When we were all kids, one of the lessons our parents really emphasized was "Sharing is Caring." When we grew up, we all stopped sharing as much. I have to take care of myself. I can't give away my expertise for free. What would happen if I shared something, and didn't get the credit?

I think we need to bring back the values that were ingrained in us as children. Start simply with "sharing is caring." With how awesome technology is now, I can carry an entire production studio for podcasting in my backpack. I can have a pop-up photo studio that's so portable, I can carry it around with me. But not everyone has the funds to be where the professionals are at right now, and that can really hamper some amazingly creative people from creating.

I was inspired by the amazing people behind Death to Stock Photo and New Old Stock website, offering great photos that are royalty free, and free to have access to. So I decided to start my own free stock photo site, because I love photography as a hobby, and if someone finds the pictures cool, then feel free to use it!

My site is called Lock and Stock Photos, and take a peek. I hope that we can grow a community around creative people sharing some of their work to help the next generation of creatives that may not have the funds to get access to amazing tools and assets.

Let's build a new culture of free. Pool some of our talents, and assets together, and help bring greater creative things to life!

With my line of work in social media marketing, communications, etc. I've noticed something very alarming in the discussions and processes that happen: we forget about the one person that this all matters to. The end user.

The end user is a marketing term to refer to you and me. The person on the other end who will see your posts, watch your video, click on your ad, buy your product, use that product, and hopefully become a customer for life.

What happens in all the meetings and design iterations, and talks, where the product/ad post/tweet campaign flops? Why did this happen? I think we forget how someone would interact on the other side. We stare at these words for hours on end, scrutinizing every phrase and punctuation, and forget that it's just another email in someone's inbox that will probably be deleted before being opened.

If we took some time thinking about it from the end user perspective, it could help make our brand and product even that much better. Good design, and good products, truly speak for themselves, and will get recognized. But to get someone to even look at them first, we need to understand how our work is perceived.

One thing I like to do is pull someone who has had no discussion and no knowledge of something that I am working on, and show them a design that I am working on, or watch a video that I created, and get their reaction. What did you think? What was the message you took away from it? Did it make sense? Did it seem relevant?

Taking this one step has helped out tremendously in avoiding some gaffs; but you can't avoid every person's perspective and interaction. Learning the art of persona building helps too, where you build a "person" or a group of "people" who are your target audience, and filter things through this character. What kind of work do they do, what's their day like, interests, hobbies, favorite foods?

In the end, though, the greatest tool you can use, in my opinion, are your ears. Listen. What are people saying? How are they responding to what you are doing? Taking the time to listening can help shape your work to be effective.

I want to leave you with a great talk by Seth Godin, called "It's Broken" from 2006. An oldie but a goodie on how people interact with things, and how it affects people's perspective. Enjoy!

Dieter Rams was born 20 May 1932 in Wiesbaden, Hessen and is a German industrial designer associated with the consumer products company Braun. His design is instantly recognized for it's minimalistic and functional focus, and he is a key source of inspiration for Johnny Ive from Apple. 

Dieter Rams put together his 10 Principles of "Good Design" that are so amazing to me, and universal to everything we do, it's adaptive to nearly any job or situation you find yourself in. Check them out below:

Rams’s 10 Principles of “Good Design”

1. Is innovative – The possibilities for progression are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for original designs. But imaginative design always develops in tandem with improving technology, and can never be an end in itself.
2. Makes a product useful – A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic criteria. Good design emphasizes the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could detract from it.
3. Is aesthetic – The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products are used every day and have an effect on people and their well-being. Only well-executed objects can be beautiful.
4. Makes a product understandable – It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product clearly express its function by making use of the user’s intuition. At best, it is self-explanatory.
5. Is unobtrusive – Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression.
6. Is honest – It does not make a product appear more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.
7. Is long-lasting – It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years – even in today’s throwaway society.
8. Is thorough down to the last detail – Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.
9. Is environmentally friendly – Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimizes physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.
10. Is as little design as possible – Less, but better – because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.

I need your opinion. Your help, your je ne sais quoi. I'm looking to get some Business Cards made up, since I'm not a full-time employee at Mayo Clinic, and therefore do not get any Business Cards. I wanted to go with something simple, and bold. The "M" is the logo I'm rocking right now on the website and blog, and with the back, you get all the pertinent information in one shot.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments. Thanks! And I'm looking at you +Jamie Sundsbak , +Nelson Soken , +Anouk Moulliet , and +Mike Fallenstein . You got "the eye."

In the world (or should this start with a deep voice saying "In A World..") of working as a freelancing contractor that I find myself in, trying to get work is sometimes a delicate dance of convincing a client you're worth the price you ask, and that you have the skills to pay the bills. There are too many horror stories that you can find around the web about expectations and communication breakdowns.

Where I find myself right now is pondering the works of a local "designer" that has produced some work that is past the point of questionable. In fact, some examples of the work break every graphic design rule in the books (unreadable fonts, 6 different fonts on one slide, questionable composition). Over the last few months I have been thinking of how to illustrate my feelings about this particular individual that I have come to know. Here's my take:

Just because you can swing a hammer doesn't mean you can build a house.

I think we all know the person that has downloaded Photoshop or Illustrator, and figured out a few things, maybe learned what a Quick Mask was, and now advertises themselves as a Graphic Designer. Just a quick look at reddit finds you great examples, and one of my personal favorites is this glorious photography site.

These type of "designers" and "photographers" are never going to go away either. Their services will always be offered at next to nothing, and that's exactly what they provide. The best thing that we can do (and I am by no means an expert at design or photography myself) is continue to challenge ourselves to be better with our skills each day, and I truly believe the better clients will see and appreciate what you have to offer.