Category: Uncategorized

Bad idea list (2021 edition)

I have a lot of bad ideas. Ask the people who know me. These are some better-ish of them. Maybe someone out there has the free time to go do them… IOP Wooden beach shovel company Honestly, I see a ton of plastic crap left at our beach from people visiting. In specific, the number of kids toys abandon in the surf. I’m sure it’s only 1% of the plastic waste neglected at the beach, but I think it would be pretty clever to make biodegradable beach toys. Leave a wooden shovel at the beach, it rots in and disappears […]

Read more

When did I stop writing?

Or did I? As I consider the new year, I’ve been tearing down old content from 2015 when I was actively consulting. Looking back, the idea of a personal brand was very relevant for the business I was building. When I shifted back into a software company, that content moved from being open (and largely unread) to being internal content (still mostly unread). No, I didn’t stop writing. The need for which I write changed. I spend more time in my day job articulating in sentences than I do design. Explaining research, process, data to support decisions. Very large volumes […]

Read more

What are we designing?

    

One recurring theme as I watch the way our team works: the fine balance of  design philosophy (why) vs. Get-Shit-Done attitude (how): Are we just copying what we see? As designers, are we more often emulating what we see around us rather than “designing” or creating something new. Is it the job of the Artist to be “original” and the designer to emulate? or does the designer constantly look for opportunity and create smaller shifts as they observe. If an artist is large jumps, is “design” a series of smaller responses and shifts over time? Would a client understand something they’d […]

Read more

How design & marketing help make software successful

  

How do you create “successful” software ? The first ingredient is having a vision. Something you’re passionate about. And how that vision is vetted, digested and eventually executed on. Digesting that idea into its essence and creating a minimum-viable-project plan that can be developed. The second ingredient  having the right team: a great client, project management & requirements, a group of dedicated developers and designers aligned to the seeing this vision succeed. Executing on this plan through Agile software development & launching the beta software. Sparc has done dozens of projects internally & with commercial partners. We know how to design […]

Read more

Always be ready to present

   

I think part of being a good designer is to constantly look back and analyze your habits: where or from whom they came from. Think back to the art director who taught me to do one more iteration. Or when I learned to create one more design that makes you uncomfortable. Most often I trace many things I do well back to my first year of architecture studio and the design habits that I carried forward from there. Always be ready to present. One of the habit instilled early on was to always be ready to present. period. A teacher […]

Read more

3 rules for solving problems

  

Quick thought that should be incorporated into a bigger post someday. I came to “design” through an education in Architecture. Little unconventional, but there were several messages that were imprinted early on, and I still come back today. 3 rules for solving problems. Something that stuck in my mind like glue from my first year of study was our professor Jay Stoeckel’s mantra: when you get stuck on a problem, change one of the variables. By changing either media, scale, or concern, you can often solve the problem that’s stopped you. Change Media – getting away from the computer for […]

Read more