Subscribe to this feedCreative Direction

I ran across an article the other day that used the term "grok" – a word computer geeks and sci fi nerds know from Robert Heinlein's 60's novel, "Stranger in a Strange Land."

"Grokking" is a kind of sublime empathy. To grok something or someone is to really really really understand it or them.

In the branding and website design creative process, grokking is necessarily the first step.

As the creative director at e9digital, I do whatever it takes to get to the "essence" of the client and their business. And this essence doesn't necessarily come through a defined, scientific process. Nor does it come the same way for every project.

There's a cool restaurant right around the corner from our office in Hell's Kitchen that we often go to for after work drinks or brunch. It's got that sleek minimalist New York City vibe, which is a little rare in and around the grungy Port Authority section of our beloved neighborhood. When I tell my friends to meet us there I have to say that it's the minimalist white place on the northwest corner of...etc. The point is that the restaurant seems to take their minimalist chic all the way to having no name, no signage. (Actually, I later espied a little graphic symbol on their facade which, after careful analysis, revealed the name...)

So, you ask: Did I start off as a web designer? Was I one of those lucky young art school kids who painted in Photoshop and did my own animations in Flash?

No, I'm decidedly more old school than that. In fact, I started my career in traditional advertising long before the web became a marketing medium. I was mostly a print designer and art director who also enjoyed some broadcast work. Back then I did sketches on a layout pad and traced type from a font book, then used the Xerox machine to enlarge or shrink the type to the right size...then traced it again for the final layout. The Mac came along (not soon enough!) and eliminated all the tracing and xeroxing and other antiquated designer maneuverings...