Stafford.Tisdale + M15 = THE NORTH STATE

I’ve been spending the past year courting Mike Sakoonserksadee of M15 Design. It was strictly professional. We were chums for a while…then we started hooking up on projects more often. Last August we moved our offices to a studio in NoDa and began discussing the idea of getting serious.

Our vows came together over numerous Bobcats home games and, after the honeymoon in Austin, The North State Design Studio was born.

We have an exciting year lined up. Building on the national work we did in 2007 for Sub Pop Records, CitySearch and the Israel Baseball League, we are going to continue to cultivate relationships that enable us to produce our best design.

Visit The North State.

Today has been a less than challenging day in the Cutting-Edge-Turbo-Design department of Stafford.Tisdale. There have been no ground breaking graphical layouts or crazy motion design sequences. Just production and coordination. And several of calls from random clientele. Random…Meaning: people who I typically would not pursue for business.

This morning I had a meeting with a home builder in a small North Carolina town. A simple man. A man who has built his business on manual labor. A man with a robust Nextel phone. He wanted a website but didn’t know the difference between a URL and an ISP.

I went into the meeting a little jaded. I had already prepared myself for the dreaded “how much for a web page” discussion, however, we ended up hanging out over a cup of joe debating which school would be better for his theatre-centric 14 year-old daughter. I left with a new account, a caffeine buzz, and a man’s trust.

It’s the random people that should make a business owner take a step back and appreciate the opportunity he or she has to make new connections. Sometimes my focus gets blurred by ambitions. I would rather be collaborating on a hot new commercial for Nike in New York than making a web page for a home builder in North Carolina. However, a better project does not mean a better client. The people that truly connect with the person behind the business define what the business can become. Good people equal good business.

The Opening Remarks for South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive 2006 in Austin Texas were awesome. Coming straight out of a 3 hour car ride from Dallas, it was a great point-of-entry into the next four days of web goodness.

It was a funny beginning. After finding a seat, I was finishing up a Flash project for one of my clients in Charlotte when a guy tapped me on the shoulder and wanted to know about what I was working on. Turns out it was Mike Downey, Senior Product Manager for Flash. We chatted about future of Flash and After Effects and he gave me some quick tips in Flash 8. A Pretty nice run-in.

Jim Coudal began the program. His headshot makes him look like a boring guy but he is far from it. He spoke about several projects Coudal Partners has launched including The Show
where a team goes on the road with bands (he mentioned the Pixies Specifically) where they record, mix, design and produce limited edition live sets.

When accepting jobs, he and his team considers three questions:

1. Will it be something we will be proud of?
2. Will it make money?
3. Will we learn something from it?

His emphasis was heavy on the 3rd point. Pushing forward and learning new things was the single most important element for a successful creative firm. He segued into his conclusion that the meek will not inherit the earth…the curious will.

Jason Fried of 37signals followed with some of his opinions about approaching the development of software. When addressing how companies often try to “outdo” their competitors he suggested “under-doing” them could result in better products. Under-doing consists of the following:

1. Less time.
2. Less money.
3. Less Software.

All of which ultimately contribute to a streamlined, simpler product. The only thing he suggested more of was constraints. By adding more constraints on a idea development, the purest elements are squeezed out.

These guys really opened the floodgates for the creative river. You can listen to the audio recording on this podcast.

~ David Tisdale