I can’t decide whether this is the most brilliant thing I’ve seen in a while or the scariest, but either way, I wish I’d done this first.

(h/t to Nick Mamatas)

I am embarrassed to say that I was a little bit cocky when I graduated from college with my design degree. I didn’t understand why people (clients) wouldn’t listen to me when I would tell them what was best for their project. I thought that taking their input and making changes to my work was a corruption of my vision. I was angry about this a lot.

Working at an advertising agency where the sales guys wanted us to throw any old thing together as long as it had a big fat sans serif type on the headline didn’t make it any better. There were two guys there in particular that didn’t take any input from the client at all, came back to the office with the job and expected the designers to read their minds about what they’d talked to the client about. They refused to do even the minimal paper workup of the projects, wanted to cut in line in front of the other sales people to get their projects done and then expected us to drop whatever we were currently working on to do their revisions, which were always extensive because, surprise!, they hadn’t told us what the client wanted in the first place.

I beat my head against this particular brick wall for almost four years. I look back on it all and actually wonder how I didn’t burn out sooner than I did. Youth and stupidity count for something, I guess.

From there I started working for an Apple consulting firm. Nothing gives you better ego strokes than fixing someone’s broken computer. I felt appreciated for the first time in a long time and there was no subjectivity in the work I was doing. I loved it.

After the consulting job, I worked for Apple Computer for a brief period. While I didn’t particularly enjoy the sales aspect of the job, I did love working for Apple. What designer doesn’t want a peek inside the mother ship? The support I got and the team aspects of working at Apple were fantastic. In fact, I’ve only seen its like at the church I attend now. That sounds weird, I know. Apple has been called a religion and I think they have some of the better parts of religion. Also, the gadgets are freaking unbelievable!

After we moved to Alabama, we made the decision that I would not get a job because we knew we were going to try to have a baby. It seemed silly for me to get a job and then quit once I got close to the end of my pregnancy. It also seemed like a waste for me to have a bunch of skills and not use them, so I created Granade Graphic Design. I did this so I could work from home and pick and choose the jobs I wanted to take.

I had left the design world on such a sour note that I didn’t really know how I’d feel about doing design work again. I’d lost what little confidence I’d had in my abilities at the ad agency and felt that any work I did would be agonizing and frustrating on every level, ending in lots of contention with the client. I’ve had some work over the years–not a lot, but just enough to keep me in the flow. And over time I’ve actually lost that mentality. A few weeks ago I had a surprising realization that I actually like doing the work I do now. I enjoy meeting new clients and seeing what they are trying to accomplish and figuring out how I can help them do that.

So here’s a list of things I’ve learned about myself, about my work and about being a working designer. I think a lot of these are based on me becoming a more mature person. Part of it is just experience working. And it helps too that I don’t have to have any of these jobs to eat.

I’ve discovered that when you work with clients directly, it’s a whole lot easier to understand what they are looking for without the middle man of a salesperson between you. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back to the advertising environment for many reasons, but this is number one. As my mother-in-law often says, I’d rather be a greeter at Wal-Mart.

I finally figured out that I won’t get every job that I try for. This used to make me feel personally rejected. On a few occasions it may be a personal rejection, but usually people make decisions based on other factors. They didn’t feel like my work was right for the job. They didn’t like my fees. They felt that working with a freelancer was unstable. They woke up cranky with their spouse that morning. Who knows? And at this point in my life, I feel good enough about my work and who I am (and I’m busy enough already) that I can say I don’t care. There will be another job and another client that loves my work. I look forward to working with them.

I’ve found that when you approach people in an upbeat, considerate way and you are honestly trying to solve their problem, they are pretty open to what you present them. Maybe this just boils down to people wanting to feel like they are being heard. (Are my psychology roots showing here?)

I’ve realized that most people who need a graphic designer have no idea what one does or how they accomplish the task. Part of my job is to educate those clients about the profession and the practice of graphic design. Most of the time it’s about sitting in one spot, putting as many ideas on the page as I can and then editing them down to what will work for any given situation. I take the psychology and art background I have to generate ideas, and then start refining those ideas into something that is both attractive and usable. Hopefully by the time the client sees it, I’ve made it look easy.

I’ve learned that I won’t ever be the next Paul Rand and that’s ok. I can still do good work. I can still help people with their businesses and their dreams, and help them reach their goals. That is as fulfilling as fame, maybe even more so.

I’ve learned that when you place monetary value on your skills, don’t act apologetic for what you charge and look people in the eye when you quote them a length of time it will take to complete the project. That helps clients understand that you mean business, that you are a professional person doing a professional service. I think this is much harder for women to do than for men. I’ve certainly had to work on this skill a lot and occasionally if I haven’t coached myself before hand, I’ll falter at this point in a meeting.

I don’t take it personally when people do want to change things around. Maybe they knew what they wanted in the beginning, but it didn’t turn out like they thought it would in the end. Maybe they had a brainstorm in the shower that morning and realized that it must be like THIS instead of that. I’m happy to work on the new thing as long as they are paying the bills. That doesn’t mean I’ll do anything they ask. I do have a few personal lines I won’t cross, but my idea of what “design” is supposed to be isn’t one of those lines anymore. The reason the old adage the client is always right is an old adage is because it’s true. There are a couple of jobs I’ve done over the past few years that I didn’t think turned out all that great. The client wanted something that I didn’t think was the best solution for the project, but they wanted it the way they wanted it and they paid their bill. You just won’t see those jobs in my portfolio.

The last thing I’ll say (Geeze, this has turned into the longest post ever. If you’ve read this far, Thanks!) is while watching Top Design, Top Chef and Project Runway I’ve seen that the people who’ve won those shows have these skills figured out. They know how to get along with others, they don’t talk about compromising their artistic vision–at least not much–and most of them are mature people who’ve worked in the real world. Watching them has done a lot to solidify my thoughts on these topics and, believe it or not, convince me that I’m on the right track. I’m pretty sure Bravo didn’t have that as a goal for their shows.

Calling the United States “too big to fail”, the People’s Republic of China today loaned the USA up to US$1 trillion in exchange for a 79.9% equity stake in the country. The country’s management will also be replaced, though President Hu Jintao has not yet named the new leaders.

“The collapse of the United States would have sent ripples through the entire world,” said Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China. “We had this giant pile of cash — Euros, thankfully — and thought, hey, why not rescue the US?”

A visibly shaken President Bush addressed the nation this morning. “This deal is good for the economy. It’s good for America. It is the best deal for all parties, Republican, Democratic, and Communist.” He then said, “They said if I was good I could keep my job through January.”

Speaking in a rare joint appearance, the current Democratic and Republican presidential candidates denounced the move. “While I have been a strong proponent of change, really I meant changing things so that I was President,” said Obama.

McCain added, “Have I mentioned that I was a P.O.W.?”

Sources within the campaigns have since confirmed that both candidates have begun negotiations with top Chinese officials to be the next Governor of the Republic of USA.

Drink Boss Coffee, or Tommy Lee Jones will cut you.

Nights like this are necessary to remind me that, yes, I really do suck at working with hardware.

This is where you should insert a picture of me staring balefully at a Fonera 2100 that is happily bricked despite, or more truthfully because of, my best efforts.

On the plus side, this version 1.0 XBox looks absolutely smashing running various bits of software, if only it could talk to the outside world.

Bubbling is preeminent.

I started seriously paying attention to fonts when I was in college. I switched majors sometime in my junior year and began art/design classes. In one of my first design classes, I cut four Copperplate letter “T’s” out of Styrofoam so that I could lock them together, ink them and use them to make pattern prints.

Since then I’ve been in love with letters, or more specifically, letter forms of different fonts. When Stephen and I lived in Durham, we’d go out to dinner and Stephen would make me look at the menu and name the typefaces. Nerd party tricks! I often make decisions on competing products based on the fonts used. It’s actually something that we all do naturally; most people just don’t realize that they are making decisions based on readability or their personal comfort level with a particular font.

Yesterday I jumped into a new logo design project. I started making my list of possible font candidates. While I was browsing through the fonts I realized that I have history with these fonts. I remember past projects based on the fonts I used, which in turn makes me remember different events that happened while I was working on those projects.

Seeing some type faces are like seeing, well, faces of friends. There’s a few old workhorses that I’ve used so often that the projects blur together. These guys are dependable, classic and get the job done. There’s a few trendy, fun fonts that I don’t use often, but when I do they pack a punch and I remember them fondly. And then there’s my personal favorites that I have to be careful not to overuse. I love them dearly and have to remind myself that they don’t and can’t solve every design dilemma that I have. Then there are the dated fonts. Faces that scream “Disco 70’s” or “See? I’m a computer!” These fonts are so dated I wonder if there will ever be another use for them outside of kitschy party invites.

Every time I browse, I find fonts that I want to use for other projects. Sometimes, and this is my favorite, I’ll see a font and it’ll spark something for me and I’ll create a whole new project based on that idea.

When I spend the afternoon looking at fonts, I get excited all over again about the work I do. The launch of a new project is always exciting and picking out fonts is always my first stop on the journey to making something useful for someone.

So next time you are at your favorite restaurant, check out the font on the menu. You might or might not know the font’s name, but know that some designer somewhere loved it enough to put it in front of you.

I can tell I’m reaching the end of a long week: all I’m doing is posting short things. And perhaps you, like me, don’t have much time either. In that case, here’s the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention boiled down to 1 minute each.

Courtesy of Abovenyquist, the NY Times weighs in on parents writing blog posts in their baby’s voice on sites like “Totspot”.

Really, now. Who would do something like that?

Hello Kitty wants you to be pretty.