Just saw these great ten lessons for designer by Wieden+Kennedy’s Executive Creative Director, John C Jay:
1: Be authentic. The most powerful asset you have is your individuality, what makes you unique. It’s time to stop listening to others on what you should do.
2: Work harder than anyone else and you will always benefit from the effort.
3: Get off the computer and connect with real people and culture. Life is visceral.
4: Constantly improve your craft. Make things with your hands. Innovation in thinking is not enough.
5: Travel as much as you can. It is a humbling and inspiring experience to learn just how much you don’t know.
6: Being original is still king, especially in this tech-driven, group-grope world.
7: Try not to work for stupid people or you’ll soon become one of them.
8: Instinct and intuition are all-powerful. Learn to trust them.
9: The Golden Rule actually works. Do good.
10: If all else fails, No. 2 is the greatest competitive advantage of any career.
By the way, anybody caught the pretty funny Wieden+Kennedy skit on Portlandia?
I think this list is paradoxical in many points and contradicts the human nature. It’s a strange mixture from being over-the-top (be better , work harder, don’t tolerate the lazy and stupid) and some pseudo-socio-cultural elements (go out, travel much, do good). But you already do good (maybe better than everybody else) by doing your job right (at least I hope so, if not, everything else doesn’t matter). The world out there is full of real people (real lazy idiots) going out, so, whom to hang out with? And, of course, there are cultural aspects you never experience by superficiality and jetting around the world all the time instead of knowing your own neighborhood. In the end, most of us are in fact lazy too and that’s a great source of creativity: “What can I do, so I don’t have to do this or that ?”
Don’t be lazy, work your ass off, and try to experience as much as possible…Sounds like sound advice to me.
The world out there is full of real people (real lazy idiots)
This is true, but who is to say that I have to be one of them or why someone should strive to be one.
there are cultural aspects you never experience by superficiality and jetting around the world all the time
I don’t think the message was to jet set all over the world. I think the message was to experience as much as possible, never be afraid to travel (whether that be for work or pleasure), and go through the world with an open mind. Of course traveling for no reason is not practical. However a designer that is cultured is a much more powerful designer.
most of us are in fact lazy too and that’s a great source of creativity
Not something I would want to admit to. I have worked my ass off to get to where I am and also I’m not really sure how laziness fosters creativity.
This is true, but who is to say that I have to be one of them or why someone should strive to be one.
I’d say it the other way around: Nobody’s perfect or will ever be.
most of us are in fact lazy too and that’s a great source of creativity
Not something I would want to admit to. I have worked my ass off to get to where I am and I also not really sure how laziness fosters creativity.
For me, “higher, faster, further” doesn’t work and I see an increasing number of people for whom that principle doesn’t work as well. I’m used to “work” most of my time, but I want to keep my ass where it is (and my healthiness).
This is more for people that aspire to operate at that level. If that’s not your goal that cool, but no reason the poo poo the goals of others. But dint use laziness as an excuse.
Good list, has a humble vibe to it. One element I do find strange from these list’s or advice passed down is to have fun. You’ll spend most of your life working so you might as well enjoy it!
This is more for people that aspire to operate at that level. If that’s not your goal that cool, but no reason the poo poo the goals of others. But dint use laziness as an excuse.
This is more for people in search for that magic bullet. There is none. But there are different goals and different ways to achieve them. As Jay says in No.1. : “It’s time to stop listening to others on what you should do.” But in No. 2…10 he starts telling you again what to do. This makes no sense to me and if saying that is “poo poo” , then I have to accept it (But I keep saying ).
I am a bit confused on the argument of above. Sense when is hard work a “Magic Bullet”? I don’t think I have ever found someone that has been rewarded for being lazy. Like Travisimo mentioned “Work smarter not harder” is correct, but even that requires hard work and is not something that just falls in you lap.
Agree to an point. But the argument is between hard work and laziness. I would argue that you get efficiency from hard work. It is work to set up efficiencies and it is work to keep processes and developments efficient. Which contradicts laziness. My point is that nothing good comes out of being lazy. Like Yo mentioned, if your goal is not to grow your career (not saying yours is iab) , than so be it work at the status quo and don’t work above your objectives. If your goal is to move up in the organization and be rewarded, than you have to work above what your current role. This cannot be accomplished through laziness.
, then I have to accept it (But I keep saying