Relieve stress

Last week I spoke about the two lessons I've learned during last year and 2009. Today I'll speak of the second lesson.

Lesson 2: When things change more often than expected, don't sweat it. Adapt.

Did I say I like planning? I do. But... too much planning can be a waste of time and effort.

Sometimes things just aren't in your hands. You depend on other people, other areas in the company and I think we've pretty much concluded that the only thing you can control is your reaction to situations.

Things change continously and the time lapse between changes is so short that there really is no time to plan again.

What to do?

Stop resisting, go with the flow. Adapt. New circumstances are thrown to you? Re-adjust yourself to respond effectively.

No stress, no worry, no resistance to what is, because it already is!
No complaining, no badbauthing, no resentments.

Regroup, adjust and act.

I wonder what lesson 3 will be...

How to Be a Star at Work: 7 Rules for a Really Big Career

I read this fabulous article by Cathie Black who is president of Hearst Magazines, which publishes O, The Oprah Magazine. In it she presents seven ways to get ahead in your professional career. I thought it was very timely, so here it is, taken from oprah.com.


How to Be a Star at Work: 7 Rules for a Really Big Career
By Cathie Black

From a lowly sales assistant to head of a magazine empire (...) Cathie Black has boldly gone where no woman has gone before. Here, in a preview of her forthcoming book, Basic Black, she shares her unorthodox (dare we say daredevil) strategies for getting ahead.

Thousands of years ago, a handful of fortune-tellers roamed ancient China, traveling to the palaces of Mandarins and predicting the future. When they were right, they were showered with riches and praised at lavish banquets. When they were wrong, they were boiled alive.

Taking a risk is scary when you focus on what can go wrong and exciting when you consider the benefits if all goes well. The trick is to think about risk in the right way and use it to your advantage. Most people see taking risks as opening themselves up to unnecessary, even dangerous, chance. But the truth is, avoiding risk won't keep you safe, nor will it guarantee a smooth ride.

In fact, the opposite is often true. It's like the monkey parable: A monkey sees a nut in a hole and reaches in to grab it. Once he's closed his fist around it, he can't get his hand back out of the narrow opening. He can't free himself unless he lets go of the nut, but because he's afraid to lose it, he won't let go.

Trying to avoid risk is like clinging to that nut. You may think you're playing it safe by holding on to what you have, but in reality you're just hindering your own progress.

Keep reading...

Transmilenio and design during Christmas

I'd had a crappy day and then just when I was getting home, something brought a smile to my face...

Yesterday was a long succession of ups and downs, mostly downs, made lots of mistakes, there was a tense atmosphere... at the end of the day I took a Transmilenio bus to go home. 50 minute commute, listening to my iPod, trying not to think too much about the events of the day.

When suddenly, as the bus was approaching the Portal (Terminal, the last stop) the driver speaks up in this towering voice (which they never do, as you'd know if you live in Bogotá; Transmilenio drivers are not allowed to talk to passengers) and said:

"Hello, passengers! My name is So and So (I'm so sorry I didn't get his name) and I just want to say to you all that it has been a pleasure driving you tonight and that I do this work with love, because I am here to serve you. I also want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and a wonderful evening!"

Well, as you can imagine, we were all kind of shocked at first, thinking that maybe this guy was some psycho that was going to kidnap the bus or something. But then the whole bus burst into applause and some people yelled "And to you too!". I did have a funny feeling in my throat, a mixture of sudden happiness and tears.

And what does this story have to do with design?

Design as this driver drives. Design because you love it. Be excellent in your endeavors because it will bring you joy, because this is the way you serve the world. And your tool is design. Do you think you can reach such passion?

All the best!

To design or not to design?

That is the question, indeed. As I’ve said in my profile, I graduated as an industrial designer. However, in my career I’ve never worked with product design. What have I been doing all these years, then? Read on to find out.

When I graduated I landed a job as “designer” for a big multinational company. The job entitled working with digital files of packaging and doing prepress processes. I wasn’t too crazy about it, but I enjoyed the work.

A few months later, I was promoted to head of the department, with one person reporting to me. So now I was in charge not only of the technical aspect of the work, but also of the administrative aspect of the work. Budgets, deadlines, processes, procedures, policies, internal communications, suppliers, staff development, you name it.

And I loved it.

Was it stressful? Hell, yeah! But I really enjoyed that part of the business.

After that job I went on to work in several other companies, doing business or design process related things, but never actually designing. And there came a point when I just admitted that I enjoyed the business aspect of design, more than designing itself. Not only that, I didn’t miss industrial design per se, at all. It could be graphic design or branding.

Where am I going with this, you ask? Bear with me a bit more…

A couple of weeks ago Oprah Winfrey did a show on women who hated their jobs. The special guest was Marcus Buckingham, a career expert from England. Marcus designed a workshop to help people determine a plan to make the best of their professional lives, be it figuring out how to make your job match your strengths, or having the guts to quit it once and for all.

The workshop focuses on figuring out what your strengths and weaknesses are, but seeing these two concepts under a different light, which I thought was very interesting.

Strengths are defined as activities that you do, that invigorate you. How do you know? Because when you’re doing them you get really focused, it’s easy for you to concentrate and you look forward to doing them.

Weaknesses are defined as activities that you do, that drain you. How do you know? Because when you do them, it’s hard to concentrate, you’re always coming up with excuses not to do them, you dread going to work to do them and you feel like they take away your energy.

Pretty easy, huh?

Well, I took the workshop and came to realizations that I was reluctant to admit, but that will help me in the decisions I’m going to make about where I want to go with my career. Maybe I will tell you about those conclusions in another article sometime.

But my point is that just because you graduated from college with a certain degree, doesn’t mean that that’s who you are or what you’re supposed to do for a living. And as Wayne Dyer would say: “Who would trust a seventeen year old with career choices?”.

Maybe I don’t want to be a designer… maybe I want to move to other design related areas like management or teaching… Or maybe I want to try a different design discipline like graphic or interior design, who knows? The future is not written!

And only you can figure out what it is that strengthen or weaken you. I suggest you take the workshop . It’s free!

All the best!

Getting the Most of Your Career

Some time ago How Magazine published a list of some of their articles for getting the career of your dreams.

These are a few of their posts:

· Create Your Personal Career Map

This essential guide presents questions you need to answer to help you hone in on where you want your career to go and how to get there.

· 5 Career Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)

How can you have a fulfilling career? By making sure you're not falling into any of these on-the-job pitfalls.

· 5 Steps to Learning to Love Your Job

Sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands, and a job is no exception; here's how to make the most of a current position.

· When to Know It's Time to Move On

How do you know when you've done all you can in a position or if a job has become a dead-end? Here are 5 sure-fire signs.

· Tips for Overcoming Common On-the-Job Fears

Are you afraid to ask for a raise? Scared by your manager? Haunted by past mistakes? Here's how to confront—and overcome—these common office-place issues.

See all the career-advice articles, specifically for designers.

All the best!

Is disorganization and lack of planning effective?

I used to be pretty disorganized when working or doing a project. Then I discovered the many benefits of being organized. And then… there comes a project that made me question if being organized all the time really paid off.

The latest project I embarked in consisted of many items, all showing up at once, handling a massive amount of incoming information and then analyzing, organizing, deciding. This naturally led me to get ready to plan and implement databases and tools to keep track of everything.

But just when I was ready to do that, the person for whom I was doing the project implied that maybe my thoroughness wasn’t really necessary in this case, but rather intrusive and time consuming.

I was resistant, at first, after all, I know how to handle my own information, thank you very much! But then I decided to listen.

So I started questioning my own usual procedures:

- Is a database really necessary?
- How complete should it be?
- What fields should it have?
- Do I need to leave a record of every single item?
- What if I only left a record of the items that were going to go on?
- How can I make this effort more effective?
- What activities don’t have any added value?
- How can I do things more quickly, without sacrificing quality?
- Do I have to follow a predefined set of activities?

So instead of using a huge database with tons of information that I wasn’t immediately going to use, and that I could refer to later, I decided to do things simple.

A mixture of digital (database) and analog (notes and printed materials) mediums to keep track and be effective.

So I realized that I don’t always have to be ultra organized, that some projects don’t need to leave records of everything behind and that they can be done in less time, using less resources, if you’re just open to new ways of doing things and listening to what the customer actually wants and needs.

The moral of the story is, question your own procedures from time to time, you may find new and interesting ways of tackling your projects.

All the best!

Designers of the World, Write.

This week, How Magazine presents a very interesting article by Juliet D'Ambrosio, associate creative director at Atlanta-based Iconologic. The article begins like this:

It's a strange paradox: So many designers whose work speaks so fluently in images flee in terror when called upon to communicate with the written word. After all, designers are nothing if not communicators, and communication is most fully realized when image and word unite.

Juliet presents seven steps to tackle this challenge. I suggest you read on, to find out more.

All the best!

Design Aerobics

Creativity is like a muscle, right? Well, here’s a website I found a couple of years ago, that literally proclaims that very thing and offers designers a series of exercises to stimulate their creative juices.

Designboom is a website dedicated to industrial design. One of their sections is called the Design Aerobics where for a fee, you can enroll in a variety of design exercises.

There are 8 themes a year: Sex, work, spirituality, childhood, glass, paper, ceramics and textiles. Each course takes two months, where you also get to meet other people from all over the world who are also doing the exercises, and get great feedback from expert instructors.

The website actually has a page where they explain what the Design Aerobics are about.

I can’t actually comment further, because I haven’t tried them myself. However, I thought I’d bring them up here as an interesting design resource and allow you to decide for yourselves.

Do drop by later and leave a comment if you’ve got something to share about them.

All the best!

Get your boss to send you to How Design Conference

A couple of weeks ago I received my latest issue of How Magazine. Inside there were some postcards promoting the How Design Conference.

The graphic design is pretty cool, as it is to be expected from the How team. However, that’s not what really caught my attention.

The interesting part was that they made each postcard as if it was a designer, sending it to their boss, explaining why it would be good for the boss, to send the designer to the conference.

See these examples:

“Hey, Boss! I’ll get all the tools I need to work more efficiently + effectively at the How Design Conference in Boston (May 18-21). Experts from Adobe will share insider secrets on Photoshop, InDesign and more — while top designers outline their best time-saving processes! Let me save you time (and money) — Send me to HOW! PS: If I learn just one tip that saves 2 minutes off a tedious design project — I’ll save at least 8 hours a year!”.

“Boss: The How Design Conference helps designers work faster, smarter and more creatively — that’s why I want to go! I’ll learn shortcuts and new techniques for the Adobe software I use everyday; get creativity boosters from the experts; and find out how to positively impact your business through design. Find out more at http://www.howconference.com/”.

“Being creative is my job. But on-the-spot creativity is a learned trait. That’s why the How Design Conference is important. I’ll see amazing work from some of the brightest minds in the industry and learn how to develop innovative solutions to business and marketing problems, even under pressure. — I wanna go!”

“Dear Boss— Please send me to Boston May 18-21 for the 2008 How Design Conference! I’ll learn new creative processes that will actually save YOU money — such as how to create my own type and build a stock photo library. Everything I learn, from on-demand creativity to technological shortcuts, will have a positive impact on your bottom line.”


See a pattern?

This is how a designer can sell an idea. Present to the other person what the benefits for them will be. Not only that, but be specific about what those benefits will be. Who could deny a designer who asks this way, the possibility to attend the conference?

HOW knows that, and that’s why they set up a Tips For Convincing Your Boss To Send You To The How Design Conference web page.

My point is that, if this is the way most designers think in the US, perhaps we, the Latin American designers have something to learn from them, like how to present a case or an idea and how to ask for training that will benefit both you and the company. And I think that we are scared to ask sometimes, because we assume that our bosses won’t want to spend money on such things, but like my old boss used to say: “Don’t assume, verify!”.

All the best!

The 11 Major Attributes of Leadership

I’ve been reading another book. It’s called “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. It was published in 1937, when Andrew Carnegie appointed Napoleon to study the characteristics of great achievers in America and to write a book that would summarize such characteristics.

I’d heard a lot about this book, so I decided to give it a try. I’m not finished yet, but I want to transcribe a passage of it here, since I believe it relates to the way I view design leadership.

So here goes:

“The Major Attributes of Leadership

1. Unwavering courage.
Based upon knowledge of self, and of one’s occupation. No follower wishes to be dominated by a leader who lacks self-confidence and courage. No intelligent follower will be dominated by such a leader very long.

2. Self-control.
The man who cannot control himself, can never control others. Self-control sets a mighty example for one’s followers, which the more intelligent will emulate.

3. A keen sense of justice.
Without a sense of fairness and justice, no leader can command and retain the respect of his followers.

4. Definiteness of decision.
The man who wavers in his decisions, shows that he is not sure of himself. He cannot lead others successfully.

5. Definiteness of plans.
The successful leader must plan his work and work his plan. A leader who moves by guesswork, without practical, definite plans, is comparable to a ship without a rudder. Sooner or later he will land on the rocks.

6. The habit of doing more than paid for.
One of the penalties of leadership is the necessity of willingness, upon the part of the leader, to do more that he requires of his followers.

7. A pleasing personality.
No slovenly, careless person can become a successful leader. Leadership calls for respect. Followers will not respect a leader who does not grade high on all the factors of a pleasing personality.

8. Sympathy and understanding.
The successful leader must be in sympathy with his followers. Moreover, he must understand them and their problems.

9. Mastery of detail.
Successful leadership calls for mastery of details of the leader’s position.

10. Willingness to assume full responsibility.
The successful leader must be willing to assume responsibility for the mistakes and the shortcomings of his followers. If he tries to shift this responsibility, he will not remain the leader. If one of his followers makes a mistake, and shows himself incompetent, the leader must consider that it is he who failed.”

11. Cooperation.
The successful leader must understand and apply the principle of cooperative effort and be able to induce his followers to do the same. Leadership calls for power and power calls for cooperation."

All the best!

Design on wheels

Tokio Showroom: Where is Japan going and what’s the future of the automobile?

That’s the title of last week’s Motor Magazine article article about the 40th Tokio Showroom, a showcase of the latest in car design.

Where’s colombian design when it comes to shaping the future of mankind? Well, I’ll let the link speak for itself (Beware it’s in spanish).

All the best!

Design resources: Coroflot.com

A place where designers gather together!

Coroflot.com is an online community dedicated to all the branches of design, where designers can promote themselves through:

· Uploading their resume.
· Uploading their portfolio.
· Joining groups (Like D Colombia).
· Searching jobs (Mostly abroad).
· Commenting on other designers work.
· Networking.

If you are a designer, then you need to be here.

I’ve actually used this site to recruit designers before, and every day it is becoming more and more popular in Colombia, so do take the time to post your information here. I’ve been a member for years.

As colombian (And Latinamerican designers) we need to stick together, help each other and promote latinamerican design. This is a great place to start.

Germán Salamanca had already commented on this site last year, however the site has had a revamp this year, so it’s worth it to check it out now and enroll if you haven’t already.

All the best!

Latin American Design Events

As a second post today, my friend Leonardo Mora told me about three design related events going on in Latin America.

Design Fest, in Guadalajara, México.

XVIII National Summit of National Graphic Design Schools, in Aguascalientes, México.

Latinamerican Design Summit, at University of Palermo in Buenos Aires, Argentina, already gone for this year, but coming up again next year.

Is it be possible for we colombians to organize events like these?
Or maybe our designers will join such events!

All the best!

Design jobs: 3 great articles

As a second post for today I want to place a link to three articles from How Magazine which I think are very relevant to young designers today:

Creatives Wanted: How to Prepare Yourself for Today's Job Market
Turning Up the Volume: Teleconferencing Etiquette
Five Sure Signs Your Job Is a Dead-End

Enjoy!

Design resources: Springwise.com and Trendwatching.com

This week I’m going to present young designers with two more resources they can use to expand their creativity and be on top of the latest news.


Springwise.com

“Springwise and its network of 8,000 spotters scan the globe for smart new business ideas, delivering instant inspiration to entrepreneurial minds from San Francisco to Singapore. Time to start the Next Big Thing!

Springwise scans the globe for the most promising business ventures, ideas and concepts ready for regional or international adaptation, expansion, partnering, investments or cooperation. Ferociously tracking more than 400 global offline and online business resources, as well as taking to the streets of world cities, digital cameras at hand.”

Need I say more? In Springwise you’ll find the latest, most wackiest and smartest business ideas from around the globe. It will:

· Be a source if design inspiration.
· Be a source of news and design trends.
· Be a source of practical ideas even you can implement.

Check it out and subscribe to the free newsletter! The latest issue covered:

Product placement agency targets YouTube
Marketing & advertising

Crowdfunding software projects
Media & publishing

Zero cents per minute Update
Telecom & mobile / Marketing & advertising

A social marketplace for clothes hounds
Fashion & beauty

Solar-powered vending machines
Eco & sustainability / Food & beverage

Helping seniors relocate
Life hacks

Free love at the food court
Marketing & advertising

Freeze-dried eco burials
Lifestyle


You can search their webpage by date or by industry, or you can even submit an idea!
Why not give it a try?



Trendwatching.com

“Trendwatching.com is an independent and opinionated trend firm, scanning the globe for the most promising consumer trends, insights and related hands-on business ideas. For the latest and greatest, we rely on our network of 8,000+ spotters in more than 70 countries worldwide.

Most of our findings are aggregated in a free, monthly Trend Briefing, which is sent to 130,000+ business professionals in more than 120 countries. (…) Our trend findings help marketers, CEOs, researchers, and anyone else interested in the future of business and consumerism, to dream up new goods, services and experiences for (or even better, with) their customers.”

In other words, they spot market trends, given them a name and then they follow up on them and show different examples. Some of the trends are:

5*STAR*LIVING
(AFTER) SPOILING DATE
BEING SPACES
BRAND SPACES
BRANDED BRANDS
COUNTER-GOOGLING
COUNTERVALS
CRIBTIMONIALS
CROWD CLOUT
CURATED CONSUMPTION
CUSTOMER-MADE

Visit their trend page, to see more!

This is where the world is headed, so designers, beware!

All the best!

Design Resources: Design Management Institute, DMI.

Hello, there, Everybody! It’s been a long while! Do forgive me, life has been hectic. Anyway…

Here’s another wonderful resource I think designers from all over the world should know about, the Design Management Institute in Boston, US.

I learned about DMI several years ago when I was on a quest to find more information about design management. As they put it:

“The Design Management Institute (DMI) is an international nonprofit organization that seeks to heighten awareness of design as an essential part of business strategy. Founded in 1975, DMI has become the leading resource and international authority on design management. DMI has earned a reputation
worldwide as a multifaceted resource, providing invaluable know-how, tools and raining through its conferences, seminars, membership program, and publications."

The thing I like the most about DMI is that they are an unlimited source of information and education for any designer, even for us, who don’t live in the US, with the online tools (like Webinars) they’ve got.

There are also many conferences and seminars people in the US can attend. The agenda for October includes:

Design Research for Product and Service Innovation in Chicago.
Law Meets Design in New York.
From What’s Possible to What’s Right online.

Check out DMI’s calendar.


Most of the conferences and seminars are not free, but fairly priced and the topics are really interesting, because they cover design management issues that they don’t teach you at school (Or at least not my school).

Do click around their website to see all the different resources (They even have a job bank) and/or subscribe to their newsletter to get the latest news!

All the best!

Positive feedback

As most people, I was never very good at recognizing people’s efforts or saying a kind word whenever they showed some progress. In time I realized I had to leave my comfort zone in order to obtain better results.

I think that most people have trouble giving positive feedback. I know I do. However when you’re leading a team of people, be it a design team, your family or people working with you in any other endeavor, you really need to learn to acknowledge even the smallest efforts for improvement.

Why?

Well, who doesn’t want to be acknowledged and not taken for granted? Don’t you want to be? Don’t you get a little spring in your step when someone says something positive about you?

Would you agree with me if I said that positive feedback can largely increase your team’s productivity?

Well, that’s old news, yet I see too many professionals and managers who avoid it.


But what is positive feedback?

It is the action of telling somebody effectively that what they’re doing is acknowledged and recognized.

That’s pretty simple, isn’t it?

Not quite. You see, saying “good job” to someone doesn’t bear the same connotation to actually stating what it was they did well and its impact.


So how to go about it?

There are many resources on the Web about this subject and several ways to use it. Here’s my take on it:

When you spot something that someone has done, when you catch yourself thinking “hey, that’s pretty good”, every single time, even if it’s something small, follow the next steps:


Step 1: State the time.
The specific time in which the person did something well. The phrase should start with their name, followed by an expression of time.

E.g. “Hey, John, this morning…”
“John, yesterday during the meeting with customer x…”.
Be as precise as possible.


Step 2: State the action.
The actual thing they did. The fact.

E.g. “Hey, John, this morning when you delivered the sketches on time…”
“John, yesterday during the meeting with customer x you supported the concept we were presenting with the items you brought…”.


Step 3: State the impact.
On the operation, how what they did affects the results positively and how it makes you feel.

E.g. “Hey, John, this morning when you delivered the sketches on time, it proved to me that I can trust you with deadlines, that you’re a professional and that you care about what you do”.

“John, yesterday during the meeting with customer x you supported the concept we were presenting with the items you brought, which allowed the customer to visualize the project more effectively and made me feel very proud that you’re on our team”.


See, if you’re this specific when giving feedback it has a bigger impact on the person and encourages them to keep striving to be better.

I still struggle a bit with it, it doesn’t come as natural as I’d like, but I’ve found that giving positive feedback builds up relationships and contributes to a more effective and productive work environment.

Care to try this at home, as well?

All the best!

Paradigm shifts and design

I started at my new job this week. I haven’t been exposed to the specific tasks of the position, yet I’ve learned a few lessons…

It is a big company, so there were these introductory activities that are meant to give the newbie an idea of what the company is, where it’s going…

As a designer and professional I look for new challenges, I look to acquire new knowledge. Which may in the beginning be interpreted as challenges related to the technical aspects of design, form, color, sketching, specifications…

And then sometimes you find your challenges somewhere else and related to other things different than design.

This week I met this guy, 25-year-old. At first glance one of those yuppie guys that work in the commercial field, remembers everybody’s name, always smiling… you know the type, right? Your typical sales manager in the making.

In one of the activities we were all asked “what is something that few people know about you?” and his answer was “overcoming a back injury in a taekwondo match”.

I later on asked him about it and he told me about being in bed for two years because he’d broken his back, he wasn’t able to walk and he was told that if he were to walk again, he’d be “walking strange”.

I can tell you something, six years later, he’s not walking strange. Not only that, the guy jogs every day and at 25 he has a clear picture of where he’s going, what he wants; he’s building his life.

So this knowledge took me from seeing him as the yuppie careless kid, to admiring his vision and persistence and even feeling jealous of him because when I was his age I had no idea of where I was going.


Oh, but there was more for me to learn this week…

Another one of the people in the activities was this girl… She got there late, for starters. I immediately made the judgment that a person that would arrive late wasn’t very committed or maybe she just didn’t care.

During the day it became obvious that she was loud, bossy and obnoxious. I was thinking “thank the Lord she’s not in my area, I don’t have to work with her”.

And as luck would have it, at the end of the day I learned that she and I will actually be working really close together.

How ironic, huh?

I also learned that this twenty-something woman has a child and a husband, goes to college and works full time. Her day starts at 4am to study for her finals and then get her son ready for school at 5:30.

How about that? Suddenly my perception turned 180°, I could see her struggles and enthusiasm.

But what does all this have to do with design, you ask?

Not much, I guess.

But I wanted to bring this experience up to illustrate how we can get so immersed in our misconceptions that it takes a shift in our paradigms to understand, to be able to see further.

Would changing our paradigms have anything to do with design?

How about making assumptions about a problem? About people?

Could there be other alternatives? What else could it mean?

How else could we approach the issue?

Be open, be generous, be humble.

All the best.

Design leadership and the constant challenges

Early in my career I was faced with the challenge of being in charge of a section of the company I worked for which included having a person reporting to me. I remember feeling completely scared of becoming a bad boss!

At that time I consulted with a colleague of mine who’d had a lot more experience and he gave me a few pointers. In the end, his best advice was “just be yourself”.

So I became G’s boss.

G happened to be very receptive from the start as we were both learning all the technical aspects of the job.

In the beginning it was hard to get him to see the bigger picture, to plan ahead, he couldn’t imagine how he could predict the events and therefore, the actions to be taken for the upcoming weeks.

But during the five plus years that G and I worked together we both grew professionally to a point where we achieved autonomy in ourselves but presented results as a team.

This was an amazing growing experience and led me to want to continue to grow as a leader.

I recently was faced again with another “being the boss” challenge. Two girls reported to me. One fresh-out-of-college designer and another one with a bit more experience.

This posed a bigger test because I had to use different languages to speak to each of them.

Since my experience with G had been so good and we’d grown together at the same pace, I thought I could just use the same method with anybody.

Not!

Miss F, the fresh-out-of-college designer needed me to hold her hand a bit more, to walk her through the steps of the different activities, to guide her. And she would usually come back to me with “What do I do now, Carolina?”

And I found myself resisting the urge to give her a straight answer. I had to get her to think, to come up with solutions by herself, to be more independent every day, to ask me less.

In the eight months that we worked together she came a long way and could do most of her work all by herself. I was very proud of myself and her.

The other girl, Miss Q, she had a bit more experience and wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. Also, she was strong-willed and assertive. This demanded a different approach from me, one where the ideas would mostly come from her, with a little guidance from me.

This also resulted in a great growing experience; the more I demanded from her, the more she would give and the more she came up with new ideas and solutions.

I have a point, I promise…

Sometimes designers end up becoming creative directors or managing a small group of creative people, which may not be something they ever saw themselves doing.

So here are a few tips to be more effective in that arena:

Be yourself, really. As I’ve said in a previous post, it’s not about barking orders or being in a position of power. It’s about getting the best of people and people will give you their best when you are authentic, honest and real.
Be clear about goals and expectations. Communicate them frequently.

Spend some time trying to figure out what the other person is about, what their mental process is, how they handle information, so that you can figure out the best way to get through to them.

It’s not about them adapting to you or following your lead, but quite the opposite. It’s about you stretching yourself to find the most effective way to get the best out of your team and have some fun while doing it!

I am so looking forward to more leadership challenges in the future, as they are the most interesting part of my work!

Mi idea with this post is that designers think outside of the box and start reflecting on the direction their career can go in the future and if they want to be in a leadership position. If so, start preparing.

Read some books about personal leadership, building teams, managing people and resources… Become aware. There’s a lot of information on the web, podcasts and books.

Epilogue: G went on to take my position and is now the design leader there. Miss F and Miss Q continue to work in my previous company, where they are faced with bigger challenges everyday. The both insist that I was a great boss ;-)

All the best!

Design magazines

As I’ve discussed before, I think young designers in Latin America would benefit from expanding their scope and trying to find new and wider sources of information. One of those sources are design magazines. Though the web has opened up many doors for designers, there may be some that will read this information for the first time.

Remember how I said that I used to think that my world was really small? Well, when I was at the university I used to think that design magazines were beyond my reach. In those days there was a really beautiful one called Abitare, italian, awesome… we used to see them at the design building’s library.

As years went by, I started working and got a credit card and what do you know…? Using credit cards, you can buy things abroad! I don’t know about you, but this never occurred to me when I was in college (I know, I know… I was either too innocent, or didn’t have good friends!).

So I wanted to let you know about two magazines I’ve been subscribed to for years.

How Magazine: This magazine focuses on graphic design, which being a designer, I love. And it shows some great examples of graphic design, they have contests and then they feature the winners and the contestants, so it’s a great source of visual culture.

Furthermore, what I really love about this magazine is its business edge. You will find design business related articles, from hiring an accountant for your design studio, to how to boost creativity and be a great design leader.

They also do a “Business Annual” every year (no kidding, huh?) that covers even more business related topics like salaries and legal stuff. To me, this magazine is a must read for every designer. It’s American, but I think it conveys the global design business trends of today.

ID Magazine: Sister of How Magazine, ID focuses more on my field, industrial and product design. It doesn’t have the same depth in business issues, but it’s a great showcase of the best of current design. I suggest you get this one too.






So my message for this short post is…

1. Get a credit card! I don’t care if you’re a student, banks always have special promotions for you.
2. Research and subscribe to design magazines. If there aren’t any good ones in your region, subscribe to a couple abroad!
3. Even if you can’t afford it, research local publications. It also doesn’t have to be on your design discipline, you can check some decoration magazines, or architecture… it’ll all become what I call “visual culture”, feeding and stimulating your brain with more design!

I mean, that’s why we became designers, isn’t it?
Hey, do leave a comment if you want to suggest more magazines!
All the best!