theblog

Thoughts on rap, life & design.

[stoneykun]

Rejecting the Russian doll design strategy:

“Our cars will be more like a chess board where you have a King, Queen, Bishop, Knight... They all look different and function differently but when they’re together they come as one team.”

Hyundai's Unusual New Design Strategy: No Visual Continuity Across Models - Core77

Conventional car company design rules say "All of a brand's models must share styling cues. The brand DNA must not have any mutations." As e

[stoneykun]

doesn’t look anything like Gucci Mane :(

[stoneykun]

"It’s very hard to change behaviour by showing people pictures and movies that they don’t want to look at."

— Garrett Johnson on advertising

[stoneykun]

“Brand purpose is talked about a lot these days, I think because marketing technology hasn’t turned out to be the savior we imagined, but many misunderstand it. It isn’t the same thing as conscious capitalism or corporate social responsibility. Mimicking Patagonia, for example, is not why your brand should exist.”

— Scott Omelianuk

[stoneykun]

“Design doesn’t need to be delightful for it to work, but that’s like saying food doesn’t need to be tasty to keep us alive.”

— Frank Chimero

[stoneykun]

Rounding corners the correct way, made easy by the new Shaper Tool.

[stoneykun]

“Self doubt is a very, very real thing. But it is part of the deal when you decide to share your work.”

Gab Bois

[stoneykun]

True innovation isn’t about a new invention. True innovation is about delivering new value.

Jared Spool

[stoneykun]

“Looks aren’t everything. A couple of years ago an agency could get by simply making good-looking work. Today every design detail big and small needs to derive from data-driven insights. A proper agency still needs to be able to make beautiful creative, but leading with an understanding of the audience’s culture and behaviors will yield the most effective results. In some cases, this might even mean intentionally trading polish for authenticity.”

Charlie Weisman, Big Spaceship

[stoneykun]

Inspired by the work of Karan Singh.

[stoneykun]

Concepts for team tees ;)

[stoneykun]

My failed attempt to get selected by the City of Sydney

Late last year, the City of Sydney opened expressions of interest to submit concepts for hoarding graphics to adorn construction sites.

There were a handful of criteria set by the brief, but something that really stood out was ‘spark conversation in the community’. This led me to the climate change debate. As it turns out, The City of Sydney has invested a great deal into an adaptation strategy.

So I asked myself how do I stimulate debate with a series of hoarding spanning 30m? How do I execute something visually appealing that contains a message, but isn’t too judgemental? What about a reflection of our past, to help us consider the future? What about a data visualisation?

I set myself the challenge to visualise the last 50 years of climate data collected by the Bureau of Meteorology in Sydney.

Had there been more time I would have laboured the visual craft more, but below is a few vignettes of my exploration using Illustrator’s Graph/Chart tools.

[stoneykun]

So while we sometimes recall and retell technological history through effortless tales, the reality is that many meaningful technology accomplishments at the most influential companies are the result of successful internal political wins, a slow climb of convincing the right people in the right place at the right time that a good idea is actually good.

Golden Krishna

[stoneykun]

Reflections on my first decade as a designer - a guide to good health, happiness and prosperity at work

This was originally published on Medium.

Since our partnership with Hatch, I have had the great pleasure meeting and mentoring the next generation of design talent. Feeling their tenacity, hearing their curiosity and seeing them flourish has been incredibly rewarding.

It has been a chance for them to soak up the expertise of the product design team; and (unexpectedly) a chance to explore the softer side. You see, the questions about taming Sketch and Principle, were mere warm up for the deep and meaningful ones that soon followed. The kind that have you reflect on your entire design career and open up about things like criticism, perfectionism and identity. OMG!

In the spirit of giving back to the design community, I have decided to package these conversations into a (short) guide to maintaining one’s wellbeing at work.

Criticism refines our ideas The reason we chose to be designers in the first place, was a chance at solving important problems. As it turns out, many of the world’s problems are complex, and require not only talented individuals, but also well formed teams.

So, what do I consider a key ingredient amongst well formed teams? Well, a couple of years ago, I happened to stumble across the term, ‘creative abrasion’, which I later discovered was coined by a former design manager at Nissan, Jerry Hirshberg. It helped shed new light on giving and receiving design critique. Creative abrasion describes a team culture of friction where ideas are constructively challenged.

For anyone intimidated by the thought of conflict in the workplace, creative abrasion is about creating a safe environment to put aside fear and ego, to focus objectively on the problem at hand. It encourages passion, diversity and rigorous evaluation. Rather than take it personally, designers need to be reminded that criticism is the friction that polishes gems.

Perfectionism kills productivity During the majority of my career, I subscribed to the notion, all great designers are perfectionists. Labouring the craft, attention to detail－projects are not worthy of release until they are perfect. My work MUST be perfect!

A decade in, and firmly immersed into the world of product design, I have learnt that perfectionism is an unhealthy mindset. Child psychologist, James Delisle articulates it perfectly (no pun intended):

“Perfectionism is not a good thing. It is often misperceived as a good thing, and it has been described as a good thing, but it is not. What is good is pursuit of excellence, which is something quite different.”

Here, our leadership encourage two principles to help teams overcome the pitfalls of perfectionism. The first is, “set a goal and timebox your time”. To avoid the trap of getting lost, every piece of work, no matter the size, begins with clearly written goals and a deadline. The second principle reminds us, “don’t worry about getting it wrong”. Don’t let fear of imperfection hinder productivity. Rather, embrace it, and use rapid iteration to brave forward.

You are not your job With work being such a central part of our lives, it is easy to fall into the trap of letting our job define who we are. I feel this is especially prevalent amongst designer-types where the boundaries between one’s work and private identities easily dissolve.

Reflecting back on my career, I often struggled to detach my self-worth from what I created at work. Particularly where elements of self-expression were in the mix. At the time, I wasn’t even aware of it. I just simply thought riding the emotional rollercoaster was part of being a commercial designer. Poor feedback from clients and customers, was a reflection of my inability. Yuck!

The honest truth, I am finally starting to learn that I AM NOT MY JOB. There are two parts to this idea. The first, it is critical to foster a work life balance to maintain your creative and emotional equilibrium. The second, your work outcomes do not define you as a person. We face all sorts of variables in our job, and our customers, clients and peers are not always privy to this.

Fortunately, my first year here has cemented this and helped me understand why. The leadership here acknowledge our roles and our identities and bake it into their management style. Rather than reward working late, they encourage us to leave on time, so we can get to that evening pottery class. Rather than hold team meetings in sterile boardrooms, they encourage us to meet at a nearby cafe and simply get to know each other. Rather than juggle the stress of being a new parent, they encourage and enable us to take ample time away to be with our child. We are encouraged to flourish in our roles and are nurtured as individuals.

We are reminded that we are not our jobs. Give work your very best, but never lose sight of who you (and your colleagues) are.

As designers, if we can hold onto these fundamentals in our practice we stand a much better chance of not burning out; of not constantly being faced with creative roadblocks; and establishing a better harmony within teams. Ideas can flourish, be challenged, fail, be refined, excel, and we can be proud of what we created and the amazing individuals that got us there. I hope this guide will help the next generation of designers to think beyond the pixels and prepare for the long game.

[stoneykun]

It’s about time we accept the fact that we are not artists and embrace being part of a business. For the best.

UX Design Collective

[stoneykun]

TRUMP BUMP

[stoneykun]

Some random doodle