Musings: Authenticity

Because some insights are short and sweet, we’re adding something new to our writing. “Musings” will be some short thoughts we’ve had on topics related to what we’re doing at Hexanine, in life, and beyond.

Balancing Authenticity and Professionalism

It’s hard to be real and vulnerable, showing your mistakes and stepping out from behind the curtain of perceived perfection. This seems at odds with the cultural veneer of professionalism that we’ve come to expect from “the experts” in a field. But maybe showing a little bit of leg, revealing some of our humanity, doesn’t highlight our flaws as much as it reminds us of how much we are all alike.

Business Thoughts For Creative Minds

Business Thoughts For Creative People

Very few in our industry get into the design profession to run a business. For many creatives, business is the dirty word you have to use in order to keep doing the “fun” stuff — the creative and strategic acts of a design firm. But get far enough down the road, and you realize that managing a firm or business (whether you’re a designer, developer, marketer, or otherwise) is a great path to doing the kind of work you really love. Business stuff isn’t bad, and in fact, we’ve learned tons working closely with clients, managing teams, building relationships, and chasing down new projects. Along the way, we’ve found bits of hard-won wisdom that seem unrelated to design. But it’s crucial stuff — the kinds of knowledge that applies not only to design, but also to life in general. We have a lot of lessons to share (both good and bad), but here are a few worth repeating.

Read on…

Open Letter to CDOT: Steer Away From Crowdsourcing

An Open Letter to CDOT Chicago Department of Transportation

UPDATE: We received a Twitter reply from @CDOTNews. See the end of the post for details.

To:
Gabe Klein, Commissioner of CDOT
Chicago Department of Transportation
30 N. LaSalle Street
Suite 1100
Chicago, IL 60602
cc: Rahm Emmanuel

Dear Commissioner Klein and Mayor Emmanuel,

It’s no secret that the city of Chicago currently finds itself in a challenging financial state. The economy and the previous administration’s decisions and poor budget planning have left our city with the desperate need to do more with less. Many organizations and businesses face similar challenges — and there are a lot of ways to cut costs, trim expenditures, and stretch the city’s money. But crowdsourcing the new CDOT logo is a terrible idea.

Read on…

Jul 11 2011

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Behind The Design: Our SUPER iam8bit Book

We’re wrapping up the production on a book we’ve designed called “SUPER iam8bit: More Art Inspired By Classic Video Games of the ’80s.” The book was written by our partners at iam8bit. Hexanine designed the entire volume, from cover to cover, and we’re also co-publishing it under our new Plastic Highway imprint.

While the book won’t be officially released until next month, here are some fun moments we’ve had during the process:

Super iam8bit cover shoot

Read on…

A Little Tease For HOW 2012

At this year’s HOW Design Live conference, we got to take some time to chat with our friends at HOW about creativity, inspiration, and why we go to events like this one. This year’s Chicago experience was amazing, and we’re looking forward to attending in Boston next year as HOW authors, as well! Here’s a little edited tease of great HOW authors and creative personalities, including James Victore, Sally Hogshead, Darius Monsef, ourselves, and more.

Your HOW Guide to Chicago

For both visitors and Chicago natives who are gathering for this week’s HOW Design Live, we’ve put together a cheat sheet of our favorite places, food, and things to do in the city.

This city is so much more than hot dogs, gangsters, and tall buildings. Chicago has the reputation as the “city that works” and we’re really proud of the title that let’s everyone know that we’re good at getting it done. Designers and firms of all stripes call the Windy City home, from well-known agencies like VSA Partners, Crosby Associates, SMBOLIC, and IDEO to trailblazing firms such as Seguara, Inc, Grip Design, 50,000 Feet, Someoddpilot, Coudal Partners (and ourselves, of course). Chicago is even home to creative collectives like Quite Strong and The Post Family. There’s so much to do in this city, so consider the suggestions below just an appetizer of what’s available to do, see and eat in the Second City.

Chicago is one of the country’s greatest public transportation cities, so almost anything you want to see or do is accessible via El train, cab, bus, or by foot. We’ve given handy locators below in distance from The Hyatt and HOW Design Live, along with Google Maps links.

Read on…

iam8bit Collateral Added To Portfolio

iam8bit Stationary

Our print collateral work for iam8bit is now up in our portfolio, so take a look.

Logo And Launch of Plastic Highway

Plastic Highway Logo

Some projects fall outside of the realm of client work, and at Hexanine, we do some of this to keep ourselves sharp, to pursue unique interests, and to grow our capabilities. We’re launching a creative imprint called Plastic Highway as a place to showcase creative efforts that exist at the intersection of art and pop culture. Check out our portfolio entry for more on the identity we designed, and watch this space for an upcoming announcement on the first project released under the Plastic Highway banner.

Why Create When You Can Criticize?

Why Create When You Can Criticize?

There are so many voices out there.

The ubiquity of cloud computing, publishing software, and mobile devices have made it incredibly easy to make ourselves heard — and that’s great thing, whether it’s pro-democracy tweets from Chile or cat videos on YouTube. Creative collaboration, political dissent, freedom of speech, and organizational innovation have all benefited from a massive uptick in opinions and knowledge sharing. While the number of worldwide creators has skyrocketed through unique platforms — Behance, Etsy, Kickstarter, this also seems to have birthed a dark side.

Read on…