Designer’s Quest(ionnaire): Product Designer and Teacher Tim Parsons

To the question about advice to aspiring designers, Parsons answered, “Do it because you enjoy it, not to make money.” Without taking pleasure in what you’re doing, the money doesn’t feel earned and it won’t matter. From his online bio, Parsons is attracted to projects which “examine notions of familiarity, functionality and the quality of materials and processes, producing simple, durable objects.” He enjoys it, as Product Designer, Writer and as an Associate Professor in Designed Objects at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Read his insightful take on design and designing.

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The Designer’s Quest(ionnaire) is a Design Feast initiative that describes and captures a designer’s perspective in a succinct format. Read the previous Designer’s Quest(ionnaire) with Jennifer Kinon and Bobby C. Martin Jr., the Founders of OCD, The Original Champions of Design.

Design Feast Fritter Subscription Newsletter and Blogging Course Change

I’m excited to announce a new writing trek called Design Feast Fritter. My posts have evolved from snippets into ones of moderate length. My Tweets (of course) remain under 140 characters. This newsletter will offer content that’s both bite-sized and nutritious. It will also be my primary writing focus.

This doesn’t mean that the Design Feaster Blog will be abandoned. It will continue to be the place for these ongoing series which I cherish, every one:

• Interviews with awesome creators
• Blogger’s Quest(ionnaire)
• Creative Roles
• Designer’s Self-Statements
• Designing the User Experience
  
• Audio reviews of design-related books
• Year End Design Highlights

Each edition of this newsletter will highlight a topic related to art, design, technology, work—the creative culture-at-large. Rants included. At the end, you’ll find “Take Out”, a short piece to wrap up each issue.

The diversity of the newsletter reflects the all-encompassing nature of Design Feast. Subscribe to receive regular issues per month of Design Feast Fritter.

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Big thanks to Sam Lessin for inventing letter.ly for everyone to publish email subscription newsletters and charge for them.

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Design Feast Fritter is separate from the Design Feast Serving newsletter, which will remain free and continued to be delivered. Subscribe to receive Design Feast Serving at Design Feast.

Designer Self-Statement: Love and War’s Turn from Dissatisfaction

Is was through their work for New York City Restaurateur and Food Network star Geoffrey Zakarian that creative agency Love and War caught my attention. A clear truth emerges when the agency describes themselves: Dissatisfaction leads to something better. The founders of Love and War took their dissatisfying work circumstances, envisioned a workplace aligned to their work-style, and then made it real:

“Love and War is the agency we wanted to hire, but couldn’t find, when we were on the client side. It is the company we wanted to work for, but couldn’t find, as creatives.

Instead of departmental silos, we wanted a single ‘go to’ team that could attack problems, develop creative solutions, and execute across print, web, and broadcast media. We wanted to work with people who had an intuitive grasp of brand strategy and a knack for breakthrough creative.

We wanted a streamlined structure and a flexible process. We wanted to work with people who would roll up their sleeves and get it done.

We couldn't find the agency we wanted. So we created it.”

There’s a “viral” quote that goes “The best way to complain is to make things.” It’s attributed to James Murphy, founder of retired band LCD Soundsystem. Creating is complaining, and Love and War is doing just that. They also call themselves “creatives” which may make you run, but in this case, toward them because they mean it.

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This is a piece in a series focused on collecting and pointing to “effortless” expressions, created by designers describing themselves. In these pieces, designers reveal something about their attitude toward work—whatever their discipline may be—one “About Me” at a time. In case you missed the previous release, read about Lundgren+Lindqvist’s Enthusiasm for Design and Friends Along The Way.