2008 has been an eventful year for you. Yup, you read right, for you. It was a year that saw your investments plummet, and a year that promised you “change”. Change can be good, change can be bad. But change was definitely in the air this year for you.

I suggest that 2008 was the year that big became uncool. Big loans, big debts, big car companies, big wars and big promises. All blew up big and showed us that we need to change our way of thinking. No more spending more than our means and living the big American dream. Maybe the problem was scale. If we thought small, if we cared about the little guy and the little things, we may not be in the big mess that we seem to be in? Maybe we could have set up schools to teach something useful to a group of 20 kids at a time, rather than map out how to spend billions of dollars to conquer countries and seize the big oil?

I am going to, narcissistically, use DesignStamp as an example of why I have always thought that small is better than big. Here are top reasons why:

1. Small and focused = not being anything like the BIG 3. And that’s a good thing.
2. Smaller hierarchical overhead means, we react faster, and create solutions that best meet market and client needs.
3. Our greatest strength is to keep our focus on what we do best. To bring 3 sometimes seemingly contrary worlds together and have them build the same thing: brand, business and technology. Technology simply provides the tools for us to translate business goals and create better experiences that build strong brands.
4. We use fewer resources by not having a big office to maintain and virtualize how we work. We pass that benefit to our clients through reduced costs. We also drive less. Really. We are the masters of modern communication and work with people around the world efficiently and effectively. Our productivity and miles-driven ratio, we hope, is inspiring for other businesses.
5. We spend more time in discovery than we do in execution. Smarter initial questions asked means we spend less in overall budget than large production teams that just build what business owners think is required. Our small team model demands shorter production cycles as do our clients budgets.
6. Our bottom-line effects each of us personally. We are all invested in building a profitable, sustainable business. The level of care is reflected in the work we do. If it won’t look good in our portfolio, we won’t do it.
7. Flexibility is the requirement in this economy. We have always valued that in how we approach projects. Whether it is the size of the team assigned to our project, or the technology we use, we are not married to any particular format/platform, if it is not right for you. Our process has flexibility built right into it.
8. We are not anonymous, we do good work by being personally accountable and maintaining a positive attitude. This creates strong constructive relationships between us and our clients. Most of our clients come back to us for projects, which means we develop a shorthand with them that is invaluable.
9. We partner with our clients. We don’t work as external agencies to just deliver the goods asked of them. We function as partners who can validate business goals with audience adoption and technical constraints.
10. We love challenges and constraints. Designers are trained to not just accept boundaries and limitations, but prove value within them. Designers of buildings and furniture work within the constraints of gravity and space to provide excellent solutions. We do the same within the limitations such as pre-defined budgets of time and costs.

So I suggest that if you are focusing on the right thing you have nothing to fear. Fear is self-perpetuating and only leads to more of itself. Positivity breeds positivity. We value clients who remain positive in challenging times, and we do our best to bring a level of fun to every project.

Our focus is to remain small, and steadfast in what we do, and how we do it. We wish you a fulfilling 2009 in which you see small things bring disproportionate happiness to you!

So what does it mean to me to be good? I am not sure as yet, but here are a few words that come to mind. I told myself that I won’t spend hours and hours on this blog and write from the heart and not the head. So here goes in no particular order:

• Respect. Yup that word again. I believe in this so much that I chide myself when I don’t follow the mantra. It helps me see things more objectively.
• Curious. To want to learn more because I owe it to my craft to be ‘good’ and more importantly, to always be searching for the ‘better’ way to solve problems.
• Caring. From telling someone that their shirt’s tag is showing to giving a team member timely feedback, it is important to “see” people and demonstrate that noticing and acknowledging behavior and yes, even appearances.
• Educate. This I need to do more. I strongly believe that through education you can positively change a life, and this planet’s course is via education. That is why I teach, and if I ever accumulated wealth, that is what I would want to do with my money. Facilitate learning.
• Question. If I want to improve how things are, and make them how they ought to be, I need to remember to think outside the construct and question status quo.
• Happy. If I am happy, I do better work, and I am good to those around me. I owe others to be happy, so I should take the time to do things that make me happy.
• Travel. What better way to appreciate different cultures and ways of living than to see the world. My work, my attitude to people who are different than me is informed by what I think I know about them. I don’t understand how traveling can not be a priority. It’s mine.
• Give. I need to do more of this. But related to “Educate”, for me giving people money or the basics for living (food, shelter) is not the most productive way to change their life for the better. You have to empower people to be able to make choices, to see the world for what it can be for them, and a way out of where they may be stuck. (Gawd, I sound like a preacher, but I have a story that is too long to type, so ask me and I’ll tell you)
• Voice. If you don’t got one, you ain’t going to be able to change nuthin’. If it’s good, than I need to be able to talk about it, start discussions and challenge others to follow. So it’s important to have a clear message about that good thing, and a voice that can be heard.
• Relate. Even if you have to fake it for a bit, you should try and see the other point of view and ‘relate’. World politics could be very different if we stopped trying to vilify nations and whole continents. How about just trying to relate with those people? Why are they hating us so much, and what did we do to make them feel this way?
• Humility. My mamma taught me this. To do good, to be good, and want good things for those around me, I must remember that I am not the best. I am only one person trying to become better because it’s my obligation to do so. Ego is destructive and I am a designer because I want to be constructive.

So there you go, a blog post more for me than you, but I hope that it will ignite a desire in someone, somewhere to not just do, but think a bit about what they do, how they do it, and why they do it.

Hi I’m Gagan Diesh and I am one of the instructors that tormented and tortured your loved ones over the last few months.

DD04 like every class before them has gone through hell and back in 48 short weeks. Their days have blended into nights; their weeks have been a whirlwind of assignments, deliverables and designs. So on behalf of DD04, I would like to thank the mums and dads, boyfriends and girlfriends, friends and for allowing [names withheld to respect privacy], to disappear for the last year. So thank you family, thank you friends.

The point is that the Digital Design program is a lot of hard work and you have survived it, so congrats. You have made it to the finish line!

When I heard that I was invited to speak at tonight’s grad, I really had to think about what I had left to say to you guys. I just hosted that Freelancing workshop last week and had shared my advice about work and ethics then. And I got the opportunity to work with each of you individually and collectively throughout the year, so what was left to say?

So… instead of just my words to you, I thought I would use the words of some mighty people that inspire me and keep me going.

I had a monumental idea this morning, but I didn’t like it.
— Samuel Goldwyn

“The details are not the details. They make the design.”
—Charles Eames

“Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated.”
—Paul Rand

Dare to be naive.
— R. Buckminster Fuller

…it’s very easy to be different, but very difficult to be better.
— Jonathan Ive

Common sense is not so common.
— Voltaire

If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.
— Red Adair

Why am I telling you all this?

I just to remind you of the responsibility that sits on your shoulders. You now have the power to change the world that we live in.

We have entered the age of design where everyone has the tools available to them to design things. Whether it is a webpage or the architecture of a house. Everyone can design if they choose to do so. Design is now the property and prerogative of everyone. Design is now in the hand of the masses and in that lays great opportunity and danger. We see the world becoming a homogenous mass of sameness. The culture of Wal-Mart and the Gap leads to the horrible blandness of dressing the same, listening to the same music, on the same mp3 player and holding the same idols up as our heroes. Sure everyone can self-publish their life but they are choosing to tell their life through mass produced generic templates. Everyone can take millions of photos but do people think about what they want to say before they take a photo anymore? Everyone can exercise their right to vote and choose their leaders but are they really thinking about their choices or choosing the one that says the things that are easiest to understand.

You are the expert and you can make this world a better place to live in. We have given up on politician and celebrities to affect change. You are the chosen ones who can make things work; You can design things that are incredibly simple or beautiful. You have to help people find things they don’t even know they need, yet. Invent and Innovate.

So as you step in the real world just remember that it is full of choices. You had only a few choices at VFS and there was only one main highway that lead you to this place today. But life is not like that. You have many forks and decision points ahead of you. You have a few battles ahead, and success is not graded equally for all. You need to define your own futures and decide what success will mean to you personally. But don’t wait to make the right decision, to take the right path—just don’t wait. Just do. Really, action is better than waiting. You have prepared for 48 weeks and you are now ready to take flight.

I just hope that whatever you do, you will do with your own individual style. Don’t look to fit in but create your own niche. Don’t obey but shout out your point of view. Don’t go to the big design party that everyone is going to, but throw your own.

I fear sameness as much as I do beige. Imitation is a great start but that’s not where you want to end up. And if you imitate, I hope you’d look to imitate the work of giants who came before you, not the person who is sitting to the right or left of you. If your work is to be informed by things that you know, you should probably be on a quest to know more, learn more. Be curious, be inquisitive, and be darn right nosy. You can become one of many or you can be one of the few. The choice is yours.

All this said, I hope you are inspired by your own abilities and I want you to know that I am looking forward to continuing to work with most of you. Welcome to world of being a professional designer. Before I let you off to go and change the world I would like you to stand up and take the designer oath with me. Face the audience, they are part of the big group of people you will design for in the future. So speak to them directly and say after me…

The Designer Oath:

I will design for you. I will use my powers for good. I will be your advocate. I will make work that matters. I will try and improve our lives. I will have the courage to lead. And I will have the flexibility to follow. I will listen to both my heart and mind. In short, I will kick ass! Peace out.