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- The Wizard of Design – Piet Zwart (1885 – 1977)
- How Ruben Gamez Turned Bidsketch Into A Successful Online Business
- 5 Easy Steps on How to Deal with Online Stealing
| The Wizard of Design – Piet Zwart (1885 – 1977) Posted: 29 Mar 2012 05:00 PM PDT As it happens with all geniuses ,Piet Zwart didn’t get the sort of recognition that he deserved. He was a rebel during his days and did not want to follow the set rules for design back then. Working late nights and swimming against the tide were his passions. His work covered a wide spectrum of industrial design. Alongside, Piet Zwart spent a lot of time excelling in the world of photography and typography. This article is a small tribute to one of the geniuses of the design industry. A human being who gave new meaning to the world of design and didn’t even ask for anything in return. I am sure that right now Piet Zwart is busy redesigning heaven!
Who Is Piet Zwart?Piet Zwart was born on May 25 1885 in Zaandjijk, the Netherlands. Piet spent his time between 1902 to 1907 in the School of Applied Arts in Amsterdam. I guess it was his time in this school that gave fire to the rebel inside him. The school was perfect combination of various teachings like applied arts, architecture, painting and drawing. But, somehow Piet did not find the teaching methodology of the school as innovative as his brain was.
Piet was highly influenced by the De Stijl movement of those days. If any influence can be noticed in his out-of-the-box work then it will be the effects of this Dutch Artistic movement which started in 1907. It was his zero attention span to whatever was being taught in school that resulted in path breaking designs. It was like he never knew about any design chapters and books. Henceforth, he had his own brain to follow which as a result took him to unimaginable heights. Piet was smart to use his own photography in his design which resulted in photomontages.
Piet’s Career in Graphic DesignPiet Zwart’s career in graphic design got a kick start in the year 1919. He had started to work as draftsman for a famous architect Jan Wils, a member of the De Stijl movement. It was two years later when he grabbed the position of assistant for H.P. Berlarge, a Dutch architect. Piet ended up working several years for Berlarge and it was this stay with Berlarge when Piet worked on some of his first few legendary designs. The most famous of them all was the breakfast set for which he used hexagon shapes as shown in the image below:
An article on New City Art describes the work of Piet in fine words:
Piet was trained as an architect, yet he gained fame in the world of graphic design. It was at the age of 36 when Piet produced his very first work on typography. This was stationary for Wils’ office. His stint with the opinionated format of De Stijl didn’t last long as he was a free bird of sorts.
Piet’s energy and vision to come up with unique styles has been widely appreciated by some prominent speakers. One such statement popped up during a workshop at MIT:
Piet smartly tagged himself as a typotect which he said was a perfect blend of typographer and architect. Surprisingly enough Piet wasn’t aware of the difference between lower case and upper case during his early years with typography. While working with Nerderlandsche Kabelfabriek (NKF) at Delft he realized how little he knew about printing. He learned the basics of printing from an 18-year old worker in the printing firm where NKF adverts were printed. The Book of PTTThis is one of the most talked about projects of his life. It was the year 1930 when Piet was approached for the design of “The Book of PTT” which taught school children the basics of Dutch postal service. Piet wanted to tickle the kids imagination with his design and this is clearly visible in the final book design.
His major goal was to fill the book with bright colors as it was targeting children. He thought deeply and came up with two brand ambassadors for his book: ’The Post’ and ‘J. Self’. Piet created two dolls with these names and took pictures of these dolls. Later on he used pencil and colors to edit these photos. Piet worked hard for years on this book and it was finally launched in the year 1938. One must understand that it wasn’t easy to come up with such a concept during those old days and this was the reason why Piet Zwart took extra time to finally complete his piece of art. In ClosingPiet left this world at the age of 92. It was the year 1977 when Piet moved on to design some other world. The Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam is named after Piet himself. He used to teach in this school in 1920. As is the case, he was awarded (Association of Dutch Designers) with the title Designer of the Century in the year 2000 long after his death. Though Piet is now no more on this beautiful plane, his work and his genius continues to come up every now and then on various occasions. |
| How Ruben Gamez Turned Bidsketch Into A Successful Online Business Posted: 29 Mar 2012 10:00 AM PDT Ruben Gamez is the solo founder of Bidsketch , an online proposal software website for web designers. In only a year and a half, he managed to take Bidsketch from a humble side project that he started while having a full-time job to a full-time business that allowed him to quit his job and enjoy the freedom he has always desired. How did he do that? Today, Ruben shares his story with 1WD readers.
Creating proposals are one of the most effective but painful things designers have to do. In fact, even though it’s one of the best ways to get clients, some designers will skip this step because it can take so much time. I created Bidsketch to be the fastest (and easiest) way to create professional looking proposals. The reason it exists is to cut down on the time it takes to create a proposal. “I assume that in order to build something like that, you have to know a lot about web design and freelancing. What is your professional background? What were you doing before Bidsketch took off?”Years ago I was a freelance web designer and became pretty good at building relationships and getting referrals to get work. I eventually got a job managing the web development department for a company because I grew tired of always having to find new client work. Managing the web development department I was often in charge of hiring outside design agencies so I was exposed to a lot of different proposals from the client’s perspective. It was a great learning experience since I was able to see how companies decide to hire a design company and what sort of proposals were the most effective. “Did you plan to turn Bidsketch into a successful business from the very beginning, or was it a side project turned into an unexpected success?”Bidsketch started as a side project so I didn’t expect that it would grown into something that I’d be doing full-time. In a year and a half it had grown to the point where I was able to quit my job. I had modest goals so this was a complete surprise to me but I’m very grateful for how things turned out.
“How did you come up with an idea for a Bidsketch? Why did you think people will be interested in something like that?”I started thinking about building Bidsketch when a friend of mine came to me for advice about how to deal with proposal request from a client. I explained what I knew about it and tried to find him a template online and found a really old-school downloadable app that helped people create proposals. I tried it out and it was pretty bad and not something that would appeal to a designer (since it was meant for corporate sales teams). After that I checked the Google Keyword Tool which tells you how many people are searching for a specific term and found that it was something designers needed. I knew people would be interested in something that would cut down on the time to create really nice looking proposals because it was something that I had wanted when I was a freelancer. It was also something I had heard many people complain about in the past so when I also saw that people were searching for a solution I thought a product made perfect sense. “You had a good job in a place where you worked for nine years. Why did you decide to engage in entrepreneurial pursuits? Why build a business when you already have stable income from a decent job?”I had a job that gave me a paycheck but I was no longer doing what I enjoyed doing. Over the years I had been promoted to where I was a senior manager. I took the promotions because they meant more money which many people do. Unfortunately, more money meant more responsibility. I had no longer had freedom or flexibility which is really what’s most important to me (much more than money is). “You had to invest a lot of time, energy and money into Bidsketch long before you were able to see the returns. What made you feel confident that you will be able to pull this off? Did you have doubts and if so, how did you deal with them?”I had many doubts throughout the entire process. Even now that it’s a relatively successful product there can be days where I have doubts. I think most people that have a business feel like this from time to time but rarely talk about it. I’ve found that talking to people that understand what it takes to build and run a business helps. Early on, I almost gave up on the idea because I was having trouble getting feedback from people on web design forums. Luckily I emailed a friend who gave me some great advice and convinced me that I should keep going. “You built a business while working in a proper day job. How on Earth did you find enough time and energy to do that? Do you have any advise for people who would like to build a side business while keeping their day job?”It wasn’t easy that’s for sure. I basically worked from 8pm to 12am most nights and worked every weekend for a few months. The problem was that I was trying to do too many things by myself; I was doing the design, programming, marketing, and blogging, which was exhausting. Eventually I decided to get help and start over by outsourcing parts of the product. I didn’t have a lot of money so I couldn’t outsource everything, but the with that approach I was able to move much faster which was super motivating. So my advice to people that are doing something on the side while working full time is to get some help. You don’t need a lot of money and you don’t need to be some expert in outsourcing. Anyone can visit a site like oDesk and post a project to get some help.
“You managed to quit your job eventually when Bidsketch took off. How did you know when was the right time to do it? What would you advise people who are running side businesses in regards to quitting their day jobs?”I lowered my expenses as much as I could before I quit by doing things like selling my car and getting rid of several monthly expenses. I talked to my wife to make sure she was comfortable with the idea. And once I had enough to cover our living expenses I decided to quit the job. I felt comfortable doing so because every month I saw revenue growth. I think that people often say they’d like to quit their job but often don’t do the things necessary to make that happen. First, you have to take action. Launch a product, it doesn’t have to be something big, just start making money on the side. Also, I think it’s important to think about ways to lower expenses and cut the major expenses (think about car payment instead of eliminating your daily latte). “As much as most people hate their jobs, they do provide a sense of financial security, since you know that the paycheck will come at a certain time of a month. Wasn’t it scary for you to say goodbye to this?”For me it wasn’t scary because I had was already earning money on the side and it kept increasing every month. So while there are no guarantees, earning money from a product where people are getting real value is much more secure than having a job in my opinion. With a job, you have one paycheck and many people in the company can decide you’re not needed for any number of reasons. If you think about it, it’s a pretty risky situation. “Was the transition from the world of traditional employment to the world of entrepreneurship difficult? What are the key differences in mindset of a successful employee and a successful entrepreneur? What habits should employees who want to become entrepreneurs drop and what habits should they adopt?”My transition was mostly easy since I was mentally ready for the change. Working on a product and earning money on the side before quitting the job let me get used to the differences slowly. One of the key differences in mindset have to do with time management I think. When you work for someone you’ll get paid no matter what you’re doing. When you’re working for yourself, spending 2 hours fixing some HTML bug in IE is probably not the best use of your time. There are many tasks that need to get done but it’s important to think about which are the important ones that can only be done by you, and which ones are worth spending a few bucks to have someone else do them. If money is tight you’ll have to do more things yourself, but that’s the perfect time to start eliminating tasks that truly aren’t necessary. Every productive minute counts and you want to focus on the things that move the business forward. As far as habits go, I think one of the more important ones has to do with letting other people do the work. I know I’ve said it a couple of times already but it truly is important to stop trying to do everything yourself; there’s simply too much to do. Other than that, I feel it’s important to make sure that your goal is to help your customers be awesome. For example, I focus on making my customers be awesome at growing their business. I do this by making it easy for them to create proposals that impress their clients and win projects for them. This is literally how I think about things. By taking care of your customers, you’re helping your own business in the process.
“What are the key things that you would do differently if you would have to start all over again, with a day job and an idea for a business? What were the main lessons learned?”I think I would’ve started sooner. I took too much time to actually start doing something to move me forward and launch a product. It was something I thought about for a long time but never took action. It took me being very unsatisfied at work to push me towards action. Unfortunately, most people fall into this trap. It’s especially bad when people are comfortable at work because they’ll likely never take action. I made a lot of mistakes in the process of building and launching a product but was still able to make it work. I learned that persistence is unbelievably important. We’re all going to make mistakes, we just need to keep moving forward. “Last, but not least, is there anything you would like to say to our readers who have day jobs or freelance careers, but who would like to explore entrepreneurship?”Start with something small and have modest goals. If you’re curious or have some doubts, try it out on a small-scale and see how it goes. Even if it doesn’t work out you’ll learn a ton in the process. More importantly, once you start making money on the side you’ll see how your mindset changes. |
| 5 Easy Steps on How to Deal with Online Stealing Posted: 29 Mar 2012 04:00 AM PDT Dealing with thieves in real life is bad, but meeting them online any better. Having the things you’ve been working on for a long time stolen — sucks. In this article we’re going to review some very effective ways how you can fight online stealing, mostly relating to websites. The things which have to be considered as stolen must be related to the website concept, layout, functionality and features. Content should also be considered, however it is much harder to prove that a custom post belongs to you — it should be identical (copied) in order to prove that the original content was posted on your website. For domain names, there is just a single way on how to show that you’re the only person who has the right to use a name in the domain — trademarking the domain! A great example is how Facebook has tried trademarking the “face” word in the online world, by this starting a “domination” on the internet.
Send a Complaint Letter to the Owner
If you notice someone has an identical website design/features like yours, this doesn’t always mean that the person behind the website is a thief. Maybe he doesn’t even know about the existence of your page on the internet! You can send them just a simple letter wherein you, with respect, explain the situation created. But be sure not to send such kind of letters if you know that the design/concept used on your website is not a template — as templates for sure are used not only by you but lots of people around the web, so in such case you cannot complain about anything. If you really notice your unique design being used elsewhere, there are many chances you’ll get a positive answer. Do a WhoIs and Contact the Website’s Hosting & Domain ProviderUsually this kind of copying is regulated after sending a complaint letter, but if it was not, you must start real actions against that website and owner. Nowadays it is easy to find who is behind that web address. It is also easy to find the domain and hosting provider. Most popular companies do not respect copying/stealing and can even ban websites which are enterprising such activity. Do it, and see the results. Contact Website’s Advertisers
If you want to get a result out of your actions, you should do a direct attack to the heart of your enemy. Try to contact the advertisers of that webpage and tell them what kind of activity is ruled by the owners, eventually, some advertisers may leave them, so they will be more vulnerable and they may understand who they are dealing with. Advertisers always care about the product or website they’re promoting as their reputation is much more important than a single website they are using for publicity. Contact Google for Banning that Website
Google is the biggest and the most popular search engine. Everyone who owns a website or blog or webpage, or whatever is placed on the web, is really afraid of Google penalties. Many people check websites’ popularity not only by looking at the visitors and pageviews (which are usually not available for everyone), but by looking at the page rank of the website and also the backlinks. Google really does have an easy-to-complete form in order to suggest a website to be considered for elimination from the web search. Of course the duration of the process will not be 1 or 2 days. It could even be months, and also the results will not be positive for sure. The inspection process may just be an alternative for you not the primary offense, as the results are not guaranteed. Start Legal Actions
If everything listed above didn’t help, it’s time to take the final step in this unhappy adventure. In my opinion just a notice for that thief will usually be enough. You should really prove that you will be acting on a legal level as soon as possible. The chances the thief will be ignoring or “fighting” with you are very, very small. Persons who have stolen the website concept, features or content will be apprehensive of a legal process, when justice is on your side. If the enemy still doesn’t want to end things peacefully, it’s time to start the legal process. You will have a very big advantage in this process, if your website is fully copyrighted. Copyright text placed in a website footer doesn’t copyright the respective site, it just makes a small notice. To get your website copyrighted properly you must follow the instructions given on the keytlaw website, in the online works copyright registration department. Of course, copyright laws vary from country to country. A Digital Millenium Copyright Act must also be transmitted — a document which doesn’t allow using, in our case stealing, online property. Be careful that you may fail the legal process, if your website has not been copied fully, but just partially inspired from. This kind of process works almost for any type of digital property. It does not matter if the respective website is getting revenue from your stuff or not. But if they did sell your work, they’ve not only stolen, they have also sold copyrighted things and goods, which is totally against every country’s law. The legal process must be started in the country where the eventual thief is located. If your enemy is located in a country/city different from yours, and you do really want to get him punished by law, you’ll have to hire a lawyer, who will be representing your part, in the time of your absence. Be sure to find the best time of starting the fight in justice, because it isn’t an easy thing to be done, and it also requires spending (a lot) of money. ConclusionBefore you start the anti-theft process, be very certain that you’re not simply confused and the artwork is indeed stolen. If it’s just a simple trait which looks almost like yours or the same combination of colors, it doesn’t mean it’s stealing, maybe the person just got inspired, and not necessarily from you. Also do not start the serious ‘legal’ steps if your website has a more general look and isn’t incredibly unique. Also be sure, that you find identical or almost the same code lines in the other website which has the same/exact features as yours. Remember, re-checking always helps! |
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