[MUSIC]

[APPLAUSE].

Hey guys >> Hello.

>> How are ya.

I'm Dave and this is Laura.

>> I'm Laura, nice to meet you all.

>> How is Creative South been for you guys?

[APPLAUSE] Yes!

>> Yeah, nice!

>> That's some energy!

I have no idea if there's people up in the balcony, but hi guys!

I can see all your Apple logos.

Just lots of little Apple logos shining out.

>> Yeah >> [LAUGH] Repping the max, nice work.

Well guys, we wanna rip right into it.

But, we have something we wanted to do first.

>> So, what we need, is we need five volunteers just to quickly come up

to the front of the stage.

So, really, really quickly, doesn't matter just come up,

you don't need to put your hand up five people.

>> First in, best served.

>> So we got one, two, three.

>> A spoon for you, and we can't have any more than five.

>> Four, five.

>> Well [LAUGH] >> Oh yeah.

This is great.

>> Sorry for the people that didn't make it.

You poor things. >> No.

>> I feel like we could have had a better system there, but that's okay.

All right. You need a spoon for you.

All right?

>> Spoon for you. >> Is it ice cream?

>> It's definitely not ice cream.

>> [LAUGH] You already [UNKNOWN] I think some of you might have realized

that we're not from America, can anyone guess where we're from?

>> Very good, we get a lot of is is England are we from South Africa?

[LAUGH] But we're having veggie mite.

Now I wish we could, [NOISE] initially the plan [INAUDIBLE] and

that's why we didn't tell you before you came up.

[LAUGH] So initially we kinda wanna to make some veggie mite sandwiches for

you all, any of you heard of men at work I come from a land down under.

And the Vegemite sandwich reference?

This is what's happening right now except without the sandwich part.

>> So, I'm gonna yeah, can I have your spoon and I'll?

>> You can. Can I have the spoon?

>> I know this has nothing to do with design, but bear with us.

>> Okay, so.

Laura and I we're commiserating with each other before, and

we're thinking how big a bite should we make them that.

And it's just kind of midway, if it's between a 0 and ten,

it's maybe hovering at about a six of veggie might units.

>> [LAUGH] So if you guys want, you can all dig in!

>> Should be count them down from five.

Five, four, three, two, one.

Go [LAUGH].

This is the, [LAUGH].

This is an Australian's favorite pastime.

You think it's riding Kangaroos and stuff, but it's this.

[LAUGH] It's coming to America and forcing our local foods on people.

[LAUGH] What's the report guys?

[LAUGH] I wish we had a mic, so we could report back.

>> [LAUGH] Oh.

>> So essentially for those of you >> It does get worse.

>> It does get worse.

>> Who haven't eaten it, it's it's literally yeast extract.

>> Which is- >> So it's just.

>> Just as horrible as it sounds if you haven't grown up eating it.

[LAUGH] >> It's just really salty but it's-

>> Salty goodness.

>> All right, give them a hand.

[APPLAUSE] Very good guys!

Good sports. Thanks so much, [LAUGH].

>> It was like eating beef bouillon.

>> [LAUGH] We really should have thought of a back up plan of giving them mints, or

something to cleanse with.

Thanks for taking care of that.

[BLANK_AUDIO]

>> Thank you sir.

All righty.

>> Okay so.

>> Thanks for bearing with us with that,

we just had to impose that upon you guys [LAUGH].

>> Yeah, so for those of you who don't know who we are, I'm Laura and

as Dave said, he's Dave.

>> Good.

>> And we own the Australian Graphics Supply Co.

So, The Australian Graphic Supply Co, our mission statement is to constantly create

at the highest standard, whilst aiming to inspire and

equip others to do the same >> So,

we started the agency about a year ago.

We actually just had our one year anniversary, but we were so

busy with American creative [UNKNOWN] and all that sort of things,

we kinda glossed over the anniversary, but that's okay.

So as Justin said, we mainly do lettering, and things like that, lettering and

typography, and we sort of started to experiment with some illustration,

some print work.

I love web design.

But, I guess we- >> I don't.

>> Yeah, right.

I tried to teach [UNKNOWN] at one point.

She's like stuff this.

I guess it's a personality type thing.

But I'm we're in this point,

we're kind of trying to figure out what we wanna to focus on.

>> And I feel like that's probably a topic for another talk.

But, we'll get there.

>> Yeah, so I guess we wanted to say that, basically,

to premise the talk by saying that we're by no means experts.

So we didn't wanna come up here today and tell you how to do x, y,

and z, and have, how to be the best of whatever.

>> Yeah, we're still babes in design.

We're still- >> Yeah.

We're- >> We're still just very young.

>> We're right at the very beginning [LAUGH]

>> Of our adventure.

>> Yeah. >> As designers.

>> Yeah.

>> And so, basically we wanted to come up and share our hearts with you,

where we're at at the moment, where we're.

What we're feeling and- >> Yeah.

>> Everything like that, hopefully just to encourage you.

>> Like you say, this is just the chat with Laura and Dave.

And I mean, I was thinking, should we let people, like, call out things and

questions while we're talking?

Let's not do that, it's probably not practical,

but we'll definitely have questions at the end, so let's do that then.

But for this talk, we're not gonna get heaps technical.

So we, we we're thinking initially when we're talking about the talk,

we were like should we talk bezier, should we talk logos and letter forms and

all that sort of thing, and we love that stuff.

But, we also wanted to try and encourage and, and challenge you guys and

considering we've got 30 minutes left we're not gonna be able to do both of

them, so we're just gonna work on encouraging you guys and

hopefully challenging you.

>> Okay, so do you guys all know about Parks & Recreation?

>> Yeah!

>> Yeah.

>> Yes. It is our favorite show in the world.

>> Do you all love it?

So for us, it's one of our favorite shows.

And, we actually only just recently discovered it, a few months ago.

>> This is because were Australian, and there is, what's it called?

The demographical discrimination.

>> Oh yeah, it's like, geographical discrimination.

>> Yeah, we get things, like, two years after you guys, seriously.

I know were far away.

But, it's not like things get shipped to us by the sea.

We're in the digital age, it's ridiculous.

[LAUGH] But anyway, we love it.

>> Anyway, we love parks and recreation, and the main reason why we love parks and

recreation is because of Leslie Knope.

>> Yes.

>> So, Leslie Knope is, she's just amazing.

She is pretty much the, the best at her job.

She's the most passionate person and we just love her.

So- >> If I could be

Leslie I'd be Leslie [UNKNOWN] in a heartbeat.

>> So, when we were trying to figure out what we wanted to talk to you guys about

today we kept coming back to parks and recreation, and

we kept on coming back to Leslie [UNKNOWN].

And so, we essentially decided we wanted to talk to you about three

different characteristics that we think make up a really great designer, and

just a great person in general.

So these were all stolen from Leslie Nope.

>> Thanks Leslie, all right so, we wanted to start off talking about hard work.

Now I feel like saying if you tell someone to work hard it's a bit like saying don't

drive your car into a river, or don't pour hot coffee on someone's face.

We know that we're meant to work hard, that's a given, that's

not hard to work out, but I think that it's kinda easier said than done, right?

It's, telling someone to work hard is, isn't as simple as just going, work hard,

and then they suddenly, magically work hard.

And I think part of the problem with that, is that hard is a relative term.

So, for me personally, I, there's something I really love, and you may or

may not know this about me, but I love vectoring things.

And I think there's probably a lot of you in this room that can relate to that.

There is something really- >> It's like understatement of the year.

>> It's my jam. Oh man I love it.

[LAUGH] There's something super cathartic about taking a really clean sketch of some

lettering or something like that and and taking it into glyph.

If so, illustrator whatever your weapon of choice, and

just pushing those handles around and going to town.

I really love it, and I could spend hours doing it and I-

>> Like it'll be the end of the day,

we'll have finished all of our client work and

I'll be like Dave I'm wearing a dress let's go on a date.

And he'll be like no.

>> I'm just gonna do my [INAUDIBLE] terrible husband.

[LAUGH] But, I'm sure there are other people in the room that maybe have

different bets, that say man that sounds like the worst thing I have ever heard of.

I couldn't stand doing that.

But for me, I really love it.

And so I feel like we need to find those things in our life, that make us tick.

Heck I mean, in not even in just design, but in life in general.

But talking about design, we got to find those things that

we can really get in to and we're gonna fill our days with those things.

>> So the opposite of that, is what we were like a few years ago.

[LAUGH] So at the beginning of 2013, Dave and

I were like, let's quit our jobs, let's pursue the awesome freelance life.

You know, setting our own hours, getting our own clients,

being able to do whatever we want.

And so, we did that and we for some reason we ended up getting a ton of inquiries.

>> And this is long before the [UNKNOWN] so this is when we were young and

stupid like all of two years ago [LAUGH].

>> And so we, we said yes to all the inquiries-

>> Mm-hm.

>> Which ended up being quite a few different web projects and

for all of you who do web.

>> Projects you know that they take a long time to actually do.

>> Yeah.

>> So we gave short deadlines, no budgets, a lot of projects, and

then as well as that we had logos, branding, different illustration projects.

So, essentially we're just completely over capacity, and it was horrible.

>> Yeah.

>> So we would be working 17 hour days for couple of weeks at a time,

just to meeting client expectations and bearly doing that.

>> So it was, it was horrible, and it was hard work, but it was bad hard work.

>> Yeah. >> It wasn't the hard work that

we're talking about, that we should be pursuing.

So instead of thinking about what we actually wanted for

our business and what we actually wanted in life?

We were just going yeah, this means bringing in more money,

sending out invoices, bringing in clients.

Which- >> Yeah,

I guess we thought freelance life was all about, yeah.

>> And it, and it wasn't.

>> Yeah.

>> So when we finally came to our senses, we decided lets make a few changes.

And even though they were small changes, they were doable, and

they made a huge difference.

>> Mm-hm.

>> So one of the first things that we did was that we actually enforced office hours

which is kind of difficult when you're working from your dining table, but

it is possible.

>> Yeah.

>> And we did it.

So essentially what we did was we wrote.

Wrote an email signature that had our time zone that we were in,

because most of our clients were overseas.

>> Mm-hm.

>> And we also had our working hours.

So the clients could understand when there'd be a delay with emails.

>> Yeah.

>> We when we were able to, we moved.

Out of our dining table and into a designated work space which was really

great with that whole blur between work and life,

especially when you work from home.

And then lastly, we actually created a schedule that we stick by.

>> Yeah. >> And so I've got an example up here.

>> Did you want your little laser?

>> Nah I'm pretty good.

So we've got.

>> Whatever.

>> We've got our current clients at the top, so we know who we're working with.

As well as that down at the bottom we have our future clients and

we know what dates they're going to be implemented and

then we have a schedule that you can't really see.

But, essentially every day we have four slots.

One is for internal or personal projects.

And then the other three are for client, client projects.

So depending on their scope,

you can see like Westfield on Wednesday has two slots because it was a bigger job.

And with Lanky we only worked on them like one or two times per week.

But this way we were able to sustainably keep our workload well and

were able to be out of schedule accordingly.

>> And for a creative fluffhead like me this changed the game and

I know not every person can necessarily go out and find a wife or husband and

have them revitalized there working life, but it sure as heck is great for us.

Actually and that reminds some people have been asking us what it's like to be

married and in business.

And and even though today's talk doesn't necessarily cover that

in any huge amount of detail it is, it's awesome.

It's so good.

>> Pretty much what makes us work in marriage makes us work in business.

>> Yeah, yeah, so anyway that was a digression, but this, this stuff for

me as a creative that doesn't necessarily find it very easy to stay on track and

focus all the time.

Having just a visual reference just in front of me and

I know everyone works differently, but having a visual reference to fall back on.

Especially because we have a little whiteboard at home and we.

>> It's actually really neat.

>> Write this stuff up.

What we have to do is. >> It's like eight feet.

>> Yeah. >> Wide.

>> I mean I know Alt+Tab isn't hard but being able to turn your head and

just be able to look at something physical really helps.

>> Yeah. And I mean in saying all of this about

hard work and pursuing the things that you're really good at it you,

you do have do stuff that you're not exactly you know,

things that you find difficult >> Yeah.

>> Because often when you do this it means you're able

to work more efficiently and able to work harder at the things

you're really loving >> Yeah, so what we're basically

saying is that hard work shouldn't be hard work just for the sake of it.

We gotta work really smart.

The, the idea is not to just bash our head against walls, and

work, work our fingers to the bone just for the sake of it.

We wanna re, work being really smart.

And so for Laura and I we,

we prefer to work four hours of super highly concentrated effective work.

Then say eight hours of, you know, distracted sort of mediocre bloated work.

>> Hm.

>> So.

>> Let's talk a little bit about hard work and, talent.

I feel like this is something that gets talked about a little bit, and

there's a bit of contention surrounding it.

But I think that something we should really think about is the hard work

talent without hard work is essentially worthless.

So I know that this room contains a lot of talented people I understand that but

I think there's something personally for

me I find easy to think is man do I have enough talent?

Like was I born with that sort of magical amount 's gonna send me to the stars and

make me amazing?

And I think that sure talent has some worth But

if we're not working hard, it's, it's pointless.

It's, it's, it's not going to, talent's not going to make up the gap between

us and success, whatever success is.

You know, but it's all about hard work, that's what we should be concentrating on.

So, it's a really good quote from a guy called Kevin Durant.

And it says, I'm being funny, I know he's a basketball, I might be Australian, but

we at least know that [LAUGH] hard work beats talent when talent fails

to work hard.

So that's a good quote but this isn't basketball.

We're not basketballers we are designers.

And so it's not all about beating our fellow designers, that's something I

love about the design community is we actually really like each other.

We build each other up.

>> We're a community.

>> It's actually really lovely.

And so something you want to think about, is that,

designers tend to compare ourselves with other people.

I don't think there's anything wrong with, with looking up to our fellow designers,

and, and, I think it was, who was talking about it earlier?

Jen.

Jen was talking about over-glorifying our fellow designers, which was so good.

I enjoyed Jen's whole talk thoroughly.

And I think that was a really good point that we can't over sensationalize,

over glorify other designers.

And especially in terms of, the whole hard work and improvement type.

And I think personally that hard work equals important.

I think that, that's a safe thing to say.

So, if someone's been working for five years, if they've been working hard for

five years, then they have five years worth of improvement.

And so, if we've been working hard for say,

one year, to expect five years worth of improvement of ourselves is mental.

>> It's just stupid.

>> And we can just beat ourselves up about it.

And we're gonna be super bummed out and there'll be no point because, you know,

we haven't been working for five years.

>> So. >> It's as simple as that.

>> We have something called the finished product syndrome and

it's when one of our favorite artists post something up on Dribble or Twitter or

Instagram and it is just amazing.

And instead of encouraging them and looking at them and

being inspired by their work.

>> Yeah. >> To push ourselves harder,

to work hard and improve, we like look at it and be like, are you serious?

Like, how did you even do that?

>> We hate them for it.

We get frustrated.

>> Yeah and so that's a negative thing we shouldn't deflate ourselves by looking at

other work that might be better than ours.

Its great to use it to push ourselves but

if we just looking at it as a comparison than that's just unhealthy.

>> Yeah.

Yeah, so good work takes hard work, and hard work takes tenacity.

Which is a rather smooth segue to our next thought, which is tenacity.

And so, Laura take it away.

>> So I feel like tenacity is one of those words that is often like,

replaced with hardwork or perseverance or whatever.

But tenacity has it's own meaning, it's own characteristics.

And we think that it's really powerful.

So we really wanted to look at it's meanings and

how we can apply it to our lives.

So the dictionary defines tenacity as holding

firm perseverance, determination, being stubborn and

I really believe that tenacity is the strength of your character.

So it's the thing that allows you to push for the things that you really want.

It allows you to fight against resistance.

And it allows you to work.

It gives you the push to work hard on the things that you love.

>> Yeah, so there's a really good quote by a dude called Kevin or

Calvin Coolidge and I know it's a bit long but I wrote it out.

Nothing in this world can take the place of being tenacious.

Talent will not.

Nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.

Genius will not, unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.

Education will not, the world is full of educated derelicts.

Tenacity and determination alone are omnipotent.

The slogan press on has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

That's a pretty epic quote and that's a big call but I agree with him.

I think that tenacity's so important.

And Sir Calvin mentioned pressing on there.

And I think that is an imperative skill to have or

character trait to have as a designer.

I think if we wanted to see improvement in ourselves, and

we're willing to put in that hard that we've been talking about before.

Then sooner or later, we're gonna meet something that we considered to be

the enemy of tenacity, which is resistance.

And resistance sucks.

And like, we all encounter resistance all the time in our day to day, but

it's real hard.

And something big,

a big part of resistance I think is a lack of self belief.

>> Yeah. >> And so this is, this is a thing for me.

If I, if I've been doing a, working on a project and it's going amazingly.

And I'm just firing out firing ideas out like it's going out of fashion and I'm

just killing a project, I feel so elated, it's like a high, it's like a drug for me.

I mean, I'm sure it's the same for you guys.

It's this amazing feeling to be killing a design.

But conversely, if I'm doing badly in design,

I cannot separate the design from my own self.

So my soul just shatters on the ground.

>> So, seriously, I'll be working and I'll like look over and

Dave's got his face on and I'm like oh, man, let's go over and hug Dave.

Let's make him feel better.

>> Pick me up and [INAUDIBLE] all the pieces of me in this shattered gooey mess.

I'm sure you guys experienced that too.

And so I'm- >> While we're being

honest- >> Yeah.

>> Sometimes the last thing that I feel like doing is actually getting better.

So instead of, you know, getting into a skill share, or looking at YouTube

tutorials, or actually just getting out a pencil and paper and sketching.

I'll just hop into bed, open Netflix, and just binge on chocolate.

>> [LAUGH] She really does.

But that's okay.

There's nothing wrong with that stuff.

Obviously we're not saying, you're not allowed to have any fun.

You just have to design and be good at it.

There is something really powerful about taking breaks, but I think we need to

make sure that we're not allowing those, those things to distract us.

And to, to sorta overpower the amount of work that we're doing.

We need to, like we where talking about before, like with the workouts,

we need to have clear boundaries, or it's, we're gonna risk having our tenacity

killed, by allowing ourselves to be distracted.

>> Hm >> So, I think one of the things I've

learned over the years, is that no matter how, sort of, difficult and

impossible a certain point in, in a design project might feel, if you're willing to

stick it out and to kind of push through, then there is a solution that emerges.

Nine times slash ten times out of ten you can do it.

>> And I think just on that, I feel like that sounds like a really glorified thing.

It's all really well and good for us to be like, yeah, just push on.

You can do it. >> [LAUGH]

>> Whoo-hoo!

>> [LAUGH] >> But

it also doesn't really sound practical.

But for us what often works is actually removing ourselves from the situation.

If you've for a crap sketch on the piece of paper.

>> Yeah. >> If you're, like,

sick of looking at the screen, then, like, move away from that.

Take a break.

>> Yeah. >> And the tenacity comes in.

>> Go outside or something.

>> When you actually come back to your sketch.

And when you come back to the computer and you go, you know what?

I'm gonna give it another go.

And even if it's as bad as it was when you've just done it You still did it.

>> Yeah.

>> You still went back to the paper and you still went back to the computer and

that is tenacity and that is powerful.

>> Yeah. >> So while we're in, so for those of you

who don't know, we've been in the U.S. for four months, so we just spent.

>> Shout out to Dave and Ellie Keller.

>> Woo-hoo. >> Dave is here tonight, today.

>> So we stayed in Anderson with Dave and Ellie Keller and while we're there,

we attended New Spring Church.

So if you guys are looking for a really killer podcast or sermon to watch you have

to check them out because Peri Noble their like main person is amazing.

He's the most challenging speaker we have ever listened to.

And recently he was talking about a concept which we decided to steal because

it felt so relevant to us so we're not going to talk about it in a relationship

In our relation to our relationship with God but in relation to design.

And that is that being passive does not equal progress.

So here we are, we've all got il, like skills, whether that's in illustration,

lettering, coding, development, design, whatever it is.

But if we decide to be passive with that, then the days and the months and

the years are going to get by and we're not actually going to progress.

We're gonna be the same with the same skills.

And you know what?

That's okay.

Like a lot of people are okay with that.

They're okay with staying the same.

But if you're not okay with that and you want to progress,

then you have to be proactive.

>> Listen to my wife.

She knows what she's talking about.

>> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] So, there is something I wanna,

also wanna cover, as well, and that is being proactive, and that equals progress.

So the mayor himself, Bob Ewing, I feel like he's the poster child for tenacity.

Has anyone, has anyone heard of his #lettering project?

It is just phenomenal.

So, a few weeks ago, he closed it up.

But Bob produced a piece of lettering every single day without fail for

534 days.

Is that right, Bob, if he's in here?

>> Yeah! >> That is phenomenal.

Give the brother a hand.

>> [APPLAUSE] >> That is something for

Laura and I that just inspires the heck out of us.

I made for a really good point for tenacity.

Thank you, Bob.

>> [LAUGH].

And so we just wanted to flip through a couple pieces of Bob's work while Laura

keeps talking.

[CROSSTALK] Just to really embarrass him,

just to see the progression as he got better and better.

>> So like, he wasn't bad when he started.

Obviously he could've improved and he did and

the whole thing was that he progressed and improved and became a better designer.

And I think looking at this,

it's really awesome to see I was looking back at a traditional art form.

So, today, everything is served up to us at lightning speed,

we've got fast food everywhere.

We've got the internet.

We've got Photoshop actions.

I can't believe what Lenny said about there not being layers in Photoshop,

I don't know how I would have survived.

>> [LAUGH] >> Yeah, so everything is just so quick,

whereas when we look at lettering It's a traditional art form.

There's, there's no just like, I'm gonna produce a piece of lettering and

overnight, I'm gonna be amazing.

You have to do it day by day- >> Yeah.

>> By day.

And you have to progress.

>> Hm. >> You have to have the tenacity and

the hard work to be able to progress like Bob did.

>> Yeah. >> And

I think that that then goes beyond just what your designs,

design taste in your eyes like, but it goes into what your character is.

Because you need to be, you need the tenacity in the maturity to go,

you know, I'm gonna invest the time to become a better designer.

>> Yeah.

So, if you need tenacity to your hard work,

you need passion to yield tenacity to to drive your tenacity.

So in your heads with me go back to high school, think of your most,

that might be a less pleasant experience from some of you than others,

I know I was bit of a dork when I was at school so it's not a fantastic memory but

think about your most hated subject.

For me personally it was math >> [UNKNOWN]

>> Can you resonate with that?

May as well >> [APPLAUSE]

>> Yes [LAUGH].

Thanks for the clap dude so [UNKNOWN] I couldn't say it, I just sat in class and

doodles and chatted with my mate and didn't listen at all.

>> And while Dave was doodling and

drawing I was holding hands with boys under the table.

[UNKNOWN] I was the biggest flirt in high school.

>> Nice. >> Liked them I just held their hands.

>> Confessions of Laura Coleman, well I wasn't holding anybody's hands but

I definitely wasn't listening [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH]

>> And so about [UNKNOWN] we didn't have

a choice in the matter we're high school students all right?

We just had to sit there, sit down, shut up and

suck it up, well not suck it up we just have to listen and be there.

And so when we left high school, what'd we do?

Maybe some of us went to uni and did further study, right?

And at least that was a bit better.

At least we got to choose subjects and things like that.

But I'm sure you all had classes that you didn't want to be at and

professors you didn't want to listen to.

Yeah?

>> So the thing that's really cool about today

in Creative South is that we're all here.

And not only are we listening to like, one lecture.

We're listen to three whole days of lectures.

>> Yeah. >> We're all sitting here voluntarily

learning things.

And not only are we here voluntarily, we've all put in a bunch of time, effort,

and money to be here.

Which is awesome and I'm gonna say that's because you guys love

design >> Yup.

>> And I'm gonna take it further to say that you guys are passionate about design.

>> Would you agree with that?

>> [NOISE] >> And I just think it's awesome we're all

here like, this is our first design conference we've ever been to.

>> Yeah. >> And we're just so

honored that we get to be here to be in community with you guys,

talk about design, talk about the things that we love.

>> Yeah.

And that we actually ho to do design itself, it's awesome.

>> It knocks our socks off.

[LAUGH] >> Yeah.

So if we, if we need passion,

to fuel our tenacity then we need to be well stocked in our passion.

>> Yeah. >> But

the difficult thing is is what if we don't actually know what our passion is?

I mean creativity and design itself takes so many forms that it's so

difficult to even know what your options are.

So for, for those of you, I mean, I feel like everyone knows Dave.

And he's been on the design scene for, for quite a while.

But I'm pretty, I'm still a newbie, and so

I feel like a lot of you wouldn't really know who I am or my story.

So a quick recap.

I didn't do anything with design.

I've studied development studies and Hispanic studies at university.

So my whole degree was economics, political relations,

international relations.

All of that boring stuff.

And I really, I really didn't like it.

But the degree gave us the opportunity to move to Spain

where I was teaching English in a Spanish high school.

And for me, I loved that because I was able to use my Spanish in a creative way,

so I felt creative but I wasn't feeling creatively fulfilled.

I knew I wanted to do something with my hands, I just didn't know what that was.

So Dave and I would go, we'd sit at the park and we'd sort of go,

what, what can I do?

>> [LAUGH] >> What's something creative?

>> We'd rattle off,

off a list of things that Laura might be able to apply her hands to, yeah.

>> Ceramics, or knitting, or painting, or what have you.

And, all of them sounded really cool.

But, I didn't really get a spot from any of them.

And, so, after the talk,

we'd always go back to our apartment and they would be continuing on with work.

And, so, I'd help them out by preparing files, and photoshopping them.

Which is like the lowliest, of lowliest things that you can be doing.

Like, who wants to- >> Always sent to the worst jobs,

the poor thing.

[LAUGH] And even though it was like the crappiest of crappy jobs,

I absolutely loved it.

>> Yeah. She really did. >> Like,

opening up Photoshop was my favorite part of the day.

>> I've never seen someone have so

much fun saving her like Facebook profile pictures, or Twitter.

Twitter color photos, or whatever it is.

>> Yeah. And so

like maybe design could be something that I'm passionate about, as well.

>> Mm.

So I feel like, for

Laura, her passions were kind of elusive, finding them was a bit difficult.

But I don't think there's anything wrong with that,

and I feel like that's probably maybe the same with a lot of you guys.

And that's just kind of one of the things I think with the,

one of the complexities of having a creative job is.

Sometimes those passions aren't always immediately presented to us,

but that's not a bad thing.

I think that, if nothing else let's sort of make,

make ourselves be passionate about finding the things we actually enjoy.

You know, and make that the thing that we're chasing so hard on.

You know, I feel like Steve Jobs put it really well when he said the following,

you've got to find what you love.

And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers.

Your work is gonna fill a large part of your life, and

the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.

And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.

And if you haven't found it yet, keep looking.

Don't settle.

>> Mm, I love that. >> That was a switched on man, isn't it?

So without finding that passion, without finding those things you wanna do,

you have no reason to do anything.

You just kinda sit there like like a worm, and, and be really worn out, and, and

not know what you're about.

So something we wanted to, you know,

kinda think about is the fact that look where we are.

Like Laura said before, we're sitting in a room full of incredible people.

If you don't know what your passions are, just nudge the person next you,

maybe not now cuz we're talking and you gotta listen, but later on.

Grab someone and talk to them and, and just ask them, the, you know,

ask them what their passions are and just kind of, as Mike would say, hug necks.

Just interact.

The design community is incredible in the respect that everyone actually looks out

for each other.

It's amazing.

>> So I know we don't have a lot of time.

>> Mm. >> But this is something that we find

really important, so I, I did want to bring it up.

And it really plays in with the passion in our lives.

So something that we've found, a couple of years ago that has really changed the way

that we do life, business, and marriage, is the idea of values.

So has anyone heard of a values based approach to life?

No?

Oh, a few people, that's awesome!

So, essentially, it's really simple.

It is finding out what is meaningful or valuable in your life and

then making sure that that is present in your life.

So I mean that can take so many forms.

For us just so like, because I know that sounds so wishy washy, some ideas

of like different values might be health, family, financial security, fun, freedom.

>> Actual real life stuff.

It's not sort of- >> Creativity, love.

>> Yeah.

>> And so for us, our four most important values are love, creativity, fun,

and adventure.

>> Yeah. >> So instead of having these questions

like should we move overseas?

Should we be in the US for this amount of time?

Should we take on this client, or should we drop them?

Et cetera.

Instead of them being really difficult questions, we were able to quickly,

like, well, how do they align with our values?

>> Yeah. >> Are our values being met if we take

this decision, and it completely changed the way that we did business, and

the way that we did life.

>> Yep, [UNKNOWN], not yet, [LAUGH] getting too excited.

Now we are starting to run out of time, but

this is one last thing that we wanted to share with you guys.

And that is the question of where it is that we as designers and

people, cause they're actually different things.

[LAUGH] Where do we draw our worth from?

Cause, I feel like that's, that's a conversation that Laura and I often have.

And we'd love to have it with you guys, whether it's talking now, or later,

cause we feel like that's an important one to have.

I feel like sometimes for us, in Australia, we feel very isolated.

Not that were going, oh, we're so isolated, woe is us.

But it's a much, well I was gonna say it's much smaller, it's actually not,

Australia, I don't know if you knew this but

Australia is just as big as North America.

If you- >> No it's, no it's not as big as America,

as like, the US, it's- >> Geographically I am hopeless,

[LAUGH] >> Laurie does all

the directions everywhere we go.

[LAUGH] >> But we,

we've only got like 23 million people in our country, so

we have a lot less people and that means a lot less designers.

>> Yeah. >> So we can feel really isolated, but

we also know that you guys >> Being in the U.S.,

even if you have ten designers in your town, you can feel isolated.

>> Yeah.

>> But anyway we sorta segued down,

I think that as as designers we have this sorta condition almost where,

it's very difficult to separate who we are as people from who we are as designers.

Because I feel like someone that comes with a territory as being a designer,

is that it's just oh, no, I feel like there's it's kind of just so

entrenched in who you are.

It's very personality based, career I guess.

I feel like, like we were saying before.

For me, when, when a project goes well, I'm happy day.

When a project goes badly, I'm get away from me Dave, you're annoying me,

cause you're so sad.

You know what I mean?

And so I feel like, it's important to know where our worth is being drawn from,

because it's so easy to draw our worth from the wrong places.

>> So I guess we just want to say that who you guys are as a person

is where your work is.

You're not defined by your work.

So, you are defined by who you are, your kindness, your generosity, your,

the way that you react with your friends and your family and your loved ones.

And that's, like, the most wonderful thing ever.

And, if you If you don't use that and

utilize that in your work, then your work is gonna become hallow.

And if you think that the work is the way that you guys get your work,

then its not gonna be great work.

>> Yeah, I feel like sometimes we maybe I don't, I'm now just go ahead and

say it, I think as designers,

when you get of perspective, >> If there was to be some sort of zombie

apocalypse, if we were living in the Walking Dead,

I feel like the designers would be the first to go.

>> [LAUGH] >> I mean,

we're not stitching legs back on guys.

We're not, you know, we're not sort of like protecting people from,

from certain death or anything like that.

We're designing pretty things and that's awesome but we gotta remember that

ultimately, our job, while important, and I'm not downplaying it.

We gotta get some perspective.

Where we're drawing our worth from is super important and we can't draw it from,

from other people's work and we can't even draw it from our work,

because ultimately first we're people and then we're designers and

I think that's an important thing to remember.

>> Yeah, and I think it's important to remember who you are as a person

because that is what makes your work unique when you are designing.

Full of who you are and of your character, then your work is really unique and

it brings out your in character, and that's what people love.

>> Yeah. >> So I guess, at the end of the day,

we're not saying let's be the Coleman's.

Everyone needs to be the Coleman's.

>> [LAUGH] >> Or everyone needs to be Leslie.

No. We're just saying, be who you guys are.

Embrace that, and use that to create the best work that you have,

that you can, and you know, find your passions and

use the passion to- >> Be tenacious.

>> Yeah, tenacity.

>> Yeah.

>> And your hard work.

>> And that's about all we've got time for.

>> Yeah >> [APPLAUSE]

>> [APPLAUSE] So

we have, we have one minute.

>> So we've got, we each have one minute.

Does anyone have any questions for me, or Laura, for both of us?

>> Yep.

>> Hi. >> Hello.

>> [UNKNOWN] >> Let's sit down.

Yea, we can.

>> Yeah.

>> [UNKNOWN] >> [INAUDIBLE]

we figure out a way

>> I'm really glad you said that so for

anyone that didn't hear.

You go.

>> You go.

>> So, she was saying that, we said before about how in this apocalypse situation,

we would be the first to go.

And maybe I was hasty in saying that.

Sorry what's your name?

>> Hiva, Hiva so I'm not very good at saying it, but I'll learn it.

Hiva was saying that we wouldn't be the first to go.

We're creative problem solvers and so

even if most of the time in this non-zombie apocalypse situation we're

wielding pens and being sedentary and sitting at our desks.

Yeah, you're probably right.

I reckon we might bust out of ourselves and, and

find a new way to be creative with other objects like guns and knives.

>> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] So, we have 20 seconds.

>> Yeah. [LAUGH]

>> Anyone else?

>> Yeah.

>> [INAUDIBLE]

>> Yeah.

[INAUDIBLE]

>> Yeah.

>> [INAUDIBLE]

Yeah-

>> Okay, so she said,

what do we do when things aren't going right with our own designer.

Our sketches are went, just not in the right mind.

>> And also maybe even more specific than what you're saying there.

You might be having perhaps a great day.

And then some of you might work in an agency, which Lori and I don't, so

we can't relate directly, but

you might be working in an agency and someone comes in a flurry of papers.

Guys, oh, this bad thing is happening and you're responsible and

I'm gonna ruin your day.

>> So. >> They're not saying that, but

it means that.

I feel like, this, I don't know if you'd be on to do this because you're in

an agency, but us we have the freedom of owning our own business.

One of the biggest things for us is that we move away from that project.

So for us that often means going on a walk, we go outside.

We get out of the environment that we're in.

>> Yeah. >> Or out of the environment that.

>> Was negatively affecting us, so

either that's like moving away from where she is or whatever.

It could even mean like turning on some really inspiring music, or whatever,

but the biggest thing for us is that we actually-

>> That change of pace, right?

>> Yeah. >> Yeah.

>> A change of pace.

>> Mm. >> Not looking at the same thing, and

then ten minutes later, coming back to it.

>> Yeah, I don't know if that helps [INAUDIBLE].

>> Yeah.

>> It's probably one of many things you could do, I guess.

>> Yeah. >> Throwing something out there

>> [LAUGH]

>> Might get you fired [LAUGH]

>> Anyone else?

Or do we have time guys, or?

One more? One more.

We've got the one more signal.

>> Yeah.

[INAUDIBLE] >> So what are some

American foods that we can't understand >> Well, it's grits, but grits is kind

of yummy, so that one doesn't count >> I, I find American food, like weird, so

you guys like, you guys like sweet things and salty like kettle corn.

>> Savory yeah. >> And like maple sausage and chicken and

waffles.

>> Guys chill out stop mixing everything together.

>> I'm like.

>> [LAUGH] >> I'm like keep your savory,

savory and your sweet, sweet.

>> Yeah. >> That's like my main thing.

>> Us Australians are pretty simple beings just give us some fricking damper or

something.

>> And you guys all put like, if you're gonna have a salad, I'm like awesome.

Salad. Veggies.

That's awesome, but like seriously, most of the salads that I get.

>> [LAUGH] Yeah.

>> Are just like covered, like not just a sprinkling, but.

>> Yeah. >> Covered in cheese.

And I'm like.

>> Yeah. >> Cheese is not a vegetable.

>> [LAUGH] >> Snap.

>> So.

>> And so on that note I think we probably have to go.

[LAUGH] >> Yeah.

It was lovely.