I stumbled across one of these the other day, it’s called “Notable.” Notable is a new web app from ZURB – a 12 year old interaction design & design strategy firm which has helped clients such as Facebook, Yahoo, eBay, NYSE, Playlist, Photobucket, and many others. Simply put, Notable is a communication tool that allows you to easily provide feedback on websites.

Through all the great things that going digital has done for design, one drawback is the ability to effortlessly and uniformly make notes and comments for an onscreen design. In order to communicate his or her ideas the designer has two options:

1. Take a screen shot, open it up in Photoshop or another program, mark it up with circles and arrows, type the comment text, then re-save the files in order to send them to others.
2. Print out the screen shots and mark them up by hand. Setup a meeting with the team to go over the feedback.

In both cases it’s usually hard to track iterations easily since context is lost after first iteration. The feedback itself becomes less directed and as keeping track of it becomes a nightmare. We’ve all been there. “What do you think of the color we used on the box on the left?” “My left? Stage left? This box? That box?” Notable is the tool which makes those communication blips go away.

Anyone who is developing a new website or maintaining an old website can use Notable to improve their website. The tool is used internally with your team in the following workflow:

1. Designer captures a site or uploads an image they are working on
2. Designer adds commentary and questions and shares them with Creative Director
3. Creative Director responds with their feedback and answers
4. Designer works through the feedback and posts an updated version pointing out the changes
5. Cycle continues by designer soliciting feedback from engineers and marketers on the team

Notable is used externally with your clients in the following workflow:

1. Designer captures a site they are working on
2. Designer shares the post with the client and asks them specific questions
3. The client responds by adding notes on the visual capture of the website
4. Designer works through the feedback and posts an updated version pointing out the changes
5. Cycle continues until you have a killer product.

What I really like about the tool is that it keeps feedback contextual and forces feedback givers to be specific. I also like the fact that it stores your history. Being a graphic designer has given me a small case of OCD in the form of me loving to delete things. As soon as I finish something, I delete it, as soon as I change something, I really want to delete the original. As you can imagine, this has once or twice been a bit of a problem.  Thankfully Notable keeps a history of your conversations and mark ups. Not only does that save delete-happy creatives, it can also save time by knowing what has already been covered. There is nothing more frustrating than a meeting of topics that have already been talked to death.

There are a few productivity apps which complement Notable greatly in helping folks create awesome websites faster and easier.

Clicktale

Clicktale is a great app for making data driven decisions around updates for your website. The tool provides the data behind how users actually interact with your website. Want to know which key strokes a visitor hit? Where they clicked? How about their mouse movement? All of this data is neatly reported in a customized report. Your argument for a feature on your website becomes concrete when you act on data vs. intuition.

Balsamiq

Planning a series of website screens demands cohesive and precise drawings. Balsamiq Mockups is great wireframing tool for quickly putting together visual representations of your interface. While wireframing with Balsamiq “feels like you’re drawing” the process is fast, easy, and requires no coding.

Remember the Milk

“Getting things done” has been a buzzword all over since David Allen presented the methodology in his book. Remember the Milk is the task list app to get stuff done in my opinion. The app gives you an Inbox list for all of your tasks as well as Sent list for all the tasks you sent other folks on your team. It’s one of the cleanest organization systems for a task list I have ever seen.

Notable and the rest of the apps I point out may not change the face of the design process as we know it, but what it will do, is make the task every single design has to do, a hell of a lot simpler.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Notable: A Huge Leap in Communication

David Airey's blog

Graphic designer David Airey maintains a simple website with clean lines and black text on a white background. That lets the color photos on his blog – which are often of his work – shine through. The lesson here? Use black and white when you want other elements, such as your portfolio pieces, stand out.

i live here:SF blog

Nothing says “classic” like a tone down from bright colors. Color photos can be beautiful, of course, but sometimes they can be garish. A sepia tone works well when you want to use a photograph on, for example, invitations, memorial service cards and business cards, because it conveys a sense of respect. A two-tone color scheme also works for the website example above because it creates a sense of contentment and relief; a full-color photo would have signaled more joy, but the essay – about recovering from cancer – is more about a happiness well earned after a lot of heartache.

Graphic design is not always about flashy and new. There is a time and a place to go back to basics and choose black and white instead of color. Just be sure to identify what feeling you want to bring out with your project as well as how you want yourself or your client to be represented.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Color Isn’t Always Better

And Then There Was Salsa

Saul Bass: On Making Money vs Quality Work

Kaleidoscope Made from Typography by Katerina Orlikova

avantgarde by Max Quolin

Larent Nivalle Photography

Crush+Lovely

Hipstamatic iPhone App

Haäfe & Haph

Simon Collison

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Inspiration Smorgasbord

Me too.

photo by yushimoto

I was sitting on the plane from New York to Los Angeles racing to finish a project for a client. My battery life was rapidly dwindling and the pressures of design and technology restrictions put me over the edge. I closed my laptop in frustration and took a look at my surroundings.

Why haven’t I noticed this before?  The plane.  The passengers. The many small problems that were being solved by highly competent and professional people. I almost choked on a peanut as I came to a new realization; flight attendants do what we as designers do, only they do it 32,000 feet in the air. This was the strangest and perhaps the purest translation of design I had ever seen and there was no Helvetica in sight. I have seen design that lives in the web or on paper, but this was design that just plain lives. There was no way to but acknowledge that designers and flight attendants are peas in a pod. But it is more than just that. Are designers and flight attendants brothers (and sisters) in arms?

That observational moment changed everything. Instead of racing against my Macintosh death clock to try and finish my project, I decided instead to go analog. I pulled out a pen and some paper to do some proper thinking and wondering. I posed to myself the ultimate question, “What will I do if and when I become an ex-designer?”

photo by Melissa of craftgasm

Apply, then reapply

Before applying for any job, it is best to take an inventory of skills. The things that make this list are things that only we, the designers can bring to the table. It is important to also take note of what we want out of the job, for the sake of happiness.

Basic Skills:

Understanding of grids, hierarchy, filtering information, editing, mixing and combining of elements, sequencing, communication, multi-tasking, immaculate taste, the level headedness of a business man and the heart of an artist.

With these skills, we also expect to achieve a certain personal gratification; what I call the “design high.” That feeling is one of the main reasons we do what we do. I am certainly not ready to lose that feeling.

Basic Needs:

Control- Design is the ultimate control. Not only are we giving people something to use or look at, we are showing them how they look at it, how they approach it, and how they should think about it. We like this.

Organization- Messy makes me nervous. Disorder is cause for disdain.

With these things in mind and with the classifieds in hand, I have circled three perfect jobs for the ex-designer.

photo by paxbgd

Flight Attendant

The one that inspired it all. The job description for a flight attendant is seemingly simple. Keep ‘em safe and keep ‘em happy. Sure that might be the “important” part, just as graphic designers do more than “make things look good” the duties of the flight attendant go far beyond passing out peanuts and ginger ale. When examining the flight attendants I found myself watching the way they masterfully work up and down the aisle. The way they majestically move from seat to seat, with complete authority and uniformity. The order, the control, the grid! Flight attendants are Swiss design in action. All three of the following design alternative jobs offer face to face interaction. They get to see the good, when their life design makes things better, and they also get bad clients, just like us.

Librarian

Books, silence, systems, and organization—need I say more? Being a librarian is the odd combination of critic, mastermind and boss. A librarian gets to not only make personal recommendations but they get to decide what to showcase and promote. That’s like having a client ask for your advice, then take it. Every time! The main duties of a librarian include; keeping the library organized (organization? Check). Instruct others how to use the library resources (communication? Check). Promote reading (promoting an activity? Check and check).

Like an interesting “ex” anything, you should be haunted by your past, or at least reminded of it. This adds intrigue to not only your profession and you as a human being. Similar to the way an ex-cop who now works security constantly battles flash backs of stakeouts gone wrong. The designer turned librarian would be similarly haunted by a room full of books. Every bad rag, every widow every river in those default justified set books mocking you, “You could have made me better, you could have made me beautiful.”

photo by Maverick Digital

Bartender

The people’s choice. A job that not only has designer perks, but it has a whole new set of perks. Think about it. Number one job task of a bar tender communication. Someone walks into the bar with a frown plastered across their face, it is your duty to find out what’s wrong. What does your customer want, what can you offer them? What if they ask you what’s good? Then you find a little bit about them, and you recommend something. The same process a designer undertakes when starting a project.

The next part is what makes “bartender” a more viable option than “waiter” or “waitress.” The mixing of the drink, the combining of elements. Different drinks make different colors. Think of tonic as your classic serif typeface, lets say Baskerville, and then the bartender picks Helvetica (gin) to go with it. The classic combination. The bartender designs the drink.

The last step, bartenders produce deliverables. Designers love dropping off deliverables. Sure, some of the picky drinkers may send the drink back, but that only means the bartender has a chance to show what they can really do.

What I’ll Miss the Most

As we near the end of our search, there are some thrills and experiences as a designer that cannot be duplicated. The tradition and evolution of our trade and the creative outlet it provides. The strange juxtaposition of artist and businessman that can only be associated with graphic design. The command we have to translate our thoughts onto paper, the web, and any other media we can get our fingers on. The swagger and confidence that can only come from blowing a clients expectations out of the water.

You know what? That list might just be enough for me to fire up my laptop back up and prepare for my meeting. The “ex” prefix may have to wait a few more years.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Tales of an Ex-designer

Reggina Estate by Jordan Jelev

Bahamas by Duffy

Sparebank by Mission Design

Chempaq by Muggie Ramadani Design Studio (MRDS)

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Stellar Branding Across Various Mediums

Neurosonics Audiomedical Labs Inc. from Chris Cairns

Kingdom of the unreal but also a higher state of being, ultimately free of the limitations of the material world through the agency of science, technology, and imagination.

HP – invent from Tom and Matt

Response to D&AD Student Awards brief set by Hewlett Packard.

“Present an idea which promotes HP Workstations ability to bring to life anything the creative mind can conceive.”

Cover creation from Peter Belanger

After working on the latest cover for Macworld Magazine I wanted to show what is involved in making a cover. I focused on the three main areas: the photography, photoshop and design. I chose a time lapse format to convey lots of information in a small amount of time. The only drawback of time lapse is that since half a day goes by in 30 seconds, the whole process seam so easy! Lots of details were left out of the design process (like the cover meetings and rounds of layout options). I began to photograph the design process after the layouts had already been narrowed down to just three cover designs.

Magic Flashlights from Mike Benson on Vimeo.

Knife Show Inc and friends uncover a strange phenomenon at Timberline Lodge at Mt Hood. Snowboarding video takes place in and out of High Cascade Summer Camp. Shot and edited by Mike Benson. Starring Brendan Hayes, Eli weiner, Scott Stevens, Chris Beresford, Matty Mo, Jesse Burtner, and Casey Wrightsman.

Kuroshio Sea – 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world from Jon Rawlinson

The main tank called the “Kuroshio Sea” holds 7,500-cubic meters (1,981,290 gallons) of water and features the world’s second largest acrylic glass panel, measuring 8.2 meters by 22.5 meters with a thickness of 60 centimeters. Whale sharks and manta rays are kept amongst many other fish species in the main tank.

Typophile Film Festival 5 Opening Titles from Brent Barson

Handcrafted with love by BYU design students and faculty, for the 5th Typophile Film Festival. A visual typographic feast about the five senses, and how they contribute to and enhance our creativity. Everything in the film is real—no CG effects!

The Runner -Exploit yourself- from BLR_VFX

Exploit yourself is a Spec commercial inspired by NIKE. Directed by Carl Erik Rinsch, Expliot yourself talks about your own limits. The commercial was produced in Big Lazy Robot Visual Effects studio from february to may. Our wish was to show off the nerve and spark and freshness of the city with the strength and power of modern sport competition, all in a whole 3d environment.

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman

A FULL-CG animated piece that tries to illustrate architecture art across a photographic point of view where main subjects
are already-built spaces. Sometimes in an abstract way. Sometimes surreal. (do this one justice and watch it fullscreen in HD)

Blue Thousand and One from Blue Man Group HD

Some seriously amazing colors and high speed cameras from the Blue Man Group.

Flickermood 2.0 from Sebastian Lange

A film by Sebastian Lange – The next level of this experimental typographic orgy. Direction and Animation by Sebastian Lange – Music by Forss
Flickermood was basically all done in AE – the soundtrack is from FORSS

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

36 Minutes of Creative Genius

Water Symphony

Opening the tap we touch and leave the dirt and bacteria on it, having washed our hands we take them back again.“The Water Symphony” conception consists in an electronic device of the mixer tap, which does not require touching it, but, at the same time, allowing adjusting the needed functions, such as water pressure and its temperature very quickly and precisely

Serge Shi & His wonderful Faucet showcase

Shifter Faucet

Articulating Karbon Faucet by Kohler

Luna by Graff

GROHE Ondus Digitecture

Latrava by Octopus Design

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Sleek & Sexy Faucet Designs

Use SlideDeck For:

• Product Tours
• Service Descriptions
• Explaining Complex Processes
• How-To Tutorials
• Feature Rich Slide Shows
• Landing Pages

SlideDeck is currently available as a customizable JavaScript Library. It takes only minutes to add to your website and is available as a plugin for jQuery 1.3+. See the usage documentation for more information.

Demo

SlideDeck has setup a sleek demo site for Basecamp. It shows you exactly how you could utilize their product. This could be super effective for employee training, new app training etc. The possibilities are indeed endless.

It’s very easy to identify and navigate through a SlideDeck presentation because of the tabs on the left and the windows that switch on the right. It’s an effortless tutorial, that puts the user in control of the speed they view it and whether they can come back to it or not.

More About SlideDeck

SlideDeck was created by a user experience design company, digital-telepathy. Digital-Telepathy stumbled into the concept when trying to simplify their own message and process. D-T uses SlideDeck to share ideas, processes and products in a clear and simple way.

Social

Twitter: Follow them

Facebook: Become a fan

The Giveaway:

How to Enter

• Follow @slidedeck on twitter
• Comment with what you would use it for.

The Details

• There will be 4 competition winners
• Contest will end this Friday at 11:59p EST.
• Winners will be announced on or before Monday

Winners

1. Zack C.
2. Juarez Filho
3. Jesse Anderson
4. Rob Simpson

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

4 SlideDeck Pro Licenses up for grabs, comment to win. **Updated with winners**

Lundberg Architecture Design has some serious talent, skill & superior execution. They are a group of creative minds that aren’t afraid to custom fab anything and everything they can get their hands on. Their interiors are stunning & exteriors are equally intriguing. Their philosophy says it all:

Good design is always personal, and it is often the little touches that impart the unique character of a building. While there is great variety in the work we have done, there are recurring themes that define it as ours.

We like materials that age well, that develop character over time. We look for variations in texture, both visual and tactile, and feel that buildings should have surfaces that beg to be touched.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Amazing Executions of Lundberg Architecture Design

Brandstack, the creative marketplace for logos has an unveiled another way to market logo designs to the masses. Upstack. Upstack is a unique route for a person needing a logo, website, web design, advertisement or other creative service. Unlike the predecessor Brandstack, Upstack lets anyone build a team of hand-picked designers that are ready to burn the midnight oil to work on your project. Upstack manages all the processes by taking the client from the brief to the final design. This wastes no design time and spares no quality. They also do this without spec work which makes it something that isn’t frowned upon in the design world.

Brandstack is different from other crowd sourcing sites because the logos they market are from designs that didn’t sell in their agency ventures. Meaning, ideally a designer would make a client three logos and the two the client didn’t pick; he or she would fine tune and put on Brandstack to sell.

Wes Wilson, Brandstacks CEO says that the beauty of Upstack is that their designers are all at the top of their game in the respected industries: web design, print, advertisement, illustration & logo design. He also goes on to mention the best part about Upstack is: “Joining Upstack is joining the right against spec. Working on Upstack prokects, you will be paid upfront for your time & effort. Happy designers and happy clients. Happy happy joy joy.”

Some well known competitors, Crowdspring and 99 Designs also offer logos & identities at similar price. Their pay structure is different, paying the designer based on the work that is chosen. A client can ask for a logo and receive 50 or so logos that have been executed. The client then picks the winner and that determines who gets paid.

Brandstack

Company: Brandstack

Twitter: @Brandstack

Founded: April 2008

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Brandstack gets a new sibling. Introducing: Upstack

So “they” say.

I know that when I’ve worked from home full time, I’ve experienced creativity block. I think that often has to do with the lack of interaction among co-workers. But there are other ways to be inspired, and they involve stepping away from your home office.

Outdoors

The best inspiration is often free. How much better do you feel when you step outside for a moment and take a deep breath of fresh air? If it’s a beautiful day, you might wonder why we tend to work indoors. Make the effort to get outside every day, even if it’s just for a jaunt around the block. When you can, go for a hike. Take your laptop to a park. Don’t fail to look all around you, soaking in your surroundings. As a graphic designer, you might find color combinations you didn’t think go together. As a photographer, you might come across a subject for a future project. As any creative professional, you’ll likely clear your head of backlogged invoices and badgering clients and instead be left with serenity.

Cafes

Cafes offer a similar concept to offices: They both feature people bent over their laptops, slurping coffee and typing rapidly. But cafe customers aren’t your co-workers, and they likely aren’t going to interrupt your work. There’s a reason home-office folks don’t always work from home: They crave other humans, even if they don’t chat them up. One can go crazy wandering around the house alone – haven’t you seen “The Shining”? That may be an extreme example, but a change in surroundings can recharge your brain and inspire more than “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” over and over.

Conferences and training

Just because you graduated from college and landed a job doesn’t mean there’s nothing left to learn. New technology is constantly being introduced, and new ideas are developed. Check out local events in your area offering trade shows, conferences and training seminars. Not only could you learn something new, but it’s also an excellent opportunity to network. You can land a new freelance gig, meet someone to interview or find out who has that antique Leica you’ve been tracking down.

Public speaking

While I just stated that there’s always something new to learn, you might have valuable information to share as well. Get in touch with your local Chamber of Commerce as well as clubs and organizations and see who regularly has speakers at their meetings. There are lots of small-business gatherings where people network and draw inspiration from each other. Perhaps you have a success story to share or you know some photography tricks. During a Q&A, you can learn from your audience and come up with ideas for your future work.

Volunteering

There’s a reason a big volunteering organization calls itself Do Something. That’s because often, all it takes is one act to make a change. Getting your hands dirty for a good cause can be the source of more inspiration than you’d ever imagine. When you volunteer, you might feel humbled – your own problems all of a sudden seeming minor; or just performing real labor can be invigorating. There are so many options for volunteering, whether it’s sticking to what you know with creative arts or cleaning up local parks and roadsides.

Working from home offers plenty of perks: You can blast heavy metal; you don’t necessarily have to wear pants; and you can keep warm with a dog at your feet. Of course, you can also catch cabin fever and find that you’ve wasted away hours staring at a blank computer screen. As a creative professional, you might not want to take “working from home” quite so literally – rather, make a break for the front door every so often.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Need Inspiration? Get Out!

Sizes:

The Details

File Type: Psd & Ai
Number in Set: 15
License Type: Creative Commons 3.0
Author: Chad Engle

Ai – Illustrator Download

Compatible with CS1+ and comes with 15 presized Ai’s ready for you to design.

Psd – Photoshop Download

Compatible with CS1+ and comes with 15 presized Psd’s ready for you to design.

Other High Quality Freebies:

Fuel Your Creativity

• Facebook fanpage PSD
• Twitter Background PSD

teehan + lax

• iPad GUI PSD
• iPhone GUI PSD

NaldzGraphics

• Free E-Commerce Icon Sets

GO Media

• Vector Freebie: Hand Drawn Wings

WebDesignLedger

• Beautiful Patterns and Textures for Ornate Backgrounds

WeFunction

• WooFunction Free Icon Set goes Live

Tutorial9

• Mono Icons: Huge Set of Minimal Icons

Daniel Mall

• Youtube & Vimeo Photoshop Templates

Other Information

Please consult these additional creative guidelines for more information:

IAB Ad Unit Guidelines 2009 Update (PDF Download)

IAB Ad Units

IAB Digital Video Creative Guidelines

IAB Pop-Up Guidelines

IAB Rich Media Guidelines

IAB Universal Ad Package

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Web Banner Templates: Photoshop & Illustrator

Pulse

This vehicle is part fitness membership, part fashion statement, and part Kyoto-pact contribution.

Designer: Teague

Chris Boardman – Olympic Cyclist, Concept Future Bike

A very light and strong carbon fiber bike that uses a clip on iPod-like type device to display maps, speed, warnings, and communication.

Designer: Lewis Rowe

IBike

Has unique features, like a place for your iPod, a built in lock & spot to plugin headphones. Plus has a super sleek, stylish design.

Designer: Reindy Allendra

WATT

Uses a unique iPhone navigation setup on the handlebars with buttons to control it as well as a different style of spoke rims and ultra light weight construction.

Designer: Jerome BLANCHARD

eco // 07

Compactable Urban Bycicle designed to save space when it is being transported or it is not in use.

Designer: Victor M. Aleman

B1k Concept Cycle

Sculpted as a race bike, it features a chainless drivetrain, carbon fiber construction and scant few details on the rest of the design.

Designer: Peugeot

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Modern Bicycle Concepts That Will Blow Your Mind

Bird

Flags

Carnival

Forest Paradise

Fujisans

Herringbone

Tambourine

Yuki-no-hi

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Unforgettable Textiles Created to Inspire

Seth Godin publishes a marketing blog with over 500,000 daily readers, has authored several best-selling Marketing books, and created an entire publishing platform with Squidoo. Its fair to say that we at FUEL are big fans. We were stoked for the opportunity to sit down and have this interview with him about his new book “Linchpin: Are you Indispensable?” which will be released tomorrow, January 26th.

CE: Your new book, Linchpin: Are you Indispensable, lives up to its name by going so far as to say “you must” make the hard changes necessary to “stand up and choose to make a difference”. When thinking about it as a concept I couldn’t help but hear Brad Pitts rant in the movie Fight Club… “We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars.” Although I agree that the age of ‘falling in line’ has reached an end, not everyone can be a linchpin. Right? Do you see a world where every person can be ‘indispensable’? Or is it an ideal which when pursued will make our lives and the world better?

SG: Not buying the “not everyone” line. What chance is there that everyone will do something brave and generous and insightful? I’m not arguing that everyone should do this. I’m arguing that YOU should.

CE: To illustrate the concept of the linchpin pursuit, you reference Charlie Chaplin, Shepard Fairey, Thomas Hawk and others; people with both singular and life long accomplishments.  Is the concept of being a ‘Linchpin’ a destination or a lifelong pursuit?

SG: I’m pretty sure it has to be forever. Once you decide to do work that matters, to be generous, to make a difference and to connect and lead, it’s hard to go back to being a cog in the machine, focusing on compliance. I’m not saying you should quit your job, but I am arguing that you should quit complying with your perception of the status quo.

CE: Your books often analyze peoples behaviors and how those behaviors impact a particular product or business theorem, Linchpin seems to be speaking more directly to the people themselves. In fact you state that “It’s a book for you, your boss and your employees”.  What motivated the shift in focus?

SG: What I found from the thousands of conversations I have every month is that strategy and systems will only take us so far. If the underlying belief system is flawed, if we’re building on top of a broken mindset, then the strategy can’t and won’t work. People read Tribes and said, “this makes sense, but I can’t do it,” and my only answer was to ask, “why not?”

CE: We aren’t going to lie, you left us intrigued but confused with your chapter on the Lizard Brain.  Where was the idea of the lizard brain conceived? What points are you really trying to build or break into by using the Lizard Brain metaphor?

SG: The science is clear: our amygdalla is the prehistoric brain, the part of our brain that worries about fear and survival and revenge. And that function is activated whenever you consider giving a speech, making a change, taking a risk. Most of us were brainwashed into believing that the safe thing to do is listen to the lizard, keep our heads down and fit in. Nonsense! That might have been true when there were saber tooth tigers, but not now. In fact, now the way we succeed and thrive and reach our goals is to do precisely the opposite of what the lizard proposes.

Steven Pressfield calls it the resistance. The voice that shoots us down, that creates writer’s block and holds us back. Elizabeth Gilbert points out that people don’t get “engineering block.” How come? It’s because that activity doesn’t feel risky. Alas, all that’s left to make a living from is work that feels risky, work that offends the lizard.

CE: “The lizard brain cares what everyone else thinks, because status in the tribe is essential to its survival.” You make a clear distinction between survival & success. (Survival being the primary goal of ‘the lizard brain’). Do you have a definition of success?

SG: I think success is getting your share at the same time you elevate the community. Success is spreading your ideas, getting paid what you’re worth and making a difference for (and to) other people. I don’t think success is showing up, doing what you’re told and then going home and watching television.

CE: As a blogging network we have seen the amazing power of giving, in fact many of our articles are submissions from people who are giving back in the form of advice, insight and experience, to their respective communities. In your chapter, ‘GIVING, RECEIVING, GIVING’, you share some of the positive cultures associated with giving. There is however a counter culture which has arisen; for every honest attempt to give, 10 disengenuos avenues spring up looking to exploit. We have seen the floodgate open on people wanting the benefits of giving but do so just by easily replicating the actions of actual givers.  It has resulted in a devaluation of all the content. What happens in the linchpin economy when the gift system doesn’t return the benefits?

SG: The posers aren’t going to go away, nor are they going to get what they seek. Those that give as a front for selfish behavior won’t get very far, even less once the cloak of anonymity is taken away. Thomas Hawk continues to give, so does Gina Trapani and so does Jacqueline Novogratz. There’s no confusion about these guys. We like them, we appreciate them and we trust them. So they succeed because they help us thrive.

CE: You reference some truly creative examples of reaching out, however part of what makes it wonderful and successful is that it is out of the norm -Do you believe that this giving mentality could work for the whole of society?  Wouldn’t it then become status-quo and loose momentum for everyone?

SG: I’m not optimistic that we could reach that point, but if we did, I’ll have a party and invite you. Wouldn’t it be cool if the new status quo was talented artists who gave as much as they could and tried to change our community for the better at every turn?

CE: “An artist is an individual who creates art. The more people you change, the more you change them, the more effective your art is.” – from chapter ‘Artists who Can’t Draw’ – Seth Godin

FYC’s audience is made up of a large group of people deemed ‘creatives’ and include Creative Directors, Freelancers of all sorts, Designers, Photographers, Fine Artists and Marketing people. This groups livelihood hinges on the ability to create various forms of art, and in many cases they CAN draw. As a group should we be looking inward to our professions to become Linchpins, or can it only be achieved by reaching outward?

SG: I think many of the people in this community aren’t artists, actually, but people working hard to do a job or please a client. Artists do more than that. They inflame critics and they make change and they do things that make themselves and others uncomfortable. Art is not about decoration, it’s about change. And to your point, it’s both inward and outward, but it takes passion and commitment and restlessness.

CE: We have really enjoyed this today but we cant finish the interview before calling you out on one of the statements you make in your chapter, ‘Reality’. You claim that “you couldn’t have written this book ten years ago, because ten years ago, the economy wanted you to fit in”.  Yet, for over 10 years you have held and propagated this well received (albeit radical) position against just ‘fitting in’. Which leads us to the obvious question… Are you a prophet?

SG: Nah, prophets are mostly dead. I think I notice things that are happening and point them out to people who realize that yeah, I’m right. This time, though, we need to hurry. There’s a revolution happening and this is our chance to run with it.

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Brand Network.
Fuel Brand Network 2010 cc (creative commons license)

Linchpin – An interview with Seth Godin on creativity and resistance