by Charyl Looper, Associate Creative Director

The most profound and painful lesson I learned about design and designers came while I was in school. In the Visiting Designers Program, real-life professional designers came to class and taught us lowly students what it was really like to be a designer working for —GASP— clients.

We slaved through all-nighters—tormented ourselves with font and color and slashed fingertips with XACTO blades—all to meet the ultimate deadline for “Class Critique.” Critique began when everything was posted on the walls. The Visiting Designer then proceeded to demolish our work and shred every beautiful element we perfectly crafted and fully believed in. We put our heart into that work! How dare he! Who did he think he was?

We were told that as long as we kept our work private, we could draw and paint and design to our heart’s desire, with endless love and boundless joy. But as soon as we presented that work to the public, it was no longer ours. The public owned it. And the public could do with it what it pleased. That might include praise and respect, but more likely, unkind commentary and harsh judgement. Or worse: complete indifference.

We learned to scrutinize our work and look at it from every light— especially the public lens. And clients? They are the CEO of that public realm. “Make the logo bigger” is their prerogative. They own it. Not you.

“Make the logo bigger!”

Ten Ways Designers Need to Suck it Up:

1. Always remember that they own you. If you are getting paid, the client owns you and your presented ideas. If you want to keep it precious, keep it to yourself.
2. This is work. It’s not personal. It’s not an attack on you personally if the client wants that particular blue to be green. Or neon green.
3. You owe the client the absolute best design you can do. You should not dial it in just because they asked for 48 revisions, only to return to the original layout.
4. You can sell your idea three times. Strongly. Be as convincing as you possibly can, but after three attempts and three misses, you MUST GIVE IT UP.
5. Creative Directors and Art Directors: your job is to make the design BETTER. Not make it yours. Nudge it to greatness, but don’t pee on it.
6. Collaboration can be amazing. Building things together can be a phenomenally rewarding and successful process. You don’t always have to have it your way.
7. No one ever died from a poorly designed logo. Don’t take yourself so seriously— the majority of our work ends up in the trash.
8. The best design is often the design that just WORKS, seamlessly and beautifully. You most likely won’t hear praise—or luckily, critiques—because it just works.
9. Learn to work within a budget! Life has constraints. Deal with it.
10. How many awards are enough? Stop looking for praise from everyone else and start doing work that is most meaningful to you. And your client. See #1.

Understanding and accepting that your design is for the public—and ultimately the client—can release you from much of the heartache and tears from endless revisions. And yes, “Make the logo bigger”.

by Kathryn Jarrell, Vice President of Operations

The definition of organizational culture varies and in some cases the meaning is debatable. Organizational culture is commonly defined as the human behaviors within an organization and the underlying values that keep those behaviors in place.

If you do not clearly define and visualize your organization’s culture, people will define it themselves. This can be a problem because everyone will describe the culture with different language and meanings and, more importantly, they will define or think of culture in different ways.

There are three common mis-uses of the term culture that employees and organizations should watch out for:

1. The first impression culture fit. Assessing culture fit at first glance is not really possible. It’s easy to be drawn to surface level similarities and demographics, such as age, style, or lifestyle. Although these might be useful for starting a fraternity, they are less effective in creating an organization. The most successful organizations are made up of employees with diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise united by a strong foundation of similar values. To effectively evaluate culture you need to explore working styles, communication styles, motivations, and values. In some cases you have to ask a lot of questions to find people who don’t just talk about the right values, but actually live those values. If at first glance someone in your organization says, “I just don’t think they are a culture fit” you may want to ask more questions about how they are defining culture.

2. After hours culture. If you are in a job interview asking about the organization’s culture and the answer is; “A lot of us go bowling on Wednesday nights.” That might give you a glimpse into a tiny aspect of culture and personality but it does not describe the behaviors and values that influence how work gets done. Some questions that might give you a better view into organizational culture are:

• What are your company’s values?
• What working styles make people a fit vs. not a fit at this company?
• What are the successes that are commonly recognized and celebrated across the
organization?

3. Can we have some more culture please? 

Culture cannot be handed to the organization. Employees often wait for culture to be created rather than stepping up to help build it. For example, one employee-led aspect of our culture is we cheer and clap as people leave on Friday. This may sound silly or frivolous, but it creates a genuine feeling of appreciation and value for the employees and it aligns with the center of our culture map: Support and Collaboration. This small show of support wouldn’t have been effective if leadership or HR had handed it down. In our case it came from the team. If an employee asks for culture, it should inspire a conversation around what organizational culture is and how it can be created, together.

At XPLANE you are a culture fit if you excel in a collaborative team environment, communicate openly and directly, and bring pride and quality to our areas of expertise. This allows us to hire everyone from young designers that love the nightlife, to seasoned consultants that like to be tucked into bed by 9:15. What unites us is our sense of values, purpose, and desire to create a great place to work.

Tell us briefly about your role at XPLANE:
“My new role at XPLANE is Employee Experience Coordinator. I describe it to people who ask as office management meets human resources and surprised along the way. But most importantly, I want to make sure everyone at XPLANE are happy campers and their time at work is running smoothly and enjoyable.”

Provide a brief overview of your background and experience
“I want to try and not repeat what’s already on my resume, but I can say I learned my writing, interviewing and fact-checking skills from my stints at InStyle and Real Simple; My customer-facing consultations and mastering my paper/letterpress/craft-skills from Paper Source; My “getting the word out for a cause” and asking nicely for donations or things for free from my time at The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society; and my “apply-everything-you’ve-learned-up-to-this-point” and then some new skills when I started my own stationery and invitations business, Nice Owl Design Studio. I never thought I’d be a small business owner, but it was exhilarating to challenge myself and see where that road led me.”

Spotlight Questions:

Three places you hope to travel to one day?
Costa Rica, European Road Trip (as many countries possible), Barbados

Favorite Slogan:
“Adventure is out there!” – Ellie from UP

What is something interesting that people may not know about you?
I played bass in an international all-girl band, touring US/Canada and Southeast Asia.

What is your most embarrassing album you have on your iPod that you listen to?
Danity Kane.

Dream car you hope to own one day?
Have always dreamt of a clean, fixed up Carmen Ghia I could take on Sunday Drives.

What are your hobbies?
Photography, dancing, calligraphy, cooking, traveling, hiking/nature adventures.

Cats or Dogs?
This is a risky one to answer, but I’ll say dogs!

Current book you are reading and your review of it?
East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Read this in high school and remember really enjoying it. So I wanted to reread as an adult to retain and process the content. Only just started a few chapters in, but can say the writing is so descriptive, vivid and deep and I’m realizing some of the subject is very adult.

What TV show can you not go a week without watching?
Game of Thrones. I’d love to watch at my leisure, but with social media in the way I can’t risk getting any plot lines spoiled (Nerd alert!)

If you could switch lives with anyone in the world today for just one day, who would it be? An astronaut stationed out in space at the time of the switch. I’d love to see what it’s like out there, just for a day!

What are three words used most to describe you?  Caring, Bubbly, Honest.

By Kathryn Jarrell, Vice President of Operations

Perhaps when you were a start up, a healthy company culture developed effortlessly. But then the company started to take off and you realized you needed more bodies than you had friends. You needed different roles, talents and personalities and now you are wondering, what happened to the culture?

Or maybe your small firm just merged with another. You knew who you each were, but now you are both trying to figure out who you collectively are. Suddenly, unspoken rules and behaviors are in question – what is the right way to behave?

Or perhaps you’re a new leader at an established organization trying to make big changes. It seems impossible and everyone agrees on only one thing – the problem is the culture.

Can organizational culture be changed? Can it be influenced? Can it be … fixed?

I think it can. Organizational culture is commonly defined as the human behaviors within an organization and the underlying values that keep those behaviors in place. The first step in influencing your organization’s culture is to visualize the behaviors and values you want at the center of the organization. We refer to this artifact as a culture map. A culture map will:

• Clarify - Creating a picture forces you to show examples of what good looks like. It shows employees where they fit and what they can expect from others.

• Provide direction - People are faced with decisions that impact the culture everyday. Your map acts like a giant signpost guiding people towards the behaviors that drive the culture.

• Create an employee filter - Your map should serve as a filter for finding and keeping people that are the right fit and will thrive in your culture. Suddenly when you say, “I don’t think this person is a good culture fit,” it means something.

• Provide a common language. - Coaching and mentoring conversations can be focused around the behaviors and values on your map and on a common understanding of what the terms mean.

• Inspire. Your map should give people a sense of belonging, community and common purpose. Even if it starts out as aspirational, the map will let people know that the organization is moving in a positive direction.

A map by itself won’t change your culture. Organizational culture is intricate and often deep-rooted, requiring a systems approach to impact. For lasting results, you’ll need these essential ingredients:

• Invite employees to help build - The culture map sets the direction but it’s up to the employees to help make it real and authentic at the individual level. Include them in developing the map and invest the time to make sure they understand it.

• Model it at the top. Once the organization sees leadership not only supporting but also modeling the behaviors that support the organizational culture, they know it’s real.

• Make it prominent. XPLANE hangs our map in our front entrance way. Put it on the homepage of your intranet or on the largest wall in your break room but be sure to give it top tier real estate. It will not influence in your handbook alone.

• Refer to it often. Your cultural values should be weaved into the operational fabric of your organization. They should influence recruiting and hiring, performance management, internal communications, and how employees act day-to-day.

Culture change doesn’t happen overnight. XPLANE founders created our first culture map ten years ago. Parts of it were aspirational and it took a few years before it was fully part of our DNA.

Original XPLANE Culture Map

Two years ago, we revisited the map as a company and evolved it together based on who we’ve become and where we’re headed. It remains a cornerstone to how we get work done, run our business,and treat each other.

Current XPLANE Culture Map

Does your organization visualize its culture? I’d love to see and hear about other examples where this is being done well.

By Marc Hewitt, Marvin Gaviola, Tim May

We love technology. It enables us to connect with people all over the globe without even changing out of our pajamas (which is nice when you are on a 6am client call)! And while we can’t control how awake everyone is on the call, we can help make the calls more engaging by using something core to XPLANE: visuals.

In a virtual meeting, live sketching helps people follow the conversation and makes things clear to everyone. Visuals help the client know that we understand and that we are listening and hearing what they say.

It actually has become an unwritten rule here that a designer always has a tablet ready to take sketch notes for external or internal meetings.

To make that process easier for designers, our design team came up with “Sketch Notes 101” training to walk designers through that live capture process. We use WebEx, but most of these tips and tricks could be used on other online meeting networks. Here are some of the ideas considered most valuable by designers who’ve been through the training:

1.  Come in with something before you start

• Create assets before the call. If the client is a helicopter company, draw a helicopter before the meeting.
• Build your own asset library. If you like an icon you did for a milestone? Throw it in a library for easy access so you don’t start from scratch every time.
• Open at least 6 different 11×17 artboards in Illustrator. This enables you to have areas for different topics or ideas. This also enables you to easily save them out in a print friendly format to provide to team and/or client.

2. Remember, you are on stage

• If you can, only share Illustrator. That way your incoming email and other alerts don’t show. Otherwise, close any other apps that can be distracting.
• If you want a very fancy presentation, hide your AI tools (although some clients like seeing “under the hood”.
• Use varied brush strokes to provide emphasis and create clearer sketches
  • Create a few brush strokes that have pressure sensitive line widths
  • Save brushes to brush library:
    • Brush menu
    • Save Brush Library
    • Name Brush Library
• Set the new brushes as a default by creating a new Workspace

3. Use quick keys so you can work fast

It can be hard to keep up with a conversation. Quick keys enable you to move much faster. Here are some of the essentials:

• T: Text tool
• Esc: Brings you out of the Text Tool
• B: Brush Tool
• V: Selection Tool
• A: Direct Selection Tool
• M: Rectangle
• Command-Space: Zoom In
• Option-Command-Space: Zoom Out
• Shift-O (letter O): Artboard Tool
• Tab: Hide Tools
• F: Change Screen Mode
• Option-drag: Duplicate selection
• Views: Command-0
  • Fit in Window, Command-1
  • Actual Size
  • Option-Command-0: Fit all Artboards in Window

Finally, have fun. People love to watch what they say come to life. Getting a chuckle or two out of the client is always nice.

Have any awesome live sketching tips? Please share them here.

By Stephanie Gioia

What do the Table of Elements, the first IBM computer, and the novel Lolita have in common? Before they were icons of human achievement, they were card decks.

What gives card decks this unique power to create new meaning in the world? The basis of visual thinking is the analysis (i.e. disaggregation) of a complex idea into “nodes”, followed by the synthesis (i.e. reintegration) of those “nodes” through “links” into a new meaningful whole. At the most basic level, cards are “nodes” in search of “links”. Card decks as a problem-solving tool are powerful because we often know the parts of a problem or solution, but we don’t yet know how they fit together in an insightful way.

Dmitri Mendeleev was the first scientist to order the elements by atomic mass, resulting in what is now the periodic table. Mendeleev carried a deck of cards – each with an element and some of its known properties – using time on train rides to play “chemical solitaire” and look for patterns.

Visual Thinking Tip: When looking for a pattern or structure to bring meaning to complex information, break information into movable nodes and seek multiple possible configurations until the relationships within the system comes into focus.

Herman Hollerith developed a machine that could tabulate statistics by reading information encoded on physical cards through the placement of holes in a grid. Hollerith’s invention revolutionized the field of data statistics and marked the beginning of the computing age. His Tabulating Machine Company later became IBM.

Visual Thinking Tip: “Code” your individual cards in as many ways as possible, using symbols and colors to categorize information. Structure may later emerge from this metadata.

Vladimir Nabokov, author of many novels including Lolita, composed his work using an index card-based method, assembling stories in fragments. In an interview with The Paris Review, Nabokov described his card method: “The pattern of the thing precedes the thing. I fill in the gaps of the crossword at any spot I happen to choose. These bits I write on index cards until the novel is done. My schedule is flexible, but I am rather particular about my instruments: lined Bristol cards and well sharpened, not too hard, pencils capped with erasers.”

Visual Thinking Tip: Save your thoughts in fragments – a memorable quote, a midnight brainstorm, a crucial statistic, a sketch – to maintain a pool of content that can be assembled or reassembled for multiple possible uses. Communicating your ideas to audiences that vary in their perspectives and needs is much easier when you can rapidly pull the most relevant content or storytelling approach for each audience.

Learn more about how to make and use card decks at www.deckaholic.com.