Book: Clients From Hell

A little while ago, I received an advance copy of the new Clients From Hell book from the curators of the Clients From Hell website I enjoy visiting from time to time.

If you've never heard of Clients From Hell (the website or the book) they're a curated compilation of anonymous quotes, quips and comments from real clients by their designers, shared with the world for the amusement of other designers.

Some examples:

"For some reason I am not able to attach the 3’x8’ signs to the email, to send it off to be printed. Is there any way that you can change it to be ‘KB’, instead of ‘MB’? The ‘KB’ ones always seem to work better for me."

CLIENT: “This isn’t a criticism, but I wanted to point it out.”
ME: “Okay… what’s the problem.”
CLIENT: “This business card you designed for me is upside down.”

"Whenever I have any extra cash, I buy Vitamins, Protein Powder and Graphic Design. In that order."

The book is great. It's a portable paper version of the website you can keep next to your computer for a chuckle, or as a reminder of how great your own clients are.

Living a Better Life Story: Storyline Conference

IF YOUR LIFE WERE A STORY, how would it read?

In his book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, author Don Miller asks that question of his own life. He found the state of his life pretty mundane.

He became fascinated with story and its structure, learning the elements of story in order to examine his own life and seek ways to change the story he was living into a better one.

For Don, that meant hiking to Machu Picchu, seeking and finding his long-lost father, riding his bike across America to raise funds for wells in Africa and founding a mentoring program for fatherless boys. Quite the change in story.

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years was a great book. It challenged me to think more deeply about the life I'm living, how I'm leading my family and what kind of impact I'm having on others. I'm thinking about my life in ways I hadn't before.

In some areas of my life, I love like how my story has unfolded. In other areas, I'm not as happy about the story I'm living. There's plenty of room for improvement.

Most of all, I love the idea that God is writing a story with my life and invites me to be part of that writing. The opportunity to live a more interesting life and to encourage others to live better stories with their own lives is fascinating and exciting.

The Storyline Conference

Saturday, my wife and I signed up for Don Miller's Storyline Conference in Portland, Oregon to learn ways we can write a better life story, together.

I learned about the Storyline Conference and A Million Miles in a Thousand Years through Don Miller's blog. I enjoy his writing, so when I saw his post about the conference, I was intrigued with doing something more with my own story.

The Storyline Conference is a two day workshop in Portland, Oregon. Attendees hear stories from Don Miller, use workbooks to find out where their own story is headed, and through the process, write a better story of their lives. Music and other surprise experiences during the 2 days should create a unique experience.

Here's the promo video:

Looks like a great experience in a great city!

This spring I missed SXSW due to illness, which was a big bummer. Choosing to experience Storyline, the city of Portland and experience it with my wife is a wonderful reward after missing SXSW. We're both very excited.

I'm also planning to sketchnote the Storyline Conference. If Don is OK with it, I'll post my sketchnotes on Flickr and here on my blog. I'm excited to learn and then share story concepts with others curious about writing a better story with their own lives.

My Sketchnote Video Interview

Had a great time sharing stories about my sketchnotes and the REWORK book illustration process with Marquette grad student Daria Kempka. She turned my video clips and samples into this very cool 2:25 video. Have a watch and enjoy.

Thanks Daria!

REWORK Artwork on ABC News

On Wednesday the 24th, my REWORK illustrations appeared on ABC News with host Tory Johnson on Job Club. In the segment below, Tory interviews the authors, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson about themes in the book:

REWORK has also become a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller in a little over 2 weeks after release.

It's very exciting to see the book really taking off, especially having been part of the team that made REWORK happen.

Related Links
'Long Lists Don't Get Done' - ABC News
Authors of 'Rework' Answer E-mails - ABC News
Order REWORK at Amazon

Illustrating REWORK (Part 1 of 2)

I'm thrilled to share with you an opportunity I've had to write a guest post for the 37signals company blog, Signal vs Noise.

Jason Fried of 37signals invited me to write the post Illustrating REWORK about the process of illustrating their new business book, REWORK.

I went into detail about how we started the book illustration process, worked with Crown Publishing, generated illustration concepts and prepared pencil sketches for review, approval and final production.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Pencils vs. Inking
Initially I’d planned on inking each illustration in a Moleskine sketchbook, making the reviewable artwork as close to final artwork as possible. But after thinking about what would best suit the review and feedback process, I decided it would be smart to review uninked pencil sketches instead.

Pencil concept sketch for “Everyone on the Front Lines”. –Photo by Brian Artka

This proved to be a time-saving decision. Had I inked pieces as near-final art, I would have lost time re-inking multiple illustrations to accommodate changes.

Because I invested up-front time in solving the illustrations as pencils, I only had to ink once before moving to Photoshop for final artwork.

Writing Part 1 of 2 was great fun to do, because I've learned over the years here that people are fascinated by the design process. You can also read Illustrating REWORK (Part 2 of 2) for the full story.

Many thanks to Brian Artka for shooting my sketchbooks for the articles, and to Gabe Wollenburg for proofreading and editing tips on the pieces.

Listen to the Podcast

You can also listen to the latest 37signals Podcast. At 28:43 into the podcast, Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson and Matt Linderman talk about why they hired me for the illustrations and their perspective on the illustration process. Here's the MP3 file.

Review 5 Chapters

Check out Scribd to read 5 chapters of the book, including my illustrations.

Buy REWORK!

I'm very excited now that REWORK has been released. It became a New York Times and Wall Street Journal Bestseller only a week after release! If you pick up a copy, please leave a comment here about the illustrations.

Order REWORK at Amazon