Saying Goodbye

Our first family computer was an Apple IIc. The IIc ushered in the Snow White design period for Apple; an obvious nod to Dieter Rams. It was a beautiful machine. I spent hours on it playing One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird and completing ASCII art projects from a book I’d ordered through Scholastics. Those books and that machine inspired me to ask my mother to enrol me in a weekend computer camp offered at the University where we would design graphics using Logo or as I always remember it, Turtle. My interest in computers would fade during High School while music became the most important thing in my life. Until 1997.

In ‘97, I got my own personal computer, a Power Macintosh G3. On that machine, I learned the tools of another growing passion (Photoshop 4, QuarkXPress 4, Macromedia Dreamweaver 2) while playing music through SoundJam, which you of course now know as iTunes. That machine was a revelation to me and it did, quite honestly, change my life.

I used that G3 right up until the Macbook Pro was released in 2006. I’ve owned two of those. I’ve bought an iPod, iPod Touch, iPad, iPhone, two Apple TVs (one of each generation) and my current 27” iMac. I’m a Fanboy. There are things that just ‘click’ in your life and the IIc and G3 were two of them. Because of those two machines, other things just started to ‘click’ for me as well.

I’ve had people I idolize in my life and I reserve that spot for those I greatly respect like Ian MacKaye and Corey Rusk. Years ago, I added Steve Jobs to that list. Outside of the flash and sizzle of Apple’s keynotes and marketing, there was a man who made a difference in my life regardless of the products he helped create. There’s a challenge that Steve Jobs laid out that resonates with me as I grow older and look for direction in my own life. Do what you love and do it well. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

Thanks so much Mr. Jobs. You’ll be missed.

For The Scrapbook

The Meta Q, a great site with a focus on ExpressionEngine and design process from the folks at Q Digital Studio in Denver, has been doing a Q & A series with designers and developers within the ExpressionEngine community. It was recently my turn! If you’re interested in my own process, head over to The Meta Q and read my answers to a few questions about EE and web development in general. It was a great privilege to be involved with a site that I really enjoy reading! If you want to learn more about my (pretty opinionated) thoughts, buy me a beer some time. If you want to learn more with an increased peppering of vulgarities and trash talking, buy me four.

Jobs

Words to live by:

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

From Steve Jobs Stanford commencement speech.

Some Truth.

Look, nobody cares about your Klout score. I don’t mean that in the abstract, I mean nobody cares about your Klout score. As a number, it means nothing. If I follow your stream and appreciate what you tweet, that’s all that matters. You could have a score of two and I’d still appreciate you.

Nobody cares about your Facebook fans. Again, not abstract. There has never been any point in time where I’ve thought “I need x service. I better head over to Facebook and check x’s Facebook likes to determine how they are as a company.”

Nobody cares about your inbound links. Obviously it matters but customers don’t care how many inbound links your site has, they care about how many inbound links their site has. Also, this number is easily gamed. Build sites? Throw your logo and a link to your site at the bottom of every page on every site you build. Is it organic? No, not at all but it gets you those links back. Is it ethical? I say no but I know there are those who disagree with me. If I’m providing a service to a client, my job is to represent and push their brand, not my own. I’m pretty firm on that because, you know, it’s my job. And I’m really comfortable with my business ethics.

So what does matter? What you deliver. Period. Do the right thing for your clients, deliver what they need and not what you need and let them spread the word for you. I’d much rather have you tweet for me and then, if it meant anything, I’d much rather your Klout score be high.

Full Service vs. Service Full

Preface: I understand that there are agencies that can provide the full spectrum of design services. Kudos to those that do it well. This post isn’t meant to examine those few that have the manpower and expertise to deliver as promised, it’s meant, as always, to clarify my own feelings on agencies that aim to offer full service but fall short. Further, I don’t believe that any agency aims to fall short and I understand that advertising, design and web design are competitive industries where a finger in every pie is almost a requirement in the marketplace. My only interest here is to ask the question: why?

There’s no shortage of small to mid-sized ad agencies that propose to offer a full range of design services. From advertising to branding, web design to social media marketing, agencies try to offer it all. From where I sit, there are a couple of reasons for this; a marketplace that puts pressure on agencies to provide these services (though I’m of the opinion that the agencies created this market) and/or an inability for agencies to relinquish any amount of control over the clients they serve. As I embark on my own practice with Happy Camper, my goal is to offer ‘full service’ but not be ‘service full’.

Full Service to me means offering as much as I can to a client within the confines of my discipline. If it’s my intent to offer web design services, my hope is to offer the full breadth of those services and not an inch more. Certainly, I could offer advertising, branding, and print design but each of these things is outside the scope of my expertise and I’m not ashamed or embarrassed to admit it.

Within my own town, there are innumerable shops set up to deliver these services and I’m stoked that they exist. If a new-to-market client came to me as their first stop, I wouldn’t hesitate to send them to a local shop that I respect first to get brand and collateral taken care of. I’d welcome the opportunity to work closely with an agency when there’s a mutual understanding that I’m not stepping on their toes and they aren’t stepping on mine. Each of us servicing a different aspect of the client’s needs without compromising the quality of our own work and each benefiting financially seems like an awesome proposition to me but I get the feeling I might be in the minority.

Theater

Just read Andy Rutledge’s RFP Theater which is…um…harsh. Just wanted to take a minute and throw down my own thoughts since it helps me determine/resolve my own goals as I approach my practice.

Personally, I’m not entirely opposed to RFPs. I don’t like the idea but I can see the benefit. If I’m at a restaurant and I see ‘Hamburger: $3.50’ I’m less likely to see any value than if I see ‘Hamburger: A quarter pound Angus beef burger flame broiled to your taste and served on our house-made sesame seed bun. We top this big boy off with two slices of bacon, fresh lettuce, hand-dipped onion rings and our savory hickory BBQ sauce. $7.50’ I understand what that means and I know what I’m getting. There is, however, another side to that coin. If we’re playing ball then that playing field has to be even. If I gotta pitch, you gotta pitch. To me, your pitch to me has to include answering any questions I have without hesitation…in writing. It means that your RFP has to be as well thought out as the proposal I’m going to submit. You’re RFP should indicate a budget if you’re asking me for an estimate. If I have to work, you have to work and the more reluctant you are to work for me, the more reluctant I am to work for you because it indicates you’re not really playing ball or at least you’re not playing fair.

Look, a portfolio doesn’t tell the whole story. Granted, a portfolio supplemented with case studies tells a better story but there are some things that can be revealed through the RFP process that might not otherwise be apparent. I don’t mind telling you my process and I don’t mind loose sketching my thoughts (yeah, no, not creative, just thoughts) up front as long as that field is level. If we’re both playing a game we should admit it’s a game and we should keep score. If I’m hitting home runs, I expect to see them on the board.

As a rule

As a rule, design that aims to resolve the business needs of clients isn’t solved by clicking a Buy Now button. To approach your practice in conflict with this very basic principle exhibits both a great misunderstanding of the role of design and an incomplete appreciation of the skill set of your peers. As designers, it is our responsibility to demonstrate the value of the work we do which is made more difficult when there are those who would provide services at cost which conflict with this tenet. Just my two cents.