I have a real job, but also, not really

What’s my super power?

Gum.

I mean, working whenever I want how I want to.

That’s my super power.

Which in the American sense, I suppose I don’t really have a job-job.

And having to now join the ranks of the millions of Americans who have to put their kids through school while navigating a sub system built as an add-on to a capitalist economy that really doesn’t care about that education sub system even though the education part feeds directly into the economic part, I have to say it all is quite stupid how misaligned these two parts are.

At least I don’t have a real job even though it makes enough money to call it work. Because if I had to work 8–5 every day at a physical location I’d be real pissed at how the country at large seems to hate me as a worker.

I have a luxury many other Americans do not.

So why does this infuriating system continue to exist?

It’s probably because of money.

Which sucks.

Stop and Feel It

Too often it’s a quick lurch this way and that, get this done and then onto the next. So many responsibilities, not enough time, everything has to keep moving. But what if you could just stop. Hold onto a certain moment and just exist in it. Live it, feel it. Think about nothing else. Uninterrupted. No distractions. Just create this one thing. Pour everything into it and then when it’s over, be done with it.

Know When to Not Speak

Saying what’s on your mind isn’t always cool. It can often times be counterproductive or worse yet, harmful. Knowing when to not say what’s on your mind is important as a communicator. That way when you speak, it actually means something.

Buzzkill Feedback

When the work is done on a certain level — thoughtful, well-intentioned, focused on the goal — then the expectation should be the feedback is also handled in an equally productive way. A collaborative design process is a give and take, where both sides work the back and forth from positions of good faith and well intentioned motives.

This isn’t U.S. politics after all.

The most important software in my career since Adobe Illustrator

When I figured out how to use Illustrator, all those years ago, it was a game changer. As in, now I felt I could finally play this graphic designer game and learn how to play it well. It was like my arms reached into the screen and became one with what I was doing to those pixels. Mind, hand, mouse, creation!

It’s been a long, long time since that feeling of excitement. It’s not that I’ve been let down by Illustrator in the years since, it’s just become common. And I tried to do everything I could in it; logos, posters, share graphics, infographics, websites… All of it!

But now, I have that feeling again.

Figma has delivered. It’s just so light and airy. Again, I feel I’m reaching into the screen, taking ideas from my head and manifesting them into pixels. It moves at the speed of thought. It jumps with me. It opens quick, it loads quick, it keeps pace. Click-click-click-GO!

And I can invite you to join in the speed of light. Collaboration in real time. Enough passing files around just waiting for something to get corrupted. Enough!

It’s just a design program. Yet another tool. More software. But my oh my does it hit. With Figma, I can feel not only the design but the possibility without the program itself getting in my way.

And for that, I say thank you.

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.