Things I know. And things I don't know.

Sometimes I'm a quick study and sometimes I'm not.

Just last night I figured out something about this business that I should have understood years ago. Other things I figured out pretty quickly. And still other things I will never know.

For example.

When it comes to naming things , I have just realized that as often as not (perhaps even more often than not) our job is to come up with a bunch of things that the client won't like as much as the one they came up with. This also sometimes applies to things like logos.

Also, the more senior someone is in a company, the more certain they are that they can do anything. An executive vice president who starts to tinker with a logo design, for example.

Often pressed for time means you have to hurry. Not a client necessarily. Get us those headlines and design options now since we're in a big hurry, but I'm taking a long weekend for Labor Day and will get back to you sometime after that. But of course, I won't tell you that I'll be gone until you bust your ass to get the work when I wanted it and you get an out-of-the-office bounceback in reply.

People don't always understand why we are in this business. I mean, we do like it and we do it because we enjoy it, but that doesn't mean we're not trying to make a living here. This comes up whenever someone says "but if you want to think about some ideas or designs we'd love to see them." Of course you would.