Grab your tees here. Help us get enough gas to get back home!
We really appreciate your support. Thank you!

Sizes

Small Medium Large X-Large

Minneapolis. A homeless guy asked us to sign his shirt and then convinced us to pay him for it. We rocked out at a Ferry Corsten concert because Tony, the designer we stayed with, was a baller and did the promotional posters for the concert. It wasn’t really our scene but good times were had by all. We found a sweet designer toy shop called Robot Love. We went to an AIGA meet-up at a swanky bar, something that still boggles us. We’ve been able to attend quite a few AIGA meet-ups and they all seem to be in expensive bars. We’ve also noticed half the people that go to these are freelancers that recently lost their job. AIGA: designers don’t have the cash to spend nine dollars on a drink. Try going to a dive bar, so the broke dudes can get drunk enough to network. We met a ton of cool young designers, some still in school and some killin’ it professionally. It was super inspiring. We also met up with Mr. Bolger. We were able to set up a time to meet him at his print shop. “Shop” isn’t the right word, this place was huge. Check out the video for a little tour.

What is ZAAZ? We’re still not sure what the name means, but they are a pretty good sized interactive agency based out of Seattle, WA. These guys don’t mess around, we had a chance to take a little tour of their studio, thanks to Rachel Elkington. She was awesome. We learned a bit about optimization, Rachel is an online test designer which is like user interface optimization. They essentially launch different versions of an interface/website and test to see which performs best. We can only imagine that this creates an interesting dynamic between optimization designer and interface designer. When do you compromise?

Be sure to watch the video, near 3:15ish in the timeline, you can see their interrogation room. The clients and designers will sit on one side and a targeted user will sit on the blind side of the room. The clients/designers can then watch the users interaction via multiple cameras, the one-way mirror and eye tracking software. We were pretty blown away when we saw that, very cool stuff. It’s all about the details.

Anyone have any good books/sites for interface optimization testing?

Round I
We recently ran into Nate Voss of 36point.com while touring the Willoughby design firm in Kansas City. They seemed nice enough and were doing something similar, interviewing designers for their podcast. We talked to them for about 2 minutes, briefly explained our epic journey and were gone.
We ran into them again — online this time — when they tweeted about one of their latest posts and nonchalantly mentioned we were in it. “Oh awesome!” we thought…an established, very well connected couple of designers mentioned us in one of their blog posts, “sweet!” And in fact, it was pretty awesome, we made it into Nate’s cartoon. Check it out here.

Martin’s character was pretty legit looking and mine (Gavin) had a soul patch. I only wish I could grow facial hair, so thank you Nate for that addition. Although the comic was an inaccurate depiction of what we are doing (see graph below), we really didn’t mind the attention. This is the internet — uneducated opinions run rampant. Another reason we didn’t mind is because we’ve worked with enough people that would vouch for us and if Nate isn’t a fan, we’re okay with that. If you’ve read the comic, then our response will make sense, so check it out first. This is what we responded with.

Round II
Nate responded with another post which you can read here if you really want to. After reading the comments, which we really appreciate, we decided we may as well write a little something. We completely agree with what everyone has said, we value our work just as much as the next designer. We also expect to be paid what it is worth. This cross-country drift has quickly tossed us into the freelance world and has given us a true taste of what it means to be paid what you are worth and what it means to go without (read – car wash showers and 89cent taco bell).

The whole premise of Nate’s blog post and some of the comments was that we undercut design firms. Most of our work comes from design firms, where our work is valued. We’ve been able to build relationships with designers through-out this trip across the country. Sometimes they throw some freelance work our way. Sometimes they’re just stoked about our journey and want to help us out by giving us a project to work on. The rest of our work comes from back in texas, where we are from. Where we bill our normal rate.

20% of the work we’ve done, we would consider under-billed. 10% of that was work done for close friends and for charity groups. We have no problem working for charities for a reduced rate/free. We do however make sure to let them know what the value had been if we were charging them our regular rates. As for the other 10%, this is not work that was stolen from any design firm or designer. This is work that we’ve found in small towns or small start-ups that 99% of the time wouldn’t go to a designer for work. In fact, we’ve been able to educate a few clients about the importance smart design can have on their brand. We’ve been able to introduce design to smaller companies in tiny towns that have had the D.E.Y. (Do Everything Yourself) mentality.

Here is an example of work we’ve done that was under-billed: The mind-bandit t-shirts we did, you can see them on our work page , was billed for $300. Five t-shirts for 300 bucks — incredibly low. The client was an awesome girl, still in high school, in Charleston, SC. She asked if we could help her start a line of clothing to sell to some of the local board shops around her town. We were stoked by her entrepreneurial spirit and the style of tees she wanted. So we took the job and had a great time working on it. We made a stop in SC and her family let us stay with them while we were there. Amazing people! Do you really believe we stole this work from any designers? Do you really think this means we don’t value our work?

If you’ve been able to read down this far and you can remember back to when you started freelancing, did you ever do work that you felt was under-billed for whatever reason? What % of your work would you say was under-billed, if any?

Okay, one last thing, Nate Voss we don’t care about your comic. We get that it was just a joke. But if you are going to continue to make nonsense claims about us, please spend more than 2 minutes talking to us. Do a little research, especially when you have such a large audience.

A couple weeks ago I decided that I wanted to write a post on who inspired me. We always ask designers who pushed them or got them started, and I finally decided to turn the question around upon myself. Through school I worked a few design jobs, including some in house jobs with other designers that I didn’t get along with. I was quickly falling out of love with design when I got an e-mail from Roby. I’d been recommended to him by a mutual friend and I started work at Always Creative a week or two later.

Roby pushed me to learn and progress while I was working at AC and kept me motivated. During our smoke breaks we talked design and dreamed big. Through those 10-15 breaks I fell back in love with design. Roby also pushed me to start DC, and has been a great cheerleader and mentor throughout our trek. So a week or so ago I sent Roby and email with some questions that I thought would be cool to share.

Born in Houston and now residing in College Station, Roby Fitzhenry is one busy dude. He has been a (graphic) designer for eight years with a love and focus on identity and print design. He is a self-taught web designer and brand strategist who also does a variety of event planning and promotion. Roby is co-founder and Creative Director of Always Creative, a Bryan Texas based brand and web development company as well as co-founder of The Creative Space, Texas’ first co-working space. He’s won a few (lame) awards and has been featured in LogoLounge Volume Five which is his biggest honor to date. Besides these things, he is also serving as Creative Director of Desired Hearts, a small fashion label focused on passion and the entrepreneurial spirit. Roby’s designs focus on simplicity through purity and the goal of creating design that survives the test of time. His career goal is to be a respected and trusted designer that creates designs and strategies that change the way people look at things, especially business owners towards their business and the way people revere designers/design in general. He also drinks way too much coffee, loves sneakers and fashion as well as loud music of all varieties.

Do you remember the first time you had the desire to be a designer?
Absolutely. I was 15 and an avid BMXer that created my own fake company and started sketching bike frames, pedals and other components. I named the company, developed a marketing strategy, focused service offerings and even designed a (crappy) logo. This all started without me even knowing that graphic design and branding were actual career options… However, I remember lying in my bed when I was 17 and just finished high school. Had to choose between graphic design or culinary arts as a career. As you can see, design was my decision and from that point on I’ve never looked back.

What is the first project you remember completing for money?
Latham, a local punk rock band of my youth, was my first client. I designed a CD and some t-shirts. The funny thing is that their lead singer Jeff is now my business partner. We been friends for a longgg time though.

If tomorrow the entire design/branding field went away. What job would you pursue and why?
Event promotion, writing, teaching or open a streetwear/sneaker shop. Hell .. maybe all of them.

What would you do differently if someone gave you the
chance to start AC again?
Save up a ton of working capital, clearly define all of our processes, develop a marketing strategy and work up a simple business plan. Beyond that, I would sit down and design the hell out of everything from stationery to the website so we had it from day one. All of those things are VERY important .. trust me.

Can design save the world?
I use to think it could but not anymore. It’s more about the message behind the design, not the design itself. I think conversation can save the world and graphic design is just a different form of having a conversation. Hippie propaganda FTW?

If you had to pick 3 typefaces to use for the rest of eternity
what would they be?
Easy. Gotham, Helvetica and my own handwriting. Handmade type is very important to me. Still can’t decide who would win in the epic battle of Gotham vs. Helvetica (so I’ll take both). [cheater]

Name one designer that has shaped your work more than any other.
Paul Rand deserves credit for my overall aesthetic. Benny Gold is currently the designer that I’m following because his work, client list, approach to projects and overall lifestyle are all something to look up to.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Where will AC be?
Where will design be?
I don’t know where I’ll be nor Always Creative. If things keep going the way they are, hopefully Always Creative will be a big name in the design field. Design will continue to expand within mobile devices, their applications and overall uses. I’m confident that crappy web design will continue to be frowned upon by users (potential customers) and good design will help companies command a premium.

A man’s closet says a lot about him. What shoes are you
rocking these days?
I own the Skate or Die dunk lows and the Tie Dye mids. My other kicks are the Stubbs x Supra Skytops, Air Max Lights (my beaters), and of course a wide variety of Vans. The Dunk Hi Caution Quickstrikes and the Air Royal Mid Premiums are my next to cop.

If AC had to have a highschool style mascot what would it be?
A dodo bird or a duckbill platypus? We’re a bit of a hybrid team that can’t be categorized per se.

You and Jeff grew up together and you worked around Travis before starting AC. Do you find it hard to take/give criticism to and from your friends?
Any designer should value their network of friends and family. Running a business with friends can be tough at times but I really enjoy the mood it creates in our office. We don’t really act like a company, we’re more like a tight knit team that likes to have fun, pay bills and do great work. Having a network of friends, especially designer friends, is awesome because we share ideas, tell someone when they need to step it up and give each other the necessary props. That’s really what it’s all about.

If you were offered a job where you had to wear a suit to work, but made 200K a year would you take it?
What time would I have to get there? I’m an insomniac. Plus, no one will pay me $200k .. I’ve asked. haha

You are really involved in the design community even helping put together things like Design Camp. What motivates you to do more than the typical 9-5?
Bryan/College Station is awesome but lacks a lot of things I need. So, I decided to do them with my friends rather than complain about their lack of existence. “Shut up and do it” is my new motto. The list includes: The Creative Space, Desired Hearts, IS Conference, RefreshBCS, Rock The Republic and Big Ass BarCamp. And people wonder why I’m always working …

And finally….
Can you handle the truth?
The truth shall set you free.

I just wanna say thanks to Roby for being an all around good dude, great friend, and bad ass designer.

Check out the video for a little taste of how Ken Barnes begins his type construction. His logo process usually begins with creating custom type. One of the many cool opportunities we are exposed to on this trip is being able to see how designers work, their thought process, the tools they use and just the way they solve problems.

In Seattle we met with some awesome people. These two in particular, Ken Barnes and Julie Pogue, helped us out tremendously. They’re both super creative designers. Julie has some very beautiful illustrations and design work. Julie and Ken are a pretty unique couple, not many couples work together like they do. It’s very cool to see their dynamic when it comes together in one of their pieces. Ken focuses on brand creation, interior design and branded architecture. He has done some awesome work for restaurants, where he is involved with every aspect of building the brand from the floor up. Literally, he showed us floor plan layouts, mural designs, menus, logos, packaging — everything. Hopefully one of these days we can get involved with a project that allows us to take on such a wide range of design.

On our way to Glacier National Park, we found bears! Real, live, giant black bears. Our car was our cage and we drove through an area that housed four of ‘em. It was about as close to real bears as you can get without feeling like a zoo or getting eaten. Photo quality is shoddy because we weren’t allowed to roll the windows down. We practice good bear safety.

Oh, look! Here we are throwing rocks into the glacier lake.

Glacier National Park is easily one of the most beautiful places in the country, the rest of Montanna is a whole lot of nothing. Okay…that’s not entirely true, there are fields of hay. Cows. Five small “towns”. Suicidal deer that hang out next to (on) the interstate. And somehow, there are people scattered about the countryside — living. Needless to say, there wasn’t much for typography or anything really graphic design related but the environmental visuals were incredible, at least in Glacier National Park.

One lane road for most of the drive up top. On the left, the driver could easily touch the rock face and on the right side of the car, the passenger could look out over the ledge to a huge drop below. At times there wasn’t even a guard-rail. We also found a water-fall at the top of the mountain and decided it’d be a good shower spot. Glacier water is cold! Check out the video.

We also drove through hours of this.

There isn’t a whole lot in Hayden, Idaho, but we did manage to find some very cool people and do a bit of trade work. We stayed with Dave Van Etten who let us crash in his basement. Dave and his family were super nice and even cooked for us. We also had a chance to meet with Jesh Barlow and Ben Tran. Even though we are in a small town, everyone we met with here is working with clients across the country, these guys are all super legit designers. It was very cool to see people living where they want, but working with clients from across the country.

On a completely different note. Martin decided it was time for another tattoo and found a pretty rad shop (Dan’s Tattoo Shop) that was down for some trade work. Martin busted out a simple splash page that redirects to Dan’s myspace page (where he gets most of his traffic) and in return, Martin got some fresh Idaho Ink. Check out the Video/Photos.

We’re heading to a glacier, about five hours NE from Hayden, ID. Getting on the road now.

We’re not even half way through this round and we’ve already collected a pretty decent stack of business cards. Wanna see? We picked through ‘em and found the ones we loved. Thanks to our buddy Rafik for the brilliant post idea.

This one is pretty epic — those are the actual teeth imprints of this guy. Sadly, there is zero contact information, so…pretty card, but pretty useless.

This is a beautiful card, printed with a letterpress. Jonathan Arvizu

Sweet design shop in Seattle. Fresh website/portfolio too, definitely worth checking outTurnstyle

Magazine about art/design culture in Phoenix, AZ. Switch Studio, all-in-one design shop, specializing in publications.

Ripe Creative

Nishant Kothary – Microsoft

Aaron Irizarry