There’s a scene in “The Commitments” (a terrific movie about the rise and fall of a soul band in working-class Dublin) where self-appointed manager Jimmy Rabbette is auditioning singers. A parade of musicians knock on Jimmy’s door; he opens it ...
A couple of weeks ago, when the weather wasn’t so goshdarn steamy and my workload was summer-light, I wandered outside to take a look at the vegetable garden before sitting down at the computer for the day. An hour and a ...
Can we talk about the Marathon Project? You know the one: It encompasses a lot of work over a lengthy period, perhaps 6 months or more. It has a lot of moving parts. It’s tricky to plan and schedule. It requires ...
I love those situations when doing great work for one client leads to doing great work for another ... As I was developing online content for a new portfolio website for my super-talented client Evi Abeler, she connected me with designer ...
If there's one thing I miss most about working in an office with a team, it's the buzz of kicking ideas around with a few colleagues. Those spontaneous hallway conversations: "What would happen if we ...?" "What if ...?" For those ...
Do you ever fall asleep on an airplane only to wake up when the wheels hit the tarmac? In a mental fog, you’re thoroughly flummoxed by the realization that you’ve arrived at your destination. I feel the same way as I ...
Ever wonder why you come up with the best ideas when you're not consciously trying to ... like, in the shower or behind the wheel? (Me, I get my best ideas while I'm walking our dog). It seems random, right? Turns out, ...
What’s ON your refrigerator? No, I didn’t ask, “What’s IN your refrigerator?” What’s ON it? Remember when you’d dash home from the bus stop after school clutching an A paper or a favorite drawing from art class? What happened next? That’s right: ...
I'm super excited to speak later this month at the Creative Freelancer Conference, part of HOW Design Live in San Francisco. I'll be presenting a session called "What to Expect When You're Freelancing"—and it'll cover a range of joys and ...
An interview with Stanford University professor John Perry on NPR last year caught my ear (one of those “driveway moments” when you can’t leave your car until the story is over). Perry talked about his book “The Art of Procrastination,” ...