Armin Vit (@ArminVit) is a design entrepreneur and blogger. He and his wife Bryony Gomez-Palacio founded their company, UnderConsideration, in 2002. The duo have since left their jobs at prestigious New York-based design firms, relocated to Austin, Texas, and have made a name in the design business as authors, conference organizers, writers, speakers, and designers (of course).
Our conversation highlights what it’s like to run a company out of his home, how he and his wife share office and household duties, and how he manages to cope with all that email. There’s also an odd jab at rookie designers and even some tips on how to track your marathon training, if that’s your thing.
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Show Notes & Links
- Armin (@ArminVit) & Bryony’s (@Bryonygp) company, UnderConsideration (@UCllc), publishes blogs Brand New, Art of the Menu, Quipsologies & FPO
- They organize the Brand New Conference and Brand New Awards, as well as the FPO Awards
- They write design books like Flaunt (which, coincidentally, features Prescott’s 2010 portfolio), Graphic Design: Referenced, Women of Design
- Austin Initiative for Graphic Awesomeness
- UC Quarterly
- Armin sends 60-80 emails per day
- Google Drive or Smartsheet, online spreadsheet tools
- Massimo & Lella Vingelli, legendary graphic design couple
- The Eameses, iconic furniture design team
- Armin worked at Pentagram; Bryony worked at Addison
- The philosophical side of keeping a project fresh
“We go out of our way to over-design it.”
—Armin Vit, on BNConf identities
- Irony as a tool. For conference design, at least.
- The Brand New Conference 2012, award-winning poster (Best of Show at the Type Directors Club)
- The video Armin recorded to accept this very award (NSFW)
- The 3-point grid, a way to set up documents for tidyness in type and layout.
Armin’s 3-Point Grid
- Michael Bierut did not teach Armin the 3-pt grid.
- SpeakUp: UnderConsideration’s retired design community blog
- Massimo Vignelli’s grid
- How Prescott sets up his InDesign layers:
How Prescott sets up Layers in InDesign
- Behance or Pinterest
“They always say: 'All young designers know is how to use the software.' That's not even true anymore.”
—Armin Vit
- ICC Profiles
- Digital Publishing Suite – make ePub, Kindle, etc. from InDesign
- Getting Things Done by David Allen on Amazon and on Audible
- Tina Eisenberg (@swissmiss) and Jessica Hische (@jessicahische), inbox 100
- Prescott and Armin are both Marathon finishers
- Runner’s World magazine
- FitBit or Nike Fuel band, tracking gadgets
Tools
- Interns
- Calendar on the Mac (mainly for Bryony)
- Excel or Google Drive
- InDesign, especially when you get thorough
- TrainingPeaks app for runners
- Garmin Watch
Techniques
- Time management. Getting ahead of the pressure, and not falling behind.
- Use that calendar, even for small things like “go for a run”
- Make “sexy” Excel sheets. Colour-coding. Sheets. Etc.
- When you design logos, you have to sketch. Unless you suck as sketching. If that’s the case, use Illustrator.
- Armin’s folder structure: Exploratory 1, 2, etc. Then 1a, 1b, etc. Then Development, then For Use.
- Watch your email application for that little “reply” icon.
- T.R.A.P. your email — Throw away, Reply, create Action item, Pass to someone else.
Habits
- Wake up at 5:00am. Get to work immediately (after some coffee).
- Get done by 6:30am, or else the day is ruined (by children).
- Save less mentally-demanding tasks for evening. Email & link-blogs such as Quipsologies.
- Never name anything “final”
- Maintain a clean desktop and inbox zero
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