Welcome Joanna (@jobotik) to Industrial Brand. We're proud to welcome you to our design team.
Appreciate architecture? Visit the Vancouverism show in the foyer of the new Woodwards bldg. Beautiful & inspiring work. (Link)
SuperPower: Visualising the internet. (Link)
Boys and their toys. (Link)
Beautiful packaging, it's simple and does a great job showcasing the product. (Link)
Have we mentioned that @LikemindVan has a group page on LinkedIn too? (Link)
RT @gdcbc: To honour fallen designer Leo Obstbaum, please contribute to Emily Carr's Memorial Award in his name: (Link)
RT @gdcbc: CBC's tribute to Leo Obstbaum, deceased designer responsible for the 'look' of the #Vancouver2010 #Olympics: (Link)
RT @MarkBusse: People often say I have a big head, but that's hogwash. This photo proves my head is just right: (Link)
Love this diagram of the creative process as a continuum from research (uncertainty) to design (clarity). (Link)
Our newest designer Dana is awesome. You should hear her talk to marketing people when they call. Don't mess with the Dana.
This is the best Olympic training video I have seen to date ;-) (Link)
Missed what it was like to be in Vancouver when Crosby scored the winning goal this weekend? Watch (and listen) to THIS! (Link)
Google acquires Picnik, thus expanding it's dominance in the cloud computing domain. Who needs PhotoShop anymore! (Link)
RT @MarkBusse: @TimeFox is now on Twitter and has released an iPhone app! I just updated some projects hours I forgot to log. #productivity
The Industrial Brand team circa 2009—no contractors included.
I recently spoke with a client who expressed his frustration with design firms who include associates on websites or in proposal responses without clearly expressing that they are external contractors and not employees. Does it really matter? Is it a personal choice or a question of professional ethics?
Continue reading "Freelance Contractors Or Employees? Does It Matter?"
Mark Busse gives his final speech as President of GDC/BC in January, 2009.
GDC/BC’s President, Marga Lopez, recently asked me to submit an overview of 2009 from my perspective as a GDC Executive. After a little thought, I jotted down the following, which I thought I’d share here.
Continue reading "Looking Back at 2009 as a Design Association Volunteer"
IMPORTANT UPDATE – See amendment below for some good news.
I love living in Vancouver for a myriad of reasons. The more I travel, the more I realize how good we have it here. But I have to say, as a creative professional who makes his living in the communication design field, my city’s lack of support for creative industries leaves me frustrated. I feel a personal rant coming on.
Continue reading "I Wish Vancouver DOES Supported the Design Industry"
More competition than ever. Arts funding cuts. An industry in collapse. These are the challenges Canadian musicians have faced for years. I don’t envy any young artist who decides to make a career out of music these days.
When I was a much younger man studying fine art in university, we spent a lot of time practicing how to interpret and describe artwork, its meaning and how it made us feel. Later, during my business administrations studies, writing essays, case studies and briefs emerged as a key component of a successful business professional’s toolkit. So why then is writing proficiency—even very rudimentary grammar and spelling—such a surprise to so many young design students I meet?
While visiting China recently to attend Icograda’s World Design Congress, I was honoured to be invited to lecture at four of the top universities in the country, each with respected design programs. Not surprisingly, their emphasis on art and craft is without compare, and their technical prowess is reknowned, but their design curricula seemed lacking much training in business, strategy, or communication. There was no shortage of calligraphy training—a beautiful craft I adore and wish I could do—but writing (in English certainly) was not emphasized in their programs.
Leo Obstbaum, Design Director for VANOC 2010 Olympics
My friend and colleague Leo Obstbaum, the creative mastermind behind the designs of the Vancouver Olympic Games, died suddenly in his home of natural causes in the early hours of Friday, August 21st. He left behind his beautiful wife Monice and young daughter Dakota. He was just 40 years old—the same age as I am.
Leo and I spoken numerous times that week and even had plans to meet that day after work to catch up over drinks and discuss a presentation he’d been preparing about his work on the Olympics. It was a talk he hoped to refine and present during Icograda Design Week Vancouver 2010 next spring. I’ll never forget hearing the tragic news and trying to come to terms with the fact that my friend was suddenly gone. It really shook me up. As devastated as I felt, I couldn’t imagine the feeling of loss his family was enduring.
if (team == tired) {
get_drinks($many, $often);
}
if (team != tired {
work($often, $late);
}
if(team == drunk) {
sleep();
}
if(team == notyetdrunk) {
drink_more($scotch);
}
Those who argue that plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery are full of crap and deluding themselves. Plagiarism is taking someone’s original material and pretending it is your own for your own gain.
I was recently informed (thanks Chuck Wilson) that some of my writing had been plagiarized by a designer and blogger named Moey in Amman, Jordan. Shame on you Moey. Did you think because we are separated by a long distance that no one would notice? Are you familiar with this thing called the Internet? Tsk, tsk.
I could list line-by-line a comparison between my original words written in early 2007 and his article more than a year later, but I won’t bother. I’m not even going to link to Moey’s website as I don’t want to contribute to his search engine page rankings, but you can find him easily enough on Google. Or take a look at this screen capture of his article and compare it to my original post “I Am Not a Graphic Designer”.
I wonder if this is how he creates “designs that produce results?” I wonder how many Industrial Brand design knock-offs are in his portfolio?
We’re often asked about how Industrial Brand does business development and find our clients. Good question, but not one that can be easily answered in a short explanation or blog post. One issue that always gets met with raised eyebrows is the fact that we’re sort of picky about the clients we DO work with and often will decline work.
What? Decline work? During a recession? Are we crazy? I don’t think so.
We’ve often felt it was important to consider what our clients, their products, practices, and reputations say about us as their design partners. As we’ve said before, we are defined by our clients.
Things are always so black and white though. It’s easy to say no to a pornography website project, but what about online gambling? We’re confident we’d decline working for a tobacco client, regardless of the revenue potential, but what about drug company?
And can we please be honest about something? Realistically, how often really do designers engage in any real due diligence investigating their potential clients and their backgrounds the way company check our references? Not often enough I’ll venture to say.
So, understanding that we can’t always take super cool, well-paying clients whose companies, products, or service are things we love and endorse, we created a five point grid by which to judge all potential clients and projects. The rules are simple: If as we consider a prospective client or a RFP, or a potential client has contacted us asking for a quote on a project, we ask ourselves five simple questions:
If the answer to these questions isn’t yes to at least three of them, for whatever reason, including gut feeling, we decline the work. Every time. Sometimes this has meant missing out on tens of thousands of dollars of work. But by doing this, we better understand who we are as a design firm, as a company, as individuals, and as a brand. Our integrity is intact and our reputation is unsullied. Well, mostly.
How do you choose clients? How often do you decline work?
As the title of this article suggests, if you have a home business then you are still running a business and therefore it should still be treated as a business.
This is essential for your brand image.
Many people look less favourably towards home business rather than one that has become successful and grown out of its infancy stage and moved into a professional office.
The truth is that this is not always the case, many home businesses can and do flourish and operate as very professional businesses. However, it requires the owner to treat it like a professional business for their customers to follow suit and do the same.
‘Inward facing’ do what you like,– wear your PJ’s all day, answer the phone stark naked if this works for you. But as soon as your business becomes ‘outward facing’ it’s time to put on your ‘business hat’. Be professional on the phone. If someone comes over, put some clothes on, clothing that is appropriate for the type of client.
This article was inspired by a personal experience I had the other week. Continue reading "A home business is still a business"
