More work in less time

There's a great interview today on The Design Files with Stephen Banham from the Brunswick-based design studio Letterbox. It's always great to hear about how different design studios operate, and I resonated particularly with Stephen's answer to this question:

Is it really true that everyone leaves work at 5.30 at Letterbox?! That is amazing.
Maybe this come back to the self-discipline I spoke of before. The studio is just very, very well organised. We have to be because we work on between 10-15 projects (studio-led and client-led) at once. This idea that you have to work until 4am every night is an industry myth that you can either buy into or not.

Years ago, before I started my own business, I attended a lecture by renowned NYC-based graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister. Something he said, similar to Stephen Banham's comment, has always stuck with me. Sagmeister Inc employs only two other people and "We work from 10am until 7pm, five days a week. We work hard during that time, but we all leave the office at 7pm."

Working five days a week and having a reasonable daily finishing time has always been a priority for me as my own boss. I don't think I have ever, ever 'pulled an all-nighter' - I just physically and mentally can't work late into the night. And so even if I did, the work would probably be crap, so what would be the point?

I love that Stephen says you can either buy into this industry myth or not. It makes me sad that we have moved into a 24-hour society where there is little to no question that things can be done immediately, overnight, yesterday. Every body wants and needs a life outside of their work, so why are we all allowing this system to exist?

Overall I try to treat work like a gas - it condenses into the space it's contained in. Having the same systems and processes in place for years certainly helps... locating files, and sending emails, and communicating with clients, and all the periphery stuff that goes along with actually doing the work flows smoothly. Which is not to say my systems are perfect, but I'm regularly re-evaluating the time-sucking tasks in my life so I can do more work in less time. That's the ultimate goal, my friends. More work in less time.

Image from the Letterbox website.

Lissom Yarn and the Grafitti Mono Angles dress

Remember when I bought those rad fabrics earlier this year (both are from Spotlight - I've had a few questions about them!)?

New Romance Crimson was made into a shirred sundress thanks to a class at Thread Den, and recently Graffiti Mono Angles has been made into a cute 'pinnie' dress thanks to the lovely Ellen at Lissom Yarn in Flemington!

When I bought this fabric earlier in the year, I knew a dress needed to be made (my dress making skills = limited). When I saw that Ellen had opened a shopfront on Pin Oak Crescent earlier in the year, I knew I should inquire about her dressmaking services. It wasn't until one morning that I woke to the thought "I should ask Ellen to make me a dress from that fabric!" (Do you ever wake up and your first thought is an answer to a problem you didn't even know you had? I know sleep is important what with all the building and repairing synapses and brain cells and such, but it's nice to know that little thoughts like that are being match-made overnight without much extra effort from me).

Anyway, I love my new dress (+ the hidden pockets!) and I am already planning my next project for Ellen. In the meantime, visit her blog! Thanks Ellen, and thanks brain. Keep up the good work.

Photos courtesy of Ellen and Lissom Yarn.

Design upgrade: Spice it up

Lots of the design upgrades I  blog about here are about making something that worked in our old apartment (2+ years ago) work better in our new (or not so new anymore) apartment.

At our old place, all these little square spice containers sat in a shallow draw and the labels on the lids made for easy spice selection. In our current kitchen, we have this wall-mounted spice rack from IKEA. The stacked boxes fit perfectly but they were kind of annoying to get at (I need half a tsp of tumeric, STAT!).

 Sorry about the flash image... ugh.

So I was on the lookout for glass spice bottles. I looked everywhere, online and off - but I couldn't find any that were just plain. I vaguely remembered seeing something at Chef's Hat in South Melbourne... 16 plain glass bottles housed in an ugly spice revolver thingy. I remembered there being only two units on display for $20 each. In March. Surely one would still be there waiting for me to get around to buying it!

Last weekend I searched that store high and low for those (or any) small plain glass bottles. I used my 'eagle eye', as Patrick calls it. And just as I was giving up hope, I spotted it - a lonely, non-packaged, some-parts-missing, ugly revolving spice rack thingy with plain glass bottles sitting underneath the front counter area. It was mine! The sales assistant had the missing bottles out the back, and was even apologetic that the entire thing was reduced to $9.95. I was upfront with him that I didn't actually want the ugly revolver thingy, and so he just gave me the bottles by themselves. Super score.

Also pictured: tea cosies (a previous design upgrade), and that thing on the right is a spaghetti measure from Wheel & Barrow)

I made labels using one of my favourite fonts, Toronto Subway (which, funnily enough I came to love after living in Toronto and catching the subway... the uppercase R is so awesome!).

This week in...

Hellos: Some people popped by the blog to say hello this week, thanks to a link from the Design Files about my Spacecraft adventure on Saturday. Hello to you! Thanks for reading! I promise to bring you more random acts of upholstery (ha!), crafty and home-related goodness, plus the occasional rant, ponder, missive or musing. And lots of nice-looking design finds too.

Food: I have a weird kind of guilt eating out at the same restaurant in Melbourne more than a few times, because there are so many places that are awesome and new ones opening all the time! But one Patrick and I enjoy going back to is Peko Peko in Fitzroy. Yummy contemporary Japanese food, with warm lighting, nice staff, and a soundtrack that sounds like I programmed their iPod. A highlight this week was also a Wednesday night visit to Movida. You cannot go to Movida on a weekend night unless you book 3 months in advance! Anyway, it was great - my advice is bypass the menu and just tell your friendly waiter to 'bring food'. There are lots of tasty delicious surprises that way.

Shopping sitting down: I am partial to a bit of online shopping here and there. This week I needed some reusable waterbottles, and was recommended State of Green. My order was delivered in less than 24 hours! Impressive. They have heaps of awesome green home wares and gifts on their site... plus my package arrived wrapped like a present. Aww.

Image: Earthlust waterbottle via State of Green

Spacecraft workshop!

Last week, I entered a competition on thedesignfiles.net for a chance to join the Spacecraft Aesthetics of Saving (Part 2) workshop (you remember Spacecraft, I blogged about them last week!), held as part of the State of Design festival. So you can imagine how excited I was to receive an email from Lucy the next day that I had won a spot at the workshop on Saturday!

All I knew about the event beforehand was that we would be working with Stewart, his team and Spacecraft's artwork to screen print an item of clothing or furniture to keep (!).

The workshop was held at Spacecraft's large light-filled warehouse in North Melbourne. Stewart Russell, the driving force behind Spacecraft, gave us a brief intro to their business and the SC process - their approach to creating artwork, home wares and furniture design is unique, and I highly recommend you read Lucy's interview with Stewart if you're interested in the full story.

Stewart and his team are all incredibly nice and were so helpful throughout the day - especially for those of us who don't have much hands-on screen printing experience (me!). It was a very casual and completely open studio environment.

First we were asked to pick an item of clothing or small furniture item from their collection of op-shop finds to work with.

The workshoppers choose their items to print and find a place at the big yardage tables.

I'm a sucker for multi-functional storage furniture, so this little guy was love at first sight.

A light sanding of was required, and then came was the tricky task of picking which of the over 100 Spacecraft screen designs we would combine to make our own Spacecraft creation. Luckily we had examples for inspiration everywhere.

Large 'printing table backing' artwork and patchwork artwork.

A future backing artwork?

I picked a few different screens - an Olive tree, some typography, a pinstripe, and large textured dots.

Printing onto a 3-dimensional item was not a cake walk! But there were many hands to help. The rough texture of my wooden crate made for some great surface detail and a few nice surprises when the screen was lifted off.

I think everyone was amazed at how much we achieved in a short 4-hour block, especially when each layer needs to dry and screens have to be washed and dried to use again (thanks, screen-washing helpers!).

Stewart was very generous with tips and printing help - here he is adding a layer to one side of my crate.

The process of layering designs and choosing coloured inks (opaque vs non-opaque) was a nice challenge, especially for someone who's day to day design life is a convenient series of Ctrl+Z 'undo' commands and click-speed colour changes.

The time few by quickly, but my crate was definitely taking on a Spacecraft personality.

My fellow workshoppers went home with some brilliant outcomes, including embroidered napkins (now overlayed with stunning black and white architectural imagery and fine botanical detail); some exciting designs on wood blocks in the style of Spacecraft's 'artplay' series (seen here); and a range of delicate and boldly screen printed clothing. The op-shop items the SC team chose for us to work with were seemingly ubiquitous, but each item was transformed into something quite unique and spectacular with this method. I'm going to be looking at opshop textiles in a different way from now on.

Thanks to Spacecraft for putting on this event, and especially for the opportunity to win a place via TDF! Spacecraft may hold events like this in the future so my advice is to keep an eye on their blog for details of future workshops. And make sure to check out Spacecraft's State of Design exhibition at their Malvern Road store and also their piece in the Gertrude St Projection festival at their Gertrude St store!

The crate at home... next to the newly-black couch!

Couch, recovered

Remember how I was planning to recover our couch?

Well, it is finally finished! Here's how it went down:

Fabric. I ordered 11m of black cotton hemp through www.hempgallery.com.au. Prior to ordering, I had a think about how I would go about recovering this beast and took down measurements of all the separate bits I needed. In Adobe Illustrator, I layed out all the shapes on an artboard and proceeded to move them around until they fit snugly together within the fabric width, with minimal wastage. This 'puzzle' was then a guide to cutting all the separate shapes out of the roll of fabric.

I made the cushions first - six in total. They're pretty rectangular, yet squishy, so I didn't have too much trouble hiding my mistakes. I didn't skimp on putting in a zip on each (even though I soooo wanted to: I hate zips!) but now each of the cushion covers is washable.

Removing the arms of the couch was a laborious yet necessary step (mostly done by Patrick... he's a good one, that one - Note to self, buy a hatchet wrench!).

Our living room turned into a workshop for most of the afternoon, fitting the arm covers and stretching the back and seat cover piece and nailing everything in place.

But then it was done! And we are very happy with the result. For $240 and a few hours work over a few weekends, we pretty much have a brand new couch.

In a state of design

Of all the many festivals Melbourne hosts each year, the State of Design is my favourite!

The festival officially started yesterday, and this morning I went along to the Blogger's Breakfast, held inside a cardboard bubble at Design:Made:Trade in the Carlton Exhibition building. Not that I would really call myself a blogger, I mean I have a blog, and I blog on that blog, and if you say blog too many times it kind of sounds like you are saying it wrong. But Lucy from the Design Files (a real blogger) and Pip from Meet Me at Mikes (retailer, author and super-dedicated blogger!) were the guests of honour and had some very insightful things to say about the online web log world.

It's interesting to me to see an 'industry' develop itself over the years via ordinary people who just have a passion for something (many of whom have no professional experience in web design or PR or writing). To see something like a blog become successful organically in a make-it-up-as-we-go-along kind of way is great, because so many things these days and planned and focus grouped and market/advertiser driven, it's nice to bring it back to the 'personal'. To see those people have extra success in their careers via their blogs is also awesome.

The other thing nice thing about this breakfast was that even though blogs may be accessible from anywhere in the world, to meet and catch up with local people you have met through or gotten to know better via their blogs is a lovely thing. It was so nice to see familiar faces there this morning - Lucy, Susan, Shannon, Kate and especially Shelley (whom has been through so much in the last month, her smiling face was a testament to how amazing a person she is!).

Ok, anyway, yada yada blogs are awesome on so many levels - I know you know it, so I won't go on.

After eating too many mini-muffins I whisked around Design:Made:Trade and here are my favourite finds:

Hookturn Industries gave everyone at the blogger breakfast a free reusable coffee cup! How nice is that?

RetroModern have a rad idea... take mid-century modern furniture that has either a) seen better days or b) maybe was one of the less-attractive designs of the time (marble laminex anyone?) and restore/redesign them into a contemporary piece of furniture - to your specifications! Maybe they should take a gander at some of my local opshops...

Even though they're specifically designed for Macbooks (sigh), these Aegis laptop sleeves are made from 100% wool felt and come in nice colours. They do phone and camera cases as well!

Felt was definitely a theme at D:M:T. Hand felted from lambs wool here in Melbourne, Kyoko scarves are beautiful and delicate... The info on Kyoko Osato's about page sums up my (ideal) clothing aesthetic exactly: "Designed to be practical with simple structure, colour palette and aesthetics. The combination of all these elements gives the textiles a 'less is more' timeless look that goes beyond disposable trends."

There was a beautiful dress by Klei that I can't find online, but it sort of looked a bit like this, with pockets. Klei are quite multidisciplinary - clothing, ceramics, jewellery... I liked their clothing the most, and from the looks of their blog they are currently expanding their range. 

And finally Cloth. Ooohhhh I love Cloth... everything, remember? They have a rad new range of Hemp rugs and a wallpaper collection in conjunction with/for Porter Paints. Patrick, how do you feel about living in a Cloth showroom? Great, see you there.

Patent pending

Ladies!

Do you love wearing cute flat shoes while you ride your bicycle?

And do you hate it when you're riding your bicycle down a busy road and a dodgy gear change causes one of your cute shoes to fall off?*

WELL, a solution is here!

Hand made from the highest quality elastic sourced from our local fabric cupboard, Feetbelts are a revolution in Shoe Adhesive Technology.

Don't be a slave to your only pair of lace-up shoes any more! Ride with style and safety and put on your Feetbelts!

*The road wasn't actually busy at the time and my shoe survived... 

Image: New stockings from Obus... so warm! Shoes from Steve Madden.

Design upgrade: Doors of our lives

For ages we hated on our door handles - they were ill-fitting, frequently detached themselves into your hand, and were just generally the cheapest excuse for doorhandles in existence (jusy generally). Our new square silver handles from Bunnings are definitely a design upgrade (and the doors to the toilet and bathroom now lock, which is appropriate and necessary!)

Similarly, the knobs on our kitchen cabinetry were kinda bland, and also annoying because the doors you see below are actually connected to the refridgerator doors, making for a discreet whitegoods hideaway-situation (a good thing)... but a tiny little knob isn't much to hold onto when you have armfuls of shopping and butter fingers.

But now, thanks to IKEA, we have cupboard handles you can really grab onto! Like sands through the hourglass. Or something. Either way, it's a design upgrade.

Things that I liked this week

Been at my desk all week with catalogues and reports, and going to bed early at night to ward off a cold - so not much to review this week. Nevertheless I did find quite a few good things on the www's, and so here's another installamo of things that I liked online this week:

It's a new FY, and as good a reason as any to change things up office-style. Design*Sponge had forty inspiring offices to show off this week. I did a bit of straightening up and tidying of drawers in my own. (And Patrick has a whole new home-desk situation, which is awesome, and I'll post about that soon).

This is the most awesome blog I've come across in a while - Allie Brosh's Hyperbole and a Half. I remember reading about her Alot's earlier this year... not sure how her entire awesomely hilarious site passed me by. It reminds me of my old favourite, Teen Girl Squad.

Popped into Spacecraft on Gertrude St today. Argh I want to have everything in their shop. Including the prime retail position.

Oeke umbrellas! I wish I had space for one of these (or space where it wouldn't get blown away). I also like this picture because it helps me think warm thoughts, to combat my uncoordination syndrome.

This week(end) in...

Food! Aloi Na in Hardware Lane was a random iPhone-app choice on Friday night, and it turned out to be quite good - an 'plated up' take on Thai food. I'd try it again, but would make a booking to sit inside.

Film! We saw two documentaries (maybe?) this weekend. I love documentaries and I wish more were released in Australia (why are we still waiting for a general release of No Impact Man?). Anyway, the first was Food, Inc. I knew it would be tough to watch, but it was also food for thought, ha ha. The second was Exit Through the Gift Shop (the jury is still out as to whether this was/is a documentary or a work of Banksy fiction). Either way it was good fun - any left-leaning Gen-(insert letter) person more than likely knows/likes Banksy's work. The cinema was packed.

Hats! When I was in Brisbane last week, I caught the exhibition Hats: An anthology by Stephen Jones at the Qld Art Gallery. It was actually really good - I loved the interviews and the 1930s 'trend watch' TV bits about hat styles for the coming seasons. Now I'm noticing more people wearing hats out and about. I'm going to investigate this hat thing... maybe then I wouldn't be so cold.

Books! I finished Benjamin Law's The Family Law this week. Thoroughly enjoyable (and not just because I'm an ex-Queenslander and he's one of my brother's good friends). If you like David Sedaris and Sloane Crosley, I highly recommend The Family Law. (Argh, and by linking to Sloane Crosley I've just realised she has a new book out! Off to Amazon I go!)


Image: Happy and colourful necklaces by Elva Fields, via Oh Joy

Finders Keepers Market Brisbane - a debrief of sorts

My stall - featuring products by Spin Spin, Elizabeth Ann, Teahouse, Mainichi and Metremade.

I’m still a newbie to craft & design markets. I’ve only participated in half a dozen over the last few years, and all but one of them in have been held in Melbourne. But I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about them, analyzing them with friends and other stallholders, visiting and observing them (and buying things at them!).

In my opinion, The Finders Keepers Market is a 'good one'. It’s well-organised both prior to the market and during the two-day event. There is a lot of good information and support for the stallholders (who range from ‘professional’ to hobbyist (like me!). The minor issues I had on the weekend had more to do with the venue, like the lights above my stall not working, which meant that people coming inside (from the bright sunshine) thought our area was quite dark, and the music in our room wasn't great (hmm, Christmas carols in June? Not even ironically cool).

Here are the things I thought worked well at this market:

1. The market was in Brisbane. Brisbane does not have many (any?) other craft & design markets like this one. Because it’s only held twice a year, word spreads and people put the next date in their diaries. Basically, less events = more people.
2. There was a café on site (which means customers can take a break… then do a victory lap! Instead of leaving because they’re overwhelmed and need a coffee). Also, the on-site café organised  pre-ordered food to be delivered at lunchtime to stallholders. So I didn’t have to sit for seven hours eating nuts like a stall-holding squirrel. Yay, Japanese mushroom salad!
3. I stood up at my stall all day. In the past I have sat… which I often wondered if it seemed unengaging or antisocial. When there is a steady stream of customers about, I think standing is key. My table had ‘levels’, so I sort of had something to stand behind which was good. It also gave me a birds eye view of my table so I could keep it neat and orderly.
4. I didn’t put everything I had for sale out on the table at the same time. Granted, the North table was split into five parts, but I think the less-is-more aesthetic meant it table didn’t look too overwhelming. Even though half the items were one-offs (like mine and Dearne’s work), I could swap items in and out if I thought something wasn’t catching people’s attention. Often within a few minutes, the new item I just put out would sell.
5. Sharing the stall. I know the sales of my products alone would not have made me enough money to cover the whole stallholder fee for this particular market. So I’m glad I split it – and I think the benefits of this arrangement outweighed the possible disadvantages of only having a limited selection of everyone's work out on the table at once. I would totally be up for sharing a stall with someone again.

Here are the things I would do differently next time.

1. Tag-team stallholding. While there were a lot of people at the market overall, the slower periods toward the end of the day felt really long, and I did get a bit tired of repeating speils over and over. Having a companion is good, but a tag-team situation would be better, I think. Only manning a market stall for 3 hours and then handing over to a partner would mean fresh eyes and fresh smiles!
2. Better storage ‘out the back’. Because of point #4 above, I had a fair bit of stock that wasn’t out on the table. But I also wanted to offer customers other colours/designs of a product if they seemed interested. My storage situation behind and under my table consisted of suitcases and green bags, which wasn’t optimally accessible when things were rushed. I’d put more thought into better storage behind the stall next time.

Overall, it was a great experience for me to do this market by myself and learn a few things about my product, other people’s products, going interstate with my wares and the market scene overall. I listened (eavesdropped? Keenly observed with my ears?) to what people said to themselves or eachother about all of the products for sale… it is gratifying to know that even if people don’t buy your work, they still really like it. I had a few laughs with strangers and caught up with some Brisbane people I had lost touch with. Plus I am no longer deficient in Vitamin A thanks to all that glorious Brisbane winter sun. Mmmmm.

Right, off to start planning for next year!!

Images: Top image by me, other images by Mark Lobo. See more here!

Finders Keepers... whoa!

Hi and hello and thanks to everyone who came down to the Finders Keepers market in Brisbane this weekend. I'm exhausted but so happy that many people went home with our things!

I'll be updating my online shop sometime in the next week or so, and will do a full market wrap-up soon too!

Now, back to Melbourne. Cold, cold Melbourne...

This week in...

Days off: Monday was a holiday here, and our last long weekend until November. Again, it was a good combination of relaxation & productivity, and included lunch at Fandango, a Reunited/Pastel Prairie film night at 1000 Pound Bend, lots of Pecan Tart and the beginnings of the couch recover.

But mostly, everything this week was about Craft! With only a week to go until the Finders Keepers Market, I was busy making 'product', but there were other general craft celebrations as well - at The Craft Victoria 40th anniversary dinner at Tazio, I was lucky enough to sit next to Gordon and Susan Tait, the lovely couple behind the awesome Tait furniture (I visited their new-ish outdoor furniture store earlier this year). They have a brand new website, and I am coveting their Patch and Nano tables... and last night, even though I had a crazy work day and it was cold cold cold outside, I'm so glad I went along to the Thread Den/Etsy Party (organised by Magdalena from Craft Revival) at their new Brunswick St store (which is very good looking). One giant table of friendly embroidering ladies to the right, one giant table of baked goods and snacks to the left. Heaven.

Today is all about preparing for the market, which is exactly one week away. So exciting! So daunting! So much to do...

Image: MMMG unbleached canvas tote bags from NoteMaker.com.au.

Heading up North for the Winter

 

Dearne blogged about it last week, but I've been so gosh-darn busy making these little cuties to do the same. In less than a week I will be on a plane to Brisbane, with a bag full Teahouse, Metremade, Spin Spin, Elizabeth Ann and Mainichi's fine handmade wares to sell at the Finders Keepers market, June 26-27 at the Old Museum in Bowen Hills. Under the banner 'North for the Winter', our stall will feature handmade textile-based home wares, accessories, jewellery and fabric from myself and three supremely talented Melbourne-based ladies. It's going to be big, I think. Come visit.

Paula Scher

If you're a graphic designer, you probably know the work of Paula Scher.

One of her most well-known works is the campaign for the Public Theatre in NYC - the series that pops up in graphic design history and typography books and is also on show at MOMA.

During our travels in North America in 2006 I remember seeing Paula pop up here and there - in design magazines, at the MOMA, and at the ubiquitous big-box bookstores American loves...she had a book out at the time called Make it Bigger - part portfolio, part career-autobiography. I hesitated buying it that year because of it's brick-ish size and weight. And cursed myself when back home it became virtually unbuyable on Amazon and through a number of other avenues. Then, magically, I found it at Kinokuniya in Sydney last year. I was not going to let the extra baggage weight make me pass up this opportunity again.

So... it might seem strange then that I've only actually gotten around to reading it this month. But it has also been the perfect time to read it. Recently I've been taking a hard look at the work that I am asked to create, and how it works/doesn't work/could be better in different ways, how the clients interact with it and with me, as well as how I can be more creative in my design solutions. 

This book comforted me by making clear two things:

One - You can be a highly established, award-winning, internationally recognised designer and your clients will still have the same small budgets, the same insecurities, will go through multiple rounds of changes, and have the same ability to destroy your passion for the piece of work you've created for them (you might just get to charge a bit more for it!).

Two - Everyone takes a while to figure out how to marry the creative, the business (read: monetary value), and the 'selling' of graphic design to a client and to a wider audience. Sometimes through trial and error, and mostly through learning from your peers.You get better at it with time, but it's never going to be easy (see above).

Paula is also somewhat anti-computer, which I like. And she explains in detail how her most successful work, and her more forgettable work, incorporates other players - the people in marketing, the people in sales, the people who ultimately sign off on the finished product.

This book was just what I needed to begin to reinvigorate my passion for the graphic design process, and I recommend anyone in their mid-senior level designer stage read it. It's also great to read about how graphic design was 'done' decades ago. The way she writes about her encounters with clients and colleagues is priceless:

(While describing the cover design department at CBS Records, under Art Director Bob Cato):  

"(Cato) believed recording artists should become more involved in their album covers. Barbara Streisand was the first recording artist actually to come in and move around type. Cato loved it. Streisand loved it. (CBS bosses) loved it. A trend was set that would become expensive, annoying and irreversible."

...And it's full of fantastically awesome typographic 70s, 80s & 90s graphic design. (The 1990s, I'm totally on board to bring that style back!).

The book contains some of her writings for other publications, including her New York Times analysis of how the badly-graphic-designed 'butterfly' voting ballot in Florida in 2000 potentially lost the election for the Democrats.

Overall, Paula wants us to think about how, as designers, we can improve the world with effective design solutions, instead of just doing what the client wants and leaving the creativity to our own personal projects. She also wants the clients to be more trusting of us, the experts.

"The answer lies in working effectively with other, often exasperating, people in politically complex situations. This means understanding human nature and learning to explain to ordinary people how extraordinary design can be... Every client who supports a designer makes this process easier. Every client who can accept a design because they have come to believe in the intelligence and instinct of the designer makes the process easier. Every client who can accept the subjectivity in a design decision makes the process easier. Every committee that looks at a new design and does not ask to 'make it bigger' makes this process easier..."

All pics from Make It Bigger (Get it here if you can!), except top image from Computer Arts UK.