As I sat down at my desk today pondering what to write. I came to the realisation that hey I’ve been doing this for a while. 15 years of my professional design career has kind of flown by. They say time flies when you’re having fun, which has been true, but even so my career has had its share of ups and downs. Fortunately more ups than downs.
I started my career at the beginning of 2007. From what started as a hobby in my high school years turned into a professional career. And through that I think I’ve had a pretty interesting career so far and have learnt a thing or two.
Today I’d like to share with you, some of my key tips and insights as to what I’ve learnt over the last 15 years.
These are some of my personal lessons that I hope to pass on to you. Consider these bite sized tips and lessons of wisdom that can hopefully help you on your own journey. You don’t have to agree with everything but for my own career I’ve found them to be useful and most of all to be true. Hopefully you get a ton of value out of these bite sized lessons. There’s quite a few so feel free to bookmark this and refer to them at different points in your career.
35 Tips and Reflections from my Career
When you are working on a project. Consider the business and user objectives. Good design is the execution of form and function that delivers on these 2 objectives. If you can do that you will be a valuable designer. If you can cultivate and lead a team to amplify this you will be an extremely valuable designer.
Have self awareness. As you move up the ranks as a designer you will inherently become a director or a business owner. This will mean managing people, more client meetings, winning proposals etc. Think is this what I want? There’s nothing wrong with being a craftsman or a business person or both. But think and contemplate deeply about what gives meaning to the work that you do. And ultimately what makes you happiest. You can always turn down that management position. There are always options.
If you want to be successful - you have to work hard. It’s that simple. There’s no way around it. You can condense the timeframe for sure. But to think you can skip the hard work is a lie. Hard work is always needed. Even when you work smart.
Throughout your career and life. There will always be problems. Problems are a natural part of life. Learn to deal with problems.
Marcus Aurelius book Meditations is one I read often
Surround yourself with good work, and good people. Naturally your bar for excellence and what you can accomplish will increase. Put in the work and you’ll bridge the gap in pay, work quality and wealth to those around you. If you surround yourself with multi-millionaires you will think like a multi-millionaire. If you surround yourself with good designers - you will become a good designer. If you put in the work. You are the average of the 5 people closest to you. But also who you pay attention to the most. Follow the works of great philosophers, designers and people you admire. In books and videos. Your attention shows your priorities.
If possible try to create more than you consume. Making is more fun that consuming in the long run.
Using a grid in your work makes vertical and horizontal spacing easier and more consistent. Have the discipline to use a grid!
All work is a grind. There is no end game. Or utopian land where everything is gravy. The journey is the destination. When the grind becomes fun. Work is no longer work. But merely a process and play.
Tough moments in your career, are incredible lessons. You learn more in failures than you do in success. This has turned out to be true. Whilst it severely sucks in the moment. It tests your perseverance and capacity to deal with problems. Looking back it’s these moments that make you grateful for the journey you’ve been on. Embrace the tough moments. Your character will improve as you go through them.
Learn how to use type. It’s one of the best skills you can have as a designer. Get my type playbook for free if you want a beginner resource.
If a picture is worth 1000 words. A prototype is worth much more. You gotta know how to prototype.
Learn about marketing and business. Early on in my career I didn’t give 2 shits about business objectives. Make cool things was the mantra. But if you want to make an impact with the work that you do. Learning marketing and business acumen is one of the best things you can do. Businesses make an impact. Design lead businesses can make an even bigger one.
Freelancing is awesome. But after 5 years. It’s definitely not for everyone. It can be tough at times. Trying to run an indie business - is like jumping out of a plane while trying to build your parachute mid air. Your goal is to build the parachute before you hit the ground and die. But the rewards far exceed the risk for some.
Save good work somewhere. And READ.
As a good leader, lead by being an example.
You have to keep learning and improving your capabilities and skillset. This industry waits for no one.
I use mymind to gather inspiration and bits and bobs
Explore and gather inspiration from different mediums not just the medium you are working in. If you are doing digital design, look to film, architecture, photography, print, graphic design, people, etc. to gather inspiration. It will give another dimension to your work.
Company culture is super important. When you work with other passionate people - your work mates become your second family.
Work life balance can work for most. But I believe work life integration fits best. Granted work is play.
Save and invest your money. Should you ever choose to go in a different direction. It’s always sound to have some f*ck you money.
Grow your network. Reach out to as many people you respect and admire as possible. Join the conversation. Our industry while large - at its core it’s really all about relationships and people. It is quite small in that regard.
We are really privileged to be designers and creators. Don’t take it for granted.
Invest in yourself throughout your career. What you learn compounds and pays massive dividends down the track.
Learn to communicate your ideas with developers, project managers, clients, other designers. Your ability to SELL and present your work is nearly as valuable as creating good work.
When setting up a folio - showcase the kind of work that you want to do moving forward. Think about what your value proposition is to prospective employers and clients. Tell a story.
When designing try to think in terms of what the user wants to achieve. And how it ties overall into the experience of the product, website, app, or interface.
Learn to interview and talk to users and gain insights from people. Synthesizing disparate bits of information and rationalising and being able to join the dots is what makes you a designer. Learn to synthesize and join the dots into sound solutions.
Take one small step at a time. I know you want to do all sorts of things. But it’s every small step that you take that turns into a massive journey that’s your career. You’ll look back and realised you’ve generated millions of dollars, reached millions of people, worked for some dream brands, created positive change for many
You're probably not getting paid as much as you could be. Research and find constructive and friendly ways to negotiate higher pay. Both as an employee or freelancer. It costs more money to replace you than to give you a pay rise.
Be an independent thinker. Carve out time to build self awareness. What values do you have? What is important to you? What kind of work is with while? What kind of company is worth keeping?
Start building an email list, and a social presence. Share what you know with others and share your work.
Take the criticism. If you stand for something. People will love you or hate you. It’s ok. Stick to your values and you’ll be golden.
Take the criticism #2. It’s ok if people don’t like your work. It’s not a criticism of you just your work. Go back to the drawing board and try to improve it.
Your work is just one tree in the forest that is life. Don't forget to look around and admire the view.
Have fun along the way
And that’s some of my takeaways, I’m sure there are a bunch more that I’ve missed, but I hope these reflections serve you well.
15 years ago I was sitting on a tram on my way to work and contemplated whether I was good enough to be a designer. Bright eyed but a complete rookie and unfamiliar with the demands of a studio working environment. The stress was too much, the obstacles too high, I wasn’t doing well on the job and I really struggled to find my footing. If only I was good enough I thought to myself, if only things were easier and I could just go on autopilot. How much better would that be if that was the case? I really felt I wasn’t good enough and that maybe I should quit and not step foot off that tram. It seemed to be the easier route.
The Challenge
The people at the studio were great but I was not used to such tight project deadlines and the internal pressure mounted. In the end I persevered and looking back had I’d quit right then and there, I would’ve missed out on forging one of the greatest joys of my life. My career and work.
At that point in my life I was young and didn’t have the foresight to look into the future. And to appreciate that the obstacles I was facing was in fact a turning point for incredible things that were about to come. That these difficulties are actually life's opportunities for you to grow as a person, and for you to build tools to cultivate your own happiness.
And this theme has presented itself throughout my career and life. We all think it gets easier if only we could do ‘[insert dream activity here]’ or had ‘[insert dream object here]’.
Maybe it’s millions of dollars in the bank.
Or clients that love our work all the time.
Or if only we had more followers oh how much easier it would be.
Or as simple as not having to worry about paying our bills on time.
Well the newsflash is life’s always going to throw some obstacles your way. Chaos is a natural occurrence of life. No one has it ‘easy’. I love my life and feel very grateful. But the joy I have derived from it is not because it has been easy. Actually a lot of times it has been quite the opposite.
The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times… The best moments usually occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile
MIHALY CSIKZENTMIHALYI
It’s that fight and effort that makes whatever’s on the other side to derive its meaning and value. The journey is what grants us perspective. You will be grateful for what you have earnt, and will be less likely to take what you have for granted. The gift is not in just the result but what we learn on our journey.
I know what it’s like to worry about my job. I know what it’s like to break an arm. To go into painful rehab. What it’s like to keep running even though your brain and lungs are telling you to stop. I know what it’s like to be in debt, because of the choices your parents made. I know what it’s like to feel immense pressure.
Rising above the obstacle
But in the end you overcome these obstacles. And learning to overcome and deal with problems helps us become stronger mentally and physically. By building mental fortitude to solve problems we build a set of skills that we can use for life. And upon that process we are blessed with the insight for extreme gratitude. How thankful we are for what we do have. The sun being out. The health that we have. The great friends that we’ve forged. Our family. Our work. The community that we build. These are made a lot clearer from the obstacles that we are faced with in our lives.
It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it
STEVE JOBS
Sometimes what we need in life is not the easy way, what we need to reach our potential, is to be challenged. What we need is something for us to overcome and to dig deep, and to look at our resolve in the face and say that maybe....just maybe we can do it. We need to slowly and steadily build a set of tools to deal with challenges. Something that is extremely valuable both as a designer and also as a person.
Embrace the obstacles that come your way and see them as opportunities not roadblocks.
A state of flow and happiness
I’ve been reading a book called Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi about happiness and optimal performance. There’s a great diagram that illustrates the concept. There are 2 axises. On the ‘Y’ side are the difficulty of the challenges that we face, and on the ‘X’ side are our abilities. Both from low to high.
The best moments are when we are faced with challenges that are both high in difficulty and push the upper echelon of our abilities as well. And it is when these 2 are in alignment where we can reach a state of flow. And as a byproduct of that process we will grow our skills and thinking.
The joy is intrinsic. We are not doing things for any particularly gain but am deeply focused on the task in front of us. The ‘satisfaction’ is derived from the task itself and not what the task brings.
When I was on that tram I was in the Anxiety quadrant. The challenge was too high and my ability was too low. For some this can be a breaking point, and if you’ve tried and don’t have the resolve to move forward, speak to someone. Your friends, family members and even a professional. Speaking out is a good thing, and if it’s a mental health issue it is a fantastic idea to seek guidance.
Luckily I built the skills across that time. I doubled down and tested my own resolve and passion. And along the way something funny happened. My abilities increased and in the end it was in sync with the challenges I was facing. And it lead to flow – I was in the zone and extremely happy. I stepped up to the plate and it is something I am extremely proud of. Looking back it was such a small thing (even though it felt like a big deal at the time), but it was a catalyst for so much of the great things that occurred later on. In hindsight it was a pivotal moment for me.
I notice this in a lot of areas in my life. Like when I go for a run, when I would focus on tennis, when I wonder if I’m going to design something great and I’m challenged immensely. The task itself becomes intrinsically important. And I really get in the zone and enjoy the process. I challenge you to do more of the things that put you in a state of flow.
You’ll know because:
Time goes by quickly.
The world melts away.
You take no notice of whatever is around and am completed absorbed in what you are doing.
You are not passive or relaxing but you are challenged and focused.
Doing things that required you to push your comfort zone and abilities that are in perfect balance. Where you have to improve and keep growing.
That zen like state and satisfaction you get. It’s fulfilling and satisfying.
It’s important not to sleepwalk through life.
We will be challenged and chaos will be thrown at us, it is up to us to eventually find our own order in this chaos.
We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.
Adversity builds resolve and growth
Do things that challenge you constantly, and push your resolve. This entropy builds resilience over time. There are great challenges that I am yet to face – the death of a loved one and eventually my own mortality. It will be orders of magnitude greater than anything I’ve dealt with.
But through adversity there can also be joy found within ourselves. People like The Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Helen Keller, David Goggins – show us that regardless of the external circumstances with the right resolve and tools we can find happiness in the face of obstacles.
So try to do more things that promote flow in your life. Take a look at that diagram and see what various tasks in your life will be mapped on.
In the end I got off that tram and I didn’t quit and working in this profession has one of the greatest joys of my life. I can honestly say that I truly love what I do. I don’t love every moment and that’s ok, but if I had to average it all out it’s been an incredible run. And if I had a choice to do anything else with my life I’d pick the same thing.
So if you are facing obstacles see them as an opportunity for growth. The greater the challenge the greater the victory. It is through repetition and building that mental muscle of resilience that we can overcome these challenges and to thrive in situations where others may find difficulty. Keep going I’m cheering you on.
This post is a personal one, I like to mix it up everyone once in awhile and step away from design, our careers and entrepreneurship. If you are here mainly for design stuff feel free to skip this one 🙂 One peculiar thing I like to keep note of often is my happiness levels. Seems like a weird thing to measure and quantify but when I’m in a introspective mood it’s something that I think about often. It’s usually every few months that I pause and do a bit of self reflection. Sometimes it’s when I’m driving, in the shower, or super early in the morning. And it always happens when I am alone, when there is some form of stillness and I can really listen to my thoughts and reflect. Like a natural clock the thought will appear by serendipity. How happy are you today I’d think to myself, what’s going right, what’s going wrong and then to how lucky I am to be alive.
Whilst I’m a positive person, I’d hate to come across as delusionally happy or that the world is all fine and dandy, and that it’s a perfect place, I’m well aware it’s fucking not. I’m a realest. Not the faux instagram “I’m so happy”, positive vibes, motivational quotes only type person. I’ve had dark times and times of immense stress and self doubt just like everyone else. Times of frustration or anger. That the weight of the world was on my shoulders. But if I had to average it all out I’ve been very happy throughout it all. If I were to die today, I’ve lived a good life. Seems like a morbid thing to say, but to me it’s a positive, it means I’ve prioritised and designed my life in a way that has focuses on the right things in my short 30 years of existence. Moving with the ebbs and flows of life, whilst putting in a conscious effort towards steering it into the direction that I want, and finding joy in the everyday.
Most of all I’m aware that I lucked out by having my brain wired like this. One thump to the head and it can all change. A slight chemical imbalance and see you later good vibes. So I always like to codify why I think the way that I do. To look objectively and see what’s working and see if I can clearly write down what I’ve learnt works for me and what I value.
And hopefully it may just work for another person out there. As a matter of fact these habits were something I really only noticed until recently. And it’s one of the few times where I have an outlet to share it with others. Apart from my wife I’ve never brought up this topic with anyone else. So it means a lot to be able to share it with you.
It’s been said that nearly as much as half of our happiness levels are from our genetics. Researchers at the University of Minnesota did a study where they “tracked identical twins who were separated as infants and raised by separate families. As genetic carbon copies brought up in different environments, these twins are a social scientist’s dream, helping us disentangle nature from nurture. These researchers found that we inherit a surprising proportion of our happiness at any given moment — around 48 percent.” Quoted from NYTimes article A formula for happiness.
The rest is our circumstances and a good portion of the remaining percentage is within our control. In the way we think and the way we see the world. This is something that you can actively practice as a muscle. To put things into perspective and to see the positive in things. Or to see it is a test of will, a hurdle for you to overcome to become a better person.
Life doesn't happen to you, it happens for you
JIM CAREY
Of course this is an easy catch phrase, and like so many motivational posters and freaking instagram type posts, it has no true meaning until you live it, resonate with it and actualise it.
So here is method that I use:
I start thinking about how happy am I today vs. yesterday? I put it on a scale of 1-10. Is today a 9? A 6? Or a 8? Then I try to think back to a few years ago and compare the difference. Sometimes my immediate circumstances may seem better to other people looking in. You might have more money, more success, nicer things, but none of that truly matters, that’s the external stuff.
The way you think, how you see the world and your happiness is what counts. Once you quantify the number keep track of it overtime. What did you do today? What parts of it were awesome, what parts of it sucked, what parts are you grateful for?
Overtime you want to do more of the things that you enjoy, (play tennis, design, build businesses, help other people) and less of the things that suck (meetings for the sake of meetings, being frustrated, feeling unhealthy) Actively try to find the joy and beauty in the everyday, because it’s easy to miss it in our hurried and ‘busy’ lives. And then keep reassessing every once in awhile. Check in with yourself, and then write down a list of things that hold true to you.
Think about your life up until this very point, what over the course of your life has brought you joy? If you had to make a list and quantify a set of principles or things that you realise make you happy what would it be. What have you found to be true? Over time these are the things I’ve found personally true to me, perhaps they can resonate with you too and strike a chord with what you value. This is how I’ve codified happiness to me.
Happiness is in your ability to handle suffering
Happiness is in gratitude - have perspective
Happiness is in learning
Happiness is in bringing joy to others
Happiness is in purpose
Happiness is in gradual improvement (exercise, building and learning)
Happiness is in how truly you can express yourself everyday(learn to know yourself first)
Happiness occurs when you are in a state of flow – the world fades away and there is only one task in front of you, time is no longer a variable. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyii – flow
Happiness is in human connection
Happiness is in savouring the moment – music, food, sights, feelings
Happiness is not about always having things going right – whether or not you are always smiling, but the embracing of all emotions and events that come your way
Happiness is in being healthy
Happiness lies in finding your own path
Happiness is in finding inner peace in the everyday
I’ve had a couple of articles, books and videos that have had a positive effect on my life. At one point or another these little things helped me see the world with the lens that I see with today.
Leo Babauta – Zen habits
The whole catalog of Leo’s writing is great. But this piece really made an impact on me 15 years ago. https://zenhabits.net/perfect/
Some books that made an impact
From stoic philosophy, to kindness and compassion to meditation.
The Art of Happiness - Dalai Lama
Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
The Joy of Living – Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
Life is easy
In the affluent western world that many of us live in. Many times we create unnecessary burdens and complexities in our lives. I love this talk by Jon Jandai.
Work as play
Love Alan Watts, and this video is one I've watched throughout my career.
Jiro dreams of sushi
This is a weird one, but the idea of a pursuing a craft and a life’s work seemed very profound to me.
Closing Thoughts
Happiness is already there, all you need to do is codify to yourself so you have the tools to unearth it daily. Finally I wish you every bit of happiness.
I’d like to put a disclosure here: I’m not a guru, far from it. I’m just some guy on the internet. I like to share stories, my experiences and some of the things that has worked for me as a person. This may not relate to you, but over years it has been the people who have generously shared their stories and knowledge that has had a wonderful effect on the way I see the world. And so I’d like to pay that forward. I’d hate to be the fucking self help guy, these are merely my thoughts and maybe just maybe it might strike a chord with you.
With COVID-19, the pandemic and lockdowns happening. If you are feeling overwhelmed, or unusually down, please seek professional help. It can make a world of difference speaking to a professional.
Today I'd love to share with you some ideas, artefacts and deliverables that I use and create for UI/UX design projects. What's relevant for 2022 and my process – some of which you may be familiar with and some which may be new. Let's run it down.
1. Design Guide & Vision document
For large scale projects and large project teams that I lead – I create a design guide and vision document for the project. This helps consolidate an overall vision and principles for a project. So that all designers, engineers/devs, cross-functional teams are on the same page about what the overall direction and goals are. When in doubt about making decisions refer to the design guide and vision document.
2. Styleboards
These are my hacks for quickly iterating on various style and aesthetic directions. This paired with moodboards are fantastic for finding new directions and inspiration quickly. It also helps to get buy in from stakeholders and cross-collaboration early on.
3. Typographic Systems
I'm a type nerd. A good typographic system can be built for scalability and reusability. Here we can define font's, type hierarchy and styles. It also serves as a repository for others to access files, text examples, and code bases that engineers can use.
4. Component Libraries and Design Systems
Once you flesh out the interface and figure out various screen and user flows. You can build, and update your component libraries. Here we see global button styles, icons, color styles etc. Both as components that can be reused in figma and as a code base.
Buttons and iconsColors - Primary and Secondary
5. Prototypes
Bring your static screens to life with prototypes to test interactions, to get a grasp on timing and animations (how something feels), to sell an idea to get stakeholder buy in, or to get user feedback on. How clear are our designs and flows for users?
6. Master files
These are the files that are in production. It's important to build a structured workflow that a whole team can understand and build a upon. There is the design of the interface itself, and all the UX considerations. These are the external facing factors.
But we have to think about maintenance, scale, and updatability. These are all internal things. We have to design a logical internal workflow that is efficient - Master files, Prototypes, In Production, Waiting approval, Playground/Experiments, Live, Design Systems etc. Organisational design of people and structure is also as important than just files themselves. Especially for product design that continually iterates.
Mobile screens
7. Case studies & Sharability
To get buy in from stakeholders or even to add to your own folio. You have to contextualise the work. How can you package what you have created and present it in the best light possible? How can you package the work, create beautiful presentations that tell a story and promote what you and the team have achieved? Ubiquity builds leverage and sends opportunities your way.
How many of you found me on dribbble, twitter or just one of my resources? Create and share. It's a worthwhile investment.
8. Beyond just the UI – Think about the external ecosystem
Inline with presentation - build a narrative beyond just the work. How does it integrate into society, culture and how we interact with things day to day?
See these same ideas for different project types
And that's it 🙂
I hope that was of some help and brought some insight into my workflow. But most importantly I hope it brought you some new ideas - or at the very least to look at your own process.
And as you may have guessed - these files and projects files are from the Process Masterclass.
Written by Nguyen LePosted under CAREER – Advice I'd give to designers over the years and to my past self
There’s a great chinese proverb – “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” Overall I’ve had a great career that I’ve loved. Met some wonderful people along the way and did some fantastic work that we got lost in together. We forged some lifelong friendships, worked hard and played hard through it all. We were lucky enough to do work that reached millions of people for clients like Nintendo, Adidas, Nissan, banks and the Australian government. This was the agency life, and my career for close to a decade.
I eventually left that behind and continued my journey freelancing, building products and evolving into a small indie design business that you see today. And all the way to this very moment as I write to you.
Some things I've done, that you may also want to achieve:
Do a lot of work that you enjoyed with some great people
Work for some dream clients
Earn six figures as a Creative Director
Earn six figures independently as a freelancer
Generate 7 figures with your own product and brand
Win some awards along the way
Do work that people can use and enjoy
Be nice along the way
Many people have done way more amazing things than I have. But I'm happy with my career and how things have turned out. Having said that...
Knowing what I know today
Looking back now, and knowing what I know today, there are definitely a few things that I wish I did earlier on in my career. Because as the Chinese proverb goes - “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” While these were missed opportunities over the years, it was never too late to just make a start. And more importantly to start now.
If I had to distill what I know today and offer advice to the next wave of designers for success - to get paid more, to do more of the work that you love, to work with dream clients and dream projects.
These are the 5 actionable things that I would begin working on today
1. Start building an audience
Building an audience helps you spread your reach, work, message and ideas. Why is this important? Attention and awareness is the new currency. When you have an audience you are creating a connection. If you are looking for a job your audience can help you connect with people. Your audience allows you to be on people's radars, so opportunities can come your way.
Your audience allows you to launch products not to crickets but with a dedicated community. If you help your audience they will support you. Kevin Kelly famously stated that if you have 1000 true fans you can make a great living. Building an audience allows you the opportunity to pursue your passion, work on your terms and launch/create your own projects knowing that you have a community that will support your work.
How can you start building an audience?
There are an abundant platforms today like youtube, facebook, twitter, instagram, snapchat, podcasts, blogs, tiktok, email lists or even dribbble for example. Each medium requires a different approach but they all lead towards audience building and awareness, find a platform that suits you. Example of people with audiences – Casey Neistat, Dann Petty, Julie Zhuo, Jeff Sheldon, Jessica Walsh and even myself as examples
Be authentic
Be helpful
Tell stories
Stand for something
Share your process
Share your work
What can you offer the world for people to take notice?
Everyone is unique. Tell your story while providing value to others. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned veteran there is always something you can share. Don’t wait til you’re “good enough” to start sharing.
My back story on building an audience
On Oct 2013 I posted on dribbble for the first time. What started as joke and a challenge between a friend and I lead to a wealth of opportunities down the track. Dribbble was the catalyst for so much. When I started this blog I had subscribers and readers thanks to the audience I’d built on Dribbble. Once I started freelancing I got work because I’d built an audience.
Eventually when I launched the Process Masterclass something I'd poured my soul into. I got hundreds of students in the early days that trusted me from all the work and tips that I'd been sharing on my email list, blog and newsletter. Sharing free advice and insights week in and week out built awareness, credibility and trust. So instead of launching to crickets and 0 sales, I launched to a community of like minded individuals that I could help and have been helping.
So choose a platform and medium that suits you, video, writing, speaking, sharing work etc. Build your audience it’s one of the greatest assets you can build.
Eventually this lead to thousands of customers that I could help.
2. Invest in yourself more.
Read books, take online courses, listen to podcasts, watch videos and learn as much as you can on top of your day job/business.
Not saying don’t enjoy your time off, but Netflix can sometimes wait. Prioritise time to invest in yourself, grow your mindset and learn. Over the last 2 years I’ve deep dived on purchasing online courses, read books, listened to podcasts, watched videos on entrepreneurship, marketing, psychology and product design. Even by building my own course I know the amount of effort I put into it.
But more importantly I also know the value that I am trying to provide for my students. I genuinely give a shit. And there are other course creators out there who wish the same for me with the courses they create. So I find people I trust in various fields and invest in their courses. Traditional education costs a shit ton ($20k, $30k wtf?) and even higher in the U.S.
Whilst there’s so many great resources out there at your disposal at a fraction of the cost that is providing tremendous value. People like Brian Chesky, Julie Zhuo, Seth Godin, Ray Dalio, Gary Vee, Steven Bartlett, Tim Ferris are all accessible from all the content that they share. And most of the time freely – search youtube, podcasts and articles. And if you want to take it a step further buy books and courses. Find an area of interest and zone in on it. Knowledge is power they say. Knowledge is also a mindset and series of skills that you keep for a lifetime. Want to achieve or do something? Begin by self educating and turn that curiosity into a skill. Learning to be resourceful is a skill in of itself. Start investing in yourself and start reading, learning, watching, listening etc. Find people who do what you want to do and learn from them any way possible.
3. Start a side hustle
Nothing prepares you more than trying to start and launch a side hustle. All these text book examples and hypotheticals are just that. You need to apply what you learn. When you have a side hustle you can see how committed you are to something. Do you have enough discipline to see something through? Whether you have the knack for entrepreneurship (it’s ok if you don’t) it also market tests you.
Do you have what it takes to launch something to your audience? Do you have the stomach to sell something you believe in? Can you go through periods of self doubt and still come out the other end? When you have a side hustle your consistency and perseverance is tested. Learning to build and launch something teaches you so much about yourself but also about the market and what’s possible. Side hustles don’t have to be these grandiose things. Launch a Minimum Viable Product, or launch an ecommerce side hustle or something else. Just go out there and learn how to design, build and launch to an audience. Pieter Levels launched 12 startups in 12 months.
Until Nomadlist was a good product market fit and has gone on to do very well. Side hustles teach you so much, like learning on the job, and gaining experience from actually doing something. That scrappiness and first hand experience is invaluable. When you have a side hustle, whether the project sinks or swims rests solely on you. You’ll learn a ton out of that experience.
4. Build genuine relationships with people you admire. People are more accessible than you think.
Do you have people you look up to? People whose work you’ve admired from afar. Or companies you’ve respected but never had the nerve to reach out and say hello. I sure did and still do. But a funny thing happened.
As I was building my audience on dribbble by chance, I began to get to know all these people and companies I admired. And it turns out they admired my work as well. I began chatting and got to know the people who I thought were so out of reach. It turns out people are friendlier and more accessible than you think. Start building genuine connections and relationships with people you admire. Tweet at them, email them, dm them on insta. Try to offer them value or just to say hello. Connections and relationships can start with just a single greeting. Don’t demand anything of them but get on their radar.
Then if you ever have a question kindly ask them – people are more willing to help than you think, myself included 🙂 So go out there and say hello. I wish I’d formed relationships with people years ago but now is not a bad time to start either.
5. Provide value and give without expecting anything in return
This last one is be good to people and provide value with expecting anything in return. Karma is good business. I used to look out for myself, and have blinders on. I would be generous but I’d use to always expect something in return. A thank you, a sign of appreciation, some praise.
But now I am happy to freely provide value without expecting anything in return. A funny thing happens when you build rapport, the more people you help regardless if there’s anything in it for you, over the long run more opportunities appear because of your reputation. People can sense bullshit. Just help as many people as you can. Your effort is the reward. Helping someone is the reward. So those are my 5 actionable tips that you can work on today. Design is a great profession and we are all very lucky to be doing it for a living. Be grateful, listen to yourself and hopefully these tips can accelerate your career even further. It may push you outside of your comfort zone, but nothing in life worth doing comes easy.
I hope to share a bit of insight and remove the mystery behind what’s it like for someone who’s thinking about freelance and unsure. Money seems to be hush in our industry so I’d like to lift the lid on that too. I quit my fulltime job a few years ago and ended up freelancing full-time for a few years. It wasn’t really planned as I was contemplating on moving to New York to begin a new adventure and a full-time gig. I had some great offers from big agencies and was eyeing companies like Huge, R/GA and Work&Co. I was going to leave after I got married in Melbourne, so there was a 6 month window that I had after quitting. So in that time I started freelancing from leads I got on Dribbble and Behance. In the beginning it was a mixture of local agencies and some international clients.
Lessons learnt during my agency days
Everything I learnt in 8 years would help me with understanding business objectives, thinking about users, having a good design process, dealing with clients and how to close jobs. When I was Creative Director I was working on projects that hovered around $100k-$200k each and was supported by a great team. What this enabled me to do was to think about the value of the work that we created. And that pricing is relative and highly dependent on the value that you create for others. So it definitely gave me confidence to price based on this.
My starting point
When I worked full time I got paid every 2 weeks, worked 9am-6pm five days a week and had 4 weeks of paid leave every year. The pay would have tax withheld so I was making a few grand net every month. For transparency I was making $100k then including benefits.
In the first month of freelancing I made $10k and worked roughly 2-3 days a week with flexible hours. In the other days I would just make things for myself because even if it’s not paid I love designing, learning and tinkering. So I created some side projects to have fun with. I think FREEDOM is the best thing about freelance. In essence I worked less hours by working more efficiently on projects. I was learning a lot of new skills and had no more meetings about meetings thank god. It was all about the work. In the end freelancing started going so well that I decided to stay in Melbourne and not take up a full-time gig in New York, and just travel in between. It’s been over 5 years and I haven’t looked back since.
Life changes over that time
It’s worth noting a lot has changed in that time – I got married, my wife and I welcomed our 2 sons Theodore and Miles into the world, I began writing more, built an audience and created the Process Masterclass. In my opinion what it means to be a freelancer is summed up best by someone I greatly admire. Seth Godin says to be a freelancer means
To be a warrior without a king
SETH GODIN
Which means you don’t have to report to anyone. You are in charge of your own destiny and pursuits. And I think that’s what makes it interesting, scary and exhilarating at the same time. You gotta love the process of not knowing and hustling. If that doesn’t sound like fun to you than freelancing might not be your best option, because there’s no safety nets. So without further adieu here are some random insight and things I learnt freelancing in no particular order. It’s a bit of a brain dump but hopefully some of it will resonate and can help you in some way.
Here are the 18 lessons
1. Unlimited potential, unlimited loss
There is no ceiling cap on what you can earn as a freelancer. I loved my years working in agencies and collaborating with my teammates and doing great work for clients. But regardless of how much I worked there was always a cap on how much I could earn. The biggest pay rise I ever got in my career was $20k. With freelancing if you are committed and make the right decisions your earning potential can go up exponentially. Now it’s possible to double your income if you are committed and hustle hard.
(Not me though I work enough to have free time and explore other avenues that are interesting and won’t necessarily result in an immediate payday. Like this blog and other side projects haha) But time investment wise I definitely make much more. On the other end of the spectrum it’s not always a gravy train. You gotta back yourself and do the right things. If it doesn’t work out there is no fixed wage to fall back on, so you need to be able to manage your money well. Don’t blow all your money on drugs, strippers and Dom Perignon. You might make $30k one month and go through a drought if you don’t plan properly. Avoid the feast and famine scenario by planning well.
2. Price on value
Ok this is a good one. What is a project worth? I see a lot of designers put rates like $75/hr, $100/hr, $200/hr. But that still trades time for money. And it focuses more on what you want rather than what’s good for the client. A better way to price is to price on the value your work generates for a client. This is a long topic and it was a lot of trial and error on my end. But check out Dan Mall’s Pricing design on getting started with value based pricing if you want more.
So I prefer fixed project rates over hourly. However there is a base rate that I do work with for convenience – which is the lowest rate and that is $1k per day. A day can sometimes only be 4 hours of work or it can be 8 hours. It depends more on the outcome of a project and what you’re doing, if your work is going to make a business couple of hundred thousand, to millions depending on your experience and capability. Then why is it 1 price across the board? Try to experiment with pricing based on value. When you’re starting out, it’s about building that confidence and soft skills. So work on those areas first if you are hesitant.
3. Be prepared when shit hits the fan
In the last 2 years I've freelanced nearly every project has gone smoothly for me. But like all things in life sometimes there will be hiccups. You need to be prepared for when there are blunders because they will happen. And it will come from all different angles. Make sure you have proper contracts in place, so when shit does go haywire you’ve got something to cover yourself legally. (I haven’t reached anything major like this yet, but you never know so you gotta plan ahead.) Make sure there is NO miscommunication between you and the client. If you’re unsure about something ask, and then ask again. Do a line by line item of your deliverables, along with file types, and what you will and will not do. So if shit ever hits the fan it won’t be that bad.
4. Don't blow your money
Money is important because it provides leverage. You need enough to survive, shelter, food, bills, provide for your family etc. So if you are bad with money management, you might find yourself with a feast or famine mentality. Or you are afraid to price on value because you’ll be clutching at whatever job you can get. Or you become afraid to find time into investing in yourself which is critical to your success and growth. Money is not that important if you can cover your basic needs and then some. So take it easy on the drugs, gold rolexes and Dom Perignon. There’s more important things – having money will allow to do the kind of work you want to do and not the work you have to do.
5. More free time to invest in yourself
When you work 40 hours a week + commuting to work. That’s roughly 45 hours gone in a week. By the time you get home you may be exhausted and want to veg out. So you spend time consuming, rather than producing or growing. Now don’t get me wrong I love Game of Thrones (god the last season sucked though), Rick and Morty, or whatever hit show is in vogue, as much as the next person. And can totally binge out. But you need to find time for growth.
Once I became a freelancer I had much more time to invest in learning new things. Suddenly those 45 hours opened up. Sometimes it’s client work, sometimes it’s just reading and expanding my mindset. Read more books, articles, watch videos, podcasts and take online courses from people I admire. In the last 2 years the rate that I am learning at has gone up exponentially. And that’s lead to more opportunities and grown other parts of my business which I’m implementing now. Learning more about design, marketing and business.
6. Start side projects
In line with more free time and not blowing your money. You can start projects that you are passionate about. Do something you’ve always wanted to do. Ever felt like you are not doing your best work? And that you had so much more to give if only just the right project would come along? Well now is the time to see what is the best thing you could possibly create. You’ve got the time now. Create lots of side projects it doesn’t just have to be one.
7. Do the work that you want to do
Unlike when you work for others. If you freelance you have the capacity to work with projects that interest you and clients that you can genuinely help and excited by. Of course this doesn’t happen overnight – you have to work on your brand, your reputation, your craft and soft skills. I had spent 8 years doing that, so the transition wasn’t too difficult. I spent the next 2 years helping some great companies. I’ve really enjoyed working with the people that I have. I’ve learnt a lot and have created work I’m proud of and has done well for my clients. When you do the right things you have the luxury to say no. Or if you don’t win a pitch no biggie.
8. Business 101. Just give a shit about other people
Don’t think about yourself and what you are going to gain. Just try to care. The more value you provide for others the more valuable you will become. Sure it might not pay off immediately it might take 2 years or maybe never. If you help enough people though eventually people will return the favour. This blog directly doesn’t make any money. I don’t do advertising, no affiliates or sponsors. It helps a lot of people reading though, my inbox with the thank you emails is a testament to that.
When I launched process a big portion of people purchased it, because of all the free info here. Because I bothered to email people back. Because I just gave a shit and continued bringing value to others. When clients asked for a bit of extra work, sometimes I’d just help out. I could’ve easily charged $2k more but more important than immediate cash is just giving a shit. Think about how you can help the next person and pay it forward. You’ll be a better person, designer and freelancer for it. How many people can you help?
9. It sucks sometimes and that's ok
There’s a lot of positives so far, but sometimes it’s gonna suck balls. You can’t get motivated to work. Maybe you do need to take that odd job just for the money, because moneys drying up. Or leads just aren’t hitting your inbox fast enough so you gotta do less design and go out there and hustle. Market, network and all that other jazz that you can’t be fucked doing. Or maybe because no one is around and it’s just you, no more team mates and friends to high five. The reality is sometimes it’s going to be scary or it’s going to suck. But that’s ok. Just recognise it and do something about it. Failure only happens when you leave it here and this is where it ends. If you work through it, these can be the best moments for growth if you learn from it.
10. Learn from people who've done it
This is the big one. Find somebody who have done what you want to be doing and learn from them. Being resourceful is one of the most underrated skills ever. From design to business. When I first started my first job nearly 10 years ago, I learnt a ton from my Creative Director and Art Director. They were doing the kind of work at a calibre that I wanted to be doing, so I became a sponge.
I learnt and listened to everything they had to offer and kept putting in the hours to perfect my craft and used them as a benchmark. They knew so much about design and business and I knew nothing. Every step of the way over the next 10 years I have had mentors and tried to learn and ask questions. To my surprise eventually I was offering advice to some of my own mentors and other designers as well. It doesn’t ever stop though if you want to become great, always be a student. I’m constantly learning all the time.
When I first started my business I learnt from Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk, Sean McCabe, Nathan Barry, Paul Jarvis, Bryan Harris and Brian Chesky of AirBnb. I watch their videos, read their content tweet at them and email them. I’ve learnt a ton of lessons that has helped me tremendously with areas that I am weak at. What would have taken me years to learn through trial and error has been fast tracked thanks to their experience. The Process Masterclass has done extremely well thanks to what I’ve learnt from these guys. I purchased some of their courses and learnt a ton off their free content as well. Learn from people you admire – it is the biggest hack to fast track your goals and effectiveness.
Editors note: These influences continually change as you grow. My list of influences today vary vastly from when I started, and what's listed above. Keep learning, growing and executing.
11. There's no set time to work
There’s no set schedule for when you work. I’m not a particularly organised person, I actually hate logging time back in the day. So my schedule is all over the shop sometimes but I love it like that. I love spending time with my son and wife in between. I used to play tennis with one of my good friends too who was also a freelancer. Wearing shorts and sweatpants in the middle of day, 2 dudes driving Mercedes and playing tennis at 1pm. Sneak in some lunch and maybe a beer after a game. We looked like drug dealers haha.
But nope just enjoying life and the flexibility of not being stuck 9-5 in an office. Don’t get me wrong I actually love working, I love the craft and the process. But I dislike being forced when I have to work. Like I said freedom is the best asset of being a freelancer. Particularly if you don’t have to be onsite and work predominantly remote. In my 2 years I was only onsite once. And it was for 3 days. I really liked the client, the people and the project. But even then it sucked haha. I just got so used to freelancing remotely – it makes me feel grateful when I can be at home, no commuting, not having to wear pants, throw in an afternoon siesta when I need to zzz, play with my dog, with my son, talk to my wife and then sneak in work.
12. Procrastination is a bitch
On the flip side of no set time. It’s not always gravy haha. When you’re solo this is when you can sit around and do almost nothing all day. Or all week. If you don’t plan properly time can pass you by. And all you’ve done is watched tennis videos, and funny shit on youtube. You gotta find motivation and it’s up to you to make it happen. I love that this blog is a weekly schedule or else I’d never get it done. Even though I said I hate fix times, sometimes you gotta commit and do it! To show up even when you’re not vibing it sometimes.
13. Make sure you have good soft skills
It’s really important that you have great soft skills. So much of the jobs you do get is not only based on your skill as a designer, but almost as importantly the relationships you build, how well you communicate and if you’re a pleasure to work with. Invest time in learning these soft skills. How to present, how to communicate, how to have confidence when presenting designs. Get on this shit, it’s part of being a great designer. And when you are a freelancer it’s just you so it rests on your shoulders to have this skill set.
14. Iteration is king
When I present, I always involve clients early on. I think evolving designs are so important, the best designs are through collaboration and iteration, So the first piece of design is always a conversation starter with clients. I am not precious about it. And from there we can work together to create the best solution possible, based on the business goals, user needs and the common vision that we share.
15. Be passionate and do it because it makes you happy
What are we doing all this for? Have passion for what you do and do what makes you happy. Don’t just listen to me and what I have to say find your own truth. It’s cliche but do what makes you happy. Freelancing is the potential to create the kind of lifestyle that you want to live. It might be or it might not be right for you. A few years before I started freelancing, someone suggested that I leave my job and should go out on my own. I’d make more money they rationaled. At that point I loved my team, the company I worked at and was very happy. So money was not a great motivator. Only after a few years when I’d stop learning, the work became less challenging and I’d become less passionate that I’d quit. Things fell into place and I was happy because it was at the right time.
16. Help others, teach what you know and be generous
Mentoring and teaching is something I’ve always enjoyed. No matter where in your career you are, there are always things you know that can benefit others. Even if you are starting out you can still share your experiences as you progress to help others in the same position as you. As mentioned the more people you can help the more connections and value you will create. Be generous with your knowledge and share what you know.
17. Write and build an audience
If you freelance I think writing is a great way to grow your business. This allows you to grow your reputation, help others and set yourself up as an authority in the space. Writing is great for storytelling, focusing on content for your work, sharing ideas, sharing your process, helping others and can also make you more introspective. Art directors and copywriters go hand in hand. Try to get the best of both worlds, it will give you a leg up as a freelancer. When you have an audience you build equity for your brand as well as the ability to create a product that can service them and operate as another stream of income.
Editors note: If writing isn't your thing use other mediums to grow your audience. It can be images/audio/video.
18. You never really have it figured out
For people on the outside looking in, you just assume everybody has it made. But the truth is I’m still learning, there’s so much to know and doing the same thing over and over is boring. When you do different things there’s risk involved and that can be scary. There’s always room for improvement so you never truly have it made. Just enjoy the journey.
I hope that gave you some insight and for you to pave your own path.
Editors note: This article was written after I'd gone 2 years of full time freelance. Now I run an indie business running the Process Masterclass that you see here. But everything written still rings true today, I wish you the best of luck.
Over the course of my career I’ve had to expand my skill-sets overtime. In order to fit the various roles that I’ve had. During the milk moustache junior designer days. When I came into the design industry purely as a craftsman and focused mainly on the visuals. In those days great aesthetic and flashy designs were enough to be considered great work. However as I gained more experience, the requirements of my job changed. I had to deep dive into usability, UX design, leadership, business viability, marketing and a host of other complementary skills. In the span of over a decade. You never really stop learning in this industry.
My love for the craft however never died, I still wanted everything to be beautiful, to still be hands on and to make stuff. But I realised there had to be more to the work we created. To be exceptional the work we created needed to have impact for business viability, behavioural/social change and to deliver value. The work needed to put people/users at the center of our decisions. To be more human-centric in our approach. To deliver on an outcome, a story, a feeling, a journey that could make a difference however small or large it was.
What great designers do
The best designers I believe are the ones that are capable of thinking and executing across the spectrum of the design process. To look at things from a macro level – How does this product fit into a businesses product offering, brand and overall bottom line? And how does this product fit into the lives of the users and customers we are servicing? To also having the ability and the chops to execute on this information – implemented through sketches, wires, prototypes, visual design, testing, iterating, collaborating and launching. To get that balance of researcher, thinker vs craftsman and visual designer.
Simplifying UX design
Today I hope to help you with the research and thinker side, and share with you simple frameworks that I use. Please excuse the wanky terminology that our industry has standardised as UX and Agile. The terms don’t matter too much. So I’ll simplify it and codify what it means to me – Remember you are designing things for real people. If you are designing a website or an app there are real people on the other end that are going to use it.
Whether they are at home on their laptop wearing their pyjamas. At work on their computer browsing on their lunch break. Or on the bus and browsing it on their phone as they commute to work. These aren’t mysterious “users”, they’re just people going about their days and your work happens to interact with a small slice of time in their lives. (Or an integral part of their lives) You can frustrate them, delight them or you can be wonderfully invisible in the work that you create.
Incorporate the thoughts and needs of users
The better you incorporate the thoughts and needs of these end users in your process the hope is that you will deliver a better product. Great work and a ton of processes is not a guarantee. Only when you get it into the hands of real people and the overall market can we see if something is working. And then you iterate and improve from there. Is engagement going up? Are we getting more traction? Is the business bottom line improving? Are people happier? Are we doing what we set out to do? Being user-centric is beneficial from a business standpoint as well, so it is not just hocus pocus “users” are awesome type stuff. There is business viability in the mix. By creating great experiences we are building loyalty, connection and evangelists through the work we are creating. This contributes to the bottom line and overall brand equity.
So how should you approach your work when you are staring at documents, a brief, your blank figma canvas. What should you think about? Well try to understand - what people's motivations are, what drives them, what do they need to do, how do they feel across the overall journey? Who are they exactly? How can you codify this and give meaning to this?
Below are some great articles and resources that can help you uncover some of these insights. These are the very methods I use in my own work. Some of it seems so over the top ← I used to think so and still do from time to time. I think the key is to understand the principles that can aid you in effectively improving/bringing a product/design to market. The results of your work don’t lie. Having thick documents doesn’t mean you’ll create a successful product. It’s about creating that balance of research and rapid execution.
User Research
You can conduct interviews, surveys and look at analytics to get a clearer snapshot of who your end users are. What they want to achieve and what they do. To get started start integrating user feedback and user research into your design process. Below is the resource I recommend to get started.
This is where we give meaning to the research we’ve conducted. To create realistic representations of our users, their goals/characteristics and the outcomes that they want. Ad agencies go ham on these. I prefer simple templates as reminders that hey this is who you are trying to service. (I like the one Roman Pichler uses) My persona templates vary on complexity depending on the project. Remember not every project is the same - so think contextually about if you need personas at all and how much complexity you need.
When designing beyond the wireframes, technology, visual design and coded site or app. Storyboards are a great visualisation tool to see how a product can integrate into someone's life. And what the overall customer/user journey will look like. Airbnb did this effectively with some of their early day product designs.
User stories are essentially a way of thinking about functionality of a page/site/app from the point of view of a user. What do users want to do? And from there we can design the functionality required to achieve the task that they need to perform. As opposed to saying newsletter signup form. You pen it from the perspective of the user. “John (persona) would like to receive updates via email, so he can get the latest content from XYZ ”.
The benefit of this is things become user-centric and not technology or internally focused. User epics are extensions of user stories. I like to think of it as a larger user flow. So user stories are individual features that can be implemented, user epics are a series of user stories that need to occur in order to reach a certain outcome.
Example of a User Epic
A user epic might be “John(persona) wants to be able buy a pair of indigo, skinny fit jeans, in size 32 and wants them delivered to his office because he’s not home during the weekdays.” You can see how a series of features will need to be implemented to achieve this.
Design sprints are a defined time period 4-5 days/ a week, where we can implement user stories, prototypes and testing to answer or get feedback on a business problem, a user benefit/feature/problem and seeing how users take to our solution and hypothesis. It has the principles of design thinking with a clearer execution roadmap.
Once you get your head around this stuff, try to start implementing some of it. All these methods are extremely simple, our work as designers is not that complicated despite all these epic terms haha. So start improving the UX design side of your work.
Despite all the obstacles I've had in my life - the death of loved ones, crushing family debt, work stress, I've lived through my 20's with much joy and happiness. And now I'm living out my 30's. I still have so much more to learn, experience, see, do, give, feel and accomplish. Thought I'd take a moment to reflect and share some thoughts in this post. A retrospect on some of the lessons I've learnt from my time on this giant spinning rock. I hope you enjoy and can derive some meaning from some of these lessons 🙂
1. Happiness, Freedom and Contribution.
That’s the 3 pillars that I predicate all my actions on. Does this make me happy? Does this bring joy and happiness to others? Does this buy freedom and time? How light and free is life? What am I contributing to the world? What causes can I help and contribute to? How can I empower and share happiness, freedom and a sense of contribution to my family, friends and the people I influence?
Having a set of principles is important. That way you can navigate a very purposeful life that is a truer expression of who you are and who you strive to be. Pause and listen to yourself. Don’t get caught in being busy, when you should be still. Blindly following peoples pipe dreams is a road to disatisfaction. These 3 things keep me in check and bring clarity in times of uncertainty.
2. Gratitude leads to happiness
Always strive to be better. Kaizen is important. But also be appreciative of where you are. How far you’ve come. That you are *alive*. That the everyday things that you take for granted are pure miracles in an of themselves. Take a moment to appreciate those things you’ll be happier for it.
Which leads back to those core values.
3. Don’t worry about what other people think
Navigate life on your terms. Listen and absorb what people have to offer you. But don’t do things to impress other people, for status or to boost your ego. Those are fleeting things. Also don’t fit into a mold for society's expectations just because you feel you have to. “Lions don’t lose sleep over the opinion of sheep.”
4. Don’t try to be impressive to other people, by your wealth, what house you live in or what car you drive. But by being compassionate and lighting up someone else’s life.
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou
I’m not a hippie, but the older I get the more this becomes important. There’s so much toxicity in the world, be that small change that makes other people feel important. Don’t force your happiness or values on to others. But listen and help.
5. It’s ok to go against popular opinion and doing what everyone is doing.
Play and live life to the beat of your own drum. You’re a designer, design the life you want. You’ve had the privilege and opportunities to do just that so don’t waste it. Just because everyone is doing it doesn’t mean you should conform.
6. When you think you’ve got life figured out, just know that it’s what works for you only in this very moment. You don’t really have it figured out because life will always throw unexpected things your way both good and bad. Be ok with that.
7. Learn, Learn, Learn.
Why 3 times? Because you have to learn on top of what you think you've already learned and learn on top of that 😉 You have to keep learning. It doesn’t stop after school.The world is full of wonderful lessons on whatever topic you can dream of. Keep learning and apply what you learn. If done right your life will drastically improve in so many different areas. The seeds of knowledge that you plant today harvest into wonderful fruits and outcomes in to the future.
8. Listen to music, watch good movies, read a great book appreciate good design and the arts.
There’s something about human connection and true expression that just really captures the heart. Can’t explain it, but there’s good vibes when other people's art and storytelling touch your very core.
9. Everything is a game
I like designing and doing good work. So I too treat it like a game. I’m serious about my work but I am not serious about myself. Everything is play. I like making money it’s a fun game. I like the highs and the lows. So I treat it like a game that you learn about. Running a business, starting something stupid. Life and Work as play.
10. You’re going to be wrong a lot, make a lot of mistakes. Learn from them, they are some of life's greatest lessons.
11. You don’t have to be perfect
You’re different and that’s ok. There is no perfect. Everyone is just trying to do their best.
12. Find passion in what you do
12. Find passion in what you do
Never had any idea what I was going to do with my life. Serendipity lead me to design, something I’ve always had an interest in but was it a possible career? Having fallen into this industry, it’s hard to call this passion work sometimes. And that is a wonderful blessing. Work your ass off and find an angle where market value intersects with your passion and you’ll be golden.
13. Travel and see the world
The world is a wonderful kaleidoscope of different cultures, sites, and cuisines. I never dreamed in my childhood that I’d have the opportunity one day to visit the places I’d seen in books or saw on TV. The world was so big then. I was an immigrant kid from suburbia.
Got on the plane for the first time in my life in 2008 with my then girlfriend/now wife. And then we began to travel and experience different countries bit by bit. These experiences and memories are something that go beyond a dollar value and we will cherish them for the rest of our lives.
14. You’re going to be wrong a lot
15. Do your best to be a good husband, father, son, brother, friend, person
Be good to the people around you. Those closest to you and those furthest from you. Some days you will fail but do your best everyday. Relationships are what matter in life.
16. Money is important up to a certain level, after that it’s about buying freedom and allowing you to do and create the things you want to do. Don’t buy into the materialistic ego trap.
17. Anything hard is worth doing.
So many times I’ve had turning points in my life that felt so hard. Almost insurmountable.But when looking back they were some of the best things that could’ve happened to me. Because they built so much of my character. Sometimes things suck or are difficult, but out the other end where that tunnel of light is, it makes the victory so much sweeter. Learn to appreciate the hurdles that you face they are blessings in disguise.
Things can become extremely hard at any given moment. Be prepared for it.
18. Make sure that if you were to die today you’d look back with a life well lived without too many regrets
I definitely don’t want to die, but if it were to happen today. Looking back I’ve done more than I’ve ever hoped to and experienced so much. Start doing the things that are important to you, so that when you look back you don’t regret not taking chances and doing the things that brought you joy.
19. You’ll underestimate what you can do in 10 years and overestimate what you can do in 1 year. Anything is possible if you find the right mentors, have the right framework, keep learning and execute as you go.
20. Exercise and move around, there’s a zen in sports and movement
21. Don’t be so serious
I was probably more serious when I was in high school than I am today. Being an adult doesn’t mean you have to act a particular way. Lighten up a little. Laugh a little or a lot 🙂
22. Doing your best work is extremely satisfying
Do your best is so cliche. But when working, when designing, when you truly put in your best effort and put everything into it. It’s the truest form of expression you can give and in that process you find flow.
23. Be a creator
Make things. The world is waiting for you.
24. Being a parent is the worst and the best thing to ever happen to you.
It’s a lot like life with ups and downs. But in those pockets of clarity there is something transcendent and almost spiritual. That you and your partner bought these wonderful humans into the world, as they look and smile at you with all their innocence wonder and hope. And it's indescribable.
25. Be kind to people. Provide value to the world and other people.
Not always easy, particularly when people screw you over. But it’s in those moments that your character should be tested. Stand for what you believe in, but be kind to people.
26. Sometimes when you are young, things feel insurmountable or so difficult, but looking back it wasn’t that big of a deal. And if it was a big deal it was actually a blessing in disguise as it helped you build character and conviction
27. Everything is a work in progress keep moving forward
Nothing stays still or the same. I was a different person 10 years ago, 10 years before that my values and views weren’t even formed yet. You will constantly evolve. Don’t be so fixed in your ways.
28. Love
Love your wife, love your children, love your family, your father, your mother, your brothers, your in laws, your friends, strangers, the world. And learn to love yourself. Because when you do that you will have more to give.
At times I am still very guarded but I am learning to open up my heart.
29. Design and being creative is something I hope to practice and do for the rest of my life – who knows if this conviction will change I’m only 11 years in.
30. Give and you shall receive
Learn to be a giver. Give without expecting anything in return. When you touch enough lives and provide people with enough value, something magical happens.
31. You are constantly learning. You have it all figured out. You have nothing figured out. “The more you know, the more you realise how much you don’t know”.
But that’s the entire point, the journey IS the ‘THING’. Everything can change in a moment, you will die. Someone you love will die. Life's going to throw more insurmountable hurdles your way, but it will also reward you with the greatest joys when you learn to open your eyes and heart to find them.
Is this a complete list? Probably not. But does it matter? Not really. Those are my 31 lessons. And why 31? I wrote these 31 lessons when I turned 31 years old. I'm 35 now and the lessons still hold true. I hope you find something interesting in there. Feel free to agree or disagree 🙂
Being a practitioner vs. being a theorist. In my opinion there are 2 types of learning you can do throughout your career. One is acquiring knowledge through – books, videos, articles, school etc. – the second hand experience. And the other is through first hand experience – actual application, through trial and error, through mistakes, through learning directly from someone else(mentors), and in a live environment. I find that if you skew too hard in either direction you are limiting your potential for growth as a designer.
On this blog I can only help you with the former. I can only share stories about my experiences, my journey and my design tips. But for it to become valuable to you, for it to impact you and your career. You have to reflect upon the words, what they mean to you and actualise it with application. Don’t hoard knowledge for the sake of it. How many of us just download shit and it just stays there in our downloads graveyard? Or went to a design conference, got pumped up by the speaker then when went home and nothing really changed. You can hoard as much knowledge as you want, but you have to put the things you “know/learn” into action or to give it meaning. Information on it’s own is not useful.
It’s a fine balance of both.
Theory
Can help expand your mindset beyond your surroundings and assumptions.
Can learn from the experiences of other people, who are masters in their field.
Learn frameworks and patterns that have been tested and fine tuned by the best in the business. Less trial and error.
Learn best practices and allow to practice on specifics in a controlled environment.
Grasp higher and more introspective concepts.
But all theory and no application is all bark and no bite. People who talk a lot but don’t actually have the credentials of doing it and having gone through it. Theory is the benchmark and the gateway for application. It’s like a map for treasure. Having a map means you know the way and what to do. But in order to get the treasure one still needs to navigate and trek to the destination and sometimes it is not an easy journey. But if you have solid theory and insight the path is a clear one. This is how we can use theory to design and solve real world problems.
Practitioner
You are learning on the job – producing work in an environment where you will need to face users, the market and to be able to think on your feet and adapt. There’s no safety nets you just have to execute, fail and learn.
Finding your own truth and learning through your own experiences, on how to design, communicate and navigate around problems through practice and repetitions.
Build skills of a designer/thinker/freelancer forged through doing a lot experiments and projects that synthesise the theory with practical application.
Craftsmanship and beauty is forged by the practitioner.
Nothing teaches you more than being thrown in the deep end and going into survival mode.
As you can see learning theory and being a practitioner goes hand in hand. When you've put in enough reps improving your craft then learn more theory, expand your mindset, insight and repertoire and execute on that – repeat the process. Learn about grids, learn about design theory, learn about design thinking, UX design, how to use the tools, how to deal with stakeholders, how to grow a business, how to design to elevate and to focus on people.
Roughly knowing a concept and truly ‘knowing’ what to do vs. doing it are 2 different things. You can read about design, watch things, save things, but in order to be better you need to execute. On the flip side if you execute all day but don’t focus on thinking bigger or finding a means to raise your ceiling you will stagnate. It’s about finding a balance between both. Keep learning and apply what you learn, there is no real end point. A lot of the times we know what to do - we just have to make it a priority to apply it.
Nothing special. No incredible lifehack or productivity booster. Just plain old consistent work that eventually snowballs into some incredible results. We are an instant gratification generation. We want things now. We want things to happen fast. But sometimes we need to be 'patiently impatient' to be able reach our highest goals and ambitions.
Patiently impatient - means in order to speed up and reach our goals sooner - we actually need to slow down which sounds counter-intuitive.
10,000 miles is a big distance.
But to walk 10,000 miles, it’s just one foot in front of the other, each step of the way.
If you focus on the 10,000 miles all at once it will seem impossible. If you focus on that first step and the next it all seems very possible...
Consistency gives us the momentum we need to move forward.
If we want to reach our summit and our goals that are 10,000 miles away, we must also need to know where we are going.
We need a map, a guide, a sherpa to show us the way forward.
So you must learn, model and study the people who have come before you and have done what you want to do. Find mentors, read, learn, work, and then consistently execute against what you learn from these resources - day in, day out, week in, week out, year in, year out. And that consistency forged through passion or pure perseverance will start to yield the results you hope to see. And a lot of times results beyond our wildest dreams.
Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.
BILL GATES
Be focused and consistent. Consistency pays off.
Intellectually you could know where the summit is. But if you don’t take that first step, and move in that direction, then you are not really going anywhere.
If you are reading this and think that I'm always on top my game and that everything is easy don’t be fooled. I can binge watch netflix with the best of them.
But one thing that I’ve fortunately learned to do is to be consistent. Consistent with how often I learn, how often I ship, how often I design,how often I write and how often I try to put myself out there.
What could you achieve if you committed yourself to being consistent?
When the world is not watching, when nobody seems to care, when you don’t see the results immediately. You have to embraceandenjoy the process of being consistent. Even if it feels daunting at times.
You can’t control the results of a particular outcome that is external to you.But you can control the consistency of your actions, that can help you achieve those things.
I started posting on dribbble for fun. 1 shot at a time. I started with 0 followers.
When I started this blog/newsletter. I started with 1 letter, 1 sentence, 1 paragraph then 1 article. Over time it has become many articles. When I started writing there were 0 readers. I’m not a natural writer, it doesn’t come easy to me. I’m not even a good writer. But I’m consistent and I love connecting with people and sharing my thoughts and ideas.
When I created my own products for the first time, I started with just an idea, then I validated that idea with my audience. I then consistently executed on that vision until I shipped it. Each day I planned and chipped away at it slowly. And now I have a product that I am extremely proud of. And a home to a community of awesome designers. The business has done 7 figures and helped 2000+ designers from some of the worlds best companies, Apple, Google, Slack, Huge and Work and Co. I just took it one day at a time and tried to help designers as much as I could. Bring value to others.
I didn’t do anything special. I just showed up consistently. I was consistent in putting the reps to do the work, even though it seemed like no one was watching. I showed up and executed.
In total my writing and work has been viewed 10 million times – if you want to get exact it’s 10,288,656. And has been read by over 250,000 people. When I started, I started at the same place as everybody else. It was at 0. I focused on the process and I focused on having fun and being consistent.
And because of that consistency, people start to notice, you start to provide value to people, and then it creates this habit loop.I don’t even consider myself a writer but over the last few years I haven’t gone more than 2 weeks without writing. Consistency creates habits.
But what happens when you don’t have time to show up?
Your life is busy and you have a job and don’t have hours on end to be consistent. You have a life. I too have a family, friends, a life, hobbies, other kinds of work that I pursue. Being consistent doesn’t mean working yourself to the ground. Nor does it have to be grandiose like spending hours upon hours being consistent and ‘hustling’. While neglecting everything else that's important in your life.
Consistency can be set to your own timeline on your own terms. One small commitment to yourself each day.
It can be 30 mins to read. 30 mins on a side project. 30 mins to learn something new. 30 mins to exercise. 1 small consistent thing that you can do, to move you into the direction that you want to go.
I’d like to share a story about Masayoshi Son CEO of Softbank one of the largest companies in the world. When Masayoshi was in university he wanted to make $10,000 a month, that was his goal. The problem was he was a top student at the time and he didn’t have the time to get a regular job. But that was the goal and the outcome he wanted.
He was Japanese student at an American university. So he asked his friends if there was a job that he could take where he could earn $10,000 a month by working 5mins a day at. His friends burst out laughing and told him that it was impossible unless he considered selling drugs. Since he didn’t want to do that, Masayoshi Son found another way.
He brainstormed. What would be the best and most efficient use of his time? He pondered…
He concluded in order to achieve what he wanted he would need to invent something. It was the only logical way he concluded where he he could leverage that amount of time into that kind of cash output.
So he invested only 5 mins a day, consistently over a period of days, weeks and months. Eventually it lead to him to invent the world’s first electronic dictionary. He eventually sold it to sharp for $1.7 million. After 18 months and 2 inventions later he’d made $3.2 million total.
In the end he told his friends that it was possible to make more than just $10,000 even if you just spent 5 mins a day consistently on something.
Crazy story I know. But there is a lesson there.
What could you achieve if you consistently invested a piece of your time everyday on something?
Don’t underestimate what you can achieve with just 30mins a day consistently doing something. Start forming some consistent habits today. You are planting the seeds for success which you can sow in the future. Your goals and ambitions lie just on the other side of consistently showing up. We all start at 0. Where we end up is through our passion, perseverance and the consistency that we show.
Here's a preview of the class project files in Figma. You can see how everything is setup - using grids, components, typography and creating a design system. You can duplicate this and have a play around.
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