No client will ask for “something pretty”. They’ll ask you to solve a problem. They’ll ask for a logo or a web site – something that does something. The element of beauty is assumed.

So, solve the problem and also make it pretty; it is possible to accomplish both at the same time.

The beauty you instill will give the design greater value.

Business owners and organizational leaders request design services because they have ideas for products and services. Many have great passion for their ideas, but have not thought them through enough. As a designer, I have to look at things from the customers’ point of view so that the outcome of my efforts is successful. My mind immediately goes to the viability of the idea: Is this going to work? Is this reasonable? Will people want this idea? Let’s face it: some ideas look really good in your head but when you get them down on paper and begin to develop a strategy, the flaws become apparent.

Before taking an idea to a designer to develop a logo and start building a brand, ask yourself these questions:

1. Is there a real audience for the idea and is it big enough to warrant the investment in design and marketing?
2. How will people use or benefit from it?
3. What similar product or services are already out there? Is this an improvement on what already exists or is it a copy? Will this make a positive impact on people?
4. Am I the only one excited or passionate about this idea? How do people respond when I share it with them?
5. Am I willing to invest financially in design development, brand strategy and marketing?
6. Why do I want to market this product or service?

I’m currently reading the book, Imagine by Jonah Lehrer. It’s trigging a great deal of thoughtful contemplation as I consider how creativity works and where it exists. So when I received this invitation from the design firm, Continuum, I wanted to share it. Continuum’s creative development for Procter & Gamble’s Swiffer is the opening scenario in the book.

Cultivating Creativity with Imagine author Jonah Lehrer
Q&A led by Continuum CEO, Harry West

A lively discussion on unleashing ideas and growing businesses, including Lehrer’s delve into how Continuum created the Swiffer for Procter & Gamble.

Tuesday, May 8th
7:00-9:00 PM
RSVP by April 24th
Space is limited

Continuum
901 Abbot Kinney Blvd.
Venice, CA 90291

A recent post about goal achievement by Michael Hyatt  prompted me to consider why people go into business, launch services and products and subsequently ask me to develop graphic assets, web sites and branding.

I’ve observed that successful enterprises are in it for their customers and not themselves. What they receive in return – income, influence and growth – are by-products of meeting needs and providing solutions. Why a business or organization exists is key to its prosperity. If it’s self-serving, people won’t stay around for very long. When customers don’t see value or benefit, they move on.

Here are the whys behind a few of my clients’ enterprises:

What is the why behind your what?

Does it matter if a design is good or not?

Before we can deal with that question let’s ask a more basic one: What makes a design good?

To answer that question, we should first begin with what good means. Without a definition, it’s unlikely that any design can be considered good or not, since there would be no standard.

Good embodies three ideas: benefit, fit, and value. If something is good, it is useful and beneficial. It is not harmful, destructive or compromising. Its use results in good things.

Things that are good also fit well… they’re appropriate to the situation. If something is good then it’s not out of place or inappropriate. It specifically addresses the need or purpose it was created for.

And if something is good it has value… it enhances and builds up. It makes something desirable and worthy, or is in itself desirable.

Good design contains all these qualities: value, fitness and benefit. A design that does not work, does not communicate, does not add value, does not fit its audience or represent an enterprise appropriately is not good. And that matters, doesn’t it?

There are other businesses do exactly what yours does. The customer you seek has choices, and may or may not choose you. What will get you noticed? Your business needs to stand out and separate from the rest of the crowd. It needs to be the anomaly.

An anomaly is something that deviates from what is normal, standard or expected. Much of the time we think of anomalies as undesirable: Fitting in is better than standing out. Standing out makes you a target, unacceptable or open to ridicule. But in marketing and promoting your business, fitting in does nothing to grow your business.

Being different is one thing. Being different in a marketplace in which every other business is trying to be different is the key. One way to stand out is through effective design solutions specifically tailored to your business and your audience. You won’t find effective graphics through a crowdsourcing site or by holding a contest. The prevalence of stock photography, motion, illustration and canned logos is not going to help you stand out. The plethora of visual sameness lulls your audience to sleep. Wake them up with custom design specifically tailored to your business. Custom design solutions will differentiate your enterprise and increase its influence in the marketplace.

Make the investment. Be the anomaly.

Let’s make the distinction between beauty and pretty.

The etymology of the words differentiates them:

Pretty is being attractive but lacking in substance or value, and is often deemed unnecessary. It implies superficiality. The word originates from the Old English praettig meaning cleverness, or to deceive or trick.

Beauty, on the other hand, is related to form, visual appeal and excellence. It consists of lasting or substantive qualities. Further definitions include benefits and advantages of something. It comes from the Latin, bellus, meaning fineness.

The saying, Beauty is only skin deep, really refers to prettiness, and is antithetical to another equally popular saying, True beauty comes from within.

Human beings are drawn to things that are beautiful. While one’s personal taste or cultural bias will cause them to have a preference for one thing over another, as in choosing a blue vase over another color because their favorite color is blue, the understanding of beauty is universal.

Some projects just don’t fit me well. There are things I’m really good at and things that I’m not. I want to be effective at what I do, and that involves doing the right thing at the right time in the right place.

When a client wants something that I know I can deliver although it might stretch me and I might have to invest extra effort and time, I’ll take it on. But at the point that I realize what they want is simply too far out of my sweet spot for me to be effective, I need to make a decision. Do I continue onward or let it go?

Letting it go is the more courageous choice. This requires recognizing my strengths and weaknesses and being willing to experience discomfort in order to solve the client’s problem. This is not a bad thing… but when I know that the return will not match the effort, or the client could end up dissatisfied, the best thing to do is to face it, and offer an alternative. Clients trust honesty.

I took on a project to create some illustrations for a plastic surgery after-market product launch. In the process of iteration and reiteration, the client began re-defining their purpose and market, and I knew that I was no longer the right designer for the work. I am a realistic, narrative illustrator and the re-defined project needed a fashion illustrator. What they wanted was not realism but stylized fantasy. So I referred them elsewhere.

Professionalism often involves letting go rather than creating problems by pushing against our natural bents.

Despite the trend of green design and sustainability, most of us neglect our most obvious, fundamental and overlooked resource. We waste time right and left, wonder where it goes, and never seem to have enough of it to accomplish goals or life plans.

Time  Is Not A Renewable Resource

Of all the resources available to us, time is the only one that everyone has the same amount of. Once a minute has passed, it’s gone. We cannot reclaim, recycle or renew it. The difference between achieving our dreams and goals or not is mostly based on how we use our time resource. It’s fairly easy to be efficient, but being effective in our use of time is often a crap shoot.

Designers juggle many concurrent tasks and projects of various sizes, levels of importance and complexities. There are incoming client requests that compete for attention in the middle of the projects we’re developing. There is a constant tension experienced between the task at hand and the one waiting to be started. While I’m working on one project I’m feeling the pressure of another. Does this sound familiar?

Many books and blogs deal with issues of time management and how to get things done. Lifehacker, FranklinCovey, Behance, 43 Folders and David Allen’s GTD are just a few of the myriad sources of advice, systems and forms. These are all useful, and I have picked and chosen from among them to work out my own way of managing time and projects. In the process I have made a few discoveries on my own.

Remove Distractions

The primary tactic for guarding our time is to remove distractions. Nothing slows our progress more than a distraction, and no time management or productivity system really deals with these time-suckers. Distractions are usually small, and we don’t notice we’re being pulled off course because most of them are in some way necessary. (Some of my distractions have been email, phone calls and text messages.) Identify your distractions and determine how you’ll manage them. Time is wasted when we do the wrong thing at the wrong time. People and tasks both can be distracting time-suckers.

Guard Your Time

Only you can slay the time suckers and design your schedule. Being a guardian of your resource is vital to accomplishing things for yourself and for others. Set boundaries and enforce them with yourself and others. A friend of mine designated Wednesdays for study and research, and made himself unavailable for any contact the entire day. He burrowed in and got things accomplished without interruption.

Setting boundaries requires enforcement. Boundaries are only as strong as you make them. Your time will be robbed if you allow it. Don’t worry: maintaining boundaries will allow for spontaneity and sudden changes in plans. Every wall has a gate in it somewhere. The key is to know when to open or keep it shut.

Design Your Time.

It’s easier to keep your time boundaries and your well-being intact if you plan ahead. Here are tips for designing your time:

1. Design your week ahead of time. Take part of the Friday, Saturday or Sunday prior to assess the week being completed and plan the week ahead, scheduling appointments projects and  tasks. Include your personal and professional time in this, because your life is made up of more than work. I also schedule my planning time. Scheduling an entire week rather than just a day ahead provides a 20,000-foot level view of your time.

2. Block your time.  Morning is a block. Afternoon and evening are blocks. Set aside mornings for one type of activity, afternoons for another and evenings for a third.

3. Designate one day during the week where you’ll take care of business. This is essential if you’re a freelancer or contract designer. The reality is, you’re in business, which means you have record-keeping, marketing and administrative responsibilities as well as creative labor. I designated “Admin Fridays” in which I focus on business.

4. Know your peaks and valleys. We do not function at peak levels all the time. Energy levels and attention spans ebb and flow. Most people have a consistent rhythm of peaks and troughs each day. At what time of day are you most creative or productive? If it’s mornings, don’t schedule meetings and errands until your afternoon block. Learn how you ebb and flow, and schedule accordingly.

5. Take breaks between your blocks. Eat a meal. Go for a walk. Play with your dogs. Take your kids out for ice cream. Play a game. Put your feet up. You’ll move into the next block refreshed.

6. Take a weekly sabbath, also known as a sabbatical. The idea of sabbath is simply rest and reflection. Most designers I know, myself included, tend to work long hours during the week and on weekends alike. Because of deadlines, unforeseen challenges and unplanned events, we tend to make up for “lost” time on weekends. Creative energy is directly affected by fatigue, illness and anxiety. Rest and reflective moments are necessary for our overall well-being, and allow us to make better decisions. A sabbath allows us to stop working, gain perspective, retain objectivity and experience contentment.

Given all the emphasis on being green and reducing carbon footprints, consider the one thing you can never get back once it’s gone. By planning and following through, you’ll conserve, waste less and become more effective with your time resource.

What are some ways you “sustain” your time?

Self-expression is not the purpose of design creation, although the designer’s style and sensibilities will naturally influence their work. Being a designer is a matter of serving others, focusing on their needs and creating for their greatest good.
 
As a designer, I create visual communications that help an enterprise succeed. My focus cannot be self-serving and my designs cannot point to me and say, ”Hey, look at me!”. Instead, my designs must point to my clients and say, “Hey, look at this!” Although I’m the creator, I step out of the way and allow the client to be the focus.
 
If we approach a design solution as an opportunity for self-expression, we’ll miss the point and risk not solving the problem. If we don’t solve the problem, we’re not serving the client.