The Busy Creator Podcast with Prescott Perez-Fox: How Debbie Millman Balances Everything to Produce Design Matters (and Run a World-Class Design Agency)

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

Dec 14, 2015

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

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

—Debbie Millman

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

—Debbie Millman

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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

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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

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

–Aristotle

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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

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

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

—Debbie Millman

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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?