THINK LIKE A DESIGNER

Learning to speak about your work with eloquence while engaging the audience is one of the essential skills designers can learn. They should be able to craft a compelling story that incorporates your rationale and meets the criteria of the project brief.

Wax poetically

To succeed in selling your design work during pitches, you need to learn how to positively and optimistically speak about your ideas. There’s still a bit of mystery to what designers actually do. Come prepared with a compelling story about your vision and use emotion to speak about your work, and they’ll be eating out of your hands.

I had been building this day up for a while. Finally, I would be honest with my coworkers. I had been considering telling them for the past few years, and I decided to finally let everyone know the truth. I was going to let all the 20 and 30-year-olds at the startup where I worked how old I actually was. I was as old as dirt.

We made a pretty big deal about birthdays in my department. Someone would sneak out and buy a cake, then another person would schedule everyone for a vague sounding meeting at 3:00 PM in…

I moved to Vancouver, BC, seven years ago. I’ve been a hiker and rock climber for a long time. I love being outdoors, and I’m particularly drawn to big trees.

We live in Burnaby now, a suburb of Vancouver. We’re lucky to live where we do because the Trans-Canada trail runs near our house. There are lovely hiking trails right outside our door. During the COVID-19 shutdown, we’ve been out hiking almost every day.

Our family hikes are the best part of our new daily routine. My favorite time during the walks is when every so often we come across…

Like everyone else, I’m stuck at home, feeling anxious and feeling like I’m in a perpetual state of limbo. I have zero plans scheduled. For someone who is trying to maximize daily output, this is a weird state to be in, just drifting along. I want to refocus away from the distraction on news cycles and Netflix and begin to reclaim my days. I went through everything in my life that I could improve upon, now that I have this unexpected time.

Start With a Daily Schedule

We started by planning out each day. In the evening, our family sits down and creates a schedule…

Morning routine articles always pull me in with catchy titles like 17 Things You Didn’t Know Successful People Do Before Breakfast or 32 Actions You Must Complete Before 7:00 a.m.

I want to be a successful person, I gave that new list a try. One morning, I tried to do every item on the list — I finished 6 hours later. If I wake up at 1:00 a.m., then I’ll start 10xing my days!? I’m kind of a night owl, maybe it makes more sense to never sleep?

About 10 years ago, I started listening to songs on repeat while doing creative work. I’ll listen to the same song for days at a time and often for the entire length of a project (weeks). Or sometimes I’ll listen to a slower song in the morning and maybe a faster song later in the day. I’ve discovered that this approach makes a significant impact on the quality and the volume of work I produce. This practice will work for designers, writers, programmers, or anyone who’s involved in intensely focused work.

Why is song repetition such a powerful tool?

Studies suggest that when you listen to music you…

I will always remember the day, walking into Steele Hall. I had a sinking feeling. My teammates wouldn’t make eye contact with me. I guessed why but had to check for myself. On the list posted outside the new coach’s office, I couldn’t find my name. They cut me from the hockey team.

It was the second rejection in fourteen months. The first cut had come shortly after high school graduation. I had moved from New York to Ontario, Canada, to play junior hockey with the St. Catherine Falcons. I intended to attract interest from university recruiters by showing my…