Designers checklist advices About

01/08Surround yourself with smart people

The more smart people around you, the better. I can’t make every decision, I don’t want to make every decision, and many people will make much better decisions. Hire smart people and empower them. The sooner you do that, the sooner you and your company will feel the benefits.

I am not the smartest person in the room; my team is.

02/08Know what you are good at and ditch the rest

It is crucial to your growth as a designer or company that you quickly identify where you excel and what drags you down. Ensure you are setting yourself and/or team up for success by assigning to people tasks that they enjoy or will master. For instance, my power position is designing and directing designers. Plain and simple. Sure there are other areas within the company where I am proficient, but we hit the sweet spot when I am directing the design team and making stuff look good. The best use of my time and talent is not reviewing payroll. For that, we can hire smart people.

You see, if I wear too many hats, my work will suffer, meaning our work will suffer, which negatively affects new work opportunities and peace of mind. I am a designer, not a developer (or a bookkeeper). Therefore, I design.

03/08Get the clients you want

Perfect clients rock. You know, the amazing relationships defined by a free flow of great ideas, clear expectations, perfect communication, and stellar end products. So how do you attract those clients? Start by defining what the ideal client looks like to you. We’ve centered on three basic components that define Focus Lab’s clients: personality, product, and mission. We take on clients whose personalities and values are similar to those of our team. In fact, matching personalities is probably the single most important consideration. (For those who are thinking, “Horse shit, money talks,” you don’t know us very well. Our business model is not just to drive revenue. If it were, we would be running a puppy mill of web shops, accepting all incoming inquiries, and playing turn and burn.)

At Focus Lab, we enjoy our jobs and daily workflow because we insist on working with great people on great projects, not clients with huge budgets but stifling deadlines and shitty communication skills. Sure, we make certain that the budget is reasonable so that we can be profitable and continue to grow, but that is not the leading factor in the clients we accept.

Learn how to say NO. Target the right work.

04/08Create a balance of life and work

Striking the right balance between your personal life and your professional life is extremely important. But it’s certainly easier said than done. There is no golden equation here but you owe it to yourself to define how much attention you give to each end of this spectrum. In this industry, it’s nothing to sit in a chair for 12 hours a day... for months. Before you know it, you feel like shit, your wife is busting your chops, and the quality of your work is suffering. Personally, I go through phases of workaholism until I burn out and have to take overdue time off to recharge my batteries. As both life at the office and at home develop, I will have to prioritize and delineate time for both - for everybody’s happiness on both sides of the table.

Design when you are in the zone. Retreat to your happy place when you are not.

05/08Stay super-duper, crazy active in the community

Young designers: get involved in the community. I’m active in the design community via Twitter, Dribbble, and Instagram. Forgive my inadvertent social media rant, but I attribute a great deal of our recent success to my social media involvement. Think about it, never has it been easier to reach gajillions of people. For free. I know that were it not for my visibility in the online design community our company wouldn’t have been privy to 75% of the leads we’ve had this year. 75%! That translates into hundreds of thousands of dollars. For reals, take advantage of the tools around you, be it Dribbble or something wholly local to your small town.

Get out there and get active. Don’t sit around and wait.

06/08Niche is key

We learned early that being a jack-of-all-trades isn’t the best business model. Better to be a master of one. So, we latched on to ExpressionEngine early in our business history, focusing our energy on a single skill set that we perfected. That in turn allowed us to secure some really great clients (ahem, the Canadian Government). We next figured out to ditch hosting, domains, printing, and all the other secondary and tertiary services. As much as it felt like we needed a cast of services to maximize our revenue, it actually worked against us. It devoured time that was better spent focusing and growing our single most valuable service.

Have one skill that you do amazingly well, not 10 that are average.

07/08Be confident

Don’t confuse this with losing touch and humility. Always remain grounded and humble, but don’t underestimate the power of confidence. A client paying $300k for a new design doesn’t want waffly impression that you “think” you “might” be able to give them what they want. No, they want to you know that you are fully confident that you can deliver kick-ass results. Confidence will help you lead your team effectively, make both difficult and basic decisions, and ultimately communicate to clients that this isn’t your first rodeo.

Be confident; stay humble.

08/08Hard work pays off

Life takes time. So does becoming a great designer and/or business owner. Patience and hard work will foster forward momentum, hone your skills, help you reach your milestones, and earn you bigger clients on your climb to success. Personally, I’m just beginning to reap the rewards of six years of hard work.

I remember well the early days of working until 3 am, shouldering full time jobs while I freelanced, weathering the ups and downs of being broke, and wondering how to find clients, etc. Yes, it’s a leap of faith to stay diligent, shove your nose in Photoshop and Illustrator, and work with smart people, but more than likely you will start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I see the light blasting in my face now. That’s not to say that there’s an end to the hard work. I just re-adjust my goals, and keep moving and shakin’.

Bust your ass doing what you love.

01/9.5Minor in business, not political science

Many would-be designers think that school is a waste of time, that it won’t help you in the design world. Honestly, there’s truth to that sentiment. But it’s also true that most designers become small business owners (and, yes, freelancing is a small business). Some of us actually become large business owners and entrepreneurs. If you want to be successful in this industry beyond punching a time clock, you had better know a few things about budgets, overhead, time management, and dealing with difficult clients.

Sure, college isn't for everyone - for many reasons. It's certainly not going to make you a better designer. But it will give you a leg up in business. So if you’re hesitating on college, and/or you don’t want to study design, consider instead business, accounting, or computer science. At the very least, these make for a worthwhile backup plan.

02/9.5Intern somewhere, anywhere

You will learn more in the first month working with a design firm then you will in four years of college. (Even about partying. There are some crunk designers out there. Check out the guy on the other page). STILL, GET A DEGREE: See #1.

A college classroom can’t possibly prepare you for the day-to-day life of any professional, especially that of a designer. Get a mentor and learn from them. They will influence how you go about your daily routine, advise you on interacting with clients, and help shape you as a designer.

03/9.5Make shit. Lots of it. Even if it makes no sense

Starting out, you are going to accept really crappy jobs to keep the lights on and the cupboards stocked with ramen. Photoshopping some dude’s abs, ads for weird diseases, or Flash banner ads about abs with diseases - trifecta! In these dismal times, the onus is on you to preserve your skills and sanity. Take it upon yourself to create something and see it all the way through. Do the branding, UI, illustrations, typography, website - give yourself the chance to push your designs and take risks otherwise unavailable to you. You never know, Facebook could come knocking on your door and offer you a billion dollars for that awesome weather app with the long shadows.

04/9.5Err on the side of unique, even if people don't get it (and call you names)

Creating something from scratch is the best part of our jobs. Successful designers look at blank screen and see possibility. The other half open the Dribbble popular page and recycle. Always push yourself and your designs to be different and unique, while staying true to your client’s goals and direction. And, with any design choices you make, you had better be able to speak intelligently about your design vision and how it will benefit the client.

05/9.5Get involved in the community (Dribbble, Twitter, etc.)

Take advantage of the resources out there, be it Dribbble, Twitter, design conferences, or just reaching out to other designers you admire. Much like interning, you will advance further as a designer if you engage and collaborate with talented colleagues.

06/9.5Never stop drawing, painting, sketching, etc.

Most of us got into this profession because we loved fine art as a kid. We may have thought that an art degree was a good idea, before that “oh shit” moment after college when being a starving artist wasn't a viable long-term goal. That said, artistic influences still matter. They help us flesh out ideas quicker, explore different mediums for a project, and maintain creativity while building out that next great Cialis ad.

07/9.5Don't be oversensitive. Ain’t nobody got time for that

This a biggie.

Listen, most of us are building websites, creating brands, making apps - no one is being commissioned to paint the Sistine Chapel. Inevitably, clients are going to tell you that your latest design looks like dog poo after Indian food. Successful designers will laugh it off, Tweet about it, and then head back to the drawing board. An unsuccessful designer will cry about it, Tweet it (“The sky is falling!”), take a five-week coffee break, and resubmit the same design. Most of the time clients are wrong - they just are - but sometimes they aren't. Regardless, starting back at square one can help you to improve as a designer by pushing your designs in ways you never expected.

08/9.5Health: Don't be a slacker

Too many designers live an unhealthy lifestyle. They eat poorly, splash some Red Bull in their double mocha frappe with whipped cream, sit at a desk for hours (and hours), and sport hipster jeans that will eventually cut off the circulation to their feet.

You need to eat right, exercise, take breaks, go easy on the energy drinks, get out in nature, and just generally move around. You'll find that you'll be more productive and inspired when you feel good, mentally and physically.

09/9.5The best damn job in the World, Period

This is the best job ever - sometimes. We work with amazing people, don't have to wear a suit and tie, listen to music all day, work behind 80" Apple displays, take two-hour lunches, and you get to see our work out in the wild.

9.5/9.5Buy apple stock (Maybe this should be #1)

Errr, kind of a no brainer right?