+ WalkingStick Design +

No I didn't clean up for the photos   That's my bamboo brief case   I like to keep it clean :) Posted via email from Eye Say • The Web Log

Jan. Boundaries by Henry Cloud Feb. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell Mar. Stop acting Rich by Thomas J. Stanley Apr. Wild at heart by John Eldridge May. Selling to the Affluent by Thoamas J. Stanley Jun. No by David Walsh Jul. Start With No: The Only Negotiating System You Need for Work and Home by Jim Camp Aug. Life Without Limits by Nick Vujicic Sep. Boundaries Face to Face by Henry Cloud Oct. Re-imagine by Tom Peters Nov. Fired to Hired: Bouncing Back from Job Loss to Get to Work Right Now by Tory Johnson Dec. The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason Posted via email from Eye Say • The Web Log

I finally stopped to ask myself, “What kind of clients do I want?" • The kind that have a realistic budget for the work they want • The kind that aren’t afraid of doing something different • The kind that are in love with what they’re doing • The kind that don’t take themselves too seriously • The kind that value my professional input • The kind that value what I do for them • The kind that ask good questions • The kind that pay fast So, what kind of person: • has a realistic budget for the work they want • isn’t afraid of doing something different • doesn’t take themselves too seriously • is in love with what they’re doing • values my professional input • values the work I do for them • asks good questions • pays fast Does this kind of client exist? Am I expecting too much? To get this kind of client, I must be the kind of designer who: • knows how to realistically price my services • like to try different things to get the best possible solution • doesn’t take myself too seri...

If you don’t know who Michael Buckingham is, shame on you. Read his blog: http://jesushatespapyrus.com/ Visit his site: http://www.holycowcreative.org/ and link up with him: http://www.linkedin.com/in/holycowcreative In this interview he tell us how he made the leap into independent designer bliss. Enjoy :) Before Going Independent: • What did you do for a job? Most immediately before starting Holy Cow Creative, I was a at a b2b agency but that’s not the interesting part. I didn’t start on the path to the creative world. I always thought I wanted to be a hotshot executive, you know the type: fancy title, big corner office, long lunches. My first real gig out of the gate was at a dot com company handling marketing and sales, way over my head flying all over the place meeting with incredible people, helping to build this company. It was a great experience and ended up as one of those hotshots (minus the cool office). From there I moved to a consumer tech company to head up their ...

You are invited to view Eye Say Design's photo album: Identity Marks Identity Marks Sep 24, 2010 by Eye Say Design View Album Play slideshow Message from Eye Say Design: I had a blast making these. I hope you enjoy viewing them. If you are having problems viewing this email, copy and paste the following into your browser: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=eyesaydesign&target=ALBUM&id=5520507357035278049&authkey=Gv1sRgCLbtvIqCgp-N8wE&feat=email To share your photos or receive notification when your friends share photos, get your own free Picasa Web Albums account . Posted via email from Eye Say • The Web Log

You are invited to view Eye Say Design's photo album: PLRKHRD 0003 PLRKHRD 0003 Oct 22, 2010 by Eye Say Design PLRK is my personal and business philosophy of balancing the ideas and attitudes of play with the day-to-day grind of work to suppress burn-out and maximize the joy of creativity. Play hard, work hard = PLRKHRD This is a multi piece campaign I developed from the ground up which will include a logo, posters, fliers, ads, post cards, buttons, signage, brochures, vinyl banners, multi-page booklets, name tags and shirts. It's built completely in vector for a wide rage of sizes. Enjoy :) View Album Play slideshow Contribute photos to this album Message from Eye Say Design: PLRK is my personal and business philosophy of balancing the ideas and attitudes of play with the day-to-day grind of work to suppress burn-out and maximize the joy of creativity. Play hard, work hard = PLRKHRD This is a multi piece campaign I developed from the ground ...

You are invited to view Eye Say Design's photo album: PLRKHRD 0001 PLRKHRD 0001 Apr 13, 2010 by Eye Say Design http://post.ly/aCxY View Album Play slideshow Message from Eye Say Design: Update :) If you are having problems viewing this email, copy and paste the following into your browser: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=eyesaydesign&target=ALBUM&id=5459759396252193297&authkey=Gv1sRgCNbazqfglImznQE&feat=email To share your photos or receive notification when your friends share photos, get your own free Picasa Web Albums account . Posted via email from Eye Say • The Web Log

1. There are an infinite number of ways to accomplish your goal. Are you willing to sacrifice to achieve it? If not, why do it? 2. Quit whining and start doing. The economy has never kept anyone from doing anything. It’s simply a lousy and mentally lazy excuse. 3. YOU control your attitude. How high do you want to go? 4. Be sure to track your progress so you’ll be motivated to get there. You’ve heard the phrase “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.” While both gross and mean to cats, the principal of the phrase rings ever true, especially when paired with the phrase “…with the economy the way that it is.” The truth is, there is always another way to accomplish what you want to do. That way may not be as easy or as comfortable as you’d like, but if what you what to do is worth your time and worth your effort, it's worth it to accomplish your goal without debt. It’s easy to make excuses why we think we can’t do something. What I’ve found is that most of the time “what we th...

Mr. Godin- If you're starting out as an entrepreneur or a freelancer or a project manager, the most important choice you'll make is: what to do? As in the answer to the question, "what do you do?" Some questions to help you get started: 1. Who are you trying to please? Small business owners/starters. 2. Are you trying to make a living, make a difference, or leave a legacy? Paying the bills is nice but I'd like to make a difference, thereby leaving a legacy. 3. How will the world be different when you've succeeded? The small businesses owners I've helped will eventually be running large businesses and teaching their grandchildren the principals that helped them succeed and eventually handing over the keys to them. 4. Is it more important to add new customers or to increase your interactions with existing ones? Both. I'm interested in building business friendships. 5. Do you want a team? Sure. 6. How big? No larger that 8. Then maybe teams of 8 people up...

PLRK is my personal and business philosophy of balancing the ideas and attitudes of play with the day-to-day grind of work to suppress burn-out and maximize the joy of creativity. Play hard, work hard = PLRKHRD This is a logo I created for a church start. It goes on everything, business cards, letterhead, envelopes, brochures, website, t-shirts, vinyl banners and such. Enjoy! See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from Eye Say • The Web Log

Excerpt from: http://jamesrobertwatson.com/daywithdate.html Designers, copywriters, editors, and companies simply need to always include the day of the week with the date. Even if the copy given to you does not have the day, please add it. If there is not enough room in the line, explore options - abbreviate the day or the month (we are so familiar with day and month abbreviations that comprehension should not be affected). Instead of: January 29, 7:30pm, Music Hall Include the day: Thursday, January 29, 7:30pm, Music Hall Or if space is a problem: Thurs, Jan 29, 7:30p, Music Hall There is no advantage to omitting the day of the week. There are advantages to including it: more respect for the reader and clearer communication. Thanks for the tip Doc! http://jamesrobertwatson.com/daywithdate.html Posted via email from Eye Say • The Web Log

I’ve read a bunch of blog posts about creating an "ideal client" check-list but have never really focused on actually writing one. In this post I’ll be sharing the process I’m using to develop my list. My hope is that you will gain some knowledge about how to this same kind of thing for yourself. The basic formula will be to write down a list a attributes that describe this "ideal client" and pair that list with a list of assumed job titles of that client. Once you’ve written that down, answer the question, "Where does this person work?" The more specific you can get with your description, the more accurately you can hang a job title on that person. After doing that, make yet another list of industries you’d enjoy working with. Shoot big, who would be a total blast to work with? Then, match your ideal client job description with some of your favorite industries. When you’re done you’ll have a solid understanding of the type of person you’d most like to wor...

Download now or preview on posterous triangle of reality letter size.pdf (306 KB) I've been using this for years now. Print it out, cut it up, give it to your friends. It had added a wonderful level of clarity to my clients understanding of the print project planning process. Use in good health! Posted via email from Eye Say • The Web Log

Reason and passion are like the rudder and sails of your life (ship). If either your reason or passion are found lacking you might be tossed adrift or held at a standstill out on the ocean. If you act in reason alone you'll feel trapped and confined. You'll just spin your wheels. If you act in passion alone you'll cause your own destruction. You've got to have a plan for your passion but don't let they plan get in the way of your passion. Let your reason take your passion to its pinnacle. Let reason direct your passion and let passion spark your reason. It's like passion and reason are two friends that you have over for dinner. You wouldn't talk only to one friend and ignore the other, doing so would be rude. If you pay attention to just the one friend you end up making both of the mad at you. God rests in reason and moves in passion. So should you rest in reason and move in passion. Thanks Kahlil Gibran Posted via email from Eye Say • The Web Log

The Honorable Dean Alfange was an American statesman born December 2, 1899, in Constantinople (now Istanbul). He was raised in upstate New York. He served in the U.S. Army during World War I and attended Hamilton College, graduating in the class of 1922. I Do Not Choose to Be a Common Man It is my right to be uncommon—if I can. I seek opportunity—not security.  I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout.  I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act for myself, enjoy the benefit of my creations and to face the world boldly and say, “This I h...

PLRK is my personal and business philosophy of balancing the ideas and attitudes of play with the day-to-day grind of work to suppress burn-out and maximize the joy of creativity. Play hard, work hard = PLRKHRD This is a print campaign I'm working on which includes a poster, flier, ads, post card and fridge magnets. Enjoy! See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from Eye Say • The Web Log

Do you have one? If you don’t, your life as a designer most likely looked like mine did 2 years ago. I work full-time for a giant religion-based non-profit in Oklahoma City. My project manager and I didn’t have a system with which to funnel the jobs we were getting, from all different directions, at all different times of the day, from all different types of folks. It was a disorganized, broken system of folks making requests of us which then led to paper fumbling and evasion techniques. Not good news if your goal is to gain respect for what you do within the organization. None of our internal clients respected our time or our work which made us feel even further underwater. Our current “system” added a lot of unneeded stress and frustration to our day. Does this sound familiar? Recognizing we had a problem, we scheduled a meeting (treating ourselves like one of our internal clients). We asked ourselves, “What would we love to know before starting on a project?” Then, we made a wi...

Your attention please. Remove yourself from under that rock and educate yourself to the world of Aaron Draplin. In this particular interview, our friend Aaron spills the blood and guts of the truth. So, iIf you don't like getting' icky, stay out of the mud. Oh, and buy some DDC merch http://www.draplin.com/merch/ or Aaron will find you. Before Going Independent: What did you do for a job? I was a Senior Designer, in the graphic arts. I worked in a small design shop here in Portland. Great, great place called “Cinco Design.” They do incredible stuff, and back in the early 2000s, launched Nixon watches and Gravis footwear’s look and feel. I was lucky enough to work on the Nixon project, doing everything from catalogs to icons to watches designs.  Before that, I was the art director at Snowboarder Magazine in San Juan Capistrano, Calif. Behind the “Orange Curtain.” Goddamn hellhole. And before that, I was in school in Minneapolis for a couple years, coming off a hot stretch in ...

This is how Donovan Beery made the leap to full time independent work for his own firm.  If you don't already know Donovan, then it's my privilege to introduce you to him here today. Get to know him here: http://eleven19.com/ http://36point.com/ Before Going Independent: • What did you do for a job? Before starting Eleven19, I was the web designer for Union Pacific Railroad. I did that for over two and a half years before following the head of the Web team over to one of their subsidiaries, where I did both print and web design for. Since I was working in-house jobs, where freelancing was not considered a conflict of interest, I started doing some small freelancing projects at night and on the weekends. • What convinced you to make such a drastic change in your life and career? At the time I didn't see this change as being as drastic as it probably is. I had been at a technology company during the end of the dot com boom, so the place was changing rapidly. The first few mon...

I’ve read a bunch of books about how to run a successful small business. So far, none of them ever come out and tell you what to avoid and why or what to do to avoid what you should avoid to succeed. So, here you go. Wildly increasing your chances of success in running your small business is a 2 step process: 1. NEVER go into debt 2. ALWAYS pay your taxes -- We’ve all heard that dooming statistic that 90% of small businesses fail within the first 5 years and 80% of that remaining 10% fail within the first 10 years. Would you like to know why? There are 2 reasons why this statistic rings true today. 1. Folks go into huge personal debt to start their business. 2. Folks don’t hold back a third of every dollar they earn. Let’s take a moment and talk about these reasons. 1. Folks go into huge personal debt to start their business. You’ve got a great idea, you’ve acquired a needed skill set, you’ve found a way to solve someone’s problem that they, for some reason or another, can not solve f...

I've been taking a minimalistic approach with my wallet a-la http://www.money-band.com/ and used my FN-09 General-Purpose Band of Rubber to do the job right. I sent in some pics to my friend Aaron over at www.draplin.com He wrote up a mighty kind blog post about it and it's posted here for you to enjoy: http://fieldnotesbrand.com/2010/02/11/just-about-the-best-name-ever/ I can't say enough great things about Aaron or about using this minimal wallet. Give it a try, if you hate it you can always go back to using your Costanza http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=costanza+wallet. Me, I'd rather not have the back problems. Posted via email from Eye Say • The Web Log

<script src="http://twtpoll.com/js/badge.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <script src="http://twtpoll.com/badge/?twt=wg78ps&s=250&b=1&bt=1" type="text/javascript"></script> Posted via email from Eye Say • The Web Log

Or, overcoming the "I want a professional logo and marketing materials but don't have money right now because I'm a small business" excuse. I have a friend who will be entering the heat and air contracting business within the next few months. He is starting from zero except for the fact that he will inherit a book of business from his former employer. He is committed to moving forward with his business debt-free which is awesome. He has asked me to coach him and help him market his business effectively. As of right now today, he has zero dollars for design and marketing. So, I came up with an idea which may end up serving us both very well. First of all, I only do business under contract with folks who have a positive track record of integrity in their business dealings. That way, I'm more comfortable and creative when helping them out. Knowing this, we'll plan out his design/marketing needs for the next year. For my services I will charge him a percentage of...

I wrote this story yesterday for a friend of mine who is 4 years old. And, because I wish someone would have told it to me when I was 4. The drill, the hammer and the wrench by Clint Walkingstick As the sun began to rise one morning, he spotted a construction site. The tools on the site were already hard at work building a house. The sun began to focus his attention on what was going on between all the tools as they worked. He listened in on their conversation and was a witness to the following events. At the construction site there was a wise old drill who had completed many houses. He was well-known among the tools for his positive attitude and was admired by many construction sites because of the skill and expertise he’d show as he did his work. One day, as he was working, he heard a strange sound. Whack, WHACK, CRACK! The wise old drill looked around to see where the sound was coming from but all the other tools on the site just kept working on what was in front of them. He heard ...

It’s my job to obsess over your message to achieve your goals for your business. I can’t do that if my kids are hungry and the mortgage payment is looming over my head. So, to ensure that you’re getting my best work, I ask for 50% down. That way, you gain the benefit of my full attention to your project. 50% down also ensures your spot in my work calendar. Eye Say favors the prepared. This means if you’ve done your homework, you’ll get your project in your hands for the best price at the best pace. I absolutely love working with folks who are as prepared as I am. If you don’t know where to start, that’s okay. I totally dig walking through the proper print project planning process with new folks. Again, doing this will ensure that you’ll get your project in your hands for the best price at the best pace. Let’s make something great together! Fill out a project estimate form today. Simply visit www.eyesaydesign.com Posted via email from Eye Say • The Web Log

How much do you charge per hour? I don't have an hourly rate. I estimate a flat project rate. You don't charge per hour? No. If I were a line worker at Ford and my one job was to attach a tire to a car moving by, it would be logical that being paid by an hourly rate would be the most fair thing for both Ford and myself.  At any give time during the day and throughout our project, I'll be performing a multitude of different tasks that require specialized skill sets. I'd have to take the time to track and charge differing rates for those tasks to be fairly compensated for the work.  How does a flat project rate benefit me? To make it much easier on you, your budget, myself and my book keeper, I charge a flat project rate that's fair to both my business and your budget. I don't trade or sell my time for money. My time is worth more than any budget could afford. Instead, I sell what design can do for your business. I sell results. The question you must answer is, ...

From my head, to your back! See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from Eye Say • The Web Log

by Seth Godin http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/ If you write it down, we're going to judge it. Not just the words, we're going to judge you even before we read the words. The typography you use, whether it's a handwritten note or a glossy brochure, sends a message. Some typefaces are judged in a similar way by most people you're addressing (Times Roman in a Word document or Helvetica on a street sign or Myriad Pro on a website) but even when you choose something as simple as a typeface, be prepared for people to misunderstand you. If you send me a flyer with dated, cheesy (comic sans) or overused type, it's like showing up in a leisure suit for a first date. If your website looks like Geocities or some scammy info marketer, I won't even stay long enough to read it. Like a wardrobe, I think a few simple guidelines can save amateurs like us a lot of time: 1. Invest some time and money up front to come up with a house style that actually looks the way yo...