Is there anyone you think I should interview? Message me on twitter.

Big thanks to Andrew Warner from Mixergy for putting together a class on how to do it easily.

By the way, if you’re into entrepreneurship I highly recommend you subscribe to Andrew’s list.

No I’m not a Mixergy affiliate, if such a thing even exists. I just believe in sharing anything that gets me fired up or educates me.

Format
VTS is a two-hour session, with the first hour broken up into 2-3 minute lightning rounds of sharpie and poster-stickie chaos. This was the fun part. Each round had themes such as “Emotions”, “Organizations” and “Tech”. The speaker would yell out stuff like “jealous!”, “excited!”, “committed!” and we had to create symbols for each within seconds. What made it interesting was that the concepts got more abstract as we progressed. How do you draw “human resources”?

For the second hour we were split into teams and given a business process to draw out. Our team had the escrow process. Full disclosure: I’m an introvert—and a recovering stutterer which just magnifies my introversion—so I don’t do well in group exercises where the loudest people get the sharpie. So I didn’t really like this part. Not saying it was wack. It just didn’t gel with my personality.

Takeaway
The most useful insight we learned was that if you can develop a shorthand library of visual symbols, you can draw out ideas very quickly, similar to how a graphic facilitator works. Basic shapes we use to draw letters and numbers should be our visual toolbox.

Being the avid learner that I am, I would have liked a 4-6 hour workshop. The speed of the sessions made those two hours feel like 15 minutes. If you’ve ever been in a seminar where you’re up and active and working in groups, you know that you’re just getting warmed up in the first two hours.

A lot of what Xplane does can be summed up in founder Dave Gray’s brilliant new release Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers, which features over 80 games that help team generate and communicate ideas.

I’ll definitely attend the next session. Never pass up learning from people who rock at what they do, especially when it’s free. There’s nothing I love more than dedicated practitioners who are willing to share their knowledge and methods. Xplane’s VTS is a good example of what Jason Fried calls out-teaching the competition is his new book Rework. I think firms like Xplane should take it a bit further by upping the offering (longer sessions, more teaching, etc.) to meet the demand and charging. I expected about 7 people to show up. We had 20. So there’s obviously big demand for these exercises. Judging from the turnout and the enthusiasm of the attendees, I expect they’d sell out.

G-Who?

Back in 2000, in my last quarter of college, I “discovered” graphic design and decided to drop my post-college professional plans and pursue it as a career. I moved back home and blew my whole tax return on a used Mac clone I found on eBay that included most of the applications I thought I needed to get started. Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver, and tons more. Jackpot!

Now if you were around back then religiously surfing design portals like K10K, Surfstation, or Design is Kinky, you would have found yourself flooded with links to amazing (and intimidating) work, the best of which was motion graphics for advertising and the web. Even a lot of the print work incorporated 3D rendered elements. That whole 3D thing was an early 2000s trend.

Most of it was done by students and agencies on college and agency machines. That meant heavy duty machines running expensive apps like Maya, 3D Studio Max, Final Cut, and After Affects. One of those apps alone would have cost more than my whole set-up. I’d try to copy the work I’d see to no avail. I was convinced it was because I didn’t have the right software.

The sickest designer in my humble newbie opinion was Bradley Grosh, aka GMunk. I’d watch his motion work over again in awe. I’d think to myself “How the hell does he do that?” So one day I emailed him for advice and I asked him about software he uses. To my delight, he sent me a short reply within a couple of days. The most important piece of wisdom he imparted upon me that you just have to jam with what you have.

That piece of advice served me well. I stretched everything I had on that old Mac clone to develop my own website, Flash intro (another early 2000’s trend), and portfolio of completely fake projects of stuff I Iiked to look at like book covers and album covers. Fake is ‘till you make it, right?

So within 8 months of embarking on this career path I actually started landing jobs with my portfolio site. I started learning about the discipline of design on the job, the stuff you learn in art school, working with experienced people for real clients.

I actually got let go from my first job after one month after screwing up a project, but the experience working there and jamming the rest of the night after work helped me get some real work in my portfolio. Within a month of losing the assistant job I landed a full-time web designer job at a web start-up making more than I ever imagined. Was I qualified at the time? Hell no. But I got qualified on the job and spent my nights and weekends reading, surfing the web,

Listen, would you rather hire someone who’s qualified but not interested in growing to meet the needs of a growing organization or someone who’s constantly hustling to learn more and figure things out? What kind of person would you rather be?

When I walk to the train after work everyday I hear the street drummers banging away on a deliberate selection of pots and pails. Their music doesn’t have any less energy and precision because they aren’t playing on stage or in a studio with a real drum set.

It’s passion, energy, and love that shines through in good design work. Not software and hardware.

I say work with what you have, right now, and don’t wait for anything. Jamming is a priceless skill.