Design Thought Leader

To me it’s the most important thing when working at home to have an inspiring workroom. I spend a lot of time in the room so I have tried to make it as inspiring  and comfortable as possible. As you can see I love mid-century design and I feel its one of my main influences. Being able to live with and work with good design makes everything more efficient and it’s just great stuff.

Matte Stephens
Artist

We think this kind of online peer-to-peer criticism is counterproductive on a very practical level as well. In our view, what this whole subculture of small, independent studios really needs is a sense of solidarity. It could do with less bickering, less backstabbing.

We think this whole international scene of small studios is really special, and we should try to protect it as much as possible. The independent studio is pretty much a threatened species. The catastrophic influence from branding-, marketing- and PR-people becomes more and more visible every day. Large advertising conglomerates are taking over the kind of territory that was usually covered by smaller, more cultural studios. The world has gone mad, and even the smallest client suddenly wants to work with pitches and competitions, because they believe this is the way it should be. We really think that, in the middle of all madness, we should stick together. We should use our combined energy to defend this whole subculture of small studios. We shouldn’t be putting energy in complaining about each others work. ‘I would have kerned this logo in a completely different way’ … well, of course you would have kerned it in a completely different way. But what’s the point moaning about that in public? We all have different graphic languages; that’s the beauty of it. Why spend so much energy on what are basically small stylistic differences? …

You know how people sometimes say that ‘the work should speak for itself’? We never really bought that phrase. The point is, we are quite traditional, old-school graphic designers. We design objects to function within very specific contexts. So the moment you present those objects within a totally different context, as flat digital images on a website, it’s only logical that you need some words to at least sketch the original context.

Added to that, we really enjoy ‘background information’. We love reading about artists and their methods, watching documentaries about the making of movies, listening to writers being interviewed on the radio. We like the idea that behind every artifact, behind every designed object or piece of art, there is a complete universe of ideas, references, stories. So we like to add to this ‘background genre’ by creating, on the internet, a small hidden gateway to our own micro-universe. We are not saying that everybody should read it, or like it; on the contrary, we really created our archive for the small group of people really interested in it.

Marieke Stolk, Danny van den Dungen and Erwin Brinkers
Founders and Designers, Experimental Jetset

The simple fact is this: You, and only you, can determine what works best for you. Regardless of how biased or objectively the advice is phrased, you would be unwise to not consider alternate methods and ideas throughout your entire career. You would be even more unwise to be swayed by every new compelling or forceful argument that comes along merely because it was spoken by someone notable. …

Rest assured a ‘better’ tool, a ‘better’ process, a ‘better’ way will always come along. However, what will remain unchanged is the need for you to know what works best for your personal, project, and client needs—and to adapt when it really is a better way.

Cameron Moll
Founder of Authentic Jobs and Proprietor of Cameron Moll LLC

Let this be the last New Year that you make a ‘new start.’ Think about it. Every January the world makes new resolutions and every February those newly purchased exercise machines become overpriced clothes hangers. Rather than look to the calendar to set an ill-fated point of new beginnings, let every day become its own accomplishment. Start each day with an idea of what you are setting out to achieve, incorporating the resolutions listed above into bite-size, attainable daily goals.

How can you be more productive today? How can you expand awareness of your brand today? Who can you connect with today amongst your peers? What new skill can you learn or improve upon today? How will you better communicate with your clients today?

We cannot do it all at once. Nor is it realistic to expect ourselves to reach the end of the year and look back at the goals we set—without ever checking in along the way—to reveal a perfect success rate.

Live your life as a freelancer in the moment. Set out to do the best you possibly can for today and discover the joy of a job well done on a daily basis, rather than a yearly disappointment. The pride you take in your completed work, the sense of accomplishment at the end of a productive day, and the constant growth as a person as well as a freelancer in your field will improve your quality of living in ways you can only imagine.

Resolve to let these resolutions be the last one’s you make on an annual basis. Resolve to embrace each day with expectation and a full view of its unlimited potential. Resolve to live and work and play within each moment to the fullest of your abilities and enjoy a new life from this point forward, rather than a New Year every January.

You won’t be sorry.

Brian K. McDaniel
Freelance Web and Graphic Designer

Do good work. For us the quality of the work coming out of our studio is THE most important thing, above all else. You are only as good as your last job. Sometimes its easy to get sidetracked by commercial requirements, but for us the number one principle is absolute commitment to work of the highest quality. We try not to stray from that.

Tim Beard, Jonathon Jeffrey and Mason Wells
Directors, Bibliothèque

I think it’s absolutely critical to have a strong culture in a studio. A design studio is a living, breathing thing and people generally work extremely hard, so its important the environment and culture supports that. They’re creatively investing themselves in their outcomes so there’s a bit of your blood in everything you deliver. I think that brings a bit more emotion and passion to the process and more emotion and passion means more potential conflict or just more intensity.

It’s very important that people feel valued, that they’re part of the team and that they’re supported. We’ve developed out Quality Assurance system for delivering projects, so that people feel they could go out on a limb and make mistakes, stuff up and not ruin a project. Because part of design is that element of chance and surprise, if you manage that out of your creative process you miss out on a whole world of interesting outcomes. You’ve got to allow people to make mistakes and you’ve got to allow people to grow in a business.

Soren Luckins
Founder and Director, Büro North

As Creative Directors our philosophy is to [give] designers as much freedom as possible, and only intervening when they go off track. Yet it is only possible to adopt a hands-off approach when you work with good people. If you employ second-rate designers then you have to intervene all the time.

It’s the same with the authors or the external designers we decide to work with on books. Editing is like being a Creative Director, it only works if your intervention is wanted and respected, so we’d only want to work with people who felt that our editorial or design interventions were welcome. If we were consonantly at war with an author or a designer then it probably wouldn’t be the sort of book we’d want to publish—although a bit of creative friction can often help reach a deeper and richer outcome.

Adrian Shaughnessy and Tony Brook
Founders, Unit Editions