Category: 3 Big Ideas for designers, retailers and entrepreneurs.
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Developing a Strategic plan as an Artist or Designer
You finally graduated or you just celebrate a decade in the field. Now what? It’s time to sit and plan. Yes, Plan. It’s not a scary option. It’s just a way to have a roadmap. After all, you don’t drive around aimlessly. Right? In 1999, after 8 years from undergrad and 5 from grad school,…
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Fear: artist’s and designer’s paralysis
When I was an Associate Chair of Product Design at Parsons from 2000 to 2006, it often amazed me how many students I would talk with about fear and give them this simple comment: Take a risk, life is too short. Mark Twain said “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things…
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The Connection of Life’s Calling/Work and Personal Mission
by Atim Annette Oton One of the first series of exercises I give when I counsel artists and designers is about the essence of who they are. I speak to them about how their work is not only connected to their self but the state of who they were when they dreamed of what they…
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Artists and Designers are in Mid Life Crisis
by Atim Annette Oton Michael J Fox aptly warns,“However well you plan out your life, whatever courses you take, whatever degrees you get, your life is really going to get most interesting when it goes off the rails.” I remember when I actually had a mid-life crisis. I had just graduated from college, returned from…
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Inspiration: The Spice of Life’s Work
by Atim Annette Oton “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” – Mark Twain There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a…
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Short and Long Term Planning Strategies: Using Time, Space and Action
I was trained as an architect, so I understand short and long term planning strategies. I lived it as a student and joined the profession to be fully immersed in it. Moving into academia brought the same challenges: How does one plan for today (the now) and tomorrow (the future)? If that was not enough,…
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Another 3 Big Ideas for designers, retailers and entrepreneurs. Networking: Old Fashion, Strategic Tactics and User-Friendly
Years ago, a friend of mine called me a “master networker”. I laughed because she was not far from the truth. I could be one. I talk to strangers and get to know them anywhere. I am a big people person and in reality, years ago, I was even more so. Now, I have slowed…
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3 Big Ideas for Designers, Retailers and Entrepreneurs: Dynamic Thinking, Risk Taking and Growing Your Business
by Atim Annette Oton The last year has been phenomenal for some designers, retailers and entrepreneurs. I know, I have been working in that space and seeing the real deal of what it takes to be in it, maintain and grow. Yet a good number of designers, retailers and entrepreneurs, I have been watching, have…
