The fear of undertaking a project beyond your abilities is enough to stop you in your tracks while concepting. And it’s especially frustrating because the idea you have may be great. It may be inspired. You can see it, right there, clear as day in your head. But getting it out in the real world? That isn’t your forté. And that’s a bummer.

Knowing your limitations is important. I suppose it comes down to understanding why it’s important. Conventional wisdom would have us think it’s so our grasp doesn’t extend beyond our reach. There’s a reason you don’t hear the phrase “amateur tightrope walker” thrown around a lot. If we didn’t stay aware of our limitations the world’s population would most likely plummet.

But there’s an aspect to this we’re forgetting. Knowing your limits is another way of knowing where you can improve. A list of things you can’t do, conversely, is a list of things you can learn to do. Exploring ideas outside of your skill set may encourage you to acquire that skill set. And, okay, I know that doesn’t help you in the moment, but it’s a box you can tick for later. And you aren’t beaten just yet.

For the things just beyond your abilities, it doesn’t hurt to learn on the job. If your idea is only just outside of what you’re normally capable of, I say take it on. There’s nothing like a little pressure to get you going. And there are plenty of resources on the web that can point you in the right direction for whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish. Once you’ve completed it, BAM, now you’ve done that thing. And the next time you’re concepting, you have some experience with it. As with everything, you’ll get better with each subsequent attempt.

Now, about the things that fall outside of your usual arsenal.

“I’m a cartoonist but boy would this thing look great in sculpture.” Okay, I may not want to take that client work on as a “learning project.” But, hey, I know a few sculptors. I’ve got the brains, they’ve got the hands. Let’s make this work!

Combining forces with a fellow creative is always an option. And if you have the opportunity to work closely with them, odds are you’re going to learn something along the way. You’ll see your concept executed to its fullest potential and you’ll understand what did and didn’t work for the next time you try to tackle a project in the same arena.

Exploring ideas when you doubt your ability isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It can give you greater insight into what you CAN accomplish and what it will take to do so. It may lead you down a path you didn’t expect, into areas heretofore unknown to you. And once those areas become familiar, you can move on to the next thing you’re no good at. ;)

This change prompted us at XPLANE | Dachis Group to take a look at a few other long-standing charts, graphics and diagrams and ask whether they could use a bit of sprucing up.

So, as we are wont to do, we turned to our monthly Visual Thinking School (VTS for short) and the public to see what kinds of new design thinking could be applied to some old standards.

To start with, we sought to explore the food plate further. Due to its simplicity, the new diagram doesn’t indicate which foods fall under what categories. To remedy this, we did some rapid concepting on a mobile app that would dig deeper into each food group. The group was broken into teams and each team chose a food group.

One team chose the Fruit food group and came up with an app called “Shoot the Fruit.” The app encouraged the user to take photos of fruit. Using the photo, the app would then generate tons of information on that specific fruit: info like preparation, food pairing, recipes, and nutritional information.

See more app concepts on our Flickr stream!
 

So, having gotten our hands dirty with the food plate it was time to take on something from scratch. Again, in groups, we looked at three different, existing graphics: airplane safety guides, food nutrition information labels and the periodic table.

Airplane Safety Guides
The group that worked on this graphic decided that a lot of the information on current safety guides is no longer relevant. This was most evident in the list of devices that are and aren’t allowed during flight. To remedy this, the group designed a new list, both updating the devices as well as distinguishing what is allowed before, during and after the flight.

Food Nutrition Information Labels
As the Food Nutrition Group concepted their design, they came to the decision that the current design doesn’t generate recognition of what the food consists of quickly enough. They set out to create visuals that would be recognizable, at a glance, and would indicate how much of particular component was in the food, and whether that amount was good or bad. An overall assessment of whether the food was healthy or unhealthy would also be given through color-coding on the right. (Think terror alerts, but for food)

Periodic Table
Two groups took on the Periodic Table and both came to the realization that it’s already a very functional design. The main issue was found to be its approachability. Each group tried to make the periodic table a little less imposing by focusing on specific aspects of the information.

One group created a prototype for a rotating periodic wheel, below (I stress the word prototype). The wheel is meant to reveal the information about the elements through an explorative experience. By choosing random attributes of elements, the wheel would eventually reveal what element you’re looking at.

The second group tried visualizing the elements in a comparative fashion, below. Their concept shows the each element represented by a circle the size of which represented its atomic mass.

One member of the group, Alex, went the extra mile after VTS and took the concept even further. Check it out:
The Periodic Table of the Solar System.

Overall, it was an interesting exercise. Reworking familiar design structures can be illuminating in different ways. You’re forced to decide what information seems superfluous and what is vital. A decision that is often informed by what current-day society deems important. Many of the decisions around information for the graphics we were redesigning were most likely made many years ago, when they were originally designed. But over time, the context around them has changed, and the need to reassess becomes evident when you take a good look at them in light of modern day values.
 

Special bonus do-overs:

• Take a look at this sales receipt redesign XPLANEr Susanne LeBlanc found: http://flowingdata.com/2011/07/05/sales-receipt-redesign/
• And Tara Pham of Eleven Magazine sent us a link to a food nutrition label redesign that is a lot like the one our group came up with: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1664668/infographic-of-the-day-a-food-label-that-actually-teaches-you-about-food.

You have stumbled into a zone in which we’ve all found ourselves: Coming up with a design concept for your new project.

I’m here to talk you through some of the common roadblocks you may encounter when generating concepts. Previously, we discussed unoriginality. Today, let’s dig into bad ideas. Or at least what to do when you have them.

There’s a common sequence of thoughts that runs through my head when I’m working on what I’ve realized is a poor concept or a bad idea…

1. This isn’t working.
2. This really isn’t working.
3. Why am I still bothering with this?
4. This is stupid.
5. I’m stupid.
6. I’m hungry.
7. I’m getting a sandwich.

These are negative thoughts. Except the sandwich thing — that’s perfectly delicious. Maybe you run through this same thought process while hashing out concepts. You’ll come up with something, but won’t play it out to its end because you’re sure some aspect of it will fail. But is that such a bad thing? I think there’s much to be said for learning from what doesn’t work. Sure, you shouldn’t set out to explore the bad ideas, but when one pops into your head, why not give it a try? And why not push that idea, tweak it and pound it and twist it — until you make it into something good — or at least until you can set it aside knowing that it led you in the direction of a good idea?

Why not? Well, because devoting effort to what seems like a bad idea is counter-intuitive and, not surprisingly, feels like a waste of time and energy.

But in the long view — I’m talking about your career here — it can be just as important to work through bad ideas as it is to come up with good ones. Many believe that one learns more from failure than from success (warning — link may contain strong language). Whether you believe that or not, the knowledge gained through failure often can be applied in later endeavors and will allow you to more efficiently filter out bad ideas from good ones.

The bottom line: When you get better at knowing why something doesn’t work you’re actually getting better knowing what will work.

And that’s no waste of time.

This is from a PDF you can download on their site:

This is a program at a level on par with graduate studies. The intensive offers advanced students and working professionals a unique opportunity to study with faculty composed of leading designers and social entrepreneurs. In addition, weekly lectures and field trips will allow students to directly interact with a dynamic range of innovators in the field.

This is a rapidly growing area of design. This program will instill in participants the confidence, self-motivation and collaborative spirit which will be needed as they continue on to work as design activists.

Professionals, educators and advanced students in the following disciplines are invited to participate: advertising, graphic design, product design, information design, interactive design, fashion design, photography and illustration. The program is oriented towards these design disciplines but we have had architects and social entrepreneurs participate

We didn’t.

A love letter to Designers from XPLANE on Vimeo.

Dear future XPLANE Designer,

We may not have met yet, but I suspect you’ll receive this letter as if it’s a call from a wayward kindred spirit. See, we’ve got this magic chemistry that’s precious and rare. In short, I’m looking for you. More directly, the world needs you.

First, let me tell you that XPLANE is unlike anywhere you’ve worked before. We give respect to Design by using it as a proper noun. We’re neither an advertising agency nor a marketing group — we’re a consultative Design studio wherein Designers employ the arts of listening, strategizing, creating and presenting on a daily basis.

Now that I have your attention, please allow me a few moments to tell you why you’re so very special.

For starters, you have stunning visual chops. You have the talent, experience, and skill needed to deliver every time. Some of our best Designers on staff have advanced degrees, while others have no formal training at all. Wherever you land on the spectrum, you’re able to balance your academic credentials with an intuitive flair that leads to jaw-dropping and timeless visual Design.

This said, you know that great looking work isn’t everything; experience creation is your ultimate goal. Yes, you know the nuts and bolts of how to build interactive and print projects from the ground up, but the reason we’re interested in you is your ability to place yourself within the minds of your audience. You uncover what is interesting to them, mastermind what will surprise them, and formulate what will help them to best understand and retain what they experience.

You think like da Vinci. Everyone can draw, it’s true, but you can REALLY draw. Like, with a pencil. Or with a marker while standing in front of fifty people. You might even be able to draw with a tablet on your computer. What’s more, you can listen and draw at the same time. And chew gum. Kidding about the gum. Drawing is the start of every project we do and shepherding your Designs from inception to completion requires that you be a true renaissance man or woman to make the grade.

While I know you can find fulfillment in nearly every Design challenge, you can afford to expect a great variety. At XPLANE, you’ll work sometimes from a directional void and sometimes within strict guidelines. You won’t be making web banners because you’re an industry-agnostic multimedia ninja who is constantly asked to stretch into illustration, writing, motion, sound Design and much more. You’ll Design for varied industries and for some of the most exciting companies in the world, including many of the Fortune 100. Some currently active studio projects include mobile apps, interactive sites, touchscreen experiences, process maps, training courses, print campaigns, visual languages and animated movies. Diverse, right? Here are some examples: http://xplane.com/portfolio. Here are some more: http://youtube.com/user/xplanevisualthinking.

You’re not just a studio Designer — you travel well. We won’t keep you locked in some tower. In fact, you might be in Portland your first week, off to San Francisco for a few days, then straight to Vegas, then back to the studio. Maybe even a jaunt to Brussels. We have clients all over the world and guess what — we send our Designers to meet them at the beginning of almost every project, so make sure your passport is up to date.

You can appreciate sky-high limits. We’ll encourage you to try new things and you’ll have the freedom to be as creative as your project (and budget) allows. This means you’re a natural learner. You’re curious, even nosey. You’ll act autonomously but won’t feel alone in your endeavors. But be warned – with such freedoms, come great responsibilities. This job isn’t for the faint of heart.

Now in closing, I must ask, did you know that XPLANE was voted by our employees as one of Oregon Business Journal’s 100 best Places to Work? Yup. We’ve been working really hard to earn that title. We know that at the end of the day, it’s all about our people. They’re our most valuable asset. One more DYK — we’re also one of Oregon Business Journal’s Fastest Growing Companies for five years running. When you have great people with great talent, you attract great clients and create great work.

Now you know what we’re looking for. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts.

Much love,
XPLANE

PS: If you feel that you’re right for us, please send your résumé, portfolio and references.

How to apply

• Portland studio: http://xplane.catchthebest.com/apply/7d3e/25b2
• Amsterdam studio: http://xplane.catchthebest.com/apply/5b59/25b2
• St. Louis studio: http://xplane.catchthebest.com/apply/61d6/25b2

And good luck. We can’t wait to meet you! <3

So with graduation just around the corner and this economy being what it is, I figured it was a good time to reach out and give you a few things to think about as you apply for your next job… hopefully with us. We’re hiring.

The job posting
We put a lot of thought into what we say in our job postings. We do this in the hope that you’ll read through the qualifications and only apply if you meet our criteria. So please make sure that your skills and experience fit well with what we do. We take complex, messy information and make it understandable. You do too? Great! Let’s talk. No? I’ll just push the button under my desk that makes the trap door open.

Cover letters
This may come as a shock to you but I barely read these. It’s not that I think you shouldn’t write them. It’s just that they are all so unimaginative and repetitive that I’ve become numb. So when you write, show your personality and be succinct. I’ll probably just skim through looking for your website links anyway (more on that in a minute). Also, make sure that you spell our name right. It’s not Explane or X-plane. It’s not even Xplane. It’s XPLANE. Mind the details. The work we do is filled with important little details.

Résumés
Some call this their Curriculum Vitae (CV) whereas I like to think of it as Page One of Your Portfolio. This is my first impression of you. If I see bad typography, misspelled words or a lame layout, the record player screeches — and the party is over. This one-page encapsulation of your experience, schooling and personal information should look as good as it reads — so put some effort into it and make it shine. This is basically a design project so when you put it together, dear designer, please use a designer’s tool. MS Word is not a design tool.

Web presence
In this day and age you better have your own URL with samples of your work. A personal profile in a few other places is even better: Flickr, Twitter, art blog… something! When I look at your portfolio, I’m looking for thinking and execution, so show your process, not just some thumbnails. The thinking behind a project is often more revealing than the finished piece. Because what I’m really looking for is your potential — how you work, not just what you’ve done.

Interviews
If you are asked to come in for an interview, please have a solid understanding of what XPLANE does. When I ask, “What attracted you to XPLANE?” Have an answer other than, “I saw the want ad and your company seemed cool.” That’s pretty much a death knell for your chances, although you won’t know it from my expression. And make sure that the samples you show are as relevant as possible to the work we do. I’m looking to see examples of information design and storytelling, not watercolors of your cat.

Reality
You’ve chosen a fun, fast-paced, fantastic profession in which to make your living — but it might take a little time to get going. Have patience, work all your angles and make stuff for anybody that needs it… charities, bands, lost cat flyers, whatever. Don’t get taken advantage of, but take the creative experience and run with it. Network all you can and use your down time to experiment and learn even more.

School may be over but your education has just begun.

Over the last few years all of these things have been getting mashed up and spread around, especially on Tumblr, Posterous and sites like FFFFOUND. I can’t even count the number of simple but lovely posters, graphics and sketches featuring an inspirational quote or a set of rules or a piece of advice set in a condensed gothic font and overlayed on a moody photograph. Don’t get me wrong — for the most part I like them. Sometimes they make you think or give you a needed kick in the butt — or at the very least give you a peek into another creative person’s head.

I’ve had the above poster hanging in my home workspace for several years now. It’s a constant reminder, and I like that.

But it seems that pretty much everywhere I go online lately I am being told what to do…

▲ I get reminded to take it easy — or don’t bother.

▲ I’m told how to work better — but that it won’t be easy.

▲ That it’s now or never.

▲ I’m encouraged to be inspired by everything — even if those things don’t make sense.

▲ That there are rules. Or not.

▲ I am reminded of how the little, familiar things matter. And I’m reminded that maybe I already knew that.

▲ I’m told how to be happy. And how to be miserable.

A few weeks ago I printed some of these out and tacked them up on our inspiration wall here in the St. Louis studio. At the center I placed the above image. Soon after, senior illustrator Chris Roettger added something of her own. No rules, no advice, no maxims. No condensed gothic type. Just a comment.

A very nicely designed comment that looks great on FFFFOUND.

So, do these things inspire — or irk — you?

Visual complexity is a paradox. On the one hand, complexity is a compelling feature known to capture a viewer’s attention and stimulate interest… On the other hand, complexity only arouses curiosity up to a point. When a visual is extremely complex, viewers may tend to avoid it altogether.

There are a lot of reasons why I really like Connie Malamed’s 2009 book, “Visual Language for Designers: Principles for Creating Graphics that People Understand.” Here are three:

1. Balance | The book balances examples of great design, explanations of core visual principles and informative bits on cognitive research about how the brain processes graphics. Some pieces you might be familiar with: Nicholas Felton‘s Annual Reports, the HistoryShots series, and Nigel Holmes‘ and Alberto Cairo‘s work all appear here. But a great strength of the book is in the mix of graphics projects you’ve almost certainly not seen before.

2. Context | But it’s not just about infographics. It’s not just about charts. It’s not just about data visualization. It’s not just about posters or maps or illustrations. The book clearly places each of those outputs into context by using specific projects as examples of a key design principle rather than sorting them by deliverable, or style, or date, or provenance or designer. Seeing each piece according to its best qualities is almost better than having an overall project case study. It helps make successes clear and repeatable.

3. Imperfection | The examples shown are not all perfect. In fact, a few are rather bad overall. Some of the more than 250 graphic projects are very specific in their successes and Malamed carefully highlights the thing you should look for. One project might use symbolic icons especially well and another might be a great example of using magnification to highlight important details, while still giving the viewer a holistic view. So just because the font used on a CD cover is, well, questionable, that doesn’t mean we don’t get a look at how nicely the designer combined photography and vector linework to express the motion involved in playing a stringed instrument.

“Visual Language for Designers” is a smart and beautiful synthesis of cognitive science and visual design. It’s scientific but not dull and artistic but not fluffy. I frequently refer to it for inspiration and information.

• Title: Visual Language for Designers: Principles for Creating Graphics that People Understand
• Author: Connie Malamed
• Publisher: Rockport

Disclosure: Two examples of XPLANE’s work appear in the book – one piece in the introduction and another in the “Make the abstract concrete” chapter.

XPLANE has a regular thing we do called Visual Thinking School — VTS for short.

It started as a way to take a break from client work and get together to safely learn new skills and innovate. The format is wide open — the only real requirement these days is that the exercises be interactive. By that, we mean that everyone should be involved and active. No death by PPT. No one-way lectures. Get people up, get them working together in small groups or discussing things, report back.

So at VTS we make things, ask questions, sketch, scribble, draw, design, share. It’s a time for XPLANERS (and the public, on the first Thursday of each month) to focus on becoming great at what we do and have some fun at the same time. (Contact me at bkeaggy at this domain if you’re in St. Louis or Portland and would like to get on the invite list.)

Anyway, today I’m going to tell you about one of the more fun VTS sessions we’ve done. Actually we’ve done some of these a few times. It’s called Design Challenge Night!

You’ve probably heard of the 10-minute Album Cover Challenge? If not, it requires you to rapidly design a CD cover using random elements from the web. I used that as inspiration and designed a few similar quick challenges. They follow the CD challenge…

You need this stuff

• Laptops with an internet connection
• Digital projector (optional)
• The links and instructions below
• Snacks and beverages

1) Album cover design challenge

• 10 minute time limit
• The first article title on the page is the name of your band: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
• The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album: http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
• The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover: http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
• When you’re done, tag it and add it to this Flickr Pool (optional): http://www.flickr.com/groups/cdcovermeme/pool/

Chris’ design.

2) Book cover design challenge

• 10 minute time limit
• Choose a title from the list presented to you: http://www.kitt.net/php/title.php
• Search for an “opposite” of something in your title. For example, if your book title is “The Tender Night,” search Google Images for “cruel day” or something like that: http://images.google.com/
• This is your author name: http://www.behindthename.com/random/

Ted’s design.

3) (De)motivational poster design challenge

• 10 minute time limit
• The first emotion you are presented with is your slogan (it appears in a JavaScript popup). You can change its form as needed (if you get “anxious,” go ahead and change it to “anxiety”): http://www.sff.net/people/julia.west/CALLIHOO/dtbb/rndemotions.htm
• Search for that exact word on Flickr and choose a photo from the first page of results: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=&w=all
• You get to come up with your own snarky, witty phrase common to all (de)motivational posters.

Travis’ design.

4) Biz card design challenge

Take the first result you get from all of these online generators and design a business card. You can create a logo or use any clip art you like for this:

• 10 minute time limit
• http://www.lightsphere.com/dev/web20.html
• http://taglinegenerator.com/
• http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/
• http://www.bullshitjob.com/titles.html

Chris’ design.

5) Magazine cover design challenge

• 15 minute time limit
• Pick a word, any single word.
• Search for that exact work on Flickr and choose a photo from the first page of results: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=&w=all
• Design a magazine cover using the word as the title of your magazine and the image as your cover art. Develop other blurbs/copy as you see fit.

Diana’s design.

Yeah, so…?
It’s surprising how a design done in 10 minutes can look so… legitimate. Makes you wonder how fast you can do other projects — and how long some businesses take to do similar projects.

Also, design really sets the tone (duh). It was fun to imagine the type of music or book these designs were for. We literally judged books by their covers and we had a blast doing it.

We know there are no masterpieces here — but we also learned that we are all awesome and can turn out quality work on tight deadlines. More will be posted to XPLANE’s Flickr account soon.

Try it in your office, studio, home, class and let us know how it goes.

Great set of design accidents, homages, inspirations and appropriations.

The pairs of images in this “Similarities” set are similar visually in one way or another. They are presented without judgement as to the motives of their creators. The viewers of the pieces can form their own opinion(s) about what they see.