Break it Down

The longer a project is the less you’re able to predict how much work you can accomplish. I’m sure you have a clear idea how much work you can get done in a day and you’re probably able to predict what you can do in a week. But two weeks? It gets a little fuzzier. A month? You can’t track that in your head anymore. A year? Forget it.

Break your projects down into timeframes that are easier to understand. If you have a one day project, break it down by the hour. If it’s a one week project - what can you accomplish in five, one day bursts? Chunk that month-long project into four ambitious milestones and further break those weeks into day-long goals. The year-long project. Yeah, you guessed it: segment that thing into twelve month long chunks with four week-long goals.

This will impose upon you a structure that asks what you can get done in each of its increments. You’re not designing by the gut, you should be able make the prediction. Sometimes you’ll be right and sometimes you’ll be wrong. That’s fine. Each time you take a stab at predicting how much you can get done the better you be at estimating in the future.

If you’re not actively challenging yourself this way you’re going to waste time. And the longer the project is the more time you waste. Give a person a week to get something done and they’ll probably surprise you by how much they can accomplish. Give that same person a month to do the same project and they’ll get less done. Give them a year? You’re just wasting time and resources.

Build a stronger network

Networking isn’t just about shaking hands and passing out business cards, it’s about connecting with people who share your passions. Sometimes those people are the link to a new opportunity but most often all you’ll get from someone will a conversation. Not everyone will be in a position to help you realize your dreams but that doesn’t mean they can’t be helpful.

Shift your focus away from yourself. Seek out the people who are passionate about their work and committed to excellence. Make note of these people and start introducing them to one another. Become a social connector. Look for opportunities to link the people in your network, then step back and let them make things happen. Ask for nothing in return and watch your network solidify around you.

Making connections for other people doesn’t cost you anything, it keeps you on the forefront of people’s minds, builds your social currency and establishes a nice pattern of reciprocal behavior. If you’ve made a connection for someone in the past they’re more likely to make a connection for you when the opportunity arises. Give more and receive more.

Instead of asking how people can help you, start looking for ways to connect the people around you.

You know nothing

The more you know the more you realize how little you know. It’s so much easier to embrace new ideas and information when you push the ego to the side. Life is easier, and more interesting, when you accept that you don’t have all the answers. New solutions present themselves, you allow yourself to be taught by students, employees and people from other backgrounds. You grow.

Great ideas come from all directions and absolute statements can often be the box that limits us. Absolute statements might serve the needs of bigots, politicians and the insecure but you’re better than that. Sure, there are some truths that we accept to be true: gravity, our dependence on oxygen, the thing I’m looking at is called a computer, etc. But even those things have different names in different languages. Often the ideas we spend so much time and energy defending are simply a different way to explain a similar idea or need.

Even statements that are true at face value are worth questioning. Is the sky blue? No, not always. And what does ‘blue’ mean? Ten people imagining a blue sky will have a different image in their mind. An individual who grew up in Beijing will associate a different color sky from the person who grew up in Malibu. Not too long ago people accepted that the world was flat. What other things do we accept as truth that might be disproved over time? What things do you accept as truth that are the adoption of someone else’s values?

Set your ego aside and allow yourself to be a student. Question any individual or statement that seeks limit your understanding of the world. Accept constraints and definitions when they help you but don’t accept them blindly. Be curious, question everything.

Take big steps

There’s a time and place for taking the scenic route but when you’re working on a deadline or looking to make progress fast you need to take big steps. Nothing will get you where you’re going faster than opening up your stride, focusing on your goal and thinking less about the details. Put ten people in a room and ask them to imagine a running cheetah and they’ll each imagine it differently. Design is same way. You can discuss an idea all day but no one in a meeting will be imagining the same thing until they can experience it firsthand.

In the initial stages of a project try pushing beyond your comfort zone. Get the big ideas out of your head so you and your team or clients can react to them. Move fast. It’s great if you’ve taking a step beyond what anyone was expecting because people will be in a better position to articulate their values. You’ll learn what people like, you’ll learn what they don’t like and you might just surprise everyone with something no one expected.

Small steps will take you longer to reach your destination. You might get the same result with tiny, iterative steps but it’ll take you longer to reach your destination and you risk getting stuck fixating on details too early in the process. Nothing kills energy for a project like micromanaging and endless revisions.

Once you’ve established the direction and your group has a shared set of values you can shorten your stride and shift focus to the details.

Interview: So Youn Lee

I met So Youn Lee at the 2014 NY Comic Con. She was working on a large format painting right there in the middle of the noise and hullabaloo of the expo floor. There were some other amazing artists working as well but I’d seen So Youn’s work previously through various publications and it was thrilling to see her painting in person.

Her focus and confidence were remarkable. The floor was a cacophony of sound and distractions but she worked calmly, in her own little pocket of peacefulness.  I waited until she paused in her work then approached to ask if she’d be open to an interview for Tools not Rules. She agreed with no hesitation and even followed up with emails to update me on the progress of her interview. She exudes positivity and you can see that quality shining through in her work.

I’m super excited to present the TnR interview with So Youn. Enjoy!

How would you describe you what is it that you do?

I’m an image maker, and I make drawings and paintings mostly.

How much sketching or research goes into the planning of a new piece?

I draw a lot and whenever I have a image that I like, then I make it as a new painting.

You work in both small and large formats. Do you prefer one over the other? Why?

I prefer large format, since I could describe more things in a larger scale.

What is the most rewarding thing about being a painter?

Receiving feedback from the audience, and realizing that my painting makes not only my days better but others as well.

When you were five, what did you aspire to be?  Why? and how has that impacted your career if at all?

I remember that I wanted to be a judge at one point, to help people in unfair situations and make them happy. But overtime I think I found a way to make people happy in a different way now.

Does your creative work pay your bills?

Yes, more than enough.

Have you always done this for a living or did you transition from something else? What triggered your decision to make a change?

I loved drawing my whole life growing up with comic books that my parents would buy for me. I became an artist right after graduating from college.

What is the most challenging thing about practicing your craft? How do you deal with that challenge?

Imagining the final result before start is always challenging. I would just close my eyes and paint the painting in my head whenever I have a hard time. Taking a breather and coming back to look at it with a fresh eye always helps.

Do you still practice? If so, what do your practice sessions look like?

I doodle all the time in a sketch book, referencing from realistic images and photos, and make studies.

Where do you find inspiration?

Cute pictures or inspiring books. Something that makes me think about life and the goodness of it.

What kind of music do you listen to while you work?

I don’t listen to music while I work, but I watch animated films most of times. When I like to listen to something, I choose Daft Punk.

Where are you when you have the most a-ha moments?

In my car, driving. It makes me think a lot by myself when I' driving.

How do you define creativity?

I believe it is something everyone has. But only some people desire to harness it and use it.

What do you do to maintain a creative flow?

Believing in myself, liking myself and enjoying the moment.

How much do you rely on feedback from others to help shape your ideas?

I don't really. I see it as just opinions, and welcome them. But what I found out is that when I’m happy and honest with my works, it always brings the best.

What is the greatest obstacle to creativity?

Not pursuing excellence.

When you complete a project, how often does it resemble your initial concept or conceived idea? How important is this for you?

80% or more. I start with a feeling of something, when I succeed to contain the feeling of it, I’m satisfied.

How do you know when you’re done?

I could just see. It just looks right, or feels right.

How do you resolve creative differences with clients or creative partners?

I follow the better idea, if I believe mine is better, I persuade them.

What keeps you motivated even if you don’t connect personally with the project?

I think of it as a chance to find my new favorite thing to do.

What do you do when you are stuck and have some sort of deadline or other pressure?

Calm myself down and remind myself that I can finish it on time, and have a good cup of coffee.

How do you achieve your creative vision with a limited budget?

Be flexible and find better ways to execute it.

What are the top 3 tools in your creative tool kit? ie. software, pencil, paper, journal etc.

Pencil, journal, and paints.

What are the top 3 creative habits that have proven to be the most useful for you in your career?

Doodle a lot so that I could always have something that I like to paint, set a nice work station, and build a habit to sit there. Once I sit at my work desk, I found myself painting or drawing something even if I’m really tired. It just became my habit.

If you could offer a single piece of advice to a budding professional, what would it be?

Be yourself and create things that you like.

Visit So Youn Lee's website

The Power of Submission

“If you want to push then I'm ready to push, but if you’re pulling while I'm pushing then why'd you ask me to push?”
-Aesop Rock

In a culture of leaders and leader wanna-be’s what does it mean to be a team player? It means everyone, regardless of role or title, is willing to get a little dirty.

It’s my philosophy that leaders and followers are all committed to a similar ideal, product or team. Their roles within that structure might be different but they have all submitted their ego to something larger than themselves and in giving themselves to the goal they will do whatever it takes to succeed. Even if that means letting go.

Some people strive for leadership because they want people to follow them and, by my definition, that person isn’t a true leader. Who wants to follow someone whose goal is to simply have followers? The leader needs to provide a vision beyond themselves and demonstrate their commitment. By giving themselves to the goal, submitting to it, they lead by example.

Even if your natural state is in a leadership role, try stepping back when someone is more qualified than yourself to take the reins. Let the people around you supply answers, give them space to succeed and let them provide answers and inspiration. There is power in releasing control. As a leader you can choose when and how to submit to your team. Allow yourself to be led.

Don't be a Kanye

We’ve all worked with a Kanye at some point in time. They are the center of their world and we are all caught in their orbit. Their ideas are superior, they can’t be told how something is done and they don’t receive feedback well. They don’t play well with others and the bold ideas represented in their work are ultimately undermined by their ego, caustic communication skills, ultimatums and hyperbole. Eventually they become irrelevant because the ego that drives them fearlessly into a powerful creative space is the same thing that makes them unbearable.

They are an archetype, a caricature that is easily understood, used for what they are good for and ignored or dismissed when they are no longer relevant.

The amount of money they generate determines their longevity. Since of us don’t generate the flood of revenue that Kanye does, we need to be more personable and learn to collaborate. The quality of your work is important but so is your ability to communicate effectively and inspire. There isn't room for divas and shit-talkers in most companies and creative partnerships. If people don't enjoy your company, they won't want to spend time with you (unless, of course, they're making lots of money by spending time with you).

Strive to support the people around you. Elevate them and you elevate yourself. Don’t be a Kanye.

Make time every day

How do you find the time to get things done? My first drum teacher told me to make the time, every day, to practice. He said 5 minutes per day is better than 2 hours once per week. I apply this principle to everything but expand the time allotted to a minimum of 15 minutes. Anyone can set aside 15 minutes daily. Turn off the TV and avoid Facebook. 

If you’re like me you have a dozen things happening at any given point in time. Does that mean you need to spend 15 minutes per day on every project? No, you’ll need to figure out how many projects you can reasonable manage and then prioritize them. Many of my current projects are solo, so I can work on 3-4 things concurrently and feel like I’m making progress. If I was working in teams the number of projects would drop because teams generally take more energy.

Consistency and developing momentum are the goals. Thinking about your project regularly means your brain will always be churning on that idea, solving problems, in the background. The more time you can spend, daily, the better as long as that time is well spent. If you're stuck and unproductive, switch projects or take a walk. 

Recently I was asked how to get started on a project. The person was setting aside time but was stuck figuring out what could be done in only 15 minutes. Treat your planning the same way you treat your production. Start by setting aside small chunks of time to identify your questions and clarify your goals. Break down the concept into addressable/actionable items, prioritize and, once you have a clear path, start using that daily time to make something.

You are more than your job description

We have a need to organize, sort and make sense of the universe. We compulsively define things. It’s why we gravitate towards rule systems like religion and science. It’s why we place so much value in our belief systems, articulating and staunchly defending them. It’s what helps us make sense of the world. It’s why we play games, matching trios of like colored gems and candy and it’s why we fight wars.

Life is becoming increasingly complex and the more complicated a system becomes the more rules are needed to govern it. We define, stratify and segregate each other, and ourselves, based on limited definitions because its just too hard to see the larger picture. He’s a banker. She’s a doctor. I’m an artist. He’s a teacher. That person is white, black, asian or latin. We become so used to these shallow descriptions that we forget that we’re all deeper than what we look like or what we do for a living.

You may not make your living as a doctor but you can be a healer. You may not make your living as a scientist but you can struggle to understand the world. You may not make your living as a therapist but you can listen. You make not your living as an artist but you can make art. You can do all of those things, and more, every single day.

Don’t accept a one-dimensional description for yourself and look for the depth in the people around you.  

Try combining ideas to make something new

Often the spark of a new idea comes from connecting two previously disparate concepts. Tape and sand makes masking tape. Peanut butter and chocolate makes a candy. Mobile phones and music players make the iPhone. You get the idea. There’s a reason people often pitch ideas as “It’s like _____ meets _____!” The first idea establishes the base set of assumptions and the second idea turns everything on its head by introducing a set of previously unrelated ideas.

You could riff on this all day to develop new ideas. Want to make a dance show? Great. Start with the style of dance and begin adding the secondary concept until something sparks your imagination. It’s a modern dance show about cooking. It’s a ballet about loneliness of travel. It’s a bellydance show about non verbal communication. Want to write a new song? Choose your initial concept, maybe the style of music then add the secondary idea. It’s bluegrass song about transhumanism. Its a quartet about the subway. Its an EDM song about longing.

Once you put those ideas in a shared space and you’ll start seeing connections and opportunities for interpretation.

Try this: List the kind of thing you want to make (a book, cake, dance piece, animation, game, etc) then write down your central theme. Is your book a western? Fantasy? What kind of cake do you want to make? What style of dance? Now add the curveball secondary concept. Try listing a bunch of these and see which ones spark your imagination. Its a western novel about lemons/sex/vampires/cooking/relationships. It’s a German Chocolate cake with steampunk/berries/bacon/humor.

Don’t hold back or edit. Have fun.

You are who you appear to be (on Facebook)

If you bitch, whine and attack on social media that’s who you are to the rest of the world. It’s doesn’t matter if you’re only venting when you have a bad day. If all people see is your bad day reactions they’ll assume that’s who you are. And they’re probably correct. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t post challenging ideas or engage in real debate online. It just means you should probably avoid slander, witch hunts and being an asshole. It’s a safe assumption that the person going on the attack and judging others online is probably that same person offline.

The reverse is also true. If you promote creative ideas, interesting dialog and support via social media that’s who you are to your readers.

Applying for a job? You can expect a hiring manager to look at your Facebook page. Probably before they find you on LinkedIn. If you’ve called sick into work your manager would be silly not to check your updates. Think before you post. What does your Facebook or Instagram page say about you as a potential employee? A collaborator? A friend? 

Try Listening

Take the time to listen. You’ll get more out of your relationships, have more meaningful dialog and people will be more likely to listen to you. It’s called mirroring. If you set the pace for a conversation, allowing it to breathe, the other person will be more likely to match your pace and tone. Speeding up, interrupting and abruptly changing topics tells people you don’t care what they’re saying. And they won’t care what you’re saying.

Slow down, take a breath and listen. Most people are already thinking about their response before the other person has finished speaking. Don’t interrupt. Seriously, if you feel the need to interrupt just leave the conversation. Create space in the exchange to consider your response. Acknowledge what the other person said by responding to something specific about their statement then advance the conversation by adding to it. I know this sounds scripted but try it. You’ll see immediately how people change when they realize you’re actually listening to them.

Try this: use The 5 Whys in your next conversation. You don’t always need to ask a why-related question but ask a question that invites the other person to elaborate on their previous statement. Ask 5 questions and see how deep your conversation gets.

Know your strengths

Do you know your greatest strengths? Your weaknesses?

On some projects you’ll need to collaborate with people whose skills are different from your own and sometimes you’ll need people with comparable skills. To make effective team-building decisions you’ll need to know yourself.

Try this: write down your single greatest skill. The thing you do better than anything else. Then do the same with your weakness. Now find some people you’ve collaborated with in the past. Folks you trust to give you an honest answer. Ask them to name your greatest strength and weakness. I bet you’ll get some surprising answers that are different from your self evaluation. That’s because we don’t see ourselves clearly by default. Who we are gets clouded by who we want to be.

Have you been choosing collaborators based on who you are or who you want to be?

Let users break things

You can’t control everything. There’s always going to be the person who puts peanut butter in your casserole, tries to break the rules of your game or use your art as a cocktail coaster. Sometimes they they want to push the limits and sometimes they're just doing what makes sense to them. They can still help you make your things better.

You want to do user testing with folks who put your work through normal paces. They’ll help you you understand how your product suits normal people’s needs. But you also want people who will stress test your concept. Challenge users to break your design. They’ll surprise you by helping you make your product more stable and they may even come up with new ways to use what you’ve made.

Adults have a tendency to withhold opinions because they don't want to upset anyone. Inviting them to do something unexpected might help them remove their filter and get down to having some fun.

Being critical is easy

It's easy to list all of the reasons we don’t like things. It’s too dark, too spicy, has a terrible ending or too many metaphors. If the creator is in the room, we’ll step back and let them consider the marvel of our observational skills. If the creator isn’t in the room we might follow with something like, “That’s not how I would’ve done it…” Anyone can say what isn't working. It takes someone special to suggest a solution.

Creators, ask critics how to fix the problem they identified. This will distinguish between the talkers and doers.

The people worth listening to can offer suggestions or admit they don't have an answer. Invite the doers into your super team because they’ll help you become better at making things. Talkers, well, you can’t please everyone. But if the talkers reach a critical mass maybe they have a point worth paying attention to.

Tell people what you want

People won’t know what you need unless you tell them. Pretty simple but it’s amazing how often we expect our co-workers, teammates, friends, and significant other to intuit our needs. And then, to make matters worse, we get frustrated because they don’t understand what we expect of them. If you haven’t told someone what you want and they fail to deliver it’s your own darn fault.

Sure, they are exceptions. You shouldn’t have to tell someone not to kill, steal or lie. But I’m going to assume folks with those tendencies have already been excised from your life. Lets focus on the people you want to spend time with.

If you haven't taken the time to express your values or desires and someone fails to deliver it’s unfair to hold them accountable. That said, recurring disappointment needs to be addressed. It's fair to assume that you shouldn’t have to tell them twice. 

Opinions are great, but don’t confuse them with facts.

I love working with people who can express their opinion but when a person presents their opinion as fact they’ve taken a turn down a frustrating path. If someone does this, call them on it. Ask if that's an opinion or fact. Opinions need to be flagged as such or they're a distraction for your team. They make people with opposing opinions dig in their heels for a war that can't be won without someone losing face.

Early in my career someone with more experience than myself called bullshit when I presented a ‘fact’ in a large meeting. We were working on a story-based game and I was telling the team how they had it all wrong when the savvy manager asked me how they could do it better. I knew a good story when I saw one but I had never written one. I knew nothing of the craft. Probably 30 people saw me learn a painful lesson.

Share your opinions and be prepared to acknowledge them as such or back them up quantitatively.

You don’t know what you’re making

You’ve planned your project meticulously and know everything that needs to happen from the moment you begin working until the moment you dust your hands and step away from your completed creation. Every detail has been accounted for and all that remains is the labor. Guess what. You still don't know what you’re making.

Sometimes the thing you want to make is different than what your thing wants to be. Give yourself room to explore and let your project develop through the process of creation. What is the project is telling you? Collect feedback while you work and let it inform your decisions. Don't be a slave to feedback and observation but don't resist them, either.

People will view, use, read, hear and taste your creation differently than you. Their experience will be different than your own. You can’t control everything and that’s fine, let yourself be surprised.

Tell people what they’re doing well

It’s no surprise that crit sessions, or critiques, are stressful. Everything about them, from the name on down, is designed to expose all of the things the artist/designer is doing wrong or what could be done better. An artist spends a day, a week, a month or longer developing an idea and it culminates in a session devoted to exposing their weaknesses. That sucks. Here are a couple things that will mitigate the stress.

As the artist, collect feedback consistently while you’re working so you aren’t thrown any curveballs on the day of the critique. Do self-critique, use your friends and colleagues for gut-checks while you're working and strive to anticipate feedback.

As a critic, tell the artist what could be made better but also tell them everything they did well. Be very clear about this. The best outcome of a critique is an artist who can identify weaknesses but can also replicate success.