Operational Innovations - Up With People!

dsr — 2010-03-09T12:45:11-08:00

This week in our Strategy, Entrepreneurship & Ethics class we're learning about operational innovation. It's a genuinely interesting subject for me because it's where design thinking meets the core of how a business is run, or 'where the rubber meets the road' - not just in a 'make it pretty so that people will buy it' kind of way. It's interesting to consider how technology, especially the internet, has permanently affected the landscape. Rickshaw Bags is a great example of how businesses are leaving the traditional operational models in the dust. By building innovations into their brand like custom made to order products, they can retain more lasting value in their product cycle; for instance by not having left over inventory to compete in the market with their new product line each season.

It seems like every time you turn around, more and more businesses are cropping up–especially online–that allow consumers an infinite number of choices to customize their purchase. In a similar vein to Rickshaw, the print publishing industry is getting a boost with products like Burb and Lulu, which allow users to design and print their own hard or softcover books, and even sell them in their online shops. Etsy, a website dedicated to craft artists starting their own small businesses, is similarly opening up new niche markets for everything from sustainably made dog beds to custom made to oerder alpaka hats. In general, there are examples of this in seemingly every space, and more cropping up every day.

The operational innovation that I admire the most these days is the ability for anyone anywhere to create anything and put it out there to find an audience. Artists, content producers, poets, writers, musicians, comedians, designers, and many other types of idea-and-thing makers are all being empowered to start sharing their work and finding their tribes of supporters and customers. New business models are cropping up which are taking the place of the old means of gatekeeping, which shut out innovation and diversity in favor of limiting choice and increasing profits for the few businesses who could survive in a given space–usually by squeezing the life out of the people doing the work! Nowadays it's all about talent, and if you've got it, it seems likely that you will find success more quickly and without as much a chance of it being exploited.

This new model seems to be catching to almost every sphere of life in the western world, with the internet, reality t.v., and film industries creating more niche content and even a whole new flavor of fame, called 'famey-ness', used to describe an internet celebrity. There is now even an internet famous class at Parson's School of Design. http://internetfamo.us/class/

In other words, Up With People! I love the time we're living in. Operational innovations galore, may it make us all richer and more fulfilled!

Money Management

dsr — 2010-03-02T22:20:12-08:00

This week in our Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Ethics class we've been asked to take a look at a very exciting and compelling subject which affects every business–the basics of money management. I know, it's a mega-yawn. I wonder how many businesses fail due to the fact that money management is not only daunting for most of us, but an outright bore as well? I found this article to be basic, but pretty useful still. As someone who hopes to start my own small agency someday, it's nice to have all this information in one place.
Much of what's covered here is the concept of cash flow; in other words, making sure that your accounts are in order, your books are accruate and up-to-date, and a few safety measures such as opening a business line of credit. Business lines of credit are very useful if you're just starting out and need to buy supplies or equipment, or even pay employees for the first several months you are ramping up. If your credit is stellar, it can get you through the initial stages of start-up, and through any rough spots or dry spells in the business, which are inevitable and hard to predict. This is an incredible tool to have on your side, but it must be taken care of and not abused.
Another thing the article points out is the benefits of hiring an accountant. This can't be overstated! It takes a very special kind of detail oriented person in order to do the books and keep things clean and tidy–not everyone has the patience, time, skill, and vigilance to manage this important job. Outsourcing is the key to growing your business, and many talented and skilled people have no talent in this area. Don't be afraid to hand it off to someone who not only enjoys it, but will do a great job (and possibily save you money).
Securing payments. As a freelance designer, it took me years to get this right. Don't be screwed over–get a contract signed up-front, an initial deposit is nice but not always appropriate. At the very least get a Purchase Order opened with clear descriptions of the work to be done, a timeline, and an estimate of cost and hours. I have never done a job where I didn't receive payment, but I know some who have. Don't rely on people's word, get it in writing.
In closing, I think money management is like anything in life, it gets easier with practise. Don't let this world intimidate you, it's actually fun once you learn to channel the power of banking logic. The alternative is to be a 'wage slave', never realizing your true potential. Starting a business is challenge I hope to one day experience.

My Mission and Values

dsr — 2010-02-21T18:10:11-08:00

This week in my Business, Entrepreneurship and Ethics class here at CCA, we've been asked to write a personal mission statement. That sounds easy, maybe even fun, right? Not if you're me.

Now there is no place to hide, because I, ladies and gentlemen, am a Freak.

Up to this point, I've reaped the benefits of appearing like I knew what I was doing. Here's where I will try to put the truth into words and be forced–finally–into observing what a confusing mess my life and goals really are. I'm actually not a freak, but I am what personality experts call a Synthesist.

What this means is that I have been going in many different directions all at once, for as far back as I care to remember. Some might say, throwing a bunch of dookie at the wall to see what will stick. Also, I have done quite well with this. But just to be clear, it's not a strategy per se, as much as a mental illness. I may be a little too close to the subject to be the best judge, but this whole business of asking someone like me to codify a personal mission statement seems just a bit on the cruel side.

Creative types often find it difficult to define their mission because ultimately what drives them is the ability to play with pure ideas, unencumbered by the goal or outcome. They want to make cool things that stimulate other cool things. It's a bit like a scientist who just wants to keep experimenting and allow the inquiry to lead the way. This form of play has encouraged me to get into many different forms of creative expression, and I think I am still on the path of learning about what it all means, or how–or if–to put it all together.

I have a decent career as a Creative Director. I have enjoyed it and I feel that I will probably remain on that path. But when I think about my mission statement, my career doesn't play into it so much.

I have a lot of missions, and some of them are at odds with one another. They intersect, sure. Most of them are distinctly separate things which inform one another. If you told me I had one year to live, I'd want to make another album of songs, and then I'd probably spend the rest of my time with my family. I love making art and music, and I would love to have a career doing that somehow. But in the meantime, I will keep being all over the place, trying to make a living in this profession, and trying to be a true artist in the margins between responsbility and life.

Strategy and Design

dsr — 2010-02-13T22:31:48-08:00

This week in our Business, Entreprenurship and Ethics class, we were tasked with reading and writing about another article from the Harvard Business Review; this time on business strategy. It's interesting to me that many of the strategic principles outlined here for business can be equally applied to design as a practice. For that matter, soccer, dating & relationships, even grad school.
First off, what is strategy anyway? In my mind, it's a plan you have for what you're going to do–how you're going to play the game. More important, being cognizant that others are involved in that same game, how to differentiate yourself from the way everyone else is approaching it. In the broadest sense, it's what you bring to the table that no-one else has. It's a uniqueness that can't be copied or easily codified.
If you grew up in the 70s, you remember how the Super Friends each had some amazing thing each of them did–Wonder Woman had her invisible jet; Aquaman could do anything involving water, The Flash was super fast. Strategy. Whatever your jam, there was sure to be one of them who could save the day. For the record, Wonder Twins are the best value-add, being that they can literally change into anything, but I digress.

Being learning disabled (ADD) as well as artistic, I have seen first-hand that sometimes a perceived weakness can end up being a strength. For instance, I dropped out of high school at a relatively young age. I have often wondered how much of my creative problem solving abilities have to do with the fact that I wasn't socialized in the same way as others, and that often by my very nature, I learned to do the opposite thing from everybody else. I can't say it's been an easy or enviable road, (I don't recommend it) however, sometimes I think it pays off. Often I have been the only person in the room to see something in a completely different way, which can lead to a solution no-one else had thought of. While 2 opposing sides are battling it out, each trying to achieve their vision, often I am able to provide a third idea which 'is so crazy, it just might work'.
As designers, it can be very tough to carve out an innovative approach; one which comes from a holistic and purpose-driven place, not cobbled together by multiple stakeholders, based on 'this cool thing so-and-so.com is doing', along with some other freakishly bizarre marketing concept, attached to someone else's brilliant hackjob of a wireframe ideation. As designers, sometimes it feels that we're being pulled in a hundred different contradictory directions. Many times we're asked (or told) to continue piling on more features and distractions in order to meet the requirements of those who, sadly, lack a clear strategy. The result is a hodge-podge mish-mash of a product or experience which the customer instinctually cogitates as 'noise' and subsequently moves on from.
The best products and consumer experiences are designs which feel whole to us; seamless, timeless. They work extremely hard at pretending they are naturally beautiful / desirable / useful without breaking a sweat. But the truth is, they have been refined many times over, and are rarified through the process of iteration. This in itself is strategy, on a molecular level. When it's done thoroughly, from the ground up, you get breakthrough products like the iPhone, and countless others that change the game for everyone. When designers imitate, and when designs are compromised by competing interests, you get "me too" products which quickly drown in a sea of competition.
The essence of good design strategy is no compromise. This requires strong designers who are empowered within their organizations–something rare, if it exists at all. Only famous designers like Yves Behar and Johnathan Ives get that kind of carte blanche authority over their vision. The rest of us are often beholden to competing interests within our companies, and decisions which should be left to designers are often made by those with no design training or background.
Great design is a differentiator, a strategic edge, and something we should empower more designers to deliver without being undermined.

On Managing Creativity

dsr — 2010-02-03T10:49:37-08:00

I've worked now for over 12 years as a creative professional, for various companies both large and small, and I've had all kinds of bosses along the way. This will sound like a glossary from a Dilbert cartoon, but here goes. This is an 'at-a-glance' of all the bosses who have managed me in my career, and how they rate in my mind, now a bit hazy from the ravages of time–as well as the new bosses who have since taken their place on the great big wheel of industry and life.

Big, critical angry boss.
I have actually been this person myself, so perhaps it's apropos to begin here. The critical angry boss is smart about what will work and what won't, due to lots of life experience and some bumps on the head. Deep down inside is afraid of taking any chances, either because there isn't any room for mistakes, or resources are scarce, and so must drive towards a solution, often at the expense of innovation. This type of boss has a lot of pressure coming down from above which you might not see, but you will definitely feel. This type of boss can be great to have if they're on your side and you think (and communicate) in a similar language. They can tend to be prescriptive in their communication and not know how to best set up problems for creative types to solve in their own ways, instead opting to 'simplify' and provide what amounts to a recipe for their exact vision. This boss likes to sketch out their ideas and show you exactly what they mean, doing half of the creative job for you, and rendering you a mere pixel pusher (they don't know Photoshop, but are really amazing with PowerPoint).

Hyper-intellectual quiet boss.
This type of boss is a brilliant person who excelled in their function as an individual contributor, perhaps inventing a new product or process, or in some way distinguishing themselves in their role; at some point they are given the keys to an entire team to drive–after which they summarily disappear into their office, rarely to be seen or heard from again. The problem with this type of boss is that they have no social maturity or ability to understand team dynamics (they tend to be loners) and may ultimately still continue to behave as an individual contributor, albeit now with more authority and leverage. This type of manager will expect you to work highly independently, and may only provide feedback and direction on the occasion that it is given from higher up the chain. The hyper intellectual boss can come from a highly technical background whose expertise involves something extremely valuable to the company which is in some way related to the work you do, but in an extremely abstract and/or vague way. This type of boss will, over time, attempt to get better at team leadership, creative brainstorming, and other forms of management, but it will always seem like a giant act of desperacy. Ultimately this type of boss will eventually realize they are in the wrong role, and move back to the thing they are best at.

The Cool Boss.
I've had one boss who was so freakin' cool, I wished he was my dad. I still consider him a good friend. He managed the entire creative group at a television channel I worked at as a web guy back in the early 00's. Working for his team was an amazing experience, because he somehow knew how to get the best out of the ragtag crew of designers who were so diverse, and in many ways difficult, to communicate with. He gave us all enough rope to hang ourselves, and just before things got ugly, would know how to orchestrate the right solution, one that everyone had contributed towards, and one that was always the best symbiosis of the best - the truest - parts. I could write a book about working with this team, because I stayed at this company for 7 years.

I've had plenty of other bosses over the years, but this high level categorical representation gives me pause to know how lucky I am to have learned from some great managers, and even some who weren't so great - at how to encourage and promote creativity in corporate environments.

Cameron Sinclair on open-source architecture

dsr — 2010-01-27T10:08:53-08:00

Cameron Sinclair's motto is: "Design like you give a damn." He runs a architectural design firm, it's mission is to provide professional services to communities in need.

What strikes me the most isn't Cameron's passion to help people–this quality seems to be on the rise, especially in the design world, where people are more empowered to solve these types of human problems with innovative new ideas. The coolest thing about Cameron's approach is that he uses Open Source methodologies to attack the problem, by using the internet to procure design solutions, but also distribute them to localities, who take these ideas and implement them. This allows more to be accomplished with less; but more to the point, it allows local communities to participate at a highly functional level in managing their own destinies.

Thanks to the internet, Open Source is changing the world in some amazing ways. Due to the recent emergence of this new working philosophy, talented and passionate peers from around the world can collaborate simultaneously and solve big problems, which previously only companies and governments would ever have a chance to address-and in case you haven't noticed–they mostly don't.

The other thing I noticed is the distinction between architecture which is the product of an architect's "vision", who's aim is to produce a "gem", and Cameron's designs, which are produced with the community's benefit at the center of the idea–an almost inverse to how architecture is usually done. What I noticed is, this stuff looks cool despite the fact that aesthetic considerations aren't really the point. Through the process of making things that work on a basic human level, these approaches are also amazing to look at.

Ray Anderson on the business logic of sustainability

dsr — 2010-01-19T13:27:11-08:00

Inspired by Paul Hawken's "The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability," Ray Anderson completely retrofitted his carpet company in order to lead the way for big business and industry to take a hard look at reversing the decline of environmental impact caused by their businesses. Sustainability. A relatively new concept, but one which ancient people's have understood and practiced for centuries. "Take nothing, do no harm." It's an idea which is coming into fashion as even businesses like Wal-Mart have acknowledged the need (and even profitibiltiy) of going Green.

One of the most confronting ideas that Ray Anderson puts out there, at least to me, is the notion that "theft is a crime". Well, we all know that if you walk out of the 7-11 without paying for your Slurpee, you're doing something wrong, but the truly sad fact of the matter is, many of us don't have the same moral code about later dumping that empty container out the window on our way to the beach. At least not until fairly recent history in this country.

I'm reminded of a recent episode of the show "Mad Men," (the episode is called "The Golden Violin" in case you want to look it up on Hulu). The scene itself isn't very important to the episode, but one of the great things about this show are the finer details in between the larger themes. The scene is this: Don Draper takes his family on a picnic in the park, and it's a beautiful and calm moment. After they are done, Don chucks his empty beer can onto the grass. Betty, his wife, cleans off the picnic blanket by shaking all of the trash onto the ground. They all return to the car and drive away. It's both shocking and funny in a surreal kind of way. But it's also an unexpected commentary about the mess we've made due to our ignorance and laziness.

Big business has been operating like Don Draper for as long as Capitalism has existed; possibly longer. To say that theft is a crime, and to suggest that CEOs of large companies should be arrested and thrown in jail is a long overdue paradigm shift in attitude and belief. As people become more aware of climate change, and many of the other issues under that larger umbrella, companies are becoming increasingly aware that even though they might have been able to buy off the government, they can't fool consumers as they begin to factor these concerns into their purchasing decisions.

Another interesting concept is the idea of affluence itself. The old model has us polluting the environment more as we become more affluent, as a matter of course. Additionally, as technology becomes more advanced, this compounds the levels of destruction. Here is his chart:

The new model, on the right, has technology dividing, or cutting the amount of waste now that we are looking for ways to innovate and build sustainable businesses. Affluence no longer clogs the system with waste, it just means that people are happy. I'm no mathematician, but this is how I interpreted the diagram.

Personally, I am interested in expanding the notion of how we are all connected even further to include the resources themselves. Companies that make billions extracting fossil fuels from the earth, for instance, are in effect taking something which belongs to all the people of the world, not just Exxon. We all have a stake. "But Sean, isn't that SOCIALISM?" Maybe, maybe not. Could be it's time to get rid of these loaded words we use to tune out fairness and common sense, and start focusing on a new bottom line–the preservation of all our futures.

It's time to take these profits from the robber barons and use them to uplift the human race!

Songs About the News

dsr — 2009-01-08T23:51:25-08:00

Songs About the News is a new website I will be launching very soon. You can go to the site now and read about the concept. Myself and a few others are very excited about this idea and I can't wait to launch it into the world. Stay tuned...

Scriptographer - Javascript for Illustrator

dsr — 2008-11-30T21:33:19-08:00

Scriptographer is an amazing tool I've been playing with recently which gives you the ability to run javascript within Illustrator. What this allows you to do is write little scripts which will then generate illustrations either procedurally or in real-time with user input. There are a bunch already available on the Scriptographer website which show the pretty wide range of applications. I'm particularly intrigued by the tile maker script, which allows you to create interesting patterns which you then can paint with in real time. Here's an experiment I created today with a Spirograph script. The background is from a scanned watercolor illustration I made when I was in Kindergarten. I really think a tool like this pushes the envelope of what is typical these days and I look forward to posting more of my experiments soon.

Tenori-On. You Want One.

dsr — 2008-11-20T10:14:17-08:00

The Tenori-On is a new musical instrument that looks like a cross between a Light-Bright and Pong. There's a few dozen videos on YouTube of the thing in action, and frankly it looks like the only kind of video game that could ever possibly hold my interest. I could definitely envision abandoning my family for a few hours hooked up to this thing and not making it to dinner because I was stuck in a never-ending feedback loop of modulating my sequence beyond the need for cheeseburgers. I question whether any real musicians would find it useful in any serious musical application, only because it seems to lack any real depth or range, musically speaking. Everything it does sounds like itself, which while not necessarily a bad thing, sort of ends up being video game music at the end of the day. Still, if you're looking for a really fun, innovative way to bring music making into your home, the Tenori-On might just be your pet.

I went to Wasilla High School three years after Sarah Palin graduated. Holy Shit my brain just exploded.

dsr — 2008-09-04T22:23:35-08:00

I went to Wasilla High School in the 80s a few years after Sarah Palin graduated. It was a very traumatic experience that shaped my life. Wasilla is a very small town full of racist homophobic redneck "christians" who hated me because I wore an earring and wasn't a complete inbred backwoods dumb-ass. Nonetheless I got my ass kicked repeatedly and it was very cold and dark most of the time, but those two years gave me plenty of character, and I truly learned the power of ignorance. I ended up dropping out of high school...

GoObey?

dsr — 2008-06-06T09:34:47-08:00

I recently came across an old Wired page from 2003 profiling the pre-IPO days of Google. It's interesting to go back to those heady white-hot days and revisit one of the web's most successful companies before it's complete and utter dominance. Even more fascinating is Shep Fairey's re-design concept for Google's home-page. We're really grateful Mr. Fairey has stuck with t-shirts.

Cat Power Vs. David Lee Roth on Allmusic Blog

dsr — 2008-02-08T01:14:19-08:00

Checking my stats tonight and noticed that my mashup of Chan Marshall and DLR is getting mad hits! Thanks to Allmusic for getting the word out on my uh, brilliant concept.
:)
Read about it here

Sorry I lied.

dsr — 2008-01-29T15:42:34-08:00

I neglected this thing for a whole year. I promise, 2008 will be way better on the blog front. In the next few weeks I'll post my top 10 favorite records for 2007. Stay tuned.

More frequent blog updates in 2007

dsr — 2006-12-29T10:47:35-08:00

One of my new years resolutions this year is to not be so neglectful of the blog. Therefore, in the coming months, expect more frequent postings with higher quality writing on more interesting subject matter. To begin, I thought I'd share my Flickr and Delicious addresses so you can see my latest photos and places I've traveled on the web. Enjoy!