Somewhere in the back of your mind, there’s likely an idea for a startup that rears its head from time to time. Perhaps it’s an iPhone app that reads minds, a search engine that’s better than Google, or it could even be the best way to buy music online. I can’t tell you how to make it a success, but I can share a few obstacles that you should be mindful of before starting out.

I don’t know your design process, so, it would be foolish for me to generalize. For the sake of this post however, I’m going to have to. When I’m finished you can feel free to tell me that: (A) I’m a moron, (B) It won’t work; or, (C) This is how you always did it anyways. Any of those are fine–including (D) You might be on to something. Regardless, here’s my hypothesis.

It’s a September Friday and it looks as though the sun may make an appearance. I’m in one of those “places” where everything seems to be moving along pretty nicely. As such, I thought I’d share another set of random observations (there are others here and here).

I’m a big believer in design firms taking on self-directed projects. They are a wonderful outlet and afford designers the opportunity to “own” something, which is rather rare in most client-driven projects. In fact, I presented a Thinkshop on this topic at the Y Conference in lovely San Diego last spring.

In the past year we’ve been approached by six different agencies wishing to acquire smashLAB. Some were big players, two were regional firms, and the others were working as agents for other operations. Needless to say, we found all of this quite flattering, even if it wasn’t really on our agenda.

It’s summer and I’ve been writing very little. (Lately the beach has taken priority.) A couple of weeks ago, Mark Dudlik asked me a few questions for a magazine he’s involved with called Fill/Stroke. Mark’s been kind enough to allow me to repurpose this piece on ideasonideas. Here goes… (and now I’m off to sit in the sun).

A while back I posted Random observations – Part 1. This is a follow-up. As noted earlier, these are personal ruminations on patterns I’ve uncovered through my professional practice. Some are topical, while others may feel rather disconnected. That being said, they all circle around the same things in my mind.

I’ve now been involved in some kind of creative activity for the bulk of my life. From design to running a business, I’ve found that certain patterns have emerged. Clearly there are parallels, and I’m slowly learning a few lessons. About a year ago I started to document these thoughts, with little notion as to what to do with them.

After our wedding, Amea and I decided to visit Prince George for a weekend. We hadn’t been able to spend time with my brother and parents in some time, and I really wanted to take a break with them. I also wanted to see my dog, Torr, one more time. I knew that he was feeling more discomfort and didn’t have much time left. My time that weekend however, was mainly spent addressing storage issues relating to my first years as a painter. This bit of housekeeping lead me to an insight that I hadn’t expected to arrive at that weekend.

Two months ago, a student group from Central Washington University visited smashLAB and a few other Vancouver design firms, in order to gain a better knowledge of the industry. I suspect it was also a tremendous opportunity to visit a nice city on a very sunny day.