RSSAdvertising
05 Sep 2010 No Comments
Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. ~ From the movie Fight Club, based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk.
I can’t say it better… 
Creative Outputs
03 Sep 2010 No Comments
Genuine designers/artists can not survive with only one creative output.
I’ve worked closely with 5 other designers who were also friends. Each and everyone of them have other realms to expand their minds. When graphic or web design is work; making music, movie watching, painting and cooking becomes play. The infusion of audio, visual and various sensory experiences nourish and sharpen creativity and imaginations.
Cooking – my other creative output – allows me to experiment, to hone my skills and to experience the joy of making something from scratch. Sounds pretty much like the design process, doesn’t it?
Account For What?
11 Aug 2010 No Comments
I wonder what happen to the accountants of very rich people who give their fortune away? Does the accountant have a job when there’s nothing much left to account for?
Recently, 10 US millionaires gave away significant amount of their wealth to charities. Even though I am sure they kept plenty to live comfortably for several lifetimes… I imagine that the accountant(s) must have felt some sort of a near-career-death experience.
I can be wrong though.
Financial Pyramid
08 Aug 2010 No Comments
Don’t mean to sound like a smart ass here but I am sure that the world leaders are doing something wrong when it comes to the current financial recovery…
Bailing out crippled financial giants, rebalancing national taxes in favor of the rich, recruiting the help and advice of powerful financial tycoons are all just fruitless endeavors.
Wealth is not champagne. Champagne flows from top to bottom in a champagne pyramid. But wealth should always go from bottom up. Wealth can only be resilient if it is rooted onto a steady foundation.
Small Online Business
17 Jun 2010 No Comments
Here are some practical tips from a Zen Habits article: Beginner’s Guide To Starting A Small Online Business.
- Focus On What’s Important
- Invest In Education
- Ask For Help
- Participate In The Community
- Don’t Quit Your Day Job
I’m not too sure about number 5. To me, it would counteract with tip number 1. What do you think?
A Literate Chinese
20 May 2010 No Comments
This is an excerpt from Smashing Magazine’s article on typography:
Being literate in Chinese requires memorizing about 4,000 characters.
Hmm, I can read, speak and write elementary Chinese. Am I literate in Chinese then? I highly doubt I know 4000 characters! My brains are probably holding on to barely 300 Chinese characters. Good enough I think and I am pretty darn proud of it. 
Interesting article by the way.
Career Evolution
03 Apr 2010 No Comments
I have never taken on a job with ‘forever’ in mind. Except for finance and image processing, I made it a habit not to perform any specific task for more than a year. My strategy has always been to delegate and pass the job onto someone else and move on. This step is very important because letting go and moving on usually means getting promoted to work on something more complex. And that often means better compensation!
These little evolutions throughout my career has served to be beneficial to both myself and my employers. Be it the administration of life insurance agencies, designing and branding, or managing an in-house design team; it is essential to keep changing and reapplying oneself.
At this moment in life, I am pondering the possibility of starting my own business. I will need to think this through, lay the plan out on paper and strategize my actions.
Wish me luck!
Completing Projects
05 Mar 2010 No Comments
in Creative Business, Human Nature
As designers and semi perfectionists, both D and I often fall into the trap of over-tweaking. Tasks remain incomplete, deadlines get pushed back, and worst of all, people don’t get compensated.
The following principles are excellent guidelines for individuals like us:
- Keep the scope as simple as possible.
- Practice ‘Good Enough’.
- Kill extra features.
- Make it public, quick.
Lucky Money
28 Feb 2010 No Comments
Despite D’s skepticism, I went ahead and sent off a rebate claim for my Braun mixer. It was bought on the opening day of a new Krefel, so we got a 15% discount. Another deal seems pretty much unlikely… On top of that, the model number was not listed among the items deserving rebates. But wait! Have a little bit of faith. Guess who is a few euros richer now? 
And then there’s the frequent flier miles that I claimed for my recent flights on Malaysia Airlines. I was a member since 2005. I never got my loyalty card and the pathetic 305 points I got, expired a long time ago. Before my trip home this February, I managed to reactivate my account. I got my card when I came back to Belgium and proceed to claim my miles online. Joepie! I got around 4000 miles credited and still have more to claim.
Yep, I still have it… I can squeeze money out of anything.
Business Success
21 Jan 2010 No Comments
Three important aspects determine the success and failure of a business, these are even more so apparent in small businesses:
- Core Beliefs – It is essential to believe in your business, your products and all people involved.
- Core Values – Values form the underlying principle of the business. It dictates how you run your business. It creates a system so people know how things are supposed to be done, thus decisions can be made swiftly and decisively. It enables the existence of a binding culture and a unique identity.
- Work Life Balance – This is where we remind ourselves that we are people. Life as a whole needs to be lived and enjoyed. We remind ourselves that we are sum of many parts. Work, though a big piece of the parts should not ever dominate our lives.
With a bit of good luck and by maintaining the above 3 aspects, the direction of any endeavor can only be promising.