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A Chat with the Colemans
38:16 with Dave Coleman and Laura ColemanAustralian Designers, Dave Coleman and Laura Coleman, invite you to try something new with your designs.
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[MUSIC]
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[APPLAUSE].
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Hey guys >> Hello.
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>> How are ya.
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I'm Dave and this is Laura.
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>> I'm Laura, nice to meet you all.
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>> How is Creative South been for you guys?
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[APPLAUSE] Yes!
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>> Yeah, nice!
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>> That's some energy!
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I have no idea if there's people up in the balcony, but hi guys!
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I can see all your Apple logos.
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Just lots of little Apple logos shining out.
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>> Yeah >> [LAUGH] Repping the max, nice work.
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Well guys, we wanna rip right into it.
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But, we have something we wanted to do first.
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>> So, what we need, is we need five volunteers just to quickly come up
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to the front of the stage.
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So, really, really quickly, doesn't matter just come up,
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you don't need to put your hand up five people.
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>> First in, best served.
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>> So we got one, two, three.
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>> A spoon for you, and we can't have any more than five.
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>> Four, five.
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>> Well [LAUGH] >> Oh yeah.
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This is great.
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>> Sorry for the people that didn't make it.
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You poor things. >> No.
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>> I feel like we could have had a better system there, but that's okay.
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All right. You need a spoon for you.
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All right?
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>> Spoon for you. >> Is it ice cream?
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>> It's definitely not ice cream.
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>> [LAUGH] You already [UNKNOWN] I think some of you might have realized
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that we're not from America, can anyone guess where we're from?
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>> Very good, we get a lot of is is England are we from South Africa?
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[LAUGH] But we're having veggie mite.
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Now I wish we could, [NOISE] initially the plan [INAUDIBLE] and
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that's why we didn't tell you before you came up.
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[LAUGH] So initially we kinda wanna to make some veggie mite sandwiches for
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you all, any of you heard of men at work I come from a land down under.
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And the Vegemite sandwich reference?
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This is what's happening right now except without the sandwich part.
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>> So, I'm gonna yeah, can I have your spoon and I'll?
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>> You can. Can I have the spoon?
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>> I know this has nothing to do with design, but bear with us.
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>> Okay, so.
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Laura and I we're commiserating with each other before, and
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we're thinking how big a bite should we make them that.
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And it's just kind of midway, if it's between a 0 and ten,
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it's maybe hovering at about a six of veggie might units.
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>> [LAUGH] So if you guys want, you can all dig in!
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>> Should be count them down from five.
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Five, four, three, two, one.
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Go [LAUGH].
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This is the, [LAUGH].
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This is an Australian's favorite pastime.
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You think it's riding Kangaroos and stuff, but it's this.
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[LAUGH] It's coming to America and forcing our local foods on people.
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[LAUGH] What's the report guys?
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[LAUGH] I wish we had a mic, so we could report back.
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>> [LAUGH] Oh.
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>> So essentially for those of you >> It does get worse.
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>> It does get worse.
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>> Who haven't eaten it, it's it's literally yeast extract.
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>> Which is- >> So it's just.
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>> Just as horrible as it sounds if you haven't grown up eating it.
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[LAUGH] >> It's just really salty but it's-
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>> Salty goodness.
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>> All right, give them a hand.
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[APPLAUSE] Very good guys!
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Good sports. Thanks so much, [LAUGH].
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>> It was like eating beef bouillon.
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>> [LAUGH] We really should have thought of a back up plan of giving them mints, or
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something to cleanse with.
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Thanks for taking care of that.
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[BLANK_AUDIO]
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>> Thank you sir.
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All righty.
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>> Okay so.
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>> Thanks for bearing with us with that,
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we just had to impose that upon you guys [LAUGH].
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>> Yeah, so for those of you who don't know who we are, I'm Laura and
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as Dave said, he's Dave.
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>> Good.
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>> And we own the Australian Graphics Supply Co.
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So, The Australian Graphic Supply Co, our mission statement is to constantly create
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at the highest standard, whilst aiming to inspire and
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equip others to do the same >> So,
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we started the agency about a year ago.
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We actually just had our one year anniversary, but we were so
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busy with American creative [UNKNOWN] and all that sort of things,
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we kinda glossed over the anniversary, but that's okay.
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So as Justin said, we mainly do lettering, and things like that, lettering and
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typography, and we sort of started to experiment with some illustration,
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some print work.
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I love web design.
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But, I guess we- >> I don't.
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>> Yeah, right.
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I tried to teach [UNKNOWN] at one point.
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She's like stuff this.
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I guess it's a personality type thing.
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But I'm we're in this point,
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we're kind of trying to figure out what we wanna to focus on.
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>> And I feel like that's probably a topic for another talk.
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But, we'll get there.
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>> Yeah, so I guess we wanted to say that, basically,
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to premise the talk by saying that we're by no means experts.
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So we didn't wanna come up here today and tell you how to do x, y,
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and z, and have, how to be the best of whatever.
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>> Yeah, we're still babes in design.
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We're still- >> Yeah.
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We're- >> We're still just very young.
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>> We're right at the very beginning [LAUGH]
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>> Of our adventure.
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>> Yeah. >> As designers.
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>> Yeah.
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>> And so, basically we wanted to come up and share our hearts with you,
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where we're at at the moment, where we're.
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What we're feeling and- >> Yeah.
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>> Everything like that, hopefully just to encourage you.
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>> Like you say, this is just the chat with Laura and Dave.
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And I mean, I was thinking, should we let people, like, call out things and
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questions while we're talking?
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Let's not do that, it's probably not practical,
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but we'll definitely have questions at the end, so let's do that then.
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But for this talk, we're not gonna get heaps technical.
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So we, we we're thinking initially when we're talking about the talk,
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we were like should we talk bezier, should we talk logos and letter forms and
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all that sort of thing, and we love that stuff.
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But, we also wanted to try and encourage and, and challenge you guys and
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considering we've got 30 minutes left we're not gonna be able to do both of
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them, so we're just gonna work on encouraging you guys and
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hopefully challenging you.
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>> Okay, so do you guys all know about Parks & Recreation?
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>> Yeah!
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>> Yeah.
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>> Yes. It is our favorite show in the world.
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>> Do you all love it?
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So for us, it's one of our favorite shows.
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And, we actually only just recently discovered it, a few months ago.
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>> This is because were Australian, and there is, what's it called?
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The demographical discrimination.
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>> Oh yeah, it's like, geographical discrimination.
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>> Yeah, we get things, like, two years after you guys, seriously.
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I know were far away.
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But, it's not like things get shipped to us by the sea.
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We're in the digital age, it's ridiculous.
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[LAUGH] But anyway, we love it.
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>> Anyway, we love parks and recreation, and the main reason why we love parks and
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recreation is because of Leslie Knope.
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>> Yes.
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>> So, Leslie Knope is, she's just amazing.
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She is pretty much the, the best at her job.
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She's the most passionate person and we just love her.
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So- >> If I could be
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Leslie I'd be Leslie [UNKNOWN] in a heartbeat.
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>> So, when we were trying to figure out what we wanted to talk to you guys about
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today we kept coming back to parks and recreation, and
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we kept on coming back to Leslie [UNKNOWN].
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And so, we essentially decided we wanted to talk to you about three
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different characteristics that we think make up a really great designer, and
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just a great person in general.
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So these were all stolen from Leslie Nope.
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>> Thanks Leslie, all right so, we wanted to start off talking about hard work.
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Now I feel like saying if you tell someone to work hard it's a bit like saying don't
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drive your car into a river, or don't pour hot coffee on someone's face.
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We know that we're meant to work hard, that's a given, that's
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not hard to work out, but I think that it's kinda easier said than done, right?
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It's, telling someone to work hard is, isn't as simple as just going, work hard,
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and then they suddenly, magically work hard.
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And I think part of the problem with that, is that hard is a relative term.
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So, for me personally, I, there's something I really love, and you may or
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may not know this about me, but I love vectoring things.
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And I think there's probably a lot of you in this room that can relate to that.
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There is something really- >> It's like understatement of the year.
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>> It's my jam. Oh man I love it.
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[LAUGH] There's something super cathartic about taking a really clean sketch of some
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lettering or something like that and and taking it into glyph.
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If so, illustrator whatever your weapon of choice, and
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just pushing those handles around and going to town.
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I really love it, and I could spend hours doing it and I-
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>> Like it'll be the end of the day,
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we'll have finished all of our client work and
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I'll be like Dave I'm wearing a dress let's go on a date.
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And he'll be like no.
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>> I'm just gonna do my [INAUDIBLE] terrible husband.
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[LAUGH] But, I'm sure there are other people in the room that maybe have
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different bets, that say man that sounds like the worst thing I have ever heard of.
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I couldn't stand doing that.
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But for me, I really love it.
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And so I feel like we need to find those things in our life, that make us tick.
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Heck I mean, in not even in just design, but in life in general.
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But talking about design, we got to find those things that
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we can really get in to and we're gonna fill our days with those things.
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>> So the opposite of that, is what we were like a few years ago.
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[LAUGH] So at the beginning of 2013, Dave and
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I were like, let's quit our jobs, let's pursue the awesome freelance life.
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You know, setting our own hours, getting our own clients,
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being able to do whatever we want.
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And so, we did that and we for some reason we ended up getting a ton of inquiries.
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>> And this is long before the [UNKNOWN] so this is when we were young and
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stupid like all of two years ago [LAUGH].
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>> And so we, we said yes to all the inquiries-
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>> Mm-hm.
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>> Which ended up being quite a few different web projects and
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for all of you who do web.
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>> Projects you know that they take a long time to actually do.
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>> Yeah.
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>> So we gave short deadlines, no budgets, a lot of projects, and
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then as well as that we had logos, branding, different illustration projects.
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So, essentially we're just completely over capacity, and it was horrible.
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>> Yeah.
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>> So we would be working 17 hour days for couple of weeks at a time,
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just to meeting client expectations and bearly doing that.
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>> So it was, it was horrible, and it was hard work, but it was bad hard work.
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>> Yeah. >> It wasn't the hard work that
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we're talking about, that we should be pursuing.
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So instead of thinking about what we actually wanted for
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our business and what we actually wanted in life?
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We were just going yeah, this means bringing in more money,
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sending out invoices, bringing in clients.
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Which- >> Yeah,
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I guess we thought freelance life was all about, yeah.
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>> And it, and it wasn't.
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>> Yeah.
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>> So when we finally came to our senses, we decided lets make a few changes.
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And even though they were small changes, they were doable, and
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they made a huge difference.
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>> Mm-hm.
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>> So one of the first things that we did was that we actually enforced office hours
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which is kind of difficult when you're working from your dining table, but
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it is possible.
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>> Yeah.
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>> And we did it.
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So essentially what we did was we wrote.
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Wrote an email signature that had our time zone that we were in,
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because most of our clients were overseas.
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>> Mm-hm.
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>> And we also had our working hours.
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So the clients could understand when there'd be a delay with emails.
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>> Yeah.
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>> We when we were able to, we moved.
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Out of our dining table and into a designated work space which was really
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great with that whole blur between work and life,
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especially when you work from home.
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And then lastly, we actually created a schedule that we stick by.
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>> Yeah. >> And so I've got an example up here.
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>> Did you want your little laser?
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>> Nah I'm pretty good.
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So we've got.
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>> Whatever.
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>> We've got our current clients at the top, so we know who we're working with.
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As well as that down at the bottom we have our future clients and
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we know what dates they're going to be implemented and
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then we have a schedule that you can't really see.
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But, essentially every day we have four slots.
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One is for internal or personal projects.
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And then the other three are for client, client projects.
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So depending on their scope,
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you can see like Westfield on Wednesday has two slots because it was a bigger job.
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And with Lanky we only worked on them like one or two times per week.
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But this way we were able to sustainably keep our workload well and
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were able to be out of schedule accordingly.
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>> And for a creative fluffhead like me this changed the game and
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I know not every person can necessarily go out and find a wife or husband and
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have them revitalized there working life, but it sure as heck is great for us.
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Actually and that reminds some people have been asking us what it's like to be
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married and in business.
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And and even though today's talk doesn't necessarily cover that
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in any huge amount of detail it is, it's awesome.
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It's so good.
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>> Pretty much what makes us work in marriage makes us work in business.
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>> Yeah, yeah, so anyway that was a digression, but this, this stuff for
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me as a creative that doesn't necessarily find it very easy to stay on track and
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focus all the time.
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Having just a visual reference just in front of me and
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I know everyone works differently, but having a visual reference to fall back on.
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Especially because we have a little whiteboard at home and we.
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>> It's actually really neat.
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>> Write this stuff up.
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What we have to do is. >> It's like eight feet.
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>> Yeah. >> Wide.
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>> I mean I know Alt+Tab isn't hard but being able to turn your head and
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just be able to look at something physical really helps.
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>> Yeah. And I mean in saying all of this about
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hard work and pursuing the things that you're really good at it you,
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you do have do stuff that you're not exactly you know,
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things that you find difficult >> Yeah.
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>> Because often when you do this it means you're able
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to work more efficiently and able to work harder at the things
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you're really loving >> Yeah, so what we're basically
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saying is that hard work shouldn't be hard work just for the sake of it.
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We gotta work really smart.
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The, the idea is not to just bash our head against walls, and
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work, work our fingers to the bone just for the sake of it.
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We wanna re, work being really smart.
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And so for Laura and I we,
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we prefer to work four hours of super highly concentrated effective work.
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Then say eight hours of, you know, distracted sort of mediocre bloated work.
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>> Hm.
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>> So.
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>> Let's talk a little bit about hard work and, talent.
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I feel like this is something that gets talked about a little bit, and
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there's a bit of contention surrounding it.
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But I think that something we should really think about is the hard work
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talent without hard work is essentially worthless.
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So I know that this room contains a lot of talented people I understand that but
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I think there's something personally for
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me I find easy to think is man do I have enough talent?
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Like was I born with that sort of magical amount 's gonna send me to the stars and
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make me amazing?
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And I think that sure talent has some worth But
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if we're not working hard, it's, it's pointless.
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It's, it's, it's not going to, talent's not going to make up the gap between
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us and success, whatever success is.
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You know, but it's all about hard work, that's what we should be concentrating on.
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So, it's a really good quote from a guy called Kevin Durant.
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And it says, I'm being funny, I know he's a basketball, I might be Australian, but
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we at least know that [LAUGH] hard work beats talent when talent fails
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to work hard.
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So that's a good quote but this isn't basketball.
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We're not basketballers we are designers.
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And so it's not all about beating our fellow designers, that's something I
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love about the design community is we actually really like each other.
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We build each other up.
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>> We're a community.
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>> It's actually really lovely.
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And so something you want to think about, is that,
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designers tend to compare ourselves with other people.
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I don't think there's anything wrong with, with looking up to our fellow designers,
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and, and, I think it was, who was talking about it earlier?
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Jen.
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Jen was talking about over-glorifying our fellow designers, which was so good.
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I enjoyed Jen's whole talk thoroughly.
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And I think that was a really good point that we can't over sensationalize,
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over glorify other designers.
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And especially in terms of, the whole hard work and improvement type.
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And I think personally that hard work equals important.
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I think that, that's a safe thing to say.
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So, if someone's been working for five years, if they've been working hard for
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five years, then they have five years worth of improvement.
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And so, if we've been working hard for say,
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one year, to expect five years worth of improvement of ourselves is mental.
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>> It's just stupid.
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>> And we can just beat ourselves up about it.
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And we're gonna be super bummed out and there'll be no point because, you know,
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we haven't been working for five years.
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>> So. >> It's as simple as that.
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>> We have something called the finished product syndrome and
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it's when one of our favorite artists post something up on Dribble or Twitter or
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Instagram and it is just amazing.
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And instead of encouraging them and looking at them and
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being inspired by their work.
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>> Yeah. >> To push ourselves harder,
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to work hard and improve, we like look at it and be like, are you serious?
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Like, how did you even do that?
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>> We hate them for it.
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We get frustrated.
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>> Yeah and so that's a negative thing we shouldn't deflate ourselves by looking at
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other work that might be better than ours.
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Its great to use it to push ourselves but
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if we just looking at it as a comparison than that's just unhealthy.
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>> Yeah.
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Yeah, so good work takes hard work, and hard work takes tenacity.
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Which is a rather smooth segue to our next thought, which is tenacity.
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And so, Laura take it away.
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>> So I feel like tenacity is one of those words that is often like,
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replaced with hardwork or perseverance or whatever.
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But tenacity has it's own meaning, it's own characteristics.
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And we think that it's really powerful.
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15:54
So we really wanted to look at it's meanings and
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how we can apply it to our lives.
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15:58
So the dictionary defines tenacity as holding
-
16:03
firm perseverance, determination, being stubborn and
-
16:08
I really believe that tenacity is the strength of your character.
-
16:12
So it's the thing that allows you to push for the things that you really want.
-
16:16
It allows you to fight against resistance.
-
16:18
And it allows you to work.
-
16:20
It gives you the push to work hard on the things that you love.
-
16:23
>> Yeah, so there's a really good quote by a dude called Kevin or
-
16:27
Calvin Coolidge and I know it's a bit long but I wrote it out.
-
16:31
Nothing in this world can take the place of being tenacious.
-
16:34
Talent will not.
-
16:35
Nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.
-
16:39
Genius will not, unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
-
16:42
Education will not, the world is full of educated derelicts.
-
16:47
Tenacity and determination alone are omnipotent.
-
16:51
The slogan press on has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
-
16:56
That's a pretty epic quote and that's a big call but I agree with him.
-
16:59
I think that tenacity's so important.
-
17:01
And Sir Calvin mentioned pressing on there.
-
17:03
And I think that is an imperative skill to have or
-
17:08
character trait to have as a designer.
-
17:11
I think if we wanted to see improvement in ourselves, and
-
17:14
we're willing to put in that hard that we've been talking about before.
-
17:17
Then sooner or later, we're gonna meet something that we considered to be
-
17:20
the enemy of tenacity, which is resistance.
-
17:24
And resistance sucks.
-
17:26
And like, we all encounter resistance all the time in our day to day, but
-
17:29
it's real hard.
-
17:30
And something big,
-
17:31
a big part of resistance I think is a lack of self belief.
-
17:34
>> Yeah. >> And so this is, this is a thing for me.
-
17:38
If I, if I've been doing a, working on a project and it's going amazingly.
-
17:42
And I'm just firing out firing ideas out like it's going out of fashion and I'm
-
17:47
just killing a project, I feel so elated, it's like a high, it's like a drug for me.
-
17:50
I mean, I'm sure it's the same for you guys.
-
17:52
It's this amazing feeling to be killing a design.
-
17:55
But conversely, if I'm doing badly in design,
-
17:58
I cannot separate the design from my own self.
-
18:02
So my soul just shatters on the ground.
-
18:04
>> So, seriously, I'll be working and I'll like look over and
-
18:07
Dave's got his face on and I'm like oh, man, let's go over and hug Dave.
-
18:12
Let's make him feel better.
-
18:13
>> Pick me up and [INAUDIBLE] all the pieces of me in this shattered gooey mess.
-
18:16
I'm sure you guys experienced that too.
-
18:19
And so I'm- >> While we're being
-
18:20
honest- >> Yeah.
-
18:21
>> Sometimes the last thing that I feel like doing is actually getting better.
-
18:26
So instead of, you know, getting into a skill share, or looking at YouTube
-
18:30
tutorials, or actually just getting out a pencil and paper and sketching.
-
18:35
I'll just hop into bed, open Netflix, and just binge on chocolate.
-
18:40
>> [LAUGH] She really does.
-
18:41
But that's okay.
-
18:42
There's nothing wrong with that stuff.
-
18:44
Obviously we're not saying, you're not allowed to have any fun.
-
18:45
You just have to design and be good at it.
-
18:47
There is something really powerful about taking breaks, but I think we need to
-
18:51
make sure that we're not allowing those, those things to distract us.
-
18:55
And to, to sorta overpower the amount of work that we're doing.
-
18:58
We need to, like we where talking about before, like with the workouts,
-
19:01
we need to have clear boundaries, or it's, we're gonna risk having our tenacity
-
19:04
killed, by allowing ourselves to be distracted.
-
19:06
>> Hm >> So, I think one of the things I've
-
19:09
learned over the years, is that no matter how, sort of, difficult and
-
19:14
impossible a certain point in, in a design project might feel, if you're willing to
-
19:20
stick it out and to kind of push through, then there is a solution that emerges.
-
19:25
Nine times slash ten times out of ten you can do it.
-
19:28
>> And I think just on that, I feel like that sounds like a really glorified thing.
-
19:33
It's all really well and good for us to be like, yeah, just push on.
-
19:35
You can do it. >> [LAUGH]
-
19:36
>> Whoo-hoo!
-
19:37
>> [LAUGH] >> But
-
19:38
it also doesn't really sound practical.
-
19:40
But for us what often works is actually removing ourselves from the situation.
-
19:43
If you've for a crap sketch on the piece of paper.
-
19:46
>> Yeah. >> If you're, like,
-
19:47
sick of looking at the screen, then, like, move away from that.
-
19:49
Take a break.
-
19:50
>> Yeah. >> And the tenacity comes in.
-
19:51
>> Go outside or something.
-
19:52
>> When you actually come back to your sketch.
-
19:55
And when you come back to the computer and you go, you know what?
-
19:57
I'm gonna give it another go.
-
19:58
And even if it's as bad as it was when you've just done it You still did it.
-
20:03
>> Yeah.
-
20:03
>> You still went back to the paper and you still went back to the computer and
-
20:07
that is tenacity and that is powerful.
-
20:10
>> Yeah. >> So while we're in, so for those of you
-
20:13
who don't know, we've been in the U.S. for four months, so we just spent.
-
20:16
>> Shout out to Dave and Ellie Keller.
-
20:17
>> Woo-hoo. >> Dave is here tonight, today.
-
20:19
>> So we stayed in Anderson with Dave and Ellie Keller and while we're there,
-
20:23
we attended New Spring Church.
-
20:25
So if you guys are looking for a really killer podcast or sermon to watch you have
-
20:29
to check them out because Peri Noble their like main person is amazing.
-
20:33
He's the most challenging speaker we have ever listened to.
-
20:36
And recently he was talking about a concept which we decided to steal because
-
20:41
it felt so relevant to us so we're not going to talk about it in a relationship
-
20:46
In our relation to our relationship with God but in relation to design.
-
20:52
And that is that being passive does not equal progress.
-
20:57
So here we are, we've all got il, like skills, whether that's in illustration,
-
21:01
lettering, coding, development, design, whatever it is.
-
21:04
But if we decide to be passive with that, then the days and the months and
-
21:08
the years are going to get by and we're not actually going to progress.
-
21:12
We're gonna be the same with the same skills.
-
21:14
And you know what?
-
21:15
That's okay.
-
21:16
Like a lot of people are okay with that.
-
21:18
They're okay with staying the same.
-
21:20
But if you're not okay with that and you want to progress,
-
21:23
then you have to be proactive.
-
21:26
>> Listen to my wife.
-
21:27
She knows what she's talking about.
-
21:29
>> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] So, there is something I wanna,
-
21:32
also wanna cover, as well, and that is being proactive, and that equals progress.
-
21:36
So the mayor himself, Bob Ewing, I feel like he's the poster child for tenacity.
-
21:41
Has anyone, has anyone heard of his #lettering project?
-
21:44
It is just phenomenal.
-
21:45
So, a few weeks ago, he closed it up.
-
21:48
But Bob produced a piece of lettering every single day without fail for
-
21:52
534 days.
-
21:53
Is that right, Bob, if he's in here?
-
21:55
>> Yeah! >> That is phenomenal.
-
21:57
Give the brother a hand.
-
21:58
>> [APPLAUSE] >> That is something for
-
22:03
Laura and I that just inspires the heck out of us.
-
22:06
I made for a really good point for tenacity.
-
22:08
Thank you, Bob.
-
22:08
>> [LAUGH].
-
22:09
And so we just wanted to flip through a couple pieces of Bob's work while Laura
-
22:12
keeps talking.
-
22:13
[CROSSTALK] Just to really embarrass him,
-
22:15
just to see the progression as he got better and better.
-
22:18
>> So like, he wasn't bad when he started.
-
22:20
Obviously he could've improved and he did and
-
22:22
the whole thing was that he progressed and improved and became a better designer.
-
22:26
And I think looking at this,
-
22:28
it's really awesome to see I was looking back at a traditional art form.
-
22:33
So, today, everything is served up to us at lightning speed,
-
22:36
we've got fast food everywhere.
-
22:37
We've got the internet.
-
22:39
We've got Photoshop actions.
-
22:40
I can't believe what Lenny said about there not being layers in Photoshop,
-
22:43
I don't know how I would have survived.
-
22:45
>> [LAUGH] >> Yeah, so everything is just so quick,
-
22:48
whereas when we look at lettering It's a traditional art form.
-
22:52
There's, there's no just like, I'm gonna produce a piece of lettering and
-
22:56
overnight, I'm gonna be amazing.
-
22:57
You have to do it day by day- >> Yeah.
-
23:00
>> By day.
-
23:00
And you have to progress.
-
23:01
>> Hm. >> You have to have the tenacity and
-
23:03
the hard work to be able to progress like Bob did.
-
23:08
>> Yeah. >> And
-
23:08
I think that that then goes beyond just what your designs,
-
23:11
design taste in your eyes like, but it goes into what your character is.
-
23:16
Because you need to be, you need the tenacity in the maturity to go,
-
23:20
you know, I'm gonna invest the time to become a better designer.
-
23:24
>> Yeah.
-
23:24
So, if you need tenacity to your hard work,
-
23:28
you need passion to yield tenacity to to drive your tenacity.
-
23:34
So in your heads with me go back to high school, think of your most,
-
23:37
that might be a less pleasant experience from some of you than others,
-
23:41
I know I was bit of a dork when I was at school so it's not a fantastic memory but
-
23:46
think about your most hated subject.
-
23:48
For me personally it was math >> [UNKNOWN]
-
23:50
>> Can you resonate with that?
-
23:51
May as well >> [APPLAUSE]
-
23:52
>> Yes [LAUGH].
-
23:53
Thanks for the clap dude so [UNKNOWN] I couldn't say it, I just sat in class and
-
23:57
doodles and chatted with my mate and didn't listen at all.
-
24:00
>> And while Dave was doodling and
-
24:02
drawing I was holding hands with boys under the table.
-
24:05
[UNKNOWN] I was the biggest flirt in high school.
-
24:11
>> Nice. >> Liked them I just held their hands.
-
24:12
>> Confessions of Laura Coleman, well I wasn't holding anybody's hands but
-
24:15
I definitely wasn't listening [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH]
-
24:17
>> And so about [UNKNOWN] we didn't have
-
24:19
a choice in the matter we're high school students all right?
-
24:23
We just had to sit there, sit down, shut up and
-
24:26
suck it up, well not suck it up we just have to listen and be there.
-
24:29
And so when we left high school, what'd we do?
-
24:31
Maybe some of us went to uni and did further study, right?
-
24:33
And at least that was a bit better.
-
24:34
At least we got to choose subjects and things like that.
-
24:37
But I'm sure you all had classes that you didn't want to be at and
-
24:39
professors you didn't want to listen to.
-
24:40
Yeah?
-
24:41
>> So the thing that's really cool about today
-
24:44
in Creative South is that we're all here.
-
24:46
And not only are we listening to like, one lecture.
-
24:49
We're listen to three whole days of lectures.
-
24:52
>> Yeah. >> We're all sitting here voluntarily
-
24:54
learning things.
-
24:55
And not only are we here voluntarily, we've all put in a bunch of time, effort,
-
24:59
and money to be here.
-
25:00
Which is awesome and I'm gonna say that's because you guys love
-
25:04
design >> Yup.
-
25:04
>> And I'm gonna take it further to say that you guys are passionate about design.
-
25:08
>> Would you agree with that?
-
25:08
>> [NOISE] >> And I just think it's awesome we're all
-
25:11
here like, this is our first design conference we've ever been to.
-
25:14
>> Yeah. >> And we're just so
-
25:15
honored that we get to be here to be in community with you guys,
-
25:18
talk about design, talk about the things that we love.
-
25:21
>> Yeah.
-
25:22
And that we actually ho to do design itself, it's awesome.
-
25:24
>> It knocks our socks off.
-
25:25
[LAUGH] >> Yeah.
-
25:26
So if we, if we need passion,
-
25:29
to fuel our tenacity then we need to be well stocked in our passion.
-
25:34
>> Yeah. >> But
-
25:34
the difficult thing is is what if we don't actually know what our passion is?
-
25:39
I mean creativity and design itself takes so many forms that it's so
-
25:43
difficult to even know what your options are.
-
25:46
So for, for those of you, I mean, I feel like everyone knows Dave.
-
25:50
And he's been on the design scene for, for quite a while.
-
25:53
But I'm pretty, I'm still a newbie, and so
-
25:56
I feel like a lot of you wouldn't really know who I am or my story.
-
25:59
So a quick recap.
-
26:02
I didn't do anything with design.
-
26:03
I've studied development studies and Hispanic studies at university.
-
26:07
So my whole degree was economics, political relations,
-
26:11
international relations.
-
26:13
All of that boring stuff.
-
26:14
And I really, I really didn't like it.
-
26:16
But the degree gave us the opportunity to move to Spain
-
26:20
where I was teaching English in a Spanish high school.
-
26:23
And for me, I loved that because I was able to use my Spanish in a creative way,
-
26:27
so I felt creative but I wasn't feeling creatively fulfilled.
-
26:31
I knew I wanted to do something with my hands, I just didn't know what that was.
-
26:35
So Dave and I would go, we'd sit at the park and we'd sort of go,
-
26:38
what, what can I do?
-
26:39
>> [LAUGH] >> What's something creative?
-
26:40
>> We'd rattle off,
-
26:41
off a list of things that Laura might be able to apply her hands to, yeah.
-
26:45
>> Ceramics, or knitting, or painting, or what have you.
-
26:47
And, all of them sounded really cool.
-
26:49
But, I didn't really get a spot from any of them.
-
26:51
And, so, after the talk,
-
26:53
we'd always go back to our apartment and they would be continuing on with work.
-
26:57
And, so, I'd help them out by preparing files, and photoshopping them.
-
27:01
Which is like the lowliest, of lowliest things that you can be doing.
-
27:04
Like, who wants to- >> Always sent to the worst jobs,
-
27:06
the poor thing.
-
27:07
[LAUGH] And even though it was like the crappiest of crappy jobs,
-
27:11
I absolutely loved it.
-
27:12
>> Yeah. She really did. >> Like,
-
27:13
opening up Photoshop was my favorite part of the day.
-
27:16
>> I've never seen someone have so
-
27:17
much fun saving her like Facebook profile pictures, or Twitter.
-
27:19
Twitter color photos, or whatever it is.
-
27:21
>> Yeah. And so
-
27:21
like maybe design could be something that I'm passionate about, as well.
-
27:25
>> Mm.
-
27:26
So I feel like, for
-
27:26
Laura, her passions were kind of elusive, finding them was a bit difficult.
-
27:30
But I don't think there's anything wrong with that,
-
27:32
and I feel like that's probably maybe the same with a lot of you guys.
-
27:35
And that's just kind of one of the things I think with the,
-
27:38
one of the complexities of having a creative job is.
-
27:41
Sometimes those passions aren't always immediately presented to us,
-
27:44
but that's not a bad thing.
-
27:46
I think that, if nothing else let's sort of make,
-
27:49
make ourselves be passionate about finding the things we actually enjoy.
-
27:52
You know, and make that the thing that we're chasing so hard on.
-
27:55
You know, I feel like Steve Jobs put it really well when he said the following,
-
28:01
you've got to find what you love.
-
28:03
And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers.
-
28:06
Your work is gonna fill a large part of your life, and
-
28:09
the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.
-
28:14
And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.
-
28:17
And if you haven't found it yet, keep looking.
-
28:19
Don't settle.
-
28:20
>> Mm, I love that. >> That was a switched on man, isn't it?
-
28:24
So without finding that passion, without finding those things you wanna do,
-
28:27
you have no reason to do anything.
-
28:28
You just kinda sit there like like a worm, and, and be really worn out, and, and
-
28:33
not know what you're about.
-
28:35
So something we wanted to, you know,
-
28:36
kinda think about is the fact that look where we are.
-
28:38
Like Laura said before, we're sitting in a room full of incredible people.
-
28:41
If you don't know what your passions are, just nudge the person next you,
-
28:45
maybe not now cuz we're talking and you gotta listen, but later on.
-
28:48
Grab someone and talk to them and, and just ask them, the, you know,
-
28:51
ask them what their passions are and just kind of, as Mike would say, hug necks.
-
28:55
Just interact.
-
28:56
The design community is incredible in the respect that everyone actually looks out
-
29:00
for each other.
-
29:01
It's amazing.
-
29:02
>> So I know we don't have a lot of time.
-
29:04
>> Mm. >> But this is something that we find
-
29:05
really important, so I, I did want to bring it up.
-
29:08
And it really plays in with the passion in our lives.
-
29:11
So something that we've found, a couple of years ago that has really changed the way
-
29:15
that we do life, business, and marriage, is the idea of values.
-
29:18
So has anyone heard of a values based approach to life?
-
29:22
No?
-
29:24
Oh, a few people, that's awesome!
-
29:26
So, essentially, it's really simple.
-
29:28
It is finding out what is meaningful or valuable in your life and
-
29:32
then making sure that that is present in your life.
-
29:36
So I mean that can take so many forms.
-
29:37
For us just so like, because I know that sounds so wishy washy, some ideas
-
29:42
of like different values might be health, family, financial security, fun, freedom.
-
29:49
>> Actual real life stuff.
-
29:50
It's not sort of- >> Creativity, love.
-
29:51
>> Yeah.
-
29:52
>> And so for us, our four most important values are love, creativity, fun,
-
29:57
and adventure.
-
29:58
>> Yeah. >> So instead of having these questions
-
30:00
like should we move overseas?
-
30:02
Should we be in the US for this amount of time?
-
30:05
Should we take on this client, or should we drop them?
-
30:08
Et cetera.
-
30:09
Instead of them being really difficult questions, we were able to quickly,
-
30:12
like, well, how do they align with our values?
-
30:15
>> Yeah. >> Are our values being met if we take
-
30:17
this decision, and it completely changed the way that we did business, and
-
30:21
the way that we did life.
-
30:22
>> Yep, [UNKNOWN], not yet, [LAUGH] getting too excited.
-
30:28
Now we are starting to run out of time, but
-
30:29
this is one last thing that we wanted to share with you guys.
-
30:32
And that is the question of where it is that we as designers and
-
30:36
people, cause they're actually different things.
-
30:38
[LAUGH] Where do we draw our worth from?
-
30:41
Cause, I feel like that's, that's a conversation that Laura and I often have.
-
30:45
And we'd love to have it with you guys, whether it's talking now, or later,
-
30:47
cause we feel like that's an important one to have.
-
30:50
I feel like sometimes for us, in Australia, we feel very isolated.
-
30:54
Not that were going, oh, we're so isolated, woe is us.
-
30:58
But it's a much, well I was gonna say it's much smaller, it's actually not,
-
31:02
Australia, I don't know if you knew this but
-
31:04
Australia is just as big as North America.
-
31:05
If you- >> No it's, no it's not as big as America,
-
31:07
as like, the US, it's- >> Geographically I am hopeless,
-
31:09
[LAUGH] >> Laurie does all
-
31:11
the directions everywhere we go.
-
31:12
[LAUGH] >> But we,
-
31:12
we've only got like 23 million people in our country, so
-
31:16
we have a lot less people and that means a lot less designers.
-
31:19
>> Yeah. >> So we can feel really isolated, but
-
31:21
we also know that you guys >> Being in the U.S.,
-
31:24
even if you have ten designers in your town, you can feel isolated.
-
31:27
>> Yeah.
-
31:29
>> But anyway we sorta segued down,
-
31:31
I think that as as designers we have this sorta condition almost where,
-
31:35
it's very difficult to separate who we are as people from who we are as designers.
-
31:40
Because I feel like someone that comes with a territory as being a designer,
-
31:43
is that it's just oh, no, I feel like there's it's kind of just so
-
31:47
entrenched in who you are.
-
31:48
It's very personality based, career I guess.
-
31:52
I feel like, like we were saying before.
-
31:53
For me, when, when a project goes well, I'm happy day.
-
31:55
When a project goes badly, I'm get away from me Dave, you're annoying me,
-
32:00
cause you're so sad.
-
32:01
You know what I mean?
-
32:02
And so I feel like, it's important to know where our worth is being drawn from,
-
32:08
because it's so easy to draw our worth from the wrong places.
-
32:11
>> So I guess we just want to say that who you guys are as a person
-
32:16
is where your work is.
-
32:18
You're not defined by your work.
-
32:21
So, you are defined by who you are, your kindness, your generosity, your,
-
32:26
the way that you react with your friends and your family and your loved ones.
-
32:30
And that's, like, the most wonderful thing ever.
-
32:33
And, if you If you don't use that and
-
32:36
utilize that in your work, then your work is gonna become hallow.
-
32:39
And if you think that the work is the way that you guys get your work,
-
32:43
then its not gonna be great work.
-
32:46
>> Yeah, I feel like sometimes we maybe I don't, I'm now just go ahead and
-
32:50
say it, I think as designers,
-
32:52
when you get of perspective, >> If there was to be some sort of zombie
-
32:55
apocalypse, if we were living in the Walking Dead,
-
32:57
I feel like the designers would be the first to go.
-
32:59
>> [LAUGH] >> I mean,
-
33:01
we're not stitching legs back on guys.
-
33:02
We're not, you know, we're not sort of like protecting people from,
-
33:06
from certain death or anything like that.
-
33:07
We're designing pretty things and that's awesome but we gotta remember that
-
33:10
ultimately, our job, while important, and I'm not downplaying it.
-
33:14
We gotta get some perspective.
-
33:16
Where we're drawing our worth from is super important and we can't draw it from,
-
33:20
from other people's work and we can't even draw it from our work,
-
33:23
because ultimately first we're people and then we're designers and
-
33:27
I think that's an important thing to remember.
-
33:29
>> Yeah, and I think it's important to remember who you are as a person
-
33:33
because that is what makes your work unique when you are designing.
-
33:37
Full of who you are and of your character, then your work is really unique and
-
33:42
it brings out your in character, and that's what people love.
-
33:45
>> Yeah. >> So I guess, at the end of the day,
-
33:46
we're not saying let's be the Coleman's.
-
33:49
Everyone needs to be the Coleman's.
-
33:50
>> [LAUGH] >> Or everyone needs to be Leslie.
-
33:52
No. We're just saying, be who you guys are.
-
33:55
Embrace that, and use that to create the best work that you have,
-
34:00
that you can, and you know, find your passions and
-
34:04
use the passion to- >> Be tenacious.
-
34:06
>> Yeah, tenacity.
-
34:07
>> Yeah.
-
34:08
>> And your hard work.
-
34:09
>> And that's about all we've got time for.
-
34:12
>> Yeah >> [APPLAUSE]
-
34:17
>> [APPLAUSE] So
-
34:18
we have, we have one minute.
-
34:21
>> So we've got, we each have one minute.
-
34:22
Does anyone have any questions for me, or Laura, for both of us?
-
34:24
>> Yep.
-
34:25
>> Hi. >> Hello.
-
34:26
>> [UNKNOWN] >> Let's sit down.
-
34:31
Yea, we can.
-
34:32
>> Yeah.
-
34:33
>> [UNKNOWN] >> [INAUDIBLE]
-
34:37
we figure out a way
-
34:42
>> I'm really glad you said that so for
-
34:43
anyone that didn't hear.
-
34:43
You go.
-
34:44
>> You go.
-
34:48
>> So, she was saying that, we said before about how in this apocalypse situation,
-
34:53
we would be the first to go.
-
34:55
And maybe I was hasty in saying that.
-
34:57
Sorry what's your name?
-
34:59
>> Hiva, Hiva so I'm not very good at saying it, but I'll learn it.
-
35:04
Hiva was saying that we wouldn't be the first to go.
-
35:06
We're creative problem solvers and so
-
35:07
even if most of the time in this non-zombie apocalypse situation we're
-
35:12
wielding pens and being sedentary and sitting at our desks.
-
35:15
Yeah, you're probably right.
-
35:16
I reckon we might bust out of ourselves and, and
-
35:19
find a new way to be creative with other objects like guns and knives.
-
35:23
>> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] So, we have 20 seconds.
-
35:25
>> Yeah. [LAUGH]
-
35:26
>> Anyone else?
-
35:26
>> Yeah.
-
35:27
>> [INAUDIBLE]
-
35:36
>> Yeah.
-
35:37
[INAUDIBLE]
-
35:43
>> Yeah.
-
35:44
>> [INAUDIBLE]
-
35:47
Yeah-
-
35:50
>> Okay, so she said,
-
35:51
what do we do when things aren't going right with our own designer.
-
35:54
Our sketches are went, just not in the right mind.
-
35:56
>> And also maybe even more specific than what you're saying there.
-
35:59
You might be having perhaps a great day.
-
36:00
And then some of you might work in an agency, which Lori and I don't, so
-
36:03
we can't relate directly, but
-
36:04
you might be working in an agency and someone comes in a flurry of papers.
-
36:08
Guys, oh, this bad thing is happening and you're responsible and
-
36:11
I'm gonna ruin your day.
-
36:12
>> So. >> They're not saying that, but
-
36:13
it means that.
-
36:14
I feel like, this, I don't know if you'd be on to do this because you're in
-
36:19
an agency, but us we have the freedom of owning our own business.
-
36:22
One of the biggest things for us is that we move away from that project.
-
36:28
So for us that often means going on a walk, we go outside.
-
36:31
We get out of the environment that we're in.
-
36:32
>> Yeah. >> Or out of the environment that.
-
36:35
>> Was negatively affecting us, so
-
36:37
either that's like moving away from where she is or whatever.
-
36:40
It could even mean like turning on some really inspiring music, or whatever,
-
36:45
but the biggest thing for us is that we actually-
-
36:47
>> That change of pace, right?
-
36:48
>> Yeah. >> Yeah.
-
36:49
>> A change of pace.
-
36:49
>> Mm. >> Not looking at the same thing, and
-
36:51
then ten minutes later, coming back to it.
-
36:53
>> Yeah, I don't know if that helps [INAUDIBLE].
-
36:55
>> Yeah.
-
36:57
>> It's probably one of many things you could do, I guess.
-
36:59
>> Yeah. >> Throwing something out there
-
37:00
>> [LAUGH]
-
37:01
>> Might get you fired [LAUGH]
-
37:02
>> Anyone else?
-
37:03
Or do we have time guys, or?
-
37:05
One more? One more.
-
37:07
We've got the one more signal.
-
37:09
>> Yeah.
-
37:10
[INAUDIBLE] >> So what are some
-
37:16
American foods that we can't understand >> Well, it's grits, but grits is kind
-
37:19
of yummy, so that one doesn't count >> I, I find American food, like weird, so
-
37:23
you guys like, you guys like sweet things and salty like kettle corn.
-
37:28
>> Savory yeah. >> And like maple sausage and chicken and
-
37:31
waffles.
-
37:32
>> Guys chill out stop mixing everything together.
-
37:36
>> I'm like.
-
37:36
>> [LAUGH] >> I'm like keep your savory,
-
37:41
savory and your sweet, sweet.
-
37:42
>> Yeah. >> That's like my main thing.
-
37:44
>> Us Australians are pretty simple beings just give us some fricking damper or
-
37:47
something.
-
37:48
>> And you guys all put like, if you're gonna have a salad, I'm like awesome.
-
37:52
Salad. Veggies.
-
37:54
That's awesome, but like seriously, most of the salads that I get.
-
37:57
>> [LAUGH] Yeah.
-
37:58
>> Are just like covered, like not just a sprinkling, but.
-
38:01
>> Yeah. >> Covered in cheese.
-
38:03
And I'm like.
-
38:04
>> Yeah. >> Cheese is not a vegetable.
-
38:05
>> [LAUGH] >> Snap.
-
38:09
>> So.
-
38:09
>> And so on that note I think we probably have to go.
-
38:11
[LAUGH] >> Yeah.
-
38:12
It was lovely.
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