professianimals:

Kitty Cent

In wrapping up the end to this helpful and insightful book, chapter eight tackles the subject of the celebrity designer. Thus, as we all know fame comes and goes at a rapid pace. The bloggers’ that obsess over the “next big thing” or trend, but as usual by the next week someone else has taken their spot because they used a different texture. I have my “go to’s” in design that can deliver meaningful and classic design over and over again. The flash in the bucket trend designers have their place and space, and I can take their focus with a grain of salt. But when looking over some of  the aesthetic trends that occur, I can’t help but choose to give in a little when making a choice to stay up on what’s new.   

The ninth chapter is a perfect end to all the madness us, as designers, have been dealing with through the creative process. Either your client doesn’t want to pay for the research time and wants you to focus your time on other components, or you are just working on a piece of a bigger part of a design. The creative process can be pushed aside, but all in all, we have learned that the process is needed to gain a certain level of quality to one’s work. Even though you cannot implement the full stages of the process during certain points in your career, at least we as designer’s, can lean on the knowledge that we fully know how to exercise it!

Chapter 5+6+7

The tips on running your own studio in chapter five were totally in line with a lot of the guest speakers we have had come and speak at PSU. By taking tons of work on because of the designer’s obvious good standing, you need to hire on a staff to keep the work maintained and at high quality. So, taking on a staff is advisable in order to maintain this quality and delivery, just as long as you do it right.
Shaughnessy’s advice he received from his friends or colleagues that trying out new things and doing things differently than other people or design firms — as long as its done in the right way is the main heart of the chapter. No soulless firms! No heartless jobs!

Winning new work and clients

Putting your best work out for the public is on every designer’s mind. There are about 20,000 ways to do it. It really depends on the designer’s style and the best method to present to the studio. The same goes for clients- what is the best method to effectively communicate with one another. How do you stop a client from changing your work? How do you make a studio understand your style?  The only way is to start with a good relationship at the beginning. Giving freedom to let each side express themselves goes both ways.  Don’t tell the client how they are supposed to like your design, and they should not tell the designer what it should look like.