Are you living for the weekend?
All about that Fri-YAY vibe?
Stop Celebrating Fri-yay!
Are You Struggling To Get Outa Bed In Self Isolation
Are you struggling to get out of bed?
Read MoreIKEA Drawer Inserts
What do you do with left over IKEA packaging?
Read MoreHow To Turn Books Into #nudenotes
Can't remember all the content you read?
I feel you... and I have a solution.
#nudenotes
(or more accurately #booknotes!)
For those avid nudenotes followers, you'll have seen many of my booknotes series, each series it based on the books I have been reading.
booknotes are a great way to improve your information digestion and retention, of all that juicy content you're reading.
I have broken down my booknotes process into 4 easy to follow, actionable steps anyone can follow.
You can read the full process here.
It's time to turn the passive activity of reading into something more active and engage fully in the information we're consuming.
Let me know what books you'd like to see transformed into booknotes in the comments below, and I will add them to my ever-growing reading list.
My Ikigai (2020)
How can I find a job that I love and has meaning?
I have been thinking about this a lot recently, as my looming redundancy date creeps closer and closer.
Panic and 'you got this' have been doing laps in my head.
What's my next step going to be?
What will the next step in my career look like?
How can I continue doing what I love, or even take it up a couple of notches?
And what would that even look like?
Then I remembered, this video from The Futur. Where @thechrisdo ran through the Ikigai framework to discover your reason for being.
Now, I am no expert in Ikigai. I am not even sure this is correct, but it's the best I have based on what I have been able to dig out from a quick google search.
But, here's my nudenotes Ikigai map.
I agree with the results... Packaging + Brand Facilitator.
I love working in the area where branding overlaps with packaging design, especially when I get to collaborate with others and facilitate the journey to the best possible solution.
Time to get start hunting down that perfect new Ikigai matching career!
3 Communication Stance & Want a Guarantee Communication
Inspired by 3 Communication Stance & Want a Guarantee Communication inspired by Instagram Posts by Wesley Anne Little.
How do we make relationships less confusing?
The world is built on relationships, good, bad and indifferent. On my feed I tend to focus on growing as a creative professional, but I haven't put much thought into learning more about building relationships.
Especially as I am quite bad at this. I am more than a little robotic when it comes to these relationship skills, it often frustrates me. Which is bad for me and the people around me.
Thank god for Wesley, and her video on The Futur YouTube channel really opened my eyes to new ways of thinking and handling relationship in and outside the creative process.
Wesley's Instagram feed is full of awesome insights for improving relationships both in and out of the office.
I have converted two of Wesley's Instagram Carousels into nudenote for tonight's post. I hope they help start down the road of developing better relationship skills, as they have for me.
Stay tuned for more Instagram Carousel nudenotes in the future.
Want to create your own?
Check out my blog: How To Turn Instagram Carousels into Nudenotes, for tips and process pointers.
How to Turn Instagram Carousels into Nudenotes
How to Turn Instagram Carousels into Nudenotes
Getting Instagram Carousels fatigue?
Every time you open Instagram there's a new batch of slides, jam-packed with information from our design and business heroes.
What do we do with all that information?
Hit the like button, maybe write a comment. But, a few seconds later it's forgotten.
What's the answer?
nudenotes… of course!
It's time to create something from all those squandered learning opportunities. In my latest nudenotes blog, I share my process for transforming your favourite Instagram Carousels into nudenotes.
Read the full blog article here.
Transforming these carousels into nudenotes has dramatically improved my ability to remember the information and even allowed me to reach out and connect with some of my online heroes.
booknotes: 101 Things I Learned in Business School
Another book recommendation from The Futur, I read this book because there was a gap in my knowledge about the business side of design.
One of my motivators is ABL (Always Be Learning) - if there’s something I don’t know, I’ll try to learn about it.
I enjoyed the concise, bite-sized layout of information - particularly useful when I didn’t know much about the particular subject.
It’s an excellent read for anyone looking to brush-up on their business knowledge.
I made a lot of nudenotes on this book - 16 pages’ worth - and there’s lots more that I wasn’t able to cover, so it’s well-worth a read to those who want to find out more.
Packaging Design 101: Part 3
Packaging Design 101 is the culmination of weeks of research from a tonne of books, podcasts and blogs with a sprinkling of my own insights and a pinch of experience.
Key takeaway:
Free PDF download.
Don’t forget to check out my article Packaging 101, at the end of the article there’s a mini graduation present, a link to a high-resolution PDF of my nudenotes I made in preparation for writing the blog.
There are no catches, it’s a completely free resource for you to use as a reference whenever you need it.
Packaging Design 101: Part 2
Packaging Design 101 is the culmination of weeks of research from a tonne of books, podcasts and blogs with a sprinkling of my own insights and a pinch of experience.
Key takeaway:
Free PDF download.
Don’t forget to check out my article Packaging 101, at the end of the article there’s a mini graduation present, a link to a high-resolution PDF of my nudenotes I made in preparation for writing the blog.
There are no catches, it’s a completely free resource for you to use as a reference whenever you need it.
Holiday Planning
Inspired by me.
Are you planning a holiday?
I like to do it the nudenotes way with some cool icons and a bit of funky hand-drawn type.
nudenotes are a fast, fun and creative way to plan out a trip or holiday.
Here are some of the places I plan to visit in Palma during my trip this week.
It’s definitely something I’ll be doing with all of my future holidays!
Perceptual Mapping
by Me
Don’t forget to check out my article on Perceptual Mapping here, which is based on these nudenotes.
Here’s the introduction from that blog to whet your appetite:
Perceptual maps form a small part of a larger process of developing products, brands and services for consumers. This technique can be a tricky to master, but can be an effective tool for all creative professionals to help you understand where your product/brand sit amongst your competition from (and this is the important bit) your consumers’ perspective. If this technique is used correctly, it can be a powerful tool which can unearth opportunities and unseen insights.
This technique of analysis can be used as valuable part of a kick-off session of a new brand or product, and it can also be used to show the transition visually in a rebrand, new product launch or repositioning project.
The main goal of these maps is to help gain a better understanding of consumers’ perception of your ideas and solutions in order to help deliver a solution that resonates with your target audience on a deeper level. Therefore, they get the best experience and value from your creative solutions.
As always with my nudenote-based articles, there’s a mini graduation present: a link to a high-resolution PDF of my nudenotes I made in preparation for writing the blog.
It also includes some of the call-out images used in the article.
There are no catches, it’s a completely free resource for you to use as a reference whenever you need it.
Packaging Design 101: Part 1
Packaging Design 101 is the culmination of weeks of research from a tonne of books, podcasts and blogs with a sprinkling of my own insights and a pinch of experience.
Key takeaway:
Free PDF download.
Don’t forget to check out my article Packaging 101, at the end of the article there’s a mini graduation present, a link to a high-resolution PDF of my nudenotes I made in preparation for writing the blog.
There are no catches, it’s a completely free resource for you to use as a reference whenever you need it.
Value In Design: Part 2
In part one, I broke ‘value’ down into categories, taking the subjective term of adding value and making it more objective.
In part two, I outline the next steps: creating a value ratio, the impact of design, value engineering and the problem of ‘adding value’.
This should help to improve your ability to discuss and harness the power of value with your own designs, by focusing on values that resonate with your consumers or clients.
Check out the full article here.
Key takeaway:
To add value, you must understand it
Design has a long history of being prompted as ‘adding value’ to a product, but in order achieve this, you must have a clear understanding of value as it is perceived by your consumers.
This will empower you to be more focused and discuss value in an objective way — allowing you to develop ideas and solutions that consumer perceives as more valuable, avoiding extra costs.
Value In Design: Part 1
In the creative business everyone, talks about value.
We all know that values are hooks for potential consumers, but how many of us actually know what value means?
It’s so subjective, right!?
Wrong.
Once you speak the language of value, you can leverage it to create better design solutions and have a happier, smoother design process.
I’ve reworked some old university notes into this breakdown of value.
If you’re intrigued, check out the full article here.
Key takeaway:
Not all values are created equal.
Value is a subjective topic — to make sense of it, you need to have an understanding of value from consumers and user with your creative team.
This empowers you with the insight of knowing what consumers are looking for when making a purchase.
This is the key to making that all-important sale.