Have a Creative Business or Hobby? George Lois Has Some Advice for You ...

An interior designer friend of mine shared a book with me that he said "changed my life," and I feel it's my duty to tell every Sheffield student - and everyone in a creative profession or with a creative hobby - to pick up a copy of Damn Good Advice (for people with talent!) by George Lois. Mr. Lois was the ad guy behind the rise of popular brands like MTV, Tommy Hilfiger, and VW, and his graphic design background (think the classic covers of Esquire magazine that are in MOMA's collection).

The book is wonderfully simple and jarring, with 120 great tips that are actually mini wake-up calls to become more creative and to work better and smarter with our talents. Here are a few nuggets.

• Most people work at keeping their job, rather than doing a good job. If you're the former, you're leading a meaningless life. If you're the latter, keep up the good work. 
• When you're presenting a Big Idea, be prepared to answer dumb questions. There's usually somebody in every meeting that just doesn't get it. Before the last word comes out of their lips, tear their doubts to shreds.
• You can be Cautious or you can be Creative (but there's no such thing as a Cautious Creative). A creative thinker must be fearless. If you're more tentative than decisive, if you're more cautious than creative, you'll never be an innovative business leader, and certainly not a great visual communicator. A Cautious Creative is an oxymoron.

If you're pursuing a creative hobby or a creative profession, you need the inspiration of books like this one to help give you a jolt and replenish your "juciness." Lois, whom many refer to as the original Mad Man (as in the TV show Mad Men), rankles at the comparison because he believes in a much better work and personal ethic than shown in the TV show. I highly recommend this book. You'll come away inspired and ready to create great work!

If you're interested in learning more about creative pathways for hobbyists and professionals, we encourage you to explore the Sheffield School, New York, NY. Sheffield began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.

Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter. 

Photography & Videography: Tips from the Trenches

So much effort goes into planning your wedding. And you know what? When the day comes, it definitely will be the blur everyone tells you it will be. Hours pass like minutes, and before you know it, you’re off for the honeymoon. Therefore, it’s so important to have every detail of your day expertly captured, so you can enjoy those fleeting moments again and again.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of amateur photographers and videographers out there posing as pros. To help make your hiring decision easier, our friend Dave Bigler at Bigler Productions has some tips for you: Brilliance or Blah; 3 Key Things to Look For in Your Wedding Photographer or Videographer.

Here’s one of our favorite points from Dave: “One of the key elements to shooting a wedding is being able to anticipate every moment. There are no retakes or do-overs in a wedding. An experienced shooter will be in the right place at the right time to nail the right shot.”

Well said, Dave! No matter how beautiful a first kiss, the photograph of it will probably not look that great if the photographer is crouched at the bride’s knee. (Yes, we’ve seen this happen!) An experienced pro will know just where to position him or herself when it’s time for the I do’s.

(Credits: Like the photo above? So do we! It’s from “Rustic Romance,” a feature in Volume 2 of Adirondack Weddings, photographed by Greer Cicarelli Photography.)

Thanks to Adirondack Weddings Magazine for their beautiful photographs, posts, and wedding and event inspiration. Adirondack Weddings is the official bridal magazine of upstate New York’s Adirondack region, covering Lake Placid, Saranac Lake, Lake George, Old Forge, Saratoga Springs, and beyond. The magazine features stunning photography, insightful articles, and the region's top wedding professionals. Visit the Adirondack Weddings Magazine website.

Sheffield School began as an Interior Design school in 1985, and then expanded our course offerings to train people in other design-related fields, including Feng Shui, Wedding and Event Planning, and Jewelry Design. With thousands of active students and more than 50,000 graduates, Sheffield has trained more design professionals than any school in the world.

Request a free Sheffield School catalog describing our distance education courses.

Subscribe to the Sheffield Designer newsletter.

Feng Shui Tips - The Power of Color in Decorating

Franca Giuliani - Within feng shui as within design, color is very important and powerful. Before trying to pick out the "right color” for home decorating, let's try to understand color.

Color is energy. (And, remember,everything is energy.) Colors are specific wavelengths of energy that can be used to balance ourchi, our life force. Here's what colors can do for you and yours:

• Colors have an impact on our emotions and our vibration. They possess the power to arouse or to tranquilize, to bring joy or create depression. 
• Colors engage our eyes and influence how we interpret our emotional experiences. By understanding the emotional context of colors, we can manipulate the experience of space to benefit our energetic body.

Color Has Three Dimensions

HUE: This is the first recognizable characteristic of a color. It's the quality by which we distinguish one color from another, as red, yellow, etc.

VALUE: The quality by which we distinguish a light color from a dark color (or how clean the color is). Value is raised by adding white and is lowered by adding black. Colors change in value with light - the brighter the sun, the more light you have coming into a room, the brighter the room colors will be.

INTENSITY: The quality by which we distinguish a strong color from a weak one. Color is lowered in intensity by adding gray or by adding its complementary color. 

Color Has Harmony

This is an agreeable combination of colors, and there are two kinds of harmony.

CONTRASTED HARMONIES use colors on the opposite side of the color wheel. Most common are complementary colors - exactly opposite.

RELATED HARMONY uses colors close to each other on the color wheel or only one color. Analogous colors are

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Feng Shui Tips: Are Your Rooms Missing Anything?

Franca Giuliani - Living in a home or working in an office that has the shape of a square or rectangular is ideal in feng shui. It offers balance and incorporates a complete bagua. The bagua is an energetic map that divides up any space - from a room to an entire house - into eight sectors plus the center, each with its own powerful attributes.

Now it's not easy to find perfect squares and rectangles in our homes, apartments, or offices. With incredible design concepts and necessities like bumping out in a room to add a closet, different shapes are created. So what do you do if you have a missing sector?

 

Well, first you should symbolically “square the space off.” This is quite easy to do if you have access to the outdoors. You can use bushes, fences, flowers, anything to create that outline needed to “complete the space.”

You should also figure out what sector you're missing and then compensate that space by adding the element of the missing sector. And you can be creative about it! You can add furniture, pictures, fabrics ... you can even paint the whole room the element color! Just follow these guidelines below. If you're missing the following sector, add that direction’s element near that missing sector.

 

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3 Basic How-to-Get-Started Photography Tips for Interior Designers

If you're interested in interior design, or you hang out your shingle as a decorator, you may want to take great photographs of your clients' decorated spaces without having all the gear of a professional photographer. The top photo shows Texas photographer Sean Gallagher's behind-the-scenes setup at an interior shoot. And tricked-out gear may not be where you want to go - you have enough to keep the colors, the fabrics, the vendors, the orders, and the clients' demands straight! We asked Sheffield School Director Chuck DeLaney - who is also the Director of our sister school, the New York Institute of Photography - to give us a few tips we should know about interior design and photography.

1. Use SmartPhones and Tablets.

Chuck suggested that most interior designers should own two cameras - and the first would be an iPhone or other SmartPhone or a tablet computer capable of taking photographs. Use them like a "visual notebook" to make pictures of items that you see in a showroom, antique store, or vendor's location. "For some clients, the designer may choose to email photos for consideration and discussion. For other clients, images can be printed out for review at a meeting or used as reference until you're able to located better photos online."

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