Whether you're designing your first (or 50th) org chart, revamping a schedule graphic, or finding a 'fresh' way to showcase your team, coming up with creative, compelling design requires a spark of inspiration that can be tough to find when you're on deadline and under pressure. Listen in as our dynamic design duo, Becky Ellison and Abigail Clark, give the skinny on how to maintain your creativity in the fast-paced environment of AEC marketing.
Podcast Transcript
Welcome to The Shortlist.
We are exploring all things AEC marketing to help your firm win The Shortlist.
I'm your host, Wendy Simmons, and each episode I'm joined by some of my team members from Middle of Six to answer your questions.
Today, we are joined again by Abigail Clark and Becky Ellison.
They are graphic design and creatives here at Middle of Six.
And Abigail's gonna talk to us about her thoughts on how to recharge and inspire and take care of yourself and probably your team too.
So thank you both for being here.
Hello.
Hello.
Hi, thanks for having us back.
Oh, yes, my favorite, all the designers are here.
We're talking about creative, beautiful, lovely things.
All right, Abigail, start us off.
What are you thinking here as far as why is this topic important?
Why would we even consider this topic?
Yeah, I have found that most designers I know are the more empathetic, sometimes sensitive and just out of the box, colorful people that do need time to re-charge, to think about why their work is important.
Why am I here?
Why am I doing this?
It's just crazy how much that impacts your work and the things you crank out day to day.
I've just thought of a few tips.
First of all, about how to stay inspired and to find things to incorporate into your work and where that inspiration might come from.
You were saying that and I was thinking about that very common phrase that pops up in marketing where they're like, you know, work your magic.
And I guess maybe as a designer myself, I've heard that enough times where I'm like, I don't fricking have any magic.
Totally.
But that's where the inspiration comes from and taking some time to recharge and that sort of thing.
Because to other people who are not creative in that way and aren't illustrating or creating graphics to tell a story, that is magic when you bring it all together.
So we do have that element, but you have to nurture it a bit.
Yeah.
Sometimes in the more technical work that we do, like proposals or just more construction-specific work, it can be a little bit harder to find that magic, to find that differentiator and that flourish that makes your work so different and that's going to help your client win.
That's another reason why it's especially important for us that are in slightly less creative graphic design jobs to make time to find that inspiration.
I'd say some of my favorite places to go are websites, but I also just find myself walking around and looking at things I like, snapping pictures or maybe just pausing when I see a cool design and think, what tools would I use to create that?
If I see a cool logo, I'm like, okay, that's like maybe Pathfinder.
I would like use this.
I'd maybe like pull it off my iPad and like sketch it out first.
That's one of my favorite ways to think of how to incorporate something cool into a project I'm working on, or it's a way to figure out something that I don't know how to do, that I could take like 30 minutes to teach myself on YouTube and be a better designer for it.
Yeah, Becky, you're probably pulling inspiration from all around you.
And also as someone who's done more than a decade of proposal design, you're looking for inspiration on that.
What's the newest way to do an org chart?
I don't know.
Where do you get your inspiration?
I like to get my inspiration from unconventional sources.
I do a lot of creative things, and I always like to be inspired by a different creative thing, if that makes sense.
You know, for visual design, I like to get inspiration from music, from movies, from, you know, things that aren't necessarily just other visual art forms.
That, for me, is maybe I have some mild synesthesia going on, but in my mind, you can find inspiration in some of the strangest places, and that, for me, is when you really make the unique work come to life, because if you're not getting that outside the box, you know, that you don't have that different sort of quality to your work, then it's not going to stand out as much, which in pursuit, marketing, proposals, et cetera, is so, so crucial to do.
I mean, for me, it could be anything from, you know, a movie I watched, whatever music I've been listening to at the time, which spans a wide variety of genres, from like 1920s jazz to like German rap.
And it does keep your brain sharp for how can we do this differently?
How can we stand out from the pack?
So I would always encourage any graphic designer, visual creative to think of just the absolute weirdest places you could possibly find something and lean into it.
Don't turn away from that weird thing that inspired you.
Embrace the weirdness.
Yeah, if you're really driven, you know, working on deadlines, head down, I'm just going to, you know, power through this.
You have that working style.
Your work might be suffering because you haven't lifted your eyes, looked around.
We have a client who they do some inspiration like once a quarter with their group.
And it might be, we're going to go to the art museum.
We're just going to walk around and we're going to go and do that as a group and just have some conversations.
And it's like getting up away from your desk, your computer, and even out of your physical workspace that is, you know, so familiar to you.
You know, then you start to see the edge of a building and a really old piece of artwork that's on the path down to the thing.
I mean, all those pieces, I mean, I've never been inspired by toothpaste.
I love that that was inspirational to you.
You like a lot of different things, which informs so much about, you never know when one little detail is going to influence a component in design.
Yeah.
And as amazing as it is to be in person and to get to, at least for us, walk around on job sites, meet clients in person, hear these interesting things that they like to interject into conversation.
In an increasingly virtual world, we are, as designers, sitting at our desks most of the time.
So it's good to think about what can I do to make this space perfect for me?
How can I feel comfortable and supported and inspired?
Just a couple of things I've done to make this one little extra bedroom in my house, a design space, is I got some big corkboards, put them all up on a wall.
I literally have an inspiration wall now, which includes boring stuff like a calendar, but then I also have pictures of people I love, gorgeous cards and print samples that I've collected.
I have a poster of type anatomy that I'm obsessed with as a typography nerd.
Things like that, if you have the resources, are awesome to do.
Just surround yourself with things that make you feel good, because that's the first step in doing great work.
And then maybe having some water, a snack, a nice little place to sit when you are sick of your rolly chair and staring at the screen, I think are all just little things that can make your day better, and can make you a better designer.
Trick for me when it comes to writing, because that's definitely a creative space.
It's not really necessarily my strongest area, or at least I don't believe it is.
And so I actually have to stand up, maybe move to a different location.
I can do some fantastic writing on my couch with my laptop, you know, where I don't need all of the space to actually be doing design work, but I can just start thinking about, what am I trying to communicate and say?
So a little bit different take, but just finding those ways to take care of yourself and kind of give some more energy to what you're doing.
I don't know about you, Becky, but I imagine like this future world where I could lay down and then also have like all of my monitors in front of me and be able to like design while laying down, because I can't work on a laptop.
I can't just design on a laptop anymore.
No, no, I have to be sitting at my desk.
There's no cozy way to actually get into the nitty gritty design work, and I wish there was.
I fantasize about that at least three times a week.
I love to hear that.
You could just be laying in bed and have like computer screens materialize virtually and just reach up and have your whole, yeah, absolutely.
I wish that was the thing.
I feel so validated.
I think about that often.
There's no cozy way to design.
That's a good quote.
I don't know.
Yeah, especially once I get in the zone, I'm like hunched over and totally a little bit tense.
I'm definitely the person where like my anxiety shows up on my shoulders, so I get all tight.
But since we don't have this futuristic lay down desk, I think a good thing to do is to get up, move around, get some endorphins going.
I think that for me is like the thing that makes me happiest.
If I don't move in my day, I just get very stale and things start to cloud my head.
If you're lucky enough to have a four-legged work buddy at home, they can usually tell you to get up.
And I swear, Poppy, she hears me sign off of a teams meeting, I say goodbye, and then she comes up and she taps my knee to say, let's go, I heard you said goodbye.
But you know what, I'm embracing that because I'm like, you know what, I do need to stand up.
It's time to stretch your shoulder blades and get that tension worked out.
And then you're kind of, even if it's like three minutes, seriously, three minutes, come back.
And then also you gave your dogs some love, which is nice.
And then you come back and you're ready to do the next thing and kind of almost like a fresh start.
Yeah, another great reminder for self care.
I mean, if you listen or right now are someone who's got the tense shoulders, like consciously think about relaxing those shoulders and maybe think about untensing your jaw, that will help minimize your stress.
It's amazing how much your physical positioning can affect your actual mood and emotions.
There have been studies done that smiling can actually make you feel happier, etc.
So the more you can get your physical self to sort of relax and get into that calm space, whatever you need walking around, meditate for five minutes, whatever it takes, then your mind is going to follow that physical presence to being relaxed, open to ideas, and that's always going to lead to better creativity.
I have a kind of off topic thing to talk about next.
So in my mind, I'm like, okay, a little sound, and then this.
So one really important lesson I've learned is that I am most inspired doing my work once I find the central truth in a project.
If I don't know the exact message I'm trying to convey, I get so wrapped up in the decoration of design that I just end up handing over a project that falls flat.
So I think getting your clients to mention the things that are really important to them, and the reason this thing that you're being asked to design should even exist is so important.
And that has been super inspiring for me, especially in the smaller tasks, like maybe creating a social media post that feels like, oh, people are gonna see this for a moment and then scroll through, but just get to the heart of why this needs to exist, why it's important for them, and why they're taking the time to ask you to do this.
I'm sure there's a really good reason behind it, and there's people that will be impacted by your designs.
That is such a powerful statement, that even something as small as a tiny little project that you created a page of a proposal could affect someone's life.
And that maybe sounds like a stretch, but it's absolutely true.
Again, if we're doing the proposal to build the hospital, I mean, how many lives are going to be impacted by that building?
And if we were even a tiny, tiny little part of making that happen, what a powerful position to be in.
You're changing minds, you're convincing people, you're informing someone to make an important decision.
I mean, I think graphic design is one of those professions that can sometimes be looked at as extra, as not essential, as something that's a little bit silly, you know, and it's not.
I mean, it's so powerful.
I mean, the Nike swoosh, look at that.
I mean, you know exactly what that is.
Just looking at it, you know what it means.
You could tell everybody, you know, how it makes you feel.
I mean, that branding and design is so powerful.
Yeah, it's incredible.
Just with the choice of a font, you can make someone look like expensive or polished or cheap and generic and boring.
That is a ton of power, and that affects possibly an entire company.
So many people's lives.
And it's probably more satisfying as the designer to, like you were saying, get to the heart of the why so that you don't feel like you are just putting on decoration.
Or, you know, it's like the last step in the whole strategic process.
Now let's just throw it over to design.
For your own personal and career fulfillment, feeling like you're adding something and making it much more effective and better and targeted than it would have been without you is going to make your design career even better.
That's also so important when you do something that is kind of the same thing over and over again.
Like for example, I worked for the same company for a very long time, 11 years with doing proposals for one client essentially.
And it was always trying to find different ways to make this special and new.
And how do we not just have this be the same thing every time?
And the key to that was finding out, what is this project about?
What does the client want?
What do they care about?
How to speak to them?
And then you're always going to have something different fundamentally because you understand what you're saying and how to say it from the get-go, and that sets you up to be able to do something creative and different even within the same brand and the same kind of document.
Yeah, that kind of goes, I mean, as aligned with inspiration, right?
Inspiration by what is the motivator?
What are they trying to accomplish in that way?
Becky, since you've done so many proposals, do you have an estimate of how many proposals?
I mean.
Well over a hundred for sure.
I should have kept a record.
Well, you don't need to do that.
But I mean, it's a lot.
So then how do you get inspiration for those things that you're doing again and again without feeling like you're appropriating other designers' work or, you know, I mean, what's that line?
And I guess, Abigail, you can chime in here too, but I'm just thinking 2,500 proposals later.
How do you feel fresh?
I treat every proposal as an opportunity to try something new and evolve something, make processes more efficient in creating the document, try new visual elements.
I always want to push the envelope because a lot of times with, especially if you do a lot of public proposals, you can get copies of the proposals that your competition has submitted and you can see what they're doing.
And I mean, I can't help but feel a little bit competitive and, you know, want to compare, ooh, what is everybody else doing?
And I almost enjoy seeing when competitors would copy something that I created.
That is fun for me because then I think, oh, I got to take it to the next level.
You know, how can I keep setting the bar?
That feels awesome.
So I mean, I think like there's only so much you can stray from the formula of what a proposal has to contain, but there is a lot you can do to stand out from the crowd.
And I think for me, being someone who thinks so outside the box and is inspired by oddity and weird things has given me sort of an edge as a designer that I can propose these maybe unconventional ideas.
But those are the very things that the client sees only us putting out and not anybody else.
And that can make the difference.
That can get you to the interview, even if it's something really silly.
I mean, you never know.
Something I really like to do is on resumes for key personnel in a proposal.
I always like to find a fun fact about the person, like something that shows their personality.
Sometimes you'll get resistance from people who don't want to talk about the heavy metal band that they're secretly in or whatever, but those little tidbits are the things that are going to catch the attention of the reader.
So I think taking that inspiration from other things that aren't AEC related and finding ways to weave them in, in a way that balances that sort of appropriateness with that kind of like, ooh, this is very different.
That is a fun thing that can evolve over many years and can put you in a whole new place to attack this, even the same kind of document in a new way.
Yeah, and you can try adding in one little element, something that feels different or unique or maybe even sometimes a little bit risky, but you can try small changes and see what's the feedback, how did that resonate with the team or the owner.
You don't have to completely blow up the whole process.
You don't want to be jarring or accidentally get kicked out in the running or something like that, but you can exercise that kind of wackiness in some places in small ways.
Inspiration outside of AEC, you kind of hit on that, but do you have some designers or people of inspiration that places you like to go and see for like kind of the latest and just soak it in?
I feel like I have a million.
One easy place to start is if you're an Instagram user or LinkedIn, follow your favorite designers, or maybe you find a design that you think is awesome, find that designer and follow them, because designers are so good about sharing their content online, probably because they're looking for the next project, the next job to have, that there's a ton to look at.
Personally, I've mentioned this to Becky in the past.
I love the designer, Aaron Draplin.
He's based out of Portland, and he does super cool, bold iconography and logo design inspired by really retro designs.
He'll go through an antique shop and just find inspirational little ligatures that are just so perfect, and you can't perfectly explain why.
It's gorgeous, but it is, and he'll take that and recreate it.
So that's one of my favorite places to go, especially with AEC focused work where you find the beauty and the simplest design choice.
So I follow him on Instagram.
He's everywhere, and he's even got this book that I love.
I think it's called almost everything or something.
Anyway, he has a gorgeous book of all of the designs he's ever created.
So just having that at your fingertips is really nice, and other than that, I love to follow pretty much any designer that's been at Pentagram, which is the biggest design firm in the world.
They're like in London and San Francisco everywhere.
Specifically, I love Emily Obermann.
She did all the visual identity for SNL, Saturday Night Live, which is gorgeous, and I feel like I reference a lot.
So just anything that gets you excited, find those people online and follow them.
Yeah, as much as we might hate like the social media algorithms or if Google is listening to us and saying, hey, you might like this, honestly, we do kind of like those things.
Thank you for serving that up to me, so I can follow that because I need more.
I want more of that.
Yeah, show me the typography, the icon design, sprinkle on some dogs, and that's it.
That's perfect.
It makes me happy.
You're so plugged in to the graphic design scene.
I don't think I could name many other graphic designers, to be honest, which is maybe embarrassing and I shouldn't admit to.
But again, I like to get my inspiration from outside sources.
So like Abby was telling me about these people that I looked up and was like, oh my God, you can follow other designers.
This is out there.
That's really cool.
I mean, for me, my visual inspiration sources are strange things sometimes.
I mean, there's a photographer that I love whose name is Rocky Schenck, and he does just this very surreal, very heavily manipulated photography that is very hard to explain, but it's sort of dark and plays with light and shadow, and it's just fascinating.
And I recommend anybody check out his work.
Also, I am maybe like maniacally obsessed with symmetry.
So Wes Anderson for me is a huge inspiration.
Anything he does, I'm just going to gravitate towards.
And there's so much good graphic design inspiration that come from his films.
There's so much attention to detail and again, the symmetry.
So those for me are kind of my top sources.
Maniacally obsessed.
That's intense.
What was the fantastic faux Wes Anderson book that came out that was like the Wes Anderson in real life or something?
Accidentally Wes Anderson.
Oh, accidentally.
I mean, we need a copy of that book for The Office because I love it.
It's just like it happening all over the place.
Yes.
I think we are all just enough type A.
And creative to like love Wes Anderson so much.
On a different style for sure.
I've purchased this book for people at Middle of Six.
Am I overthinking this?
Over answering life's questions in 101 charts.
And I think the author is Michelle Riel.
And the reason why I bought eight copies to like hand them out to the team at Middle of Six is because she, first of all, she has a really interesting story and the book is like $10 or something.
I'm like, oh, I'm going to support you.
I'm happy to pay, you know, to like buy this book.
I would like to buy more and give them out.
But she takes really simple everyday experiences and then puts them into a chart using like watercolors or even found objects, maybe leaves from a houseplant or bobby pins to kind of show the graft of something or dental floss, right?
So simple, so elegant.
And to me, it is inspiring because a lot of times we are trying to communicate something and create a chart.
To me, it's inspiring because I think she is telling a story with a piece of dental floss.
That's wonderful.
That is amazing to me.
So, yeah, definitely recommend that book.
And then what about inspiration from brands?
I love and admire brands, and I will just be sucked in by how they tell their story and present their everything that they are all about.
Do you both kind of have brands that resonate with you and that you just follow and secretly want to work for?
Yes.
There it is.
That was a trap.
I love Middle of Six, but listen, if Outdoor Voices was hiring, which I don't think I would get the job, but like a visual identity.
We would support you in whatever you want to do.
I love that brand.
They had this whole campaign of you can do anything in a dress because they sell this exercise dress.
And just, I love it.
I feel like it's me.
And I feel like I touch on social media a lot because that is where I'm super plugged into design.
But I feel like it's just like a really down to earth, nice person sitting there on their phone running this social media, even though I know that's not the case.
That's what I'm always trying to embody whenever I work on a social media campaign.
I love it.
It's like this cool, sporty gal who's just really nice and chill.
I feel like that's like the person running this, even though that's not the case.
What a good match for you, Abby.
Listen, I just love it.
I love the typography.
It's like a super simple Sans Serif everywhere.
It's gorgeous.
That's like my favorite brand.
Yeah.
You should tell them that.
I bet they would appreciate it.
You're like, I just want to say awesome.
Yeah.
Well, this is a little bit different and I wouldn't necessarily say it's a brand of admiration for me, but it popped into my mind as you were saying, like, well, you know, I spend time on social media.
It's like, whoever is writing the content for the National Park Service, does anyone read those?
They are the best.
They have, first of all, the best photos of like chipmunks doing wild things or bears or moose, whatever.
And then the cleverness of their captions is ridiculous.
So I mean, I don't know if that's inspiration or not, but everyone should follow the National Park Service.
Good to know.
Totally.
And also, if by chance anyone is in Tacoma, the Metro Parks account is really good.
They do a good job.
Our local Tacoma parks.
I know.
Shout out to them.
Capturing a little seal just poking its head out.
I'm like, oh, right.
Or like, there's like this seagull walking down the beach and they're like, beautiful sunset.
And the seagulls like making good time.
OK, well, this is like off topic.
But comedy is important.
You know, this is maybe a little weird and probably very telling about what my life is like.
But a brand that I have been just in a bizarre awe of since I since I moved to Portland, which is where I'm based, is Zoom Care.
I don't know if I think they probably have them in Washington, too.
Kind of all throughout the Pacific Northwest.
They're for anyone who doesn't know what they are.
They're sort of an urgent care clinic type thing, but they're very, it's they're very process oriented.
It's very quick and efficient.
And they provide really good quality health care.
It's just like super easy and efficient and kind of DIY schedule yourself, all that sort of thing.
And their brand is very like when I first went there, I sort of made a joke that it reminded me of being in like an Ikea if it was a medical clinic, you know?
Because their brand is just so dialed and they've obviously value graphic design.
They've made everything so simple through the use of like iconography and like they've got their colors.
You know exactly, you know, where you are when you walk into a Zoom care.
They've got everything is designed and it's a lot of symmetry, a lot of white space.
It's very beautiful.
It's very friendly and efficient.
And I just, I feel like I'm doing a commercial for them right now, like there's no like 20% off code or anything, but I am a big fan.
Sign up now, zoomcare.com.
But that's a good example of they are borrowing from outside their industry and taking great things that are being done somewhere else and then bringing that to their customers, you know, and in a way that's going to feel fresh.
I mean, I'm sure they did a lot of study on all of that.
I mean, bravo to them for stepping outside of that box to do something different.
I have one last little note on inspiration that I would love to share because I feel like I end up telling myself this a lot is find inspiration in your own professional development.
Maybe that means going back and looking at designs you did four years ago and seeing how far you've come.
Or maybe it's looking at this project you're working on right now and thinking like, oh, this is helping me get to a point where I could design whatever amazing project you don't do.
Maybe you want to design a book or you want to be like the head of marketing this brand that you love.
Whatever you're doing.
Yes, that's what I'm referencing.
It's helping you get there and that's amazing.
No matter what project is or how much you're invested in it, you're learning more and you're getting to the point that you want to be at.
That's good.
Thinking further ahead than what's just right in front of you and being aspirational and inspired by what you might do in the future.
It's pretty great.
Well, that was an amazing conversation.
I would like to actually just have that conversation again, like or maybe every week, can we talk about refreshing, inspiring, and taking care?
Just a real quick summary here.
We talked about recharging.
So some simple things like standing up, taking breaks, stretching those shoulder blades that get really tight as you're doing that intense design work, maybe a walk or something, which could also lead to being inspired by simple things in your environment, whether you're putting them up in your office, your home office, or just looking at, I don't know, flowers and rocks on a walk in your neighborhood.
And then taking care of yourself.
I think, yes, we should all be taking care of ourselves and be kind to yourself.
And everyone's working really hard.
You're doing a great job, you know, and believe that because it can, you know, can be a grind.
It can be thankless at moments.
And sure, every designer has heard the feedback like, oh yeah, that'll work.
And you're like, oh my God.
You know, so let that go.
And I think that, you know, if you have that, those tips to kind of recharge, you'll be in good shape.
For sure.
Thank you both so much.
This has been just the best.
Thank you.
And I'm glad you're here.
It's been fun.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Good times.
All right.
Well, have a good one and we'll talk later.
Thanks so much.
Bye everybody.
The Shortlist is presented by Middle of Six and hosted by me, Wendy Simmons, Principal Marketing Strategist.
Our producer is Kyle Davis, with digital marketing and graphic design by the team at Middle of Six.
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Until next time, keep on hustling.
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The Shortlist is a podcast that explores all things AEC marketing. Hosted by Middle of Six Principal, Wendy Simmons, each episode features members of the MOS team, where we take a deep dive on a wide range of topics related to AEC marketing including: proposal development, strategy, team building, business development, branding, digital marketing, and more. You can listen to our full archive of episodes here.