Our New Frankenword

A portmanteau is a linguistic blend in which parts of multiple words or their sounds are combined into a new word. Smoke and fog combining to become smog. Motor and hotel becoming motel.  

A frankenword.

I was looking for a way to describe something that is a duality, a symbiosis, two things that exist in co-dependency. Why? Because I think the branding and business worlds need a new name. 

The world of design and the world of business are converging. They are fueling and sustaining each other in increasingly inextricable ways. For businesses to succeed in today’s commercial ecosystem they are required to be more and more creative, producing visually engaging content in an ever-expanding array of marketing channels.

For creative professionals to succeed it's necessary to be fluent in the machinations of finance, strategy, business, marketing, and in demonstrating the ROI of branding to clients.

Brand design is becoming more business and business is becoming more creative. They are merging. Those that embrace the merger will thrive and those that do not will wither.

Desiness? Bizign? Crearketing? Entrepreativity?

What is the design+business/business+creativity frankenword?

Don't Be Dr. Dynamite

A few years ago I was working on private-label food brands for big grocery retailers. I called it “big brand surfing”. That’s when you design products with names, colors, fonts and packaging that sound, look and feel remarkably similar to a major brand.

Think Dr. Pepper vs. Safeway’s Dr. Dynamite. Generally, the play is about price. But what they are really trading on is similarity. They try to look the same. They try to taste the same. You can sell a lot of stuff that way, but you are just surfing another brand’s wave. Success breeds clones.

Personal brands fall victim to this, too. On Instagram, social media star wannabes are increasingly adopting a popular, yet homogenized expression of beauty and now no one can tell them apart.

If you could capture the single most important quality that creates a successful brand, it boils down to differentiation.

Have you looked at your competition lately? How can you separate yourself from the pack? Aspire to a unique expression of your brand. 

Surf your own wave.

To Win Big, Think Small

“Alice in Wonderland-like” syndrome is a disorder of the brain. The symptoms are named after Lewis Carroll’s protagonist Alice, who went down a rabbit hole and found herself shrinking or expanding depending on her circumstances. People who are afflicted by it misperceive the size and distance of objects, seeing them as larger or smaller than their natural state. 

In a white paper, comScore has reported that a staggering 80% of social media viewing is done on mobile devices. How do people choose what to consume? They click on thumbnails that jump out at them. So not only are viewers encountering content at a tiny scale, they are choosing what to click from even tinier thumbnail images.

When designing artwork for social media, for Facebook, for YouTube, you have to zoom way out.  When people view your post, your thumbnail may be as small as 3/4 of an inch wide. If your designs have lots of copy, small font sizes or detailed imagery, people are going to get frustrated and scroll right past them. Opportunity lost.

But when people click your thumbnail, you get traffic. When you get traffic, you win. To win big, you have to start by thinking small.

In the Flow: 10 Ways to Stay Creative

Creativity is critical to your success as a creative professional or an entrepreneur. New ideas and innovative solutions are your livelihood. But even naturally talented creative thinkers need to cultivate and develop their ability to consistently create “ah-ha moments”. Great ideas don't just drop out of the sky. You have to create an environment for those ideas to grow and be nurtured.

Creating an environment for creativity means looking at your inner world, such as your thoughts and beliefs, your outer world or physical environment, and taking inspired action. Here are my top 10 tips on breaking through for higher creative output:

#1 It’s OK to feel blocked

The very first thing to do when you hit a creative block is this: quit beating yourself up. Negative self-talk will only perpetuate your misery. Here’s the truth about creativity; Everyone hits a dry spot. Creativity isn't a constant. It ebbs and flows. So relax, and give yourself a break, because if you try too hard you’ll tense up and the flow can become constricted.

#2 Carry a notebook everywhere

Everything is available in digital format, even your notes and sketches But there is a downside to going digital with your inspiration; digital can get lost. If you carry a notebook and actually physically write it down or sketch it out, you’re always going to have it at the ready. It’s easier to page through a notebook than it is to open a folder of individual documents. The tactile aspect of doing so is inspiring in itself.  So sketch, doodle, write, tear stuff out of magazines and paste it in. Carry a notebook with you everywhere you go so your ideas are easily written and retrieved.

#3 Walk

It's scientifically proven that going for a 10-minute walk will dramatically increase your productivity and your positivity. New ideas will pop into your mind when you are walking - no podcasts, no music - just walking. Jump on a treadmill or take laps inside if that’s the only option available to you. Getting some fresh air by walking outside boosts your oxygen intake which gives the brain more fuel. Additionally, nature acts like a reboot for the overloaded brain so walking outside gives you twice the benefit.

#4 Copy Something

All fine artists learn by copying. Designers, musicians, writers, and even business professionals actually learn by copying, as well. There's very little in the world that's really original. So if you're having trouble with creative ideas, just copy something. It'll get the creative flow moving and some new ideas will inevitably pop up for you to explore. 

#5 Change your environment

I noticed that after spending many hours in my home office and then going into New York City, I'd have an explosion of ideas. I would write down so many blog ideas, lists, and things I wanted to do. I saw the connection clearly: I realized that simply getting out of my office and getting on the train made my creativity skyrocket. It was the change in my environment. A break from the monotonous routine that got my synapses firing. If you want to stay creative, you must change your environment. Go to the library. Get on a train. Take a drive. Take a walk. Simply sitting in another part of the room can even do the trick. Break  “location monotony” and get creative.

#6 Do something new

Using your brain in a different way can shake off the cobwebs. If you do a lot of designing, do some writing. If you do a lot of writing, do some sketching. If you live in Excel spreadsheets, take up piano. There's a famous saying, “If you want to change what you get, you've got to change what you do.” In order to loosen up those creative ideas, do something new and different.

#7 Practice

Creating a “final product” means sometimes  spending hours crafting it to make sure it's absolutely perfect. Instead, create some stuff that you're definitely going to throw away. Start a  project knowing you're not going to keep it. When you intentionally create work that’s impermanent, it takes away some of the stress that’s impeding your creative flow. It also gives you an opportunity to practice your craft without the tension of creating something final. This gets the ideas moving and helps release the stress that perfection brings.

#8 Calm your mind

In today's fast-paced digital world, we're always on our phones or laptops. Or we have TV, music, YouTube or a podcast constantly providing a healthy dose of sensory overload. All this input doesn't leave space for ideas and creative thoughts to gestate. In order to center your creative self, take some time out of your day and turn off all the input. Turn off your phone, put your computer to sleep, and just sit with yourself. You'd be really surprised how creative ideas will flow in when you simply stop and meditate. Not a seasoned meditator? Here are some short, painless meditations to try.

#9 A Special Kind of Brainstorming

Brainstorming has fallen out of favor in the past few years since its efficacy was debunked (Harvard Business Review, 2015). What has taken its place is a specific type of brainstorming, called a “question burst.” A “question burst” is “a process for recasting problems in valuable new ways” (Harvard Business Review, 2018) by writing down every new question you can ask about this problem. Writing questions instead of searching for answers helps you push past creative blocks by going deep into the “what ifs.” There’s less logic and bias to hold you back when you ask questions, so the creativity surges. Give it a try by yourself or in a group. You’ll be surprised how quickly interesting ideas start to formulate.

#10 Feed your mind

There is so much amazing visual inspiration available for you in print (which still exists, by the way) and on the web. Constantly feed your mind with beautiful images before a creative dry spot pops up. Make a habit of gathering inspiring images. Collect them like a fiend. There are a host of applications that make it easy to collect images. Everyone knows Pinterest, and there are other options like Niice or Behance, which help you make beautiful mood boards. You can also use software you may already have like Keynote, PowerPoint, or a Google Slides  document, Evernote or Google Keep. Become a voracious collector of visual inspiration and feed your brain a diet of refreshing stimulation. It will definitely improve your creativity.

Being in a creative “slow moment” or an “idea desert” is not fun. I know, I’ve been there. It happens to the best and brightest. No one is immune. But these tips and tricks are certain to  help coax your creative self back to life and have you producing exceptional work again in no time

The Sexy Potato

There are watershed moments in our professional lives where something happens that changes everything. Mine was during a photo shoot for Lay’s potato chips.

Lay’s is, maybe unsurprisingly to salty snack fans, the largest food brand in the world, selling in 50+ countries with revenue of $1.7 billion. With a business that big you have to be very careful what you do in a package redesign - well, for obvious reasons. 

So there we were, shooting the sliced raw potato that appears on the back of the core plain flavor of Lay’s. My marketing partner was not happy. The raw potato was unattractive. The raw potato was missing irresistible flavor appeal, that je ne sais quoi.

She said “Philip, we need a really sexy potato”. It was in that moment that I realized I was not in the right place. And that I needed to make a change.

We finished the shoot. We had successfully coaxed the requisite appeal from the potato - as reluctant a subject as she was. But something inside me had shifted. Four weeks later I resigned from Pepsico. A potato was my tipping point.

We don’t get to choose our watershed moments. The trick is to use them as a springboard for positive change when they happen. For me it was a sexy potato. A potato that launched the most exciting and fulfilling chapter of my life.

Improving Design Productivity: Creatives Need Privacy

I'm a bit of an introvert. I find group activities somewhat draining. I find solitude rejuvenating and I do my best creative work when I'm alone. 

Given that, it's kind of funny that I've spent my career leading large groups of designers and artists in creative settings, Fortune 500 companies, global brand consultancies and learning institutions. 

I began weaving the web of my career as a fine artist. A solitary pursuit for the most part. When I needed to find a path to make a better living I got my MFA so I could teach. I loved teaching because I love learning and have a passion for helping others to achieve their creative potential. 

Later, I found that being a creative director was a lot like teaching except you made a tad more money. Plus, your work and the work of your teams are enjoyed by people all over the world. 

No artist wants to work in a total vacuum.

But with this transition came a need to be more outgoing. To be more often involved in group pursuits than individual ones. I built up that muscle. And it took a lot of trips to the gym.

Susan Cain, in her book "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking" writes about how in the 20th century as our society moved from agrarian communities in the country to the cities, we changed. We went from working with a small group of people who we knew well to living and working in large groups of people we didn't know. Being "outgoing" became the goal. Our heros became the great salesman of the world. Our bible, Dale Carnegie's "How to win friends and influence people". 

This evolution brought with it physical changes to where and how we are working. In the corporate world and in design studios, the move to create open floor plan work spaces has reached a critical mass. In a reaction to breaking down the walls of de-personalization that the Dilbert-esque office cubicle seas wrought, we have lost something that was worth protecting. Solitude. As it turns out, designers need solitude. 

They need quiet and privacy to ruminate and play with ideas. Without distraction.

The casualties of this evolution are everywhere. You can see them in any design studio in the world hiding under their noise-cancelling headphones. They aren't just getting into their own jams. They are trying to escape the constant noise and distraction that the crumbling of the cubicle walls has brought down on them. 

One designer at Whirlpool articulates what I have heard over and over in my years as a creative leader: 

"I work in an open-plan office, and hate talking to the people near me. I just don't want to annoy everyone else. So instead, I hole up at my desk, earphones on all day. I email people who sit five feet from me. Whoever designed my office has absolutely failed.”

“Instead of making people more collaborative, it separated them. This trend needs to stop."

The results of this trend are also quantifiable it turns out. Finland's Institute of Occupational Health reports a decline of 5-10% of the performance of cognitive tasks like reading, writing and other creative work when in an open office setting. Management might be too drunk on work-pod Kool-Aide and the cost savings in office furniture. Or the shoulder-surfing-tabs-keeping and "what the hell are these people doing?". 

Open office plans just look cool. And if we look cool and modern, we are cool and modern, right? I mean, can you imagine a design firm with cubes? I didn't think so. This, it turns out, is a big part of the problem.

The facts increasingly point to this: Companies see open, collaborative spaces as an extension of their brand image. They are more interested in how it looks, than how well it actually works. Solitude is just out of fashion. Simple as that. And for creatives and designers that's a problem. 

It should be a problem for their companies, too.

All this is outweighing optimal creative productivity. And since when has business turned its back on improved productivity? Especially when in today's business world, creativity and innovation are what separates the winners from the also-rans.

The fact is people whose work is distracted make 50% more mistakes and take twice as long to finish. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that we are working longer hours than ever.

Plus, most designers don't like it. You've heard "A happy wife is a happy life"? Well, it goes triple for a happy designer.

The real question is: What does work? The answer is choice. Balance. Companies and agencies need to give designers access to both kinds of work spaces. If I were to place a bet, I would bet that the spaces that afford designers quiet, uninterrupted concentration and a reasonable amount of visual privacy will be the ones being fought over. Tooth and nail, if I know my designers. 

The pendulum of open floor plan offices needs to swing back to center.

In re-watching Susan Cain's amazing TED talk about the power of introversion, one statement jumped out at me. "There are no revelations without solitude."  

What design revelations and innovations have we already missed by removing our creatives space to think?

photo credit: Ben Mautner @flickr.com

Under Your Skin

My wife Beth has some tattoos, a few different styles, added at different times, and scattered about. One cluster she wasn't happy with anymore. She decided to join them together into a single design that was unified and had continuity. 

In the tattoo world, they call this a “cover-up”. But obviously you can’t just start over with a clean slate. You have to incorporate the old designs into the new one in order to hide them.

It’s complicated, expensive and it takes far longer to do than the original. Meaning even more time under the needle. Ouch.

I’ve been working with a entrepreneur who realized the brand presence they have is a bit of a mess. They had developed it piecemeal, designing new elements as they were needed. But as it became larger, the brand became scattered.

As we worked to clarify his brand strategy and create an cohesive design system, it struck me that branding is a lot like tattooing. It’s far better to think it through and make the investment than to cobble it together bit by bit. 

Because doing a brand cover-up hurts.

The Un-Sexy Solution

If you ever want evidence why our species has survived so long, Google Images for the phrase "There, I fixed it." You'll find thousands of pictures of hilarious solutions to some of life's challenges. And a lot of duct tape.

Those pictures always reminds me of my days at Gap. I was amazed when I realized that the $16B goliath ran entirely on Excel spreadsheets being emailed around the globe. Unsexy, but it got the job done.

The tech explosion has introduced myriad apps, sites and hardware that are really sexy - with more features than you could explore in a lifetime. You can get lost in the sea of functionality, interfaces and connectedness. Last week I saw a cutting board that has wifi. Really.

But, sometimes the best solution isn't the sexiest. Sometimes sexy can distract you from actually getting the job done. Sometimes a scuffed shoe doesn't need a rechargeable handheld oscillating brush with a touchscreen. Sometimes it just needs some spit and a rub on the back of your pant leg.

Curiosity Not Passion

I was sitting in a lime green room with a drop ceiling. My guidance counselor said, “You should follow your passion”. I thought, OK, great! The only problem was I didn’t have one. 

Passion is a word that carries the weight of certainty. Passion burns with a lot of heat. But passion can also run out of fuel before the destination is reached. 

If she had asked me instead, “What are you curious about”? That was a question I knew the answer to. I had a bunch of answers to that one. 

Curiosity is evergreen and self-perpetuating. Curiosity invites exploration and experimentation. Following fascinations can lead you into new worlds. One interest fuels another and they expand into the realm of possibility.

Even now, we are prodded from every angle to follow our passion. The media says it. The business book authors say it. They say it on Shark Tank. I am certain that there are thousands of brilliant businesses, products and careers that were never launched because someone hit the “passion” wall. 

I'll bet curiosity has launched thousands more.

A Great Career Looks More Like A Web Than A Ladder

In my professional life, I'd like to say I'm mostly self-taught. But to be truthful, I didn't teach myself. Hardly anyone does, unless they are a contractor or self-employed. It was on-the-job training; that is, experiencing new challenges and learning on the fly and with the help and guidance of some incredible managers. 

I was schooled in the fine arts and got my MFA in Painting. But then, after years of struggling to find teaching work at the college level and working day jobs, I started my own apparel company. I eventually closed my business and went to work for one of my competitors as a T-Shirt designer. This was at the dawn of the computer era, so I taught myself everything I could on my own time at home, and then put it to work at the office, doing apparel, catalogs, marketing collateral, etc. 

Eventually I moved up and started managing people and quickly discovered that managing designers was a lot like teaching, except you made a lot more money and weren't out of work every 9 months. And I was good at it. I loved inspiring, developing and leading creative people. And I found I loved business.

I eventually landed at a Fortune 100 apparel company and after 11 years worked my way up from director to VP overseeing 4 departments and 65 people. I had an incredible mentor there who gave me a new challenge or a new department or a promotion just when I needed it. I learned the "business" of business: financial reporting, budgets, HR goal setting, assortment planning, building presentation decks, doing cost/benefit analysis. All the things that they don't tell you you'll have to do when you think you want to be a CD. I am good at it and unlike many creative types, I also like it.

After I left the apparel/retail industry I moved over to the agency-side as an Executive Creative Director, doing strategic design, branding and consumer packaged goods. I had an incredible mentor there as well. I was learning on the job. I could lead designers, but knew little about strategic design or design thinking when I started. I learned to pitch and win new business, manage client relationships, build processes. All on the job.

My career isn't typical. As Paul Pressler used to say at the Gap, "A great career looks more like a web than a ladder." You have to teach yourself whatever you can, when you can. Be open to learning from managers, mentors, co-workers and even vendors. Take new challenges on. Embark on a new career trajectory even though you may only have a vague idea of where it's going or what you're doing. You'll learn more. Learning is one of the great joys in life. It should never end.