How To: Designer, Do No Harm

I’ve seen first hand a web design shop do logos that were a disservice to the client, big time ad agencies misunderstand the activism, and hot shot design studios grossly misuse a nonprofit’s precious dollars. They were clearly wrong for the job. They probably knew they were. A little more self awareness and humility would’ve helped. Also some restraint. Good lessons to learn no matter who you are.

How To: Select the Hat

When you wear a lot of hats, it can sometimes be quite challenging to pick the right hat for the current job. Often like stumbling around in the dark, looking for the light switch. But it can be done. There are times it happens automatically, like a reflex due to years of experience. Others, it must be landed on, after pinging around from hat to hat, nothing fitting quite right.

The most important thing to know: understand there are hats and that different hats do different things.

Otherwise the light switch may never be found, and the stumbling will just go on and on and on.

How To: Keep things from taking longer than they should

How is it that something seemingly so simple can be made increasingly complicated to the point that it takes way longer than it should?

Is it the excessive use of language that does it? Maybe the “standard processes” that are supposedly what we all need to go through? Preferences for complication and dragging things out? A combination of those?

I don’t know. Dragging things out is not how I prefer to do things. I prefer things to take the appropriate amount of time. How is that done?

By keeping it simple, fighting the urge to involve people who don’t need to be involved, editing out unneeded words, and then, finally, understanding at a deep level that the thing that needs to be done is standing in the way of all the other things that need to be done next.

Get this done, then get all the other things done.

Done and done and done.

How To: Move People

Hope and Action > Regret, Guilt, or Fear

In the face of oncoming climate disaster after climate disaster in an uncertain, warming world, how do you get enough people to push for something major to be done? Society wide, system change on a massive scale. A simple formula, repeated over and over at high frequency is what we need to do. Hope and action over regret, guilt, or fear.

No to cynicism, push for the NOW.