Dedicated to inspiring designers, inventors & the creative spirit in all of us.

ID sketcher Spencer Nugent explains in this article, “the essence of why we sketch ideas as designers is seeded in effectively communicating ideas to our clients. Sketching is our language of communication.”

This is something I believe to be true. Take a minute to view this article, plump with great sketches and renderings, to better understand the levels of sketching. Better yet, look forward to a special video blog interview with Spencer in the near future!

Based out of Christchurch, New Zealand, Roger Dennis consults in strategic innovation, foresight and the intersections between them. He has worked with clients in a host of sectors including industrial design, telecommunications, and research services. Dennis authors the blog Ideaport , which helps organizations to address complex strategic issues in the world of design. He is also an associate of Innovaro – Europe’s leading strategic innovation consultancy.

1. Will we see more innovation in 2009 or less? I think many organizations will cut their innovation capability in the next 18 months. It is obvious there is a lot of pressure to cut costs in the current recession, and innovation teams often are the first to go in such circumstances. However, companies that cut carefully and preserve the core of their innovation capabilities will be well positioned when the recession ends. The proof of this approach can be found in many examples, but the most well known is Apple. (For more information read: http://www.rogerdennis.com/ideaport/?p=160 )

2. What was your first impressionable moment that involved design? I’ve always valued well-designed products, but never really appreciated the work in design until the late 90’s when I was exposed to the work of the Ideo crew in London when working for egg (an online bank in the UK).

3. Name something that needs improved upon that would benefit the consumer if re-designed? Most products designed for babies or young children. The notable exceptions to this are products designed by Bugaboo (http://www.rogerdennis.com/ideaport/?p=49 ) and Stokke.

4. You describe your IdeaPort blog as mental floss. What brings your readers coming back for more and keeping a nice, white smile? I think there’s a lot of confusion about the links between strategy, innovation and design. I’m interested in the intersections and overlaps of these three disciplines, but not in the jargon that surrounds them.

5. Name one person who influenced how you see things with a “designer’s eye.” I couldn’t attribute this to any single person – but the Ideo experience I refer to above had a massive impression.

6. I understand your home base is in New Zealand. Would you consider New Zealand to be more innovative than Europe and the U.S.? New Zealand has the advantage of having fewer people here, and therefore (in theory) change should be easier. In addition, the country has historically been isolated from the rest of the world, so if you wanted a solution to something you had to make it yourself. However, it lacks some of the culture that accepts failure – essential for innovation – and that balances out the equation.  Given these two factors I’d say it’s probably on par.

7. What or Who would you consider as a best source on innovative thinking? Gary Hamel is still hard to beat as a source of inspiration, but if you want a real dose of inspiration just spend some time online digging out the next re-mix, mashup or embryonic startup.

8. You recently submitted a post about brand and strategy. In it, you wrote about how you supplied a customer service division with a single guiding principle: “Our service is like oxygen and a customer dies after three minutes without it.”  Does this not explain the frame of mind you should have when promoting any product or service? That was actually a guest post by a colleague of mine – Patrick Harris. I think there’s a danger in taking a catch phrase and applying it to any and everything. That particular piece of work that Patrick referred to had a specific purpose. If you want to read more about this, then I recommend a copy of the book “Made to Stick.”

From a small home office in Columbus, Ohio, Brice Bunner provides product design services for clients around the U.S. With a few products set to launch this spring in stores such as Kmart and Walgreens, Brice is making it happen with little more than a 0.7 mechanical pencil, Adobe CS3 and a flatbed scanner. Bunner shares some of the everyday things he has done to make himself a better designer.

1. What was your first impressionable moment that involved design? When I was about 8 years old, I remember having taken a camping trip and seeing a two-sided salt and pepper shaker. I was jazzed, it triggered all kinds of ideas for better camping utensils. So many thoughts stemmed from that experience.

2. Design school prepares you for many things, but share one thing that you had to learn through experience in the design world to fully understand. No matter how much you are paid, or how much you know, the opinion of some people can, for no logical reason, trump whatever design solution you may offer. I have had the uneducated opinion of a non-designer sink a design idea of mine when the person who contracted me was doing some Q & A at the water cooler.  Thoroughly unprofessional, and ridiculous, my educated expertise was forfeited to the office banter of some business savvy co-worker.

3. Name one person who has influenced how you see things through a “designer’s eye,” whether it be an instructor from school or the author of your favorite blog or book. Chris Sickels of Red Nose Studios lectured once about how failures lead to great success. I had the chance to listen to Chris speak about four years ago, and that experience was an awakening for me. He talked about rapid failure and the idea that you can succeed mathematically, if you fail so many times. Hearing that was a great influence on me and reaffirmed the idea of perseverance.

4. As a consumer you observe products while inspecting price and branding. As a designer you observe products while paying attention to aesthetics and functionality. Which of those roles is it harder to relax from when you see the “next best thing” on store shelves? I can relax from neither. I constantly shop, if that’s what you want to call it. As a consumer I’m a spendthrift, but as a designer I approach every product with a close eye for design. Few things meet that standard to where money is of no consequence; the iPhone, the Flip camera.  Both are satisfying to me as a consumer and as a designer.

5. Is there any one product you see on the market that needs to be redesigned with a new material, perhaps a better interface or even a more green-conscious approach to the design as a whole? It is cliché, but: the car as we know it. There is no reason we cannot harness the power of water to fuel our vehicles. Car companies are in the dark ages. Green design is everywhere, some of it genuine, some of it not. But now there is a challenge for us to design a means of transportation without knowingly committing to a destructive cycle of energy. Water should fuel our cars.

6. The touchstone of any inventor/designer/entrepreneur is to see their idea on store shelves. What keeps your creative juices flowing in order to reach that goal? So many opportunities arrive from running into problems. I have had sleep interrupted by my mind churning solutions to problems I encounter. A good cycle to maintain is: address a problem, create a solution, and get feedback from others. By hitting problems head on you can better assess what it is you are trying to solve. Not only is it healthy to run into problems, it is to the benefit of what you are designing.

7. Everyone has their secret to great design. Reveal your sources of influence without which you cannot design, without stating the obvious, Davisoncreators.com. My shopping cart. I seriously find window shopping to be a great mind exercise when doing design work. I love going to Wal-Mart or CVS and sorting through bad designs while thinking to myself, “that is a horrible design, I need to fix that.” Another influence for me, from when I was younger, were “The Never-Ending Story” and “The Dark Crystal.”  These two movies were honest, creative productions that, to this day, remind me that anything is possible. As whimsical as they may be, the production really carried the stories through intense, old-school special effects.

8. Working as an independent designer, how much do you rely on networking for information and the resources needed for the work you do? As an independent designer, I do a lot of fishing and baiting. I will look for work then find myself having to manage other people that I outsource with to complete a project. In a way, I am the buffer between the outsourced designer and the clients I work with. 

I have to reach out and have other people help to do package design, graphics, model making and research. Not that I am not capable; by reaching out I can expedite the tasks to designers who specialize in those respective tasks. 

I tend to network with more of the business/ legal types. Going to an IDSA meeting, I find myself surrounded by “designers” shaking hands and mingling with the same people they work 40 hours a week with, which is no benefit to me. At a local level, BNI events or Kiwanis meetings are saturated with business savvy people, leaving me as the lone designer.   

9. What should the ideal designer do every single day, with the intention of becoming a better designer through habit? Make whatever it is you are doing simpler. I won’t recommend drawing each day or any of the sage advice you might get from other designers, but I will say this: simplify what you do. It doesn’t matter if you are organizing your work station, completing a task at hand or modifying your daily rituals, make it simpler, pare it down to its smallest possible parts. I have found that innovation comes through simplification.

Emily Beros is a student at Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio. She recently co-designed the Certificate of Electoral Votes for the state of Ohio. On Jan. 8 her design was unsealed and read aloud before both houses of Congress in Washington D.C.

1. How did you come across this opportunity to design this special document? The President of CCAD was contacted about the possibility of the project, and the Dean brought my name up in conversation. It was really not a competition in terms of us having to go through rounds before being chosen. We were contacted on a Tuesday and on Wednesday we met with a gentleman who gave us past examples for research. The next day we took them to the Ohio Secretary of State’s office for a meeting with the communications director.

2. I understand you created a unique watermark design that will now be implemented in all future Electoral Vote documents, is that correct? Yeah, in the past, this has been formatted more as a document, but we designed it to include more graphics. After researching the history of this document, we realized they would only be seen together once before being preserved so we wanted to make it special. By including watermarks of state icons like the ladybug, the buckeye and a carnation, there is a once-only time when they are viewed as one single joining display together.

3. So where did the documents go after you presented them? We had a ceremony with the Governor of Ohio and the Secretary of State to whom we presented the official documents. From there, three portfolios were created. One portfolio went to Washington D.C. to the President of the Senate, one went to the National Archives for preservation and the last portfolio went to an Ohio Supreme Court judge for preservation.

4. It seems pretty exciting. Was it really fast paced and cut-throat doing this design work with your design partner? I’m afraid the work I was doing for the Electoral College documents was less than exciting. Historic, yes, but not so much exciting. Sorry if this isn’t nearly as exciting as you’d like… you can totally add some explosives or car chases where need be.

5. Now that you have some time to do some down-to-earth projects, not so presidential, what are you working on? I currently am working with the College of Design Group, a school based design job where I am a senior designer. We handle all design work like websites, promotional videos, flyers and view books for both current and prospective students. Anything design goes to us and we help to promote and educate our students and faculty.

6. How is it working out, being a full time student while simultaneously working for the College of Design Group? It is great; lots of experience. Working with both students and experienced faculty is great. My boss, Robert Cole, is an inspiration to me as far as working in design. He is a former designer for Victoria Secret and now does marketing and manages the design group for the college. He has really helped me realize how much target audience affects a design.

7. Who else would you attribute as a major influence to how you see things with a designer’s eye? My first impressionable moment in design was taking a class with an instructor here at CCAD. Doug Fisher, who teaches advertising and graphic design, has really played a role in how I see design. He is so knowledgeable, fully understands design as a profession and is accepting of newer technologies as well as seasoned techniques like marker rendering in this day of computer interface.

8. When was your first impressionable moment as far as designing goes? When I was in the fifth grade, after school I would spend time in my mom’s classroom. I would get onto her computer and “fix” her Clip-Art that she had used for teaching. As funny as that may seem, she still uses some of the artwork I created for her back then. Also, when I was supposed to be writing essays and school projects, I would go off on a tangent, adjusting fonts and layout, spending far more time on the graphics rather than the writing content.

9. What stirs your imagination and influences you when you are doing design work? I do a lot of online referencing. My day always begins combing through design blogs and current design trends. Most recently, I got a Swiss design book as a Christmas gift, which is a great wealth of information. I also love botanical illustrations. Since I was young I have always loved the appeal of the detailed illustrations and layouts.

Designer Eric Karjaluoto of smashLAB, who is behind some innovative sites like MakeFive and Design Can Change took a few moments to give us his thoughts on design.

1. What was your first impressionable moment that involved design? There are a number of them. I remember getting excited about the look of metallic ink in an Omni magazine I had when in the fourth grade. Around the same time I remember trying to create a library-like cataloguing system for my books. I also remember designing my own take on Mad magazines around the same age.

In some way, I’ve been fascinated by making, crafting and distributing things my whole life. Somehow, it’s still something that I find captivating.

2. I doubt you answered your high school counselor’s age old question, “What do you want to be when you grow up,” with “creative director at SmashLAB.” So what path led you to where you are today? I always wanted to be a designer, but at the time I used the term “Commercial Artist.” When I was growing up, it wasn’t a highly recognized profession-I certainly didn’t know anyone who was a designer.

That being said, I loved drawing and making things. As a result, I studied painting for four years at the Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver and then painted and exhibited for a few years.

In 2000, I decided that I wasn’t really happy with the reach of painting. As a result, I teamed with my business partner, Eric Shelkie, and we decided to start a company. We had little applied experience, and as a result, learned everything the hard way. (But we kept going nevertheless.)

3. Name one person who influenced how you see things with a “designer’s eye.” I don’t know if I can limit that to one. How about two?

My parents aren’t designers but they exhibit characteristics that I believe inform my approach to design. My dad is really inventive. I remember him planning the houses we lived in, and doing funny things like converting a snowmobile into a dune-buggy. I think my interest in tinkering comes from there.

My mom has a very ordered approach to things. For her, everything has its place and she doesn’t like clutter. I think this is a very “Finnish” thing. It’s certainly something that comes through in my work and life. I find that my most effective designs are a result of removing everything that I can.

4. MakeFive is a great way to compile user-generated lists on anything from what you remember, what you love, and what you listen to. Give me a quick, personal MakeFive of the best design blogs you love to frequent?

1. SwissMiss
2. Speak Up
3. Design Observer
4. Hacker News
5. TechCrunch

The last two aren’t design blogs, but they inform my work nevertheless.

I think I learn more about Design from Hacker News than I do from more traditional design blogs.

5. Name a needless product that you believe should be removed from every store shelf. CDs. There’s hardly any requirement for physical media any longer. Nevertheless, we’re very slow to release our grip on these “things.”

6. What do you think was the best idea of 2008? I know this is likely a rather banal response, but I think the iPhone App Store is brilliant. It gives developers an immediate method of revenue for their ideas and keeps their software from being pirated. Meanwhile, the low price-point is nice for consumers. It’s a lovely model.

7. You recently wrote about masterpiece mentality vs. agile development. This is a great lesson when trying to design in general. When generating lots of ideas, what are some tips on brainstorming you would like to share that work well for you?

A few things seem to work really well for us. One is to really investigate the challenge from many points and then to establish a clear set of objectives. From there, we really like working in twos. Doing so allows for good ideation and banter. More people than that seems to get hard to manage, given varying personality types and such.

8. Any advice for a designer who wants to share content online in a more interesting format than just blogging? Recently we launched a simple little site called http://undrln.com/. It’s a nice, simple way for designers to quickly survey what’s going on in our industry, or to share links they find compelling.

9. What should the ideal designer do every single day, with the intention of becoming a better designer through habit? I can only speak for myself here. The only way I learn is by “doing.”

Not talking, not farting around on the web, and not thinking about doing; just doing. This means more projects, more iteration, more analysis, and more asking people to poke holes in my ideas. I think it’s all about being interested enough to just keep working hard.

10. What area or problem is most in need of some new ideas in 2009? Most of us are part of a system that doesn’t satisfy us and at the same time is destroying the planet. As such, we desperately need to find a way to change our ideas about what it means to be human – particularly given that we live on a planet that can’t support our current appetite.

When I suggest this, I don’t propose buying things that are labeled “green friendly;” instead, I mean that we need to shift our values and rethink what’s really important in our lives.

1. What was your first impressionable moment that involved design? I remember early on, seeing a hand rendered poster that my grandmother made for a jazz festival. She did calligraphy out of a home studio and I remember saying to myself, “wow that was all made by hand.” I have many family members who are artistic. My uncle paints, my grandmother does calligraphy, and my brother is just so talented too. So I was influenced early on, which left an impression on me.

2. What is it exactly that you are designing? I design for American Greetings, expanding lines of licensed products and creating graphics for cards, stickers, gift bags, and all kinds of other goodies.

3. What does graphic design have you spending your time doing? Graphic design is a demanding job. I find that my workday is comprised of instant deadlines. So it’s pretty much a quick turnaround for me; work is handed to me, I focus on getting that project completed, submit it and receive new work. A lot of drawing, a lot of attention to detail and an all around fast-paced work environment.

4. Paper and pencil, ink and sketch pad, scanner and computer? I prefer to hand render a set of drawings, scan them, then use programs to clean up what I am working on. Hand drawing is more comfortable to get started, but for presentation I definitely get onto my computer.

5. Name one person who influenced how you see things with a “designer’s eye.” Family has always seemed to inspire me to create, but my high school art teacher really gave me the push I needed. I was encouraged to scan some of my artwork and clean it up to color it in Photoshop by my art teacher. That led me down the path of what I now know to be graphic design.

6. Who/what makes you smile or relax at the end of a full day of designing. I am engaged, so after a long day’s work of designing, I look forward to coming home to my fiancé.

7. Reveal your sources of influence that you cannot design without? I have a couple of references, books on design, but blogs and design sites are full of fresh designs. FFFFOUND is a great site that was introduced to me by my brother, another artist in my family. It is a wealth of cool things.

8. The worst package design created that you believe should be removed from every store shelf? The first thing to come to mind is a horrible package design for a knock-off Godzilla toy at a major toy store. The Godzilla in the graphics are different than that of the toy itself. The toy was zip-tied to where it blocks a large portion of the graphics, leaving a large void beside the toy. Bad layout, bad packaging, overall bad design.

9. How often do you spend time drawing in a personal sketchbook, free of client work? Not enough! I always bring a sketchbook, I always acquire a pocket full of pens, but it is difficult to find the time to focus. But when I do, I update my sketchblog for friends and family to view. Now that it is the holidays, I have found myself doing personal work, though it is for gift giving.

10. What should the ideal designer do every single day, with the intention of becoming a better designer through habit? One bit of advice, which I do myself, is to learn something new every day. I dedicate my first hour of the day to learning a new program, skill, or something that complements my stronger skills. It is better to know how to do many things, rather than specialize in being the guy who does that one thing really well. So reach out, learn something new every day.

We all know them, people who have a quick “you can’t do that!” rebuttal to any new idea. Check out this post on naysayers. I found it to be humorous how this blogger recounts sharing his thought on portable computers over 25 years ago. After thinking aloud to his teacher about a portable computer, he was told, “Who would want to carry a computer with them?” Can you say, “laptop?”

For those of us who love to soak up a fact or two, Design Within Reach offers this catalog of designers to sort through and absorb a variety of personal and professional biographies. This takes me back to design school when I was given a laundry list of designers to read about who have made a difference in the design world.

1. What was your first impressionable moment that involved design? Customizing my Hot Wheels when I was little – wheels, paint job, detailing. That and being exposed to paint shops early on, bondo-ing and painting Corvette parts with my Dad.

2. Who/what makes you smile or relax at the end of a full day? After a long day of work and then going home to a second job of fatherhood, it’s nice to kick back and relax with my dog Spike and veg’ on the couch.

3. Name one person that influenced how you see things with a “designer’s eye”. Rajib Adikiri, my instructor from college. Positive, positive, positive. Never a negative thing to come out of his mouth. That is a great thing to be learned.

4. Name a needless product that you believe should be removed from every store shelf. Chia Pet. There has never been a more useless product. Bad jingle, bad commercials, bad idea. It is just plain tacky.

5. Reveal your sources of influence that you cannot design without. The Internet is my major influence. Between that, television and movies, my mind digests so much information.

6. How often do you spend time drawing in a personal sketchbook, free of client-oriented work and perpetual deadlines? Rarely, unfortunately. I wish it wasn’t that way, but I do not find the time to maintain a sketchbook.

7. The perfect client… Knows what he is talking about. Not full of &@#%, well prepared, and has thought things out. It’s easy when it’s grab and go.

8. If form follows function, then… Then function is the number 1 priority.

9. What should the ideal designer do every single day, with the intention of becoming a better designer through habit? Take the time to stop, recognize and respect one well-designed product they use. What you would normally take for granted can be seen in a whole new light by doing this. I have actually turned off my TV, and thought to myself, ‘yeah, this is awesome!’ Just take the time to appreciate what has been well designed around you.

There is something about knowing about the designer, as well as the design, that has always intrigued me.  By learning more about the designer’s thought process, I can better understand their failures and successes to help me when I design. Ikea offers an animated feature to showcase a few of their designers and how they arrived at the design you see in stores. It is so cool to see the problems and solutions that are commonplace for both aspiring inventors and professional designers who bring products to market. Take a minute to view some of these design narratives, and try to picture yourself taking on these very same design challenges.