the design ducky

I love the talks from TED (stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design). They’re so engaging and feature so many great and inspiration speakers from all over the world talking about subjects ranging from experimental technology that could be part of our world in the future to thoughts on the human psyche. Do check out their “Design Like You Give a Damn” theme. Truly amazing stuff.

Here’s one that I saw recently which I think is worth spending a six minutes of your time to look at. Polish designer Jacek Utko shares his experience of saving the daily print with great design. He also shows examples of the award-winning designs for various Eastern European newspapers in the video.

I think what he said is quite true – you can be designing in a really boring industry or for a really boring product, but if you have the dedication (and proper support) to do the best work in your area, design can be inspiring and create positive change.

I shall leave you with this last thought that he mentioned in the video:

“You can live in a small poor country, like me. You can work for a small company, in a boring branch. You can have no budgets, no people but still you can put your work to the highest possible level. And everybody can do it. You just need inspiration, vision and determination. And you need to remember that to be good is not enough.”

(via davidthedesigner)

Recently I have been thinking very much about the topic of self-promotion; in fact I had a draft post dated September 2007  on the said topic. As practising designers this is one thing that never escapes your mind. It is important to be able to promote yourself effectively not only because you can land the ‘dream job’ but it is also good for your confidence as well.

We all know that designers has some form of ’self-doubt’ gene embedded in their DNA that makes us go ‘I don’t think I’m good enough’, ‘my work is so-so’ etc. I understand because I do have the same thoughts as well. So whilst surfing the Internet (and clicking through Twitter) I found this really funny yet motivating presentation by Whitney Hess on ‘Evangelizing Yourself’.

Whitney sets out a series of three major points on how you can promote yourself which I think can apply to anyone in the world and not necessary people in the creative line:

1. Share your message
2. Build a network
3. Exude confidence

I like how simple it is and how motivating it can be. In fact after I saw this slideshow, it inspired me to write this post so that I can share the same message with you. By the way, I love the chart showing the relationship between where you would want to be vs where you are at the moment and the resulting difference is the reason why you drink.

So to help you along, here’s a selection of inspirational and useful sites to start thinking of how you can promote brand “YOU”!

Five articles to get reading on self-promotion:

1. How to be a Design Superstar – Great article from Design Sojourn
2. Promote yourself without looking self-promotional – by Michael Martine
3. How to Land Your Dream Design Job -  A series of posts from Design Droplets
4. Five Steps to a Better Design Portfolio – by Jeffrey Veen
5. Five Ways to be Better at Self-Promotion – from Penelope Trunk’s

Five amazing self-promotion portfolios

• 19 Self-Promotion Portfolios in the Digital Age (PDF)
• 33 Viciously Cool Graphic Designer Portfolios – Yes they are viciously and immensely cool and inspirational (via @mayhemstudios)
• Steve Leggat
• Sebdesign.eu
• Koivo.com

Have fun!

Stumbled upon this interesting e-book, titled “How to Motivate Creative People“, that makes for a good read if you are dealing with creative people. The author, Mark McGuinness actually wrote them as a series of blog posts and the book is actually a combination of all the posts in one with a few extra bits thrown in.

Reading it, I like how he structured the chapters in a easy-to-digest manner so that you understand why the need to motivate, followed by the four motivators (with good analysis and suggestions on how to tackle each one) and ending with how to combine them together effectively to get the best results from your creative team.

Also, I found myself nodding to many points Mark mentioned and got a better insight into how to motivate not only myself, but my team members as well. No matter whether if you’re a manager, designer or even if you’re not doing anything related to being creative, I highly recommend that you read this.

via designers-who-blog