Field Notes
Notes from the work: running creative, building brands, and owning the tools behind them.
- From Mess to Method: What I Learned Running Creative Without a PlaybookThe best thing that can happen to a new creative lead is walking in and finding no process at all.
- The First Ninety Days No One Warns You AboutThe org chart they walk you through on day one is the least accurate document in the building.
- Why Your Best Work Happens Before the BriefBy the time a brief lands on your desk, the most interesting decision has usually been made without you.
- Three Signs Your Creative Process Is Slower Than It Should BeThe design is almost never the slow part.
- What I Stopped Doing Once I Stopped Trying to Impress EveryoneMost of what designers call presentation polish is insecurity with nice typography.
- The Difference Between Being Hired and Being TrustedA signed contract is the lowest level of trust a client will ever give you.
- The Return of the Player-Coach Creative DirectorFor most of my career, moving up in creative meant making less of the work. That's starting to flip.
- Bring Creative In Before You CommitIf creative is accountable for the outcome, it needs a voice in the decisions that shape it.
- Brand Strategy Is Mostly Deciding What You Won't DoA logo tells people who you are. A strategy tells your own team what to say no to.
- Stop renting your softwareFor twenty years the answer to every business problem was another subscription. That's ending.
- Why we don't do change ordersA fixed scope pretends you can know everything on day one. You can't.
- What owning your own tools really costsBuilding is the obvious cost. Here's the rest of the picture, honestly.
- When you need a brand first, and when you don'tBuilding a website before you know who you are is building on sand. But not everyone needs to start over.
- The fractional future: when AI does the work, you need people who run itThe most expensive roles in a small business are turning into a few focused hours a week.