Six Questions from Kicker: Jared Benson

Jared Benson is a specialist in mobile UI design and interaction design. Jared is a founder and the Executive Creative Director at Punchcut, helping their clients envision and create next-generation interfaces. Jared also founded the acclaimed typography community, Typophile, and serves on FontShop’s type selection board. He has designed interfaces for brands like Qualcomm, ESPN, Kodak, Sun and MediaFlo. He’s also speaking at tomorrow’s Device Design Day. We asked him our Six Questions.

1. What is the most cherished product in your life? Why?
There are a handful of products that I use on a daily basis that enrich my life; however I’ll share about a product that still has the power to stop me in my tracks whenever I encounter one. When I was an early teenager, I mowed lawns and saved up for my first computer, which I still have to this day: my Commodore 64.

I really cut my teeth on this thing. I wrote my first programs. I designed and animated my first graphics; first, in color ASCII and later, in pixels. I made my first pixel fonts. At a blazing 300 baud, I connected with people all over the globe. I collected programs. I made demos. I wardialed phone numbers while I was away at school. I ran a BBS with a friend. At one point, I cobbled it together with an old Betamax VCR and created a computer/TV hybrid. It’s pretty safe to say that my experiences on that old Commodore put me on a trajectory to where I am today.

2. What’s the one product you wish you’d designed, and why?
We probably all have sketches for this one in our notebooks—I know I do—but I’ve been really impressed with Flipboard for a number of reasons. It takes a web-based content format and packages it up in an engaging, intuitive, delightful way to consume the content in a new medium. It marries an old-world paradigm with new-world technology, combined with a richer sensitivity to typography than your typical social network. Watch how many people run out and retool their apps to emulate it.

3. What excites you about being a designer? Why do you keep doing it?
A shift happened in the industry a few years ago. TV spots for mobile devices could no longer rely on the slick 360 spin of the hardware. Suddenly they had to show what’s on screen, while industrial design for touch-enabled devices maximized screen space over differentiation, resulting in a host of devices that look very similar from 10 feet back. User experience became a decision point for consumers.

I’m a bit of a futurist, so I love working on meaty problems that shape tomorrow’s behaviors and establish new rituals. My favorite moments as a designer are in workshops with smart clients where we’re exploring the possibility space for an upcoming suite of devices. The thought of millions of people relying on our work to connect each day is sobering, and at the same time, an intense thrill. As we strive to make our mobile experiences engage with the world rather than take users out of it, I like to think we’re improving lives, one millisecond at a time. Turning science fiction into non-fiction.

I love what I do. Everyone should be so lucky.

4. When do you first remember thinking of yourself as a designer?
For a long time, I self-labeled with peripheral titles. First was cartoonist, then graffiti artist, and hacker before I began to realize that really what I wanted to do was design. Not a huge step, as my father was a designer/engineer at Mattel Toys for 30+ years, and he’s always been someone I’ve wanted to emulate. I had a mentor in high school who brought me into his world working on some design projects for Disney, and it was clear to me then what I wanted to do someday. I suppose the label really started to stick when I got my first design job designing an 8 page weekly tech newsletter for my university campus. I had barely started design classes, and was still learning the software. I got the job based on a portfolio almost entirely based on scraps of student work, and suddenly a big department on campus was entrusting me with all sorts of big decisions.

5. What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned, and who taught it to you?
If you’re going to get up every day and leave your family to go to work, make sure it’s something you love to do. My dad taught me that when I was young, and it’s probably made the largest impact on my professional life than any other piece of advice. I’m constantly amazed how many people I speak to who grind away at jobs that they don’t love, who are just working for the next paycheck, or waiting for their options to vest. The amount of time we spend at work, and away from our families, is staggering. You’ve only got one life. If you’re going to spend that much time away, shouldn’t it be doing what you love, in an environment that you love, with amazing, inspiring people?

6. What are 5 things all designers should know?
1. Collaborate. You may want to go back to your desk and figure it all out by yourself, but recognize that the best work happens when you pair designers from different disciplines in true real-time collaboration—not in a “throw it over the wall” or waterfall model.

2. Cut the umbilical. Sure, you spent all weekend pounding out that design solution, but your best tool in a client presentation is staying objective. Separate the emotion of the moment from what really needs to get happen. Clients can sense it if you’ve lost your objectivity, and it won’t help your cause.

3. Toughen up. If you’re in the device design space, you’re aware of how many projects happen that get dropped, shelved, iced along the way. With 2-3 year lead times, everything could go wrong and it does. It’s a reality, so brace yourself.

4. Drop the ego. Design is not something you do “at” the client, or “to” the client. Design is something you do with the client. There are way too many prima donnas in this business, and I’m not convinced it’s necessary. Just be real, and do good work.

5. Relationships matter. Whether we’re teasing out the complexities of connecting multiple devices, or crafting a client roster that builds a design business, it’s all about relationships.

This was written by Jennifer. Posted on Thursday, August 19, 2010, at 7:37 am. Filed under Six Questions. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Post a comment or leave a trackback.