With the recent changes in a stagnant economy are designers the new catalysts of American Entrepreneurialism? According to Bruce Nussbaum Designers are merging their ways of thinking with startup culture. The result, writes Bruce Nussbaum, is greater innovation and astounding VC success rates.

If any of you are familiar with basic economics then you know that wealth is created by production not consumption. Wealth has to be created. “The people who create wealth are the farmers who grow the wheat for the dough and tomatoes for the paste; those who harvest the milk for the cheese; the food processors who turn raw commodities into pizza ingredients; the entrepreneur who comes up with idea to sell pizza; the bank that decides to invest capital in a pizza store; and the delivery guy who brings the pizza to your door. Each of those actors creates wealth. Consumers then destroy the wealth that was created (in this case by eating the pizza).” – brian Stow In order to grow America needs a catalyst of startups.

Designers are emerging steadfast and more companies are being created now than ever. The  advancing desire among designers to bring their user focus, specific expertise, and propositional thinking to the ancient techniques of startups promises to be a welcomed metamorphosis.</p><p> This is especially the case with IDEO. A design & consulting firm in CA who take a psychological personal approach to design.  “The emerging trend represents a headlong crash of creativity into capitalism.” Today’s most innovative start-ups are successful because they’ve learned to think differently & creative. More and more agencies are turning to user experience designers as they want to engage their audience in a more creative way.

Uncertainty and ambiguity are directly linked to the part of our brains where fear and anxiety are active.  This makes the creative process difficult and taking risks towards innovative ends frightening. Creatives need to become entrepreneurs to inspire greatness in others.  “All the great and inspiring leaders and organizations in the world, whether it is Apple or Martin Luther King or the Wright Brothers, they all think, act, and communicate in the same way and it is the complete opposite to everyone else…”  Simon Sinek explains his theory on how great leaders inspire action. Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action The encouraging news is that we are seeing an emergence to capture the imagination and energy of a new generation of young designers & creators.  You don’t have to be a hero to feel invincible. Creativity Takes Courage!

For further reading: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665120/designers-are-the-new-drivers-of-american-entrepreneurialism

http://capitalismtoday.blog.wku.edu/2010/03/15/production-not-consumption-creates-wealth/

I hope all is well and I hope everyone is having a wonderful day. Today, I have decided to share this phenomenal tutorial from VTC.com You can read further info at their website. Without further ado, I bring to you . . .

The Virtual Training Company (VTC) started in California’s Silicon Valley in 1996.

VTC grew quickly over the next three years and relocated first in 1999 to the beautiful town of Winchester, Virginia. In 2005, the company migrated to Stephens City, Virginia.

The company was founded by British born Mark Vernon who started producing CD-based training for Apple software. The format on the CDs – narrated QuickTime movies that take a user through the steps of learning complex software applications was very well received. Soon after, VTC began producing training for Windows software.

The VTC Online University went live in 1999.

In the last few years, VTC has opened offices in UK, Australia, France, South Africa, and India.

The company continues to expand by consistently producing affordable training materials for computer software.

VTC has also developed a fully fledged Learning Content Management System (LCMS) for improved content delivery, delivered as either a hosted system or as Open Source (eduslide.com).

VTC is truly a company made up of individuals who are here because we choose to be here. We are all having the time of our lives and we are glad that you are with us.

VTC.com – Ad0be Illustrator CS5 | 443 MB
Genre: eLearning

Adobe Illustrator CS5 is the latest version of the industry standard vector drawing application. Now with new features such as the Perspective Tool, the Bristle Brush, Beautiful Strokes and new drawing modes, there are more tools than ever for the creation of stunning art. Professional illustrator, television animation art director and writer Dwayne Ferguson takes you on an in-depth look at Illustrator CS5, taking you through the tools you’ll need to master it quickly. The end of the course includes three fun yet practical hands-on projects. Work Files are included.

Part 1.
Part 2.

Font Shop News has just introduced their new education page.  Some of you may know Font Shop some of you may not.  They provide amazing fonts for designers.  I will also be providing you with 100 of the best commercial fonts provided by Font Shop News.

FontShop.com is more than a site that sells fonts — we want to help you do great work too. That’s why we created our new Education page. Enhance your design skills, whether you’re a student in Type 101 or a seasoned professional.

The Education page premieres with four docs filled with typography tips and tutorials from our team of experts. The PDFs are formatted for easy downloading and printing, perfect for the classroom or studio.

Meet Your Type

A Field Guide to Typography

Why settle for casual flirtation when looking for a long-lasting relationship? Finding the perfect match is easy if you know the rules. “Meet Your Type” will help you overcome common obstacles, and keep your heart thumping for your one true love: typography.

Created in collaboration with students at Brigham Young University, this fully illustrated booklet is written in a casual, light-hearted tone that’s easy to read, and hard to put down. Packed with useful textbook info — without the boring textbook text.

Download Meet Your Type on the Education page »

100 best Commercial Fonts Ever Made from Font Shop News » Download

This post is part of our ongoing series of posts highlighting the most inspiring images selected by not only myself but all of you. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it, also use “Creativity Takes Courage” in the subject; or via Twitter sending to http://twitter.com/jdarko82

Via Twitter

Send your suggestions via Twitter to http://twitter.com/jdarko82 using #dmo in the end of the tweet.

Some people go their whole lives without considering the prospect of working for themselves. For many, it’s nothing more than a dream;
something to occupy their minds each time they find themselves unfulfilled in their current job. And then, there are the ones that actually go
out and start something: entrepreneurs. It’s an undertaking that’s glamorous and ugly; exhilarating and depleting; the path to wealth and ruin;
all at the same time. So, how about you? This issue, we’ll outline a few things to consider if you’re wrestling with the dilemma of finding a job or
starting business for yourself.

Paycheck to Paycheck vs. Project to Project
One of the most important factors in your decision will be the issue
of money. In most cases, working for someone else means getting a
steady paycheck. While the size of that check may be another issue
entirely, the biggest advantage is its dependability — a consistent
stream of cash you can organize your budget around.
Working for yourself can be a whole different story — especially in
the beginning of your endeavors. Depending on how many clients you
secure, how well their business does, and how much they rely on your
services, you may find yourself in a “feast or famine” cycle of income,
with your bottom line varying quite a bit from month to month.
In the end, the biggest difference from a financial standpoint
is that as a business owner, your financial success, rather than
being dictated by a set salary, is directly tied to the success of the
business. In banking terms, it’s much like the difference between the
old reliable savings account and the thrill ride of the stock market.
And just the same, the latter is not for the impatient, the weak of
heart, or the poor planner.
Each issue, we’ll be analyzing a point of consideration in the world of
the creative professional. We’ll look at numerous factors of everyday
dilemmas, try to see what makes the two sides tick, and offer
some insight on how to best approach issues in your own life.
We are two highly-informed, creative
professionals with strong opinions and
a sincere interest in helping others grow.

Punch-clock vs. Internal Clock
For tax purposes, the distinction between a salaried employee and
a “1099” or freelance worker is the degree to which the employer
dictates their work time and location. While not every employer
will expect you to check in with a punch-clock at 9 am, the
majority will expect you to work on a regular schedule — both in
terms of number of hours and the time of the day.
As your own boss, your hours are only as regular as you choose
to make them. If you’re the type whose creative juices start
percolating sometime in the late night and flow until 3 am, you’ll be in
a prime position to take advantage of your unique bio-rhythms. Of
course, it’s not a total free-for-all. When your client wants you on call,
or needs to meet during their business hours, that’s a request you’ll
have to take seriously. To some extent, as long as someone is paying
for your service, you have a boss to answer to.
Conscious reminders of the way you’re managing your time are
prevalent in the workplace because, as a salaried worker, someone
else has a vested interest in helping you do so. On your own, it’ll
be 100% up to you to develop a routine, track your hours, and
maximize your productivity to ensure you’re earning a living.
Mentorship vs. Control
Control may be hard to come by in the early stages of your
career. If you’re working as a paid employee, chances are the
organization you’re working with will be filled with people who
bring more knowledge, more clout and most importantly, more
experience to the table. It should come as no surprise then, that
these people get a lot of control over what you do on a day-today
basis.
In exchange, giving up control early in your career can bring
opportunities that would be rare, if not impossible, to score on
your own. However, it gets to a point for a lot of us free-spirited
creatives where we just have to try things our way. Call it ego;
call it drive — whatever you label it; you’re not going to want to
be second (or third, or fourth) in command forever. You’ll want
to do it smarter, differently and better than the people you’ve
been groomed by. And if this point comes before you’ve been
able to climb the creative ladder, breaking off and starting
your own thing will be the natural way to quell that hunger.
The impending journey will be filled with growth, a different
kind than you learn from day-to-day mentorship, but arguably
beyond what you’ll ever get working for someone else.
Leadership Learning vs. Business Burdens
A lot of that “different” kind of growth and experience that you
only learn when running a business is just that—how to run a
business. If you’re a creative working for someone else, there’s
a good chance you have very little to do with the business
operations of that organization. Someone else keeps the books,
files the taxes, pays you, pulls in the new business, manages the
projects/clients and takes the financial risks. When you’re running
a business, it’s up to you to do all the administrative things you
might otherwise take for granted — plus your creative work.
Sadly, some great creatives fail when they set out to start a
business simply because, by nature, they’re not savvy business
people. The extra business-related responsibilities can be very
time consuming and seriously eat away at your free time.
Of course there are still significant freedoms involved in running
a business. As the owner or partner, you get to call the shots—
exactly what type of work you do, where you physically work,
who you will (and sometimes more importantly won’t) work
with. To the right personality type, this kind of power makes the
sacrifices well worth the investment.

Morpheus:

This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. [to Neo who is choosing the red pill] Remember… all I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more.

I went to McDonald’s this morning for breakfast and I thought to myself: What A Wonderful World. I find it amazing that they are so efficient. I want to operate my business exactly like that. My ideal is to inspire others. It’s why I started this blog. I want to give other the opportunity that I did not have. I also want to inspire others vicariously through my repertoire. I want to become something else entirely an archetype. I want to focus on every aspect of design and own my own studio. With this being said, I would like to give a brief insight into the McDonald’s franchise and how they became one of the world’s largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving nearly 47 million customers daily.

McDonald’s is a huge multi-national restaurant chain. There are restaurants all over the world that are willing to sell you a Big Mac and fries. Indeed, you would probably be hard-pushed to find a country that does not contain a few McDonald’s restaurants somewhere within its borders. The company is now so big that you could be forgiven for thinking that it has always existed. But it hasn’t. It was started in the first half of the 20th Century by two brothers – neither of whom was named Ronald.

The First Burger

Reports differ about when Richard and Maurice McDonald opened their first restaurant. Some would state that the Airdrome in Arcadia, California was the very first, opened in 1937. Others claim that it all began in 1940 with the McDonald’s Barbecue restaurant in San Bernardino, California1. What is not in dispute, however, is that both of the above were false starts. They were both the kind of American restaurant where cars park around a central hub (where the food is prepared) and it is delivered to the waiting customers by ‘car hops’.

In 1948 the brothers became disaffected by this style of restaurant, the pressures of a full menu, and the hassle of managing staff, and so decided to scale down the operation. They developed the idea of an ‘assembly line’ whereby a reduced menu (consisting only of hamburgers, cheeseburgers, french fries and drinks) could be cooked cheaper and quicker, which would hopefully lead to a higher turnover of customers. And so it was, on 12 December, 1948, that the new revamped McDonald’s Restaurant opened, and Richard McDonald cooked the first McDonald’s hamburger.

During the next few years, the restaurant went from strength to strength, and the building had a slight redesign. The brothers had a slender yellow arch built at each end of the building, looping over it but not yet joined together to make the now famous ‘M’.

The First Franchise

In 1954 Ray Kroc was a salesman for a company that made milkshake mixers. He noticed that the McDonald brothers had bought eight of the company’s mixers for their restaurant. Believing that, if he could persuade the McDonalds to open more restaurants, he would be able put eight mixers in each of them, he paid them a visit. Again, reports differ about what happened when he talked to the McDonalds. Some believe that he presented the idea of franchises to Dick and Mac, others argue that franchises already existed, and that Kroc merely managed to talk his way into running the franchising operation. Whichever was the case, the end result was the same, and Ray Kroc managed the franchising of the McDonalds’ restaurant concept.

The organisation of the franchise was this: anyone who wanted to open a McDonald’s restaurant would pay Kroc around a thousand dollars for the honour of doing so, and then 1.9% from the annual takings of the restaurant. He would then pass 0.5% of the takings onto the McDonald brothers, keeping the other 1.4%. Kroc opened his first franchise in Des Plaines, Illinois in 1955. Whether or not this was the first franchise of the McDonald’s restaurant, it was definitely the first opening of the McDonald’s Corporation.

The Buy Out

By 1961 Ray Kroc was running the whole show. The only thing the McDonald brothers did was run their one restaurant, and receive their 0.5% from the larger company. The greater expansion of the McDonald’s brand was not something they were really interested in. Ray Kroc, on the other hand, was. He wanted to put a McDonald’s restaurant in every state in America – which he would eventually do, and much more. He wanted to created a Hamburger University where potential restaurant managers could be taught how to manage a McDonald’s restaurant2. He measured every product, weighed all the ingredients, and tasted burgers in every outlet to ensure that precisely the same food was served in every McDonald’s restaurant. But Dick and Mac McDonald were happy as they were, and had no concern for the company Kroc had formed from their restaurant. So Kroc offered to buy them out, which he did at a cost of 2.7 million dollars. It is estimated that if the McDonald’s had continued to receive their 0.5% it would have been worth around two hundred million dollars by the year 2000.

The Clown

In the early 1960s, Kroc decided that the chain could make more money if it appealed to children, and so the company sponsored a kids’ TV show called Bozo the Clown. When that show got cancelled in 1963, the actor that played Bozo, Willard Scott, was hired to appear in three adverts as the McDonald’s restaurants new mascot: Ronald McDonald. Though the adverts were a success, Willard was less so, and appeared in no more adverts after the first three. But the character was established, and many other actors have donned the wig since.

The Expansion

The McDonald’s chain continued to grow. The Big Mac was created in 1968. Having covered the States, the franchise expanded overseas, with the first restaurant opening in Australia in 1971. The Egg McMuffin (the first breakfast product from McDonald’s) was invented in 1973. The three thousandth restaurant of the chain, the first in Britain, was opened in London in 1974. 1979 saw the creation of the Happy Meal, which continues to sell well to children, and adults who want the promotional toys, to this day. A restaurant was opened in Russia, and hailed as an emblem of the new friendship between the two superpowers, in 1990.

The Charity

The McDonald’s Corporation’s charitable efforts started in 1974, when the first Ronald McDonald House was opened in Philadelphia. It was originally the brainchild of Fred Hill, a member of the Philadelphia Eagles American football team. The house is a place for parents of severely ill children, who have had to travel a distance, to stay while their child is being treated at the nearby hospital. Since then, Ronald McDonald Houses have been established in several countries, and the Ronald McDonald Houses Charity has funded efforts to help children around the globe. It also provides scholarships for under-privileged students from ethnic minorities.

The Problems

The McDonald’s chain has not been without its problems. There was the famous McLibel case – the longest running libel case in British legal history. And Jose Bove dismantled a restaurant in France, in order to make a point about globalisation, of which McDonald’s has become a prominent symbol. Also the discovery that some beef products were used in the preparation of their french fries, which resulted in the company paying compensation of 10 million dollars to Hindus, sikhs, and vegetarians. There have been various criticisms of the McDonald’s Corporation, ranging from the source of their meat, to the treatment of workers in the restaurants, the fact the RMHC scholarships are not available to Native Americans, and some concerns about the healthiness of their food. There is also the occasional accusation that in order to keep all the cattle for the hamburgers, McDonald’s has to tear down vast chunks of rain forest; however, McDonald’s insist that all their produce is sourced locally, and that there is not a single massive herd that would require the removal of rainforests.

The Future

McDonald’s has, so far, weathered all of these problems, and continued to expand into more and more countries. No doubt, barring any major set-backs, the McDonald’s Corporation will continue to grow, finding ever more remote locations to place franchises. Only time will tell if they continue to adhere to Ray Kroc’s four guiding principles of quality, service, cleanliness and value.

© BBC UK http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A3816740