Author Archive

Closing the Gap Between Ambition and Talent

Posted February 23, 2012, by Lisa Twenter

Upon hopping on the public radio train, I discovered this video featuring Ira Glass, host and producer of “This American Life.” I must have listened to it 15 times over the course of two days. In just under two minutes, Glass sums up what myself and other creatives struggle with in the early stages of our career. The message is both motivational and effective in helping unravel how I feel about my work and how to push myself to do greater things, things that make me truly happy with the work that I do.

Don’t get me wrong, I love being a designer. For the most part, I feel a sense of resolution and a sizeable amount of satisfaction upon finishing a project, large or small. I work very hard to produce great work for some equally great clients. However, I often, if not always, find myself falling short of complete satisfaction and happiness with my work as a whole.

It is the condition of a designer to constantly be looking around, seeking inspiration, keeping up-to-date with what others like you are doing. That’s what we do. It’s because we are so good at soaking up and utilizing the inspiration around us that we are able to be creative. This ability can serve as a catch-22 when the things we see around us make us feel like we’re not where we should be.

Glass has it right when he states “the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions.”

I find that I am most satisfied when I’m doing a large volume of creative-intensive work. When I am absorbing the things around me, fleshing out ideas, feeding my own creative style and acting on it is when I feel most accomplished. It’s only when we work hard to explore new ideas, innovate and put those ideas into place is when we are able close that gap that always seems to exist between the work we are producing and what we want to produce.

As a fresh-face in this industry, I’m still working on developing my personal creativity and learning how I can turn the massive amount of inspiration and competition I encounter into work that I am truly proud to call my own. It’s important to realize there is always going to be someone better than you, and there is always going to be a piece of work better than yours. As frustrating as that feeling can be in such a fast-paced industry, it’s important to realize that the desire to do greater things is what pushes us to that point.

“It’s gonna’ take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta’ fight your way through that.” – Ira Glass

Posted in Aha Moments, Creative Process, General, Our Aha Moments | No Comments »
Save, Share, Spread the Love Share/Save/Bookmark

Business in the Blogosphere

Posted November 3, 2011, by Lisa Twenter

As I sit here prepared to share my thoughts on this week’s edition of the M3 blog, I immediately think back to why we blog and why it has become a crucial step in reaching out to our visitors and potential clients.

Our agency happens to be particularly multifaceted. Every morning, we have an extraordinary amount of talent walk into M3 and get to work on a variety of projects. To someone just becoming familiar with our agency, our large staff can seem like a complicated family tree of skill sets and responsibilities. Blogging helps to break a large, well-oiled machine down to its most important parts. When a reader is able to gain a better understanding of the individual strengths, interests and talents brewing at M3, they are better able to understand what M3 as a whole can do for their company or project.

Blogging can be beneficial to companies of all shapes, sizes and backgrounds. By regularly blogging, a business can establish itself as invested in its clients and dedicated to staying up-to-date in their industry. To get the most out of a blog, posters should make an effort to stay current. Sharing helpful tips and discussing industry news is a great way to engage readers and keep them checking back for updates.

Once you have some awesome, solid blog posts under your belt, it’s important to remember to keep the momentum going. One blog post per month is not going to be enough to keep regular readers. Creating and regularly maintaining a blog for your business is meant to allow you to appeal to your customers on a personal level and to establish your business as cutting-edge within your industry. A blog with a virtual-tumbleweed rolling through it can make your business seem unapproachable and behind-the-times.

When starting a blog for your business, start with a plan. Make an effort to regularly post, be enthusiastic and get your visitors excited about what you do. A blog is a great way for you to regularly interact with your customers on a massive scale, and more businesses than ever are using this powerful tool to engage current and future clients. Blog, rinse, repeat.

Posted in Around the Office, Branding, Creative Process, Social Media | No Comments »
Save, Share, Spread the Love Share/Save/Bookmark

Not Your Type

Posted March 31, 2011, by Lisa Twenter

Although I have a special place in my designerly heart for photography and illustration, I am a firm believer that most messages can be communicated largely with typography and with very little, if any, imagery. I often begin designs with thoughts of typography alone – I find that imagery often plays a secondary role in my design process.

As with most facets of the design world, while ultimately subjective, there are standards – things you just know are either acceptable or unacceptable. As a professional creative, it is important that you are able to identify a font that is just plain taboo.

If there’s anything you should know about me, I love type. I have an outrageous collhelvetica_weightsection, 90% of which I have yet to put to significant use. With hundreds of thousands of typographic art in the world, it’s a lovely, yet anxiety-inducing, experience to try to choose the perfect set of fonts for any given project.

After looking through my personal font collection, I put together a list of my favorite and least favorite commercial fonts and why they should or should not be considered for a place in your type arsenal.

Helvetica

Seeing as it is possibly one of the most overused fonts in the design world, it almost seems as though Helvetica should have made its spot on the “absolutely never” list by now. It’s just entirely too perfect. Applicable in almost every situation, it can be dressed up or down. The documentary, aptly-named Helvetica, led me to realize that Helvetica just works. That’s its nature.  It has worked for many years and I feel it will work for many years more.

Geometric Slabserif

When I’m just not able to solve a serif vs. sans-serif debacle, Geo Slab jumps in and changes the game. With a variety of weights and styles, it can be used with the distinction of a serif font, yet possesses everything I love about a sans-serif. At its heaviest weight, it has similarities to Rockwell. At its lightest, it’s an adorable, no-frills serif that I often find myself using when I want to achieve a certain “crafty” feel in a particular project.

Garamond

Garamond is a catch-all serif. Although there are a multitude of other serifs that I love dearly, Garamond is one of those widely-used typefaces that has maintained its charm and has stood the test of time. Use it for body copy. Throw it in a headline. Embrace its multipurpose-ness!

What I love about truly well-designed sets of type is that the possibilities are endless. The right font can transform any design. When it comes to their overused and abused counterparts, there’s really only one rule I follow: don’t use them.

Mistral

I know it looks fancy and I understand that it looks handwritten. And I also realize you may want to use it to appear both classy and relatable. Mistral will not accomplish anything remotely like that – unless you want to appear as though you’re a hair salon whose print material last received an update in 1992.

Comic Sans

There was a point in my life where I used Comic Sans for everything. It was 1996. I was seven years old, and I often used it in conjunction with Curlz. Shortly after, I reached the age of reason and realized there is no excuse for the use of, quite possibly, one of the most abhorred system fonts the design world has ever known.

Papyrus

From whole food stores to the film, Avatar, I cannot seem to escape the font that never does anything short of make my skin crawl. Cafés are obsessed with it and it somehow makes its way onto nearly every product deemed “natural” or “organic.” Designed to mimic how English language texts may have looked written on papyrus 2,000 years ago, it has a distinct calligraphic, antique look that establishments from churches to restaurants go ga-ga over. I simply don’t feel the same.

I’m sure all of these typefaces had their glory day. They all had a purpose within the world of typography – perhaps they still do, however, I have yet to find it. Perhaps Papyrus was never designed to stand the test of time as Helvetica has.

The rise and fall of typefaces certainly highlights the importance of staying current, maintaining a unique sense of style and staying a step ahead of the fast-paced, whirlwind world of design.

Whichever fonts you choose to employ on a regular basis, you should always be sure of two things:

1.) Why you are using it and 2.) That it’s not Comic Sans.

Lisa Twenter is the newest addition to the M3 family. She loves typography, design and cupcakes.

Posted in Creative Process, General | 1 Comment »
Save, Share, Spread the Love Share/Save/Bookmark