Six Month Review
It’s been just under 6 months since the Squid was born and I thought it was time for a recap. So for those of you out there wondering just what it is I actually do… here’s the numbers.
12 - Websites designed (Some just designed, other designed and produced, other still in development)
1 - Number of really ugly designs I’ve pumped out, and had to recall.
2 - Logos
3- Emarketing campaigns
1 - Business set
4- Handprinted posters designed and printed
5 - Print ads designed$12,000 - Amount of services given away pro-bono.
1 - Number of jobs totally botched. (Sean- you have the heart of a saint)
30 - Number of hours spent trying to understand Quickbooks (I still don’t get it).
270 - Pots of coffee drunk
2 Days - Longest streak without checking my email
3 minutes - Average time in-between email checks
3 - Number of clients that are located outside of Minnesota
200% - Increase in the amount of minutes I talk on the phone
90% - Percentage of work that’s come from referral (Keep telling your friends).
an MBA for people that actually work for a living
Those of you that know me, know that I read quite a bit. I live and die by Raymond Chandler, I spend far too much money on art books, and I go through a couple hundred lame spy novels every year. What you may not know is I’ve started reading about… gasp… business. I’ve always been interested in economics (thanks for the minor U of M) but I’ve never had much patience for the practicalities of actual business writing. Business = lame.
Oh how times have changed. It started with IttyBiz, a fantastic little blog by my favorite Naomi Dunford. That led to Shane And Peter, who conduct some of the liveliest small biz discussion on the web. They’ve rounded up the powerhouses of small biz writing to comb the depths of the interweb for the best of the best when it comes to business. Sproutwire is their new baby. Where on the same 800 pixels can you see reviews of articles about the business of christian sex toys, culture of accountability, and whether or not testimonials do a damned thing for your business? It’s topical, funny, and relevant. Not only that, but it’s a beautiful site as well. It scans well and is easy on the eyes. Kudos to Brandon and Eric for the design and buildout.The truth is out. I’m a single-owner-llc-corporate sellout. Read Sproutwire.
God Save Gertrude
We did 2 different designs for local theater company Workhaus. God Save Gertrude is their punk rock take on hamlet, hence the the obvious sex pistols reference and the punk skulls and crowns and what not. They chose the poster on the right, but i was pleased with both, so here they are. Neil and I are going to print them tomorrow, so maybe we’ll post a photo of the real deal.
Race For Justice
It’s that time of year again. Here’s the design for this years Race For Justice shirt. I’m pretty excited about it. For those non-minnesotans, that’s the view of minneapolis and the stone arch bridge from the spot where the race starts.
I’ll write a little more about it when the website goes live.
The only interview that matters
Here’s my response to the interview challenge over at Shane & Peter. If you haven’t read it yet, the S&P blog is a hotspot for anybody interested in work/lifestuff. The last handful of posts have really challeneged me to examine myself. It’s good reading.
Here goes.
What’s your personal mission statement?
I’ve got 2. They’re both pretty brief. I’m a fan of succinct.
A:Don’t take any sh*t from any f*ckers.
B: Do good work.What’s the biggest mess you’ve dealt with this year?
I got married, bought a house, quit my job, and started a business. Life is a bit of whirlpool. But if forced to pick, quitting my job was a much bigger mess than I thought it would be. With every ounce of my being, I wanted to leave on good terms. There was no animosity on my part, just ready for a change. But it ended ugly anyway. If anyone has ever quit a job without it being a catastrophe please right a how-to manual.What current entrepreneurial efforts consume your time?
I’m currently ~6 weeks into my design business - Giant Squid Industries. I’m actively working on my second en devour as well. It’s a social justice t-shirt design thingamagig. I’ll keep you posted.Why do you do what you do? What inspires you? When do you get most excited?
I’ve found there’s a couple kinds of people out there. Some people are perfectly happy to go to their ‘job’ work 8 hours, and then actively pursue the things that make them happy. I say “kudos” to those people. They all seem much more well adjusted than the second type. I’m of the “have to be doing what it is that I do all day or I get really cranky.”I get excited and inspired by all sorts of stuff. The art/design community in the Twin Cities is remarkable. There’s so much great stuff happening here right now, you don’t need to look elsewhere. Even my account has an art gallery.
I do what I do because it’s the only way I know to feel right.
Boxers or Briefs? or as Naomi says, Bikini or Thong, duh?!?
Variety is the spice of life. I’m totally a cheap skate, Target all the way. Except my undies. American Apparel.What do you do when you’re not [designing | programming | managing | writing | toiling for the wo/man]?
I play the piano. I eat my darling wife’s interesting cooking. I go to rock’n'roll shows.What one thing made the biggest difference when getting started?
I might be too close to it to see. So far… my wife telling me it was ok if we had to eat ramen for a couple months.What’s your exit strategy?
What’s an exit strategy?What is the last thing that made you belly laugh?
This post. I spit coffee all over my computer.Have you ever been in business before?
Sorta. I ran a youth development non-profit for about a year. It was a delightful catastrophe.At what point do you consider yourself successful?
When someone seeks me out for my aesthetic. And a solo show. And my tshirt biz to break even. And be able to support my wife to the point where she doesn’t worry so much. And I’m sure as soon as I achieve any of those, they’ll be replaced by new ones.What was your first experience with a computer?
I wrote Chose-Your-Own-Adventure games on my Commodore 64.Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates in a jello wrestling match, where’s your money?
Jobs takes him in 3 rounds. He’s a mean mamma jamma.Where do you do your best thinking?
The piano.What does your average daily work / life balance look like? How much time do you work, play and sleep?
I started keeping track after this came up in conversation earlier in the month. For the last few weeks, I’m at 15 hours on ~ 9 hours off. It’s been kinda fun. I know I need to fix it. January I’m aiming for a 10 hour work day maximum, with at least one day off a week.If I could introduce you to anyone, who would it be?
Bansky.What stops you from giving up when you are frustrated?
The wifey. And I’m really friggin stubborn.If Chuck Norris and Steven Hawking had a baby (hey it’s my damn interview), would you vote for her for presidet?
I would have until the Huckabee endorsement. Now if I see Chuck Norris on the street, it’s my personal mission to take him down. I’d have to kick Steven Hawking’s ass too just for being associated with Chuck Norris.And… my question.
What’s better
A:Pleasent work that isn’t anything to write home about
B:Exceptional work that kicks your assHead over here to read more interviews.
Web 2.0 is bullcr*p + People Suck Or…
How I learned to stop worrying and ‘make friends’
I have given up on social networking. There are some gems for sure, but the American public is not capable of having a coherent, articulate, intelligent conversation as a whole.
Reason 1: Youtube, And WakeUpLater
I spent a couple minutes on youtube.com the other day looking for a video regarding a project I’m working on. I’m not a big youtube guy. Nothing against it, I just spend so much damned time on the internet that I tend to look for my entertainment elsewhere. I started watching the YouTube republican debate questions (because I’m a bit of a political junky). One of the 5,000 posted was by a girl named Melissa Jenna (?). She apparently runs a vlog, and has some ridiculous number of views (we’re talking 100,000s). Impressive to say the least. Her content isn’t particularly compelling or groundbreaking. But she’s articulate and earnest. And that’s enough for me to give her a thumbs up. Here’s where it goes down hill. She’s got pages and pages of comments. Good thing right? WRONG. Most of them I wouldn’t read aloud in public. They’re rude, explicit and degrading. For every 1 intelligent response, she has ten proposals to be involved in sexual positions that couldn’t possibly be pleasent. I left YouTube totally deflated.
I witnessed a similar occurrence on WakeUpLater. For those of you unfamiliar,WUL is a blog about freelance web design. It’s great. Really well written, topical, he even gives out free files. How nice is that? The dude hit the front page of DIGG and received a barrage of inarticulate, worthless, and mean spirited comments. I’m all for harsh critique ( I set the record for making people cry during college art critiques), but what I saw was unproductive, and flippant. On the rare chance that you read this WakeUpLater Guy: good work. I’m a fan.
Reason 2: Myspace
Dear Myspace,
Stop sending me porn.
Thanks, Reid
Megan Meier committs suicide after MySpace bullying. I’m not saying that because it’s constantly abused and has had some tragic outcomes that MySpace and social networking sites inherently evil. It’s just that they have such huge potential for suckiness. There’s a handful out there that I think are great. (curbly.com) But seriously, is it worth more than checking your friends bulletins, and seeing when a band is playing? It’s a $600 million dollar vehicle for selling ringtones, and for teenagers to flirt. (Though I am ‘friends’ with Todd Purgason from JuxtInteractive, and that’s pretty sweet).
The But
I’ve stumbled into a community of folks that are actually having a conversation that doesn’t make me want to hurl. For the half dozen readers this blog can proudly claim, I would guess half of those have already read this post over at blog.shaneandpeter.com.
But for those who haven’t… Take a minute and check it out. There’s a real lively conversation happening over the last handful of posts about the nature of work, life, balance, and success. The curious thing for me is watching the comments develop. Shane & Peter (or one of their great guest bloggers) will write an insightful, interesting article. Then something really unique happens. People read it, think about it, and respond with equally interesting and insightful comments. I found myself reading, thinking, and then writing. I’m not a joiner, not even online. But here I am thinking about ways I can contribute to the conversation.
So… there’s hope. I’m going to stop worrying about it, and make myself some friends.
Sketch
So the squid has been swamped. This first month has been delightful, but success has put a serious hamper on non-commercial endevours. Here’s a sketch I put together last night to get the creative juices thumping a little. It’s totally outside my normal aesthetic. Bling-tastic.
Updates
It’s been an exciting couple days at Squid HQ. We’ve been making new friends left and right (more on that later). The website has an updated portfolio. It’s a little more compact now, less overwhelming. We’ve added a bunch of older poster projects that are worth a peek.
The past week has seen a couple projects come in the door, and a couple go out. We’re about to get started on a new web presence for the Sartori Group. We’re very excited to be working with them. Printing is about to begin on some posters for the upcoming Nina Pinta cd-release concert. It’s got birds and butterflies and trees on it. I think it hits on all my token motifs.
Printing
We just finished printing this 3 color poster designed by the ever talented Eric Weiss at Fame. 100 copies, plus 15 monoprints. We lost our shirts on this job, but we love the RollerGirls and we were happy to help. It’s printed on 110lb strathmore with a little hot pink, light pink, and dark metallic silver.
TENTACLE
We’ve just launched our new emarketing tool: TENTACLE. It’s incredibly easy to use, and really affordable. It lets you manage all your subscribers, send targeted html emails all from the comfort of your own web browser. Use it to communicate with your audience about products, events, or just general info.
Check it out at TENTACLEmail.com
