What’s the easiest way to stand out?  Obviously, you need to be different than everybody else.  Being different in itself isn’t enough to carry you through to success, though.  You also have to be better.

In the precise words of Tim Ferris, “Different is only better when it is more effective or more fun.”

If the differences between you and your competitors aren’t…

• making your consumers’ lives easier, or
• making your consumers’ lives more enjoyable

…then the differences are actually positioning you under your competition.  Frankly, you may be better off just blending in.

It’s a short thought, but one that packs a punch… and if you think that this doesn’t apply to you, you’re wrong.  Bloggers, authors, artists, churches, schools, teachers, marketing, publishing, manufacturers, designers, et. al., this means you.

Questions: How are you different than those in your arena?  Are these differences making your audience’s lives easier/better equipped or more enjoyable?  If not, how can you change it?

Let us know in the comments!

As one who has worked hand-in-hand with advertising for many years, it’s very refreshing to get an outside opinion.  Sometimes I wonder if I’m too close, jaded even, to have an accurate perspective on the effects of advertising on the potential consumer.  Here’s a recent, thought-provoking quote on the state of advertising from none other than Banksy himself (contains profanity):

Sometimes, there are things that just don’t matter.  Corn, for example.  You can buy a $3 can of corn and a $0.20 can of corn, and as soon as you put them in a casserole, you can’t tell the difference.  Rice is another one of these items.  Gasoline is, too, as long as it’s not old or watered down — that’s why folks always go where gas is the cheapest.

These items are called commodities.  For the nerdy folks, let’s see how Merriam-Webster would describe it:

Dirt-Cheap Surgery

Let’s face it, there are certain things that you don’t want to be cheap — you want to go instead to the best, the most capable and qualified person for the job.  Good heart surgery is one of these things, as is reliable structural engineering.  Design, on the other hand, is a bit more flexible.

There’s effective, quality, problem-solving design that works all the way down to a problem-solving, intuitive level.  This is the kind that increases market value and sells product.  Then, there’s the commodity world of design — $50 logos and cheap graphics.  (I don’t refer to the latter  as “design,” as it’s not designing solutions to a thing in the world.  Instead, I refer to this as “decoration.”)

Commoditization is Not Evil

While the inevitable commoditization of the design industry is a big problem to some people (lower-end graphic designers), it’s largely just a fact of life that the design industry is going to learn to work around.  It comes down to quality and purpose.  The only jobs that are getting crowdsourced and outsourced are the ones in which people don’t value quality above price.  It’s affecting some, but for the most part, it’s just killing the frustrating work.

A Word to Creatives

Commoditization has one big plus: It weeds out the time-wasters, the people who don’t value innovative solutions above minimum wage, and those who are strictly looking for “graphics that look pretty good.”  People who care about effective solutions don’t buy on price alone, and you don’t want to be stuck doing bad work for people who value your work for as little as they can get away with.  It’s only killing the business that’s not worthwhile in the first place.

A Word to the Rest of the World

You really do get what you pay for.

When you go in to get surgery, you expect that the surgeon has undergone 12 years of school, has had lots of experience, and will not make mistakes.  He knows how to get results, and you’ve hired him because you have a problem that needs to be fixed.  The same goes for architects, structural engineers, and designers.

My education, for example, which I made sure was quality and would set me on the right path, came to a total of just around $100,000.  How does this compare to your family physician, whom you wouldn’t expect to pay minimum wage?  It takes a lot to look at a situation, ask the questions that matter, diagnose the problem accurately, and prescribe and carry out a solution that will immediately set a client on the right course.  Most creative professionals aren’t paid to make things pretty — they’re surgeons of marketing woes.

If you’re looking for pretty graphics, you can get that for dirt cheap — just click here or here, or even here.

Trust me, though, you don’t want creatives that charge the least.  It’s always made up for in profit losses.  Design is diagnosis and surgery all in one.  Not everyone who knows photoshop can fix your problems.  If they could, you’d be better off going to Scalpels-R-Us and doing your own surgery.

For further reading, check this out.

Instead, I’ve started handing out the following tech support cheat-sheet from XKCD:

Enough said.  If you’re a “non computer person,” thank you for using this resource.  If you’re on the computer-literate side of the fence… you’re welcome.

This is a story of three woodpeckers.

Once upon a time, there were three baby woodpeckers.  The first woodpecker went by the name Flick, the second was called Peck, and the third was Ringo.  Flick, Peck, and Ringo were brothers, and they did everything together: eating, playing, attending woodpecker school, the works.

One day, the time came for them to go out into the world and make it on their own.  No longer having their mother and teachers to beak-feed them, they went out in the world to test their newly-learned woodpecker skills.  One of the first items on the list was, of course, finding food.

Flick flew off and perched on his first tree.  He pecked once, pecked twice, and pecked about twenty more times.  ”This is getting me nowhere,” he said to himself.  ”I’m obviously not going to get dinner here.”  He flew off and found a new tree.  After pecking another twenty times without food, he tried another tree.  And another.  And another.

Peck, on the other hand, had faith and confidence in his tree-picking abilities.  He picked a tree, found a suitable spot, and began pecking away.  He pecked once, twice, and twenty more times.  He reached 100 times, then 1,000, and didn’t even slow down.

Ringo, who was not very smart, landed on a flagpole.  He was persistent, but he failed to notice that he just wasn’t getting anywhere with all of his work.

At the end of the day, Flick had pecked 20 times on a thousand different trees.  Peck had drilled into a single tree by pecking 20,000 times, remaining consistent and stable.  Ringo took the same route as Peck, also pecking 20,000 times in the same spot — but he had picked a metal flagpole, which didn’t get him far.

All three woodpeckers did the same amount of work, but only one of them got dinner.  Flick gave up too soon and changed trees much too often.  Ringo had persistence to a fault, but without checking to see if he was getting anywhere.  He also had a broken beak.  Peck, of course, had the right idea:  Stick with a project until the big payoff, and don’t think you’re going to get dinner from a flagpole.

Lie Number One:  Diversification

The proverbial “Jack of All Trades, Master of None…” We all know this guy.  He jumps in head-first, throws his all into his latest job (or project, or interest), and quickly loses interest when he doesn’t have it down in 10 minutes.  This guy ends up having a little bit of experience in a lot of different areas, but let’s be honest: he’s not amazing at any of them.  To the decision maker and/or end user, it doesn’t matter if a surgeon also knows how to install a toilet or paint a portrait.  When you’re under the knife, you want him to be as amazing as possible at one thing, and you don’t care about the rest.

The same thing often goes with expertise in a creative career.  Deep, experienced, cultivated and battle-hardened skill which leads you to be the BEST in one specific area is nearly always preferable to a Jack-of-All-Trades.  This rule becomes more true as you move yourself up the pay-scale.

Lie Number Two: Persistence

“Slow and Steady Wins the Race” isn’t necessarily always true.  For example, what if you’re running slow and steady in the wrong direction?  What if you’re plodding right along, but there’s a brick wall in your face?  Slow and steady only wins the race if (1) you’re moving in the right direction, and (2) you are measuring and ultimately making progress which surpasses your competitors.

The Moral of the Story

Being the best is seriously underrated.  Imagine the resumes of these three woodpeckers.  Only one of them is going to stand out in a crowd, right?  In order to be the best, you HAVE to:

• Have enough perspective to only pick the projects, interests, and positions through which you can be the most effective.
• Gauge your progress and make adjustments as necessary, as persistence isn’t enough to succeed through a wrong course of action.
• Push through, making incremental progress in one specific area, as it’s far better to be the BEST in one area than mediocre in a million.

Are you the best at something?  Have you ever hit a wall, or given up short of the prize?  Tell us about it in the comments below.

ModBot :: A big idea for a smooth browser, with a slick identity to boot.

The Illusion of Choice :: Brands owned by brands owned by brands, via Logo Design Love.

Boa Mistura :: Striking street art in São Paulo, via David Airey.

Loft Resumes :: Stand out.  Nab that interview.

The Baby Lottery :: What’s it gonna’ be?  Via FPO.

Desk Idea :: Letters in pictures, pictures in letters.  Via Identity Designed.

Shutterstock :: Have you seen their new identity and concept?  Via Brand New.

Type Matters :: Simple tips for everyday typography, via I Love Typography.

Olde Soul Print Shop :: A new personal muse of mine.  I’m loving this guy.

What creative bits have you run across lately?  Add to this list in the comments below!

Guess what, people.  I’m back.  With a vengeance.  Let me bring you up to speed:

• We’re having another baby!  For those of you who aren’t real-world acquainted, this makes child number three.  Celesta and I are so excited!
• While I’ve taken a break for the past several weeks to deal with morning sickness (my wife’s, not mine), I’ve been able to squeeze in a great period of reading, reflection, and redefining of core values and purpose in my life and career.  More on this shortly.
• Before I move on, if you aren’t acquainted with the blog of Michael Hyatt, former CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, you should click here and bookmark it.  One of the items I was able to work through was his “life plan” ebook, which you can find here.  I highly recommend it, as well as his podcast, to anyone who is looking to get some comprehensive perspective on his own career.

You’re having another baby.  So what?

I’m glad you asked.

Over my career, I’ve worked in the music industry, in-house in an engineering firm, in design agencies, and in the newspaper business.  My experience spans the positions of Graphic Designer, Web Designer, Multimedia Designer, Art Director, and Creative Director.  In most of these positions, I spent the majority of my time doing ultimately doing one thing: Selling.  ”You need our product, and you need it more than you need the product of our competition.”  Sure, I’ve valued the problem-solving aspects of each position, designing the solutions that most efficiently produce a desired result, but to what end?  Usually, it involves getting people to fill their lives with more stuff they don’t need.  Am I okay with that?

I don’t know if you’re acquainted with the customs of design and marketing professionals (if you’re reading, I assume you are), but these are big, bold words coming from someone in my field.  I may have effectively just blacklisted myself as a candidate for many future positions.  In my experience, though, the designer is usually the (only?) one to ask these questions.  Without challenging the status quo, we end up becoming photoshop monkeys in a world overrun by advertising, always pumping out propaganda for anyone who will pay us more than the previous guy.  Is this making the world, which my new child will call home, a better place?

I don’t have an answer.

Don’t look at me like that.  I never said I had one.  I just have a question, and one that I haven’t thought about this hard in a long time.  Currently, my role functions as an online art director for the largest newspaper network in Arkansas.  I help to organize the massive amount of information into forms which are more easily consumable by readers, thus keeping them around longer… and, subconsciously, setting the newspaper (which is in a hurting industry) up as a more authoritative resource.  I believe in the newspaper, in what it does, and in its role in society.  I wish it were acclimating to the changing times more quickly, and I recognize that it’s currently standing at a crucial intersection in history, but for the time being, it’s a great challenge to be a part of.

If I were marketing low-quality, high-priced vacuum cleaners, pushing others to finance things when they’re having trouble feeding their kids or paying the mortgage (as many are in this economy), however, I would probably be ashamed to go to work.

The same would be true if I were working in the natural gas industry, or for a styrofoam manufacturer, or if I were designing signs for the Westboro Baptist Church.

Give me something to believe in.

Do that, and you’ve got me for the long haul.  I understand that bills need to get paid, and pro-bono work doesn’t always pay the bills.  Families need to eat, and mortgages need to get paid.  Give me a choice between designing a new outreach center for at-risk kids and being an art director for Megamart, and I’ll pick the less glamorous (and more fulfilling) of the two every time.  In fact, when I got a call about an art director position for an international chain store a few months ago (read: higher salary, lower fulfillment), it was no contest.  These days, my heart and head have been trumping my wallet every time.

It comes down to respect.

At the end of the day, have you pushed agendas and made decisions that have your market’s best interest at heart?  Call me crazy, but I believe it’s totally possible to earn more money by respecting your customers instead of shoving more advertising in their face.  I’m constantly fighting for fewer intrusive ads and better organized content on our main websites, for the simple reason that it ultimately increases traffic — out of subconscious appreciation — and causes our organization to rise to the top of the authority ladder.

The all-too-popular alternative to this is the marketing equivalent of that guy at the party that won’t shut up about himself.  Who wants to be THAT weirdo?

I’ve learned…

This predetermined perspective has given me clarity unlike any I’ve had while blindly following the old-school methods.  Doing what I believe in automatically fosters a great respect for the end user (in my case, the readers of the newspaper).  When you design with the end user in mind, I find that two things begin to happen:

• You begin making better design decisions.  Not only are you focused on bringing worthy content to the forefront, but you start to hack away as much unnecessary fluff (read: ads) as possible.  This is a very Swiss design line of thinking, but I’m okay with that.
• As you make better, user-focused design decisions, they begin to respect you and the brand for it, hopefully leading to a greater market share.

What do you think?  Am I off track here, or does this make sense to you?  Feel free to jump in with a comment.

(Click here to see this video elsewhere)

Kinetic type courtesy of David Shiyang Liu

“I just want, you know… More stuff,” he said.  “Make it pretty.”  Yes, because that’s what designers do all day.

Facepalm.

Enter Dieter Rams, a German-born industrial designer.  You may have never heard of him, but you use his products every day.  Often, they’re the ones that fit perfectly into your life, feel like quality, and are very straight-forward yet aesthetically pleasing.  Dieter once defined ten principles that guide his “functional design” philosophy, and the set serves as a filter through which I view my work on a daily basis.

Design…

• Is innovative - The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself.

• Makes a product useful - A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasizes the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.

• Is aesthetic - The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products are used every day and have an effect on people and their well-being. Only well-executed objects can be beautiful.

• Makes a product understandable - It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product clearly express its function by making use of the user’s intuition. At best, it is self-explanatory.

• Is unobtrusive - Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression.

• Is honest - It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.

• Is long-lasting - It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years – even in today’s throwaway society.

• Is thorough down to the last detail - Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.

• Is environmentally friendly - Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimizes physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.

• Is as little design as possible - Less, but better – because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.

Via ColourLovers.