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How to Succeed as a Creative Professional

Just this week my buddy Mark McGuinness sent over a fabulous free offer, his new course: The Creative Pathfinder.

You might remember Mark from his ebook, Time Management for Creative People. Kudos to Mark as a mention of his ebook made it to Mashable as well: 10 Essential Free E-Books for Web Designers.

If you are interested in his course, keep on reading…

FREE Course on How to Succeed as a Creative Professional

If you’d like to inject some inspiration and momentum into your creative career, feel free to enrol on my new course: The Creative Pathfinder.

It’s a 25-week programme designed to equip you with the creative and professional skills you need to succeed in your chosen career path – whether you’re an employee, freelancer or creative entrepreneur.

Things you’ll learn include:

• why following your heart makes sound business sense
• the four most powerful types of creative thinking
• how to handle a creative block – when you’re supposed to be the creative pro
• why opportunities just land in some people’s lap (and how you can be one of them)
• the most effective ways to make a living from your creativity
• why having a resume could handicap your career
• how to turn your website into a magnet for new business and career opportunities
• the weird and profitable properties of intellectual property
• how to sell without selling out
• what to do with all the money you earn
• why other people seem so weird – and what to do about it
• how to succeed in the face of overwhelming odds

Every week, you’ll receive a new lesson via e-mail, containing:

• An article explaining the what, why and how of the topic
• A practical worksheet for you to download and complete
• Links to additional resources (articles, books, e-books etc — most of which are free)

And it won’t cost you a penny. Sign-up on the enrolment page and you will receive the entire course of 25 lessons for free.

Since I launched The Creative Pathfinder on Lateral Action last week, over 1,200 students have signed up. It would be great if you could join us on the journey…

Mark McGuinness
Lateral Action | Wishful Thinking | twitter @markmcguinness

Enjoy…

Design Currency

Mark Busse BA MGDC: Design Currency is not your father’s design conference.

Icograda Design Week in Vancouver 2010 is a pan-disciplinary conference featuring some of world’s foremost experts from various design disciplines. The theme of “design currency” is a challenge to all who attend, as the speakers intend to challenge paradigms and shatter assumptions about what design is.

This event will not merely be design stars on stage showing off their portfolios, but rather an exploration of craftsmanship, clarity, functionality, social contribution, sustainability, beauty and results, all with the intent to reshape our understanding of the value of design and its impact on communication, culture, and commerce.

Read more about what Mark has to say in his article: Icograda’s Design Week Vancouver 2010

Enjoy…

Design Week Vancouver

Call for nominations for a “next generation” speaker

Hi all. Design Week Vancouver would like your help. They have a fabulous list of speakers arranged, but would like your opinion on just one more:

Let us know a person you’d like to nominate who is under 30 and would do a great job at representing the ‘next generation voice’. We can’t promise anything, but we’ll do our best to bring them to our stage in Vancouver.

Enjoy…

The SET Foundation

Giving back…

Once upon a time there was a British guy who became a rare farang (non Asian) monk in Thailand.

His name was Peter Robinson, but he became known as Phra Farang.

After he left the order, Peter continued to give back to Thailand. And he did this by creating the SET Foundation (more about this later).

When I moved to Thailand, I too expected to do a lot of giving back. And I have.

But it was the SET Foundation that really caught my western fancy.

And as I mentioned on my Thai blog, Women Learn Thai (please don’t forget the ‘wink’), the SET Foundation has an amazing record:

Every Baht you give goes directly to help our students: SET has very low overheads and administration costs – no staff wages, no office rental costs, no staff vehicles and no fundraising expenses. In 2008, less than 3% of income was spent on administration.

500 Baht (US$15) will buy a pair of school shoes.

800 Baht (US$24) will buy spectacles – often badly needed by some students. 800 Baht will also pay a month’s rent in a shared student dormitory.

1,000 (US$30) Baht will pay for a school uniform or will cover the cost of books or tools for a year.

2,500 Baht (US$75) will pay for lunch at a school canteen for an entire semester.

2,500 Baht will also usually cover bus fares for a year (two semesters).

3,000 Baht (US$90) will support a student at high school for one semester or one semester for a college student studying for a Vocational Certificate.

5,000 Baht (US$150) is the typical value of a SET welfare grant for one semester for a college or university student. The grant will usually cover the cost of accommodation, food and bus fares.

If you are a Westerner – American, Brit, European, Canadian – then you might have noticed just how little it takes to contribute to an education.

And what is especially noticeable is how practically nothing is skimmed off the top. Yeah, there be a lot of skimming going on in the west…

Dunno about you, but I was impressed. Totally.

I’ve tossed in 5000 baht (US$150). And my buddy Talen of Thailand, Land of Smiles has tossed in 5000 baht too.

So, would anyone care to match our bahts, toss by toss?

But truthfully, even a half a toss, or a half of a half a toss, would do.

Enjoy…

Faces of Design Awards 2010

Launch of a new design competition

This is fantastic news all. The Faces of Design Awards is a design competition that does not ask for spec work!

We are proud to announce a new interdisciplinary design competition, the Faces of Design Awards 2010. Our goal is to create career opportunities for talented designers worldwide, by increasing their international visibility.

The Faces of Design Awards are based on candidates’ existing portfolios, and culminate in the publication of a printed volume, showcasing the 25 most promising design talents, by design discipline (e.g. graphic design, fashion design, product design).

This collection of profiles will be distributed to over 1.000 key decision makers at more than 300 companies, including firms such as vitra, IKEA, the Richemont Group (including prestigious brands such as Montblanc, Cartier and Chloé), designers’ studios such as the Campanas’ and Bouroullecs’, design institutions, and the international design press.

Enjoy…

Design Altruism Project Arguing With Success

When I moved away from paying work and into probono full-time, I didn’t realise that it would eat at my every available moment. But it has. And that’s my excuse for not keeping up with DWB.

This morning I woke up to an email from David Stairs of the Design Altruism Project. I scanned through, then got stuck into my day job.

Several hours later, Google Alerts jostled me to take another look at what David had cared enough to send.

And it was this look that brought me here. To DWB. To share with you…

Arguing With Success: My concern with the popularity of Facebook design groups and socially conscientious design blogs is that, rather than muster wider awareness, they will cause both a false sense of general accomplishment, and result in donor-fatigue.

The growth of a category of what are called “slacktivists,” people who use their interest in design/politics to justify joining online groups and building websites for remote non-profits, fails to address the world’s problems with feet-on-the-ground solutions.

At the end of the day isn’t it the person with the most mud on his or her shoes, not the one with the most conference speaking engagements, who is doing the important work?

Agree or not, you have to admit that it is certainly something to think about.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go off and rustle up a few generous souls…

NO!SPEC on Twitter

Blogs, Mad about Design

I keep waiting for my copy of Blogs, Mad about Design to arrive to I can write a post about it on DWB.

Sigh. I must be the LAST person in the whole wide world who hasn’t received theirs yet!

But, no matter, I contacted Macarena at www.maomaopublications.com and she says it’s on the way. And if not, she’ll send me another.

Twitter, twitter, twitter…

In the meantime, I thought I’d share a designer’s new best friend: Twitter.

And better yet, NO!SPEC on twitter: nospec

If you are looking for other designers on twitter, there are a few posts going around. And as your google finger isn’t broken, I’ll only list a few:

• grain edit: 50+ Designers on Twitter: Our favorites to follow
• Digital Labz: 100 Web Designers to follow on Twitter
• Mashable: 85+ of the Best Twitterers Designers Should Follow
• Vandelay Design Blog: 50+ Designers to Follow on Twitter

And look, here’s a new one from PelFusion.com: Creative Twitter Backgrounds of 50 Designers

(scroll down and you’ll see thecatat7 – that’s the designer me :-)

Just for fun, you can even do a designers Twitter Search.

Or a nospec Twitter Search.

And since we are on a roll, how about a Crowdsourcing Twitter Search?

Uh. That last one was just FULL of butt-ugly nastiness, yeah?

Enjoy…

Wolda 09

Wolda ‘09 is open for entries

Hey all, this just came across my virtual desk…

Wolda ‘09 is now collecting logos from all over the world designed both in 2008 and 2009 accepting submissions in two separate deadlines:

• June 30, 2009 for logos designed in 2008
• January 31, 2010 for logos designed in 2009

The core of excellence generated by this process is collated in a printed annual, printed on SAPPI acclaimed papers by Fontegrafica, winner of numerous worldwide awards.

Entry to Wolda includes a ‘09 book copy for each participant completely free of charge, including shipping!

Enjoy…

Hey all, apologies for incomplete posts going live.

Seems like WP Leprechauns are posting from my drafts folder on a regular basis… ah, the mysteries of life, plugins, whatever.

I’ll get it sorted as soon as I can track the little buggers down.

In the meantime, please try and enjoy the surprise posts if you can…

How to Motivate Creative People

Photo by aleksey.const

Heads up everyone! Mark McGuinness from Wishful Thinking has another fabulously free e-book on offer…

How to Motivate Creative People (Including Yourself).

An e-book for leaders, managers, directors � and other creative people.

(Do I ever need this… or what?)

Topics covered include:

• What makes creative people tick
• Why motivation is crucial to creative success
• Why you can�t motivate anybody – but what you can do instead
• What Iggy Pop can teach you about management
• Why offering rewards can harm creative performance
• How to write 47 novels before breakfast
• Why some people seem so weird – and how to deal with them
• The positive side of peer pressure

If you missed Mark’s other e-books, you can download them all from his
Free E-books page.

And if you love Mark’s writing (as I do) then truck on over to Lateral Action for even more of Mark.

Enjoy!