Way back in 2002 XPLANE did an XPLANATiON for NYSE magazine about NASA’s robotic astronaut, which was then in development and expected to start flying in 2004 or 2005.
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Well, yesterday our friend Robonaut finally blasted off aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. While Robonaut 2 is the first humanoid robot to go into space — this is the shuttle’s 39th and final flight.
We’re very happy you finally made it to space, even if you’re never coming back.
But don’t be too sad, folks. You can follow Robonaut’s space exploits on Twitter: @AstroRobonaut.
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.
Hi. It’s Monday — the start of the work week for most of us.
But before you get started, let me ask you a few questions… Did you know that 40% of workers say they bring work home to complete at night, or work overtime at least once a week? That 15% of people admit that they are addicted to email — some confess to checking their email at the beach, at weddings and even at funerals? That the number of workers who work remotely is on the rise — in 2009, 28% of the global workforce worked remotely and by 2016, an expected 43% of the workforce will become remote workers (and did you know that studies show that working remotely improves productivity by 15%)? Did you know that a whopping 26% of Americans say they never take vacations?
If you didn’t, kick off the work week by watching this:
Because we get a kick out of seeing our beloved founder Dave Gray wearing a tie, here’s a great interview he did with Dr. Martin Eppler of the University of St. Gallen. It’s about visual thinking, effective communication and change. It’s about 15 minutes long and was recorded during Dave’s stay at the =mcminstitute in Switzerland.
As XPLANE’s Director of Design I’ve plowed through thousands of résumés from young designers looking for work, and I must admit it’s starting to take a toll on me. Each time I sift through a pile of applications or portfolio samples I wish I could have given that person a little coaching beforehand to give them a better chance of moving forward in the process — or at least save some of their time.
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.
The holidays are now behind us and the new year has ushered in a renewed sense of optimism and hope. So many possibilities for what 2011 could bring. Maybe this is the year you finally write your first novel. Maybe there’s a business you’ve been wanting to start, a diet you’ve wanted to try, or a favorite hobby that you’ll finally make time for. Heck, maybe your 2011 resolution might be to draw more. Why not?
You awaken, suddenly, from a particularly distracting bout of daydreaming to find yourself staring at a blank piece of paper, screen, lump of clay, whatever your particular medium — and you’re struck with an undeniable feeling of dissatisfaction, inadequacy and shame.
We’ve all been there.
The struggle for that first idea, the breakthrough concept, is often a hard-fought battle. It’s an uphill slog through uncertainty and self-doubt. There’s a hesitance to put pen to paper for fear that your initial ideas won’t work out. A worry that a friend or colleague may walk by, glance at your work and quietly judge your (in)abilities, forever changing the tenor of your relationship.
Okay, maybe it’s not so bad as all that, but lack of ideas is a common occurrence in any field involving creativity. And this isn’t going to be a list of ways to find inspiration. Enough of those exist in the world, and you don’t need my help finding them. I’m more interested in what’s getting in our way once we’ve been inspired. What stops us from putting those ideas down on paper?
In this, and subsequent posts, I present to you some common roadblocks that we might be looking at the wrong way. Maybe they’re not roadblocks at all, if we give them a chance. Let’s explore further, shall we?
Hang around the designers’ corner of the internet for any amount of time and you quickly are overwhelmed with great work and lame work, sound advice and bad advice, rules, ideas, maxims, quotes, plagiarism, inspiration and inanity.
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…
Last month at VTS our St. Louis studio did an exercise we called “What’s in a triangle?” Basically, everyone drew a triangle on a whiteboard and had five minutes to turn it into something. So from a very simple starting point we ended up with a lot of clever and creative sketches. The idea was to make something out of nothing — to exercise our visualization muscles.
Brian Williamson came to that VTS. We had been talking with him about the designer position we had open. Afterwards, Brian went home and took that single triangular starting point all the way to the finish line: He made his niece a beautiful book called ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ: An alphabet book of drawings inspired by the simple triangle — and he sent us a copy.
Brian started working with us in our St. Louis office last week.
This 3-minute overview animation is being used to drive adoption and usage of IHG’s Green Engage program, which helps individual hotels analyze their energy usage and devise action plans to reduce their environmental impact. Check it out on our YouTube channel.
XPLANE | Dachis Group drives breakthrough results with Business Design Thinking. Our approach includes a set of comprehensive business architecture solutions that combine research, collaborative consulting, design thinking, social media technology and incredibly effective visual communications.
It’s what makes us different. And better. The world’s biggest brands have found success with XPLANE. Are you ready for results too? Contact us.
Founded in 1993 by Dave Gray, XPLANE has evolved from an information design company into a global communications and business transformation consultancy. As part of the Dachis Group XPLANE drives results for the world’s leading corporations through the sophisticated process of Business Design Thinking.
XPLANE founder Dave Gray, along with XPLANER James Macanufo and our friend Sunni Brown, have written a playbook for innovators, rule-breakers and changemakers. It's called Gamestorming and it's filled with useful, fun knowledge games — games designed to help you get more innovative, creative results in your work. More info at gogamestorm.com.
At XPLANE | Dachis Group we have some of those fun perks you often hear about at great workplaces -- wine every Friday, free M&Ms, a pool table, and a duck pond to name a few. But we think the reason our workplace is so great runs a little deeper than that. For us, building a great workplace is a big commitment, and it’s all about building trust, pride, and camaraderie. We wanted to share a few of our practices with the hope that it might inspire you to think about how you could build a better workplace -- wherever you work.
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Check out this video we made for Kronos to help celebrate International Women's Day, 2011. Learn more in this xBlog post or jump over to YouTube and watch it there.
Azure poster
XPLANE | Dachis Group developed a A vibrant, engaging poster showing how Microsoft Azure enables developers to run applications and store data on Microsoft servers. The poster recently took top honors in the American Business Awards.
Hang around the designers’ corner of the internet for any amount of time and you quickly are overwhelmed with great work and lame work, sound advice and bad advice, rules, ideas, maxims, quotes, plagiarism, inspiration and inanity.
XPLANE founder Dave Gray, along with XPLANER James Macanufo and our friend Sunni Brown, have written 
