Work, in Plain English

Hoefler & Frere-Jones have delivered an exquisite typeface that not only works for super-refined display, but also plain-spoken body copy.

This comment in the overview made me smile:

“A slab could be personable, straightforward, and credible, though it would take special effort to also make it pretty, hard-working, and frank.”

Designed for Martha Stewart Magazine, it’s got an extensive set of styles, with four flavors of Light (use them as light on dark if your medium allows—they’ll look practically luminous), support for more than 100 languages, and two styles of Numerics.

What I find the most irresistible about this font, however, is the Italics. They stand on their own as nearly a script, and still complement the rest of the family with exceptional grace.

Been thinking about this a lot lately, sparked by a big, fat design project, as well as questions about the foggy role of “creatives” in a technical environment. Then Amber Naslund polled her readers about their line of work. I had just started following her on Twitter, and mentioned something about how Design is Communications (grouped with PR and Marketing on her poll). She tweeted back with a rather pointed and clarifying question, which leads us here, to these five essential ideas:

1. Design Guides an Audience
Outstanding designers observe and speak to the human experience, and how people respond to their environment. As a hopefully-inflammatory example, the idea of handing website architecture to a specialist can be either really smart or really wasteful. Designers have been building complex wayfinding systems, from product catalogs and professional directories to zoo and parking signage, for decades.

2. Design Anticipates Growth
Strategically-minded designers look beyond what their client offers to what they plan, dream and hope to offer. This prepares both the client and the audience for a healthy, long-term relationship.

3. Design Influences
At some point in their career, a designer must consciously choose whether they will manipulate their audience or connect with them. Sure, you can connect for the purpose of manipulating, but you can also connect for the purpose of connecting.

The idea is not at all new, but the effectiveness of genuinely connecting with your market is being dramatically proven by the social networking movement. And this choice is a kind of rudder for all intentional influencers.

4. Design Listens
Really another look at how design influences, consider that the most successful design manifests itself not as a statement, but as a conversation. As an example, here’s a link to the old NYT mytimes welcome page.

5. Design Individuates
Whether it’s a billboard, a discussion forum or an injection-molded gift, great design does something more than give form to function: It creates an individual “face”—with all its subtle nuances—by which people recognize it as being familiar, valuable, approachable and relevant.

These five points need more fleshing-out, but then designers talk about this stuff all the time, probably too much… Perhaps that’s a good reason to keep these short and sweet.

I knew I was on to something when I smelled roasting (not steeping or pouring—roasting) coffee as I drove up to Paradise Coffee for the first time. I’m sitting at a clean glass table in an airy shop, enjoying a delicious, full-flavored latte. The croissant was merely ok, but the wi-fi is solid, the atmosphere is inviting, and the staff is truly gracious and thoughtful.

As of this writing, this place has been open only six months, so the lovely quiet will probably fade as more locals discover it. That’s a good thing: More customers mean more probability this gem will stick around!

Their website needs work, so if you are looking for a quiet spot to sip and work, just use the Google link I’ve provided above, and content yourself with the fact that they’ve devoted their creative energies to coffee, and not web design.

Learning the Ropes, by RandyJayBraun

Every once in awhile, I come across a photo during research that I can’t use… but can’t turn away from, either. I maintain dozens and dozens of lightboxes on their site, for various projects and clients. One lightbox is titled, “For Me”; This photo, by RandyJayBraun, lives there.

An empowered, engaged customer base is a sustainable customer base, as this impassioned Adweek article reminds us. And it’s more than just exceptional service that makes them loyal. Be inspired, and steer your enterprise this way.

So why do you manage projects, anyway? Derry Simmel cuts to the chase in his article, Cargo Cult Project Management.

I love articles like this: articles that remind us to focus, not on the trappings of project management, but on the desired outcome. As with many essential truths, this applies to more than business. Before there were hundreds of models and brands of cars, there was the desire to quickly and safely get oneself and one’s stuff from Point A to Point B. Before there was House Beautiful, there was the desire to make a shelter both safe and comfortable. Before there was project management, there was a great idea that was too big or too long to be completed alone, in a single burst of energy.

In Derry’s example, a group of otherwise intelligent human beings were missing the context of the mysterious cargo that had been briefly showered upon them, seemingly from nowhere. They were missing the culture that had evolved a world view, as well as systems and values, for creating and distributing those cargoes, just as I lack the world view, as well as the systems and values, to become a Pacific Islander.

Derry reminds us, first of all, to wait, and assess a project before acting. I would add that this would be a good time to privately interpret the purpose of a project, as well as to determine how you personally plan to contribute to its success. Then, jettison wasteful “Project Management-ese”, whether it’s processes, lingo, superfluous meetings, etc.

Once you do that, you can start building the unique processes required by that unique project, and, as he reminds us, build on what is working.

Surprise! Not only do you win a more successful project management experience, you and more team are now free to discover and initiate much more creative solutions, and (shhh…) have much more fun doing it.

I am taking in a great article on my latest blog gem, The Simple Dollar. I found it while working on the redesign of another financial site that is chock full of content so inscrutable it’ll make your eyes water. This blog is subtitled, “financial talk for the rest of us”. It does keep it’s promise, and I nearly wept for joy.

It was probably relief that got me to read, Financial Success Isn’t About Who Has the Most (or Best) Stuff, because, heck—I know that. What flicked the light on for me, though, was the reminder that:

Being rich or successful is never measured in the amount of stuff you have. It’s measured in the amount of security you have and the amount of freedom you have from the worries of day to day life.

Most of the comments in response to this article were more of the “I knew that” sort. Still, if so many of us know that, why are we still expanding our expenses to the very brim of our income? The answers are complex, and include both the positives and negatives of our consumerist culture, as well as a healthy dose of personal soul searching.

Some might argue that the trappings of success are key to making you feel successful. For me at least, I rarely feel more successful than when I see my investment balances going up because of my contributions or when I see an opportunity to really make someone else’s life more successful through a helping hand delivered by my knowledge or a connection that I have.

This kind of success requires more thought, and a commitment to continuously search outside of what society, family and the media would like us to believe.

So many of us 21st Century People have to husband our money the way we once husbanded farmland. Unfortunately, most big (and popular), Happy Friendly Money Sites are filled with a quagmire of content that is the modern equivalent of swampland.

In the meantime, it’s amusing, frustrating and heartening (all at the same time) to see someone speak Money in Plain Talk. One might suspect, considering the title of my own blog, that it’s an important issue for me. After years as a communications professional, I’m ever more convinced that I’m not alone.

It only gets better with time!

My 9-year-old son and his 8-year-old buddy have worked out the meaning—or possible meanings—of the f-word. Here are their guesses:

1. Go knock your head on a brick wall
2. Money
3. Dumb
4. Shoot

It’s fun to think about what meanings children, as well as adults, consider to be “bad”, and to ask ourselves what we really mean when we say a word… and that in a few years (or less), my son and his friend will probably have the occasion to reevaluate this list.

This past week, I have been at both the giving and receiving ends of some very poor communication.

Dishing it out: I asked for backup support with a project, but neglected to mention a specific time the support would be needed. To make matters worse, no one had the mental bandwidth to reply with a clarifying question, so the email wasn’t answered until it was too late.

Being dished: After spending half a week on a project, all preliminaries were junked when the project owner mentioned requirements that should have been in the initial request.

We’re all busy. When we are the source of a request, it’s important that we either do the work of providing all key details, or clearly state what details are needed from the other person. When we’re the recipient of an unclear email, it’s up to us to ask for missing details, and to make sure we get them.

One tool I use is a quick checklist:

If you get the feeling a note (either that you’ve received or are about to send) is unclear, re-read it and jot down the questions that come to mind (they will). If you’re having trouble coming up with questions, give yourself a “who-what-where-when” kick-start: Does the message name all necessary names? Does it explain exactly what’s happening, or what’s needed? Do you need to know more about where or when? (Sure, you learned that years ago, but did you use it in your last memo?) Once you start a list like this, it’s surprisingly easy to know when you’re done.

And once you’ve jotted down those questions…

Are the questions for an email you’re sending? Answer what you can, and ask for help with the others.

Are the questions for an email you’ve received? Reply to the sender with a numbered or bulleted list of questions. Don’t glob the questions into a long paragraph, but break them out into easy-to-answer pieces.

And remember to be patient with yourself and others. We are all busy; Communication is one of those things that will never be perfect, and could always use a little improvement.

This article purposely leaves out the nuances of more complex communications, such as those that seek to inspire change or address organizational issues. If you’re looking beyond the simple project memo, see Ken Milloy’s thoughtfully assembled 11 Laws of Internal Communications.