How can you invest your product or service with “lovability” and create devotion in your customers? Here are some options:

• Love it yourself. If you’re not passionate about it, how can you engender passion in another?
• Know your market. Markets are made up of people, not statistics. Spend time with your market before you offer your product.
• Be patient. Give people time to react and respond to your product.
• Design it well. Design adds value and meaning to your product. Visual communication should be consistent and noble. Don’t rely on your own sense of style; invest in custom design created by an expert designer.
• Be inspiring. In general, people take hold of things they believe will make their lives better. Address that potential. Surround your product or service with words and images that speak to their needs and desires.
• Be genuine. Don’t promise anything that can’t be delivered.
• Be consistent. Staying power is important in building a brand and marketing. Plan regular connections over time with your audience, but don’t wear out your welcome. Change it up every so often.
• Be responsible. Listen to what people say about your product, both pro and con. Follow up. Fix what needs fixing.

What are some of the ways you create lovability?

I was asked by a client to re-design a print ad laid out by someone else.

The original layout (above, left) was cluttered and confused. The ad, for an author’s book signing events in upscale communities in Los Angeles County, was going to appear in a local cultural magazine. What was needed was a visual solution that supported the specific message (from Nazi Holocaust victim to survivor to thriving psychologist and author), was informative, and that appealed to the intended audience.

The original raised a lot of concerns: it lacked structure, hierarchy, a relevant color scheme, a headline, appropriate type and typographic design, proportion contrasts and visual “heroes”. Additionally, it included a poorly contrived re-creation of the Barnes & Noble brand identity, which is really not appropriate. The actual identity should have been used.

I designed my make-over from the ground up. I began with a formal structure to unify the various elements and imposed a symmetrical balance. Through hieratic scaling and isolation I made the author and her book the heroes of the design. They are now the focal point of and the visual entrance into the design.

I created a real headline from a block of text in the original and reduced the number of fonts to two, scaling the various text to appropriate sizes. I incorporated a color scheme that was neutral, warm and stabilizing, and which didn’t compete with the text. I revised the entire layout to establish a natural flow of information and create an orderly presentation. The result is a simpler layout that is easy to understand. The ad is now unified, appealing and relevant to the author, the book and the intended audience. The perceived value is increased.

Dr. Erica Miller web site.

I teach a course at UCLA Extension called Elements of Design. It deals with the stuff design is made of. Things like balance, gestalt theory, proportion, value, color, structure and composition all go into the mix of what design is all about. Students who complete the course come away with the understanding that design is not one thing or another but a conglomeration of elements. Remove one or several and it’s just not design.

We can say the same about designers. Let me begin with this analogy: It’s conceivable that a person can purchase a stethoscope and a white coat, have his name embroidered on it and call himself a doctor. But the proof of his being a doctor is not in his accessories or attire, but in his knowledge.

The person who takes a few software classes, prints up some business cards, sets up a website and calls himself a designer is not necessarily a real designer. He might look like a real designer but without certain abilities that are essential to the craft he’s created a veneer with no substance to support it.

Real designers, whether formally educated or not, are set apart by virtue of what they know and how they apply it. (How and where they learn these things is not my point here.) Beyond technical ability using Creative Suite software, there are critical thinking skills and background knowledge involved in creating successful design solutions.

This is my list of essential knowledge and abilities that are foundational to being a real designer. Lacking any of these ingredients compromises one’s ability to design well, if at all, in my experience. Please note that none of these have anything to do with Photoshop:

Design principles and elements, including gestalt theory;
Color theory, including web and print color, psychology, symbology and basic scientific properties of light and pigment;
Typography, including typefaces and font families, and the ability to select a face based on how it needs to communicate;
Knowledge of design history;
Knowledge of popular culture, current trends and future projections;
Drawing skills, because drawing is a basic form of visual communication;
Verbal and written communication skills to be able to present a solid rationale for design decisions, keep clients informed and educate when necessary.

Then on top of these foundational ingredients we can add technical skill and the ability to engage in the design process to reach a successful outcome. Why? Because a real designer can design with a pencil or a computer. The tool is secondary; the thinking ability is primary.

A few places where you can get learn design without applying to a degree program:
Art Center at Night
Otis Continuing Education
UCLA Extension
School of Visual Arts Continuing Education
Rhode Island School of Design Continuing Education
Pratt Institute Continuing & Professional Studies
Parsons The New School for Design Continuing Education
Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design Continuing Education

Graphic design represents ideas and values. A design is not in itself the idea, but the expression of it. Design points to something greater than itself. In most cases design serves as an ambassador, not as the self-expression of the designer, but as the expression of a business or organization to its audience. The value of a design is in how and what it communicates.

If your business or organization is a worthy enterprise, shouldn’t it be represented by something that is equally worthy?

If you were to choose an ambassador to represent your interests to the world, wouldn’t it behoove you to choose someone who will represent you accurately and deliver your message clearly; someone who cares how you’re presented and how people respond to you? You’re not going to simply drive by and pick someone off the street corner to do that. You’re going to carefully select from qualified candidates.

If your design assets represent your interests, why wouldn’t you want them to be as carefully chosen?

If a business is worth establishing and customers are worth pursuing, why not make the appropriate investment? You should be concerned that your graphic assets are serving your interests and representing your enterprise in the best way possible. A worthy enterprise deserves the investment in and the cost of a worthy ambassador.

Setting up for a critique session in one of my classes at UCLA Extension.

Being a designer is perceived by many as a fun job. Designers get to work with colors, shapes and amazing computer programs and be creative for a living. The design field is a natural choice for creative people.

Students often enter a design program and are surprised by the reality that design is a discipline. Design involves theory and practice. It includes psychology and geometry. There is critical thinking and hand skills that need to be developed. There are tools and materials, drawing and technology. There are objectives, expectations and deadlines.

Design takes aesthetic principles and marries them to function. A designer must be visually literate, able to speak the visual language. This involves being able to think both concretely and creatively. In school, theory taught and projects assigned are meant to develop these skills and ingrain them into the emerging designer so that they become innate. Achieving these things is not easy. It takes hard work, long hours, trial and error, evaluation and lots of coffee. Students complain when a project takes all their time or is too hard for them.

What should determine the degree of difficulty for a given project or course of study: a student’s inexperience and assumption that design is supposed to be fun and easy?

We automatically default to our lowest level of effort. This default position results in mediocrity rather than excellence. Most of us become designers to create meaning, to create change or to achieve significance. In none of these cases will mediocrity meet the call. We must be excellent. Excellence requires effort and training.

The design practice isn’t for everyone. Design is not easy. Design is not decoration. It is a discipline. It is naturally difficult. Those who are gifted with visual acumen must still develop the character required to make those creative gifts useful and the skills needed to provide a platform. Those with less talent are not necessarily out of the game, but they must understand that what makes design valuable is not that it’s fun or pretty but that it is the result of a compendium of thought, evaluation, ideas, skill, theory and practice. Competition for design jobs is crowded with talented people exercising various levels of discipline and character development.

When students realize the challenges ahead of them they generally respond in one of two ways: either they say it’s too hard and give up or, or they take up the challenge, press in, work through and allow themselves to be molded into visually literate people with the ability to create the right solution to a stated problem.

The degree of difficulty is determined by the level of competition and the expectations of excellence imposed by the sophisticated, visually-aware marketplace.

Businesses have a choice when seeking creative services: They can go the cheap route and buy a logo through a crowdsource/contest site where they’ll select the lowest bidder, or they can commission a designer for a custom, targeted design. This creates a dilemma for legitimate freelancers. Competition for freelance design work is not only increasing, it’s being degraded as design thinking becomes under-valued and relegated to the level of banal doodles seeking a home. If businesses get used to paying pennies for a bad design offered by the lowest bidder or for an off-the-rack piece of badly drawn clip art, the profession itself will be compromised.

Many freelancers are turning to these crowdsourcing sites, thinking that getting something – anything – is better than nothing. And if they can win bids enough times they may be able to eek out a living. However, that approach leaves everything to chance and speculation – not a great way to make a living. It’s a gamble.

Leaving your income up to chance is neither wise nor proactive. Giving others control over your livelihood while spending time creating work that may or may not be purchased is neither useful to you nor helpful for achieving your long term goals.

The best way to get new work is through relationship. As people begin to know you they trust you. Trust is one of the best compensations anyone can earn. Relationships and trust however, take time to build.

You build relationship by becoming involved with people. Joining chambers of commerce or service clubs like Rotary, Kiwanis and the Lions, or serving as a volunteer with cause-based organizations will help spread your reputation and create opportunities for conversation and trust.

Target people and businesses you want to work with. There’s the temptation to take just any project that comes along, but it’s better to be judicious in selecting work and clients that are a good fit. Not every project is the right one. Not every client is worth working with. So be selective. Being selective requires, of course, a foreknowledge of the kind of client you want to work with. Foreknowledge requires planning and evaluation.

Use your LinkedIn and Facebook connections. Don’t just link up with other designers but also with business owners, marketing pros and corporate executive who might be strategic for your professional growth—people who will refer you or would give you a project directly.

Ask for referrals from current and past clients. Don’t have a client yet? Ask for referrals from friends and family. Don’t be afraid to let people know you’re looking for work. Always follow up on the referral and be sure to thank the referrer, even if their referral doesn’t pan out. Expressing gratitude is golden.

Whatever you do, do it with the long-term in mind. It’s tempting to focus on short-term revenue or getting the next project. Yet whatever you do, first determine where you want to go as a design practitioner. Where do you want to end up at the end of your time in the profession? What contributions do you want to make? Then break ground and build that foundation now. Be willing to give up some short-term fixes for the sake of your long-term goals. What strategic relationships do you want to establish now that will benefit you down the road?

If you have a well-designed strategy for building the right relationships, you will have a better chance for sustained success than if you focus on just getting the next project.

I have been working with writer/director, Tim Kanter, to promote his play, One Life, a multi-media theatrical performance. Its synopsis is that there’s a global pandemic that is killing everyone, no one is immune, and it is going to wipe out everyone. They find one cure – in the blood of one man. Here’s the trailer featuring my logo at the end.

The print promotion includes posters and program shells.

The play will be presented at Lighthouse Church in Newbury Park, CA on April 3 & 4.

I am currently working with a playwright to develop graphics to promote his inaugural work. We have had several discussions about the origins of the work – how he came to write it and its importance to him and and to the audiences that see it. We’ve discussed the message it communications and the manner in which it communicates. Through all of our conversations his vision has emerged – what he wants to see happen and how I, as a designer, can help him accomplish it. It’s all about his vision. That’s the significant thing… he has a vision that’s bigger than writing, directing and promoting the play. The play is not the vision. The play is a means to the vision.

Every designer needs a vision – something greater than his current project queue. There should be a bigger reason for doing what you do than simply making a client happy or being creative. It has got to be greater than making a living or else designing becomes just a job and design no more important than decorating.

Vision is that thing that keeps you going, the big thing “out there” that you’re reaching for that you’re desperate to achieve. It’s the “why” behind what you do every day – the solution to a problem that you are compelled to solve or fix. It is not something you simply stumble upon, but without it, you will stumble. Vision stems from the things that you’re really passionate about and unifies everything you do.

Vision is the the ability to plan the future with imagination and wisdom. It’s a mental image of what the future will or could be like. It begins with a “burden”- that thing that is the most important among all the other things that are important. It is picturing a reality that does not yet exist but that can and should.

I believe that designers need vision for themselves because it anchors them. It will keep them going through tough projects, demanding clients and fast-paced schedules. If the only reason a person practices design is for the money or the fame, burn out is right around the corner. What keeps him going is the bigger pictures he is striving to paint.

Vision needs to be simple and memorable. It needs to be easily stated and repeatable. The more people you want to communicate your vision to, the simpler it needs to be. Try reducing it to one word. If you cannot do that, it’s not simple enough.

Vision needs to be foundational. Communicate it first to yourself so that it becomes your focal point and your raison d’etre. The more you repeat it to yourself the more it becomes part of you. It’s your stand-out point of difference from all the other designers who do what you do.

Vision needs to be transferrable. Cast your vision so that others will catch it. Why? Because you need help. Your vision is what makes you unique and valuable among your fellow design practitioners, but it’s not something you can achieve by yourself. Others need to support you in it and can’t unless they know what you’re trying to achieve. These others will include family, friends, colleagues, sub-contractors and suppliers. If they’re not supporting you in your efforts you won’t get anywhere.

An effective way to cast your vision is story-telling. Stories are the most powerful way to communicate values and vision. They bring an emotional element which empowers people. Where people won’t remember facts and figures they will remember a good story.

Vision needs to be re-cast. Once you achieve your vision, you need a new one. If you don’t keep vision out in front of you you’ll be living on past laurels with no reason to continue forward. Anticipation and hope die and you end up with nothing to look forward to.

Being without vision is problematic. Why? Without vision you will:

• Take on any project.
• Stay very busy but accomplish nothing.
• Live on your last design award or your most recent success story.
• Be outrun by the culture. The marketplace is always shifting and your clients are always changing.
• Fail to adapt your processes to a changing market. You’ll become inflexible.
• Drown in your process rather than structure your life for creative success.
• Fail to identify and pursue what’s essential.

But with a vision you will:

• Choose your projects and select your clients.
• Be less likely to settle for less.
• Order your schedule rather than it ordering you.
• Adapt to cultural and technological changes without feeling threatened by them.
• Pursue the essential things and let go of what’s not important even if those things seem urgent.
• Remain forward- focused, moving toward the goal rather than on the other runners in the race.

How do you determine your vision? Begin by answering these questions:

• What are you passionate about?
• If you weren’t here, what would not get accomplished?
• What is your ideal project or client and why?
• What would you like your future to look like in 5 or ten years? How about 25 years from now?
• What legacy do you want to pass on?

The strength of a designer lies as much in his process as in the outcome. The process – the totality of time, effort and attempt at solving the given design problem – demonstrates the care he is willing to take and the depth he is willing to go on behalf of the client.

Behind the solution to any design problem are the hours and ideas that were birthed in search of a solution. The one who does not push through several concepts is not really engaging in solving the problem but is more concerned with getting the job over with. The client might as well have picked a ready-made icon or template from one of the myriad web sites that sell them, as if design is an off-the-rack product.

People tend to default to their least level of effort in most situations. It’s tempting to land on the first idea, declaring it the best solution. The development of more than one idea demonstrates that:

• There is more than one possible solution or direction to a problem;
• The designer has taken a thoughtful approach to the client’s problem;
• That the designer has explored a variety of approaches and understands the clients needs;
• The client has a choice in the matter, along with a sense of participation and empowerment.

Additionally, developing more ideas creates confidence in the designer, knowing he has done the work and now has a rationale for his thinking that he can articulate.

I’ve heard many decry the development of multiple solutions to a single problem by saying that their first idea is always the best one so why bother with more? How do they know that? It’s my experience that I don’t know which idea is my best unless I generate at least more than one. Often the first idea is indeed the best solution, but I will never know that until I have developed many options, scrutinized all the possibilities and then determined the best of the bunch.

Why is process important? Design, if it’s going to hit the target, cannot be off-the-rack but instead needs to be custom made and one-of-a kind. Ready-mades and quick solutions have little value to the client and certainly don’t increase the value of the designer in the client’s eyes. Process shows what the designer is willing to expend in search of the solution. The designer who labors builds strength in a wealth of ideas and the skill to select the one that serves the purpose best.

Given the multitude of talented people in the design pool, the problem-solving process is a huge deal. The ability to think, evaluate and determine the best idea will set a designer apart from the pool and add value to both the working relationship with the client and the end result.

It’s an odd place to find beauty. Gutters are usually the conduits of unwanted odds and ends. They can become pretty nasty. But once in awhile a treasure is found there. In this case the treasure consists of colors and textures expressed through leaves, asphalt, concrete and mildew.