Design is in demand. The middleman is dead. The production cycle has collapsed. There are no rules. Everyone is making it up as they go.

Transcription

1 Design is in demand. The middleman is dead. The production cycle has collapsed. There are no rules. Everyone is making it up as they go. Everyone is connected. You can be your portfolio. You can fail. You can be curious. You can be fearless. You can keep moving forward. You can make something real. You can create opportunities for others. You can make things with your friends. You can learn as you go. You can teach yourself. You can have fun. You can trust yourself. You can do what you love. You can make your own path. You can do anything you want. You can Kern and Burn.

2 We are graduate design students at The Maryland Institute College of Art. We have spent our careers dreaming about working at great design firms, building our portfolios, and thinking about how to sell ourselves. We left good jobs to come to graduate school in hopes of better jobs. Then we read Ben Pieratt s essay and everything changed. Ben said, The internet, at this time in history, is the greatest client assignment of all time. The internet wants to hire you to build stuff for it because it s trying to figure out what it can do. It s offering you a blank check and asking you to come up with something fascinating and useful that it can embrace en masse, to the benefit of everyone. The market is handing you steak and you re choosing the gristle. The market is handing you gold bullion and you re taking the nickel. If you are keen enough to identify the opportunities that are being laid out before you by technology, then there is challenge and fulfillment and success to be had.

3 We got excited and wanted to learn as much as we could. But, we had no idea what were doing. We did some research and discovered that some of our favorite startups were founded by designers. We built Kern and Burn as a place to share the stories of designers who do what they love. Our goals were simple: We discovered that many of our design heroes have found ways to build their careers without clients. They hustle, they follow their passions, and they share their perspectives. Designers today create their own paths, and break the rules. They make products. They self-publish books and magazines. They champion side projects. They co-found startups. We decided to celebrate them, the Design Entrepreneurs. To know what our generation of designers think. To start a business. To share our discoveries. To challenge the traditional role of graphic design. To make a book. To inspire the design community. To provide opportunities for others. To better ourselves, our networks, and our futures.

4 We created the 100 Days of Design Entrepreneurship to share our research, and inspire the design community. The following pages share some things we ve learned along the way, from some amazing people. Cameron Koczon taught us to be co-founders, to elevate design, and change the world. Designers should be co-founders. They need to be in the mix from the beginning because design belongs there from the beginning. Cameron Koczon

5 Peter Buchanan- Smith taught us to just start, to build in real time, and to craft a great story. Christian Helms taught us to take risks, trust ourselves, and start our own businesses. I think that every business will succeed if the owner feels like there is no stopping it. Peter Buchanan-Smith I think there has been this turn in the collective conscious of designers. We realized that we start these businesses for clients, these businesses go on to be successful, and we think, why aren t we starting these businesses? Christian Helms

6 Jessica Hische taught us to be ourselves, to have a perspective, and share it. Jake Nickell taught us to make work with our friends, to build a community, and to contribute. Self-authored projects become the perfect place for me to stretch my wings and be silly and irreverent, and show the world I can do more than draw curly cues. Jessica Hische I think the most important thing we can try to do is to encourage curiosity, a desire to figure out how things work, and be a contributor. Jake Nickell

7 We needed a place to post our research. So, we built a framework. We called it the 100 Days of Design Entrepreneurship. Swiss-Miss posted it on her blog, and it changed everything. The 100 Days, became our project.

8 Duane King taught us that we should take our time, make mistakes, and never be afraid to start over. Mimi O Chun taught us to master our craft, to execute our ideas, and to have conviction. The truth is, your career is a permanent work-in-progress and it won t unfold as you had planned. The learning and growing never stops. What defines the entrepreneur is his or her ability to recognize a problem, a need, or opportunity in the world and have the conviction to want to solve it. Duane King Mimi O Chun

9 Frank Chimero taught us to have interests outside of design, and that it s ok to pivot. Neil Blumenthal taught us to adapt, and to work hard to learn both business and design. I ve changed what I ve done every two or three years. It s all design, the form just changes. Frank Chimero The best business people and managers understand design, and the best designers understand business and management. There has to be more cross-pollination. Neil Blumenthal

10 Joe Gebbia taught us to solve problems in our own life to create opportunities for others. Scott Wilson taught us to have courage, to be fearless, and to be curious about the world around us. My first startup wasn t a business. It wasn t a product. It was a sports team. There is something fascinating about creating something out of nothing. Joe Gebbia You have to have courage and you have to be fearless. You have to be comfortable outside of your comfort zone and you have to be curious about how business works. Scott Wilson

11 Josh Brewer taught us that we should lead, and that there are people that will help us succeed. Mikey Burton taught us that we are lucky, that we should have fun, and make time for side projects. There are people out there doing everything they can to help designers make the transition to being a founder, a co-founder, or just to help them meet the right people. I feel really lucky to do what I do. I make things for a living and that s really fun. Why should I be overcritical of that? Mikey Burton Josh Brewer

12 On Day 01 we invited readers on our journey. On Day 100 we thank them for their support of our blog, our book, and our mission. Wilson Miner taught us that we have a unique opportunity to design the world we live in. 100 days, 65,000 words, 50 interviews, 2,000 s, 450 tweets, 960 followers, 2 businesses, 1 Kickstarter campaign, 18,500 dollars pledged, 480 backers, 4,000 miles, and a few late nights, Kern and Burn is just getting started. Please join us on the journey at: To design anything useful, you need to understand how the world works. You need to be curious, you need to be observant, and you need to ask questions about everything. Wilson Miner

13 Kern and Burn is a collaboration between Jessica Karle Heltzel and Tim Hoover. Follow us on