The Busy Creator Podcast with Prescott Perez-Fox

How Debbie Millman Balances Everything to Produce Design Matters (and Run a World-Class Design Agency) - The Busy Creator Podcast 18

Listen Later

Debbie Millman (@DebbieMillman) is a design and branding industry impresario. She will, at any given moment, be involved in a multitude of projects and roles across the profession. For nearly 20 years, she’s been the President of Sterling Brands, a design and brand strategy firm based in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Since 2005, she’s hosted Design Matters, one of the most successful radio shows (now podcasts) about design and creativity. She also founded and chairs the Master’s in Branding course at the School of Visual Arts in New York, and has authored numerous books.

In this episode, Debbie speaks about the structure and workflow of Sterling — now a corporate agency, how she stays energized across her many endeavors, and how she’s still working to overcome awkwardness in her life and career. We also get to hear the story of how Debbie and Prescott first met.

 

Show Notes & Links
  • Design Matters was recognized as an iTunes Best of 2015 show. Amazing achievement.

    • Design Matters is among the iTunes Best of 2015

  • Prescott discovered Design Matters while working a crappy job working for a startup marketing firm.
  • Helvetica, by Gary Hustwit
  • Prescott is standing on the shoulders of giants with his podcast
  • Debbie describes herself as a brand consultant, wannabe artist, and chair of the MFA Master’s in Branding at SVA
  • Debbie and her partners at Sterling sold to the business Omnicom in 2008
  • Sterling defines itself as a Brand Consultancy with three disciplines – Design, Strategy, and Innovation
  • DeeDee Gordon runs Innovation from Los Angeles; Austin McGhie runs Strategy from San Francisco
  • Sterling acquired Philippe Becker in San Francisco, joining that to their studio.
  • Simon Lince is Sterling’s Chief Creative Officer in New York, with four Creative Directors under him. Same with Philippe Becker in SF.
  • Sterling consciously went to the traditional advertising agency model, rather than a “bullpen” model, with lots of cross-disciplinary work. It was “less deliberate”.
  • “Institutional knowledge” is important for growth within an agency. Helps to serve clients year-on-year.
  • Design strategy entails asking questions: What is the brand? What is the criteria for success? What is the “whitespace” we want to uncover? Can we own that space? What is the dynamic for change within an organization? etc.

    • “Common vocabulary does not always equate to common behavior.”

    —Debbie Millman

     Tweet This

    “The only people that really like brand design changes are brand designers.” (joking/not joking)

    —Debbie Millman

     Tweet This

    “Ambiguity is never seen positively.” (e.g., ambiguous emails)

    —Debbie Millman

     Tweet This

    • Package design is a “very specific language.” One must know the grammar of a language, but not necessarily all the dialects, which are learned on the job.
    • Design Matters is a cultural force, whether Debbie thinks it or no.
    • Cooper Hewitt National Design Award, 2011
    • Bill Drentell
    • Tina Roth Eisenberg (@swissmiss), Swiss Miss
    • Maria Popova (@Brainpicker), Brainpickings
    • Debbie does “an exhausting amount of research” for Design Matters interviews
    • 20-50 pages of notes for each guest, reduced to 5 pages of questions
    • Lining Up a Shot
    • Design Matters on SoundCloud

      • “I don’t even know that I was a fully formed human being when I was 30.”

      —Debbie Millman

       Tweet This

      • All The Wrong People Have Self-Esteem by Laurie Roselwald
      • Adult Onset Awkward

        • “Getting your first job out of college is like starting kindergarten all over.”

        —Prescott Perez-Fox

         Tweet This

        “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellent, then, is not an act but a habit.”

        –Aristotle

         Tweet This

        • Babson College
        • Omnicom University
        • Nancy Kane, from Harvard Business School
        • Information Recreation
        • Design Observer
        • Brand New (and all the UnderConsideration blogs)
        • Design*Sponge
        • HOW and Print
        • The New York Times
        • CNN
        • The Wall St. Journal
        • The New Yorker
        • Vogue
        • Harper’s Bazaar
        • Scientific American / SciAm Mind on airplanes, where it’s quiet(?)

          • “Multitasking is the enemy of focused creativity.”

          —Debbie Millman

           Tweet This

          • Debbie is now ashamed of her past pride as a multi-tasker

            • “When the going gets tough, we go to Facebook.”

            —Debbie Millman

             Tweet This

            • Multi-tasking is usually “rapid-switching”
            • Lisa Grant, Debbie’s better half at Sterling
            • J’aime Cohen, original SVA dir. of operations
            • Mark Dudlik, current SVA partner in crime
            • Curtis Fox, producer for Design Matters
            • Energy management is more important than time management.
              • Tools
              • SWOT analysis for brands
              • Facebook (the default distraction; internet background noise)
              • Twitter
              • Instagram
              • To-do lists (for things with deadlines)
                • Techniques
                • Copy the habits of small studios and create “in-house studios” within the larger agency
                • Allow strong Debbie Millmanality to exist and thrive in a company; build a culture as such
                • Prepare strategy and challenges during proposal/pitch stage. Don’t wait until you’ve won it.
                • Want something done? Ask a busy Debbie Millman — they have less time to procrastinate.
                • Learn what you’re good at. Production/details? Coming up with ideas?
                  • Habits
                  • Celebrate small victories, such as winning a new project or client
                  • Sleep a lot. 8 hours at least.
                  • Eat better. (better than soda, candy, cigarettes, that is.)
                  • Read constantly.
                    • Try Audible.com Free for 30-Days

                    Visit BusyCreatorBook.com for your free trial

                    Get Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits by Debbie Millman as a free audiobook

                    Get The Episode
                      • Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 18 (MP3, 58:09, 27.9 MB)
                      • Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 18 (OGG, 58:09, 26.74 MB)

                        •  

                        Subscribe to Get New Episodes

                         

                        Subscribe to The Busy Creator Podcast on iTunes or on Android

                        ...more
                        View all episodesView all episodes
                        Download on the App Store
                        The Busy Creator Podcast with Prescott Perez-FoxBy Prescott Perez-Fox & friends