ChangeOrder

The Eight Archetypes of Account Managers

Hello, fine friend. I adore you.

While I am in the midst of brainstorming the campaign, you are having Conversation #34 with the client about how they need to pony up the big bucks for the media buy. Or when I'm having a stakeholder interview with the ornery CEO, you are dutifully distilling our conversation into intelligent soundbites that easily weave into the user experience brief.

Can I imagine life without my trusty partner in (non)crime, the account manager?

Well, yeah. It would suck a whole lot more.

After working with a range of account managers across all sorts of industries, I've started to discern the roles that undergird the business side of our beloved design industry. And much like the various archetypes of art directors you may have met during your own journey through the designopolis, you may have enjoyed the company of these fine account management types that make our work more liveable:

Is Your Company's Brand a DogCatCow?

The good old metaphor of the blind men and the elephant works in a pinch, but I think it's played out. With the advent of social media, we're sharing enough information about crappy brand experiences that you can see the whole elephant, and you know what? It's not an elephant. Elephants are big, hungry, fast-roaming, vegetarian, and kind of cute. It's more likely a DogCatCow. Today's poorly maintained brands are made of expressive mishmashes of competing behaviors that hide the true wonkiness within confused corporations. If your company barks like a dog, eats like a cow, and scratches at you mercilessly like a cat... then you know something is really wrong.

Why I am a Print Designer

 

I'm teaching an hour of the New Media seminar at Seattle Central this Friday, and wanted to kick off my presentation with a little design humor. Of course, since the class is comprised of designers, photographers, and printers in equal measure, I couldn't just trot out the old "Why I am a Designer" chart and leave it at that...

Why I am a Photographer

I'm a Mac. No, Really.

Whomever left a stack of "I'm a PC" stickers on my desk has no idea who they're dealing with.

Thanks to Brian M. for being such a great sport and being such a fabulous model.

And, of course, the obligatory "this is how the campaign was meant to be seen" photo.

Why You Are a Designer

A few months back, I posted a chart that showed some of the (tongue-in-cheek) reasons why I'm a designer.

A number of designers across the Web took it upon themselves to remake that chart to show exactly why they are designers as well. Here are some of them.

First up is this one from the designer Loic Sattler:

This one brings it into the game designer space, from Zack Hiwiller's blog:

This final one is from Lee Holloway's blog Tutto lo stesso:

If I've missed any, please feel free to comment with a link to your chart and I'll add them to this post!

Design Richter Scale

This week, after reviewing a ton of portfolios, it struck me that the very best design work I've seen recently inspires calm, awe, and respect. Emotionally, my response to each piece of work was narrowly focused. I was feeling what the designer wanted me to feel.

The weaker design work, by contrast, caused a wider range of emotions. Since many of the pieces that I saw weren't cogent design, I would see what the designer was trying to do. The effect of the work was all over the map. Hence the above chart, which inverts the Richter Scale.

In an earthquake, as you zip up the Richter scale the magnitude (and destruction) increases exponentially. When reviewing portfolios, it's the opposite. Really great design work that makes an impact on society has an exponential, focused effect, but instead of leveling cities, it simplifies decisions and inspires emotions (including envy). Weaker design, on the other hand, destabilizes the populace and becomes another layer of visual clutter.

ChangeOrder charts and cartoons are now on Flickr...

Client Mood Swatch Guide

[NOTE: In order to ensure quality control, please be sure to add the appropriate CMYK values to properly match your client's most neutral hue.]

Why I Am a Designer