Plazm Magazine: Documenting Creative Culture Since 1991
Plazm is a magazine of design, art, and culture with worldwide distribution. Founded by artists as a creative resource, the magazine is now published by the nonprofit New Oregon Arts & Letters. Order Plazm #30 now.
What if the best way to promote yourself is not to do it at all? What
if computers create inferior design compared to analog work? Twelve of the
world's top designers explore such questions while giving practical advice
in Plazm's book, 100 Habits of Successful Designers.
A list of the 100 habits is below:
Self Promotion
1. Let the work speak for itself –Stephan Sagmeister
2.
Create promotions that reflect the goals of your company –Mark
Randall, World Studio
3. Keep in touch with clients past and present
–Why Not Associates
4. Let someone publish your work –Art
Chantry
5. Win and keep clients with a multi-pronged approach to self
promotion –Margo Chase
6. Use cultural relevance to create
ongoing momentum – John Jay W+K
7. Create self promotion
materials that are deceptively simple –Worksight
8. Do an extra
good job on tiny projects –Worksight
9. Distribute your work
through respected channels to gain confidence –Hideki Nakajima
10. Everything you do promotes yourself –Miles Murray Sorrell
FUEL
11. Walk around a book fair and hand out your book designs to
publishers –Worksight
12. Create after-the-fact flyers
–Ed Fella
Working with
Clients
13. Visit the client's site–physical and virtual
–Stephan Sagmeister
14. Research client decision-making systems
–Mark Randall, World Studio
15. Spend time with your client to
build consensus and create shared goals –John Jay W+K
16.
Expand your audience by doing public art projects –Why Not
Associates
17. Don't talk about CD art in a CD art meeting
–Stephan Sagmeister
18. All work has its own unique client
–Miles Murray Sorrell FUEL
19. Learn the language of the client
–Todd Waterbury W+K
20. Teach the client your language
–Todd Waterbury W+K
21. Seek out creative clients for
successful collaborations –Margo Chase
22. Build small projects
into ongoing, engaging work –Worksight
23. Work for the
government –Why Not Associates
24. Develop a clear ethic of
client interaction that works for you –Stephan Sagmeister
Workflow and In-House Dynamics
25.
Find an emotional connection with your audience –Todd Waterbury
W+K
26. Demand respect, creative license, and fair pay –Art
Chantry
27. Expand with your clients –Mark Randall, World
Studio
28. Develop brands that both reflect and influence culture
–Todd Waterbury W+K
29. Help save electricity –Miles
Murray Sorrell FUEL
30. If you are a designer, design; if you are a
manager, manage –Stephan Sagmeister
31. Accessible can be
smart; smart can be funny –Why Not Associates
32. Hire
interesting creative people—and listen to them –John Jay
W+K
33. Always keep the valve in the open position –Miles
Murray Sorrell FUEL
34. Cultivate a workplace with a specific look
and sound –Margo Chase
35. Keep decision making simple and
nonhierarchical –Why Not Associates
36. Creative directors need
to stay creative –John Jay W+K
37. Look far and wide for your
sources in the creative process –Margo Chase
Continuing Education and Professional
Development
38. Avoid design conferences –Stephan
Sagmeister
39. Support young designers –Worksight
40. When
you retire, deal with the possibilities, not the necessities –Ed
Fella
41. Go back to school no matter how old you are –Ed
Fella
42. Start a magazine –Rudy VanderLans Emigre
43.
Make a low-budget project look expensive –Margo Chase
44. Read
it all, forget it all, do your own thing –Rudy VanderLans Emigre
45. Actively pursue intellectual subjects that interest you
–Worksight
46. Learn the vernacular of a new field
–Worksight
47. Continue your own education by teaching
–Margo Chase
48. Develop and sustain an art practice throughout
your life –Ed Fella
49. Never stop learning; don't start
teaching –Miles Murray Sorrell FUEL
50. Encourage young people
to make art –John Jay W+K
Community
Involvement
51. Develop a social agenda –Mark Randall
Worldstudio
52. Develop long-term relationships with non-profit
organizations –Stephan Sagmeister
53. Address local, immediate
needs –Mark Randall Worldstudio
54. Use the Robin Hood theory
–Ed Fella
55. Minimize travel expenses–work with your
neighbors –Miles Murray Sorrell FUEL
56. Create highly visible
and culturally consequential design by working for clients in education and
the arts –John Jay W+K
57. Integrate your politics with your
creation –Rudy VanderLans Emigre
58. Teach –Worksight
59. Don't feel obligated to do charity work –Margo Chase
60.
Keep in touch with your non-profit clients –Worksight
61.
Partner with like-minded firms –Worksight
62. Use client work
to collaborate with young new artists –John Jay W+K
63. Provide
service to your design community –Worksight
Technology
64. Acknowledge the value of the
analog process –Hideki Nakajima
65. Use computers to
communicate with stone masons –Why Not Associates
66. Make
design invisible –Todd Waterbury W+K
67. Recognize the limits
of digital technology for creative work –Ed Fella
68. Let your
small shop thrive on high tech –Worksight
69. Whatever you
think, technology is in control –Miles Murray Sorrell FUEL
70.
Remember that technology serves you; you do not serve technology
–Margo Chase
71. Use technology in unexpected ways –Why
Not Associates
72. Work with emerging technologies –Rudy
VanderLans Emigre
73. Make friends with people who know a technology
that you want to learn –Why Not Associates
74. Develop an
overarching technology metaphor –Worksight
75. It's OK not to
go multimedia –Why Not Associates
76. Use the computer as a
business tool as well as a creative tool –Rudy VanderLans Emigre
Personal Growth and Keeping Creativity
Alive
77. Travel as much as possible –Mark Randall
Worldstudio
78. Look at the everyday world for inspiration
–Worksight
79. Watch videos of comedians –Why Not
Associates
80. Practice and preach, don't theorize and teach
–Ed Fella
81. Change your environment –Art Chantry
82. Have conversations with great talents –Hideki Nakajima
83. Keep creativity alive by any means –Miles Murray Sorrell
FUEL
84. Read a good book –Margo Chase
85. Set up shop in
a foreign country during a recession –John Jay W+K
86. Work
with visual artists –Todd Waterbury W+K
87. Take some time off
–Stephan Sagmeister
88. Develop personal growth and personal
taste; you are what you eat –Miles Murray Sorrell FUEL
89. Take
risks with your career –John Jay W+K
Partnerships and Strategic Synergies
90. The secret to a
successful partnership is to never compromise –Miles Murray Sorrell
FUEL
91. Collaborate with someone in a different field –Stephan
Sagmeister
92. Collaborate with someone whose skills complement your
own –Art Chantry
93. Collaboration does not depend on
compromise but rather on good decisions about who you work with
–Rudy VanderLans Emigre
94. Find a mutually beneficial
relationship –Mark Randall Worldstudio
95. Allow each creative
team to determine its collaborative approach –Todd Waterbury W+K
96. Take a risk in choosing collaborative partners –Worksight
97. Partner with companies willing to take risks –Art Chantry
98. Partner with civic organizations –Why Not Associates
99.
Forge partnerships that broaden your cultural horizons –Margo
Chase
100. Help other people collaborate –Mark Randall World
Studio
Curated by Joshua
Berger and Sarah Dougher, Designed by Joshua Berger. Written by Sarah
Dougher.
198 pages, hardbound, silver foil stamp cover.
all
copies are signed - available only from Plazm
10% discount off the
cover price when purchasing at Plazm