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Noisemakers
Your inbox is already overflowing. You’re drowning in all the videos, feeds, articles demanding your immediate attention, fighting for your limited bandwidth. What the heck do you think you’re doing, adding to the noise? Everyone’s distracted, everyone’s overwhelmed. Why add another sound to the clamour? If you aspire to create some piece of art that…
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The Tedium of Blossoming
As I approach my 31st birthday, one thing is becoming quite clear: I will never hit Fast Company’s “Top 30 Under 30” list. It’s also too late to become a 20-year-old millionaire. We admire the child prodigy, the early bloomer. Every young musician aspires to be the next Hansen (when they were young, well, maybe…
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If you must draw lines
If you must draw lines – Between good and bad, Black and white, In and out Or wrong and right – Be sure to draw with pencil.
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Explore the Edges
We have a great backyard, with a huge lawn, deck, and a playground for the kids. But even with all that space to run around and play, where do you think we consistently find our kids playing? That’s right, on the edges. In amongst the trees at the back of our yard, where the little…
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Who are you designing for?
Despite our best attempts to be client or user-focused, often the answer is simply, “me”. Sure, we want the client to be happy (though they don’t know much about good design), and the users to have a good time (though most are stuck in Internet Explorer X), but first and foremost, we’re designing for ourselves.…
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The Choice to Go Social
If you’re engaged in the world of social media, you’d probably be surprised how many brick-and-mortar businesses remain hesitant to join the social media hype. Whether they think it’s just a fad, fear bad reviews online, or don’t have time to invest in a growing list of social channels, many businesses still choose not to…
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World Without Sidelines
“Another thing we can see in less industrialized parts of the world… is that something like making music, dancing, and singing together, as a participatory community that’s regular and ongoing is something that’s free, available, and part of everyday life. That’s a wealth and joy. It’s really interesting to realize that it’s been with industrialization…
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Backyard Wonder
It started when we noticed a higher than normal population of orange-breasted robins occupying the trees in our neighbourhood. We started counting them, I think the record was 27 in a single tree. I’d never seen this many robins before! They flitted to and fro as if looking for something, making an awesome raucous all…
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Spring Always Comes
Spring has finally arrived in Manitoba in full force. Our town is coming out of hibernation and taking a collective deep breath of rich spring air. When spring arrives every year, the memory of winter never seems so bad. But I remember this winter, somewhere between January weeks of sub -30 temperatures (Celsius, but…
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The Basie Way
When most of us think of a leader we think of the trailblazer, the person at the front of the pack, leading the way. That’s how I’ve usually thought about leadership as well. The leader needs to stay out in front, do most of the talking, and shoulder the weight of the team. The problem…
