Incendiary Bites Mark Edgington

f you’re trying to sell your creativity, your expertise - your self against the odds - Then you’re gonna have to be special. The problem is creative people, agencies and other businesses selling ideas and intangible stuff are poor at this.

Instead of appearing unique, they look the same, sound the same, and do the same. No wonder potential clients think they’re commodities to be compared, contrasted and cast aside.

If you’re creative, if you have ideas, if you have a particular expertise, then you ARE special. You don’t know it yet, because you’re not showing it.

And this is because you’re a big part of the problem. You haven’t thought about what makes you special. And you fear really using it - sticking your neck out, straying from the herd, being vulnerable.

Luckily for you, you’re also the answer to the problem. Because the source of that something special is in your point of view, your original perspective, your reasons for doing what you do, and your particular passions. Getting this figured out is the seed that helps everything else grow.

It’s time to take a look at what makes you special, and to use it - before you lose it!

In this podcast, Mark and Rich talk about how they help young designers and other graduates bridge the gap from the classroom to the actual design and development world.

In this episode, we will delve into taking a nurtured approach to a grad career as a designer or developer. We will cover essential topics such as building confidence, identifying your strengths and weaknesses, and the value of mentorship during the early stages of your career. 

By the end of this episode, you will better understand how IB cultivate a supportive and growth-focused mindset that helps its staff become successful designer or developers. 

There are many great developers and designers with University degrees. But many successful people did not go to university. Some even dropped out to pursue their passion. So do you need a degree to work as a developer, designer, UX or project manager?

We decided to have an impromptu chat to see what we thought, have a listen and let us know what you think.

Automated design tools can give you a good head start, but will they replace a human designer?
Mark and Rich have a chat about the merits of using such tools and when it's time to move on. They can help create beautiful designs and save time, but can they make something special?

If you've ever worked from home, you know that there are many benefits to doing so: the occasional quiet cup of coffee while the rest of your family is sleeping in, the ability to wear your pyjamas instead of getting dressed in the morning, and not having to deal with a crowded subway or the daily rush hour. However, I'm here to argue that working from home has a serious downside that hasn't gotten as much attention but is just as important. Working from home has a detrimental effect on our work and our creative abilities.

The biggest problem is that we lose our creative spark when we're isolated from others in an office setting. Working from home makes it easy for us to just stay in bed all day if we're feeling lazy or uninspired—we don't have to worry about being late for work or impressing anyone with our punctuality—and it can be difficult to get back out of bed if we do manage to start the day. We also lose out on some of the face-to-face meetings that lead to new ideas and interactions. In fact, there are a few studies done showing that face-to-face meetings help us foster some kind of bond with other people, which leads us to communicate more openly with them in.

So, in my opinion,  the office is an important place. It provides a framework and structure for workers to collaborate and communicate with one another. The sense of community that exists in an office is a vital part of what keeps people motivated to work together. It also builds camaraderie amongst employees, which makes working on projects together more fun and allows for the kind of communication that helps those projects to succeed.

Don't get me wrong, I love working from home. I've done it for years, and I will probably never go back to working in an office full-time and neither will the Incendiary Blue team.  But just because we love working from home doesn't mean it's a better way to work than being in the office.

Rich and I chatted about this on this Incendiary Bites Podcast.

Mark speaks to Phil about his book Data a Guide to Humans https://amzn.eu/d/4n3zKTW .