Nate Voss (@Vossome) has lived numerous lives as a designer and creative. First a traditional graphic designer, he spent several years as a freelance illustrator and designer before joining digital marketing & advertising agency VML. Since then, he’s moved into mobile and app design, exploring software development workflows and agency culture up close.
Our conversation meanders across a variety of topics, discussing the transition from agency life to freelance (and back), the culture shock of working in a large organization, and even the type of architecture that best suits a mixed team.
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- Nate has worked as an illustrator/cartoonist, a designer, a digital art director, and several other roles over the years
- Past episode of The Busy Creator Podcast with Michael Bierut
“Michael Bierut is Graphic Design's Cool Uncle”
—Nate Voss
- VML, Nate’s agency home these past four years
- Mad Men, and the fictional Art Director Sal Romano
Sal Romano hard at work
- Nate defines himself lately as an “all-purpose creative designer” with a “holistic creative background”
- Nate has illustrated several children’s books, including The Legend of Little Red
- Desirée, a creative cohort of Nate’s
- Millieu, a definition
- Studio Audience, the podcast from It’s Nice That
“Art Director is both a rank and a job.”
—Prescott Perez-Fox
- Art Director can have different definitions across advertising, branding, film, fashion, etc.
- New terms for designers focused on digital include “visual designer”, “lead creative”, “UI/UX designer”
- Nate’s favourite feature of LinkedIn is that you can’t “creep” unless you pay; all visits to profiles are public
- Nate’s official title is “Senior Channel Manager for Mobility”, whatever that means
- Microsoft has odd titles, including “Corporate Vice-President of Corporate Communications“
- Military-style hierarchies in corporations
- “The Hollywood Model” of building a team
- Voltron (WARNING: May cause seizures)
- Nate leapt into self-employment suddenly, had to teach himself new skills as the needs appeared
“Being self employed means you must be a jack of all trades and a master of at least a few.”
—Nate Voss
- 36Point.com, which featured Nate’s web comic 1 PT Rule
“Moving back to the agency world was a bit of a culture shock.”
—Nate Voss
- AIGA Memphis
- Mike Joosse
- Rob Smigielski
- Donovan Beery
- Debbie Millman
- Nate still gets reminded of his somewhat-rocky ramp-up period
- Freelance/Solo designers get “feral” if they’re out in the woods too long
“Dress like a bourgeois, think like a revolutionary.”
—Tibor Kalman paraphrasing Gustave Flaubert to Michael Bierut
“A suit is the uniform of the economically viable.”
—Prescott Perez-Fox
- Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson et al. on Amazon and on Audible
- Linchpin by Seth Godin on Amazon and on Audible
- VML has offices all over the world
- SXSW
- Mark Barry, from VML Sydney
- Upstairs-Downstairs relationships, not good to have within an agency
- VML was slow to adopt Agile methodology, but Nate has helped install those techniques
- Crossroads District, Kansas City
- Paul Rand
- Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop
- Adam Jones, designer/developer
- Bloatware
- Caleb’s Javascript library
- Spaghetti Code
- vml.com blog
- Nate Voss on Twitter
- Nate Voss on Facebook
- Nate Voss on Instagram
- Nate Voss on LinkedIn
Tools
- Paper job folders
- Widescreen display
- Sketchbooks
- MacBook Pro
- iPad
- iPhone 5S
- Google Cardboard VR
- Sketch
- Macromedia/Adobe Freehand (RIP)
- Invision
- Flinto
- Form by RelativeWave (and now Google)
- Origami from Facebook
- Quartz Composer
- Keynote
Techniques
- Learn to nap, especially if you work from home and have the flexibility
- Codify and create a system of storing and backing up files
- Don’t use job folders; train yourself to “just know”
- Build “alignment teams” within your agency
- Break down the walls between creative, accounts, project management and other departments (this can be literal, in the architectural sense, as well as metaphorical)
- Agile development process
- Bring team members together in a separate office to unify workflow
- Don’t show multiple options; it only confuses clients and causes anxiety
- Watch TED talks as a guideline for presenting to clients
- Use your iPad for scheduling and communication on the go
- Ditch Adobe software and use specific, lightweight tools instead
- Use Keynote to prototype apps on the iPhone. Basic animation goes a long way.
Habits
- Work lean, eliminate big clunky meetings and examine your process
- Evaluate any design options for three criteria: satisfy my creative needs, satisfy the client’s goals, perform well in the marketplace
- Once you build up a rapport with a client, push each other on the creative presentation
- Wake up at 5:00 and play Destiny
- Read before work
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