe those more experienced know of places on the web that can either offer advice or inspire you so that you can beat that lingering brain fart. One thing your not really taught in school, that you most likely pick up on the job, is where to look for new and fresh ideas. So I thought I would share a few sites that might help when your feeling creatively challenged (these are most likely familiar to a lot of you out there but maybe not).

1. HOW Magazine - A design/Creative/Business magazine/website with a lot of great articles online to help offer ways of breaking through some of the most common design barriers. It also has great information on the global design community. Most of the articles are pretty interesting and worth checking out.

2. DeviantART - It's kinda like a social network for amateur and professional artist alike. It's a great way to see what some of the young undiscovered talent is doing out there. It can help when trying to get a read on what the younger generation is into and doing.

3. DesignFLOOD - More for the web designers among us but who says print designers can't take inspiration from websites. It's a site that has multiple pages of links to some of the most creative websites I've seen. You can vote on which ones you like and don't like. It's another great way to keep your finger on the pulse of design.

4. CMYK Mag - Another heavy weight in the design magazine/website arena. Basically HOW Mag and CMYK Mag are along the same lines although they may not appreciate me saying this. They have different writers and therefore different articles but both appeal to the same demographic.

5. Best Brand of the World - This site isn't really about inspiration but it can be a big help when doing logo designs or using corporate logos in a project. If you ever need a logo (ex: VW, Smirnoff,etc...) look here. It's my bet that they have it along with all the restrictions that go along with how you can use the logo. Best part is that they tend to be in vector format so they can be resized easily.

There are countless others out there that are great for inspiration and help it's just a matter of finding or hearing about them. If you have any sites that you think have been invaluable to your creativity or design and you want to share them, post them in the comments or shoot me an email and i'll include them in a later post. I'll keep looking and my ears open for any more sites and when I find them, I'll post them.

Without Email...

I'd like to propose a question to everyone. What would you do if you didn't have email for a day? Would your business grind to a near halt? Could you function as a designer or entrepreneur? Think about how much of your daily life revolves around the internet and email. If your like me, maybe you receive thirty to fourty emails a day and spend five to six hours on the internet. Or maybe that doesn't compare. Still, very little of my communication happens through "snail mail" or even the telephone any more. It seems like we take for granted the luxury of having email. So how would you cope without this modern form of communication?

The generation before mine may find themselves saying, back in the day we didn't have the internet, there was no email. We still got things done and we had to walk up hill in both directions in the snow to do it. But I say, do you think you could do that again and still maintain the same level of efficiency. I'm not sure you could. The immediacy of email and the internet compliment this fast paced world in a way that has allowed businesses to accomplish tasks that would normally take a couple weeks in only a couple days. I don't think we could digress back without some painful sacrifices and a whole lot of complaining.

The crazy thing about this is that the internet is only getting faster and more reliable (kinda). Back when email first came about, you had to wait a couple hours to receive it and you were never really sure if it got there. Most found themselves calling the recipient to make sure that they received the email. Talk about a pointless waste of time. Not any more. Email has become so ingrained in our daily lives it's hard to imagine what it would be like without it ... until you don't have it any more. Still some of you might remember when there was no web, no email, no PDA's with email and web access but for the emerging generation of working professionals it has always been there. We rely on this relatively new technology for everything we do. We are almost helpless without it.

I am in the midst of experiencing this crisis and I will tell you that I can not imagine what it must have been like. For now though, I am relying on my personal email (which is about as fast as a comatose sloth), my cell phone (texting), and someone two floors down who still has their corporate email for all my communications. It has been a pain but I think I can weather the storm till we get our system back online and I can keep up with the world once more.

Who Are We (Part:13)...

The past few weeks I have been talking about designers from either the distant past or my relative geographical proximity so this week I feel as though I should expand on my boundaries a little. In order to do this I am heading across the pond to a island called the United Kingdom, more specifically London. A friend introduced me to this designer over the weekend (we were at a bar enjoying a cocktail at an Irish bar ... Happy St. Patty's day) and so I checked him out and decided I would like to feature him this week. So without further ado, this weeks designer for my weekly Who Are We posts is a man by the name of Kam Tang.

Tang is not unlike most designers out there that like to think of themselves and a combination of artist and designer. A student of both the old and new ways of creating graphic images, Tang is able to appreciate the intricacies of well thought out simple graphic or a elaborate flowing image. With educational training in Illustration from the Royal College of Art, his understanding of design is nothing to be overlooked. His client list is impressive enough to make some large design agencies blush and yet this man is doing it all as a free-lance artist. Just to give you a feel for who Tang has done work for, here is a list of some of his clients. I think you might have heard of a couple: The Guardian, Wired, Arena, Wallpaper, Adidas, Nike, Sony, Gnarles Barkley and the Royal Mail. Not so bad in my book. If your interested in who this designer is you can check out his Wikipedia site. His website is worth checking out but unfortunately there is only a limited amount of art (google images has much more of his work).

Let me know what you think of this weeks addition to the Who Are We family. As always, if you have a designer in mind that you think I should look into, leave a message and I'll check them out. You could see them up here sometime soon.

What Makes Your Cube Creative...

In a working world surrounded by four free-standing walls, it is hard to find great inspiration from your surroundings. That doesn't mean that it isn't there, just that you need to look harder. Some people take their work space and turn it into some sort of theme park, others litter the walls with notes and other assortments, but what ever you do, it must speak to you.

I'm interested to hear what other designers and creative individuals out there do to make their work space more conducive to the nature of their profession. You can post a picture, describe it in word if you'd like, you can even make a crayon drawing and submit it. I'm just very curious to see the lengths some people will go to make their environment creative.

I'll start things off...

My "cube" is four walls covered with notes, color palettes, thumb-tacks, and posters. My shelves are littered with books that focus on design and help stir my creativity. Out the door is a window that looks over downtown Denver. It helps me feel like I'm not trapped in a cell. Computers and monitors consume most of the space on my desk but their is still room for a notepad when I need to sketch up an idea. It's not the most creative environment but I'm still in the process of making it my own.

-Chris Nuernberger-

Who Are We (Part:12)...

I'm a few days late with my Who Are We post and I'm terribly sorry about being tardy. It's been a busy week with very little time to sit down and find a graphic designer that I think you should know about. You need not worry though because I have stumbled upon a designer during my reading that I think not too many people have heard of. Maybe you have heard of him but you don't think of him as a designer. This designer is different from the rest in a unique way. He was born in 1860, back before computers were even a distant thought. He is proof that our profession has been around for a while.

Alphonse Mucha was an artist in the purest sense. Lived the stereotypical life of an artist. He was drawing before he could walk. Born in the Czech Republic in a time where artist were creating masterpieces. This influx of art from the masters into mainstream society gave Mucha only one choice, he must move to Paris. He moved there in 1887 and from there his career took off (in a very loose sense). He had moments of success followed by periods of little work. During this time Mucha was called upon to create a poster for Sarah Bernhardt's play, Gismonda. His design was something completely new and sparked a little movement called "ART NOUVEAU." I'm sure you've heard of the movement but most people don't associate Mucha with graphic design but more with painting. Back then they were more one in the same rather than being separate. From here his fame spread and Mucha had finally made it. He paired up with a man by the name of Champenois and started doing postcards and other things.

He is a very good artist and designer. I'm not sure I can say that he started the graphic design profession but being able to say that you helped start a movement isn't a bad thing to have on your resume. If your looking for a designs to give you a traditional feel then I would have to recommend Alphonse Mucha.

A thing to keep in mind as your looking for inspiration among the design community. You can never know where you are going if you don't know where you've been. I hope you like my selection for this week's Who Are We post. Let me know your thoughts and if you have anyone I should look into, please don't hesitate to send me an email. I promise I'll look into them and you might see them up here on my blog.

Careful, Confidential...

Working in the business world, sometimes you are told things that probably shouldn't be repeated outside of your office. Other times you know more about something than the rest of the public but you are still asked to keep things confidential. I was going to make a post last week about certain information that has been floating around my office. It is nothing scandalous or really that secret but I was reminded by a fellow colleague that even though I may not view this as a confidential piece of information, others (more importantly, those who have the power to fire me) might think differently.

So I'd like to take this time to offer a piece of advice to those out there that are just entering the working world and may not have a complete understanding of what confidential means. It means, anything you hear, read, write, or look at cannot leave your work with out expressed approval. If you're going to take it and place it on a blog (like I was about to) you have to go through your PR department, your SVP of marketing and get written consent to publish anything having to do with you place of employment. If you ever have even the slightest concern about whether or not you should talk about this, just ask someone and I'm sure they will be able to guide you and possibly save you from a lot of trouble.

So whether you're blogging or just chatting with some friends at a bar, remember your job hinges on what you say and to whom. Better to learn your lesson through reading about it than experiencing it through your own mistakes.

Who Are We (Part:11)...

So last week I brought you a young man who is doing amazing work with helping mankind in mind. The week before I spoke about David Carson. He could possibly be the most well known graphic designer in the world. He lives in London. For this week however I would like to highlight America's take on designer royalty. This designer comes from, where else, New York city. Actually he was born in Pennsylvania but has since moved east to the big apple. Who is this man who USA Today calls the "closest thing to a graphic design rock-star?"

His name is Chip Kidd.

He is mostly known for his unique approach to book covers and his ridiculous pace at which he cranks them out. He is so good at what he does that some authors, like Oliver Sacks, require their contracts have clauses in them stating that Chip Kidd must design their book cover. A following like that doesn't come easy. Besides having the lure to attract such a loyal following, his list of authors is just as impressive.

There are a couple of websites that you should check out if your interested in Chip Kidd. First is his website. It has a blog that has some interesting quotes and links to some of his other pages and projects. The other site I will be posting on later in more depth later but you should check it out now. It's called ilovedesign.com and it's from Quark. They're starting to change things up a little bit and I think this site offers a unique mingling of the design community and a social networking concept. There are interview clips with Chip Kidd and a couple other great designers. It is defiantly worth the time to check it out and see what they have to say.

As always, I am interested in what you think about this weeks addition to Who Are We? If you have any suggestions for me, please don't hesitate to let me know. I will look into them and you might see them up here in the future.