brainstorming. by Addicted2Addiction on Flickr

We’ve spoken about corporate identity and brand design, so let’s actually get you started on the path to a great corporate identity and a well-recognized brand.

This will be a multi-part series that will guide you step-by-step through the identity creation and design process. By the end of this mini-course, you should be ready to go with a great brand package.

Let’s get started.

Brainstorm Your USP

A USP is your Unique Selling Point/Proposition. This is the basis for your company, and it has to be UNIQUE.

Your USP can’t be “I want to sell pancakes,” it should be much more specific than that.

Try “I want to sell low-cost pancakes with gourmet flavors to night shift workers that have a constant craving for breakfast food.”

Or “I want to open a pancake shop with “alternative” employees that offer great service while insulting the customers in a playful manner.” (Similar businesses have a similar concept and they’ve succeeded, believe it or not).

How Do We Get There?

First, pick your favorite brainstorming method – FreeMind on a laptop for us. You can use pen and paper, a whiteboard, or just a word processor.

It really doesn’t matter. Just figure out something that you’re comfortable with.

Now think of every word that describes your company. The morals your company portrays, the quirks your company prides itself on, and anything else that pops into your head.

Do this alone, then with a friend or company partners if you can.

Link it All Together

Look at your storm of brains and pick out the words that “click” the most with you. The words that seem to hold the pure essence of your company.

Now write them on a separate list and let that list curate in your mind for an hour, a day, a week. However long you need to come up with a unique service offering that will appeal to your clients and customers.

You now have a USP, it might need some work, but it’s a start. Revise it as necessary, but don’t make it boring. Keep in mind that this is for branding and identity use, it doesn’t have to be “front end” – it’s not your slogan, it’s how your company behaves.

Get Ready for Next Week

We’ll continue the next stage of your brand identity development next week. You have your USP, now it’s time to figure out some company imagery (via inspiration).

We’d love to get some designer and entrepreneur feedback on these articles, so if you have any tips about developing a USP, leave a comment and follow our Client-Ed RSS feed.

Glimpse of Josh's Workspace

Note: This post is a couple of days late, it was saved as a draft and I forgot to schedule it, my mistake.

This is an article that I (Josh) have been working on for quite some time. Changes in productivity, systems, and furniture can change the way your day goes drastically, and our recent changes have definitely changed the direction of this article.

It started as a preview of our operations for clients and now we have an article focused on time for our peers.

The Value of Time

This is something that, until very recently, I hadn’t been able to comprehend. I was scattered, busy at all hours of the day (and night), and I didn’t get to spend much time with my friends and family.

Now I understand that productivity isn’t about getting as much done as possible, but it’s about maximizing my work time (and limiting it) so that I can enjoy my time with my wife during my free time.

Allysia (the Mrs. and my business partner) has her own schedule, but I’d like to share a rough idea of mine.

Time Blocks

I’d like to point out that I only “schedule” things in time blocks, not specific times of day. I have a variable sleep schedule that forces me to work when I wake up, whenever that may be.

So here it goes:

• Hours 1-2 – Wake up. Walk the dog. Get ready for work. Read my news feeds while eating a healthy breakfast.
• Hours 3-6 – First block of Work Time. I focus on completing my daily to-do list early in the day. This usually involves one of two design projects that we take on at a time, otherwise I focus on building things to sell on the Envato Network or learning something new (software, code, etc.)
• Hours 7-8 - Two-hour lunch break. I like to work out before I eat lunch, either a full-body workout with weights, or Yoga on days that I’m feeling tense. The rest of the time in my lunchbreak is dedicated to reading (for pleasure) and getting some fresh air with our dog.
• Hours 9-12 - Second block of Work Time. This is where I try to focus on our second design project. I also pull up my “GTD Next Action Steps” list and work on as much of that as possible if time permits.

That covers the most rigid parts of my daily schedule for the studio – my day starts at approximately 7 a.m. and ends at 7 p.m. on normal days. The rest of my day is more fluid than this. I’ve also found that if I keep this routine fairly fluid as well, then I’m a happy camper.

Note: For those of you familiar with the Getting Things Done philosophy, you may notice that I have a daily to-do list in addition to my “Next Actionable Steps” list(s). I would like to make a point that my daily list pulls directly from my next steps list. The additional structure gives me more of a framework for my days. This extra bit of pressure pushes me to be slightly more productive during my two blocks of work time.

What Was the Point?

Well, I’m simply sharing what has worked the best for me.

I highly encourage my work-at-home peers to try something similar with their time. Set aside some strict work time and set reasonable goals for yourself using a system (like GTD).

If anybody has some suggestions on “editing my day,” then leave a comment. I’d love to hear them.

Multitasking Kills by Daquella Manera on Flickr

Recent (and old) articles around the internet have indicated that multitasking is the devil. Well, maybe not the devil, but a productivity killer, anyway.

We support this ideal of no multitasking, and that’s part of the reason why we don’t take on more than 2 projects at a time.

Multitasking is a Myth

A person can’t actually multitask. A multi-core computer processor can, but a brain can’t.

A person actually experiences rapid task-switching, meaning that we can’t concentrate on two things at once. Just one thing at a time.

And when we switch back and forth, what happens? We lose concentration and time.

According to this article, our productivity can drop as much as 40% when we’re multitasking due to lost concentration.

The Solution

Work on fewer things at once. Or simply focus on one thing at a time.

This is part of the reason why we only take on a very select few projects at a time. If we don’t have to worry about 3 projects at once, right now, then we can focus on one project in the morning, one project in the afternoon.

And the results? Better designs for our clients, less stress for us.

How should you use this information?

By doing less task-switching yourselves. See if you can plan out specific blocks of time for specific activities, ignoring everything else during those blocks of time.

More than that, try to focus your drive on fewer projects at a time. Need a site for your business and it’s tax-time, too? Pick one task and do it, once that one’s finished, move to the next.

It will make a huge difference in both your personal and professional lives. Imagine the relief of only dealing with 1 thing at a time.

Suggested Tools

We have a few suggestions on what you can do to help with this new “No Multi-Task-Switching” ideal.

It all boils down to:

• a lock for your office (especially if you work at home)
• some noise-canceling headphones
• a playlist with nothing but instrumental music

A lock keeps people out. They can bash the door down or be very loud if they really need your attention.

Noise-canceling headphones help you ignore people when they are just being moderately loud.

And an instrumental music playlist will keep you focused without accidentally affecting the language centers in your brain.

What about the rest of the single-taskers out there – anything else you would suggest to clients in order to avoid multitasking? Or another good reason to avoid multitasking? Let us know in the comments.

2012 by danielmoyle on Flickr

Most people make their New Year’s Resolutions in January – we think this is just bad practice. Many articles recently have pointed out that January is a horrible time to make a new resolution – you’re just setting yourself up for failure.

But, as the end of the month approaches, we’re thinking about what we want to do with the studio. And we have some big plans.

Blog Topics

We’ve been slowly making a shift in our topics from general design news to productivity for designers.

So what is going to be the true shift in focus for Nascent? Lifehacking for designers and quality, quick education for clients.

Basically, we want to HELP designers as much as possible, both in their own work space and on the client front. We encourage designers to share the tips and Client-Ed articles on this blog to help anyone involved with any given project.

Post Frequency

Starting in February we’re going to be increasing our post frequency on the blog. We’ve already upped our Twitter post frequency with useful tips and articles from around the interwebs, so now we’re going to start pushing out more content than ever before.

Sticking to the “productivity” theme, one of our new categories on the blog will be the keyboard shortcut of the week.

Expect to see keyboard shortcuts from Adobe Applications, Mac OSX, and Windows – everyone will be able to learn something useful from our keyboard shortcuts, and learning 1 per week to use in your daily workflow will make sure that you remember it.

Products

That’s right, we’re branching out into product offerings this year. We’re no longer going to be JUST a service studio, but a press, as well.

Working through the Envato Marketplace, we’ll be releasing an eBook template design in the next month and a WordPress theme built on the Genesis Framework within the next 6 months.

Marketing

Due to a newly found fascination with marketing and copy writing, we’ll be expanding our marketing efforts, as well.

More than that, we will be offering marketing advice and tips along the way – all from respected sources on the web and in print. Most of these tips will likely be featured in our Client-Ed category, so designers should keep an eye on our Client-Ed articles, as well.

Everything Else

We have more plans than we could possibly hope to publish in one post, so keep an eye on Nascent this year, it’s going to be big.

Corporate Identity Set by ntr23 on Flickr

Identity design…the art of making a fake driver’s license. Well, not really, but something similar in practice.

Where a fake ID has a birthday, a well-designed brand identity has a font. Where a fake ID has a license number, a corporate identity has a color palette.

To summarize it using another person’s words:

“While brands speak to the mind and heart, brand identity is tangible and appeals to the senses. Brand identity is the visual and verbal expression of a brand. [...] Brand identity increases awareness and builds business.”

-Alina Wheeler, Designing Brand Identity

Build Your Brand, Build Your Identity

A brand is your company’s core, even your personal core set of values. Develop that, figure it out, then get a designer to represent that for you.

Don’t stop there, though. Create a video, a podcast, a blog – get your values out in the open. And do it all with a designer’s help – bring in the marketing specialist, too.

Designers, marketers, analysts, SEO specialists – they’re all there to help you build your brand identity. Hopefully you can find a group of skilled individuals that can work well together to keep your identity cohesive and make it excel.

Because a Brand Isn’t Enough

For your brand to be effective, it has to be recognized.

For anything to be instantly recognizable, it has to be consistent. This is where the designer comes into play the most.

A designer can make a package, a book, a set of rules. This set of rules is what everybody else has to follow when creating something related to your brand. Whether it’s a new blog post, video subtitles, or vehicle decals – your designer is going to make sure that everything is visually consistent across the board.

What are you waiting for?

Invest in your own business success. Invest in your own personal success. Get your brand recognized for the great set of values that it is.

Censored by harmonica pete on Flickr

Just Josh here today, no editing and reviews, just raw content about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

It’s no secret that we were against SOPA and PIPA here at Nascent – as a public forum (we have a blog that allows comments), we would have been at considerable risk for not moderating our comments.

But the good news is…SOPA might be dead!

We took part in the blackout along with major sites like Wikipedia and Craigslist, and we’re proud of it!

Something Amusing

With our pride out on the table and a dead horse beaten, I’d like to point out an amusing article that I spotted on Lifehacker today (yes, I’m a bit behind on my feeds).

It’s a response piece to the Jan. 18th blackout protest from the MPAA, and it’s very amusing to say the least. Here’s the link to the article which contains an excerpt of one of the most hypocritical statements I’ve ever read:

MPAA Calls Anti-SOPA Blackouts A “Gimmick” To Punish Politicians & Turn Us All Into “Corporate Pawns”

So many of those non-profit organizations have definitely turned us into corporate pawns. I can’t believe how pawn-ish we are here at Nascent for wanting to protect ourselves against an unfair bill that could greatly hinder any entrepreneur.

Enough of the Whining, Though

What we’re really interested in at the moment is finding out some new solid news on SOPA – is it truly dead? Are small businesses safe from the MPAA and the RIAA? Let’s try to get a little bit of conversation going in the comments – news and opinion are both welcome.

I’ll keep this article updated as I learn more information.

Update (1-21-12): SOPA and PIPA are stalled (not quite dead), but a new act is up – meet OPEN (which does seem more reasonable). LINK

Update (1-23-12): Not really an update, but another fascinating read from Seth Godin – Learning Leadership from Congress. This is epic. I’m glad I decided to catch up on my feeds.

Pixel Art by Matt Benton on Flickr

We realize that sometimes our clients don’t know exactly what we’re talking about when we’re creating a graphic for Project X. Unfortunately, as designers, we have been educated to use a certain “lingo” that might not make sense to individuals without an art or design background.

In that light, we’re going to try to give our clients a quick run-down of some commonly used words and phrases that designers use. Think of this as a small crash-course before you go and post your project request on whichever job board you use.

Confusing Words?

Well, these words aren’t really confusing when you know what they mean. Many clients understand enough of the “graphic language” to get in trouble, but not enough to truly understand.

Now it’s time to remedy this issue – here are # words that clients should understand when working with a graphic designer.

1. Raster

A raster image is an image made up of pixels – most photographs and many digital illustrations (digital paintings) are raster-based images.

This includes your desktop background, that repeating texture you used as a web site background, and the majority of image file types (.jpg, .png, .gif, etc.).

Raster images typically don’t re-size well – especially not when you’re trying to enlarge the image. An enlarged raster image gets “pixelated,” sometimes beyond recognition.

2. Vector

The counter to a raster image is the vector image. A vector image is created using mathematical curves for edges instead of individual points (pixels).

This means that vector images in their native file types (.ai, .eps, some .pdf files) can be re-sized to any resolution and remain crisp.

Many logos are designed using vector image software, and honestly, all logos should be designed as vector images – you never know when you might want to pop your logo on a billboard.

3. Resolution

Resolution is a broad term that simply means “how many points/dots of color per unit of measurement.” Or, according to Wikipedia, “an umbrella term that describes the detail an image holds.”

To break it down a bit further, two terms you should be familiar with (when talking about resolution) are DPI and PPI.

DPI is a printing standard that simply stands for “Dots Per Inch.” The higher the DPI, the higher quality the printed image, 300 is an industry standard for “high quality” and 600+ DPI is considered very high quality. Whether this is true or not is up for quite a bit of debate.

PPI is used for measuring screens, it stands for “Pixels Per Inch.” This isn’t particularly important to clients, as it’s mostly a means for designers to set up documents, but it’s useful to know what the term is.

It’s a Start

With a quick break-down of 3 common words that come from a designer’s mouth, you might have a slightly better understanding of why a designer is creating your logo in Illustrator.

It may also help you spot that designer that’s making you a raster logo instead (you probably don’t want that if you’re planning for future expansion).

We will most likely follow up on this line of thought with a series of articles to help clients spot bad designers and understand the good ones.

If any clients OR designers out there can think of some “words” that we should share, just leave us a comment!

David Allen - Getting Things Done

Want to get more done? Finish projects on time, have an organized workflow, an organized home, and a synced up life?

That sounds like a dream-come-true for most designers out there, ourselves included.

I believe it’s a design by nature that artists are typically scattered frantic people, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Introducing the Solution…

That’s right, we’ve found the solution, and we’re going to review it for you.

But what is the solution? Getting Things Done by David Allen.

For those of you familiar with the Lifehacking community, Getting Things Done (GTD) is a philosophy of life and business for…getting things done.

Allen has created a system for organizing workflow and approaching productivity that is simply genius, though at the time of this review is a bit outdated (sorry).

The Meat is Still Good

The concepts of the book still hold true – Allen begins by sympathizing with us unorganized people, then slowly builds up to a step-by-step approach and a tools list to help average “unnatural thinking” Joe’s evolve into super-productive “natural thinking” Ed’s.

The book reads almost like a novel in that manner – you have the slow introduction with character information that leads to a pseudo-climax for self-help books. It’s brilliant.

And this is why we say the meat is still good – the concepts are fantastic (if a bit strict, especially for designers), but the tools are outdated (or incomplete).

An Incomplete List

At the bottom of this article, you can find a box full of products from Amazon – but as we mentioned above, it seems incomplete.

When the book was written there weren’t many great digital productivity tools – a few smart phones, PDA’s, and the computer.

NOW we have some great software to add to the list – specifically Evernote and Dropbox. If you can set up Evernote and Dropbox as your extra “In” boxes and organization tools, you’ll be set with GTD.

Our Final Take?

We absolutely love the systematic and step-by-step approach that Allen takes to guide us toward a productivity (while keeping our sanity) dream, but some of his tenants seem to be a bit strict for a designer-lifestyle.

After trying out his system strictly for the past month, we’re very happy with the results yielded (a few slips, but all-in-all we’re much more organized), but we plan on retro-fitting the best of GTD with our own organization and productivity model (more on that later).

Should you read it? Definitely.

We think our clients and fellow designers alike should all read GTD. If you follow the system as closely as possible for a month, you can decide for yourself if you’re pleased with the results or not.

Our only suggestions are to get Evernote and Dropbox added into the mix so you don’t have to worry so much about killing trees to get your ideas down on an entire stack of letter sized paper.

The Next Steps.

Buy and read Getting Things Done by David Allen:

Then go out and get everything on Allen’s list from Ch. 4 here (some slight modifications):

(Full Disclosure – these are all affiliate links, if you buy through them you’ll be helping us keep the internet on)

Photo by John&Fish on Flickr

Today we’re going to examine the dark side of business in general for our clients.

Failures, mistakes, regrets, etc. You need to know what each one is, and we’re here to help (because we’ve all made mistakes, had failed projects, and regretted doing something).

Failure ISN’T BAD

First, it’s important to understand that failure isn’t necessarily bad. Failure is doing something and not succeeding.

You can learn from failed attempts, try again differently, and either fail or succeed the second time around.

An Example:
Let’s say a client named Ed does XYZ and it doesn’t work.

Now Ed tries to do ABC, this doesn’t work either, but he knew that XYZ didn’t work before, and he changed his game plan.

NOW, Ed looks at what “kind-of” worked during each of these processes and comes up with AYCZ – magic happened and his “process” flew to the moon.

Mistakes ARE Bad

Second, you should realize that a mistake is different from a failure. A mistake is repeating something that didn’t work before.

Not learning from a failed attempt and trying it again the same way is a mistake. Mistakes lead to more regret than failures do, so try not to make mistakes.

Another Example:
Before our client named Ed came to us and read this article, he had a brilliant idea.

The idea really was great, but the execution needed some work. His process was LMNOP. He was absolutely “set” on LMNOP, so when it didn’t work the first time, he tried again, and again, and again.

This wasted loads of resources, caused untold amounts of frustration, and ended up being forgotten until he cried himself to sleep at night remembering it 3 years later.

 ”Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”

-Albert Einstein

We just really felt like quoting a genius.

Adapt

The moral? Don’t try to avoid failed attempts – it happens, just give it your best shot, learn from it, and change your game plan. Adapt.

DO try to avoid mistakes – as long as you’re switching up the game plan, you’re not really making mistakes. Adapt.

Story Time

We’d like to hear about some of your failures that led to success. Everybody has a story or two, so share in the comments. Let us know how you overcame the failure, and how you avoided making the dreaded mistakes.

Workspace 3.0 by paperbits on Flickr

Emails, drafts, news, and music. Design is a complicated and busy profession – but there are some things that you can do as a designer to make life easier.

An Hour a Day

Think you could save 1 hour a day? What about 10 hours per project?

You might be surprised.

Here are a few little tips that might help you get started on saving time:

1. Check Your Email TWICE Per Day.

Oh how we used to love having my email client open at all times to see exactly when a new message hit the inbox.  Those days are over, friends.

Cutting your email time down to twice a day is one of the best time-saving tips that we can offer.  If you have a 24-hour guarantee like we do, that’s still within 24 hours of any point in time that somebody could send you an email.  Amazing, isn’t it?

For extremely important issues, make sure your clients have your phone number, but let them know that phone calls are for emergencies only.

2. Deal With Everything Once.

This one is tricky, as it can make your day very volatile. Basically, try to deal with everything in your day once.

This means that when you check your email, reply to all emails that need replies.

When you read your RSS Feeds, read each article that you find interesting, don’t bookmark it “for later.”

When you’re only dealing with everything once, you don’t have to worry about it later.  When you don’t have to worry about it later, you’re less stressed and less scattered.

3. Mind Map and Brain Storm

Essentially they’re the same thing, except a brain storm is usually done with a team.

We highly recommend having a sheet of paper ready at all times for inspiration, and especially when you’re speaking with a client, but we usually have a mind mapping application open (FreeMind) in the background at all times, too.

Being able to string thoughts out in an organic manner has been eye-opening.  We hate lists, now (except for To-Do Lists, we still use those).  We want to see how things relate, so we make mind maps.

Mind mapping as part of the design process definitely has perks, too.  You can see very clearly how abstract ideas in a project can become related, giving rise to some interesting ideas at odd times.

4. Learn Your Software in the Bathroom

People have been reading on the can for years, why not make it productive reading?

Keep your software training books in the bathroom. Maybe some cheat-sheets for software keyboard shortcuts or books about your profession in general.

This is all “stuff” that you’ll need to learn or refresh yourself on anyway. It also makes you more efficient at your profession since you’re learning “off the clock” during your waste(d) time.

Turn your “private time” into “productive time” too.

5. Keep a To-Do List AND a Calendar

Your calendar should be mostly open – keep your scheduled appointments and due dates in your calendar, but don’t plan out the rest of your day so strictly – it’s important to stay fluid.

Keep a daily To-Do List for everything else – but don’t be overly-ambitious.

Our rule is to make a to-do list item for every available hour of our work day, even if the task will only take 5 minutes.

Example: Josh has two appointments and a deadline due tomorrow – this takes up 3 hours of his “scheduled” time, leaving 4 hours of his work day.  Now he can make a To-Do List of 4 items:

1. Pay the office phone bill.
2. Cancel the old cable bill.
3. Write on the blog.
4. Work on another design project.

The key is to fill your time without pushing yourself beyond your limits.

6. Break EVERYTHING Down Into Smaller Steps

It’s easy to get overwhelmed on any project when the project is simply “Build A Web Site for Client Z.”

So break it down into smaller chunks, then do it again.

• Build a PSD Mockup
  • Create a wireframe
  • Design the header
  • etc.
• Create HTML/CSS From Mockup
  • Start with a CSS Reset
  • Code the header
  • etc.
• Next Step
  • Next tiny sub-step
  • Another sub-step
  • etc.

7. Conditional Events

It’s important that your “then” doesn’t take too long or it will get in the way of productivity.  Check out this article on Conditional Events for more ideas.

*BONUS TIP(S)* For Freelancers Only

This is actually two quick tips in one, but they make a HUGE difference in your work output.

First up – use an RSS Reader to find your work for you.

Instead of browsing job boards every day, enter a search term into your favorite job board and see if there’s a feed for your results.

Having your job board deliver jobs matching your criteria into an RSS makes scanning the jobs quick.

Second – Get dressed for work every morning.

But…but…I’m a freelancer.  So what?  Getting “ready for work” every day gets you into a mindset that it’s time to work.

Go shower, get dressed, and look nice for your clients on Skype.

Did we miss something great?

If so, let us know in the comments.  Any little tips and tricks we can put to use around the office are great.