Know Your Chicken

Confessions of a Graphic Designer- part 45:

I was talking with a designer friend about why a smaller, 'boutique' firm is better that a larger agency-type of company. I have always heard freelancers say they 'can often juggle more that one ball at a time..." In our little firm, we are always working on multiple projects at the same time- sometimes juggling them. I was born into my work-life multitasking- circus-like!


Homefries For Church Folk

I've had a job ever since I was able to get my work permit at 16 (some 25+ years ago). At most of them, it was a balancing act of working on many things simultaneously. I am talking about my pre-design jobs, including my very first job of packing and un-packing trucks that took new clothing and sold it to senior citizens at old folks homes. Hey, I thought it was a kinda slow business model, but it gave the residents an afternoon of shopping and they were fashion conscious! Though we often spend time waiting around for trucks to show up, we were always packing, unpacking, pricing, counting, re-hangering... well you get it.

With a few jobs in between-- including lawn work, furniture delivery guy, pizza delivery guy for one day-- I found something I could do for the full 4+ years I went to the 'ol alma mater, Buff State. I started out as a dishwasher at the Sheridan Family Restaurant and worked my way up to a closing line cook. It was crazy fast-paced, and I learned to organize, evaluate hierarchy of importance, delegate tasks to my team and cook a breakfast steak in mere minutes. It was all about teamwork, moving fast, thinking fast and doing everything at once over and over again for several hours! Things could get hairy on a Sunday morning--post-church with a lot of hungry church-folks waiting in line outside to follow a helping of the Lord with a helping of homefries! Learning to think under pressure and solve problems was a valuable skill I learned while slinging soulvaki.


Computers Make Ya Go Faster

Once I moved into the now extinct, yet glorious world of digital pre-press- things happened even faster- it was the computerized '90s after-all. At The Retouchables, owned by airbrush master Dan Schuder, I would balance a slew of customer's jobs, checking files, troubleshooting, outputting film and making matchprint and dylux proofs... all while promising deadlines! It was early in the computer age & things moved at the speed of 800k floppy disks, all happening at once: Pow! Zoom! Click! Whirrr! I was born into the design business running as soon as I hit the ground and my restaurant experience really got me prepared to do so (Thanks, Nick!).


Better, Faster, Meaner, Leaner

So do you get a better, faster version when you use a small shop vs. a larger shop? In our case, I think you do. Often we have to switch gears on the fly and we are equipped to do so. You can go from sitting, thinking and writing a proposal (estimating time and doing math), to writing headlines for the ad we have to design right now because "...we forgot that was due today and we forgot to call you about!" But we'll do it, we like doing it. The next hour you are meeting with potential clients dressed up in a tie (the "Superman Suit," as Dan from The Retouchables used to call it), sitting, listening trying to impress. You can go from adding content to website template pages, resizing a large batch of photos, to suddenly having to slow down, clear your head, sit down and create with a pencil and paper. You know, really design.

I try to make it sound real exciting, and sometimes it is, but the point being is having the ability to keep it all organized, being able to switch gears to attend to a clients needs, and working on 2-3 things at the same time is a skill I am not sure I have seen in every designer I have met. I see it more in a smaller agency, where the owner is doing a lot of the work and see it less in larger agencies where a lot of people are good at doing a single task. They have experts that can do this and ones that can do that- but can they do more that one at the same time? How fast can they switch gears? Are they allowed to? Do they have to have it approved, fill out a change order, etc....

I guess I never realized when I was either inventorying blouses or deep frying fish on a Friday night that was learning skills that would become useful in your local octopus-limbed, ambidextrous graphic design team!

Brand New Way

We have tried to be very proactive with moving our design company full steam ahead- we have some new clients this Fall, some others on the horizon and a few prospects. My goal is to reduce my stress and time in the office. Ha! Do I really need to work nights besides working all day? I am hoping not. I think most people aren't used to working 9-5, stopping to have dinner and then going back for another bunch of hours. I am not complaining, that is just how it is. I am used to it, but I think it is starting to wear on me some. I am starting to see the value of getting good sleep nightly!

To reach this goal- we got to think ahead. I think what keeps this design boat, afloat is the continual planning, refining and just plain fine tuning. J. and I are always trying to improve our plan of attack to make sure it all runs smoothly. As we officially enter Autumn (yesterday)- the kids are back in school (I miss them already...). The balancing act of baby-stitters, summer fun (one minute an honorary Marshall at Fantasy Island Theme Park, the next in someone's board room) and kids hanging around the office-- is no more. It is just our team spending all our time creating good design... plus a lot of paperwork that makes this so-called "time creating good design" possible.

As a business, we have to attend to the things that are business-- I thought graphic design was going to be all fun and games! Coming up on 10 years as our own company forces us to look back on what has made this successful, but we have to look forward as to what will keep it successful. We have to stay ahead of the trends in marketing and design, make sure our clients are happy and make sure we aren't killing ourselves in the process.

The elusive free time is a really good goal.... and if we plan correctly, maybe it can be obtainable. Suggestions...?

Autumn Beds

I 'heart' work.

Holidays seem to stunt the growth of the business. I know I have been writing a lot about 'not' working lately, but I have been working a lot... really... well, as much as I can-- what with vacation, days off, long holiday weekends, etc... This is the time last year when things seemed came to a screeching halt, due to a lot of unforeseen circumstances. Somehow we survived and trudged on.

This year I am trying to be proactive and stay focused as the year approaches it's close. I have been looking at this week the same way I approached the start of a new year. By this I mean, I am trying to concentrate on prospects, I am trying to stay psyched, and I am trying to look to September like a new beginning. Why not?

How, you may ask..? I am doing this by calling a lot of clients- trying to see what they have planned for the rest of the year- pulling the 'duds' off the lead board and just keeping some of the likely prospects up there and cleaning my desk. That last one is a tough one. This means I have to find a place for everything from the trays & piles on my desk. This includes bits of paper with phone numbers, stray job notes and graphics, post-it-notes, phone log slips, photos, and other assorted what-have-you-nots. I hate cleaning up.

So as I sit in the office on a holiday Sunday (against my better judgment), I think I can wrestle some success from the remainder of this year. By trying to stay focused, not slacking, and keeping the boat afloat, I think we will successfully ride out the waning tip of this recession with a good year. This time, 2010 begins with Sept. 1.

NOTE: Illustration by FEW ©2009.

Summertime

It is easier to design in the Winter. In the Buffalo Winter, it's cold outside, you are in the house more, and you tend to spend more time in front of your computer... In the Summer it is tough to commit to sitting still.

We have such a small window of truly wonderful weather that you want to be out, out, out. In the Winter, I can even sneak a few weekend working hours in. But in the Summer? No way.

When I first got into this business, it used to be typically slow in the Summer. The theory being (and the old timers will attest to this) was the decision makers in large companies (CEOs, Big Bad Bosses, etc.) were all on vacation in the Summer so decisions were not made, and nothing could get signed off on, in regards to developing marketing materials. The advertising and marketing field had a 'season' where things got designed and developed in the Fall and were produced in the Winter for the Spring marketing season. Ask any printer you know, who has been around for more than 12-15 years, and they will tell you all about this.

But this is not so anymore. Bosses take vacations all year round, people are work-a-holics and never stop and there isn't a 'season' in this field anymore and hasn't been for ages. It has been a busy Summer, and the fact that I haven't blogged about anything since the Prince piece- which was more that 2 weeks a ago- just goes to prove that fact. It is not that I haven't had anything to say (read: complain about) it has been quite a pile of work piled upon us. Not complaining, mind you, just explaining.

All this makes it hard for a small, family shop like ours to get away. We have a camping trip planned, but as anyone who was reading this blog over the last few years knows, the computer comes on the trip. I can usually work via email just a bit to keep thinks rolling. So with Summer in full swing, we try and squeeze a lot into our free time (which never involves the computer or TV)... If I am not working, I am going to try to get in a walk, bike ride, a trip to the park with the kids, campfires, bar-b-cues, parties, a few outdoor rock shows, but no beach or pool-- it has been a bit chilly this Summer. So the Summer has been a "work-work-work-work-all week", and a "relax-play-relax all weekend" and then back to the "work-work-work-thing".

As the company continues to grow, maybe someday I can do less of the 'work' and more of the sitting back and watching.... maybe I can be of of those bosses that leaves for a month in Europe with his family, while the self-sustaining business runs itself with some capable employees?.. I will surly blog about that.