Design with your boots on: Advice to myself in the past, present and future

Design with
your boots on
Advice to myself in the past, present and future

1
1
hypnotic waves that will take you on this journey with me

I’m here because of this saying:

“The shoemaker’s children always go barefoot“
—Danish Proverb

in Russian:
The shoemaker goes without boots

In Portuguese: 
in a blacksmith’s house the skewer is made of wood

> The carpenter’s house always needs work
> The preacher’s kids are always the wildest 
> en casa de herrero, cuchillo de palo
> The hairdressers' have hair that's just a mess 
> The blacksmith's horse walks barefoot 
> The tailor can't sew his own rip 
> the knives are always dull in a blacksmith's house 
> mechanics always drive beat-up old cars 
> plumbers have leaky pipes
> A housekeeper's house is never clean
It also applies to diﬀerent professions:

Why in the world is the shoemaker
barefoot?!

The designer’s website is down
The designer didn’t kern her logo
The designer doesn't have cute business cards
The designer’s design isn’t usable

I always knew I wanted to go to art school.

the transition from being the ARTIST
CORPORATE AMERICA
me

not sexy
What I wanted my work to be
MyBed
Sexy
My work

There was another gap: Web design was
changing and evolving rapidly, but our
tools and processes weren’t changing
and couldn't keep up.
web/tech
How we worked

I knew my work needed to get better but if I
wasn’t going to change how I worked and take
the time to use design thinking for me, I would
never have the time to do the creative work that
would let me grow.

I was barefoot
I wasn't designing for my process and needs

• What do I need to work on?
• What am I horrible at?
• What do I hate most about my day?
• How do I do less of that and more of what I love?
• Why am I doing this?

The part of the process that was bothering me was this in-between stage:
Duis mollis, est non commodo
luctus, nisi erat porttitor ligula,
eget lacinia odio sem nec elit.
Duis mollis, est non commodo luctus,
nisi erat porttitor ligula, eget lacinia
odio sem nec elit. Duis mollis, est
non commodo luctus, nisi erat portti-
tor ligula, eget lacinia odio sem nec
elit. Duis mollis, est non commodo
luctus, nisi erat porttitor ligula, eget
lacinia odio sem nec elit.
LMJ LMJ
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TIME SPENT ON: DEVELOPMENT DESIGN SPECCING
Group 20 DesignersDesign to Development Process # Full time speccers
FTE SPECCING

I realized I needed to eliminate or at least improve
this pain point for my self and for my team to have
more time for creative work.
LMJ LMJ
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Specctr wasn't’ the sexy design project
that I imagined when I felt there was a
gap between where I was and where I
wanted to be..
Organic Geometry Part II 
David Brodeur

These are just a handful of the companies using Specctr.

To have the widest most far reaching
eﬀect I had to start with my process!

Yes, it’s possible to close the gap if I focus on my work

my inﬂuence reaches far beyond
But if I focus on how I work

A likely pain point for others
My pain point

When systems, designs,
communications, are broken or non
existent.. that is your jackpot!
Seize the moment! Fix it!

Improving how we work can come from anyone/ anywhere

pattern lab
little ipsum
hues
hues

— TechShop CEO Mark Hatch
http://n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com/
“Machines we have today are the cheapest,
easiest and most powerful than they have
ever been.”

We have never had so many tools and possibilities at our
ﬁngertips. We are trained at both design thinking and
problem solving and we have the tangible skills and crafts to
bring our idea to fruition. This is incredible

Companies founded by
designers
Pinterest , slideshare , FuseProject , theicebreak, Behance , Typekit,
Vimeo, Foodspotting, 955, Dreams, Path, Air BNB, Flickr, Tumblr, YouTube,
Kickstarter… and many more

How do we make sure we are going to ride this wave
and use design.. 
.as a process 
..as a mode of thinking 
…as a tool to sharpen our creativity 
….to problem solve
……not just a skill to produce

Familiar concepts that might help you keep your boots on!

1. Critique
What do I want to spend more time on?
How can my day be better?
What part is hard for me and why?
Why is what I’m doing important?
Is there anything I would change?

“Always the beautiful answer who asks a more
beautiful question.”
— E.E. Cummings

“The creative process, in essence, is an individual in
dialogue with themselves and the work.”
— Frank Chimero (Shape of Design)

“The process of engaging in meaningful critique of your work
decreases the amount of time spent holding on to design decisions
that may not actually solve the problems you are facing and open
the door to constructive conversations that highlight speciﬁc and
actionable solutions you would not have arrived at on your own.”
— JOSHUA BREWER : 52weeksofux.com

What is importantto you?
2. Hierarchy

“What you focus on changes”
— Anna Proctor (my yoga teacher)

“Thinkers who exploit opposing ideas to construct a new solution
enjoy a built-in advantage over thinkers who can consider only
one model at a time” 
— Roger Martin, The Opposable Mind
opposite ideas

Use multi-directional relationships as a source of inspiration.

“The opposite of a true statement is a false
statement. The opposite if a profound truth
may be another profound truth.”
— Niels Bohr

JOSEPH MULLER-BROCKMANN
Paula Scher | Public Theater

Examples from Frank
Chimero’s article:

Alvin Lustig made some of the best book covers, but also designed this helicopter.

The Eames made ﬁlms about information theory and the scale of the universe, then designed the
theater and chair you use to watch them.

We also need this kind of white space and
breathing room in our day to create our
most eﬀective work.

“Often when one works at a hard question, nothing good is
accomplished at the ﬁrst attack…Then one takes a rest,
longer or shorter, and sits down anew to the work. During the
ﬁrst half-hour, as before, nothing is found, and then all of a
sudden the decisive idea presents itself to the mind.”
Henri Poincaré, The Foundations of Science

It’s not just what you work on but how
you work on it that will make you love
what you do. Remember to have fun!

@specctr specctr.com/futureInsights2015 @chennech

RESOURCESTHE GAP BY IRA GLASS https://vimeo.com/85040589
IDEO DESIGN TOOLKIT http://www.designkit.org/methods 
ON CRITIQUE http://52weeksofux.com/post/743059883/critique-me-please
FRANK CHIMERO http://frankchimero.com/writing/designing-in-the-borderlands/ + http://read.shapeofdesignbook.com/chapter01.html 
ON CREATING SPACE http://www.fastcodesign.com/3035811/evidence/the-key-to-creative-insight-interrupt-yourself 
ON FINDING YOUR VOICE http://www.jamesvictore.com/
CREATIVE EXERCISES http://www.howdesign.com/design-creativity/creative-exercises/ 
DESIGN FOUNDERS http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665795/silicon-valleys-new-secret-weapon-designers-who-found-startups
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3042906/the-ceo-of-the-future-is-a-designer-in-chief 
http://designerfund.com/
SPECCTR https://www.specctr.com/ Use code “FUTUREINSIGHTS” FOR 25% OFF 
SERIOUS PLAY LEADS TO INNOVATION http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671971/how-serious-play-leads-to-breakthrough-innovation http://
DESIGN AND THE PLAY INSTINCT BY PAUL RAND http://www.paul-rand.com/foundation/thoughts_designAndthePlayInstinct/#.VWzLFFxVhBd

Use code FUTUREINSIGHTS at checkout
https://www.specctr.com/
25% OFF
SPECCTR

Design with your boots on: Advice to myself in the past, present and future

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