1. Give us a bit of background on who you are, and what you do at Imulus.
Hello world! I am the Graphic Designer at Imulus. I get to create all day long, drink coffee, speak with my Bosnian accent, and sometimes play Halo. You should hear my non-sense jokes…yet everyone finds a way to cry their tears out. So yes, I was born in Bosnia and moved to Colorado in 1995. I graduated with a Fine Arts degree in Multimedia from University of Colorado at Denver and love the work that I get to do everyday. I am a graphic designer because I am a problem-solver, thinker, maker, and believe that the world always needs progress.

2. Describe the most exciting thing you think is going on today in our industry (service, trend, idea, etc).
Web apps, iPhone, Twitter, social media.

3. Who is your favorite designer, and why?
I don’t usually favor anything. It’s just a thing I have, but I do have a few designers that I admire. They are all great designers with passion, ambition, and dedication for the love of their work. Ellen Lupton, Stefan Sagmeister, , Paul Rand, Hillman Curtis, Milton Glaser. That’s my short list.

4. If you could change one thing about people’s attitude towards the online world what would it be?
I would ask them to dump their IE 6 browser and move on to a modern browser. Life at that point would be so much easier for designers and developers.

5. What’s the number one design mistake you see made now days?
I would say bad typographic choices. Also, a redesign of some brand logos that look worse than what they already were.

6. If you were forced to carry a medieval weapon with you at all times what would it be?
A dagger.

7. If you were allowed to only use one computer program the rest of your life what would it be?
For the rest of my life…I feel violated! I think it would be a browser. Definitely not IE. I would prefer Safari / Firefox. With a browser I can do anything and I am not completely restricted. I can e-mail, design, develop, and communicate.

8. Regarding fruit. What is your favorite kind?
Strawberry and Figs

9. What song or artist have you been listening to the most recently?
James Blunt and Letu Stuke <--bosnian group

10. Where do you look in your life to get design inspiration?
Everything around me is design. To be a great designer it’s important to observe the outside world, away from my desk and a computer. When I am aware of my surroundings and observations that’s when I get the inspiration. On the other hand, I also get inspired with the talented team of people at Imulus, turning pages of annuals, reading essays on graphic design, collecting ideas from compelling work.

11. If Imulus were a person, what kind of personality would (s)he have?
If Imulus were a person…The type of personality that Imulus would have–well see answer to question 14.

12. You have to choose between being blinded or losing both arms, what would you choose?
Ouch! Hopefully this loss of my abilities would not include torture. I wouldn’t want to lose either, but I would rather choose to lose both of my arms rather than being blind. Since my profession is heavily based on visual, I guess I can learn my way around things. Type & move the mouse around with my feet and toes.

13. What’s your most used keyboard shortcut when working?
Command+Z to undo. Command+S to save.

14. Thanks for your time, to finish can you give me one word to describe each of your Imulus co-workers?
Scott – understanding
George – determined
John – passionate
Steph – wonderful
Mario – intriguing
Kat – amusing
Bruce – ambitious
Taylor – kind
Corey – entertaining

As I wrote these words down, one word is not enough, but rather all these words and many more could describe each one of us and that’s what really makes us great. We are one great team, but above all we are a family.

Give us a brief introduction to what you do here at Imulus, and maybe why you are fondly referred to as ‘The crusher of hopes and dreams’
I am one of the owners and the Creative Director. I work with clients to solve their design, branding, marketing, and interface problems in creative ways. Internally I oversee the design team and push them to create better solutions. That’s where the “crusher” nickname came from. Sometimes one of our designers will think they have a great solution, and it is my role to say, “But did you think about this? What if the user does that?” And in doing so I “crush their hopes and dreams.”

You are a co-founder of Imulus. Since Imulus has been around for awhile and is doing great, what advice would you give to would-be entrepreneurs out there?
I really think you need to create a business out of doing what you love to do. If you are just in it to make money you’re going to be unhappy and burn out quickly. Starting a business takes a lot of dedication and time, so if you aren’t spending all those hours doing something you enjoy, it’s not worth it.

What one/few things would you boil down Imulus’ success to?
I think the three owners skills are a great fit for the work that we do and our personalities mix very well. While we have different strengths and weaknesses we all share a desire to constantly improve and are always asking, “How can we do that better?”

What do you like most about your job?
I love solving problems and I get to do that on a daily basis. I also really enjoy everyone I work with. Well . . . almost everyone ; )

Least?
Lack of time is always a challenge. There are so many cool ideas that would be great to pursue, but we can only do so much.

What is your dream car?
Do I have to pick just one? I think my current favorite car has to be the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione It is such an incredible mix of classic sports car lines with modern details. It is truly a piece of automotive art.

What do you think is your most valuable skill?
When you are designing you really need to be able to put yourself in the shoes of the target audience. I feel like I do a good job of looking at the design through their eyes and not getting to emotionally attached to anything if it doesn’t seem to work from the target users point of view.

You are quiet a lot. Tell us what is going on in Scott’s head when he is quiet.
You know, it’s the quiet ones you have to worry about. Actually I have always been one to think things through before I form or state an opinion. I believe that words are very powerful and that they should be carefully chosen if you care about their outcome.

If someone offered to buy Imulus tomorrow for 59.2 billion dollars tomorrow and you decided to sell, what would you do for the rest of your life?
See question 6. After buying that and a few other cars I think I would play for a few years. Travel the world, race cars, run, learn to scuba dive, play tennis etc. Once I got that out of my system I would figure out what kind of business I would like to start.

Who is the most influential person on your work and why?
I don’t know if I can pick a single person, but I would say that the Bauhaus movement and the Swiss Style have had the most influence on my as a designer. I have always felt that the simplest solutions are always the best and that the best designs get out of the users way and let them what they want.

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to remove.”

— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

You used to be anti-twitter, and then you hopped on the bandwagon. Thoughts on tweeting after being through both phases?
I was very hesitant to get involved with Twitter because I am not what you would call a “self promoter.” I figure no one cares what I am doing on a daily basis. I think Twitter has an amazing ability to allow someone to broadcast to a worldwide audience very easily. For business it offers a great way for a company to broadcast directly to their customers and also for customers to interact with a brand. For me, I get a lot of inspiration from seeing what Lance Armstrong and Bernard Legat did for their workout today. I will sometimes post my workouts as well. Maybe someone will get inspiration from me, who knows.

Have any good designer jokes?
1st Designer: “Wow, you always have so many fonts, where do you get them from?”

2nd Designer: “Oh they come from Monaco, Geneva, Chicago, New York… I get them delivered at various Times throughout the day…”

1st Designer: “By who?”

2nd Designer: “A Courier!”

Your favorite piece of art
I don’t have a particular favorite, but I would love to have a Rothko on my wall.

If someone told you that you had to author a book and really be into it or the world would blow up, what would you write about?
I would write a book about the best running trails and the best driving roads around the world. It would obviously take a lot of research ; )

If you could choose to be in a movie, which movie would it be and who character would you be?
James bond in Dr. No

Work on Spec has long been a very dirty word in the design industry. The AIGA’s stance on this issue is very established. But recently a number of big agencies such as Crispin, Porter + Bogusky and a new agency created by two former CP+B executives, Victors & Spoils, have embraced the concept under it’s new politically correct name of crowdsourcing.

Under this new model the company works with the client to define the project and then posts the project on sites such as crowdSPRING. Designers, or anyone for that matter, can then read the project requirements and submit a design. The agency and the client then choose the design they like best and pay that person the specified fee. So potentially thousands of designers spend their time on the project and one gets paid for their work. In the case of a CP+B project that was $1000.

Sounds like a great model for the agency and the client. Get thousands of hours of work for $1000. In the case of Victors & Spoils they come right out and say that the new model will lower their overhead and lower costs for clients. Heck it’s a win for everyone right? The clients pay a lot less for creative, the agency lowers it’s costs by hiring less full-time employees and not having to pay benefits, and creatives all over the world get a shot at doing work for big name clients.

A perfect model for the death of an industry. For the industry to survive it requires a continual infusion of new talent from a strong system of schools that educate the next generation. If the future career path for a design school graduate involves spending hour upon hour working away on projects that I have little to no chance of getting paid for, how long can a designer sustain this? If I am choosing a major and a career path I would find this a very scary choice. What career counselor would advise anyone to pursue this career?

Let’s do the math. Say I’m a hotshot designer and I can knock out a great logo or homepage design in 20 hours. I can work on two of these spec projects a week, 8 in a month. Say the prize is $1000 and I manage to actually win 25% of the projects I do. I just cleared a cool $2000 for the month. I’m guessing most people could probably work less hours and make more money waiting tables. And this assumes I get paid for 25% of the projects I do. WIth thousands of people competing for these projects the reality for even the best designers is probably much worse. And does this really even reward the best solutions? Every designer knows that the client doesn’t always pick the most innovative design you show them, so even being the best designer competing for a fee doesn’t guarantee you will get paid.

There will always be those who think only of themselves and how they can make the most money with little regard for the future. What legacy will they leave? Will there be any creatives left to care? Maybe they should go read the Lorax.

We spent much of Friday down at MATTER Studio collaborating on a t-shirt design, experimenting with the presses and exchanging ideas. Here are a few photos of our outing.

As the internet landscape has evolved at a blistering pace, universities have been left behind and often teaching skills and concepts that are years out of date. I was excited to read about The University of Colorado’s Boulder Digital Work program. Their stated mission is, “developing today and tomorrow’s digital leaders and entrepreneurs.”

This sounds like a very forward thinking program and hopefully it will produce a lot of local talent with a much better understanding of the digital realm than most schools offer today. Courses include Interaction Design, Experience Design, Digital Branding, Social Networks, and Software Development.

I hope this program is successful and that it will help to continue the growth of Boulder as a hub for innovation.