Do good work. Ask questions later.

The story of Dustin Tanner’s ‘Made With Soul in Atlanta’ design. A lesson in making it happen.

Want to get involved in the startup scene? It’s easy. Pick a project you’re passionate about, dive in with no expectation of a return and do good work. Let me tell you Dustin’s story…

On April 10th, I got a cold email from Dustin Tanner.

Hi Michael,

I am a designer and startup founder very interested in Atlanta and your new incubator. I am moving to Atlanta in the coming weeks. I would love to be a part of Switchyards in any capacity.

Since Switchyards launched, I’ve been getting a lot of these emails. It’s really awesome to see the interest but it makes it super hard to respond to all of them and even harder to meet with everyone even though I’d love to if time allowed.

But Dustin’s work was solid and his passion for design was clear so I scheduled a coffee meeting. These are my favorite people to meet. Not people wanting to pitch or just talk about their ideas — the ones who have already built and are building cool stuff in their spare time.

We met and discussed Switchyards, among other things, and he volunteered his time to help in any way necessary. He followed up right after the meeting.

Thanks again for meeting with me. I’m looking forward to working with you in the future.

He was hungry so I decided to throw him a bone. I’ve done this with others and oftentimes their offer to help falls short once a specific project gets thrown their way or when other higher priority stuff gets in the way. Being conscious of his time, I suggested a low-risk, low time-commitment project.

Just thought of something that could be quick way to get involved and also help in establishing yourself as a “designer to be messed with” in Atlanta.

On June 6-8, Switchyards is hosting Consumer + Design Accelerator Weekend. We need a quick poster — not for printing but for digital purposes. It will be used to promote the event for the next 6 weeks.

Let me know if you’re up for it. No worries if not.

Without hesitation, he quickly responded:

I am interested!

A day later and with practically no direction on style, he sent over the final poster. I hadn’t even given him the actual logo assets. He snagged them from switchyards.com.

Attached is my poster design. I stayed true to the branding except for the font which is Verb. I think it pairs well with the logo, has more personality than Helvetica, looks better for headings than Chivo and will work well for long copy.

Let me know what you think.

Are you kidding me?! I was blown away. I just met this guy a week earlier and he had nothing to work from yet he made it happen exactly on point. He just got it. Got the brand. Got the vibe. And everything Switchyards wants to be. It was a simple design but at this point, it was already clear to me that Dustin is part of the rare group anywhere in the country that can get #%^@ done. And nail it.

I decided to throw out one more design project to see if he was interested knowing that this one might be more high-profile (rewarding).

Wow. I really dig it! One other thing, I’m realizing that Switchyards represents companies “built with soul” in Atlanta. I like that this is a small piece that people can rally behind. They’d put it on bottom of their sites, etc. I could see shirts with this, etc. Wanna take a crack at it? Again, no worries if not.

Can’t wait to share poster.

Without asking any questions, he obliges.

I love the “Built with soul in Atlanta” idea. It would be great for the weekend t-shirts. I’ll start working some ideas. Also, thanks so much for the poster share and kind words! Means a lot.

A day later on April 25th:

I decided to try hand lettering for this to give it a handmade feel. Once I digitize it, I’ll polish up the lines, shapes and proportions even more.

Imagine it red and gold and let me know what you think.

After about a week of back and forth and tweaks, he finished the design.

We’ve used it as our rallying cry. We put it on stickers and shirts. The response has blown me away. People love it. They’re putting it on their $1500 Macbooks and on their trusted Moleskines. They’re taking photos in front of Independence Hall wearing it. And they’re even putting it on their Audis. That’s trememndous. No tattoos yet, but I’ll pay for it if someone gets a Made With Soul in Atlanta. I’ve done it before.

Out of all the work I did, and some of it is totally legit, but it’s a very small percentage, a lot of that stuff did not make a penny. It was just because it’s cool to do and it was fun. I can’t decipher what was work and what was just fun. — Aaron Draplin

Aaron Draplin, the well-known designer behind Field Notes and Nike’s Air Max logo among others makes exactly this point here (17:00-21:15). Watch the whole video by the way. He’s one of my favorite speakers.

So while Dustin didn’t make a million dollars on this logo, I know it brings him huge satisfaction to have designed a mark that he sees all around town. Dustin even favorites every single tweet that features it. I’m sure he smiles each time he sees it.

You’re passionate? You’re talented? The lesson.

To me, the lesson here is to just dive in and do good work. If you’re a designer and you love design, you should have tons of logos and UI designs and scribbles just laying around for fun. Same with devs. Post it somewhere. Do it for a friend. Volunteer for a project you can get behind and just freakin’ Nike it.

It’s easy to see passion. Look at someone’s personal work. Their passion projects. What do they do in their free time. If they haven’t done much outside of “work”, it’s not a good sign of their true passion. In startups, the best should be thinking about this stuff at all hours of the day because they can’t keep their minds off of it.

One last thing. Dustin had his son (his second kid) right in the middle of all this. There’s time in the day for stuff you’re passionate about.