Jun24
Why I Love What I Do
- posted by: Scott
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Early in my career I was an in-house designer for a publishing company. For the most part this was a great experience and taught me a great deal. The drawback however was the limited scope of the job I was doing. While at first I had a ton to learn about the educational publishing business, after a period of time I came to understand the business very well, and the amount of learning I was doing slowed greatly. While I think there is great value in becoming an expert in a particular area or discipline I felt that for me the area I wished to become an expert in, was design as a discipline, and not confined to a particular market.
After I moved on and began to work as a freelance designer I was energized by the process of learning about my client’s businesses. I have learned about the inner workings and challenges of countless businesses over the years and I am still excited every time I have the opportunity to learn more. From high-speed data recorders for science and military use, to cryogenic pumps used in semiconductor production, to the design of custom microchips and circuit boards, I have an understanding of so many businesses and innovative products and solutions that I would have never been exposed to were it not for my profession as a designer.
A recent project kick-off was for an extremely innovative company in Boston called Kiva Systems. Kiva has revolutionized the way product 
retailers manage their warehouses and fulfill orders. While only at the beginning of the project, I have already learned so much more than I would have ever known about how a product gets to my door when I click “Checkout” on a retailer’s website. In a demonstration I was able to witness how an order could be fulfilled in a manner of minutes after the order was submitted on the website. Unlike traditional warehouse systems where workers who receive an order have to go out and search through the warehouse to find all the products that I ordered, the Kiva System brings the products to the person who then put’s the order in a box for shipping. Through a complex system of software and robots, the shelves that contain the products that I ordered are brought to the person to put in the box. Watching the robots move the shelves around the warehouse is like watching a dance performance. You can check out videos on their site to see this amazing system in action.
Once again I am learning about a business that I had no previous knowledge of and certainly never would have known anything about were it not for my profession. You would think this would help me in Trivial Pursuit, but unfortunately you would be wrong. What it does help me with is being a better designer and maintaining my passion for what I do.
Seeing as How Magazine was nice enough to bring their annual design conference to Denver, I thought it made sense to go down for the day and take in a few sessions. I’ve always been a fan of How Magazine. They tend to have business focus in a lot of their articles and are less about just showing lot’s of nice design work. I have also been to a How Conference before and felt that I got a great deal of inspiration out of the experience. I still remember David Carson’s talk and his great sense of humor.
January & Tug McTighe. Tony Mike’s session was titled, “Is Your Agency Interesting.” As an agency owner I was drawn to this session as we are always trying to better differentiate ourselves. I came to the conclusion that I think Imulus is interesting, but that we could probably communicate that more effectively than we are currently and we could also be doing a lot more interesting things. Tony was a very compelling speaker and I will definitely be checking out his 
Next came Sam Harrison’s session on “How to Sell Your Ideas to Bosses, Clients and Other Decision Makers.” An author of 
in their cleverly constructed presentation. Utilizing lessons drawn from all the Star Wars films, they were able to show parallels where those lessons apply to the life of a creative. And while the lessons were good, the heart of the presentation was the humor and clever concept. I will always remember that there is a Death Star out there ready to kill my next great idea.
Before I dive into this review, you should probably have some background information. First of all, as the title suggests, I am a graphic designer for a web design company. I spend 90% of my time on Adobe Creative Suite programs (most of that time is dedicated to Photoshop). Second of all, I am a female. This piece of information applies to this review because as a woman, I am genetically predisposed to have 
1. The sensitivity. This is a double-edged sword. Sure, it’s nice when you WANT to scroll, but when you don’t it’s a pain. This rears it’s ugly head often when I am using Photoshop. An example of this is when I have the color picker window open. Notice on the screen shot the field next to the “R” (meaning red) is highlighted; this happens by default when one opens this color picker window. What happens when this field is highlighted is the scroll functionality on your mouse can easily add and subtract the color red. Many times I have barely brushed the top of the mouse and it will change my selected color without my consent. There is no clear area on your mouse where the scroll sensitivity begins, so just laying your hand on the top of the mouse can create a scroll with any slight movement. 
