One of our strategies is: The day we stop learning and the day we stop having fun is the day we re-evaluate our purpose.  This correlates to the saying, “Follow your bliss.”  If work is fun, you never work a day in your life.  There was a time years ago when my staff was stressed from long hours.  We are driven.  We watch our time goals, set objectives and hold people accountable.  My staff reminded me of the above strategy and wondered if I forgot it.  At that time I reevaluated.  I changed things.  One of those things was to be a little more lenient and have more fun in our meetings.  Meetings were tough.  If you didn’t participate you were called out.  If you went off the agenda you were called on it.  There were some smiles, but they weren’t that fun.

In some of our current meetings we do a lot of fun things.  We talk about funny movies, we write down anything pithy that was said in the meeting, we wander about a bit and we get work done.  I am also somewhat scatter brained.  My mind wanders.  I work on focusing.  Yet, some of the wandering brings new ideas to the table.  It informs my staff on how I’m thinking about business at the moment.  We also talk about what is going on in our lives.  I enjoy my team and work is fun.  I also know my staff, especially the salaried folks, will occasionally work on their own time.  I am grateful and want to make sure that life isn’t only serious when they are on company time.

For me, as the company owner, who lives the business 24/7, I’m ok with a little wastefulness from the 8:00 – 5:00 time period.  I know I will give that back 10 fold.  Therefore, I created a lifestyle choice in my work.  I want to be around creative, fun, hard working people.  Work must be fun in order to give my life and soul to it.  I may need to be reminded this isn’t true for staff.  They want to go home at the end of the day.  So, when they are here they want to get work done.  I was recently told meetings go off track all the time and it is a little frustrating.

Now I wonder if we have swung too far in the opposite direction and need to be more serious.  Those that wander through TSI note how everyone seems happy.  Yet, are we being wasteful?  Does fun and workplace camaraderie lead to a better product for our clients?

What do you think?  Would it frustrate you if meetings went off track from time to time?

The landscaping here at Taylor features perennials, which works out great, since we don’t have a gardener on staff. Our excellent handyman, George, hits the flowerbeds every month or so, but he has loads to do anyway, so low maintenance is the way to go. One of the nice things about perennials is that they are pretty water-efficient, especially if you get something that is native / regional. This is leading to the fact that we at Taylor don’t collect rainwater for watering our plants, but for homeowners, rainwater is a great gimme. Granted, water prices in this area are cheap (thank you, Mahomet Aquifer!), but why turn down free water?

The last several years have seen a boom in the rain barrel market, with scores of different models out there to meet any budget or décor choice. Many of the big box DIY stores carry multiple models, and even smart nursery owners are getting in on it.

You can take your rain barrel purchase a green step further and get one that is a reused food barrel. Our barrel is from Kraft. A local entrepreneur got a hold of several of these and turned them into rain barrels, then sold them at the farmer’s market. And if you’re handy and can lay your hands on a barrel, you can make your own. Take a look at your local Craigslist or other local sources for a barrel, since shipping a reused barrel across the country kind of cuts down on the green aspect…

While it may not be crucial in the Midwest to store water for the dry times, in the drier areas of the South and West, it makes a lot of sense. There, when things get dry, watering restrictions go into effect, which don’t apply to rain barrel water. Though considering how dry last summer was here in central Illinois, I am thinking of getting a second one. And a rain barrel is so incredibly easy to set up! A few cinder blocks, a flexible downspout, and you’re good to go. The darker ones can do double duty as chalk art target, if you have kids in that age range. If you don’t think a reused / utilitarian barrel quite fits your idea of curb appeal, you can try hiding it.

Tell us if you’ve adopted a rain barrel into your family, or maybe if you have a secret stash of old food barrels you’d like to sell!

Next step, gray water reclamation. (Sounds yummy!)

Yes, we have been at it for 20 years. I often joke that I started the business when I was five. Making sure everyone sees my youthfulness. Doing something with passion and love keeps me young at heart.

Malcolm Gladwell has coined the 10,000 hour rule. It takes 10,000 hours to be truly world class at your craft. After 20 years in business we have put in the hours to be truly expert at creating products and experiences that inspire people.

20 years = 7,300 days
20 years = 1,040 weeks
20 years = 175,200 hours

Imagine an average of 25 people working away at their craft for over 20 years. That’s over a million hours of fine tuning. Who do you want in your corner when you need to create an experience to inspire your audience?

Has your exhibit designer or fabricator done a good job for you? If so, please share with others. Design firms rely on good references in the pursuit of new business. They’re part of the equation in every RFP, “provide references.” Good references are so important to our future.

Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching around for what it gets. – Henry Ford

Yup, we’re all scratching aren’t we? Let’s help each other scratch! Okay, no more scratching chicken metaphors – but you know where I’m going here. Referrals are another important benefit of a good relationship. Know of a museum planning new exhibits? Please give your exhibit designer a hot lead. They will be very appreciative and probably send you cupcakes.

And a big THANK YOU to all of our clients who have supported us with references and referrals. We appreciate you and are here for you in any way we can be.

Below is a photo I took of an acrylic vitrine during one of my many site visits. It is only one of several examples. I have been visiting sites critiquing the exhibits that I know our competitors have designed and built. My mission is to evaluate their work and compare it to ours.

Part of our core values as a company is constant improvement. We need to compare our work to the competition and see how our quality measures up to theirs. I find it interesting that some of our competitors find this to be acceptable quality. I find it even more puzzling that their clients accept it. Just for the record this is not acceptable by our internal quality standards and would not have been accepted for installation.

Can you see how the seams or welds all have bubbles in them making the edge look cloudy?

Here is one of ours. No bubbles and a nice clean and clear edge.
Let me know what you think? Are we being too picky or do you like the fact that there is a company out there keeping their eye on the details?

Luis Valdez, American playwright was the keynote speaker at last week’s USITT Conference in Long Beach, CA. Luis has been in business for 47 years and is known for his play and film Zoot Suit and La Bamba. He is regarded as the father of Chicago Theater. His is a Cinderella story. He was born in a CA labor camp to migrant farm workers in 1940.

Creating a sense of theatre, story telling and place making is what we do as planners, designers and fabricators of experiences. Listening to Luis’ life lessons is inspiring. It encouraged a desire to engage audiences even more in our work. How do you engage your audience? We all want to have an impact on those we communicate with. This conference reminded often that how your audience feels is key to successful engagement.

Luis talked of a circle enveloping a square. The square is the rational side. The circle is the intuitive and feminine side. He circled back often in his life to fine deeper meaning. This circling back leads him all the way to his Mayan heritage. He mentioned the Holocaust of 500 years ago in America. He questioned how this heritage relates to modern day criminalization of Latinos and African Americans in our profit making prisons. This circling lead him to craft his plays. It gave him stories to tell. His stories are filled with passion.

A childhood teacher introduced theatre to him. Its impact on his life helped him become a better man. The passion and angst he felt about his past could be expressed anywhere there was a plank and an audience. He suggests that theatre:

• Happens in the audience.
• In a non-violent weapon.
• Is the language of the human spirit.
• Started around a campfire.
• Is a creator of community.

These are good reminders to implement with our audiences. As a life lesson he emphasizes that it is a constant negotiation of our past and present. He asked, to whom does the future belong? To those who can imagine it.

With Spring showing up rather early this year, cleaning out the back rooms and garages has become a priority. Among the empty boxes and expired catalogs, you may come upon obsolete or broken electronic devices. If you are skilled with eBay or Craiglist, you may be able to pass on what you want to get rid of and even make a little money. If, however, you are a business, spending valuable time listing equipment that may not sell (or be picked up) isn’t good for the bottom line. What do you do? There is always the temptation to just pitch it in the dumpster, releasing toxic materials into a landfill with direct leakage into groundwater. Sounds rather irresponsible, no? But that option no longer exists in Illinois. This year, Illinois’ Electronic Products Recycling & Reuse Act banned all e-waste from landfills.

So what will Taylor Studios do? We actually have a few options, and so do you, if you live in central Illinois. We like to use Mack’s Twin City Recycling in Urbana for most everything, though they don’t take TVs. Best Buy takes almost everything, but they aim their e-waste recycling at residential customers, limiting the program to three items per day accepted from a household. Staples seems more business-friendly, even if their website doesn’t list what they accept. Another option is Marco Recycling in Champaign (302 South Market Street, Champaign, IL 61820 (217) 352-4707), a division of Mervis Industries. Mervis has also announced plans to build a recycling center on North Cunningham in Urbana, on the site of a former drive-in theater.

Have you had to scramble to find a place to dispose of your e-waste? If you’re outside of Illinois, does your state have e-waste disposal laws?

I’m sure you’ve seen it. Bad design. It’s everywhere and it’s been around for a really long time. You probably run into it more than you realize. I, on the other hand, notice it everywhere. It’s distracting to me. I’ve taken pictures of it and sent it to my friends. If I find it on the internet, I send the link out. It’s like a scavenger hunt, just not as difficult as a real scavenger hunt. Maybe that’s a bad comparison.

Either way, the home computer has really done some damage to the world of graphic design. There are people out there who believe that just because they own a copy of Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, that they’re “designers”. Meanwhile, those of us who spent countless hours in design critiques throughout college cringe every time we see a piece of clip art paired with a comic sans headline.

While researching what I would talk about, I came across this great website. It’s a checklist of sorts that anyone who considers themselves a designer can follow along. It’s also great for those who aren’t a designer but get tasked with a creative project. Below are also a few examples of some bad graphic design I’ve run across. (Rule of thumb, just because you own Photoshop doesn’t mean you have to use every filter at your fingertips. They have their time and place, and the key is moderation. Same for drop shadows.)

JustCreativeDesign

I’ve been listening to Walter Isaacson’s book on Steve Jobs. I drank the Apple koolaide decades ago. What Apple and Steve has done is mind googling.

Yet, Steve was kind of a jerk wad at times. He could be a dictator, harsh and cold. He often took credit for other people’s work. He was frequently less than truthful. His colleagues called it his reality distortion field. He had many quirks. He was imperfect. He was admired, loved and followed.

What did he have:

• Passion
• Drive
• Dedication
• Persistence
• Intelligence
• Values
• Focus on his strengths
• Perfection
• Magic
• Salesmanship
• Emotion

Let’s embrace our life and our work a bit like Steve Jobs. Now, go get some of this and implement it.

Visitors are attracted to exhibits that are perceived as beneficial (fun, engaging, instructive, beautiful, etc.). However, visitors are willing to forego an exhibit perceived as beneficial if the effort needed is too high. This concept is represented in the following equation:

Perceived Value of an Experience = (Benefit or Reward) ÷ (Effort or Cost)

This equation is called the general value principle. I was reminded of this principle recently as several co-workers debated the following exhibit graphic.

credit

This graphic attempts to illustrate an interesting phenomenon. By counting the chirps of a tree cricket, a visitor can get a fairly accurate temperature reading, after she performs a math calculation (and deciphers what the text says against a glossy background). Perhaps calculating this phenomenon is “valuable” to some. However, I find the effort far too great compared to the benefit. I would likely have ignored it had I encountered it in an exhibit gallery. By the way, does T equal 50 + [(N-92)/4.7] or does T equal (N-92)/(50+4.7)?