As a freelancer, my time literally turns into money if I track it properly. For over a year, I’ve used Harvest, and I couldn’t be happier to pay for the service. I whole-heartedly recommend Harvest to colleagues and clients knowing they will not only find it adequate, but that they will become advocates themselves.

The team behind Harvest, Shawn Liu and Danny Wen, work tirelessly to make it better, always unveiling little gems that make Harvest more functional and more friendly. Whenever I have had contact with them, they have been quick, helpful and always friendly, usually receiving a response in minutes. You can’t beat that for customer service.

Recently, one of my clients moved all its time-tracking and estimating to Harvest. The employees and contractors love it because it’s easy to track their time. The project managers love it because they can keep tabs on their projects, people, and budgets. The accountant loves it because he can cut the reports 100 different ways, or just download all the data and slice it up in excel.

If you have a need to track your time, try out Harvest.
http://www.getharvest.com/features

When designing a grid for a book, be sure to include all of the following in your “worst case scenario” layout.

• book title
• chapter title
• folios (page numbers)
• footnotes
• gutters
• margins
• paragraph spacing
• leading
• header/subhead
• pull-quote
• body text

Creation rarely happens in a single iteration.
What happens in-between is critique, a close examination by yourself and others regarding the concept, assumptions, and execution of your idea.

A constructive critique is collaborative, creative, and directed. When done well, it can be productive and incredibly gratifying, and it requires only the engagement of its participants. In this post, I suggest some simple strategies for engaging in good critique that also serve to jumpstart a lethargic group. Over time, these strategies will increase your critical awareness and improve both the quality and usefulness of any critique you participate in.

A quick note on groups:

It can be hard to overcome the inertia of silence. Group members can be lazy, distracted, or self-conscious of their opinions. In this situation, a substantive critique is unlikely. Fortunately, it only takes one person really engaging with the material to put everyone on the right track. Take control. By making it a point to speak when others will not, you single-handedly overcome the inertia of silence, and if you say something useful, provide points of reference for others to launch from. Someone who disagrees with your assessment, or who feels validated by it, will feel more comfortable chiming in once the discussion has already begun. Once jumpstarted, critiques tend to feed on themselves and continue until they’ve run their course. More times than I can count, a single speaker, with one or two good comments, transformed a silent room into a cyclone of activity.

But what should I say?

You’re stumped. What now?

First of all, what is your initial reaction?

This is important, because this first impression is the closest you will get to how a consumer would experience the work.
Do you like it? Do you dislike it? Are you indifferent? Can you articulate why?

If you like it, say so immediately and, if possible, elaborate on why. You can take your time with the “why” and don’t be afraid to change your mind, but talk it out.
If you don’t like it, hold off speaking until you have something specific, and constructive to say. You can always come back to the piece later which demonstrates continued thinking on the subject.
If you’re indifferent, say nothing and try another strategy.

Find something good. Even if you hate the overall work. Even if you think the person is an idiot.

This will force you to look beyond your first impression, to be more thorough. Believe there is something good about it. Keep looking until you find it. It doesn’t have to be big, it just has to be good. “I like the color palette,” or “Your choice of illustration style really sets the tone that you are going for,” are sufficient.

Anyone can find something they don’t like. When unqualified by solutions or positive feedback, it becomes a demoralizing negative spiral. If you can find something legitimately good in everything, people will value all of your opinions more, and it softens the blow when you have to deliver the really bad news. Additionally, positive comments tend to garner solutions, while negative comments breed more negative comments.

Ask a leading question?

Any piece of work is the result of countless decisions. If you are curious about something, ask about it. Even if you are not particularly curious, asking a question is a good way to get somewhere else.

• What made you choose that typeface?
• How did you decide on your color palette?
• What attracted you to that style of illustration?

Try to avoid questions that start out with, “Did you think about…” because not only are they yes/no questions, too often people use the construct just to say anything or to make the presenter look stupid. If you find yourself about to pose a question like this, try to rephrase it. You’ll likely get a better response.

What is the one thing you would change?

Ask yourself, if you were to take over production from here, what would you do, and why. Try to present your ideas not as suggestions or judgments, but as “feelings.” They should act as a transient jumping off point for discussion, not as point to be argued.
Some quick examples:

• The ad needs a hero. The visual is great, but the headline competes so strongly with it that I end up bouncing back and forth.
• It doesn’t seem gritty enough for what you want. Maybe color photography isn’t the right solution.

If you’re stuck, ask yourself:

• Is the photography/illustration/type best suited for this message?
• Does the execution fit the stated strategy?
• Is it eye catching?
• Which is stronger, the words or the imagery?
• Is the strategy/execution appropriate for the client/campaign?
• Does the ad says to you what they intended, or is there a disconnect?
• Is there something in the execution that takes away from the message?

What do you think about the:

• typography
• font choice
• relative type size
• color palette
• use of negative space
• tone
• contrast
• copy
• headline
• layout
• placement/size of the logo

My roommate Jay is a very talented individual. Aside from his art director-related pursuits, he plays several instruments and is the guitarist and lead singer for Paid Pilots, a Chicago-based indie rock band (or Indian rock band, as we like tease him).

Since he’s always headed to Chicago for either practice or a gig, the Quarter Away Kids tagged along the last weekend in October and were treated to a concert at the Elbo Room and a local’s tour of Chi-Town.

See the photo album here (use journal view to see all the captions):
http://dylanthomas.smugmug.com/gallery/3740030/1/214909744

Check out the band here:
http://myspace.com/paidpilots

And a quick clip, taken with my digital camera:

Paid Pilots @ the Elbo Room, Chicago from Dylan Thomas on Vimeo.

I just found out that I’m going to London next quarter. I’ll be working at Saatchi & Saatchi London learning to do advertising the British way.

From what I have heard, little, if any work gets produced. You refine marker comps like crazy. Then you do them again. Then again. Then again. You come back with a binder of killer ads, vetted and waiting for production. While this bothers a lot of people, it doesn’t bother me a bit because I’m going to London to develop conceptually, and production takes time and focus away from that. It also means that when I get back, I can choose only my best work to produce.

This production-focused attitude is unfortunate, and all-to-common among students eager to have pieces to show. By focusing on producing an ad early, the concept often doesn’t have time to fully bake. If you produce before you’re sure it’s a winner, to quote an industry adage, “You’re just polishing turds.” Although sometimes you get lucky.

Unrelated to advertising, the huge downside of going to London is that I’ll be 6,000 miles away from my fiancee for 10 weeks, missing both Valentine’s Day and our 4 year anniversary. Between the distance and the time change, it’s going to be really hard, and I am extremely thankful she’s willing to make this sacrifice for me. That’s just one of the reasons I’m the luckiest guy in the world. Hopefully I will make it worth both our whiles in the long run.

One of the advantages of Miami Ad School is its extensive Quarter Away program where students can take classes and intern all over the globe. It lets you learn new things, meet new people, and try out new cities. The locations vary from quarter to quarter, but there are usually about 20 to choose from. While getting your top choice can be a challenge, a remarkable number of students do.

After your first 4 quarters, you are eligible for Quarter Away, and can spend some or all of your next 4 quarters away from your “home” campus.

For internships, housing (or a stipend) and a scholarship are provided. At some school locations, housing is available. Currently I am living in the Minneapolis student housing, conveniently located one floor above the school in Downtown Minneapolis.

1. Get a Wacom Tablet. Now.
   As an art director, you will get one at some point. You might as well get it now, learn it, and benefit from it as soon as possible. Some things are basically impossible to do without it, and the rest is just a whole lot easier.

   A good one is the Intuos 4×6″. You an get them used, or new for about $200. You can get a Graphire for about $100. It also makes a great birthday/Christmas present.

   As an art director, this is one of the few professional tools you have (other than your camera and laptop). Treat it as such. You can use your Wacom for many years to come.

2. Learn Flash Elsewhere.
   It’s a dirty little secret that you will be under-worked 1st Quarter. Use this time wisely to start learning Flash. Your options include books, websites, community college, adult education classes, and computer training companies like LearnIT in San Francisco. For books, you can’t go wrong with Adobe’s Classroom in a Book Series.
   As always, check the public library. They have lots of resources for free.

   In addition to working on perhaps the most in-demand and lacking skill for art directors, you will save yourself time and money. You won’t need “Intro to Flash” taking up your time and tuition in later quarters when you’d rather be making stuff.

3. Start a Backup Routine.
   Yes, this sucks. Yes, this is a little technical. Recovering from a hard-drive crash sucks more, and is more technical. It also usually happens when you can afford it least.

   EVERY QUARTER, at LEAST one person I know has a complete hard drive crash. Some of them have had good backups, some haven’t. Hard drives are mechanical devices. They fail. All the time. Don’t be caught without a backup of your work. I generally suggest an external hard drive with backup software (more on this in another post). Forget about CDs, DVDs, and flash drives. They don’t have the capacity, speed, or reliability you need.

Follow these 3 simple pieces of advice and you will be miles ahead of your 1st Quarter Art Director brethren.