Background facts
Please share a little background
industry info about you.
I am a graphic designer. I know this
graphic design industry has a lot of
puffery and titles. Everyone’s a
creative director, even when they’re
not. If you’re an art director, your title
says creative director. If you’re a
graphic designer, your title says
creative director. Everyone seems
to do puffery.
I’m a graphic designer and I think
that’s just the most accurate way to
describe me. I’m also a business owner,
and that’s probably more realistic.
How long have you worked in your industry?
Since ’97, so seventeen years, which is mind-boggling to me.
Dress code
How do you determine what you’re going to wear to work each day?
Very easy. I’ve already got my schedule planned for any given day. I know what I’m doing tomorrow. If I’m going to have client interaction I dress one way and if I’m not, I’m just dressed normal.
What’s your client dress code?
My client dress code is almost exactly the same as my regular dress code with a couple of very specific differences. My regular dress code is just black tee shirts, jeans of some sort, and sneakers. The difference is that if I’m going to go see a client, I make sure that I fix my hair as opposed to just throwing on a ball cap on, because I wear a lot of baseball caps. I own probably fifty or so. I really like ball caps. They go with sneakers, and it’s really easy to just throw on a cap, and walk out the door.
The main thing is that if I go see a client, I put on a jacket. I have a closet full of sports jackets and I dress them up with pocket squares. When you are wearing all black and then you throw a jacket on, it doesn’t matter that I’m wearing jeans and a tee shirt. It instantly propels the look. As a creative, we can usually get away with a lot more. I don’t have to be in a suit, per se. I never wear collared shirts or ties, but if I put a jacket on over this tee shirt, I look formal.
What are the typical brands you go to?
When I’m buying jackets, it really is about the cut, look, or fit. I could be at Nordstrom’s, or Dillards; really it doesn’t matter to me when it comes to the jackets, but I’m so brand loyal when it comes to other things ... like pants. I almost exclusively wear Levi's. It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about jeans, shorts, khakis, dress pants, or trousers. No matter what, I’m probably in Levi's.
Levi's has a line of clothing for cyclists called Commuter. I have a lot, eight or ten pair, of Levi's Commuter pants in jeans and trousers. They're gusseted, lined, and covered with this special anti-microbial and anti-water shedding material, so it rains and then the water sheds off them. I have all the clothing that Levi's makes just for that.
Do you have certain tee shirts you like?
Lots of Old Navy. They’re affordable, they’re easy, they’re simple. For regular crew neck shirts and some v-necks, I really probably buy most of them at the Polo Outlet. I have a real affinity for Polo because a lot of my friends wear it.
When do you find the time to shop?
It’s a lot easier nowadays to simply shop online, especially being a guy. I know what my size is. I can buy anything online, and 99% of the time, it fits.
Lucky. What are your favorite sites to shop?
Obviously, Levi.com. I buy a lot of Benny Gold. It’s an American made brand, out of San Francisco. I buy a lot of shirts and hats from him. Another one is Reed Space. It’s a New York street wear company run by Jeff Staple, who is a designer. In fact, I buy Benny Gold’s products because he’s a graphic designer.
How did you find the brand?
Benny went to SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design), where I once wanted to go; he’s a hyper-talented graphic designer who ended up creating his own brand. Jeff Staple did the same thing with Staple / Reed Space. So I'm drawn to their brands because they're graphic designers, too. Otherwise, I find a lot of stuff on Hypebeast.com, a street wear blog. I also like Highsnobiety.com, Complex.com, Freshnessmag.com and Four-Pins.com.
Where do you shop for shoes?
Most of my shoes come from connections that I’ve made in the shoe industry. The reason for that is because it’s almost impossible for anyone to just go out and buy the hottest shoes from retail. They’re impossible to get.
If Nike or Adidas (all brands are guilty of this) has figured out the marketing schema: hype it to death online, drive awareness, and that makes demand outstrip supply every single time. You just can’t buy them.
That creates a secondary market with resellers, so half of the product that is sold ends up on eBay. I have had to resort to buying shoes that I desperately wanted, but were unavailable otherwise, on eBay, and that’s awful. I really hate doing that, but resellers are a part of the sneaker world now.
What are your favorite sneaker brands?
It goes back and forth between Nike and Adidas. For many years I only bought Adidas, and then I got mad at them and so for many years, I only bought Nike. Right now, I happen to be wearing a pair of Nikes, but I have a pair of Adidas under the desk. My favorite shoe of this year has been an Adidas, so that says something.
Why do you have extra shoes around your office? In case these have a mishap or something?
I believe in recycling. If I’m wearing nice shoes, and I’m going to grab my bike and go to 7-Eleven, I don’t want to wear nice shoes on the bike, because that will tear them up. So I keep a pair of junky shoes. I also have a pair of shoes here that is just made for cycling, by Cinelli, the same brand as my bicycle. They partnered with DVS, a skate company. And there's yet another pair of shoes, my KDs.
Wait, in your office right now there’s four pairs of shoes?
Yes, plus a pair of slides, so five. You don’t even see those. If you were in my house, you wouldn’t miss them because there’s like 200. It’s literally a whole wall in one room, floor to ceiling, side to side.
Do you mix it up - how you wear them?
I’ve got more shoes than I can actually wear out. If I wear a pair of shoes twice in a year, I’m doing pretty good. I have some go to pairs that I wear more often, and then I have pairs that I never wear because they are reserved for special occasions; either because they’re too expensive, or too rare.
Suddenly I’m thinking of Michael Jordans and …
I have lots of Jordans. I’m a huge Michael Jordan fan. I think it’s the generation I come from. We all believe he can fly. The thing about Jordans is that they have a tremendous demand, but they also have a tremendous volume.
For an average popular Jordan release, they might make 800,000 or a 1,000,000 of them. With that many out there, they only retail for a little under $200 and they’ll resell for $350 or so. I mean percentage-wise that’s a lot, but $350 is not exorbitant in the world of collectible shoes.
What’s on your wish list for this upcoming season’s work wardrobe?
I’m looking to buy more pocket squares. I wear all black, and I throw on a jacket that's also usually black or brown or blue; so really a lot of dark colors. The pocket square really is sort of the accent piece. I feel naked in a jacket without one, but I only own a couple. The ones that I have now are from Quixotic, and I need more of them.
What type of man bag do you carry every day and what’s inside?
A Mission Workshop "Monty" small messenger bag. I have a Steve Zissou patch that I need to put on there. What’s in it? Normally my lunch. Today it had a jar of mayonnaise and mustard, because I had to bring them from the grocery store; my mail, Chapstick, and my glasses cleaning cloth. I think the most important thing in my bag is my extra iPhone backup battery. It’s a brick that can charge the phone two or three times.
Your wallet doesn’t go in your bag?
No, the wallet goes in my pocket. I have a small, thin wallet. It’s actually a Bellroy wallet. I like the owl. I don’t like big wallets, so the smaller, and thinner I can get it, the better. I put it in my front pocket because I can’t sit on it. It’s weird having the bulge in the back like that.
What is something that you wear or do that instills more confidence on the days when you’re tired or don’t quite feel like yourself?
Having sort of a uniform makes it easier to get dressed, but the really difficult part has been standing in front of my wall of shoes, and deciding which pair I am going to wear. If I wear the wrong pair, I know it halfway through the day, and I feel terrible. If I wear the right pair, I feel right. It’s a shoe thing. People that don’t understand shoes, will never understand what I just said.
What’s the most important part of your grooming routine that you feel helps you complete your look?
It’s styling my hair. It’s so easy for me to just throw a baseball cap on, but if I know I’m going to meet clients, I absolutely fix my hair. That really is a huge difference maker in visual appearance; ball cap versus fixed hair.
How many pair of eye glasses do you have, and what are your brands?
Warby Parker is the only brand of glasses I’m wearing anymore. When I found Warby Parker, I was like, 'Wow, this is fantastic!' I tried a pair on, and I thought, 'This is great.'
Workday
What does your typical day look like?
I don't roll in until 9:30am, because I'm here until 9:30pm on most days. I work long hours. I spend my whole day answering emails, answering phone calls, making phone calls, and generally providing client service. Networking, finding new business, whatever it is. I spend all day until three or four o'clock doing that; then I have to start designing.
Depending on what I had allocated to do that day, I could be here until seven o'clock. I could be here until nine o'clock. I'm far too often here until midnight. That's a typical day. First half is client service. Second half is design.
How do you manage with those kind of hours? Is all of your food here, because I didn't hear anything about eating at any moment during these long hours?
There are a lot of times I eat all my meals here. I typically have
breakfast at home or on the way to work in the form of a Clif Bar
or something. I always eat lunch and usually dinner. I bring my food
or I go get it.
One of the great things about having a bicycle here is just being
able to jump on it and go grab lunch real quick and come back.
There's a grocery store a half-mile down the street, or Jimmy's
Italian Market is just down the street.
Tell me about your eat-in situation.
I have a little kitchen corner that has a microwave, a tiny little fridge
with drinks, some mustard plus, maybe the most important thing in
the universe - Sriracha. I live for this stuff. I'll put it on everything. You
definitely want the rooster sauce. I also keep some Gatorades and
Walden Farms Caesar dressing (my calorie-free, sugar-free, fat-free,
carbohydrate-free, gluten-free, cholesterol-free, "guilt free, so I can
load up a salad"). It's surprisingly good. Then, I have a coffee grinder,
and beans, with my coffee pot.
What kind of beverage begins your day?
I have maybe the world's greatest coffee maker. It's called the
Clever coffee maker. It's manual, but I like manual things. Coffee.
That's how I start my day.
You mentioned them earlier, what's your flavor of Clif Bar?
There's very few that I dislike. They got one now that's apricot. It's
fantastic. My favorite is the white macadamia. That's the one I can't
stop eating. It's like cake.
What essentials do you take with you to meetings?
I only take two things - I take a pen and a Moleskine, and that's it. I have a very good reason for that. I don't like for meetings to be the place where decisions are made. Clients really want to hold the meeting and solve some sort of problem. That's not where creativity happens. That's not what they're hiring me to do. I make it a point to just go in with literally a pen and some paper, just to minimize what it is we can accomplish.
Let's discuss the strategy/method behind your Moleskine notebook and what you do with your notes.
I've been using them for years. I like the small size because when I'm in a client meeting, I tend to think in small chunks. Each page is a chunk. I don't feel bad turning a page if it only has a few lines of scribble on it. When I have a larger piece of paper, I feel like I have to use more. I can digest it in small chunks in a small book.
When I sit down to actually work on that project, I go back and just refer to the notes. I don't take them out, and organize, or type them up, or anything. They live in that book. When the project is done, it doesn't go along with it, it just stays in the book. When the book is full, it goes on the shelf. I have almost never had to refer to any old notebooks. I think if I had to, I might come up with a different system, but no one ever says, "What did we talk about in this meeting. Let's go back and look." Doesn't really happen.
Do you also use specific notebooks for your sketches?
When I do websites, I'm planning the websites out on paper. Very, very tight sketches. I have a specific type of sketchbook, this Canson Mixed Media one. I like the size, the 7 x 10. You'll see that I quickly cover up what it is with stickers. I just like the size of it. I like the spiral. It lays flat; that's the important part.
What is this cube?
This is a stopwatch or a clock with these predetermined set times. If I'm working on, say thumbnails for a logo project, I'll set it to thirty minutes, and doodle and sketch and generate thumbnails until it tells me to stop. I don't have to worry about checking a clock or dealing with the computer. The cube sits on the drawing table with me. It's very tactile. You flip it over, and it stops beeping.
Then how do you handle job related stress?
There are two answers to that. The easy one is drink, but that's the joke. The real answer is that I try to do things that don't let me think. If I'm stressed out while sitting here, having a creative roadblock, I stop working because I'm not getting anywhere anyways. So I grab a bike and ride. Normally go ride for a mile or two - not far. When you're riding a bicycle on the streets, what you're trying to do is stay uptight and not die. Your brain is completely occupied by riding the bicycle. You can't think about work. I'm not stressing over a logo design as I'm riding down the street. Then when I get back, my brain has been wiped clean, and really, I find myself far more creative.
What are some of your office pet peeves?
I think the biggest pet peeve is when a neighbor in my office building, is out and their phone just rings off the hook, because I can hear it. Don't you have voicemail? Why is it ringing thirteen, fourteen, eighteen times? What's going on? So strange.
Do you have a favorite song/artist that you listen to on your way to or during work?
I don't really listen to music in the car driving much, but I listen to a lot of music sitting here working. In college, the professor had us do this exercise where we did art with certain music playing. Then he would change the music to something, a completely different style, and draw the same thing, but how would the music affect you. I learned pretty early on that the type of music that I listen to greatly impacts the type of work I can accomplish.
If it's the middle of the afternoon and I've got to get started on my day, I will probably listen to something very aggressive. Maybe Nine Inch Nails. If I have to get in a creative mode, I can't listen to something aggressive. Creativity needs the music to fall back further. I find myself listening to a lot of softer things or a lot of soundtracks.
Thinking of go-to soundtracks, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross did the soundtrack to a couple of movies. One of them was The Social Network Soundtrack, which they won an Academy Award for. The other one was the American version of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Soundtrack. It's way longer than the movie, they made so much music. The first and last song have vocals, but the rest of it's just three hours of quiet, brooding, atmospheric vocals. I can really get a lot of creative work done to that.
If I really needed to be aggressive, I'm putting on Kanye's Yeezus.
Desk drawer
How would you describe your office space?
It's based on the way that I learned to be a graphic designer in school. No one in their right mind should be using twenty-five- or thirty-year-old drafting tables as their computer desk, but here I am. They're gigantic, and they're ginormous. It means I have to buy stools instead of chairs. I like to spread out and I draw a lot. I have this dual setup specifically to work the way I work, which is that I have a drawing/cutting area, and a work/computer area. Imagine if you had a big country farmhouse and everything centered around your kitchen table - this is my kitchen table space.
It's so neatly organized, though.
In all of the agencies and in-house departments where I had worked, I never had a desk setup the way I really wanted. When I started my own business, I could do anything I wanted. I thought about how I work, and how I could set up this work space to do that. I actually reverted right back to college with drafting tables and drawing spaces. I'm surprised I don't have a waxer sitting here.
What is your favorite office supply and why?
It is the Black + Blum Heavyweight Tape Dispenser. It’s really heavy. It is cast iron wrapped with die cast aluminum. You can dispense tape with one hand. It’s just astonishing. It’s such a well-designed piece that I had to buy it. You’re going to be shocked when I tell you how much it cost.
Is it a lot?
It’s a $50 tape dispenser and I had to have it. Being
a designer, I am always swayed by excellent design,
so ... it's a one-handed tape dispenser. It looks like a
1940s microphone to me.
What is a work tool, and it could be an app or
hardware or software, that is a must have for you
at work?
The only answer is Adobe Illustrator. I could not
perform my job without it. I have been using it my
entire career. Everything else has changed; it has
not. The way I use Illustrator today is almost exactly
the same way I used it seventeen years ago; in the
sense that all of the power of Adobe Illustrator lies
in the pen tool. All the other tools that are with it,
they're ancillary. I could take or leave them. The pen
tool is a must. The pen tool in Photoshop isn't even
remotely as powerful. The pen tool in InDesign is a
joke. The pen tool in Illustrator is absolute perfection.
Tell me about your bike frame that acts like a piece
of art in here.
I did a website for Raleigh bicycles and they gave me a bike frame of my choice, a Raleigh Macaframa. It's a San Francisco style track bike made for the street - that west coast San Francisco style of bicycle. Most importantly, it's white, and they did that for a reason because in San Francisco, people cover their bikes with stickers, or markers, or paint or whatever. It's a blank canvas. So what I am going to do is buy some black enamel paint and I'm going to paint things I like on there. It will be sloppy, but intentionally so.
Where did you get your storage from?
All of this is from IKEA, even the boxes.
How do you prioritize/manage your email inbox?
I used to have this system where emails came in, and I would either react to them or I'd file them. I think that was a normal way of what people did, right? I drug them into folders, and I deleted everything else away. But, I don't do that anymore. The reason is because of Google.
My email runs off of Google apps for business. It's basically Gmail, but in an email app. There's this nifty search bar. I just search for everything. All my emails come in conversations file as I go back and forth with clients or whoever I'm talking to. If I ever need to find anything, I just type a couple of words in the search bar. I now have a swimming pool of emails, and when I need the right one, Google dives in and finds it for me. I don't know if it saves me any time, but it certainly saves me headache. Now my email management system is just a pure search. Simplify, simplify, simplify.
Agenda
What is your secret to achieving your daily objectives?
I have two things that I do: I have a cork board with note cards for every project; then I have a to-do list. It seems so antiquated in this day and age to be doing things on pen and paper, but I prefer working in an analog method. I have a 4 x 5 notecard for every project. I prioritize them on the board between "high priority," "low priority," "on proof," or "finished." I move the cards and pins around. If a project changes status, I literally move the card around the board.
The same thing happens on my to-do list. I write down a whole list of things, then I scratch completed things out. I actually learned that from Jim Krause at the HOW conference. The act of scratching things out is fulfilling. For whatever reason, my brain loves scratching something off the list.
How do you organize and maintain your to do list?
I purposely don't put it in order. I used to do that. I would write and rewrite and rewrite and rewrite. I got to where I was just spending all day making my lists. I said, "Screw that. I'm just going to write things down as they come to me or as I need to. I'm smart enough to be able to bounce around the list." My to-do lists have a dozen things on them at most on a given day. I can figure out what the most important priority is, or what can I handle in the next fifteen minutes. I don't reorganize it.
Do you make a new list for each day or do you use the same list?
I almost always make a new list for the new day, unless it's one of those rare days that I only get a couple things done, and I have to leave. I used to date each one at the top, but I don't do that anymore, just in case. I'm also smart enough to know what day it is, so I don't need the date. The to-do list is only for me to be able to keep myself in the minutiae of what it is I need to accomplish. No one else on earth cares about this list.
How do you manage your calendar?
Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that people send me meeting calendar request things out of their Outlook or whatever, I wouldn't even use a calendar. My life and my schedule aren't so complex that I have calendar problems. It all goes in my to-do list. If it ever grows to the certain point where I have to have an active calendar, I don't know what I'm going to do ... hire an assistant.
What are all of the Post-it notes on your window about?
Those are all post-HOW notes; things that were falling out of my brain that were very, very, very important to me. The really important one is when I got back, and I thought about what my work was; the thought in my head was, "I am better than this. I'm better than the work I'm producing." I think that's why we go to design conferences, to be inspired like that.
What is your method for networking?
Being an extrovert, I have no problem walking up to anybody and putting my face in theirs. I think the key to networking is to say "Hi," and then shut up. Let them talk, because you're there to gather information in the first place. They're the ones that are generally wanting to talk anyways. Really, my secret to networking: don't be afraid.
What advice have you received in your professional life that has really stuck with you?
At this last HOW conference, a speaker, Peleg Top, put up a slide and it said, "No one hires you for what you can do. They hire you for who you are."
There are a thousand designers in Dallas. A client can go to any one of a thousand people. Why do they go to me, or why do they go to someone else? It really is about who you are, the relationship you have with them, the networking that you've done, and the way you present yourself. It really is about your positioning more than the actual work of what you do.
What inspires you about your work?
Every day, I come to work, I try to be a better designer than I was the day before. It's been like that since the beginning of my career. I'm always striving to be better. The reason for that's because I have this pantheon of great designers in my head that I want to be like. The Milton Glasers and the Paula Schers and the David Carsons, - Sagmeister! I just worship the ground he walks on. Then consequently Jessica Walsh, and then that brings up Dana Tanamachi and Jessica Hische. Then Erik Marinovich and Jon Contino. There's this giant wealth of designers who are infinitely better than I ever will be, but I strive to be better, to be more like them. It's not that my work itself inspires me, but the industry that I'm in, inspires the work that I do.
Daily commute
What is your daily commute to work like? Do you bike to work?
If I'm going to commute [bike] to work, I'm doing it for enjoyment purposes, but it takes too long. I'm not that far away, but it's still a forty-minute ride. Then I'm drenched in sweat when I get here. I only do it when it's extremely nice weather, like cool, so two weeks in the spring and two weeks in the fall. I have to be doing it when I know I don't have any client interaction or I'm not monumentally busy. It's pretty specialized as to when I can commute to work. I only live six miles away, but with the route on the bike about eight miles.
What is your vehicle? And what color is it?
I have many cars, but I just bought a silver 1991 BMW E30 318is. It's in incredible condition, especially for a 24 year-old car. Absolute blast to drive. I also have a 1990 BMW E30 325is and a 1996 BMW E36 318 convertible. My wife has a new four-door BMW 330.
Which one's your favorite?
Right now, I have to say my new silver 1991 E30. It's light and powerful for it's size – manual transmission of course. I don't drive far enough for it to matter. I'm driving six miles by car. It's just barely getting it going.
Downtime
What do you do during your downtime that refreshes yourself?
I don't have a lot of downtime. That's the first thing. I work a dozen-plus hours a day, and I do that six, sometimes seven days a week. Sometimes I go a month without a day off. That's the nature of small business. I watch very, very little television, maybe an hour a week. If I need to decompress, I will grab a cigar, a single malt Scotch, go sit on the porch, and do try not to think.
How do you stay familiar with all of the important names in your industry, (like the creatives you named earlier)?
Half of those came from Meggs' History of Graphic Design in college. I guess, just keeping up over the years. I go to monthly DSVC meetings. I go to those for the creative inspiration, but I'm also introduced to a lot of people.
Honestly, the HOW conference throws everyone at you. I don't really follow too many design websites. I hate being influenced by design for design's sake, because when someone puts a logo, a website, or some design of some sort online - we judge them, as does all the anonymous Internet. We're missing the important part, which is the creative brief: "How does this design fit the problem." I hate looking at design websites just because you're only getting a small aspect of the whole project.
How did your parents influence your career?
When I was in high school, and I said, "I'm going to study art in college," they didn't say no. That's not something most people want their kids to say. Most people say, "Go be a business major," or something practical. Being a graphic designer meant my parents didn't actually understand what I did until I was working in the magazine industry. I said, "Look, here's what I do," then they got it.
Do you have any hobbies?
Single malt Scotch is a huge one. Is drinking a hobby? Sure. I don't drink to get drunk. I'm drinking one glass at a time, and I really enjoy the nuances, and subtleties of flavor from different regions. It's very much like drinking wine, and how wine drinkers appreciate all of those things, but in a spirit instead.
Sneakers, of course. Is it a hobby? I've got a couple hundred pairs, so probably.
Bicycles. I have seven complete bicycles, but I also have a couple of others in various states of completion.
BMWs. We have 4 now, and three are old 90's models, so they take a lot of work to maintain.
And I'm a huge barbecue aficionado (among many things). I can't cook it, but I'm a snob about the barbecue I eat.
The second room of Duane's office space includes additional work spaces, the printer area, his bike, and a kitchen with a mini-fridge and microwave.
Just a few examples of Duane's extensive and amazing sneaker collection.
Duane's office is located beside a major Dallas interstate, close to Downtown Dallas, with high-end shops and terrific restaurants nearby.
Duane spends the majority of his day managing communications and networking with clients. The design work typically begins in the afternoon and continues into the later evening hours.
"I work a dozen-plus hours a day, and I do that six, sometimes seven days a week. Sometimes I go a month without a day off. That's the nature of small business."
