I have the best, and scariest, job in the world. When I’m doing my job right, everyone else is busy and I have nothing to do. And this isn’t to say there’s nothing to be done, I just haven’t discovered the next design project yet. My job is to insure everyone else is productive & happy, before […]
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We’ve had a brief pause lately to focus back on our team & what our strategy for growth is. The “design team” at SPARC has been in existence over 3 years now, with me learning to lead while building the team from the ground up. It’s been the most rewarding experience of my professional career to be able to foster […]
Read moreI believe one of the hardest issues as a “designer” is proving that what you do has tangible value to a business. That the time and extra expense of designing a product or user-experience returns financially. Smart companies & consumers recognize this. Simple quality over cost result: as a business you want long-term results, as […]
Read moreSo we use basecamp A LOT or internal design communication, and cataloguing the random ideas that make life amazing. We use basecamp so much we’ve created around 212 projects in a little over 24 months. A few of the better basecamp projects include titles such as: Brad’s really bad Venture ideas Captains log DayCareForSmartPeople.com Sparc […]
Read moreThere are few breaks in life as a parent, but i’m currently enjoying a short one as Heidi & Naish are up North in the wilds of Minnesota. Since’s Naish birth, my home office (studio?) has become a dumping ground of bills, broken electronics, unread magazines, and anything else that comes along. While it’s gathered […]
Read moreSitting in a kick-off meeting, little tedious, sometimes steals your energy. Simultaneously reading email, IMing, listening to the client, giving feedback. Occasionally thinking how lucky I am to be in this room, in this conversation, & what/who we’re designing the software we’re creating. Don Draper now builds software for a living. Clicking through the email […]
Read moreHere’s to the big changes that fundamentally make you shift your life and try to balance what’s important. With the arrival of the little man and some down time for work, it’s been hard to focus on any one thing (besides sleep), but taking the writing in my head and trying to get it somewhere […]
Read moreThis last year at SPARC has been a pretty trans-formative experience for me. As someone who is use to designing everything, to a role now where I lead others and offer guidance towards how the design should work. It hasn’t been an easy transition – learning to delegate and learning how to improve communication to […]
Read moreStarted brewing my own craft beer the past year – excellent wintertime habit. Some of it’s even pretty palatable. My favorite part of the process is creating the labels. First batch I ever did, my dog Tobey got ahold of & started chewing on the yeast packet… the last step in the brew day. Hence […]
Read moreNew habit: try and read an interesting design article with lunch. Site like Ted.com, fastcompany.com or Good.is have great conent, and are not always conventionally about design. Came across this interview with James Victore yesterday. Points such as work is work – get it done and get out, and using traditional sketching methods were interesting. […]
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