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Metagraphics

We paint murals and make logos

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The creative life

It’s hard work sticking to the creative field. I think it has to be in your blood.

After speaking to a friend from design college who is now working in real estate I’m reminded that many of my professional colleagues in the creative industry, and even more friends from University, are no longer in the design field.

The first wave dropped out shortly after uni. I must admit it was pretty defeating for me, hounding design studio’s for 6 months before finally being given an amazing opportunity at Billabong. I sometimes wonder if that initial test of endurance created in me a tenacity to stick with the creative industries.

Even with the amazing opportunity that presented itself though, I notice another wave of colleagues change courses when those inital “foot in the door” opportunities didn’t have the prestige that most designers are hungry for. Mine certainly didn’t. I was spending 3 days out of 5 pretty much entering data into sales catalogues. But while I watched colleagues use the other 2 days to read articles online and take long lunch breaks, I found my job satisfaction in practicing my design and illustration techniques.

Perseverance and practice got me into a great art directing role but they also taught me to enjoy the process that has kept me designing and refining as a professional for 20 years. Because unless you love the process you won’t stay long in the design field. And there are definitely parts of the process I have hated and that have worn me down.

The possibilities have only increased as I keep persevering, practicing but the process is something I have learnt to trust. I’m a big believer in the idea that practice, perseverance and a love of the process lead to possibilities. Look at that, alliteration!

So what?

Well I guess if you’re on a creative path I want to encourage you to stick with it. Keep refining it. If you persevere with the practice and process then unexpected possibilities will come. The creative spark that got you started will never die if you find a way to let it keep warming your soul.

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Helping is helpful

If it’s free and it works you might as well take it.

I’ve been employing interns since I opened a studio space. I haven’t gone looking for them but every few weeks I will get a recent graduate or high school student asking to hang out and learn something.

Invariably I learn something from them or I learn something from having to teach what I know. Amazing how knowledge grows and expands as you pass it on to others.

One of the projects I like to give most interns involves a bit of self reflection and forces them to think about three key aspects of there life.

Who they are and where they are from
What they are good at
What they would like to see change in the world

It’s usually an illustration task but I always enjoy giving it to interns and I especially like hearing their responses. the process doesn’t take much time but as we talk about the work they create as a response to these prompts my understanding of these 3 aspects in my own life and work become more clear to me.

I don’t know how or why it works on a neurological level, but what I’ve experienced in mentoring is that it never fails to cause growth in my own understanding and practice.

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Designing Education

Pretty regularly I am asked by someone looking to transition into design or begin a career in design, “what’s the best option for accreditation”.
Here’s my response. There’s a few obvious approaches nether all have benefits and limitations.

University. This is what I did. 3 years and $10,000 to get an education and of course, that all important degree. It worked for me right? Sort of. It definitely helped me get to where I am. But could I have taken another route? Most definitely. When I started my first job, most of what I had learnt seemed outdated, inefficient or impractical. Some aspects were good. The best thing I think I received from my degree? Great friends who are in the industry still today who I network with and continue to learn from. Ive also been able to progress down the academic path earning a graduate diploma and am now considering doing a Masters research degree.

TAFE. This is a great option in Australia. I haven’t studied at TAFE but I’ve had interns from TAFE and can say with confidence they have learnt good foundations. It’s a lot cheaper than University and seems to give the same level of folio quality as university. A lot of people seem to thing it is also more practical. Definitely an option.

Private College. I see a mix of students come out of private college. Some a really capable and others are completely incapable. Private college is very expensive and I know from experience can often have lecturers who are unqualified and not good at what they are teaching (the opposite is true in ’tis regard as well). Folios I see coming out of private colleges all look really good on a surface level but in all honestly I get the sense they are highly derivative of other designers work. This happens in university too and if I am honest, this is a subjective opinion.

Teach yourself. Hardly anyone does this but those who do are extremely motivated and can succeed in any capacity. I like to challenge potential students to take this path. Why. Noah Bradley some it up in his article very well. For $5000 you could Aquire more than enough resources to teach yourself design. Quite frankly, it’s not that hard and you learn best in this filed simply by having a go. I am currently in the process of training an intern to teach himself design and he is doing great.

So these are my basic observations. It’s been 20 years since I began my degree. 

If I had the option again, option 4 would definitely be my preferred choice.

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Curating the stream

The best thing about sharing an office with another business owner is the gold that comes out of some of our conversations.

I share an office with a expert in online education. He shared an article with me recently based on an ongoing conversation I seem to be having with people about the ubiquitous nature of information and how it overwhelms our senses.

The article was great but the concept that stood out clearest to me was this:

We have so much information at our fingertips if we do not proactively curate the stream we will be washed away in the river.

Every few weeks I see a Facebook post in which someone dramatically declares there intentions to disengage. It’s usually proclaimed with an air of prophetic intensity, as if the rest of us will also follow suit. Usually within a day or two I notice the same person liking and sharing content.

Couldn’t hack the disengagement I guess?

I think there idea of curating the stream is a much healthier one than disengagement. You don’t have to follow every friend, engage in every argument or read every article. And you definitely don’t have to know everything.

Here’s how I try and make sure I am curating a stream and not getting overwhelmed with information.

  • Unfollow people who are unhelpful. It’s important to be careful here because we don’t want to create an insular bubble and only surround ourselves with those we agree with. Challenge and disagreement are valuable and helpful, non stop complaining isn’t
    Unlike those pages you liked just because they are run by a friend, you felt obliged to or you liked in a frenzy of online information amassing
    Limit your time with an app like Self Control and use a system for reading content ‘later on’

    • Knowledge is power but too much knowledge is overwhelming.

    If you limit and control the content you consume you will be happier and less likely to be frozen, procrastinate and me limited by the ‘paradox of choice’.

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    Key performance indicators

    A few years back I was struggling in business and didn’t know why. Sales were inconsistent and month to month income was highly variable.

    I have a few close friends and menotrs that I shared this with and one of my good friends who is the CEO of a local charity asked if I have any “Key performances indicators”.

    This immediately stank of business school jargon, but what I like about this kind of jargon is that you can always adapt and modify business concepts to suit your own needs, whether you are a sole trader with minimal staff or a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. If there is something helpful in the jargon, take it, modify it, and make it your own.

    Here’s how I made the idea of KPI’s work for me, I thought about it in terms of what are the weekly tasks I can do to help smooth out the variance in sales and income.

    These are my KPI’s:

    Traditional Marketing
    Social Media and inbound marketing
    Quote
    Invoices
    Admin

    Within each of these categories are about 5 simple tasks that help my business keep running along successfully.

    When I stay on track of these key performance indicates, I see a direct correlation with lead generation, sales and most importantly, income.

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    Keeping track in business?

    I find creativity comes easy, the day to day elements of running a business I don’t.

    There’s a bunch of software out there that promises to help you keep track of your business.

    I’ve tried a lot of it but to be honest I think all of them are limited to some degree. The best way to keep my eye on everything is really simple. I use a spreadsheet.

    My spreadsheet is divided into the following key aspects of my business

      Incoming jobs, leads and quotes
      Work in progress
      Finalising jobs
      Invoicing
      Expenses
      Key performance indicators

    There are probably a few other things that I could put on my spreadsheet but this covers everything and if I am diligent in observing this “bible” for my business things usually run quite smoothly.

    Sometime recently I stopped using it. This was because I started using accounting software and I thought this would be enough. The accounting software is great, but things started to get a little inconsistent. As soon as I reignited my spreadsheet bible… things got back on track.

    I think there is something really helpful in developing your own system to keep track of it all.